“I will make sure she’s clued up and knows how to handle a boy like you, if one should come along, besides, if they love each other like we do, does it matter?”
“No, I suppose not but if he puts his hands on her. Let’s just not talk about it G, it pisses me off, I don’t know how your brothers haven’t killed me yet, especially Lennon.”
Lennon and Jimmie were still going strong but it was still a secret from both sets of parents, we had told so many lies over the last year so that we could spend alone time with our boyfriends that it would take someone from the Krypton Factor to work out the truth from the lies. My tummy grumbles loudly and Sean bursts into laughter as his ear is on my belly and he must have heard it.
“Let’s eat; we need to get ready for the gig soon.”
The boys were playing at the local pub tonight; it was their regular gig if they didn’t get another booking. This was the weekend before Valentine’s Day, and had been booked in as a ticket only night and had been sold out for a couple of weeks. We eat a bowl of sugar puffs each; take a shower, which leads to our first ever shower sex experience before getting dressed and jumping into Sean’s new Ford Escort XR3I that my Dad had got hold of for a really good price when he passed his test a couple of months back. I love it and feel like a princess when we drive about in it. The pub is only a ten minute drive but we arrive late and Lennon’s not happy, Marley even less so but then that’s nothing new, everything seems to piss Marley off these days, I never realised how much he liked Jimmie and he’s had a hard time dealing with her and Lennon being together, we used to be so close but he’s so moody and withdrawn lately that we hardly ever speak.
“You’re late Maca, there are people here already, we sound checked without you. We need to be tight tonight. We’ve had a lot of interest from the demo tape and about four labels have asked where we’re playing over the next few weeks so any one of them could have a rep in the crowd.”
I grin up at Sean with excitement; he squeezes my hand in response.
“You’ll be fine babe; you know the set inside out right?” I nod with encouragement as I speak but he looks worried.
“We changed it a bit for tonight, a few ballads because of it being Valentines and a few of our new songs, I’ll be alright.” He says with a shrug. He’s so confident once he’s on stage, people would never believe how much he doubts himself before he gets up there.
“He fucking better be,” Marley mumbles from beside me. “And you behave your fuckin’ self, Haley’s out there.”
Great, just what I need, why don’t that bitch just give up, I wonder? I roll my eyes at Marley and hold three fingers up. “Scouts honour, I’ll behave, unless she puts her hands on him.”
“G!”
“George!”
“Georgia!”
Sean, Marley and Lennon all say at the same time. “Okay, I’m joking.”
I hold my hands up. “I’ll wait till the next gig before I knock the bitch out.”
The boys are just not getting my humour tonight, Jimmie is, she just laughs and shakes her head at me, she’s the only one that actually gets that I’m deadly serious. I’ve had nearly two years of that slut hanging around my boyfriend, she must be eighteen by now, you’d think she would have grown up a bit and gone and got her own boyfriend. The boys all help themselves to a beer from the tray that Billy has just come in with. My taste has matured of late, I now prefer a Southern Comfort and lemonade to a cider or a beer and Billy doesn’t disappoint. Despite only being fifteen, I have no trouble getting into pubs or being served at the bar, clubs are a bit harder but Sean usually wangles it for me. Jimmie never has a problem, she looks at least twenty and I’m so jealous. The boys head out to the stage, except Sean, the rest of the band know we have a little routine, they just don’t know what it is, and in all honesty I don’t think my brothers want to.
As the little back room empties, Sean takes a swig of his beer, I chew on the inside of my lip as I watch him. “Show us ya tits G,” he gestures toward my chest as he speaks.
“You’ve been looking at them for the best part of the day, are you not bored with them?” I say as I pull my top up.
“Never, ever.” He bites each of my nipples, then pulls my bra and my T-shirt back down and it’s that gesture that makes my insides turn to mush, I love this boy so much, so, so much.
“Come and dance next to the stage so I can watch you move, don’t cause any trouble with Haley and don’t drink too much, I love you babe.” He pulls me in for a hard kiss on the mouth; I knock back my drink as he grabs my hand and pulls me out to the pub with him.
The place is packed and hands reach out from everywhere as Sean walks through the crowd with one arm loosely slung over my shoulder. He stops continuously and shakes hands, high fives and fist bumps his fans but he never lets go of me and I notice how much tighter he pulls me in to him when any of the hands are female that reach out for him. He smiles and nods but that’s all of the attention he gives them and my heart swells with the pride I feel at being his girlfriend but I still hate it and I have to fight my desire to slap each and every one of them around their over made up faces. Some of these women must be at least thirty; shouldn’t they be at home with their kids or watching Dynasty or something? By the time we reach the stage, I probably have as much adrenalin running through me as Sean does.
He kisses my temple. “Be good, I love you,” he whispers before he turns to jump up on stage leaving me with Jimmie and Lennon.
“Woohoo, looking hot Maca!” Jimmie and I turn and stare at Haley the whore. Sean has his back to her and takes no notice.
“George,” I hear Len warn from over my shoulder.
I turn and glare at him, “What? I haven’t done anything.”
He shakes his head at me. The boys kick off with a version of Queens ‘Crazy little thing called love’ Sean goes all out rocker Billy, curling his lip and swivelling his hips and the crowd goes wild, especially the women. I’ve never heard the boys sing this song and as good as the performance is, I’m not thrilled.
“Good evening Brentwood and good evening all you lovers out there, are you ready to rock out with us tonight?”
Sean looks out across the crowd as he shouts out his welcome in that husky voice of his; there are about two hundred people in the crowd and he manages to get some kind of response from all of them. “This is a new one of ours,” he says as the boys start playing ‘Hopeless’ one of the new songs they wrote and recorded for the demo tape. The crowd goes mad. I have no idea how some of them are singing it word for word already, the boys put together a compilation tape when they were in the studio, it contains of all their new stuff and a few covers thrown in, they’ve been selling them after their shows for the last three weeks. These people must be listening to them continuously to know the words and love the songs like they already do. Over the next hour the boys play a mixture of their new songs and songs from the sixties, seventies and eighties and the crowd are loving every moment, and so are the band. Sean lets them know they’re taking a thirty minute break and is about to jump down from the stage when he spots Haley standing waiting for him. I fold my arms across my chest and stand and watch what he’s going to do, instead of jumping down from the middle of the stage and talking to the crowd like he normally does, he moves over to the left and jumps down straight into my arms. I wrap them around his neck and give him a sweaty kiss.
“Brilliant babe, you were fuckin’ brilliant.”
He has the biggest smile on his face as someone passes him a beer, he holds my hand while we head into the back room so that he can change his t-shirt, as we walk in, Lennon is shouting at Marley who is already smoking a joint. Len doesn’t have a problem with the joint, it’s the fact that Marls is smoking now, in the middle of the set and not at the end of the show.