The Rocks Duet: Fake Rocks & Real Rocks (a fake relationship rockstar romance)

by Julie Archer

  Hey, Saff, you know our relationship was fake? Well, I guess it still is if you’re shagging Scott Lincoln. Anyway, call me back when you can.

  The door opened and Aunt Annie barged in, clutching an armful of clean washing to her chest. “What are you still doing in bed, Tris?” She dumped the clothes on top of the chest of drawers and went to pull open the curtains, letting a stream of sun bathe the room in light. It didn’t match my mood.

  Quickly, I pulled the covers around me. “What are you doing? I’m not ready to get up yet.”

  “You can’t stay in here all day.” Annie turned around to face me, hands on her hips. “I know you’re seeing your dad tonight, but I thought you’d be going out with your friends. Don’t they know some nice single girls you could date?”

  She seemed to like Andy and Jason and was always encouraging me to see more of them. It didn’t take a genius to work out she still wasn’t a huge fan of Saff’s.

  “I’ve seen those pictures of Saff and the other musician chap. It seems being away from you hasn’t made her heart grow much fonder.” Her lips pursed into a line.

  I wanted to tell her she was wrong, that everything was fine between us. Problem was, I couldn’t be sure.

  “What time are you meeting Louis?”

  “He’s coming here around seven and we’re going to eat out, so I won’t be here for dinner.”

  Aunt Annie’s face fell. “Oh, I thought you might stay here?”

  “I’d rather be on neutral territory,” I said, as I propped myself up on my elbows.

  “Well, if you’re sure?”

  There was nothing I was sure of right now. “Just think it would be easier.”

  She shook her head and sniffed. “And if you’re not going out with your friends, you can come and help me with the shopping. There’s no point in staying here and dwelling on Saff. Getting out of the house will do you good.”

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, but maybe she was right. Anything to stop her going on about Saff.

  After traipsing around the supermarket for over an hour and then loafing about all afternoon watching crap television, I ended up taking a longer than anticipated nap on the sofa. When I woke, I only had ten minutes before my dad was going to be there. I glanced at my phone, which somehow had been switched to silent, and saw a missed call from Saff. No voicemail, but a message.

  Tris, call me when you get this. We need to talk.

  A sourness settled in the pit of my stomach.

  The doorbell rang, signalling Louis’ arrival. Shit, he was early.

  My finger hovered over the call button.

  “Hello, son.” Louis appeared in the living room, followed by Aunt Annie. “Ready to go?” He beamed at me.

  “Yeah, give me a couple of minutes. I fell asleep,” I admitted and slipped my phone into my pocket.

  He laughed. “That’s what your mother used to do, although it was mostly because you tired her out.”

  Hearing him speak of Mum so fondly came as a surprise. The majority of our conversations had been arguments or shouting matches, not reminiscing about what Mum did when she was alive. I screwed up my eyes. It was going to be a long night.

  Half an hour later, we were in a corner table at The Mason’s Arms. I kept looking around for Andy and Jason, knowing they might walk in at any moment.

  We sat in silence after the waitress had taken our food order, sipping our beer. I couldn’t remember the last time we had sat like this, if ever. He’d always been more interested in his latest girlfriend and pretty much left me to get on with my own life.

  After what felt like ages but was probably only a couple of minutes, I spoke. “How’s Donna?”

  Louis nodded. “Good, she’s good. And Saff?”

  I debated telling him the truth. As an impartial observer, he might have something to say which wouldn’t be tainted by his opinion of her. “Not so good.”

  “I guessed something was up. You’re back at Col and Annie’s for a start.”

  “Only because she’s gone out on tour. And her cousin has got a new boyfriend, so he wanted the house to himself for a bit.” I fiddled with the beermat on the table. “But I think she might be cheating on me.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  Unable to articulate the situation, I reached for my phone and opened up Scott’s social media post, holding the device out for my dad to see. “Speaks for itself, doesn’t it?”

  He scanned it and shook his head. “Don’t believe everything you read.”

  “Two steaks? Both medium rare?” The waitress appeared with our food in record time, although for a Saturday night the pub was fairly quiet.

  “Yes, thanks, love.” Louis flashed her a broad smile. “Have you got any mustard?”

  “Of course, sir. I’ll go and get it for you.” She looked at me. “Can I get you anything?”

  “No, I’m good.”

  As she walked away, I spotted my dad’s gaze follow her. Some things never changed.

  We started to eat, but his comment was bugging me. “What did you mean when you said I shouldn’t believe everything I read?”

  He chewed on a piece of steak before answering. “I didn’t know when the right time would be to tell you this, Tris, but I guess it could be now.” He placed his knife and fork down on his plate. “Your mother’s accident; well, it definitely was an accident, but you could say I was to blame for it.”

  The onion ring I’d been eating suddenly got stuck in my throat. What the hell was he talking about? I reached for my pint and downed it, swallowing hard to alleviate the blockage.

  “You know she liked to go out with her friends to bingo and pub quizzes and the like. I had no interest in going with her, so I stayed home to look after you as usual. It was our agreement.”

  The depths of my memory dredged up that night. Like any other, mum had headed out with Sonia, one of her closest pals, promising to buy me something nice with whatever she won. I remember going to bed, then hearing the door slam sometime later before creeping downstairs to discover I was alone in the house. Nervous about being on my own, I went back to my room and shut the door, getting under the duvet and pulling it over my head to keep me safe. I didn’t sleep until Louis came back and broke the news to me. I fought back tears again as I remembered the words. Son, your mum won’t be back tonight, or ever. She’s been in an accident and she’s dead. Then he’d left the room, leaving me to deal with the consequences. He’d never been the best at softening the blow; always direct and to the point. I wished he had been different that night when all I needed was a hug.

  I couldn’t speak, so I encouraged Louis to carry on with a nod of my head.

  “I didn’t like her going out without me. I thought she might be seeing someone else, given how regular these girls’ nights had become. The thought she could even consider cheating on me made me angry. Really angry.”

  That’s where I got it from.

  “Then I found some notes pushed down the side of the sofa; little squares of paper, which said things like ‘looking forward to seeing you tonight, Joe x’ and ‘really enjoyed last night, can’t wait to do it again, Joe x’. And the name was spelled J-O-E.”

  Fuck. Instantly, my childhood fell apart. Everything I thought I believed in had been shattered. No wonder I had ended up with someone who was similar to my mum, capable of cheating on someone she said she loved. I couldn’t help thinking the worst. After all the shit I’d been through, hearing this hit me hard.

  “The night of the accident, I decided to follow her to the bingo hall. I parked up outside and waited for her to come out. When she did, she was with another woman. I confronted her about the notes. We argued. She shoved me and ran away. But it had been raining and she slipped, hit her head on the kerb.” Louis inhaled hard before taking a huge gulp of beer, his eyes glassy.

  I hadn’t heard this level of detail before, he’d always simply repeated it was an accident.

  “The other woman went over to her an
d crouched down stroking your mum’s hair, which was matted with blood, whispering, ‘it’s okay, Jo’s here, Jo will look after you.’ When she said her name…”

  Wait, Mum was seeing another woman? My head began pounding. I couldn’t take it all in. Not only was Louis admitting to it being his fault, but it was because of a lesbian affair? I screwed up my eyes for a moment, trying to make sense of it.

  “I asked her how she spelled her name and she told me it was J-O-E, like on the notes. She explained she was a new colleague of your mum’s and because they were on opposite shifts, they would leave notes for each other about when they were going out and what they were going to do.” He hung his head. “I got everything wrong. If it hadn’t been for my stupid jealousy, she’d be here today.”

  A mixture of relief and latent anger washed over me. It really had been an accident and nothing more sinister. And Mum wasn’t having any sort of affair.

  Maybe I was wrong about Saff.

  But my dad was still to blame. If it weren’t for his possessive streak, she wouldn’t have run away from him, wouldn’t have hit her head, wouldn’t have bled out on the pavement.

  “I’m so sorry, Tris.”

  I let out a hard breath and gestured to the waitress that we needed more drinks. I felt I needed to get obliterated to deal with the revelations. “Why tell me now?” I asked. “Why not straight after it happened? Or at the funeral?”

  He twirled his empty glass around in circles. “I didn’t know how to. I’m not good with words, Tris, you know that. Emotions and stuff aren’t my thing.”

  Oh, I knew all right. He dealt with my mum’s death by getting with as many women as possible in the next few years, until finally settling down with Donna.

  “Here you go. Two more beers.” The waitress’ gaze swept over our barely touched plates. “Is everything okay with the food?”

  I had lost my appetite. “No, it’s fine. I lost my appetite. You can take my plate away. Dad?”

  He nodded in agreement and passed his plate to her. A frown flitted across her face as she left us to it.

  Louis stared directly into my eyes, a serious expression on his face. “Your girlfriend, Saff. Don’t make the same mistakes I did. Don’t believe the notes, the pictures, the posts, until you’ve heard the truth from her. You don’t want her to die on a pavement outside a bingo hall.”

  If the comparison hadn’t been quite so maudlin, I might have raised a smile.

  “If you love her, Tris, you need to fight for her. Don’t be a coward like I was.” He picked up his glass and clinked it with mine.

  I did love her. I do love her.

  For the first time in a long, long time, I respected what my dad had said.

  15

  Saff

  Rosie was a good friend. No, she was the best friend a girl could have. She kept me together all throughout Friday until the time came for us to travel up to Birmingham. She even offered to come with me to keep me company. I drew the line there. No-one needed to see what happens on a tour bus, especially supermodel Rosie Tatton.

  I kept myself to myself on the journey, jamming earphones in and pretending to be asleep. Not that there was much pretending going on. With all the stresses of the past couple of days, I was exhausted. Not being able to get hold of Tris was starting to get to me. Whenever I called him, it went to voicemail and I couldn’t seem to bring myself to leave a message. He hadn’t replied to my message either, despite me seeing the three dots and knowing he’d at least read it.

  Clearly he believed everything he’d seen.

  When we got to the venue, Trash Gun sound checked first.

  Scott had been sensible enough to keep his distance. Every time he was within a couple of feet, I shot daggers at him. He said he wanted to explain, but when I told him to delete the posts, he refused.

  I perched on one of the stools by the bar, idly looking at shoes on a shopping website on my phone when Darren came up to me.

  “You okay, Saff?” he asked, genuine concern radiating from him.

  He’d known me a long time and had a sixth sense when it came to something being off with me.

  “Have you heard from Tris?” I asked.

  Darren shook his head. “Not for a couple of days. I guessed he was busy with work. Then again, I haven’t tried to get in touch.” A sheepish smile crossed his face. “I’ve been having too much fun.”

  There was some solace in the fact Tris wasn’t only cutting me out.

  And by fun, I was sure Darren mean hooking up with women. He hadn’t had a steady girlfriend in ages and the tour had provided him with a lot of opportunity. Tommo was coupled up, and Barney had been seeing someone on and off the past few months. I should have asked Tris to come with me. Then there wouldn’t have been any misunderstandings over what Scott tried to do because it wouldn’t have happened.

  Almost as if he knew I was thinking about him, Mr Lincoln himself materialised in front of me.

  “You coming to the after party tomorrow night?”

  “We were invited.” chipped in Darren. He could sense I wasn’t happy being around Scott. “So we’ll be there.”

  “It would be good to have another photo opportunity.” Scott smirked at me and I knew exactly what he was getting at.

  If I had my way, I wouldn’t be going anywhere near him. “I don’t think there’s much chance of that, Scott. It was a one off.”

  “Is that what you told your boyfriend?”

  “I haven’t spoken to him.” Instantly, I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth, knowing how Scott would misconstrue them.

  He quirked an eyebrow. “Really? I thought you’d have been on to him straight away, telling him it wasn’t your fault and I pounced on you, like a poor little mouse being stalked by the big bad cat.” He reached out a hand and made a grabbing motion with it.

  “Fuck off, Scott,” said Darren, saying the exact thing I wanted to. “Saff doesn’t need your shit. Leave her alone.”

  “Oh, how cute! Your guitarist is protecting you now?” scoffed Scott. “Maybe your reputation hasn’t changed all that much, eh, Saff?” He winked and walked away.

  “Prick,” I hissed after him.

  “Don’t let him get to you. He’s nothing but a headline chasing arsehole.” Darren slung an arm around my shoulders. “And you know I’ve got your back.”

  I was grateful he had.

  Because I wasn’t sure who else did right now.

  By the time we’d finished our sound check, there was barely chance to get changed and grab a snack before we were back on. One of Trash Gun’s assistants had bought a load of junk food from the local shop and I nibbled distractedly on crisps and cheese bites. Hardly the healthiest of dinners.

  Before they opened the venue up, I used the ladies toilets to get ready. Tour life was so glamorous at times. As I was putting the finishing touches to my eyeliner, I heard the door open.

  “I won’t be long, give me a couple of minutes.”

  “I take longer than a couple of minutes.”

  Scott’s voice made me whirl around, smearing a streak of black all down my cheek.

  “Nice look. Going for the goth vibe tonight?”

  “What the fuck are you doing in here?”

  “Thought you might like to finish off what we started the other night.” He walked toward me, full of confidence.

  “We didn’t start anything the other night.” I drew myself up to my full height and tried to show him I wasn’t fazed by him, but my insides were wrapping themselves around each other.

  “You wanted to though, right?”

  His breath tickled the side of my neck and I flinched at his closeness. “Scott, how many times do I have to say I’m not interested?”

  “You can tell me as many times as you like, but your body says otherwise.” His eyes dipped to my chest and I instinctively crossed my arms.

  “I’m serious. I have absolutely no interest in you whatsoever.”

  Scott cocked his
head. “I get it. You don’t want to upset Rosie by having a thing with me. Such loyalty amongst girlfriends.”

  “It has nothing to do with Rosie and everything to do with the fact I’m. Not. Interested. How much clearer do I have to be?”

  “A little birdie tells me your precious boyfriend hasn’t been in touch since the picture surfaced.” The laugh Scott let out had an edge to it. “Obviously cares so much about you.”

  I tried not to react, tried not to let him know he’d got to me. Hearing Scott talk about Tris made his silence so much worse. I hated I hadn’t heard from him, didn’t know what he was thinking, assuming he must be thinking the worst.

  If I was him, I would be too.

  With startling clarity, I realised Jonas had been absolutely right when he’d warned me away from people like Troy Carson and subsequently Scott Lincoln.

  My phone buzzed with a message, breaking the silence. Grateful for the distraction, anything to get Scott away from me, I reached for it, but he did the same, swiping the phone out of my grasp.

  “Well, isn’t this just so cute,” he sneered. “Saff, there’s a surprise waiting for you in Manchester tomorrow. Darren will tell you everything, kiss kiss,” His face curled up in distaste. “Looks like he might have come through for you after all.” Scott dropped the phone into the sink with a clatter and exited the bathroom.

  My heart fluttered as I retrieved it, scanning the message from Tris. Maybe things would be okay after all.

  The evening’s gig passed without incident. Tris’ message had come at exactly the right time and it showed in my performance levels. I found an energy evident which had been missing since the night Scott had tried to kiss me. During Wasted By My Side, he kept his distance instead of pawing at me as he usually did for which I was truly grateful.

  Between the end of our set and going back on stage, I collared Darren.

  “Apparently you know everything,” I said.

  “Ugh, do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you to say that?” He rolled his eyes. “I guess you got Tris’ message?”