The Best Is Yet to Come

“Where the fuck did he go?!” I hissed as I ran out into the street, looking desperately up and down the road. I’d lost Max in the mass of people.

“I don’t know, Jase, get back inside, he’s probably in his room or something,” Josh called from the door way.

“Or out the back,” Dan added. I turned to look at them, frustrated. There must have been something in my look because they snatched up their hoodies and followed me outside.

“Search the house and give us a call,” Dan asked Chris as he zipped up his jacket. I could see Matt running up the staircase. I yanked my heels back on and started up down the street with Josh and Dan just behind me. They caught up with me in no time because I was teetering along in shoes that were killing me.

“Didn’t think he’d react like that,” Dan said quietly when we hit the end of the street.

“Me eith-”

“It hurts,” I said flatly, almost snapping at them, folding my arms tight to my chest. It was freezing! I was having a hard enough time to stop my teeth from chattering. Why hadn’t I grabbed me coat?

My words seemed to have a silencing effect. Josh slowed down a bit besides me as the awkward silence stretched on. Thankfully, the guys left the subject there.

“Where’d you think he might have gone?” I asked, pausing at the end of the street, looking both ways, unsure of where to go. I shivered violently as I rubbed my arms furiously.

“Jasey, why don’t you go back and hunt with Matt and Chris?” Dan suggested in a soft voice, taking my shaking body in, concerned. Josh was still silent.

“N-N-n-oo. Max is my fr-fr-ien-d-d,” I chattered through my teeth, gasping the cold air in. I felt even my insides were shaking from the cold! The cold air stung my bare skin – unfortunately it was a large amount due to my party outfit.

“I’ll take her back,” Josh said and suddenly there was something warm draped over my shoulders. Without a word, I snuggled into it and then into Josh’s chest as the shaking became too much. “I don’t think he should have gone far. Max isn’t one to run off.”

“D-D-an, yo-you can’t go ou-out on your o-” I couldn’t finish my sentence. I buried my face into Josh again as his arms wound warmly around me, rubbing up and down my back to heat me up.

“I’ll be fine, send Matt and Chris out?”

“Yeah, sur-”

“OI! We’ve got him!” I heard Chris’ voice match the footsteps that were hurtling towards us. I could feel Josh start to shake, despite his best efforts to hide it, as the bitter air hit his bare arms. His chest rose and fell quicker and quicker.

“Wh-he-er?” I asked, but no one heard me.

“Thank fucking Christ,” Dan hissed and I felt the heat vanish as Josh took a step backwards. I squealed and almost fell forwards.

“Careful!” Josh said through clenched teeth – I could tell he was trying to not chatter like me. I shuffled forwards slowly as the pain the heels were causing got as worse as the cold.

“Oh come here,” Josh sighed, and lifted me up onto his back. I wrapped my arms around his cold neck and kissed the side. I buried myself into him as much as I could. I was so damn cold. His hands were freezing on my numb legs.

“Thank you,” I breathed into his ear as we made our way back to Max’s house.

He was in his room, half hanging out of the window with a cigarette in his hands. He was staring out into the garden below, his expression unreadable. His guitar was leant against his windowsill, his free hand itching towards it every now and then.

I shut the door behind me, muffling the contrasting party atmosphere downstairs, and threw my heels onto the floor. My feet curled into the soft warm carpet of Max’s bedroom. The change from outside to inside was slowly starting to take change over my body, but I couldn’t stop shivering still. I clung to Josh’s hoody. The small draft drifting from the open window was slowly reaching us all. None of us cared as we all watched out best friend take a long drag. The tip lit up in the dark room, the only light source to reveal Max’s expressionless face. It was really eerie.

“Max…” Josh started to say, taking the smallest step forwards to his longest male mate. Max blew out a long breath into the night before swivelling around to sit facing us. He rested on his knees, staring at his guitar longingly.

“I’m an idiot.” He let out one harsh humourless chuckle.

“You’re not,” Matt assured confidently.

“No one would have seen that coming!” Dan said straight after Matt. “Even I didn’t know! And I’ve been her best mate for years.”

I stepped forwards and stood just behind Dan’s left arm. I knew how shitty Max was feeling. At least he hadn’t hit someone or broken something…

“She’s probably pissed out of her head,” Josh said with a small shrug as if to convince his friend that it was nothing to be concerned about.

“She just got here,” Max spat before throwing his fag out of the open window. “She’s sober enough to know what she’s doing.”

“I’m really sorry Max,” I said after a moment of silence. My voice was small; it felt so high after hearing the guy’s desperate attempts. It was either that or the massive lump in my throat was messing with the sound. His eyes snapped up to meet mine and I sighed heavily, apologetically.

“Sometimes things like this can’t be helped. They’re living together. She can’t help the way she feels. Yeah, it’ll make you feel shitty, but that’s life…”

“Yeah, you just got to suck it up and put on a strong fac-” Chris said but Max cut across him angrily.

“Oh what the fuck do you all know?!” he demanded before launching himself off the window sill. “And I don’t need your fucking pity.” He shoved past me, being closest to the door and slammed it shut as he left.

I could see anger starting to snake its way into his band mate’s expressions so I hurriedly turned to them.

“Don’t judge him! He’s just really upset. He didn’t mean that.”

The anger started to ebb away as silence stretched on and was soon replaced with concern.

***

“… and sound the alaaaaaaaaaarrrrrm,” Josh’s amplified voice could be heard from the corridor. My foot hovered over the last step as I registered something wasn’t quite right in the sound that followed. The tune was off - there was something missing…

Then there was an off key sound, the notes didn’t fit that part of the song.

“Fuck sake,” I heard Josh accidently grumble into the microphone, the sound faded away as he seemed to pull it away from his mouth.

“Shit,” I faintly heard. “Sorry!”

I finally jumped up the last step, walked down the corridor and yanked open their reserved practice room at Tweeters.

No one looked up at me as I came in, they were all focused on Max – a mixture of annoyance and impatience. He was bent over his guitar, staring at his hands dumbfounded.

“C’mon mate, you can do this,” Dan reassured. Max slid his hand up the handle and started plucking at the familiar sound that fitted the bridge of ‘The Rumour’. Josh was staring, sour faced, at his band mates before shooting me a tired glance.

“All day,” he mouthed to me. I winced in sympathy and turned back to an extremely concentrating Max. Chris joined in, encouraging Max, not even looking at his fingers. Matt finally joined in, looking extremely bored and worn.

“Uh guy-” I started but Josh, Chris and Matt all shot me up with a glare. Josh unfolded his arms and pressed the microphone to his cheek as he watched Max play. I could tell Max knew we were all watching him, he was going to crack from the pressure any moment. Max was one of the best guitarists I knew – could this Lucy/Ashley thing really fuck him up that badly? Then a string broke. There was a collective groan around the room and Josh dropped to sit on the side of the raised platform, his head in his hands. Max just took off his guitar, unplugged it and started packing up without a word. I half expected an explosion from him but I didn’t come.

“Guys, I got told to tell you that you’ve got to pack up, you’re half an hour overdue, any longer and they’ll start charging you more,” I said quietly, not looking away from the back of Max’s head. I just wanted to hug the kid.

When we left the studio, Matt and Chris told me he hadn’t played a song straight all afternoon. I cared about Max but there wasn’t anything any of us could do. Ashley and Lucy were officially an item now, as cruelly announced in front of everyone at the guys Halloween gig. Thankfully it had been after Max had played. Apart from the small disaster leaked by Ash and Lucy, the evening had been so much fun! They’d played with local acts We Have A Getaway and Consort With Romeo, who’s lead singer, Athina, turned out to be good friends with Josh and Max. As I’d eyed her up jealously I pondered on how I’d never met her before. Perhaps I had but just couldn’t remember. She seemed lovely enough. She was a small strong-Greek-heritage brunette with a welcoming personality. Max had introduced me to her and we’d clicked straight away.

Over the next few weeks we tried to comfort Max, avoiding Ashley and Lucy. It seemed for the sake of our friend, most of us needed to lose a friendship there, all except Dan who couldn’t avoid his longest female friend. Two surprises came at once due to this alteration in friendships. Max, who became extremely focused on the band, found You Me At Six a manager with Josh. His name was ‘Bobby’, a well built intimidating looking bloke from Leeds with a load of tattoos.

“I have a great feeling about him Jase,” Max had said.

“Yeah, he doesn’t seem like he’s gonna let us get away with shit,” Josh added when they’d shown me his picture.

Along with this scary but steering alteration came the arrival of Abby Fincher, a long term friend of Lucy’s who had just moved up from South Wales. This dark, pretty addition latched onto Daniel and in no time at all there was another couple to add to our lists.

I liked her, but the guys didn’t seem to take to her. Okay, so maybe she was arrogant and a little selfish but I don’t think she meant any harm. They had to admit she was gorgeous, with a small heart shaped face, full lips and long flowing dark hair. She was a welsh bute! I was under the belief that as long Dan was happy, that was all that mattered.

I did my best to convince the rest of his friends, especially the foul Max, but they weren’t really having it. Of course, none of them would jeopardise the friendship they had with their drummer so they kept their mouths shut.

Things started to pick up for everyone when the prospect of their first headline tour loomed forwards. Bobby had managed to hook the guys up with six dates across the country with support from Flood Of Red who, after we looked them up, sounded pretty awesome. Max perked up instantly and started playing perfect again with all thoughts of Lucy vanishing.

But then something even better came along. As we went on into November, Josh got a phone call from Bobby that forced him to sit down in shock. My eyes flickered up from the computer I was leaning over with Max to stare at his blank face.

Dan caught my gaze, shrugged and buried his nose back into Kerrang. Max hadn’t seemed to have noticed as he started typing another reply to a message they’d gotten.

“Alright, that’s amazing,” Josh breathed, his face still blank with shock. “Thanks.”

“S’up mate?” Dan called from his magazine one Josh had hung up. He was grasping his phone very tightly in his hand, I could see his knuckles starting to bulge. I leant back in my chair and folded my arms as I watched.

“Uhh,” Josh said before finally clearing his throat. It was like an explosion. He got to his feet excitedly and slammed his hands down on my kitchen table with such force Max felt the vibration through the keyboard and finally looked up. Josh’s eyes sparkled as he leaned forwards to us all the grin on his face too infectious.

“You Me At Six are about to get a record deal.”

“What?!” I said, dumfounded but the other two sat up a little straighter.

“Who?” Max asked incredulously.

“Slam Dunk?” Dan asked, his voice going a little higher in surprise.

Josh nodded, his eyes gleaming with excitement and he pushed away from the table.

“We’ve got a meeting Friday to talk about a deal!”

“Shut up,” I said when no one else said anything. “So, hang on, you’re going to get an album out? A proper album?!”

“Yep,” Josh said gleefully, clapping his hands together like some rich evil film villain.

I wasn’t able to be there for the meeting as it was parents and band only, well… it should have been just the band but their parents insisted. I couldn’t blame them, they were about to let their babies drop out of college to go off and make rock music. It took a while for me to realise that Josh was going to be dropping out sometime down the road and admittedly I didn’t like it. He promised me he’d do as much as he could but we both knew the band was going to get too much in the way.

We were right, he missed loads of work for meetings, rehearsals and he missed a whole week of school to go off on their headline tour. It was really weird not having my boys around but I was determined not to let it get to me. It was actually quite frustrating because I tried to go out with everyone else: Emily, Summer, Lewis, Charlie, Harry, Ashley, Lucy, Jessica, Fiona, Caitlin, Sam, Lola, (even Erin!) but they were either too busy or had other plans (even my damn sister, she spent most of her time with Tom or Elissa).

I got to see Fiona and Lola but we were so hammered down with work it was hard to get a moment in to really talk. Their drama courses seemed to be taking up all of their time. The two people I found myself spending my lunch times with were Henri and Booley. It was surreal because they were Josh’s class mates, not mine.

“Oi midget.”

“Alright Booley?” I answered my greeting on the phone with an amused laugh.

“You coming out tonight?” I could hear people in the background, laughs and chattering. He must be out somewhere.

“What?” I asked, sliding off my sofa to climb up the stairs out of earshot from my parents.

“He cancelled didn’t he? Today I mean?”

I stopped half way up the stairs.

“Sorry?”

“Josh? He was meant to come home today wasn’t he? But he hasn’t?”

“How’d you-”

“I’m psychic alright? Will you get your sorry butt outside so we can entertain your Tuesday night,” he half laughed down the phone and then there was a knock at my door. I spun around on my frozen foot and frowned at the shapes there. It was boys, but not ones I recognised as my own. I jumped down the remaining steps and opened the door.

Booley and Henri were waiting there grinning like the idiots that they were.

“You’ve been miserable all day, we thought you could do with some new people,” Henri explained as I glanced over his shoulder at the huddle of girls standing at the bottom of my drive. I was surprised when I spotted Athina there.

“Since the ones you’ve got aren’t substantial enough,” Booley said, snatching my coat from the hook and handing it to me. “C’mon.”

With a roll of the eyes, I yanked on my boots and coat before heading out into the freezing cold with a group of people I’d never met before.

It was actually an alright evening, my loneliness and self pity drifted away as I became friendly with everyone. I already knew Athina, Booley and Henri. I’d expected more boys to come out. There was: Amelia, a rather snobbish but annoyingly curvy Latina girl, Charlotte a shy and tall Hayley-Williams-bright-red-head with the longest lashes I’d ever seen, Genna, a very petite ash blonde who was always smiling, and Nadine who actually reminded me of Nadine from girls aloud except she had an Essex accent.

I was amazed to find how easily I got on with them. They weren’t normally the people I’d get on with but I took it in my stride and found I had I really good night. I discovered Amelia and Genna were from our college. I was thankful to the boys for dragging me out and cheering me up. The boys were due home tomorrow and this just made things better.

***

“Not in again?” Booley asked, causing me to jump. I was sat in the nearest café, a steaming latte between my hands.

“No, they didn’t get back til late, apparently he’s coming in for this afternoon’s classes but I bet he sweet talks his mum out of it,” I grumbled before taking a long sip from the milky coffee.

“Mind if we join then?” Genna asked, sitting down in the seat next to me. My lips flickered into a smile. It was nice to have some company for a change.

“Course not,” I said into the drink, glancing at my silent phone.

Booley and Henri disappeared to by coffees for themselves and the two girls. I relaxed into the easy gossip that exchanged between Amelia and Genna, apparently some girl that was supposedly pregnant despite her boyfriend not sleeping with her, which soon faded into what to wear on Friday night, shorts or skirt? Jeans or dress? Heels or flats? Wedges or boots? Curled or straightened hair? I was so glad of girl talk. It was so feminine that it bored Henri and Booley into their own conversation about football. By the end of lunch the girls seemed to love my opinions and invited me out with them Friday.

To my surprise Josh turned up in our film studies class that afternoon, grinning like a maniac but looking extremely worn. He was in desperate need of a hair cut! I sat down next to him and ran my fingers through his hair pointedly.

“I know, I know,” he sighed, my welcoming words after basically a week. “She said she’ll cut it tonight.”

“Hello to you too,” I said cheerfully, leaning forwards to give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Hello,” he said back, grinning like crazy.

We talked all lesson about the tour. I got the stories of having to sleep in the van, the people they’d ran into, the crowds reactions, the mass of fans waiting for them when they left the shows. To be honest, I’d never seen him so pleased.

“So, what did you get up to?” he asked at five to four after finally finished talking about his week.

I shrugged, sinking down into my chair a bit more as I crossed my legs.

“Nothing really, made some new friends, went out with Henri, Booley, Athina and their mates on Tuesday was it? Nice people,” I stared at my pencil whilst I spoke, watching the mark it left on the paper as I ran around the page.

“I’m glad,” Josh said after a moment.

I’d expected him to go mad that I’d gone out with Booley and Henri whilst he was away. I looked up, surprised.

“No, seriously,” he continued. “I’m glad you’ve got people here when we go away. I hate the thought of leaving you alone.”

I smiled in response.

“You’ve got yourself a nice little collection of friends now haven’t we?” he said, laughing and glancing at Fiona who’d joined me on my right.

It was true, I had my best friends (my boys), my best friend’s friends who had turned into my own friends (Emily, Summer, Charlie, Lewis, Harry, Lucy, Ashley, Jessica, Abby), siblings (Tom, Elissa and Erin), college mates (Fiona, Lola, Caitlin, Genna, Amelia, Henri, Booley, Sam and other kids from my classes) with the odd mate (Athina and her band, Charlotte, Nadine, familiar party faces, local bands).

“Wow,” I whispered. I was fucking lucky.

***

“Do you want me to reply?” Max asked the guys without glancing up from his laptop screen.

“Yeah,” Matt said before biting down on his lip in concentration. He threw the dart – it wasn’t a bad shot.

“No more MySpace crap then?” Emily asked, watching Matt from besides Jessica and Lucy. Matt threw three more times, getting perfect shots.

“It’s still up and running,” Dan answered. “We added our You’ve Made Your Bed b-side to there and will probably keep it running.”

“But we won’t use it to manage bookings and things,” Chris answered from next to Max who was extremely focused on his typing. “We reply to Bobby and he sorts it all out now.”

“I still can’t believe you hooked a manager,” Charlie said as he took Matt’s place for his go.

“Thanks,” Josh chuckled. The vibrations of his body jutted through me and I turned around in his lap to frown at him. He didn’t understand and kissed me instead. Meh, I couldn’t complain.

“No offence or anything,” Charlie said quickly after he’d taken his turn, letting a chatting Booley step up. Josh and I had decided to get Booley, Henri and Sam to come along because they were pretty awesome. I’d invited all the girl friends I knew out last Saturday to go shopping to get to know each other. Not all of them got on as well as I did with them individually but it had been a fun afternoon. There were too many different personalities and it made me question myself. I wasn’t sure where I really stood.

“That’s another tour to add to the list then,” Abby said to Dan more than anyone else. She was curled up at his side, looking so happy it made me want to cry. I was pleased for Dan. It was like he was on a permanent high. They’d been going strong now for a month or two without any trouble. His male mates didn’t like her, probably because she stole him away a lot, which I didn’t seem to do to Josh. I thought it was natural but because of my constant presence as at mate instead of a band member’s girlfriend, it probably made their relationship stick out further.

“Never heard of The Audition,” Booley said, snickering at Henri’s next attempt at the shot.

“Yeah, well that’s because your music taste needs some serious refining,” Emily said bluntly, her eyes raking over Booley with surprising approval. A small smile curled her lips in a flirtatious manner when Booley retaliated with a teasing glare.

“Max, play them some?” Dan offered, his hands curling around Abby.

“Yeah two seconds,” he muttered, typing furiously away on the laptop.

“So You Me At Six are officially going to support The Audition on their February 2008 UK tour?” I asked to the room that were all too busy with their own things to answer me. I sighed, sinking backwards into Josh with a defeated sigh.

The evening slipped by with ease, everyone was caught up in their own occupations because there were too many of us in the kitchen for a large social interaction.

“We’re actually having band meetings now?” I heard Chris ask as I shrugged my coat on, glancing at the door window, I could see the blurred outline of my mother’s car there.

“Yeah, I want to talk to you guys tomorrow if that’s okay?” Josh’s voice carried through until he walked into the hallway, slipping his hoody on.

“Okay,” Matt answered, slightly confused.

“Six o’clock at mine?” Josh turned around to face his baffled band members.

They all nodded in response.

“Cheers guys,” Josh called over his shoulder as he led me from the house.

“See you,” I shouted and peeked up at Josh with the same confusion as his band members. “Band meetings?”

“Yeah, well, a meeting, I need to speak to them about something,” he replied, opening the door of my car for me. “You can come if you want.”

“About what?” I asked, complying, sliding into the hot warm car seat. Josh climbed around the other side, opening the door, his eyes gleaming.

“An album.”