by Oli White
‘And one more thing,’ AJ called out as I took Ella’s hand, all geared up to storm the bar and BBQ. ‘Let’s not overdo it at the aftershow, people. We’ve got an even bigger day tomorrow. We need to be fresh.’
Another chorus, slightly less enthusiastic. ‘Yes, AJ!’
Then Ella yelled, ‘Let’s do this!’
By the time we got to our VIP hospitality enclosure (Ava had threatened anyone who called it the Gen Pen with certain and instantaneous death), the party was well under way, with what looked like an alien drag queen on the decks spinning some old-school funk and disco. OK, so it wasn’t a huge space or anywhere near as fancy as the VIP area at the main stage, but all lit up it looked beautiful. I glanced around, taking in the fairy-lit jungle oasis we’d created: the silver palm trees, the twinkling vines, the glowing storm lanterns and the little tiki-hut seating booths with the African-drum bar stools. I marvelled at the crazy, diverse crowd with their gold body tattoos, showgirl headdresses and smeared and faded face paint. It was amazing. Everyone was having the time of their lives.
It was about half an hour into the proceedings that I noticed the two young guys. Loud and staggering slightly, they were clearly quite drunk – or maybe they’d had one too many herbal cigarettes. There was something about their demeanour and behaviour that sent a warning flickering across my frontal lobes. I kept a cautious eye on them for a while, eventually deciding I was being paranoid and needed to relax. Yeah, they were a tad obnoxious but nobody else seemed to care that much, so why should I?
Ten minutes later, I was chatting to Ava at the bar when …
‘Jack, can you come help us out?’ It was Suki, her voice brittle and panicky. ‘Ella’s having some trouble.’
I went cold and Ava stopped what she was saying mid-sentence, her eyes darting up to meet mine.
It was then that I heard Ella shouting, her voice sailing above the noise of the crowd during a sudden drop in the beat of the music. ‘WILL YOU GET OFF ME?!’
I sprinted towards the commotion, adrenalin spiking through my body, with Ava and Suki on my tail.
When I found Ella, one of the messed-up looking dudes I’d seen earlier – a guy in a cowboy hat with a narrow, leering face – was holding her wrist, refusing to let go as she tried to wriggle free. His bulkier friend was standing next to them, laughing. My temper rose instantly at the sight of this idiot manhandling my girlfriend. As I got closer, I heard him mouthing off: ‘I just wanted to have a dance with you, you stuck up little—’
That was when I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face me.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
He released Ella from his grip, a surprised expression on his weaselly features, and I shoved him, sending him staggering back against the metal fence that bordered the VIP enclosure, anger coursing through my veins. I’m not a violent person, but I’ve never wanted to hit someone as much as I did in that moment.
‘Jack, stop!’ Ava cried. ‘The security guard’s on his way …’
With a massive effort I pulled myself back and turned to Ella to see if she was all right. She was holding her wrist, furious.
‘I told you I didn’t want to dance, you jerk,’ she shouted at the guy. ‘Can’t you take no for an answer?’
Suddenly I felt myself flying forward through the air, not knowing what the hell was going on. After that everything happened fast. I went down face first in the sand and it took me a few painful seconds to realise that the cowboy’s mate had jumped me from behind, winding me completely. The guy landed on top of me, trying to put his hands round my throat. I could hear Ella, Ava and Suki shouting – and all I kept thinking as I struggled to throw the guy off me was, where the hell is Sai and his bloody Tiger Claw kung fu when you need him? Seconds later I felt the weight lift as the guy was forcibly dragged off me. I rolled over and looked up, momentarily blinded by sand. A security guy in the nick of time, I assumed, but no … it was bloody Ethan standing over me.
‘Are you hurt?’
He held his hand out to me and I lay there looking up at him for a moment before I took it and he pulled me to my feet.
‘Jack!’ Ella had her hands over her mouth. ‘Jesus, are you OK?’
As far as I could tell I didn’t have any broken bones, but my brand-new shirt was a mess. The security guard had turned up and the two drunk guys, meanwhile, were being frogmarched out of the area, hopefully on their way to being ejected from Total once and for all.
Once I was on my feet again, Ethan shook his head. ‘Wow! That could have been nasty, right?’
‘Yeah, thanks for that, mate,’ I muttered, dusting myself down.
‘Don’t mention it,’ Ethan said. ‘Glad to be of service.’
I managed a smile but felt weirdly annoyed … or frustrated … I didn’t know. Did it have to be him who came to the rescue?
I looked over at Ella. ‘Are you OK, babe?’
‘A bit shaken up, but yeah, I’m OK,’ she said. ‘I might need to sit down for a minute, though.’
A moment later, Austin and Sai were by my side; Austin’s ketchup moustache a dead giveaway that they’d been chowing down at the hospitality barbecue while I was scrapping with the locals.
‘Dude, what the hell happened?’ Sai said. ‘Suki said there was a fight.’
‘Nothing to see here,’ Ava intervened. ‘All over now and Ethan here saved the day.’
‘Yeah, thanks, Ethan,’ Ella added. ‘You were a hero there.’
‘Oh, hardly,’ Ethan said, laughing as if the whole incident was no big deal. It was weird; he didn’t even seem shaken up about it when the truth was we both could have got our heads kicked in or worse if the security guards hadn’t arrived when they did. If I’m honest, I was a bit put out at Ava making out that Ethan had come flying in like Batman, not to mention Ella joining in with the hero worship. Was I being unreasonable?
‘Anyway, it’s a good story to tell my friends back home,’ Ethan said, blushing slightly. ‘That I got to help out the Jack Penman of GenNext.’
‘Are you sure about that?’ Sai laughed.
‘Of course,’ Ethan said. ‘Listen, I’ve got to go and meet a couple of work colleagues I’m here with. But shall I come and find you guys later? Jack, maybe we could get a drink or something? It’d be nice to hang out.’
‘Erm … sure,’ I said.
‘Why don’t you bring your friends over, too?’ Ella said.
‘OK, I’ll do that,’ he smiled.
I watched Ethan as he disappeared into the crowd. What was it about him that didn’t sit right with me? There was definitely something. Or was I being unfair? I mean, he had just saved me from a potential beating, right? Had I sounded rude? Ungracious? Still, there was something …
‘He’s a decent bloke, that Ethan, isn’t he?’ Sai said. ‘A bit awkward, but—’
‘I’m just glad he turned up when he did,’ Suki interrupted. ‘Let’s make sure security is here at all times from now on.’
‘Too right!’ I said, dusting the remaining sand off my clothes. ‘Now let’s go and get another drink. I don’t think I can stand any more excitement for one night.’
THE ARGUMENT
My ribs hurt the next morning; a throbbing reminder of my undignified first-night scrap in the middle of the Total Youth hospitality area. Some bloody hospitality! It wasn’t a moment I wanted to savour, particularly the part where I was rescued from a potential beating by someone who looked like he couldn’t bitch-slap his way out of a soggy McDonald’s bag. So I necked a couple of ibuprofen and got on with it, trying not to visibly wince whenever Ella hugged me or I had to get up from a chair.
By 11 a.m. the GenNext crew were all gathered at a special brunch thrown by Jason Croft and his team in the main VIP area, strictly for artists and invited guests. ‘What happened to the bacon sandwiches?’ Austin said, picking pink pomegranate seeds off his plate and flicking them at Sai across the table. ‘Oi, Sai, do you want my fruit?’
‘Just get your breakfast down you,’ Sai told him, dodging the pomegranate seeds. ‘You need to bulk up that skinny body.’ He pulled his own T-shirt sleeve up and flexed his guns, presumably to show Austin what he should be aiming for. Suki, who was sitting opposite, screwed up her face in horror.
‘Not at the table, dude, I’m eating,’ she laughed. ‘Anyway, where were you and your big guns when poor old Jack was being wrestled to the floor by drunken idiots?’
‘I wasn’t wrestled to the floor,’ I said huffily. ‘I was shoved!’
‘It’s all right, Jack. There’s no shame in being rescued by another dude,’ Austin said, punching my arm. ‘No shame at all.’
I was still quietly annoyed about how everything had gone down, but I figured that any display of resentment would look like sour grapes, so I decided it was best if I just kept my mouth shut.
Ava was rubbernecking all around her, checking out who was on the other table or further along the one we were sitting at. ‘I don’t see many artists enjoying “artists’ brunch”,’ she said, raising an eyebrow.
‘What were you expecting to see? Ariana Grande nibbling a cheese toastie?’ Ella laughed.
‘Shawn Mendes chowing down on a jumbo sausage?’ I joined in, but my laughter was cut short when I saw Ethan approaching our table. He had that same friendly, pleasant smile on his face.
‘All right, guys?’ he said. ‘You don’t mind me crashing the party, do you?’
‘Of course not. Grab a seat,’ Ella said. She looked pleased to see him, I noticed. ‘There’s room next to Sai.’
‘You saved the day last night, mate,’ Austin said, leaning over the table to shake Ethan’s hand. ‘You got Jack here out of a tight spot.’
‘Seriously, it was nothing,’ Ethan said humbly. ‘Anyone would have done the same.’
‘Oh my God, is that a black eye?’ Suki said, peering at Ethan’s face. ‘What the hell happened?’
‘I think Jack caught me with his elbow when I pulled him off that drunken creep,’ he said. ‘I didn’t feel it at the time, but this morning I looked like I’d gone a round with Floyd Mayweather.’
‘God, sorry about that, mate,’ I said.
Ethan smiled generously. ‘No hard feelings, Jack, I know it was an accident. That guy knocked you for six; you didn’t know what you were doing.’
Seriously? I had absolutely no recollection of my elbow making contact with Ethan, but for a brief moment I was glad that I’d given him a black eye, even if it was an accident. Then I quickly decided that I was a terrible person.
‘What I need is a few kung fu sessions from you, Sai,’ Ethan went on, looking down at his own lanky frame. ‘I’d kill for muscles like yours.’
Sai’s face lit up with pride, whilst next to him Austin groaned. ‘Oh God, don’t encourage him.’
‘No, really,’ Ethan said. ‘I’ve got so much admiration for people who can dedicate themselves to something like that.’
The dude was seriously trying to kiss Sai’s ass.
‘Ethan, I am more than happy to share my skills,’ Sai said eagerly. He was almost rabid in his enthusiasm to discuss his love of martial arts at any given moment. ‘It’s all very controlled. No crazy violence. It’s a real discipline, you know?’
‘It’s bloody boring, that’s what it is.’ Austin flicked another pomegranate seed Sai’s way.
‘I’d really appreciate that, Sai,’ Ethan said sincerely.
Ava waved a hand dismissively. ‘Nah! You don’t need kung fu lessons, Ethan. I’d say it was pretty badass the way you pulled that guy off Jack.’
‘Yeah, well, my boss doesn’t think so. She wasn’t all that impressed with the black eye, unfortunately,’ Ethan said. ‘Olympia’s a bit of a tough cookie. Said it looked unprofessional.’
‘Oh God, I’m so sorry, Ethan,’ Ella said. Really? Was she actually apologising on my behalf?
Suki dropped her fork and looked up, wide-eyed. ‘Not Olympia Shaw? I thought Owl TV sounded familiar; that’s where she works, right? Is she your boss?’
Ethan nodded. ‘You know her?’
‘I think most people involved in music TV know her,’ Suki smiled. ‘We were on the same media course at uni but I haven’t been in contact with her for ages. Not since she went all big-time, anyway. You’ll have to bring her over to say hello later and have a drink with us.’
I caught Ava rolling her eyes as if to say, of course Suki knows Ethan’s boss.
‘I’d be happy to,’ Ethan smiled. ‘I already mentioned you guys to Olympia and she’s a big fan. I’m sure she’d love to meet you.’
It looked like we were going to be spending even more time with Ethan, then. Awesome.
As the artists’ brunch wound down, it was almost time for us to head over to the Total Youth stage and start preparing for day two. AJ and Lily joined us to talk through the schedule. As Lily sat down at the table, Sai drew his stomach in and flexed his muscles again. Subtle, mate.
‘So, the flash giveaways and competitions,’ AJ said sternly. ‘I think some of yesterday’s got a bit out of hand, don’t you?’
Ella giggled and I tried to look as innocent as possible. There’d been an oversight when we’d asked people to tweet us their sexiest costume pictures so that Sai could slideshow them across the video screens and broadcast them live on the GenNext channel. It was well after 10 p.m. by then, and some of the pictures that slipped through the net were … well, let’s just say they were more sexy than they were costume.
‘Why don’t we try something more in the GenNext tradition?’ Ava suggested.
‘Like what?’ I asked.
‘We could get some of the festival-goers to send us Instagram or Snapchat videos of themselves doing mini interviews of their mates, and then get one or two of the best ones up on stage with you guys in between the acts.’
‘I’m not sure about that,’ Austin said. ‘Remember when we ran that viewer competition earlier this year? Getting people to send in their own interviews is a nightmare!’
Of course I remembered; it was a disaster. We’d all been in the midst of A-level mayhem at the time and desperately needed an extra body to do a bit of on-camera stuff while Ella and I were indisposed doing our exams – just to keep GenNext up, running and relevant. The idea had been to hire the competition winner temporarily, someone amazing and quirky from our own audience. We’d encouraged people to send in videos of themselves conducting a one-minute interview. We were inundated with the bloody things and only managed to sift through about half of them in the end.
‘Oh God! That awful girl we ended up using for one gig report, who swore at anyone who didn’t like Little Mix,’ Ava laughed.
‘Yeah, and she bloody trolled me on Twitter after we told her that her services were no longer required,’ Ella said. ‘She was a total nut-job, Ethan, I’m telling you.’
‘A lot of the videos were pretty lame,’ Ava said. ‘It wasn’t our best idea.’
I noticed that Ethan was suddenly looking weirdly uncomfortable: his face and neck had flushed an ugly red. ‘Actually, I sent in one of the lame videos you received,’ he said awkwardly.
There was a moment of silence. Ava looked mortified.
‘No way,’ Sai said. ‘You entered our competition?’
‘Yes, I did,’ Ethan admitted, still blushing. ‘Bit embarrassing. I wasn’t going to say anything, but since you brought the whole thing up …’
‘I don’t remember seeing your video,’ Ella said, her brow wrinkled. ‘I sat through loads of them.’
‘Actually, it was Jack who emailed me with a very polite “thanks but no thanks”,’ Ethan said. He gave a what-can-you-do sort of shrug. Everyone turned to look at me.
‘Harsh, Penman, harsh,’ Austin said with a laugh.
So that must be why Ethan looked so familiar to me. The competition.
‘Oh, I emailed you? Well … that’s because your entry was definitely one of the better ones,’ I said, thinking fast and trying to dig myself out of an embarrassing hole ‘I don’t think we emailed many people, did we, Ella?’
Ella shook her head, also clearly mortified. ‘We didn’t have time with everything that was going on. I mean, we would have, but—’
‘Honestly, it’s fine,’ Ethan said. ‘I wish I hadn’t brought it up now.’
‘Don’t be embarrassed about it, Ethan,’ Ava said. ‘It was clearly our loss.’
‘Absolutely! Look where you are now; working in real TV,’ Ella said. ‘I’d love to be doing that.’
Now that stung. So what we were doing wasn’t real TV? Was that what Ella was implying? Wow! Why not just kick me in the—
‘Cheers, Ella. Maybe I wasn’t destined for presenting anyway,’ Ethan said. ‘It’s pretty much impossible to match up to you guys.’
Oh, please.
As breakfast went on and the gang continued to chat and laugh with Ethan, generally making it clear that they thought he was the dog’s gonads, I tried to figure out what it was about him that put me on edge. That constant handing-out of compliments seemed a bit off to me, for one thing. And popping up like Sooty as soon as we arrived and knowing exactly where our stage was, coming to the rescue when we were in trouble, having a mutual friend with Suki and now telling us he’d entered our competition months ago … There was definitely something a bit shady about it all. Why couldn’t the others see it? Why couldn’t Ella?
After brunch, we hit the Total Youth stage for round two. The second day of the takeover was shaping up to be even better than the first. I guess word must have spread, because the crowd was bigger and much noisier, even early on in the day. We had to make sure there was something happening constantly on the stage, so Suki came up with the genius idea of having these random retro singalong sections, hosted by Ella and me, with the best moments of well-loved songs blasting out over the crowd and the lyrics flashing across the video screens. They actually went down better than any of us expected, and not just the cooler ones, either: the Britney Spears singalong was insane, with hundreds of festival-goers singing their heads off to ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ – reliving their musical childhood memories under the blazing sun.