Things Have Changed

“Come on come on come on come on LIZ!” Lilly squealed jumping on my bed.

“Lilly, it’s like, six thirty in the morning; the festival starts at like, midday.” I whined.

“It’s actually seven thirty and it takes an hour and a half to get there and then we have to get our passes besides, the traffic will be horrible and...”

“Lilly stop rambling” I said quickly “I’m getting up.”

“Yay!”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Lilly so excited about anything ever. We climbed into Luke’s jeep and headed off to the reading festival, Lilly singing every song which came on the radio while everyone else begged her to stop. She was vocally challenged, very vocally challenged.

I Write Sins Not Tragedies burst through the speakers Lilly, fortunately, drowning out Brendon’s voice. I bit down hard on my lip, trying not to cry. After two years, all Brendon had to tell me was that he thought I was a bitch, a slut and a whore. I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t true, I was failing.

I attended the Carling Festival last year with my brother and after three hours of getting trampled on, hit on and even being hit in the back of the head with a bottle of god-knows-what I left, vowing to never ever attend again.

“Hi, welcome to the Carling weekend here at Reading, how can I help you?” A girl who was way too chirpy smiled as I approached the information marquee.

“I’m Elizabeth Rose of NME I’m report-”

“Oh my god you are like my idol!” the girl squealed “I wanna be just like you!”

I raised my eyebrows was she serious?

“Oh my god, I’m your assistant for today which means anything you need help with I’m right there. I am also doing the filming for your interviews.”

I smiled politely. Instead of doing notepad interviews I proffered to have the whole encounter on film so that I don’t have to multitask while interviewing. Let’s put it this way, multitasking isn’t exactly my strong point.

“Oh, I’m Carly by the way Carly Reynolds.” She smiled shaking my hand nervously; she looked no older than sixteen. She had a short blond concave bob and pale blue eyes, she was tall, around 5.9ft but still incredibly thin, it looked that if a large gust of wind was to come our way she would probably be swept off her feet.

I followed her to the back of the main stage. There was an old, mustard yellow moth bitten couch which was where the interview was held.

“Okay, I have your first job.”

Her eyes lit up as she bounced up and down excitedly on the spot.
“Go and find a decent chair to sit on, there is no way in hell I’m going to sit on that” I said glancing up at her. “And please, do hurry I can’t stand in these heels for much longer.”

She scurried off the stage “Gee Liz, could you at least try to be nice” Lilly laughed as she came out of the stage wings “She idolises you, it’s so cute! I’m going to grab some food, the catering here is actually pretty good.”

I rolled my eyes

Since when did you become such a heartless bitch Liz? A voice asked inside my head, oh shit, hearing voices is the first sign of insanity.

The assistant, Carly I think her name was came back on stage “Elizabeth, miss, I am so sorry, this was all I could find. She pulled a torn leather chair on stage, she stared at the ground bracing for the yells that would be soon coming her way.

Shit, was my reputation that bad?

I sighed “It’s fine Carla.”

“It’s Carly.”

I rolled my eyes see, being nice just doesn’t work for me. “Well Carly that’s fine, go find another one for yourself, I don’t even expect you to actually sit on that couch” I gestured to the brown couch.

“Umm, that’s the other thing, I ran into Dan, the event organiser and he told me that I was not to leave your side for the rest of the afternoon.”

I sighed loudly “ Fine, we’ll just have to go look for a chair together.”

So Liz, how is being nice working for you?

I shook my head, I was not hearing voices, I was not going crazy.