Page 72 of The Reboot
‘Thanks. I will.’
As soon as he got outside, he tore up the application form and threw it in the nearest bin. No way was he going to spend his days in some dusty office, wilting under a fluorescent sky. He already felt like he couldn’t breathe, just thinking about it.
Normal life was bullshit, he thought as he stomped home. He’d had no idea the amount of crap he’d sidestepped by running away with the band when he left school.
‘Okay, that’s it! I have to get a job,’ he said to Ella as he shut the front door behind him.
‘What happened?’ She looked up from the worktop, where she was chopping onions.
‘Geraldine – mycase worker– is already measuring me up for a desk in the council. She wants me to apply for … I’m not even sure what. Some kind of secretarial work, I think?’
‘Oh god!’ Ella laughed.
‘Either that or she’ll have me entertaining on a cruise ship, or teaming up with undertakers and doing the entertainment at funerals. So I’ll go down to that cafe in the morning, see if they’re still looking for staff.’
‘Wow, I’m impressed! Geraldine’s made a genuine jobseeker of you just like that.’ She snapped her fingers.
18
‘So, what can I get you?’Roly felt self-conscious as he approached the two young women sitting at a table in the window. He had no problem serving customers, and he found chatting to them easy. But he was aware of Ray watching him the whole time from behind the counter and judging his performance. Roly had only been at Insider Out a week, and was still in training.
‘Oh my god! Roly Punch!’ The blonde woman squealed. ‘It’s really you!’
‘Yep.’ Roly smiled, pen poised over his little notepad, ready to take their order. ‘It’s me!’
‘You were right!’ the blonde said, grabbing her friend’s hand across the table.
‘Told you.’
‘She told me you work here, but I didn’t believe it.’ The blonde turned her attention back to Roly. She was cute – big blue eyes, long poker-straight hair, nice boobs. Her dark-haired friend was attractive too, in a more offbeat kind of way.
In reply, he smiled and held out his hands as if to say ‘behold, my official notepad and pen, my Insider Out uniform’. It wasn’t actually a uniform, just black jeans and a white T-shirt that Ray, the owner, required all the staff to wear.
‘Wow! This is amazing!’ The blonde giggled, fanning her hand in front of her face rapidly. ‘We were such Oh Boy! fans.’
The brunette nodded. ‘We were always trying to meet you back in the day.’
‘And now here you are, serving us coffee! It’s surreal.’
‘We used to spend all our money following you guys around.’
‘Or we’d just hang around outside your house – sometimes for days at a time.’
‘Your mum was really nice to us. She even brought us out lemonade and packets of crisps one time.’
‘You probably don’t remember me,’ the blonde said, ‘but I managed to sneak backstage a couple of times and meet you all, and I hung out in your hotel room in Manchester once.’ She gave him a flirtatious smile. ‘I was a major groupie.’
Roly smiled at her, while at the same time trying to guess her age. Was she implying they’d hooked up? ‘We didn’t…?’ He left the question hanging, almost afraid of the answer.
‘Oh no,’ she laughed lightly. ‘I was more of a Zack girl.’
‘Right.’ Of course. They were all bloody Zack girls. ‘Well, I’d love to stay chatting to you girls, but my boss is watching.’ He threw his eyes behind him, where he knew Ray would be standing behind the counter. ‘So, what’ll you have?’
‘What were you talking to that pair about?’ Ray asked, nodding to the two women as Roly joined him behind the counter.
‘They were Oh Boy! fans.’
‘Oh, were they?’ Ray nodded, looking intensely interested. He had the air of a Bond villain cooking up some elaborate plan for world domination. It was a look Roly had already come to know and dread. ‘Chatting you up, were they?’
