All About the Hype (31 page)

There’s a knock on my door. I get up to answer it and find Meg with Barney and Phee.

‘Jessie, can you take the boys for a bit? I want to go with Johnny to a meeting downstairs.’

‘Of course,’ I reply, delighted she asked. She may not trust me to behave around evil bitches with tattoo fetishes, but at least she trusts me with her sons.

Johnny told me I had to get my tattoo laser-removed, but I’m trying to convince him to let me keep it. I really did want it, even if it is two years too soon, and at least it’s out
of sight most of the time.

Hopefully one day I’ll be able to look at it without feeling sick with guilt.

I scoop Phee up in my arms and take Barney’s hand, running to the bed for a bouncing session.

I hadn’t known how I was going to get through the next few hours before I can realistically start to get ready – I’m wearing the black-and-gold skirt and bodice that Jack
likes, and I’m so desperate to see him. At least my little brothers will distract me for a while. Jack, Agnes, Brandon and Miles are all flying in this afternoon and going straight to the
concert venue. Agnes’s stepdad wouldn’t let her have even a single day off school and Jack thought it would be unkind to make her fly out alone, so this is the earliest they could come.
Unfortunately Agnes has to leave again tomorrow, but Jack is staying in the UK for a week. It’s the Easter holidays here, and I’m dying to show him the places I grew up. I just wish he
could stay for longer.

Libby, Natalie, Lou and Em are also coming to the gig and Johnny has given them Access All Areas passes. Natalie told me she thought Em was going to spontaneously combust when I called them at
Nat’s house to tell them.

I’m backstage at Wembley – something I’ve only ever dreamed about being able to say. I’ve just heard that Johnny’s driver has arrived back from
the airport and security is bringing my friends up. I’m so nervous. It’s only been a week since I’ve seen Jack, but there’s something about tonight that makes me feel even
more on edge. Maybe I’m just feeling nervy for Johnny. This is the first big tour he’s done in years. I hope it goes well.

Earlier I’d asked him how he was feeling.

‘Pretty good. This might be my last world tour,’ he said, ‘so I intend to enjoy it.’

‘Don’t say that!’ I gasped.

‘It’s true, chick. I’m thirty-seven. I won’t always be selling out stadiums and arenas. And anyway I don’t want to do this shit forever. You saw how stressed Meg
got about the tour.’

‘But this is what you love!’ I said. ‘Meg wouldn’t want you to stop doing what you love.’

He smiled at me. ‘I
love
making music. I
love
writing and singing and playing my guitar, but I don’t really love touring and being away from home for months on end.
No, I’d be happy doing the odd gig here and there, just the ones I really want to do, you know? That would suit me just fine.’

I’ve already had a look at the stage. It’s absolutely enormous, at least twenty times bigger than the two I’ve sung on. I watched my dad do a soundcheck and he looked pretty
far away even from where I was standing in the wings. To the people at the back, he’s going to look like not much more than a pinprick. But his voice filled the stadium effortlessly when they
tested out the mics, and two huge screens at either side of the stage will be projecting his image to his faraway fans. I can’t wait to see him in action.

The door to the green room opens and my heart leaps as Jack, Agnes, Brandon and Miles walk in.

I run over and throw myself into Jack’s arms. He laughs and picks me up, swinging me around. I plant a kiss on his lips.

‘I’ve missed you so much,’ I whisper.

‘Me too,’ he replies, smiling down at me.

He lets me go so I can say hi to everyone else.

We’re in the wings and it’s almost time. Earlier Johnny introduced me to his band and backing singers and he even stood beside me while we watched the support acts,
one of whom was Contour Lines, the band Jack and I saw in LA. Now the stage is dark, but the crowd is electric. I peek out of the wings to see big spotlights moving over the stadium. Tens of
thousands of people start to chant as one.

Johnny turns to kiss Meg. She hugs him tight and I hear him tell her he loves her. Then he bends down to give Barney and Phoenix a kiss and a cuddle – they’re wearing ear defenders
to protect their little ears from the loud music, bless them. Johnny straightens up again and a roadie hooks him up to his guitar. He’s wearing a simple white T-shirt and jeans and the brown
leather guitar strap stretches across his chest. He rakes his hand through his blond hair and smiles at me.

‘Good luck, Dad,’ I say.

He raises an eyebrow and grins as he bends down to peck me on my cheek. ‘Thanks,’ he says. I have a feeling he won’t need it.

His band walks on to a roar from the crowd and then Johnny gives Meg one last kiss and turns and strides out onstage. The noise from the crowd is deafening, like nothing I’ve ever heard.
Of course, I’ve been in crowds like that, watching my favourite bands, but back here it seems amplified. We’re outsiders, looking in. I glance at Meg to see her eyes shining with pride
as Johnny launches into one of his biggest hits, and then I turn to watch my dad. I think I must have the same expression on my face as Meg has on hers.

After a couple of songs, Johnny says hello to the audience and he seems so comfortable, so at ease. His body language and the way he speaks is sort of intimate, like he’s addressing each
and every one of them in person. They lap it up.

By the fifth song, I’m completely relaxed and loving every minute. Lou, Libby, Nat, Em and I are dancing away, singing along to the songs like we’re at just another gig. It’s
so much fun. When the song ends, we clap and cheer like everyone else in the stadium.

And then Johnny speaks to his fans again.

‘Hey, you guys wanna meet my daughter?’ he asks casually.

The roar that goes up from the crowd is crazy, but it takes me a moment to register what he’s just said.

I freeze as he looks offstage at me.

‘Come on, chick,’ he says, beckoning me towards him as though he’s about to introduce me to a mate of his, not 90,000 strangers.

Anxiety attacks my body and my feet glue themselves to the spot.

‘Go on!’ Em hisses, pushing me and bringing me to life. I glance hesitantly at Jack and he grins and nods, and then Em gives me a shove out onstage.

The crowd
ROARS
. The noise is mind-blowing.

‘Come here,’ Johnny says, his green eyes twinkling at me as I make my way across the absolutely mahoosive stage. He throws his arm round my shoulder and turns me to face the
audience. ‘What do you think?’ he asks me, casting a cheeky look at his tens of thousands of fans. ‘Pretty, aren’t they?’

I can barely hear myself think from the screaming response he gets to this comment.

‘Everyone, this is Jessie. I should probably introduce you to her band, too, shouldn’t I? She wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t introduce you to her band,’ he adds
nonchalantly, smiling. He looks past me and waves at Jack, Brandon and Miles. The cheering continues as they step, stunned, into the light.

‘Meet All Hype,’ Johnny says into his mic, as they walk towards us. ‘You should check out their stuff on YouTube. They’re really good,’ he adds as an aside to his
audience. His tone is mischievous and overfamiliar and I’d laugh if this didn’t feel so surreal.

My bandmates reach us, their eyes wide as they look out at the packed stadium.

‘This is Jack.’ Johnny addresses his fans again with a cheeky grin. ‘Jack plays lead guitar. And this is Brandon on bass.’ Johnny reaches behind Jack to pat
Brandon’s back. ‘And Miles here is on drums. What do you think, lads? Reckon you could rock Wembley one day?’

Brandon and Miles laugh with disbelief and Jack drags his hand over his mouth, shaking his head, awestruck, as he stands and stares at the sea of people. The crowd is going absolutely berserk.
They’re loving this side to Johnny.

‘I don’t know if any of you saw it, but I sang one of All Hype’s songs a couple of months ago at my daughter’s birthday party,’ Johnny says. The corresponding
screams confirm that most of the people here did.

Johnny grins and cocks his head to one side. ‘I’m kind of tempted to ask these guys to return the favour and play one of
my
songs.’ More cheering. ‘But my band
would get jealous, and anyway, they haven’t practised so that would be mean,’ he finishes with a playful grin. ‘S’OK, lads. You can go. Get yourselves a drink.’

My heart is pounding so hard as I turn to follow Jack offstage.

‘Oi, where do you think you’re going?’ Johnny asks, tugging me back.

I spin round and look up at him with alarm.

‘You’ve got a song to sing.’

‘What?!’ I splutter. ‘But
I
haven’t practised!’

My voice fills the stadium and collective laughter rolls back at me. Johnny’s mic is picking up every word I’m saying.

‘You don’t need to practise. You know it by heart,’ he says tenderly, his green eyes filled with humour. He looks over his shoulder and nods at his drummer and suddenly the
band starts to play ‘Acorn’, the track I recorded with my dad.

I can’t believe this is happening. What if I choke? A roadie jogs onstage and hands me a microphone and Johnny turns to face me, his green eyes sparkling as he begins to sing. His voice
fills the stadium and it’s so beautiful, so soulful. He nods encouragingly as he approaches the lyrics where I come in. I look straight back at him and open my mouth, and he smiles as our
voices come together. In the end, it’s as natural as breathing.

It’s over all too quickly. The noise from the crowd is colossal, but I barely register their cheers. All I can hear is my dad saying he’s proud of me, as he presses a kiss to my
forehead and gently sends me offstage.

And then I’m back in the darkness of the wings and staring out at the light again and I wonder if I dreamed it. Did that really just happen?

‘Amazing, isn’t she?’ Johnny says to his audience, and then he launches straight into one of my favourite songs.

‘She sure is.’ Jack materialises at my side, smiling down at me out of the corner of his eye before my friends pull me away and hysterically engulf me.

It is the best night of my life without a shadow of a doubt and the after-party has barely got started. I haven’t even had one drink, but I’m on the biggest high
imaginable. I wish Stu had been here to see the concert, but he’s coming to tomorrow night’s show – with Caroline. I still don’t know if they’re more than friends, but
I hope I’ll be able to cope with it if or when they take their relationship to the next level. I want him to be happy. I don’t want him to be alone.

Tom will also join us tomorrow night. I felt kind of bad that he couldn’t come tonight, but Johnny had loads of people that needed to be here – friends, family, both his and
Meg’s, plus press and competition winners – so Access All Areas tickets were limited.

I think Gramps might be coming the day after tomorrow. I hope he’s OK. I know he feels really bad about letting loose like that. But I think Meg’s on her way to getting over it.

She certainly seems happy tonight. Annie has taken Barney and Phoenix back to the hotel so she’s able to relax. I notice she’s not drinking, though. She tries to avoid alcohol when
she’s with Johnny. I heard her say earlier that once the opening nights are over she wants the booze backstage to be limited. It must be hard when you’re an addict, like Johnny, and
everyone’s drinking and smoking and doing God knows what else around you. I didn’t really get it before, but I think now I understand why Meg wanted to be here. I’m glad
she’ll be able to help keep my dad on the straight and narrow. There’s every chance he’d stay on the right path himself, but Meg’s right: it’s not worth the risk. She
doesn’t want to lose him again.

And I don’t want to lose him at all.

I look through the crowd at my dad as he greets person after person. He looks happy, like he’s in his element. He catches my eye and his face lights up. He excuses himself and then
he’s striding straight past everyone else in the green room and sweeping me up in a hug.

‘You were outstanding,’ he enthuses in my ear.

‘I can’t believe you did that!’ I squeak. ‘I was so scared!’

‘I knew you would be,’ he says with a grin. ‘I didn’t want to freak you out by telling you beforehand.’ He studies my face. ‘You did enjoy it, didn’t
you?’

‘More than anything
ever
,’ I declare.

He chuckles and squeezes me.

Everyone is still in high spirits as we set off to the hotel in the tour bus. We’re planning on continuing the party downstairs in the bar, but I’m having an attack
of the jitters as I sit next to Jack. He’s staying on the floor below mine and I’ve just whispered that I want us to sneak up to his room for a bit. His corresponding look was
intense.

I think this could be it.

When we arrive at the hotel, we find even more people in the bar than there were backstage. Contour Lines and the other support acts have come back with us, along with their posses of friends
and family, so it’s easy to slip away unnoticed amid the mayhem.

My hand is clammy inside Jack’s as we wait for the lift. A middle-aged couple join us as it pings and the doors open. I shoot Jack a sideways glance, but he’s staring straight ahead
once we’re inside. We step out onto his landing.

‘I’m along here,’ he murmurs.

Is he nervous, too?

He pushes his key card in and unlocks the door, leading me inside. Once the door is shut behind us, the butterflies go into overdrive.

He stands in front of me, caressing my face with his hand as he gazes down at me.

‘I love you,’ he reminds me.

‘I love you, too.’ My mouth is dry as I look up into his gorgeous eyes. ‘I want to,’ I whisper. ‘Have you got protection?’

He nods once, knowing I mean contraception.

‘Are you sure about this?’ he asks, his expression serious. ‘Because I do want to be responsible. I’d hate to be the douchebag you tell your mates about in a few
years’ time.’