Rebecca is Always Right (24 page)

Rachel turned to Jenny. ‘Isn’t that where you met him to give back his stupid books?’ she said.

‘Yeah,’ said Jenny. ‘And she’s right, we were near the window.’
She looked at me. ‘God, Bex, why on earth did you think I was having an affair with him? Rachel asked me to meet Tom to give back some of his books and stuff. So I did.’

‘But …’ I said. ‘But why did you hang around having a coffee with him? You looked like you were having a really intense conversation!’

‘Well, I suppose we were,’ said Jenny. ‘He was asking me how Rachel was and I was telling him that she was doing amazingly – of course – but that he’d really upset her just dumping her out of the blue. And he felt guilty without feeling sorry for her, which is exactly what we wanted to happen.’

‘I knew all about it,’ said Rachel. ‘We’d spent ages talking about what she’d say to him to make him think I had moved on and wasn’t thinking about him at all.’

‘But it did look …’ I said. ‘I mean, Jenny could still have been carrying on with him! She was leaning over and giving him something!’ But even as I said it, I realised what she’d been giving him.

‘Bex, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m seeing someone else,’ said Jenny. ‘His name is Fionn. Seriously, I wouldn’t have time to have an affair even if I wanted to, which I don’t, and even if I did, I’d never even contemplate having one with Tom. And what I was giving him was Rachel’s books.’

‘Oh,’ I said.

‘So do you believe me now?’ said Jenny.

‘Um, yes,’ I said. ‘Sorry. About yelling at you. And not believing you.’

‘It’s okay,’ said Jenny.

‘And, um, about being weird to you over the last few weeks,’ I said. ‘I just thought you had stabbed Rachel in the back. And, um, I was just upset about it.’

‘Ah, I understand,’ said Jenny.

Rachel was looking at me with a funny expression on her face.

‘You should have just said something to me,’ she said. And I thought she was going to yell at me for not saying anything when I thought her best friend was having a secret affair with her ex. ‘But I suppose you were just worried about me.’ She paused. ‘You’re not the worst sister in the world.’

Which, from a member of my family, who are not prone to declarations of love (I found it very difficult when I wrote a song for Rachel’s birthday a few months ago), is quite something, especially on top of her thanking me for cheering her up on Tuesday. There was a long pause.

‘So …’ I said. ‘I suppose I’d better go and get ready for the gig.’

‘We’ll be there,’ said Jenny, who I must admit was
behaving very decently for someone who’d just been accused by me of betraying her best friend and having a secret affair. ‘And Fionn is going to meet us there. So you can see I’m not making him up.’

‘I don’t think you’re making him up!’ I said miserably. I felt like a giant fool. And then I basically ran up here to my room, where I am writing this while the shame is still fresh.

I am really glad that Jenny isn’t having an affair with Tom, though. And at least I don’t have to worry about keeping a terrible secret from Rachel anymore. And, actually, I feel a bit less ridiculous having written it all down. It’s strange what a relief writing about bad stuff can be. And I do have to get ready for the gig now. I am still feeling quite butterflies-in-the-tummy about it. I still can’t help thinking something exciting is going to happen, apart from the whole gig stuff, which is exciting in itself. It just feels like today will be a Big Day.

Right. I’ve really got to change and get ready at last. I wish I’d asked Rachel if I could borrow some of her posh make-up before I went down and embarrassed myself – I don’t feel like creeping in and asking for a favour now. I’ll just have to make do with my own non-posh stuff. And I’m going to wear my brilliant ’60s brown and gold dress that I got in a charity shop at the end of the summer. Not only does it look cool, it’s not
too tight so it’s particularly easy to drum in. I do like it when clothes are practical as well as cute.

Okay, I really am going now. I won’t think about what I said to Jenny at all. I’m going to think about the gig. And about seeing Sam. And what might happen. Because I really do have a feeling that something will.

Well, first things first. Our gig was brilliant. At least, it went pretty well as far as we were concerned, and the crowd seemed to like it. And there was a pretty big crowd too. But – and I feel kind of stupid even being a bit sad about this when our gig went so well, but after all you can’t help how your heart feels – nothing happened with Sam. I mean, I was talking to him a lot. And I was trying to get that balance between being friendly and too friendly. And we did talk on our own for a while. But nothing really happened. By which I mean we didn’t start kissing passionately by the speakers (or anywhere else, for that matter), and we didn’t declare our undying love (or even mild affection) for each other. So much for my butterflies.

It all happened like this. All four bands only had time to do
a quick soundcheck, so we didn’t really get a chance to properly see what the other bands were doing. We did get to talk to Veronica and Paul, the sound engineer, about our backdrop, and she promised to get it up just before we went on. Then she told us the running order of the show – first Bad Monkey, then Puce, then us, then the Wicked Ways. And then all four bands just stood around a bit nervously waiting for the main doors to open (well, some of us were nervous. Puce were in a corner practising their stage moves). Some of the others had sneaked cans in, but they were too nervous to take them out and drink anything, mostly because it had been made quite clear that if Veronica saw any booze on the premises, we’d all be kicked out (and, she’d warned us before, there’d be no chance of any more all-ages gigs there).

‘What if no one turns up?’ said Katie from Bad Monkey. ‘I mean, the Battle of the Bands was full, but there were a million bands playing then and everyone brought their friends …’

But then the door to the venue was pulled back and lots of people started to pour in.

‘Whoah,’ said Alice, a few minutes later. ‘I didn’t think it’d be this jammed.’

‘Neither did I,’ said Richard. ‘We’ll all be fine though.’ He
was wearing his specially altered suit and looked very cool. His quiff was at full blast, but he can really pull it off.

‘Look, there’s Tall Paula and Sophie!’ said Cass, giving them a wave. ‘And – wow, Small Paula too. I didn’t know if she’d come along.’

‘And there’s Jane and Aoife,’ said Alice. Aoife is Jane’s best friend. ‘Hey, over here!’

I must admit that as soon as the doors opened I started looking out for Sam. Every time a tall boy with scruffy hair walked in my stomach felt all funny because I thought it was him. And then, while I was telling Jane and Aoife about how we’d made our backdrop (Jane is very interested in all things vaguely theatrical), Sam walked in with Lucy and a boy I’d never seen before.

Lucy waved when she saw us and the three of them came over to join us.

‘Hey, band people,’ said Sam. ‘This is Daire.’

‘Hey,’ said Daire. He was a tall, friendly-looking boy holding a skateboard. ‘Ah, hi, Richard.’ I forgot they were all in the same school. ‘I’ve heard a lot about all these bands,’ Daire went on. ‘Sam and Lucy say you’re all pretty good …’

‘Well, they might have exaggerated a bit,’ said Alice nervously. ‘Don’t get your hopes up too much.’

‘Any nerves, Bex?’ said Sam.

‘Not really,’ I said. ‘That’s not tempting fate, is it? Maybe it would be better if I was really nervous …’

‘Nah,’ said Sam. ‘I don’t believe in tempting fate anyway. You’ll all be brilliant.’

I wish he hadn’t said that ‘all’. I wish he’d singled us out. Anyway, then Alice said, ‘Hey, Emma’s arrived. And look who’s with her!’

It was Alison! And Karen was nowhere to be seen. Alison has clearly escaped from her clutches at last. She looked a bit shy when she and Emma joined us, but soon she and Emma were talking to Daire, whose brother, it turns out, goes to the same computer course as them.

‘Wow, Dublin really is small,’ I said.

‘Well, our bit of north Dublin definitely is,’ said Sam.

And then I noticed Rachel come in with Jenny and another boy I’d never seen before. I realised it must be Fionn, Jenny’s actual boyfriend. He must definitely really like her if he’s willing to come and see her best friend’s little sister’s band. I still felt too embarrassed to talk to them, but I couldn’t avoid doing so because Jenny yelled ‘Rebecca! Over here!’ in a loud voice, so I had to trot over to them.

‘Look what a good sister I am,’ said Rachel. ‘Bringing along
some more people to cheer for you so it’s not too embarrassing later.’

‘Hey, Bex,’ said Jenny, grinning at me. ‘This is Fionn. Fionn, as you’ve gathered, this is Rebecca.’

‘Hi,’ said Fionn. He was a cheerful-looking boy with fair hair and a nice cardigan. And he didn’t look anything at all like Tom.

‘I’ve told him all about you,’ said Jenny.

I knew she was enjoying my embarrassment, but I suppose it was what I deserved. Anyway, I didn’t stay talking to them for long because the main lights in the venue were getting dimmer, which meant the show was about to begin. Bad Monkey were on first and I was really looking forward to seeing them because the only time I’ve ever seen them perform was a year ago at the Battle of the Bands.

‘Good luck!’ said Rachel.

‘You’ll be great,’ said Jenny, winking at me, and I knew things would be okay between us. She clearly has a forgiving nature. I think I’d have let someone suffer for a bit longer if they’d accused me of being a friend-betrayer.

‘Hi, everyone!’ said Veronica. ‘I’m very happy to welcome you all to what will hopefully be the first of many all-ages gigs here at the Knitting Factory. We’ve got four brilliant bands
playing this afternoon, so without further ado please give a warm welcome to … Bad Monkey!’

I was very impressed with Bad Monkey back at the Battle of the Bands, even though they only did two songs, and this time they were even better. Liz is such a cool frontwoman, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I don’t fancy girls, but I can definitely see why Cass likes her so much. The crowd were clearly impressed too, judging by the wild cheers when she played her guitar solo (she’d been worried that she was going to mess it up, but it sounded perfect).

When they came off stage Liz ran over to Cass, who gave her a big hug, and we all congratulated her.

‘I can’t believe we made it through a whole set!’ she said. ‘We haven’t played in front of an audience for so long!’

‘It doesn’t show,’ said Cass. ‘You were amazing!’

‘You were fantastic!’ said Lucy, who had never seen Bad Monkey play before. ‘I didn’t realise you could play such fancy stuff on the guitar.’

‘Ooh, what’s going on now?’ said Ellie, pointing at the stage.

It was Puce, arranging their stage set. Or rather, helping Veronica pull down a screen at the back of the stage. A few moments later, they had taken their positions and Veronica was announcing them to the crowd. We all cheered loudly as
Niall took to the mike.

‘We’re Puce!’ he cried. ‘And we’re going to take you to another world! A world … of robots!’

Then, as the band started playing, the screen behind them was filled with old black and white footage of robots. And, as if that wasn’t enough, Niall and the others started doing some dramatic moves – not just prowling around the stage as Shane from The Invited had taught them, but some coordinated dance moves that mimicked the motion of the robots. It was all very impressive. The music was, as ever, a little bit dull, but to be honest what with the dancing and the robots you barely noticed.

In fact, I don’t think I was giving Puce the attention they deserved because I was standing next to Sam and I was kind of conscious of him all the time. Also, I was getting nervous about going on next. But anyway, by the time Puce finished the audience were all cheering like mad.

Sam leaned over to me.

‘Did you ever think of having projections and stuff?’ he said over the wild applause. ‘That looked really good!’

‘Don’t let Cass hear you say that,’ I said. ‘It’ll only encourage her. Right, we’re on next. I’d better go.’

‘Good luck!’ said Sam. ‘I’ll be dancing in the front row.’

I knew he was joking, but it would have been very cool if he had been. And when we got on stage I could see he was up near the front with all our friends (and Rachel, Jenny and Fionn too). Just behind them I could see our mentor Kitty, who caught my eye and gave me a thumbs up. While we were setting up our instruments, Veronica and Paul hung up the backdrop. It looked really good. You’d never guess it had been one of Cass’s parents’ old bed sheets until a week ago.

‘Right,’ said Cass, as we took our positions. ‘Our biggest gig ever. No pressure!’

‘We thrive under pressure,’ said Alice grandly, and picked up the microphone. She has real stage presence. No wonder she and Richard make such a good couple.

‘Hey, we’re Hey Dollface,’ she said. ‘And we’re going to start with a song about falling for the wrong person. One, two, three, four!’

We launched into ‘Ever Saw In You’, with lyrics all about me and John Kowalski. As I drummed along furiously, I found myself wondering if Sam would realise what it was about, and would he know that I wasn’t, like, harbouring any feelings for John. But soon I got so into playing I forgot to think about Sam, or anything else but how cool it felt to be up on the stage playing music with my best friends. When
we finished the first song, the crowd all cheered and hollered very loudly, and Cass and Alice and I beamed at each other before Cass announced the next song, ‘Pistachio’. After every song, I found myself counting how many songs we had left, not because I wanted it to end but because I wanted it to last as long as possible. We made a few tiny mistakes, but I don’t think anyone really noticed, and when we finished the last song (our environmental anthem ‘Living in a Bubble’) everyone cheered and cheered. It felt brilliant.