Collision

A few days later, we were in Sheffield, and I walked down to the main stage and found out that Alicia Way was in a foul mood. I knew this because, after I’d said a chirpy good morning to her, she’d crossed her arms and muttered a surly, “No, it’s not.”

We’d been paired together to work a lot the past week, after the first time — I supposed it was Mallory’s way of making sure I fitted in or something, and I honestly didn’t mind because normally Alicia was fun to be around. However, I’d learned quite quickly this wasn’t always the case, and how to deal with her moods. One way — and the most effective, I’d found out — was turning on my heel and walking away and hiding until she calmed down. Today, though, I paused and turned to look at her quizzically. I didn’t have much choice since I was meant to be working and I couldn’t skip out on it again, but I was also curious to know why exactly this (surprisingly) warm morning was so bad.

She saw my look, and sighed heavily. “Vanessa joins the tour for a day or two tomorrow,” she explained, looking like she wanted to strangle something. I made sure to stay out of arm's reach, just in case, stuffing my hands in the pockets of my jeans and waiting for her to continue.

“Right. And that’s so bad because...?” I prompted when she didn’t. I recalled Gerard telling me that Alicia and Vanessa didn’t get on the first day I’d been here when we’d met up in the airport — more than a week ago now, although it didn’t feel like that — but I didn’t think it was this bad, especially since I hadn’t seen Alicia dislike anyone this much. Except Jack, who always tried to hit on her. Each day every one of her rejections, which had started out pointed but polite, got more and more snappish and strong-worded.

In response to my hesitant words Alicia twisted her mouth to the side, leaning her back against the stack of boxes (which had come to the area we always ended up working in.) “It’s not. Or, rather, it wouldn’t be, if I could just avoid her or something — she’s not... you know, terrible, she’s just annoying. But guess what bright idea Calvin had?”

“Let me guess... you don’t think it’s bright?”

“No. I don’t. He’s decided to throw her in our bus. Our bus. The one that already has six people in six bunks. He’s an idiot. And you know what he said when I pointed this out? That he had made his decision, so one of us could just sleep in the lounge. Great idea. Not.”

“Oh. You really don’t get on with her, huh?”

“I just... I don’t like her. She’s two-faced. She acts sweet and shit to your face, but the next minute she’s mouthing you off. And she’s really aloof and has this ’holier-than-thou’ attitude. Like, seriously so. Not many people do like her. Honestly, I don’t really care who my brother-in-law fucks but jeez, you think he’d have a bit better taste than Vanessa.”

I took a moment to tuck a few strands of my hair behind my ear before I spoke, trying to word a response. Eventually I just settled for shrugging. “I haven’t heard anything that bad about her...” I began, trailing off at the look Alicia was giving me — slightly pitiful, but mostly annoyed.

“Yeah, but you spend, like, every second by Gee’s side, sweetie. Do you really think he’s the type of guy to badmouth his own girlfriend?”

“Not every second,” I said, ignoring the other part of her speech. At my response she scoffed, sticking her thumbs through the loops on her skinny black jeans.

“Like every other one. You know there’s rumours about you two floating around?”

I frowned. “What do you mean?” I asked, cautiously, not sure whether I actually wanted to know about any kind of rumours. Especially ones which might involve me. I’d seen a few things here and there, in comments on my blog or posts to the tour forums, but nothing that had affected me badly.

Alicia grinned. “You haven’t heard ’em? Dude, Liza totally went to hit this girl for what she said a few days back. She would have succeeded if Davey hadn’t grabbed her.” I gave her a hard stare, still waiting on the explanation into what they actually were and not a story about Liza — which actually made me smile slightly, because I could totally imagine the flame-haired singer doing something like that — and Alicia rolled her eyes. “It’s just the normal ’Wait, a girl and guy are friends? Holy shit, they must be banging or something!’ rumours,” she said, using her fingers to create quotation marks and adopting a slightly high pitched voice, mockingly. “I wouldn’t worry about it, me and Mikey had ’em too.”

“But you were actually banging,” I pointed out.

She paused, as if considering this fact, then laughed. “Fair point... but still, we all know it’s not true so it shouldn’t matter.”

“I guess so. So, um, who’s giving up their bunk for Vanessa, then?”

“I don’t know. But it sure as hell isn’t gonna be me.”

~*~

Unfortunately for Alicia, she didn’t have much say in the matter.

I found this out the next day. We were still in Sheffield, but we were rolling out that night for the short drive to Birmingham, before heading to Nottingham. Whoever had designed this tour was probably looking at the map upside down.

Alicia turned up at my bus late in the evening, a bag under her arm and a stony look on her face. I raised my eyebrows at the sight which greeted me when I opened the door, and she pushed past and walked inside. “What’s up, Lesha?” I asked, curiously, as she threw down the bag on the floor.

“I’m not giving up my fucking bunk for her,” she snapped, crossing her arms.

“Oh. Vanessa?” I guessed, looking at the bag and then back up at her. “You wanna stay here?”

She took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Please.” She said it from between clenched teeth, but I worked it out pretty easily. Then she shot me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to intrude but... seriously... I wasn’t gonna put up with that shit.”

“It’s okay... and, um, we have a spare bunk, but it’s not made up at all… We’ve kinda been using it to store shit in. Or you could have mine, I guess.” I smiled at her, deciding the best way to combat her frustrations would be with good cheer. Or I hoped that would work, because I’d lived through an hour of annoyed Alicia and it was not pretty. She smiled — sort of; it came out more like a grimace — and nodded.

“Thanks, Cam. I’ll take the spare, don’t worry. I’m not gonna kick you out of your own bunk.”

“Don’t worry. Uh, I’ll see if there’s any spare sheets or something... they’d be in the storage bins, right?” I knew she’d know a lot more about it than I did, since I’d found out this was far from her first tour or music festival and that’d she’d spent the majority of her adult life on one tour bus or another. She nodded again, and then smiled properly.

“We can search together,” she suggested. That was definitely a better idea than me fumbling alone in the dark, so I agreed and snatched the nearest jacket off the sofa — I had a feeling it was one of Elijah’s, judging from the fact it was carelessly thrown there — and slid it on before following her outside. It was just as cold as I thought it would be, and the sudden change in temperature made me suck in my breath and pull a face.

“Come on, let’s get this over with,” I mumbled, walking along the bus until we got to the storage compartment doors and then digging into my pocket for the key I knew I had. I always carried mine, just because I had bags in storage which I always seemed to need every other day. When I found it I leaned down and unlocked the first one — it took a few tries for my fingers to grip the key right and slide it in, and several tugs to get it to open when it was unlocked. It held nothing that interesting, but we found some sheets and spare blankets right at the back, under a few bags of luggage.

I was both about to walk back inside into the warmth when Alicia suddenly stopped and grinned, waving frantically at something behind me. I turned around to see what it was and saw Mikey walking towards us, and I tried to keep my smile fading away. He didn’t look in that bad of a mood, and in fact he starting grinning, matching his wife’s expression, when he was closer. They greeted each other with a brief hug — I’m sure it would have been something more intimate had I not being standing right beside them — and then Alicia explained what had happened.

“Huh. Sounds bad,” Mikey said when she’d finished. “You know you can always stay with me.”

“I would, but your bunk is way too small for two to sleep in comfortably,” Alicia replied. “I like space... to, you know, breathe. But it’s okay, though, Cam’s gonna let me stay in the spare here.”

“Ah.” He turned to me and smiled, one of the first times I’d ever seen him do so — at least at me. “Thanks.”

“It’s okay,” I said, feeling rude because I had no clue how to handle his acknowledgement. Being ignored I could deal with — by just ignoring him back — but actually being thanked was different. I looked down at the covers I was holding and then at the bus. “I should get these inside...”

I winced at how awkward it came out, but neither of them seemed to notice. Alicia nodded and said she’d follow me in five, so I walked back inside on my own and left them to it. Honestly, I was surprised at how genuine Mikey had sounded — apparently being on the good side of his wife raised my status from dirt on the bottom on his shoe to a slightly annoying parasite instead, or something. I laughed slightly hollowly, to myself no less, as I headed upstairs to make up the spare bunk. It wasn’t a tough job, and I had it done by time Alicia appeared again.

She threw her arms around me when she noticed I’d done the work for her. “Thank you!” She said, with her new grin still in place. “You’re a good egg. I know we don’t know each other that well, but I think you’re really an awesome person.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled as I flushed red, embarrassed. “Do you need anything else?”

“Nah, I’ll be fine. I just want to get to sleep.”

“Okay. Good night, Alicia.”

“Night, Camelot.”

I could practically hear the smirk in her voice and I flipped her off as I walked over to my own bunk to grab my nightclothes, then quickly changed in the bathroom so I could crawl into it and fall asleep. I realised that I had to move my laptop, still open from when I’d being typing up the blog post, and my phone off so I could lay down, but when I picked up my phone it started vibrating and I dropped it again. Once it had finished I gingerly picked it up again, noticing I had a new text message.

GEE LEFT HIS PHONE OUT. Hahahaha. I changed all his contact names to fuck with him... F xoxo

lemme guess... frank?

the one and only

… great. just what did you change mine to?

o! ur Jean Grey ;)

do I want to know?

Not really. Sleep tight and dont let the bogeyman kill you! F xoxo.

So apparently their prank war, of sorts, was still going on. I thought it had been resolved yesterday when Gerard had taped the door of the bus shut when Frank had been sleeping inside, and Calvin had had a huge go at both of them, but apparently not. Well, payback was a bitch, that much I knew now. I flipped the small light in my bunk on, then padded over to the main one and turned that one off. There was a muffled complaint from Chantel’s bunk — I hadn’t even realised she was there, so the sound made me jump.

“Sorry!” I called.

“It’s okay... just fuck off and lemme sleep.” I heard her laugh and I shook my head as I slid into my bunk. I was about to close my eyes and finally fall asleep when my phone started vibrating again. I glared at it through half-closed eyes before fumbling out and grabbing hold of it. It was a call and I didn’t check to see who from before I answered it, too lazy to look at the screen properly.

“What’d ya want?” I asked, rather bluntly.

“Cam? I thought so!”

I recognised Gerard’s voice instantly. “Oh, yeah... you got your phone back then? Did you hurt Frank?”

“I did, and well... depends on your definition of hurt. I have Frank in a headlock but I think he’s pretty much okay.”

“LIES!” Frank yelled, so loud I heard it. “ASSAULT! ASSAULT! CAM! CALL THE COPS!”

I laughed, now more amused than annoyed. “He sounds fine. How’d you know it would be me?”

“I sort of know your number,” he admitted. “And Jean Grey... seemed like something Frank would pick for you.”

“Now what’s that meant to mean? Who the hell is Jean Grey?”

He chuckled at my lack of knowledge. “You never heard of her?”

“Should I have?”

“Well... I guess not. I mean, you didn’t even know who Magneto was.” He sighed loudly and I resisted the urge to pull a face, mostly because he couldn’t even see it. “Jean Grey or Phoenix or Marvel Girl, or whatever you want to call her, was this super awesome mutant from the X-men with the power of telekinesis and telepathy. I fancied her when I was a teenager. She was one of the five original ones, with Professor X and Cyclops and Iceman and Angel... and she has red hair like you.”

“Tell Frank I’m flattered, but I’m not a superheroine. As far as I know. Unless getting into awkward situations is a superpower?”

“It’s a sucky one if it is.”

“I know! But it would be hilarious, wouldn’t it?”

“Definitely. Imagine — ” He broke off, and then there was the sound of indistinguishable yelling — like somebody had their hand over the receiver — and then I heard a triumphant shout, a loud thud and a groan.

“CAM! You bitch!” That was Frank, so I gathered he must have got the phone off Gerard somehow. That must have been the cause of the yells and the groan. “You let him manhandle me! I could have been hurt! What kind of friend are you?!”

I sighed. “Were you?”

“What?” He sounded confused.

“Were you hurt?”

“No...”

“Well then shut up, you pussy.”

“Oh yeah, you’re fine talking to your man-candy for ages about nothing, but not me? I see... if that’s the case then, good night. I hope the bogeyman does kill you.”

I stifled my laughter and wished him a good night’s sleep, and then hit the end call button and, just to be sure that I wouldn’t be bugged again, switched my phone off. I pulled the covers over my head and closed my eyes, sighing again. Thank god I was tired enough to fall asleep pretty quickly, and as soon as I’d managed to clear my head of thoughts I was peacefully dreaming.

Alicia, helpfully, woke me up in the morning at eight by jumping on me. Admittedly, she did give me some warning, along the lines of shouting “If you don’t get up right now Cam, I will hurt you!”, but I didn’t take her seriously until she actually did. And, whilst she was pretty lightweight, it hurt like hell because she managed to elbow me in the stomach.

“Jesus!” I yelled, scrambling into a sitting position so she wouldn’t do it again. “What the hell was that for?”

She grinned, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “I said I would. Never tempt me.”

“How does Mikey put up with you?” I asked with a groan as I slid out of bed, making sure my extra long shirt and sweatpants hadn’t come askew in the night to save myself from embarrassment. She laughed delightedly.

“The same way he’s put up with Frank for ages — patience and lots of it. Also, sex.”

“Man. I actually feel slightly sorry for him. Except for the sex bit, obviously.” I pulled out my suitcase and picked out a few key pieces of clothing, and then I started smiling like a fool when I found my favourite shirt — a Pink Floyd one — at the bottom, all crumpled up. I hadn’t even realised I’d packed it, but it was definitely the same one. I picked up and smoothed it out, and Alicia peered at it for a few seconds before her face lit up.

“I had that shirt!” She exclaimed happily.

“Had?”

“Gerard stole it. Bastard.”

“What? How the hell would he fit in it?”

“It was way too big for me,” she said with a shrug. “And I don’t know, he just sort of borrowed it and I never got it back.”

I clutched the shirt protectively. “Well he ain’t getting my one! I freakin’ love this shirt. Janey gave it to me at our first Christmas together!” I sighed as I picked out a random pair of jeans to go with the shirt and then stood up. “Can I trust you to behave whilst I get changed?” I asked.

“Of course you can!”

I didn’t believe her, so I did it as fast as possible, practically running to the bathroom and almost tripping over my own feet. When I was done I checked my reflection in the mirror and winced — my hair was all knotted up on one side, and I had remnants of my eye make-up smeared under my eyes. It wasn’t a pretty look. I dragged a brush through my hair and splashed my face with water, wiped the messy eyeliner off my cheeks and reapplied it, then finished by finger-combing my fringe into something which could vaguely pass for styled.

When I got back she was still sitting on the edge of my bed, smiling innocently, and I stopped short, looking at her suspiciously. I knew she had done something — there was no way she was smiling like that for nothing. She met my gaze, but after a few seconds of silence she sighed.

“Okay, fine!” She said, pulling a face and throwing a bright yellow t-shirt at my head. “Keep it then!”

“You tried to steal one of my shirts?” I asked, laughing. “Dude, you could’ve just asked. Chantel spends more time in my clothes than in her own ones. I don’t mind you borrowing stuff.”

“Really?” She grinned.

“Well, yeah. But since you tried to steal,” I looked down at the shirt, and raised an eyebrow, “my David and Goliath shirt, you’re officially banned from clothes-borrowing for three days.”

“Oh fuck you.” She stood up, and I noticed she’d already got dressed and applied her make-up. She looked really pretty and her hair was falling almost perfectly straight, and I glared at her, knowing that my sorry attempts at taming my hair had probably failed badly. She noticed my glare and preened, fluttering her hands, and then burst into laughter. “Alright, we’re working the merch tents. I know, it’s so awesome, right?” She said when she’d calmed down.

“Which one?”

“Hello, Irony, MCR... and SoundinSpace.”

“All three?”

“Yeah, I know. But Jenna and her whole bus are all sick. It’s okay, we’re gonna have backup. Isaac, Wright, Chantel and Yasmine all have to do at least two hours, and I’ll make sure Wright stays a little longer.”

“Fuck. There goes my idea of a relaxing day.” I sighed and ducked down to grab my shoes, then followed her downstairs and walked outside.

It was relatively warm, and I enjoyed the feel of the sun on my bare arms as we made our way down to the tents. It did seem like Alicia knew almost everyone, since about every two seconds somebody else bounced up to say hello. I just stood there awkwardly, smiling, because I had no clue who most of them were — except the few I’d been introduced to before — so I was more comfortable staying silent.

I was quite grateful when Chantel came running up and pulled me away from Alicia into the SoundinSpace tent, which was practically empty except for us and a few young, rather giggly, girls standing near the entrance.

“I am so pissed off with Calvin,” Chantel announced, as I went to grab a few boxes and help lay out some of the shirts and products on the tables and on the racks. I paused and turned back to her, shooting her a quizzical look. “It’s meant to be my day off,” she explained. “But of course Jenna had to choose this day to pull a skivvy and I have to fill in for her.”

“Oh, be nice Eli. She could actually be sick,” I said, using a knife which had been lying on the table to slice open the top of one of the cardboard boxes and then sliding it over to her so she could do the same.

“Please. She was perfectly fine yesterday when she was all over Isaac.”

“Do I detect some jealously?” I asked teasingly.

“No, you don’t,” she said, waving the knife about in her hands and pointing it at me. She was too far away to stab me accidentally or on purpose, but I inched a few more steps away from her, just in case. “And by the way, you’re one to talk, missy.”

“I know. It’s this thing called a mouth...”

“Sarcasm gets you no friends.”

“I don’t know, I think it’s quite charming.” I jumped when I heard the new voice, and then when arms slid around my waist from behind. I twisted around and came face-to-face with a grinning Finley, who for once had his bright hair hidden under a hoodie.

“Dude! Don’t scare me like that!” I said, smacking his arm lightly. “You’re lucky I didn’t have the knife.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m bored. Alex is off being best buddies with Red and we’ve done sound check and now I’m bored and there’s nothing happening and it’s boring...”

“Well, you can help out if you want,” I said, pointing at the boxes behind us, “but other than that, there’s not much to do here, either.”

He seemed perfectly fine with that idea, though, which surprised me. I was reluctant to do it for cash, and he was just throwing himself into the fray because he was bored? Maybe it was because he had all the extra energy, so he needed a way to get rid of it and working for free in a cold, drafty tent was a good way in his eyes.

Whatever it was, I was glad for the help because as the morning went on more and more customers and fans filled the tent, all of them wearing huge grins and, more often than not, shirts proclaiming their favourite bands or, to my surprise, ’Whiteout Tour 2008’. The merchandise people must have been busy getting those out there, too.

It started to get busy mid-morning, even to the point where I was serving two people at a time with others waiting impatiently behind them, and it was only just calming down again at lunch time, since everybody was rushing off to get food.

“Fin, grab that box for me, would you? See if it’s got the universe hoodie in it,” I said, pointing at the cardboard box which was behind him. He nodded and hauled it up onto the table, pulling out random pieces of clothing and throwing them rather haphazardly in a pile next to it. I sighed, resigned to the fact he definitely wasn’t neat in any way at all, as he yelled in triumph and tossed me the right hoodie.

“There you go, Cameron!”

“Thanks,” I said dryly, trying to ignore the fact he’d managed to perfectly aim throwing the hoodie so it hit me in the face. “Here,” I said, handing it to the girl who’d asked, who smiled brightly.

“Thank you!” She pulled out her purse and handed over the money. “Hey, are you that Cameron girl?” she asked as I was counting it.

I looked up, puzzled. “Um, well... I do the blog, if that’s what you mean.”

“Awesome, me and my friends are huge fans of you!” She said it excitedly, grinning.

“Fans?” I repeated.

“Mhm, my mate Katy was practically green with envy when she saw you got a photo with Klaus! But we all love your blog, it’s really great because you don’t normally get to see all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes and you let us see all of it. And some of the stories are hilarious.”

“Well... um... thanks?” I wasn’t sure how to handle the praise, but I settled for smiling politely and hoping it didn’t come across as cold or unfriendly. I wasn’t trying to be, I just felt completely out of my depth.

She apparently didn’t notice, though, just nodded and then said, “Thanks again, for the hoodie. Are you gonna go see SoundinSpace’s set tonight? If so, you should totally come and join us. My name’s Fresca, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you. And, um, I don’t know. I think I have to work,” I said. It was a lie, and I felt kind of bad about that — but I was looking forward to just sleeping, because I knew I’d be exhausted after this day’s work if it kept up this pace. After I handed her the change she said goodbye and walked off, and then Finley sidled up to me, smirking.

“Fans, huh? Welcome to the club!” He said. “I had five people come up to me today on my way over here.”

“Five? Wow, you’re getting popular, huh? Almost more fans than MCR now.”

He snickered. “Yeah, yeah. But you know what’s weird? How nervous they are... like, I was the person looking up to proper musicians a few weeks back and scared to even say hello when I saw them at festivals and now I have people asking for autographs. I’ve actually had to settle on a way to sign my name and all!”

“Gosh, the hardships you go through.”

He harrumphed, and then his phone starting ringing (his ringtone was quite amazing — La la la la la la la la, I just can’t get you outta my head, boy your lovin’ is all I think about...) and he pulled it out of his pocket. I noticed, over his shoulder, that he had a new text and he opened it, read it through, and then looked up at me and grinned. “Alex said she’s watching MCR’s soundcheck. Want to take a break and wander over?” He asked.

I looked up, noticing that the queues were almost non-existent now and nodded. “I guess it couldn’t hurt.” I turned in Chantel’s direction. She’d managed to lure Isaac over, and they were standing near the other side, chatting and handing out shirts. “Hey, can I have a thirty minute break?” I asked, forced to yell to get her attention.

“Yeah, I got it. Don’t worry.” She waved me off, smiling breezily. There were some perks to having a guy around, I decided — Chantel didn’t seem to give a fuck about anything when Isaac was there. I smiled gratefully back at her, and then followed Finley out of the back entrance to the tent. He seemed to know where to go, and I was surprised it wasn’t towards the main stage. Instead, he swerved to the side and headed for one of the smaller stages, set up a little further away from the centre where are the merch tents were.

A burly guard was... well, guarding near the stage and stopping the majority of the crowds getting through, but a quick flash of both of our passes and he let us past.

Frank spied both of us first, and he waved frantically from his position sat on an amp, one of his precious guitars balanced in his lap. I could still see faded marker drawings up and down his arms, even from this distance, and made a mental note to get a photo before he managed to get rid of them all. I waved back as I noticed that Liza was stood in the gap between the barriers, which would keep fans back later, and the stage and I jogged over to her side.

“Cam! You okay?” She said, when she noticed my presence. Finley came up behind me a few seconds later. She gave him a high-five on his insistence.

“I’m great. Is Alex around here?” I looked around, but I couldn’t see my sister anywhere.

“Uh, yeah, she was just talking to...” Liza trailed off, a frown replacing her grin. “Oh. I swear she was just over there, talking to Ray.”

I pulled a face. “Ah well, she’ll be fine. She’s eighteen, not eight. Right?”

“Doesn’t mean she acts it,” Finley said. I laughed, agreeing completely with that. I glanced around again, noticing that the majority of MCR had joined Frank on the stage and they were all sitting around, waiting, ready except from the fact that they were noticeably missing a lead singer. Said lead singer, I realised, was standing a little way away, talking to a blonde-haired girl.

“Who’s that?” I asked, curiously, as Liza waved at Gerard and motioned for him to come over.

She gave me a look. “That’s Vanessa, silly,” she said, as if she expected me to know that.

Surprised, I swapped from looking at Liza to Vanessa. I’d expected somebody different, perhaps like Janey and Alex. But the girl who was walking, hand in hand with Gerard, towards us was very pretty — she had blonde hair, a dark wheat colour, pulled back into a messy bun with tufts and curls falling out everywhere. Her make-up was simple, barely there, and it made me feel like I’d gone over the top with my eyeliner and mascara.

I tried not to linger on the ’holy shit, she’s stunning’ realisation I’d just had, and instead tried to smile convincingly as I said, “Oh. Really?”

“Yeah.” Liza nudged my side. “Stop looking like you just swallowed a lemon,” she ordered. I pulled a face at her and she shook her head. “No, that’s not much better, Cam.”

“Hey guys,” Gerard said when he stopped, smiling widely. “I see you’ve attracted a couple of parrots, Cam,” he added, nodding at Liza and Finley’s bright hair — Finley had flicked back the hood of his jacket and his hair was sticking up in all directions from being under it for a couple of hours, and Liza’s was pulled back into a ponytail.

“I know, I’m like a magnet for weirdos,” I joked, smiling. “Is that why you’ve come over to say hello?”

“Ah, yeah, pretty much.”

He chuckled and shook his head, and then Vanessa, who up until then had being completely silent, smiled and said, “Who’s this, then?” She tilted her head to the side and looked up at Gerard, and I recognised the expression on her face as the kind of one I’d seen on many girl’s — curious but wary.

Gerard grinned. “Oh right! Sorry. Um, Nessa, this is Cameron, the tour’s resident blogger sort of person,” he said, pointing at me, and then at Finley. “And that’s Susie Ain’t Your Friend’s guitarist, Finley. And of course, you know Liza. And, Cam, Fin, this is Vanessa.”

“Right. It’s nice to meet you all,” she said politely. I noticed her eyes were a dark brown, crinkled up in the corners from the smile. She seemed... nice, if distant. She didn’t seem worthy of so much dislike and I had no clue why Alicia didn’t like her, but perhaps it was something I’d yet to see. “And Cam... I’ve actually heard a bit about you before,” she added, nodding.

I couldn’t help but smile at that. Gerard talked about me? Then again, I suppose he would have had to, especially after the thing with the phone — something I had been careful not to bring up again, and had apparently been forgotten by Gerard. “You too, Vanessa,” I said, nodding. “In fact, there are some days he doesn’t shut up about you.”

She laughed. “That’s good to hear,” she said, linking an arm around his waist at the same time. I couldn’t help but think it was a possessive move, like she was warning anybody else off. Her expression, however, was completely polite. Gerard cleared his throat in a slightly awkward manner.

“Um, I have to, you know, do sound-check,” he said. He turned, leaned down and kissed her quickly. “Sorry, Nessa.”

She frowned. “I only just got here,” she said, suddenly looking distinctly more sour. “But okay, whatever. Have fun. I’ll just wait here, shall I?”

I saw him sigh, slightly, so softly I might have missed it if I hadn’t been scrutinising his face, wondering if his expression was really as forced as it looked to me. “Mhm. Sorry. I’ll see you lot around,” he said to us, walking over to the stairs up to the actual stage. Vanessa watched him go, and then shook her head.

“Typical. Always running off,” she said. “They work way too hard, don’t they?”

“Uh. I guess,” I replied, nervously. “But you do have to work hard to be successful, don’t you?”

“Really? What do you do again?”

I wasn’t sure whether I was imagining the slight edge to her tone, but I brushed it off and smiled. “I’m... well, I’m sort of tour staff, I guess? I used to work as a journalist, actually.”

“Did you get fired?”

“What?” I said, taken aback. That was definitely not me imagining this. “No, no, I didn’t.”

“Well, I suppose you didn’t turn up to work wearing that shirt then, huh?” She grinned and I glanced down at my t-shirt, confused. I loved it and I couldn’t see what was wrong with it. Obviously, I dressed a lot smarter when I worked at the Stratford New Evening Standard, but the way she said it made me think it was a thinly disguised barb at my choice of clothing.

“Oh please Vanessa, shut up now,” Liza snapped before I had a chance to say anything. I stifled a laugh at the pissed off expression on her face, kind of glad I had a friend to back me up even if I wasn’t so sure a such an insignificant remark, even a snide one like that, deserved such a big reaction.

“No need to be touchy, Liza,” Vanessa said with a small roll of her eyes. “I was just saying.”

Finley, who was being quiet for once, put his arm around my shoulders and rested his chin on my shoulder. “I don’t like her,” he whispered in my ear, so only I could hear.

“Be nice,” I whispered back. “Didn’t your mother teach you better?” He laughed, softly, and I smiled, noticing that Liza was still glaring at Vanessa. “It’s okay,” I said to Liza. “Really. People have different tastes in clothes, don’t they?”

“Exactly,” Vanessa said, nodding. “I was just saying I wouldn’t wear it. That’s all. I’m sure Cam understands.” She paused and looked at me. “Don’t you?”

“Sure I do,” I said. Honestly I wanted to hit her, but I was too polite to break her nose. Or at least, I liked Gerard too much as a friend to break his girlfriend’s nose. I smiled falsely at her, then turned to Liza and Finley. “Shall we find somewhere to sit?” I asked, deciding that putting as much space between me and her would make it so much easier to resist the lure of physical harm. Finley nodded, pointing out some chairs which had been stacked up against stage, for some reason. I didn’t get why they were there, since everybody stood for the shows, but Liza took it upon herself to run over and grab three of them for us, and then spend a few seconds deliberating on what was the best spot to choose before setting them up and motioning us over.

“It was nice to meet you,” I said, once more, to Vanessa, before walking over to join Finley and Liza. She’d chosen well — I could see the whole of the stage, and the fact that Frank was being hit over the head by a bunch of papers Ray was wielding as a weapon. I didn’t dare even wonder what Frank had done to deserve the treatment the other guitarist was giving him. I’d sort of worked out by now that it was always something weird.

“So, what do you think?” Liza asked when we’d all settled down, titling her head to the side to look at me curiously. At my confused expression, she sighed. “Let me rephrase that: What do you think of... you know, Vanessa?”

“Um,” I began, “she, er, seems nice.”

Liza burst into high-pitched laughter. “Oh god, you’re way too polite, Cam. Seriously, she insulted you and you think she seems nice?”

“Look, I’m not — I’m not gonna go down that road, okay? Gerard obviously likes her, so, as a friend, it’s my job to be supportive. Please stop giving me that look!”

“Yeah, well, for the record, I still think you guys would be good together,” she said with a snort.

“Liza!”

“What? I just think you and him have got way more in common than him and Vanessa. And, come on, Vanessa hates my guts, so I’m not exactly gonna side with her, am I?”

“What do we have in common?” I asked. I didn’t think it was that much, at all, which was why I found our friendship odd. “And, for that matter, why does Vanessa hate you?”

“Are you kidding me? You like the same music, like, all this rock and classic stuff and these weird indie bands I’ve never heard of, the same movies — horror movies are disgusting, by the way — you’re both geeky as hell, you don’t like new situations or new people, you’re adorably awkward, you both prefer Picard over Kirk— ”

“What?!” Finley interrupted. “Kirk was way more entertaining!”

“I know, right?” Liza agreed. “But, anyway, like I was saying... oh, you’re both unhealthily addicted to caffeine—”

“Okay, you’ve made your point,” I said, trying not to turn red from embarrassment. “We’ve got things in common. Now, please, answer my other question.”

“What? Why Vanessa hates my guts?” She laughed breezily, waving away my question with her hand. “Oh, that’s easy enough... I’m engaged to her ex-boyfriend.”

“Hold up, what the fuck? You mean Davey? They dated?”

“Yeah, they did. Remember how I mentioned that Davey had a girlfriend when I realised I liked him?” She said, and when I nodded in response she smiled sheepishly. My eyes widened as I realised what she was saying, and as I opened my mouth to respond she hastily cut me off, adding, “They broke up and it was sort of thanks to me. I mean, I didn’t have an affair with Davey, so don’t, like, jump to that conclusion or anything... I just admitted I liked him, and they ended up breaking up. I didn’t mean it to happen, but Davey... he’s the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time. And they’d only been dating for a few weeks, so, um...”

“You’re a homewrecker,” Finley said, sounding impressed. “Nice one.”

“I’m not!” Liza said, slightly mortified. “Please, don’t say that.”

“Oops. Sorry, Liz,” Finley replied, looking genuinely apologetic, “I didn’t mean it as a bad thing, honestly.”

“S’okay... as long as you don’t call me Liz.”

I was still staring at her open-mouthed, processing the new information. This made it a bit more complicated. I was just hoping I could sort of forget the whole wanting to do somebody else’s boyfriend thing, and not that it would get even more confusing.

“When the fuck did my life turn into a soap opera?” I asked finally, dropping my head into my hands and sighing. Liza reached over and patted me on the back.

“I think as soon as your joined this tour, sweetie.” She shot me a wicked smile which I picked up on when I glanced up, but I was too busy freaking out to call her out on it.