Page 10 of Rocked By the Alpha
Is he playing with her again?
* * *
Nat is right. The festival is crawling with paparazzi and reporters and even though their manager Alison hasn’t set anything up, two reporters grab them for impromptu interviews. One is with a British TV channel covering the event and they get asked a series of questions about how they like England and the festival.
Nat does the talking, flirting with the reporter and making out that the three of them had shared a tent.
The second reporter is from one of the music magazines and drags them to a quiet seat in the press tent. It’s all decked out in flower chains with straw mats under foot, hiding all the cables criss-crossing to the various tables where journalists sit tapping away on their laptops or recording pieces to camera. In the corner, a couple of staff lean against the bar, chatting and serving the odd cup of coffee. In the background is the ever present boom of base and the murmur of thousands of voices.
When the reporter starts to speak, she has to raise her voice so they can hear her over the din.
“How are you finding your first festival, ladies?” she asks with a grin.
Nat launches into an answer she’s given several times over the last few days. She raves about how excited they are to be, how it’s a dream of theirs and how amazing performing here was last night.
Interviews are not Ruby’s thing. She finds them dull. But they’re a necessity and, luckily for her, one Nat is willing to shoulder.
The reporter follows with the usual questions about their time in Europe, their new album, their up-and-coming tour and where they get their inspiration from. Nat continues to do most of the talking with Tanya and Ruby chipping in when required.
Then the questions divert and Ruby can see where this is heading. Inwardly, she groans even though she keeps the smile fixed to her lips.
“Tell me,” the reporter says, with a suddenly serious tone. She’s young like them, with only a smattering of lipstick and mascara. “What’s it like being a girl band in an industry controlled by men? Have you found it challenging?”
“Sure,” says Nat. “It’s one of those things where the boys stick together. But we like a fight and being a girl band just means we have to fight that much harder for everything we want.”
“There’s a lot of sexism in the industry …” the reporter prompts.
“There’s a lot of fucking sexism everywhere.” Nat laughs. “But yeah, this industry hates women. Especially women that come along and shake things up like us. The only way they can handle it is to belittle and degrade us.”
“You’re talking aboutThe Pack?”
Nat frowns at the mention of the band.
This fucking feud. They can’t go a single interview without being asked about it and every mention of it grates Nat more. Grates them all more if Ruby’s honest. None of them want to be famous because of an argument with some dudes. They want to be here on their own merit.
“Yeah them. They stole our fucking song and then had the balls to post that shit about us on social media. And then when we dared to call them out on their bullshit, we got told to calm down — as if we were little girls. No one took us seriously. They even wrote that chauvinistic song about Ruby.” Ruby can see the fury in her friend’s eyes. “You know what the worst of it is?” Nat says. “To those men in that band, it’s all a bit of fun. A joke. A laugh. They don’t see — and they don’t care — who they hurt.”
Yeah, it’s hard not to be angry with West when Nat puts it like that.
It was a shitty thing to do.
A reminder that this is all a game to him. A source of entertainment and amusement.
Sweet Desiremeans everything to her. If her friends found out about West, would she lose it all?
She’s going to do better at staying the fuck away from him.
No more hook-ups.
Chapter 5
“West? West?”
His eyes snap up from his phone and towards the other members of his band, all staring at him, sunk low in his chair and scrolling down his phone. “Huh?” he asks, rubbing his knuckles against his brow.
“Can you pay attention?” Hunter asks, frowning at him.
Ash, his closest friend and the lead singer of the band sighs. “Play it again, will you?” he asks the technician sitting behind the mixing desk.
