‘I’m telling her, will you let me talk, for feck’s sake?’ Jason hissed back, while Jayne and Eric tried not to smile.
‘It would just be nice for us all to welcome Eric into our home, you know yourself, Ma,’ Jason explained, as Irene wittered away about table centrepieces and getting out the good china for the occasion.
‘Did you hear that, Ma?’ Jason joked into the phone. ‘Youse are even getting the good china – now don’t fall over in shock, whatever you do.’
Jayne looked up at Eric, who nodded yes. In the background, Irene talked over him, unaware that both Jayne and Eric could both hear her loud and clear as they snuggled up together, with the phone still wedged in between them.
‘You left out the most important part, you eejit,’ she was hissing furiously. ‘Which is that now you and Eric are business partners, you’d like to get to know him better. Be sure to say that, Jason! Stress the business partners bit!’
‘It’s all right, son,’ Jayne said, terrified she’d get a fit of giggles. ‘Tell Irene that’s absolutely grand with us. We’ll both look forward to Saturday.’
She hung up, tossed her phone aside and stretched luxuriantly back into the warmth of Eric’s chest.
‘Well, now, isn’t that a turn up for the books?’ she said.
‘Amazing,’ he grinned, playing with a strand of her hair, ‘the attitude adjustment that just taking out my cheque book can bring about.’
‘You’re so good to put up with my family, you know,’ Jayne said. ‘You’ve been extraordinary. You’ve had the patience of Gandhi, since day one.’
‘But your family are my family,’ he said simply, going back to kiss her neck again, in a way that made her tingle in the strangest, loveliest way.
She couldn’t hear what he said next as it all got a bit muffled, but she could have sworn it sounded like, ‘Or at least, I hope someday soon, they will be.’
Melissa
18 PRIMROSE SQUARE
Living with Nancy was turning out to be the best thing ever, so much so that Melissa didn’t know what she’d do when the time came for Nancy to go back to London. It was sort of one of those things that was inevitable, but something that she preferred to put to the back of her mind and not think about too much.
But till then, Nancy had brightened up her Easter holidays in the most amazing way imaginable. She’d invited Melissa to come along to the National Theatre with her, so she could see firsthand how they ‘teched’ a play, before the show eventually went in front of an actual, live audience.
‘Now, it could turn out to be incredibly boring for you,’ Nancy had stressed beforehand. ‘Mainly because we’ll be doing a lot of “topping and tailing”.’
‘What’s that?’ Melissa asked her, mystified.
‘It’s where we work through a scene, but instead of focusing on the performances or the flow of the piece, we concentrate on nailing all the sound and lighting cues until they’re absolutely perfect. But sometimes, we have to go over all those cues again and again until we’re happy they’re set. So if you do get a bit bored . . . ’
‘As if I could ever be bored here!’ Melissa said stoutly.
‘So you’ll be like my little PA for the day then, yeah?’ Nancy said, as the two of them walked in through the main doors of the National, all prepped for what lay ahead. Melissa had beamed, delighted with herself.
And if truth be told, delighted with the distraction from her own thoughts too. Mainly because she’d been a bit confused and puzzled ever since they’d got their school holidays.
That last day, before school broke up. She kept coming back to it time and again. Why had Josh Andrews bothered to give her the time of day? He’d been so nice to her too, giving her the little sympathy card, which Melissa still hadn’t had the courage to show to her mum just yet.
Because there was so much she didn’t understand. Like why her mum was so down on Josh, when he seemed as upset as everyone else about Ella? Melissa had often overheard her parents talking about Josh, and the things they both said were awful. Her mum even called him ‘the spawn of the devil’, back when she was still taking all those stupid purple-y pills. Yet he’d gone to all the trouble of seeking Melissa out in school to give her a card and say nice things about Ella and remember her anniversary. Why?
It didn’t make sense then and it certainly didn’t now either. But for the moment, at least, Melissa was happy to park her worries and instead enjoy spending time at the National.
‘Oh . . . just look at it . . . it’s so beautiful !’ she gasped, when Nancy led her in through the main auditorium and she got to see the set of Pride and Prejudice for the very first time.
‘Isn’t it?’ Nancy said proudly. ‘I have to say, it’s even more breathtaking than I ever would have hoped.’
The set was like an nineteenth-century assembly room come to life, with huge Grecian pillars that dominated the side of the stage, a proper floor like in a ballroom, and even a giant chandelier that gave the effect of being lit solely by candles. Some of the cast were already out on stage, half in costume and half not, still getting used to the space.
‘Hey, Melissa! Here’s our future little Olivier award-winner,’ said Alan, coming over to greet her like a long lost friend. ‘You’re here to put manners on us today, I hope?’ he added cheekily.
Melissa smiled. She’d liked Alan from the very first time she met him. He looked so funny today too, dressed in Regency white tie and tails from the waist up, and a pair of battered jeans from the waist down. He was also holding onto a paper mug from the Costa across the road, which looked all wrong against the Regency backdrop.
‘Melissa is my eyes and ears for the day,’ said Nancy, ‘so this better go smoothly.’
‘So I hear you and Nancy are housemates now?’ he said lightly to her. ‘You’ll have to tell me what she’s like to live with. A nightmare, I’m guessing!’ he added jokingly.
‘Now, now,’ Nancy said, wagging her finger in pretend annoyance. ‘No telling tales out of school, please.’
‘You can fill me in later,’ Alan said to Melissa, in an exaggerated stage whisper.
‘D’you know, I was telling my friend Hayley in school all about you.’ She grinned back at him. ‘She’s so excited about seeing the show – and about maybe getting to meet you afterwards too.’
‘We’ll make the biggest fuss of you and all your pals when they come to the show,’ Alan said reassuringly. ‘At the start of a tech week like this one, the opening night always seems so far away. I’m half dreading it and half just wanting to get it over with, if that makes sense.’
‘Why is that?’ Melissa asked.
‘Critics, my daaaaahling,’ he said, putting on an affected luvvie voice that made him sound just like Craig Revel Horwood from Strictly.
Melissa giggled, just as Mbeki bounced over to say hi, wearing the most stunning scarlet red woolly dress and beaming with smiles, as she always was. Melissa loved all the cast and crew Nancy worked with, but most especially Alan and Mbeki – they made her feel so welcome, so part of the whole show.
‘Hey, there you are!’ Mbeki said, giving Melissa a big bear hug. She smelt lovely too, like vanilla. Like sweets, Melissa thought. ‘It’s so great you’re here today,’ she added. ‘I could really use a little helper.’
‘Hands off,’ Nancy teased, ‘she’s all mine for the day.’
‘Tell you what,’ Mbeki suggested, with a tiny little wink in Nancy’s direction, ‘how about if Melissa helps me to prompt today? Would you be up for it, honey?’ she said to Melissa. ‘All you’d have to do is sit out front in the auditorium with a script in your hand and prompt any unfortunate actors that dry on me. Then later on, I’ll kill them, but you don’t need to be here for that bit.’
‘I’ve love that, thank you so much!’ Melissa said, thrilled to have a proper job to do.
‘Fantastic.’ Mbeki grinned her lovely wide smile. ‘In that case, come with me and I’ll get you all set up.’
/> ‘Just go easy on me if I drop a line!’ Alan laughed.
Then from behind came a voice that made everyone jump.
‘Qué es esto? What is that? Actors standing around drinking ze café onstage? On my stage? Why are you not doing much preparations before performance? Warming up? No professional! ’
Diego Fernandez was standing at the front row of the auditorium, and he seemed to be in a foul temper, although for the life of her, Melissa couldn’t understand why. Everyone was working away and the set looked so lovely to her.
‘Good morning, Diego,’ Nancy said evenly, stepping off the stage and going to join him. ‘If I can just go through today’s schedule and running order with you?’
‘Hazlo rápido,’ Diego muttered grumpily, glowering at everyone.
‘Better get cracking.’ Alan winked down at Melissa. ‘When he gets like this, the less the rest of us annoy him, the better.’
*
Mbeki guided Melissa to a great seat – ‘The best in the house’, as she put it – at the back of the auditorium, but with a sweeping panoramic view over the whole stage. Meanwhile, Nancy sat up in the front row beside Diego as they painstakingly worked through each and every lighting and sound cue, one by one.
It was such hard work. In less than one week, Melissa thought, an audience will come to this show, and sit in these very seats, and they’ll see wonderful performances and glittering costumes and a beautiful, elegant love story played out for them. What they won’t see is the blood, sweat and tears that went into making it all happen. The graft and the grit, as Nancy kept saying.
Nancy wasn’t joking when she kept turning back to Melissa to ask whether she was bored off her head yet?
‘No, it’s brilliant, I’m loving it! Melissa hissed back at her, with a big, cheery thumbs-up sign. But the truth was that after three hours of teching the show, they were still only on Scene One, the bit where we first meet all the characters at the Meryton ball, and where Lizzy and Darcy take an instant dislike to each other. And no one had needed any prompts at all.
‘No!’ Diego was snapping at no one in particular. ‘The harpsichord cue is malo . . . bad . . . terrible . . . mierda! Again!’
Nancy turned back to give Melissa a little eye roll and Melissa smiled sympathetically back at her, as if to say, ‘God, he’s so mean!’ But another half hour passed and, after a whole morning of this, she was starting to get a bit twitchy with boredom.
Then she remembered that at least she had her phone to play with. Not that it was her phone, exactly. It was Ella’s phone rightfully, but Melissa had kept it and occasionally looked through it, to see all the photos on it mainly. No one else seemed to want it, or to even notice that it was missing, so she figured, why not?
The phone had no credit on it, so making calls or going online was out of the question, but Melissa didn’t mind. She just liked to look at photos of Ella, taken back in happier times. Long before she fell in with Josh Andrews and his gang, and long before those stupid drugs ever came into her life.
You’d have loved a day like today, Ella, Melissa thought, idly scrolling down through the camera roll. You’d have loved being at the theatre and being a part of this world. You might even have liked the play too, given than Lizzy Bennet is so independent and strong. A prototype feminist, according to Nancy, anyway.
Ella’s phone was ancient and hopelessly out of date now, but the photo app still worked pretty well. So Melissa scrolled down through picture after picture, remembering Ella as she used to be, back when she was bossy and fun and full of chat and the kind of big sister you wanted to grow up to be just like.
Diego was just throwing a wobbly about a sound cue that wasn’t to his liking and Nancy was frantically trying to get on top of it, when Melissa accidentally hit off another app on the phone.
The Whatsapp one, where you could message your friends and family all for free.
Well, this is weird, she thought. She’d never stumbled into this particular app before, assuming any messages would all have been wiped out long ago. It was something that had never even occurred to her to check. And yet, now that she had got into it, to her surprise she saw that there weren’t just a few, but there were loads of messages both to and from Ella.
Then Melissa’s eye fell on the date of some of the last messages that had been both sent and received.
And in that one moment, every single thing changed.
24 Hour Party People
Jesus, guys, that was sick last night – I’ve never done anything like that before. Sorry for giving you all grief about it at first, but you were right, man. That stuff got me through the night, I can tell you!
Ella
From: Josh
Ella, watch out for the munchies later on – can take you by surprise. Be warned.
And another message from someone called Marc, who was on the Whatsapp group and who’d joined in the chat.
From: Marc
Who knew that sleeping rough could turn out to be so much fun?
Melissa’s blood froze. That message was dated December of the previous year. Which rang a bell with her, because that was around the same time that Ella had first gone on the charity sleep-out with Josh and his gang. When all the trouble first started, like her mum was always saying.
There was an instant response from Ella, though, that sounded far more like the kind of thing she would say.
Jesus, Marc, some people sleep rough because they have to – it’s not a cocktail party for those people. Have respect.
And a response from Josh.
Well said, Ella. Party at mine this weekend, you’re so coming. You don’t have a choice in the matter #buddiesnow
Melissa quickly scrolled down through the next lot of messages, all of which were about a big party Josh was having, which you’d think was the Oscars the way his gang on the Whatsapp group were all going on about it. But then her eye fell on another message that stopped the breath at the back of her throat. It was dated about a month later, and it was from Marc, one of Josh’s gang, to Ella directly.
From: Marc
Come on Ella, you too chicken shit to try it? This stuff is Grade A. Yours for €100 a pop. You know you want to.
Then Ella’s response:
Maybe just this once . . .
From: Marc
Safe as a house. Promise.
The next batch of messages were dated about a week later.
From: Ella
More!!!! When are we doing some more? At yours again, Josh? You got a free house? My mother is down on me like a ton of bricks these days, pointless coming here.
From: Marc
Have you got the cash?
From: Ella
Not yet, but I will. Gimme time.
From: Marc
You know the rules, girlfriend. You want to play, you gotta pay. Josh, my man, you in?
Then there was a far longer message, this time sent from Josh directly to Ella, so it looked like no one else could read it.
From: Josh
Ella, I’m getting worried about you. You’ve gone in too deep, too soon. Come on El, is this really you? Am starting to think Marc is bad news. To be discussed later. At length. Meet you after school, the usual place.
There were a bunch more messages from Marc and Hugo, another guy who they all hung around with, about them all meeting up that weekend to ‘do stuff’, as the message cryptically said. Melissa wasn’t too sure what ‘do stuff’ meant exactly, but she could hazard a fairly good guess.
The next set of messages between Josh and Ella were all a lot longer, though, and seemed to have been sent privately to each other.
From: Josh
So are we OK? You and me, El, are we good?
From: Ella
Fuck off. Best thing you could do is not contact me again.
From: Josh
Come on, am worried here. I wouldn’t be a true pal unless I was worried.
From: Ella
Oh s
pare me your sanctimonious shite. Just listen to yourself, Josh. Never thought you could be so self-righteous.
From: Josh
If you see concern about a good friend as self-righteousness, then you need to take a good, long, hard look at yourself in the mirror, El. I’m out now and you need to do the same.
Then another message from Josh, which went ignored.
And another thing, El. Marc = very bad news. Only a matter of time before he lands himself in some seriously hot shit.
And the very last message of all. One that chilled Melissa to the bone, particularly when she realised the date it had been sent on.
I know you’re going to the party tonight, El. And I’ve a fair idea what’s planned. I’ll be there too, but like I told you, clean means clean. I’m focusing on my rugby from now on and fuck anyone who tells me that’s not cool. You included, El. Because this isn’t the real you and you know it’s not. So I’ll see you tonight and I’ll watch over you and I’ll keep an eye out for you if you do take anything and get baked. If it goes wrong, I’ll even hold your hair back while you puke your guts up.
But I won’t join in with you. So are we good?
Ella?
Melissa put the phone down, feeling sick and worried, and knowing that what she’d just seen was somehow very, very big.
Nancy
NATIONAL THEATRE
Nancy called time out to the cast at 3 p.m. They looked utterly worn-out as they all exhaustedly peeled off to dressing rooms for a welcome breather.
Then she made for the back row of the auditorium to find Melissa, but instead of being her usual bubbly self, Nancy found her pale and very withdrawn. A million miles from how she’d been just a few hours ago.
The Secrets of Primrose Square Page 32
