OK, here you go, cliffhanger as promised. If you haven't for some reason visited my site yet, then why haven't you! http://www.luckys_place.homestead.com and don't forget to mail me, wanna_get_lucky@hotmail.com
Chapter 28 - The Black Spot
"I feel like I'm waiting to be executed."
"Dead man walking. Hey that'd be a good title for a song."
"It's not that bad Sean, just remember we're here for fun."
"Yeah but look at all the fucking people, I didn't think we'd printed that many tickets but the rooms full!"
"There's two hundred and fifty people in here boys, let's just have fun. Think of it as a rehearsal only with more of an audience."
"About two hundred and forty five more!"
"Bad example then."
"Danny would you SHUT UP! Stop fucking singing that stupid song!"
"Sean, chill! Lighten up man. You'll have a fucking aneurysm before we even get on stage! Take it easy."
"Just stop singing that song! Your acting like a fucking two year old Danny."
"You don't like the Frog Song? Sir Harrison would be upset wouldn't he?"
"You know I can't fucking stand that stupid song."
"Ignore him Conner, he's winding you up."
"I wish he fucking wouldn't!"
"It's his way of dealing with his nerves."
"No it isn't!"
"It is. You always get really weird when you're nervous, you start acting really strange and start annoying everyone on purpose."
"Yeah, but I don't do it because I'm nervous."
"You do, you just don't realise it that's all."
"I'm not nervous Trix."
"OK."
"I'm not."
"Whatever you say Danny."
"I'm not nervous!"
"I know."
"Now who's being annoying?"
"Me?"
"Uh huh."
"Just calm down Danny, you'll be fine."
"I am calm, it's you who's aggravating me! I'm not nervous at all you're just winding me up telling me that I am nervous that's getting me annoyed, I need to calm down because of that not because of nerves!"
"OK, fine you're not nervous."
"Stop saying I'm not nervous."
"OK then you are nervous."
"But I'm not, oh fuck off." The others all laughed.
"Let's get started then."
"Now?"
"Uh huh, we're ten minutes after the printed start time, the late comers have had time to get here."
"Don't forget we need to tune Danny."
"Uh huh."
"Who goes first?"
"You."
"Me? Why me?"
"You're the singer, that's how it goes. Singer, lead guitarist, rhythm, bass and drums."
"Not on the concerts I've seen, it's the singer that comes on last, like with Robbie Williams live in your living room, he came on last."
"Well that's because Robbie Williams is a famous guy, we're not famous yet, it would make Danny look big headed if he tried to make a grand entrance."
"He's right."
"I don't want to go on first."
"Just go." And he pushed me, the school hall was packed, there were a few gaps in the audience but otherwise it was packed. We could hear all the murmur of the members of the audience talking amongst itself but it got louder as soon as we were in the hall. A cheer went up as I stumbled on stage, the others followed without waiting.
They immediately went up to their instruments and picked them up and began tuning. I went to the mic as they were doing so.
"Thank you, good evening. OK, so for those of you who were at the ball, you know that we were mostly playing covers apart from one song, tonight though we're playing mostly our own material and only a couple of covers. So, don't boo too loudly OK?"
A little laugh went up from the audience. Followed by somebody shouting a large boo and an even louder laugh. It was amusing so I laughed too.
"OK so, it looks as if you want to be able to boo a little tonight so I'll tell you the rules now. We are using the school hall, as I'm sure you're well aware, if you aren't then it's because you've been taking drugs or are pissed, in which case you should know that you shall be arrested or thrown out of the hall, respective of which you are doing, should you be caught doing either of those things in here." A boo came from the audience. "That's it get it all out of yer system." And a laugh. "There will be no smoking, fighting, or anything else that's illegal or one of our bouncer dudes will kick your sorry ass out." Another boo. "The emergency exits are situated at the back and side of the hall," I was of course doing the air steward hand signals at this point "please observe the fasten seat belt and no smoking sign and enjoy the concert." A cheer went up again so I turned and made sure that the others were ready, which they were.
I announced our first song and we launched straight in. Our set was a lot more upbeat than it had been at the Valentines ball. I was pleased with the songs that I had written and luckily the audience tonight were too. It wasn't long before we all got into the swing of it, after our third song it was like the audience weren't there, we just had fun playing. I can't remember anybody mucking up. I nearly did actually, it was our fourth song and I couldn't remember the words to the second verse, they came back to me as the chords brought me in though.
We played superbly if I don't say so myself and our audience went wild for most of it, we played all our own songs and then finished off with the covers, they went down amazingly. The entire audience started singing along with There She Goes as soon as they heard it. We were all glowing inside by the time we had finished, the atmosphere had been electric. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life so far.
"That's the last of them gone Danny."
"Where are the others?"
"Waiting outside."
"Where are we all going? We have to go and celebrate somewhere, that was fucking fantastic guys! Did you hear them scream?"
"Yeah, that was fucking superb all right."
"They loved us and we did so well too."
"Tell me about it! We have to do another concert sometime."
"Too fucking right, we need a bigger venue next time though, somewhere big."
"Definitely!"
"Have you guys all packed up?"
"Yeah we leaving the instruments here till tomorrow though?"
"Yeah, we can pick them up when we let the cleaners in."
"There isn't that much mess actually."
"No you're right, have you seen that though? Under the chairs at the back? Some cheeky cunts drank eight cans of bud!"
"No way! We'll have to take those with us, if a teacher sees them before the cleaners take them we'll get it in the neck."
"Yeah, I suppose. So where are we going then?"
"Reds?"
"Cool."
"Danny?"
"Yeah babes?"
"Can we catch the others up? I have to talk to you."
"Oh, OK. Well do you lot want to head off now then? We'll see you in Reds yeah? If you don't get in, wait around there for us."
"OK, see you there then Danny, see you Conner."
"See you in a bit guys."
"Later."
"Bye guys, we'll catch up."
"Yeah bye."
The others walked out of the hall, laughing and joking still on a high from our performance.
"Am I in trouble or something?"
"No, why would you be? I just wanted some private time, if you know what I mean?"
"What? Here?"
"Uh huh, I know it won't be romantic or anything, but I need you. It'll be kind of erotic, and exciting. School assemblies would never be the same again for us." I laughed a little. He was serious though. I couldn't let my baby down now could I? So we did it. Right there and then. It was kind of exhilarating, the musky smell of the old school hall, the slight echo reverberating around the room. Conner was right too, it was kind of erotic. Just mindless sex, good sex, with the guy I loved but in a more adventurous situation than we were used to. It reminded me of after the ball in the laundry room. I liked this idea of having sex in exciting places, it was something that I think we would have to do more often.
"So, err, what should we tell the others kept us so long?"
"We could tell them that we noticed a loose floor board on the stage and we had to bang it back into place." I laughed out loud to that one.
"You are something else Conner."
"Let's go, before they send out a search party."
"OK then."
"What the fuck took you so long?"
"The same fuck that always takes that long?"
"What? You pervert! Couldn't you wait till you got home?" Trix grinned a big grin at me. He had been drinking a fair bit already.
"Now where's the fun in doing it at home when you can do it on the school hall's stage?"
"Noooooooo! You didn't! You dirty bastard Danny Owen!"
"I sure did."
"The most adventurous place I've ever done it was in Trace's parents bedroom when they were going out for a meal, we'd only just tidied the room up ten minutes before they got home."
"Really? The only other place we've tried it was in a laundry room at the hotel during the last ball."
"What? You get all the fun."
"What can I say? He's as horny as I am!"
"I want to talk to you, can we go outside for a minute?"
"Yeah, OK."
I let Conner know that I was going to have a chat with Trix and told him that I wouldn't be long, I was worried about why Trix was taking me outside. Especially after that kissing incident last weekend.
"I want to talk about what happened last weekend." Damn!
"Oh?"
"I wanted to thank you, kind of. I know you didn't exactly let me do it, but for not hating me for it."
"Oh, OK."
"It was just something that I sort of thought about doing. I know this is going to sound really stupid and lame but when I first went to the doctor, it kind of started me thinking about how little I have really done in my life. I mean, what have I actually done? I've done sport things, been on holidays with my parents, all the same things that any kid can say he's done. I just kind of felt that I should be more adventurous, I feel guilty that I took advantage of what you are to use you to try that with though."
"Don't, like you said, it was just a kiss, there was nothing sexual behind it."
"It kind of relieved me too you know? There really wasn't any like sexual impulse there. I can definitely say that I'm straight now, without even a shadow of a doubt."
"You shouldn't feel guilty about it. I'm kind of touched that you chose me too, I mean there's Scott and the others that you could have tried with. I'm kind of glad that you realise that you can come to me for help, just don't do it again." I smiled letting him see that I was joking, even though at the same time I was serious about it. He smiled back.
"I don't need to anymore, come on let's get back inside."
"Well, well, well! Look who it is. That was a great concert you put on tonight Danny."
"Go to hell you fucking wanker."
"That's no way to treat a fan Danny."
"Keep away from me John, I'm having a really good time with my friends."
"Really? So you're getting on with them OK again at the moment? They're not acting weird around you? You know like, pushing you away from them, slowly secluding you from their fun, that sort of thing."
"No, not at all. Things have never been better, do you know why? Because I'm not scared of you anymore, I know exactly what you're trying to do and it won't work. You don't have the same effect on me anymore, you can't make me paranoid like you used to because I know I can beat you, physically and mentally. I beat the shit out of you at the ball and I got you kicked off the band without having any arguments with my friends over it. You've lost any power you once had over me John."
"Have I? There's still many ways I can get to you, you do realise that don't you?"
"I realise that you can try. There is one thing you forget too though isn't there?"
"What's that?"
"I'm famous now, in Parkway at least amongst our peer group. That gives me a lot more power over you than you would like me to have."
"You couldn't use it, you wouldn't know how to abuse it. Besides you wouldn't want to, it would make you feel guilty because you can feel remorse far too easily for your own benefit. You are the wimp Danny, you have far to big a conscience."
"I hope you enjoyed yourself tonight John. Shame I won't be seeing you around town again any time soon."
"Oh? And why wouldn't I be coming out?"
"Because I'm going to show you that I can abuse power if it is to save my own skin."
"It should be interesting to see you try."
"Watch closely then. Tony!" I shouted my head off and waved like mad to get the attention of the bouncer. He had been helping at the concert earlier that night. He heard me calling him over the music luckily and scanned the room to find out who was calling him. Meyrick stood looking at me quizzically, curious to see what I could be capable of.
"All right there Danny, well done earlier tonight, it was superb."
"Cheers Tony, thanks for your help."
"Anything for charity hey?"
"Yeah, look could you do me one last favour?"
"What might that be then son?"
"Remember what this guy looks like so that you never let this drug pushing fucker in here again."
"You got drugs on you son?"
"He swallowed an E when he saw me calling you over." The look on his face was priceless. John looked at me in disbelief, not wanting to let me know that I'd won he smiled straight after.
"You're good, better than I thought. I never saw that coming."
"Come on you fuck up, you're out. Don't try coming back any time soon now. See you later Danny, have fun. Ask for Clara at the bar, tell her that Tony sent you over to collect a reward."
"Cheers Tony. See you later." I carried on my way to the bar as the bouncer escorted John to the exit of the club. I heard him shouting at me as he was taken away which amused me even more.
"Don't think you've won Danny, it's only just beginning, you just turned this to war!"
His shouting made him look like quite a fool to anybody who heard him. I shook my head and headed for the bar, I was curious as to what my reward might be. "Can I speak to Clara please?"
"Yeah, hang on, she's dealing with this guy here, I'll tell her to come over in a second." With that the bar lady walked off and told who was obviously Clara that I wanted to talk to her as she pointed to me.
"Yeah?"
"Tony told me to come to you to collect a reward?"
"OK, what are you drinking?"
"JD and coke." With that Clara wondered off, she was obviously getting me a drink. Not bad going, get rid of my nemesis in a club for at least a few months and a free drink for doing it. It wasn't long before Clara came back with three glasses. I looked up to her grinning, she smiled back slightly, obviously not in the best of moods.
"On the house squire." And she wondered off. Finally I walked back over to the others. Conner looked quizzically at the three glasses I was carrying.
"You want one? I got three JD and cokes for getting John Meyrick thrown out."
"What did he do?"
"He annoyed me so I told Tony, the bouncer, that he tried pushing E on me. He threw him out and told me to go and collect a reward from the bar."
Conner laughed at what I told him. I gave him one of the drinks and the other to Toby who was the next person on our group of friends standing closest to us.
"What's this for?"
"Free. It's yours Toby take it."
"Thanks." A smile on his face showed how much he appreciated the gesture, he didn't realise it had been free for me as well, but I could tell that it meant a lot to him. I don't think that before then he had thought that we liked him that much or that we wanted to include him in our group of friends, but the smile on his face at that moment seemed to show that he had finally realised that he was part of us all.
As the entire crowd of us walked back to my home we sang the crappy songs from adverts at the tops of our voices. The song from the BN biscuit ad, guys singing BN, BN and the girls doing the doo, doo, doo, doo, doo bit, we sang the song from the old milky way adverts, with the red car and the blue car? That one anyway. We sang anything that was crap and that came onto our head, Bohemian Rhapsody (which was one of the few songs that is not crap that we were singing) proved too taxing for us. Basically we were pissed out of our minds and having the time of our lives. Laughing like kids in a nursery at a puppet show. I had one of the most amazing evenings of my life. I'd sang in a concert given to our own school fellows, I'd had sex on the school stage with the guy of my dreams, I'd finally proven to myself that John Meyrick was not that difficult to have to deal with, had a fantastic time in town and was going home with the best friends that I could have ever hoped for in my life to sleep off the alcohol in the comfort of my own bed, probably not without having sex with my boyfriend again. Life right now? Kicked ass!
Have you ever been really drunk, ecstatically happy and then have something awful happen to you? If you have then this is the way you may have reacted; You are faced with a small problem, which you quickly make into a mountain of a problem. You scare yourself shitless, holding your head in your hands and fall over a couple of times in an attempt to start pacing since you have not got your arms to use as balancing devices (they are holding your head up remember?). You think up some absolutely ludicrous solutions to the problem that come on par to a six year olds answer to solving governmental problems. You know the type! After deciding that none of your solutions will work you start to wet yourself from laughter at the situation that you have found yourself in. Finally you decide on a more feasible solution, make a half-hearted effort in implementing it and realise what a botch up you made once you've sobered up in the morning.
Well that's how it happened for me anyway. My friends and I all got to my front door, as I wobbled on my feet trying to find the right key for the front door I was becoming increasingly annoyed with the person that was incessantly tapping me on the shoulder whilst I was trying to concentrate.
"What? What do you want? I'm trying to find the key. The door key. It's important that I find the key." I got no answer other than Luke pointing at the door itself, I looked more closely than before to find that there was a hole where there should have been glass.
"Oh fuck! Oh shit NO!"
"Has someone vroken in?"
"What?"
"I said, has someone broken in?"
"I don't know Claire."
"What if they're still in there Danny?" She whispered it sounding scared.
"Claire! The piece of broken glass is only 10 centimetres big! Nobody could fit in there!"
"What am I going to do? My mum is going to fucking kill me! She's going to kill me big style. The fucking window is broken!"
"We can get some glass from my dads green house and stick it over the top of it." Trix's drunken contribution, bear in mind that nobody was sober, not even remotely!
"We should call the ees?"
"The what?"
"The police, call the police. POLICE! HELP POLICE!"
"KATE stop screaming! You'll wake up the fucking neighbours and they'll complain to my mum and she'll kill me for that too!" Kate was highly amused however, laughing her head off actually.
"We can't call the police anyway, we're not eighteen, we're far too pissed and we'll have to tell them we were at a club! They'll kill us too."
"I didn't think of that."
"Let's go inside for now."
"Yeah."
"I like inside."
"Shut up Conner."
"Don't tell my boyfriend to shut up Luke."
"Sorryyyyy!"
"I found it!"
"What?"
"What broke the window, it's a cricket ball."
"A cricket ball?"
"Yes a cricket ball."
"Who was playing cricket?"
"Not me."
"None of us, it was probably a kid in the street or something."
"Little bastard, I'll kill him when I find him!"
"Who was it."
"I don't know but I'll kill him anyway."
"What will we do about the window?"
"We can sweep up the glass in here and throw it away and stick something over the whole to block it up for tonight and call some glass people tomorrow."
"OK, I'll get something to stick with."
"I'll get brush and sweep up the glass."
"I'll go put on some music."
"I'll find some more bev and some instant mash."
"What do you want instant mash for Scott?"
"To eat, what do you think?"
"It's quarter past three in the morning!"
"It is?"
"Yeah!"
"Shiiiiit!"
"Uh huh."
"Look what I've done Danny!"
"What?"
"I wrote a message on the thing to cover up the hole in the glass with."
"Let me read it, 'Keep away criminals!' You spelt criminals wrong Trix."
"No I didn't!"
"Yeah, you put three m's there."
"Ohhhh! Well it doesn't matter anyway."
"No, I suppose not."
"Stick it up then. Are we going to bed babes?"
"Uh huh."
"Where are we all sleeping?"
"I don't know, argue it out amongst yourselves."
"Night everyone."
Conner and I made our way up to my room. Slowly, the stairs proved difficult to navigate.
"Hello bedroom!"
"Conner?"
"Yeah?"
"We have to get up tomorrow to let the cleaners into the school."
"Damn! What time?"
"Eleven o'clock."
"That means we have to get up in seven hours, I think."
"Yeah."
"We better get some sleep then."
"Yeah I suppose so."
Conner and I got undressed for bed. To be perfectly honest we were too drunk to have been able to do anything anyway. We just got into bed and hugged, it couldn't have taken me more than five minutes for me to fall asleep.
"Good morning babes."
"Shhh! My head hurts!"
"Ahh! A hangover huh? Shame I never have them, that I've never had a hangover in my life." Conner gave an up yours sign to me. I just laughed and thought that I better not push my luck.
"Good morning people!" Scott, Robbie, Toby, Claire and Trace were all already up and watching children's TV.
"Morning Danny."
"OK, you all know where the breakfast stuff is, help yourselves, just leave two slices of toast for my breakfast when I get back and some orange juice."
"OK."
"Enjoy your programme."
"Thanks." They were engrossed in some guy dressed as a, well, something, a monster maybe, that was trying to get children to count apples on a tree. Bizarre how seventeen year olds can become so fixated with crap like that!
"Sean, there are you. I'm going to let the cleaners in to school, make sure there's some toast and OJ left for me huh?"
"Sure. Danny?"
"Yeah?"
"You OK to drive?"
"Yeah, why?"
"It's just you drank an awful lot last night, you're not still drunk are you?"
"No! I feel fine anyway. I should be OK by now." I did feel fine too, as far as I could tell there was nothing wrong with me, I felt like I would any Saturday morning if I hadn't even been drinking the night before.
I left the house and moved to my car, it was eleven o' clock already so I was late in getting to school to let the cleaners in as it was. I thought about what Sean had said and decided that I wouldn't rush to get there in case I was still slightly under the influence, not that I felt it! I unlocked my door and sat down on my seat, put my seatbelt on and the fired the engine up. Sitting back ready to travel the familiar route to school I noticed something under the windscreen wiper. I wound down the window and reached round to get it, thinking it was going to be a flyer for some event.
The brown envelope confused me, I briefly looked at it wondering what it might be. I realised that I was already late to get to the school and so quickly threw it on the passenger seat, refusing to let my curiosity make me keep the cleaners any longer. The journey was uneventful, apart from the fact that it was lighter than it usually was when I drove to school, being eleven o'clock instead of eight.
The cleaners didn't seem too bothered to have been kept waiting. Hell why should they? They were being paid to stand around and wait for me to show up! I opened the door and lead them to the hall, they instantly got to work and were done in the half hour that they predicted they would need. Whilst they were doing that I was loading as much of the remaining equipment into my car that I could, guitars, amps, mics and stands. The only thing I left behind was the kit and that was the schools anyway. By the time I was finished the cleaners had been waiting. I paid them the money and they left.
My journey home was equally as uneventful as my journey out, I made it back home by just before midday. I pulled onto the driveway and got myself ready to get out of the car. That's when I noticed the envelope again, I picked it up. Having more time to look at it this time I noticed a message written on the front.
You started the war, now I'll finish it. Think
about what you can offer me for this not to get out.
"What the fuck?" So I opened the envelope being even more confused now.
"Calm down guy's! Look it's not that bad. He's receptive to negotiations at least."
"Fuck that, even if we get it back, how many fucking copies could he have made already?"
"I think I'm going to throw up."
"FUCK! How could I let this happen."
"What can they do?"
"They need to talk to him, find out what it is he wants. Then we can figure out if it's possible to get that for him."
"It won't be possible, it's going to be something fucking ludicrous he wants, it'll be like a thousand fucking pounds or something like that, a car. Even if we give him it and he gives us back the negative, what's to stop him having made copies to keep?"
"Go to the police, he's broken into your property clearly."
"I CAN'T go to the fucking police. He'll show them what he came in for and I'll be fucked, we both will."
"He's right, they're not at the age of consent yet don't forget, they have to be eighteen, if the police see this then they all go down."
"FUCK! That BASTARD!"
"Look calm down this isn't helping anything."
"NOTHING can help! We're FUCKED, it's useless trying to figure a way out of this because there ISN'T GOING TO BE ONE!"
"Don't you shout at me Danny Owen! This is your problem which I am trying to help you out of! If you don't want me to help then keep on acting the way you are!"
"Look, I'm sorry. I just, I don't know what to do Kate, I'm sorry."
"Is there any way you can just deny it?" That just made me wild again!
"Deny it? DENY it? What kind of a fucking stupid question is THAT? How the fuck can I deny being naked in bed with Conner on a FUCKING PHOTOGRAPH LUKE?"
Well! Looks as if Danny and Conner are in some serious trouble, will they be found out at school again? Will they stick together under the stress? Is there any way that they can stop John from circulating this photo? Who knows? Time Will Tell. So go on, visit my site at http://www.luckys_place.homestead.com and don't forget to mail me, wanna_get_lucky@hotmail.com