Strings (3 page)

             
‘I spilt your drink as well. W0uld you like another?’ He finished his cigarette and flicked it aside, feeling like a complete idiot. This was not a good way to introduce yourself to a girl.

             
‘Yes, a bottle of champagne please.’ Her expression was deadly serious. Beth sniggered behind her.

             
‘Who do you think I am, Bono? How about another glass of wine instead?’ he offered, smiling. He felt a bit better now, but he was still secretly seething at his idiotic friends.

             
‘Fine, I suppose that will have to do,’ she huffed, then shivered, realising how cold it was in the night air. She cursed herself for yet again not bringing a coat. The stage door was slightly open, and Melissa could see the band’s equipment inside. She could also see that there were some chairs. Her feet were killing her and she wanted to sit down. ‘Hey, it’s freezing. Can we go inside to warm up?’

             
Luke could have sworn she fluttered her eyelashes, just for a second, and he thought she looked adorable. ‘Sure, go on in. There isn't any wine but there are beers if you want one?’

             
‘Beer’s fine, thanks.’ The girls followed the band through the stage door, down a dark corridor and into the backstage area, where they helped themselves to beers from a table. Luke turned to Dale, giving him an angry look because it had been Dale who had pushed him. His friend shrugged and pointed out that it had worked, so he should stop moaning.

             
‘Mission accomplished!’

             
‘You’re still a dick,’ Luke shot back, not at all amused. They left the two girls for a few minutes, promising to be back once they had said goodbye to some friends who were outside. There were several other people milling about in the room; a couple from another band and some staff from the venue.

             
Melissa sat on a tatty brown leather chair in the corner of the room. Next to it was a sleek, black electric guitar, resting on its stand. She noticed it was a Fender, which was a brand name she recognised, but that was the limit of her knowledge of guitars. It was beautiful, and she remembered seeing him play it earlier. She admired it, and almost reached out to touch it, but then had a vision of knocking it over and decided to keep her hands well away. It looked precious.

             
Bands were her thing. Real musicians. Boy bands made her cringe, big time. She loved to hear a group play live, preferably with songs they had written themselves. This was real talent, as far as she was concerned. The two girls had been to many gigs together, and loved watching both new and established bands. They’d been to a few festivals too. They both loved the same bands, and they lived for going to as many gigs as possible. It was what their weekends were for, and what most of their money went on.

             
Beth perched on the arm of the chair, sipping her beer and smiling smugly. Phone in hand, she was tweeting as usual. ‘That couldn’t have worked any better! See, I know when to go for something. He definitely wants you!’ she whispered to Melissa without taking her eyes off her phone. It buzzed and she read something which made her frown. She let out an irritated sigh and shook her head. Stu, the guy she had stood up, was asking when he could see her. What a cheek, she thought. ‘Is he for real? He calls me a bitch and thinks I’ll see him again.’ She responded with a very short message, ‘No, I’m too busy being a bitch right now. You blew it.’ Then she blocked his number. That was how Beth did things – you very rarely got a second chance if you crossed her.

Beth
then told Melissa once again that the guy she had just met definitely liked her, and that she should go for it. ‘Anything has to be better than Shaun. Oh my god, Liss, how did you not die of boredom?’ She leaned her head back, pretending to be asleep and snoring.

             
‘You’re so mean!’

             
‘The guy likes staying at home at the weekend ... all the time!’

             
It was true. He was really quite shy and didn’t like socialising much. It baffled her sometimes how they ended up together. Deep down Melissa felt sorry for him. But she didn’t want to dwell on it, so moved the conversation on.

             
‘You don’t
know
that he likes me … he invited me in for a drink, he didn’t ask me to marry him!’

             
Beth shook her head in frustration at her friend. ‘Open your eyes, babe, and go for it. What have you got to lose? Anyway, try to look interesting when they come back,’ Beth ordered in her usual bossy way.

             
‘I am interesting … but maybe
I
don’t like
him
.’ Melissa leaned back in the chair, getting a little irritated with her friend. This was supposed to be a girls’ night out, the rule being “no guys”. She was fed up with men.

             
‘Shut up, Liss, don't be an idiot. Of course you do … and jeez, those guys are a brilliant band. Hot!!!’ She whistled her approval. Deep down Melissa knew Beth was right.

             
They hadn't noticed the two girls at the other end of the room when they had first entered, until Beth realised that one of them was glaring in their direction. ‘What's her problem?’ she whispered. ‘Are they the girlfriends?’

             
Melissa answered with a shrug, feeling slightly disappointed because despite what she had been saying to Beth, she really hoped he wasn’t spoken for. But one of them was glaring at her as though she was about to charge over and punch her. Melissa had no idea why, so she tried to ignore the stare.

             
Luke jumped up the step at that moment and walked into the room. He glanced at the two mystery girls and his shoulders dropped a little. Melissa thought he sighed. If either of them were with him, he didn't seem pleased about it.

             
‘You two still here?’ he said in their direction, with more than a hint of irritation in his voice.

             
‘Yes, waiting for you to buy us a drink,’ one of them replied. But her expression changed and she looked ready to kill him as he turned, walked straight over to Melissa and Beth, and sat on the floor in front of them.

             
‘Hi, I’m Luke.’ He decided to start again and introduce himself properly. He apologised again for pushing Melissa over, an apology which she happily accepted. She then introduced herself and then Beth, but before they had a chance to say anything else, one of the other girls stood up and headed for them. Her brown hair was tied up in a ponytail and her ‘little black dress’ was way too little for her. It was impossible to walk gracefully in the black heels she was wearing, and she looked like she was walking on hot coals as she stumbled over. Her steely eyes glared down at Luke, and Melissa half expected lasers to shoot out from them.

             
‘What do you want?’

             
‘Are you going to ignore me all night?’ she pouted.

             
‘Looks like it. Amber, please give me a break.’ Then he turned back to Melissa. The scowls went from Luke to Melissa and then back to Luke, and it seemed pretty clear that she must be his girlfriend. Melissa leaned forward, which with hindsight wasn’t the best idea. ‘I don't think your girlfriend’s very happy with you. Perhaps we should go.’              

             
Luke shook his head, saying that she definitely wasn’t his girlfriend. ‘She just won’t take the hint,’ he whispered. Meanwhile, the girl’s friend now also glared in their direction.

             
‘What?’ Luke snapped at the second girl, who was sitting on a beanbag, still on the other side of the room. She jumped up and stormed over.

             
‘You’ve said barely two words to her all night!’ she said as the rest of the band piled into the room and began opening more beers. Melissa could see they were trying not to laugh at Luke’s predicament, but clearly finding it all very amusing. She really didn’t understand what was going on, but she had a feeling she was about to find out.

             
Luke didn't look up as he answered through gritted teeth, ‘Jenny, I didn't ask her to come. Amber, you should go home.’ 

             
‘Please,’ she begged. ‘Just give me five minutes alone to talk.’

             
He sighed before getting up and pulling her by the arm to a far corner of the room, where they had a hushed conversation. Melissa could only pick up snippets of what they were saying, but Amber was very animated, and she didn’t look happy at whatever he was saying. Then she heard him say, ‘You have to stop this. There is no us, and there never was. Why would you lie about me wanting to see you? I never said that.’

             
‘Yes, you did!’ she screamed, and grabbed his arm. ‘Last night when I called you, I said I was coming tonight and you said you couldn't wait to see me!’

             
‘Are you nuts? I didn't speak to you last night! I ignored your call, in fact I ignored all of them!’

             
The quiet discussion had now become a shouting match, and the whole room had stopped to watch and listen.

             
‘I can't believe he’s lying like this. He told me to come tonight!’ she cried, prompting a roar of laughter from his friends and bandmates at the other end of the room.  

             
‘Shut up!’ she yelled at them, but that just made them worse.

             
‘Just leave him alone, Amber. It’s gone on long enough,’ Tom said. Tom was tall and skinny with black curly hair that was partially hidden under a grey beanie. Tufts of hair stuck out messily from underneath it. He wore red skinny jeans and a black T-shirt, and he looked to be the youngest of the group.             

             
‘Go to hell, Tom,’ Amber fired back at him.

             
Tom made cuckoo signs behind her back, and the long-haired one had his hand over his heart mouthing silently, ‘Oh, Luke, I love you, Luke!’

             
Melissa found it hard to keep a straight face – it was pretty obvious now that this was not Luke’s girlfriend. He tried to move Amber from the room but all it did was anger her even more, and the argument spiralled.

             
Beth caught Melissa’s attention, and leaned in to whisper, ‘That girl is a nut job! Jeez, these guys have some mental groupies.’

             
Amber turned suddenly in their direction, kicked off her shoes and ran across the room. At first it seemed that Melissa was the target, so she jumped to her feet and Beth prepared to take a swing. But Amber’s eyes weren’t focused on either of them. She was aiming slightly to Melissa’s left, towards the guitar on its stand. She could see what Amber was intending to do, and knowing how important a guitar is to its owner, she felt a strange sense of duty to protect it.

             
‘Oh no you don’t, lady!’ Melissa shouted, but she was too slow.

             
‘Liar! Nobody treats me like this!’ Amber screamed, grabbing the guitar and holding it above her head. The stand toppled over and the colour drained from Luke’s face. The other band members stopped laughing, shocked that the situation had suddenly become much more serious.

             
‘Shit.’ Melissa heard one say, but she wasn’t sure who it was.

             
Luke took a step forward. ‘Put it down now, you crazy bitch!’

             
Amber held it by the neck and prepared to swing it round towards the wall, which would smash it to pieces. It seemed to Melissa that this girl was actually mad enough to do it, so she grabbed the guitar as Amber swung it behind her, holding on for dear life. There was no way she was going to allow such a beautiful instrument (with such a beautiful owner) to be damaged. She could see the panic in Luke’s face.

             
‘Let go!’ Amber screamed.

             
              Luke stood with his hands over his eyes, helpless. ‘I can't look. My baby!’

             
The two girls continued to wrestle with his most precious possession, neither giving in. Melissa released one hand, but still holding on to the neck she slapped Amber hard across the face. She did it instinctively, and it surprised them both. It caused the raging Amber to temporarily lose her grip, enabling Melissa to yank the precious guitar away from her.

             
‘Seriously, chill out, love,’ she said triumphantly, and a little smugly. But she then immediately began backing away from the girl who was practically hyperventilating in front of her.

             
‘He told me to come tonight … he said he wanted to see me,’ she murmured. She looked around the room for support, but even her friend seemed shocked by her sudden, crazed outburst and gave her a pitying look.

             
‘Come on, sweetie, let's go,’ Jenny said to her gently before ushering her out of the room.