Strings (28 page)

             
‘He’s hurting too, B, so just back off a bit ... he could have killed himself today.’

             
‘I know… she isn’t good either and I don’t have a clue how to fix her broken heart. I’ve never seen her like this. This is 100 times worse than when that other idiot stitched her up.’

             
Dale had never seen Luke upset over any woman in his entire life. He would always just shrug and carry on.

‘I don’t know how to fix them either.’

*****

‘I need a fag,’ Luke called to Ray as he headed outside
. Just as he did, he received a message from Melissa. It wasn’t what he’d expected and his mood immediately dropped.

             
‘Sorry but I can’t see you today. I’m not ready. I need more time to think … I can’t look at you … it will just make me cry.’

              The cameras clicked away. ‘Hey Luke, how’s Melissa?’

             
‘Oh yeah, that’s right ... you wouldn’t know since she kicked you out.’ The cameras carried on clicking.

             
Luke gritted his teeth and tried to ignore them. But that was never going to happen, not in the mood he was in, and feeling like he was at death’s door after the previous day’s bender. He’d taken it very close to the edge yesterday, and scared the life out of his mother, not to mention Dale who’d done nothing but nag him all morning about being an idiot.

             
The two reporters were hell bent on getting him to react, and he decided not to let them down. He chucked his cigarette aside, throwing insults as he charged for one who was wearing a black beanie. He seemed to spend his life following him or Melissa, and he had been pissing Luke off for ages.

             
‘You want a reaction, mush ... here have this one,’ he screamed in his face before head butting him and leaving his face covered in blood.

             
‘Get him inside, now!’ Ray yelled as Dale and Toby struggled to get control of him. He wriggled and kicked out as they dragged him back into the studio building. ‘Beanie Guy’, as they had come to know him, picked himself up and smiled smugly at his fellow vulture, who’d snapped every second of it.              

             
‘Let go of me. I’ll kill the bastard. The tosser deserves it,’ yelled Luke as he disappeared inside.

             
The work on their second single had been delayed, but Ray feared that it was completely buggered now. He cursed to himself knowing he would have to drop everything and sort this mess out now. He dialled Stan and Jay-Den – it was a PR nightmare and they would need to nip it in the bud. Stan was the master at putting a spin on things and Jay-Den was well skilled at turning a bad situation into a good one. 

             
‘He isn’t worth the court case,’ Toby said dragging Luke backwards.

             
Dale was yelling for the guy to back off as he continued to wind Luke up.

             
‘Ahh, missing your little lady are you? Should have kept it in your pants then, son.’               The clicking of cameras was continuous.

             
‘Smashing his head in will make me feel better.’ Luke was bursting with anger and the red mist had descended. ‘I should fucking kill him and feed him to the dogs.’

             
Tom was hanging back because the other two had Luke covered. He smirked as he walked over to where Beanie Guy was about to pick up his camera which he’d dropped in the scuffle. As his hand was almost touching it, Tom stepped in and flicked it up in the air with his foot, then volleyed it into the busy traffic, where it was smashed to pieces. Beanie Guy wasn’t laughing now. He had a week’s worth of snaps on the memory stick in the camera, and they were now lost. That represented a week’s income.

             
‘You’ll regret this, you idiot. I’ll have you all for this,’ he yelled at Tom as his mate captured the whole thing.

             
‘Oh I’m quaking in my boots. Fuck off,’ Tom said shoving him into the wall before turning to walk away and flicking his half-smoked cigarette over his shoulder. It landed at the furious guy’s feet and Tom gave him the middle finger as he walked on.

Tom had a quiet personality, and he did not say much, but he let
his actions do the talking. This was his way of showing he had his friends back, and he was always ready to look out for them.

             
‘Luke, I know things are rough for you right now, but you have to calm down,’ Ray said while Dale held him against the wall. ‘You do realise he could have you for assault? And
you’re
making it worse,’ he snapped at Tom. It fell on deaf ears as Tom just shrugged.

             
‘The guy’s an idiot ... I’ll buy him a new fucking camera if he’s still crying about it tomorrow,’ was Tom’s response. ‘Let’s make some music and forget about all this shit.’

             
Luke was taking deep breaths, trying to swallow the urge to run back out and finish the guy off. Dale asked everyone to give them some space for a while, so he could talk to him.

‘Liss cancelled on me.’ Luke almost choked on the words.

              Dale now understood the sudden outburst from his best friend, who had been looking forward to seeing her and hopeful they would be able to sit down and talk about things, even if they didn't sort everything out straight away. Mostly, he just wanted to see her.

             
‘Sorry, mate, I’m sure she’ll come round soon. She obviously needs a bit more time.’ Dale hoped so anyway. He hated this situation, mostly because it just didn't make sense. Luke was too cut up to be lying and had shown no signs of straying. He loved Melissa and wouldn’t risk everything for a drunken shag. That girl wasn’t worth losing Melissa over. There were always a few lasses hanging around after shows and he showed no interest in any of them, other than just a bit of friendly banter.

             
‘Love, you’re blocking my view. I can’t see the footie. Go and dangle those things somewhere else,’ he had said once, before a gig in Germany when one girl had draped herself over him, clearly thinking she was in with a chance if she thrust her massive boobs in his face. It was just embarrassing for all concerned. Dale had been her next target.

             
‘I don’t think so, love,’ he’d answered. Like Luke he wasn’t available, yet she seemed hell bent on trying to break them both down. Eventually, she’d been removed when she became abusive to Ray, who had just been doing his job - he could see she was trouble. Luke said he was sick of random tarts hanging around and anyway. Portsmouth had lost again that day, so he had the hump.

             
‘Come on, let's finish up here, then we can go for a beer and talk it through,’ Dale suggested. Luckily the press had moved on and they headed back into the studio where Luke took out his frustrations on his vocal chords and guitar strings.

*****

A couple of hours later, they had finally finished. They were all over the moon – it was some of their best work yet. It also helped that the single fitted the situation. ‘Broken Wings’ was about love and loss. There was so much emotion coming through in Luke’s voice, complemented by his guitar work - even his Black Fender sounded like it was crying. Dale supported it on rhythm guitar, and Tom brought in the deep, rhythmic undercurrent of bass that sounded almost like a heartbeat. The three were an impressive combination, but with the addition of Toby’s brilliant drumming skills, their sound was complete. They had produced a piece of music they were all proud of.

             
However, their good mood was short-lived because on their way out of the studio, they were met by two police officers, who arrested Luke on suspicion of assault. Ray had to intervene to ensure that he wasn’t going to have to bail out the entire band, as they tried to defend their front man and argue his case.

             
‘The guy’s lucky he still has his teeth. He’s a scumbag. If I see him again I’ll deck the little prick,’ Dale shouted at the arresting officer

             
‘I would advise against that, Sir,’ the officer responded, trying not to smirk. It was a good day for him – arresting a famous rock star was a change from dealing with petty crimes that were more paperwork than anything else.

             
‘Bollocks,’ Dale snapped before Ray jumped in and gained control.

*****

‘You are one lucky son of a bitch,’ said Ray two hours later, after finally getting Luke off on a caution. It was his first offence – at least the first he’d ever been caught for.

Beanie G
uy had caused a fuss for a few hours, but then dropped his complaint after a visit from Jay-Den – obviously money had talked. Luke didn’t want to know, so he didn’t ask. Instead, he headed straight out for a few beers with his friends.

             
‘See you later, mate, you take care. I mean it,
I’ll
call her if I have to and make her listen,’ Toby said, patting Luke on the shoulder as he and Tom left them in the pub and went off to a club to meet some of Tom’s friends. ‘Stay out of trouble, for fuck’s sake,’ he lectured. Toby would call Melissa if he was asked, because the situation worried them all. They all loved Melissa. She was one of their girls and it didn’t seem right that she was not around. In truth, Toby missed her because she was also his friend. But most of all he hated seeing Luke like this.

             
‘I’ll behave for the rest of the day, scout’s honour,’ Luke forced a cheeky smile.

             
Outside, Toby looked at his phone, trying to decide whether it would be a good idea to call Melissa. He thought maybe he could at least get her to talk to him. Tom was shaking his head, fearing it was a stupid idea. He thought Toby should keep out of it. But Toby ignored him. That was no surprise to Tom, but he had at least tried.

             
‘Melissa Webb, don’t you hang up on me,’ was his opening line when she answered.

             
‘Hi, big man, how’s things?’ There was no denying the sadness in her voice. ‘You’re not going to force me to forgive him.’

             
‘I’m not ringing to force you to do anything, relax. I’m just asking you to talk to him before he does something completely stupid.’ He filled her in on the day’s events, and heard her sigh.

             
‘Cheating on me, head butting people, getting arrested. He really is so rock and roll these days.’

             
‘Babe, look, I don’t know what happened with this Kelsey bird … I don’t remember her. But then again, I was wasted so who knows …’ he trailed off as he said this, realising from Tom’s look of horror that he wasn’t helping the situation.

             
‘Luke clearly didn’t remember
me
that night ...’ she stopped herself before she really went on a rant and said something she would regret.

             
‘Please … he needs you, and so do we. We miss you.’ There was silence from Melissa, and Toby waited as she thought it through.

             
‘Fine … I’ll call him. But I’m promising nothing.’

*****

Luke was relieved to have a bit of space. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be around Toby and Tom, but sometimes he liked to spend some time with Dale, who was like a brother to him. He was his sounding board when he needed to talk about things. Dale told him the truth, and Luke respected his opinion. Dale had always been the more placid, laid-back of the two, and he rarely got stressed over things. He was a calming influence on Luke. If left to his own devices, Luke could analyse things way too much, and wind himself up.

             
Dale grabbed more beers from the bar. They were in a pub near the studio which was becoming their local. The landlord knew who they were, but treated them like any other customer. The locals left them to it, either because they didn’t know who they were, or didn’t care. 

             
Luke took a large gulp of beer and checked his phone, making the mistake of looking on the internet. It was definitely a bad move. He learned that in some people’s eyes, he was Satan’s spawn, and of course now he could add assault to his list of misdemeanours. He considered deleting every account he had, so he didn’t have to read all the crap. But that would change nothing, he realised.

‘As if I’m going to answer these idiots!’
He said to Dale. He was referring to the questions people were leaving on the social networks. People thought he would actually reply to them. He would interact with fans to say hello or discuss music, but this was not up for discussion.

             
He took to Twitter: ‘My personal life is my business. Oh and by the way, Broken Wings is ready for release if anyone is interested.’