by Izzy Matias
"No reason to rush into anything yet."
"You better get a move on, too."
"Oh, but I have," I say and tell him Cassie and I have been talking a lot the past couple of days though I have yet to ask her about her no-musicians rule. "She makes deep topics feel so light, y’know?"
"Really? I never noticed."
"Ha."
"Hang in there, mate," Benji says and I thank him.
"So, about our first video, is it ready for consumption?" I ask. My nerves come alive thinking about it.
"I want to show it to you and Eric before I hit publish. I was able to upload it whilst in transit earlier…well, before our unfortunate bump in."
"We are the fortunate only, after all." I attempt a feeble joke.
"Incoming," Eric says, coming with three cups of steaming elixir from the vending machine. I take one from him and set Benji’s on the coffee table in front of us. "Show us already!"
Eric sits on Benji’s opposite side and Benji slides the screen to reveal Lily’s dim warehouse lit up with holiday lights.
"Our first gig." My eyes shine bright. "Plaaay!"
The black screen comes alive as our band logo animates on screen. It fades out and in comes our song title "Electrified" before the logo of The Hush Society along with its episode number flashes on screen.
Eric is centre stage on his drum throne. Benji is on his right behind a piano synthesiser and I’m on his left. The crowd’s hoots and cheers minimise until there is complete silence and then we begin.
The video’s only three minutes and seventeen seconds long, but it feels much longer than that. I’m proud of what we’re trying to accomplish here. It’s a step forward in the right direction. I can feel it with certainty.
If only Dad could see this, maybe he’d appreciate what we’re trying to do.
"Let it go live," I instruct Benji, who presses publish.
And there it is: a piece of us in the Internet. Ready for anyone willing to listen and give us lads from the small town of Beverley a chance.
"Hells yeah! I’m sending it to everyone in my contact list," Eric shouts.
"I’m sending it to Judy, Nate, Tamara, Mum... Heck, I’ll even post it on our College group." I join in Eric’s suggestion. "And I’ll Twitter it, too."
"Tweet," Benji corrects, laughing.
"E-mail me the link, would you?" I decide I’ll forward it to my Dad too.
"You have to start living in the twenty-first century mate," Benji says.
"And someday, we’ll be on the same level as The Gramophones," Eric says with a dreamy look.
Speaking of them, I forgot to tell my best mates important news about our progress as a band.
"We may not be on the same level yet, but I honestly can’t believe I forgot to mention this earlier," I begin. "Cassie was telling me that Callum Ford noticed us. He loved ‘Brick Walls’!"
Benji and Eric erupt in shouts of elation. Everyone around us glares at us.
"We have to send the link to Callum," Eric says clasping his hands. "Then he can share it and more people will know about us." He shouts in glee once more.
"How's that for a shameless plug?" Benji teases Eric. "I can't believe you didn’t tell us earlier, Cameron. Man, oh, man. This is golden!"
"Send the link to Callum?" I repeat. They're right, of course, but I’m not ready to share it with someone I look up to that much. I couldn’t bare the idea if he says its utter shite…even if he saw a snippet of our performance.
I can't think of an excuse to counter their argument, so I remain silent.
"You could tweet it to him," Eric shouts with excitement.
"What? No!" I protest.
"If you won’t, then one of us will," Benji agrees with the same level of enthusiasm. "Better yet, using our band account."
"Musicians nowadays have to be active on social media and interact with their fans online," Eric educates me. "Especially since you’re our lead singer…you gotta start acting like it on social media."
"Isn’t my stage presence and talent enough?" I feign hurt. There is no way out of this, is there?
"You’ll need a better smartphone if you want to keep up with the times," Benji says.
"It’s not like I could choose what mobile I wanted." I roll my eyes at him. This was Dad’s old mobile before his office gave him a new one. It’s a constant reminder that all the more this band has to work out because I’m burning the last of my savings being on this tour. If this plays up—no, I shouldn’t think about that right now. "Besides, nothin’ wrong with this one. It works just fine; I can give anyone a ring anytime and I can send messages. Isn’t that all a mobile needs to do?"
"Not if you want to grow your presence online." Eric grins. "Here, let me show you with my mobile."
At least no one’s sent Callum that tweet yet.
After what seems like hours of getting through the basics of social media—not just Twitter, but Instagram and Snapchat—I put my mobile away. We download whatever apps are compatible with my mobile, but Eric promises to give me one of his old iPhones when we get back. Good to know I won’t be shelling out any money.
I check the time on my mobile. We’ve been here nearly an hour.
Where are the gals? Is our car fixed?
I stand up to approach the receptionist, who’s busy on her mobile. When she finally puts the mobile down, she asks what she can do for me. I tell her our situation, the specifics of our vehicle.
I check my mobile once again, but still no word from Amber or Cassie, so I dial Cassie’s mobile first. All I get is a voice mail. I try Amber’s, but it’s the same for hers. "No service."
Uh-oh.
"Your car’s almost finished. In ten minutes or so. Would you like to settle the bill?"
I nod and ask Benji if he can advance the cash since Cassie holds our pooled fund for the trip. I settle the bill and wait beside the till for the receptionist to tell me the car’s ready. Once I have the keys, I dash back to my mates.
They wear the same worried faces that I must have.
"They can’t be reached," Benji says.
"I tried ringing them as well," I reply.
"So much for ‘you can call me anytime’ when the service is bonkers out here," Eric says. "This is a disaster."
"The good news is that the car will be ready in a few minutes. I’ll drive around and you two keep an eye out for the gals."
"They shoulda stayed put or used Google maps," Eric says.
"I don’t think they could have gone that far," Benji says.
"We don’t know how big this place is or where anything is!" Eric says. "Are we even going to make it in time to be able to sound check? Will we even make it to the show?"
"We won’t make it for sound check since we still have to find them," I say, "but our set isn’t until 8 PM."
"What about Amber?" Eric asks.
"She goes on at 7:30," Benji replies.
There's no way we’ll make it in time if we can't find the gals right away.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
We have been driving ‘round for more than half an hour. Unlike Brighton, the roads here are smooth.
"Just our luck," Eric whines from the passenger seat.
"Where could they have gone?" I repeat aloud for the nth time.
"Oh, I don’t know, think like a girl!" Eric snaps.
I grumble. We’re hungry, but it’s not like we can stop for food when there are more pressing matters at hand: finding Cassie and Amber.
"C’mon now, let’s be practical. They can’t have gone too far from where we were." Benji tries to quell us. "According to Google maps, there’s still a couple of roads we haven’t tried. Let’s try the next left."
I follow as instructed, turning left to a smaller road lined in old terraced homes. We enter a part of the city near the hills.
"What if they tried to look for a bus stop?" I say, an idea forming in my head. "If you’re lost, you’d want to get back to where you were, so you’d catc
h the bus."
"Brilliant," Eric says.
"You’re irritating me," I say to his face.
"Sorry to hear that. I’ll just shut it then." Eric crosses his arms. He’s gone all mardy.
I let out a sigh.
"There’s a bus stop two corners from here," Benji exclaims, looking up from his mobile.
"Great," I reply and speed up.
As we turn, I spot the bus stop sign. There’s a bus shelter with loads of people.
My body inches closer to the steering wheel and my neck strains forward.
"Nope," is Eric’s curt response. He’s our looker while Benji navigates and I drive. "They’re not here."
We find three more bus stops and still no Amber or Cassie.
"You don’t think they would have actually found a café and expected us to pick them up there, would you?" Eric asks, his temperament better.
"Doubt it," I reply. "We told each other to keep in touch via mobile. They would have sent a message."
"I rang them five minutes ago, but it’s still the same. No service," Benji says.
"Where can they have gone?" Eric asks with desperation.
"We should go the opposite direction," Benji says. "Try a place that’s near the hills or something."
"Yes!" Eric and I shout in unison.
Our quarrel is forgotten and this new perspective motivates us. We drive around, letting the terrain dictate our direction.
"This could very well be a start to a horror film," Eric says as fog surrounds us. "Just imagine, the cold fog, zero vision, no signal…"
"Or a Stephen King novel," I say. "What if it’s a portal to an alternate universe where we’re actually trapped inside the fog?
"The novel could be called The Fog!" Eric says and adds gory details.
"Uck!" Benji comments. "Can you focus on driving instead of your weird theories?"
"Embrace the thrill of horror," Eric teases.
"You know I hate horror movies," Benji replies, curt.
We’re at the foggier side of town. Our van accelerates with difficulty as we drive uphill.
"This place isn’t that far from the auto repair shop. It’s actually the opposite side from where we started looking." Benji points out. "They could be here."
"Please let them be and then we can grab some food," Eric exclaims.
Benji and I laugh at the incredulity of it: our stomachs have been orchestrating in the last hour and a half.
"THERE!" Eric shouts. In shock, I step hard on the brakes.
Our bodies propel forward and jolt backward.
Benji curses. "That’s the second time today!"
"Tough luck, mate," Eric says and guffaws. "Tough luck."
Amber and Cassie lie on the grass.
What on earth…?
Are they all right?
I speed up, stop the car in front of them and get down the van. "You all right?"
"Omigosh!" Cassie screams. "You found us!"
"I thought we were going to have to go all Survivor-mode for a couple of days," Amber says. "I was taking a breather before we split up to find wood for fire."
Benji pushes the door open to which Eric says, "Careful! We don’t wanna be back in the auto repair centre," as he gets down the passenger seat to take his rightful position as designated driver.
Benji pulls Amber into a hug. Cassie gives them a weird look, so he lets go and gives Cassie a quick hug.
I follow suit, and make my hugs short. "What happened to you gals?" I squeeze Cassie’s shoulders.
"It’s a long story," Amber says, hopping back into her rightful spot at the passenger’s seat. "My fault."
"Take all the credit, sure," Cassie says sliding into our row. "You lot came just in time. My mobile konked out." She waves her mobile in the air. No wonder she didn’t have any signal.
"Here, you can loan my power bank," Benji says. He passes a massive power bank to Cassie and she thanks him.
"Now we eat," Eric says with a better mood and steps on the gas. "Boo yah!"
"Is that all you can think of?" Amber says, pulling out a cigarette. "No, ‘Nice to see you ladies. We’re so glad you’re OK.’"
"I put you gals ahead of my stomach for ages," Eric replies. "We looked for you when we could have stopped over and gotten food. That is louder than words."
"Thank you, Eric," Cassie replies with a sweet tone.
"You’re most welcome."
"They’re like siblings that won’t stop arguing with each other," Cassie tells me.
"Makes for an entertaining ride," Benji says.
"Says you," I say. "You weren’t listening to their banter before we hit the auto repair shop. I had to put on my ear mobiles to tune out the noise."
Cassie’s black mobile screen illuminates with its logo. Once she has reconnected, a flood of messages roll in. We sent her numerous messages asking their whereabouts, so I wouldn't be surprised if Benji, Eric, and I were the cause of this message flood.
As she scrolls through her messages, she squeals.
Eric steps on the brakes hard.
"Real smooth, Eric!" Amber quips and they resume their banter.
Benji curses. He looks like he ate a sour lemon. "That's the third time today!"
I can’t help but laugh.
"Sorry for giving you lot a scare," Cassie says.
"So what’s happened?" I ask.
"Callum Ford says he might come to tonight's show," she says and resumes reading the rest of her messages.
They all erupt in shouts of glee, but all I can muster is a "What?"
If Callum comes tonight, he might realise we’re not as great as he thinks we are. Maybe our debut performance—mine in particular—was a stroke of beginner’s luck. There’s no way I’ll be as lucky as that first night tonight.
"Callum seems to be very supportive of The Hush Society," Eric notes.
"We have to up our game tonight," Benji says, excited. "I might just add another tattoo to commemorate the milestone of garnering Callum Ford's attention with our band. We have to take a selfie with him and post it in all our social media outlets."
"We might not even make it in time," I say. "Maybe it's best he comes to another show."
"No way, mate," Benji quips. "Callum should come if he wants to come."
"This could be the night we get discovered and explode all over the Internet," Eric says.
"Will we have enough time to prepare once we get to Bristol?" I ask and note that we’ve eaten into our sound check time, so if we do get there, it’ll be just in time to grab our instruments and play.
"Oh, come on, Cameron!" Amber says. "This is Callum Ford. You make the best of whatever you’ve got."
"It’s not everyday that Callum attends one of our shows," Cassie adds.
I don’t want to think about tonight’s performance unless I’ve no other choice.
"How exactly did you gals get lost?" I ask.
Amber stops quarrelling with Eric and glances at Cassie. "Girl… Shall I or will you?"
"You," I say. That way, Amber will have to use her energy on rehashing the details rather than fighting with Eric. "Though I can’t fathom how you ended up in this side of town. There aren’t any cafes for miles."
"We were going the opposite direction from where you lot were and stopped to ask someone from ‘round here where we could find a good place to have tea," Amber says, "and let’s just say we couldn’t find it. Then Cassie suggested we turn to a street, which led uphill. We were also curious if there were any scenic views. Cassie wanted to photograph them. We thought it was in the same direction as the auto repair centre. If not, we could always use Google Maps."
"We’re both to blame. When we tried to tell you we were lost, there wasn’t any signal at all," Cassie says. "Then my mobile died."
"What is with the rubbish reception in the places we go to?" I say, thinking about Lily’s house and then now this.
"Our adventures make for a good laugh," Cassie injects.
"How was the journey to find scenic views? Did you get good photographs?" I ask.
"They better have," Eric says from the driver’s seat.
"Oh hush," Benji says.
We laugh.
Cassie beams at me, holds out her Fujifilm camera, and switches it on. She scrolls through the feed. Benji squishes himself from the back row to get a proper look.
"You can paint, organise events and now, this. What can’t you do?" I say.
"Someone’s smitten," Eric shouts.
It’s obvious, but to declare it to the world like that? Eric can be thick at times.
I glance at Cassie and give her a sheepish smile and shrug as if saying, "It’s true and I’m not going to deny it."
I expect her to back off or make a snarky comment, but she grins back.
What? Is this real life?
She’s not rejecting me.
At least, not outright. I take this as a positive sign, but I won’t push my luck. "So any other hidden talents we ought to know about?" I tease.
"You wait and see," Cassie says back.
Damn, she’s flirting with me.
"All right, love birds." Amber calls us out. Benji chuckles from the back. My face warms. I don’t dare to look at Cassie’s reaction. "I don’t think we should stop for food since we’re running late."
"Buuuuut," Eric protests.
"You’re right. Let’s just grab something after we play," Benji says.
"All right," Eric grumbles in defeat.
"Can we still make it in time?" I ask Cassie.
In secret, I hope that we don’t make it. Then, Callum wouldn’t have to see us perform tonight. What if I mess things up tonight? I can’t have him witness that. Then, he’ll figure The Fortunate Only is nothing than a one-gig wonder.
"We’ll get there right when it starts," says Cassie. "So no time to sound check until right before your set…we’ll have to make the best of things."
"Will there be Internet at the venue?" Benji asks. "I’m trying to keep my usage to a minimum, but I really want to check how the video is doing."
"VIRAL!" Eric shouts.
My heart skips a beat. "What?" I ask. "You saw?"
"I don’t know, but I’m putting the thought out there, channeling the cosmos to deliver this thought as if it’s reality." His choice of words reminds me of Ella.
