Disrespectful Diva (DJ #2)

by Helen J. Barnes

  Billy the bullshitter. A fling I had but soon cut off when I started to tire of the lies that spewed from him every time he opened his mouth.

  “I genuinely wouldn’t give a fuck,” I laugh.

  “Because you don’t give a damn about him. You care about Dom’s past because you care for him and when it feels as intense as you say it’s because you don’t just care, you love.”

  I mush my lips into a thoughtful pout. If Shaz is right, which she usually is, then I may well have loved Dom since I played on Frantic Friday’s show. He has possessed my mind ever since.

  My phone ringing grabs my attention and I swipe to answer the unknown number.

  “Hello?”

  “Tara, it’s Lauren. I hope you don’t mind me calling you at home? Pops gave me your number. I came into the studio with some work I’ve done to see if it’s good enough to sign to Xtreem and Pops told me to submit it to you,” Lauren tinkles. “Also, I brought you something, to say thank you, for playing with me on Saturday. It was the best set I’ve ever played.”

  “Oh, Lauren, you didn’t have to, it was great fun for me, too. Thank you though, for the kind gesture. Listen, do you drive? Do you want to come to my place?”

  “Erm, no, I don’t drive. I rode the bus to get here.” She sounds disappointed. “I could catch another bus though, if you give me your address? Oh, one sec.” The line goes quiet for a minute then she comes back on. “Baz just offered me a lift, he just dropped Valerie off from some wedding shopping.”

  “Aww, Baz is a gem, give him a kiss from me and I’ll see you shortly.” I smile down the line.

  “Will do, Taz, see you in a mo,” Lauren sings before ending the call and I grimace.

  Taz? I haven’t been called that since I lost my Dad. He was the only one who ever shortened my name like that.

  I squirm in my seat and realise Shaz has disappeared during my call. She walks back into the room with a can of Dr Pepper each and laughs into her phone. “See you in a mo, sweets.” She ends her call. “Tara, you don’t mind Lucy popping over do you? I left my iPod at the Serious Soundz studio and she’s dropping it off for me.”

  I shrug. “Nah, she’s not as bad as I imagined. I just don’t let myself think of her and Dom.”

  “You know, when she spoke of Dom it was with affection but I know she would never shit on you, Tara. She respects the hell out of you and she was over Dom before he moved here. I know she has this rainbow bright kinda image but she’s not as confident as you’d think. Well, not until she gets behind the decks.”

  I can understand that. A lot of DJs aren’t very confident people. Some look positively sick with nerves until they drop the bass and then the music seems to empower them. I’ve been there, done that. I’ll just have to take Shazza’s word for her respect for me. “Sounds like you two bonded?”

  “I suppose you could say that.”

  “Tell me you didn’t do toe separators and facials?” I giggle and Shaz bursts out laughing.

  “Surprisingly, no. You’d be shocked to know that to unwind Lucy draws.” When I cringe Shaz shakes her head. “I don’t mean like fruit and landscapes, she does really urban graffiti pieces. Did you know she designed Serious Soundz logo? I mean, she drew it then they took it to a graphic designer but the font and everything is all Lucy?”

  “Shit the bed, that is good.” I’m genuinely surprised. Even Pops considered going to that designer to update Xtreem’s logo after Serious Soundz updated theirs.

  “Yep. She tried to teach me but I suck at it.” Shaz shrugs before plopping down in the computer chair next to me and chucking a grape into her mouth. I pinch one from her bowl and get back to work.

  By the time I’ve got the bare bones of the track down Lucy has arrived and has perched on the edge of the sofa, listening to my progress. The Adam’s speaker monitors are pumping out my tune at a near deafening volume and I don’t hear Lauren knock on the door. Lucy points through the window at Baz’s Range Rover at the kerb behind her Civic. “Think you have a visitor, Tara.”

  I go greet Lauren at the door and she follows me to the living room where I stop the music. “Lauren, this is my bitch, Shazza and I think you may know Lucy Hart?” I introduce. “Ladies, this is Lauren. One part of Hot Ice and a very talented up and coming DJ and producer.”

  “Holy shit, it’s like a being at a celebrity party,” Lauren chokes before blushing. “Sorry, I’ve just never been in a room with such talented legends before.”

  “Wow,” Shaz laughs. “Legend. I don’t think I’ve ever been called that before.” She looks suitably flattered.

  “But your voice is on all my favourite tracks. The new track you and Lucy are releasing is fantastic. I’ve pre ordered my copy already. Lucy, it’s great to meet you. I feel like the biggest underachiever surrounded by you folks.” We all laugh before I offer Lauren a seat.

  “I’m just throwing down some samples,” I tell her as she sits next to Lucy.

  “Really? How come you aren’t in the studio?” Lauren innocently asks and the silence that descends, plus the fact that Lucy can’t meet my eye, is proof enough that something is up. I try to blow the subject off flippantly.

  “I’m avoiding Dominic for a few days. He needs a dose of truth serum.” I toss out there and Shaz goes to the kitchen.

  “Oh, you should try orgasm deprivation. Works every time,” Lauren replies and my head snaps up in surprise, as does Lucy’s and our wide eyes meet. We look to Lauren who shrugs. “Better than beating it out of them in my experience.”

  We all simultaneously fall about laughing and the tension of a few seconds ago is shattered.

  “Thanks, babe, I’ll keep that in mind,” I giggle.

  “No problem. Oh, here’s the CD I mentioned and here’s a little something for you.” Lauren hands me the gift she mentioned.

  “Thanks, babe. You really didn’t have to,” I repeat just as Shaz walks into the room with a round of Bulmers for us all.

  “Birthday presents early? Do you want to open mine now too seeing as you’re out with Dominic tomorrow?” Shaz asks handing out drinks.

  “I didn’t realise it was your birthday tomorrow, Tara, you should have mentioned it. I would have picked you a gift out.” Lucy pouts.

  “It’s okay, Lucy, I don’t really celebrate my birthday anyway.” I pull off the wrapping and find Lauren has had my first ever number one track pressed into a record for me and framed it. “Oh, wow, Lauren, this really is amazing. Thank you so much, babe. Look Shaz, it’s my first number one. You did the vocals for this.”

  “Freakin’ hell, yeah! I wonder if I sound as good on wax as I do on CD?” She playfully dusts off her shoulder. Cocky cow.

  “I had it framed because I know you don’t play on vinyl but I thought, well, it’s what I’d want to do with my first number one.” Lauren smiles.

  “I did it with my first number one, too.” Lucy smiles. “Your first chart topper was epic, Tara. I played the shit out of that tune.”

  I admire the gold wax and smile. It brings back great memories of a night in Newcastle when I played it live for the first time. “So did I, Lucy.” I grin.

  “So can I hear this new tune or is it top secret or something?” Lauren asks and Shaz winks and hits the play button. The room fills with the hard bass line, soon developing into a fuller track with kicks, drum rolls, crashes and the melody.

  Once it plays through to the break down and stops Lucy gets out of her seat and looks at the program. “Tell me to fuck off if you don’t want my input, babe, but I think the hoover stab doesn’t suit. Try another one.”

  “You think?” I push my lips to the side before taking her advice and flicking through the sample bank of hoovers. I hit on a real dark sounding hoover stab and Lauren claps.

  “That’s the one. That last one was perfect, don’t you think, Shaz?”

  Shaz nods. “Yeah but I think it still needs some FX on it.”

  “Okay.” I give it a go and after opening the mixer a
nd trying a delay effect on it I think it’s perfect. “Oh, yeah, that’s definitely better.” I smile before replaying the track from the top.

  I start the breakdown, getting bits of advice and input from everyone as it all starts to come together. We manage to get through three more bottles of Bulmers each and before I know it we are listening to a pretty well built track and Shaz is even singing along with the lyrics I wrote.

  We are all in our element and enjoying ourselves. We all love the same thing and it shows in our enjoyment in working together in this one small home studio. I can only image the fun we would be having now if we were in Xtreem studios. I see exactly what Shaz means about Lucy being good to work with, her input shows in the track, even Lauren’s does with the advice she has offered as we built the tune.

  Shaz pulls out the big guns and brings in a round of tequila slammers, complete with lime and salt. “Okay, girlies, seeing as our beautiful Tara bitch is deserting us for her hot, arrogant hunk tomorrow we will do birthday shots tonight.” She lays the tray on the table before producing the bottle. This spells trouble. “Let’s do this with a twist. You have to be honest, no bullshit, you don’t have to drink if.., you have never purchased your own track to help it get up the charts.” She looks around the table and we all smirk, Lauren biting her lip.

  “I have,” I admit, doing my shot and grimacing as the fluid burns its way down to my stomach.

  Lauren laughs. “Well, I have. It still didn’t get to number one though,” she giggles before doing her shot.

  We look to Lucy and Shaz who wince.

  “Okay, I admit it. I purchased mine. Twice,” Lucy chuckles before doing her shot, gagging on the lime. Shaz soon follows and holds three fingers up.

  “You purchased it three times?” I howl and she nods, sucking the life out of the lime and we all fall about laughing.

  “My question!” I declare, refiling shot glasses. “You don’t have to drink if.., you have never, had sex at an event,” I declare, eyeing Shaz who I know is as guilty as sin. She narrows her eyes playfully at me.

  “Oh, fuck. I’m gonna be on my arse in twenty minutes at this rate,” Lucy laughs before doing her shot. I neck mine too, remembering Josh, a promoter I had a one night stand with, much to Shaz’s amusement. I’m surprised with Lucy though, she isn’t as innocent as I imaged.

  “I’ll join you then.” Lauren chokes her drink down. “Do you think Baz can drive me home?” She howls and Lucy’s eye widen.

  “Bollocks, I forgot about the car. Taxi!” She calls and Shaz snorts her drink into her hand. I fall back laughing with tears of mirth.

  “How the hell do you forget about your car?” I gasp between bubbles of laughter.

  Lucy shrugs with a very care free attitude. “It’s a first.”

  “Okay.” Lauren claps. “You don’t have to drink if.., you’ve never drank yourself sick at an after party.”

  Shaz downs her shot quickly and I follow her lead, having made myself ill on more than one occasion in the past. Bad times.

  “Oh, god, I’ve done this too often.” Lucy admits, tossing her slammer back.

  “Well, no throwing up tonight, ladies.” I declare.

  “I’m always sick if I hit it too hard.” Lauren announces before downing her shot.

  I jump up from the table and wobble on my feet. “Oh, fuck.” I stumble toward Shazza and promptly trip over her foot, landing on all fours beside the table.

  “Shit. Tara, are you okay?” Lucy gasps and Lauren comes to my side, her hand on my back.

  I lower myself onto the floor and snort. Rolling onto my back I hold my tummy as I howl with laughter.

  “Three shots, Tara, you damn light weight,” Shaz sniggers, pushing my knee but it only feeds my laughter and once everyone knows I’m fine we fall into a fit of hysterics.

  “I was only trying to get the take away menus,” I gasp out between peals of laughter and this feeds their amusement further until we are all rolling, literally. Lucy is curled in a ball next to me with her head on my shoulder, gasping for air with tears streaming down her face.

  “Damn, this got messy fast,” Lauren cackles.

  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

  Chapter 14

  On waking I’m not sure if the banging is in my head but when it stops momentarily I sigh with relief and bury my head under my pillow. Sleep just starts to engulf me and pull me back into blissful oblivion when the banging starts again and I groan. My phone starts to ring on my bedroom floor and I wince.

  I don’t want to move yet!

  I pout and reach my hand out of the covers to retrieve the screaming mobile before it splits my head clean in two. “Hello,” I mumble into the handset.

  “Tara, I’m outside your door, can I come in?” Dom asks and I wince again. Now I have to get up. I look at my phone and see it’s 7.47am.

  “Okay, I’ll be down in just a minute,” I slur still half asleep and feeling as rough as a badgers backside.

  “Sweetheart, are you okay? You sound terrible. You’re not ill are you?”

  “Not as ill as I deserve,” I admit. “I’m coming down, Dom, one second and I’ll let you in.”

  I end the call and roll out of bed, literally. I plop down on the floor and hold my head. Oh, dear God above, you haven’t cursed me with a hangover this savage for a long, long time. Why now?

  My mouth tastes like I’ve been sucking tequila through sweaty socks and my head is pounding. My stomach swirls and I force myself to my feet, stumbling along the hallway to the bathroom. I relieve my screaming bladder and throw water on my face. As I pass Shazza’s open bedroom door I see her sprawled across her bed in just her bra and knickers, her clothes discarded and thrown in random directions from her bed.

  Shit. Clothes! I didn’t pack an overnight bag!

  I pull her bedroom door shut and go unlock the front door. I pull it open and squint up at Dom who has a very concerned look on his face.

  “Morning, sweetness. Wow, your hair is purple,” he states the obvious. “How did that happen?”

  “I had a bit of a disaster pickling beetroot,” I sarcastically reply, signalling for him to come indoors because I now realise I’m stood in nothing but knickers and a baggy old T-shirt.

  “Hysterical.” Dom raises an eyebrow at me before closing the door behind him. “So, are you dead, dying or hung over?”

  “A combination of all three with a healthy dose of shit on top for good measure. I’m blaming Shaz. A studio session turned into birthday shots. Shit, let me make sure Lauren and Lucy got in a taxi.” I remember them being half asleep on the sofa just after 1am and can’t remember if we actually put them in a taxi home. A quick glance in the living room proves they did get taxied home, but the living room looks like a bomb has hit it. There are bottles everywhere, pizza boxes and cushions on the floor, the TV is turned on but the volume muted and the ashtray reeks the whole place out. I pick up a slice of thoroughly sucked lime from the floor and grimace as I throw it into the kitchen bin.

  “Pause and rewind here a minute, midget. Lucy and Lauren were here? Last night? Doing shots and working in the studio?” Dom looks totally confused and I nod, rubbing my aching temples and heading to the recovery cabinet which is well stocked with rehydration powders, painkillers and junk food.

  “Yeah, it was an impromptu birthday gathering,” I mumble whilst making dioralyte and swallowing anadin. The liquids are a welcome relief from the dry mouth and morning breath.

  “I thought you hated, Lucy?” Dom looks genuinely shocked.

  “No, I hated what you did with Lucy,” I grizzle. “In fact, scratch that - partially. I hate that you lied about what you did with Lucy.”

  Dom opens his mouth to speak but he doesn’t seem to be able to articulate words, then he frowns at me, sighing. The frown is replaced with an apologetic look.

  “Tara, I never lied. I just didn’t mention it.” He looks at the floor and I roll my eyes, turning away to flick the kettle on. I seriou
sly need caffeine, lots of it. Fast.

  “It’s too early to start this conversation, Dominic and I haven’t even packed a bag,” I grizzle whilst making drinks.

  “You haven’t packed? Jesus, Tara, we are going to miss our flight. You go pack and I’ll make the drinks.” Dom comes to stand beside me and his scent puts my senses into overload. Just his body heat and the brush of his arm against mine has a tingle running down my spine and my tummy warms.

  Really? I feel like I can barely keep my eyes open but my body wants to get jiggy with it?

  “You don’t understand, Dom, I really need these fluids, right now, or an unimaginable amount of tequila and fruit cider is going to make a reappearance.” I practically gag.

  Dom rolls his eyes and sighs. “Okay, fine. Where’s your overnight bag?”

  He starts for the stairs and I relent. Let him do the work, right now I need to settle my stomach first and foremost. “Under my bed,” I call after him while stirring my drink and sipping the scolding hot fluids. If I’m lucky it will burn my taste buds right off and get rid of the manky taste in my mouth. I’m never touching tequila again. I curl up on the sofa and turn off the TV, savouring the silence and trying to ignore the mess around me. I kick the pizza box under the coffee table because just the thoughts of pepperoni is making my stomach roll.

  Ten minutes later Dominic comes into the room and drops my bag and passport onto the sofa. “All packed my fragile princess. Now go wash up quick and get dressed, please.” He checks his watch.

  “I need to shower.”

  “You have to be quick,” Dom says, reining in his irritation, before heading through to the kitchen.

  “Where are we going, anyway?” I call through to him before finishing my second drink.

  “I told you, it’s a surprise.”

  “I hate surprises,” I mumble under my breath as I head up to shower and I swear I hear him laugh as he bangs about. What the hell is he looking for?

  Fifteen minutes later I come back down to the kitchen, showered and dressed in skinny jeans, Uug boots and a thick knitted jumper. The smell of fried food hits me as I enter the kitchen and my mouth waters. Whether it’s from nausea or hunger I can’t differentiate.