The Takeover

by Oli White

  ‘Perfect sense,’ Sai said. Austin nodded, too. The worried expression was still on his face, but he seemed to be relaxing just a bit. I hoped that working with Glen, who seemed like a good bloke, would help him to chill out.

  Before we headed off to wardrobe and make-up, Ethan finished rattling off the long list of details that we’d already gone over a dozen times in the meeting, but as he was obviously enjoying wielding power, I just smiled and kept my gob shut. To be honest, I was too busy wondering (a) how someone could have gone through such a massive personality transplant in such a short space of time and (b) how come nobody else apart from me seemed to have noticed this fact. I mean, this was in no way the same geek who’d conveniently run into us at the festival. Even the way he carried himself was completely different. Weird. Bloody weird.

  By midday, I felt like I was getting into the swing of things. In fact, apart from being under the glaring lights of the studio and getting used to the stop-start-repeat nature of TV filming, it didn’t really feel all that different from what we did at GenNext. After all, an interview was an interview, right? And Ella and I seemed to click quickly and neatly into our on-screen repartee with no problem at all, despite the awkward moments between us over the past couple of weeks.

  We’d already filmed one artist – a girl called Ace Love, who played guitar and wrote all her own songs, which were very melancholic and made the average Adele ballad sound like a carnival tune. Still, she was super-talented and very sweet, and Ella nailed the post-performance interview with her, gently encouraging her to talk about the fact that she’d once been homeless and that music had been the thing that got her back on her feet. Olympia, who’d been scrutinising quietly in the background all morning, was very chuffed, telling us that that kind of interview was exactly what she was looking for. So all in all, I thought we were off to a pretty great start.

  ‘OK! Jack, Ella, we’re going to shoot the link in to the next band,’ Ethan shouted over at me as I grabbed a coffee. ‘Sai, are we all set up and ready?’

  ‘Two minutes,’ Sai called from where the three-piece band were setting up. ‘Just fixing a couple of things.’

  Glen was standing behind me at the coffee machine and he didn’t look all that happy.

  ‘You OK, mate?’ I said, sipping my almond-milk latte. ‘All going well?’

  ‘Fine, dear,’ he said. ‘Apart from the fact that I’m not sure who’s directing this bloody thing: me or the little prince over there.’

  He motioned towards Ethan and I almost spat out my coffee. ‘Oh, right. You don’t think much of him, then?’ It was a strange relief to find someone else who didn’t think the sun shone out of Ethan’s arse.

  He shrugged. ‘There’s often a fine line between associate producers and directors on a show like this, but I tell you, this guy takes the—’

  He was interrupted by Ethan calling across the room. ‘Glen! Are you all set?’

  Glen rolled his eyes at me and swept past me towards the set-up. ‘And to think I turned down The Great British Bake Off for this,’ he sighed.

  The Getaway were a group of good-looking young guys from Liverpool. I’d watched a few of their videos on YouTube the previous night and thought they were very cool. They had a great raw sound that reminded me a bit of the Arctic Monkeys, and it was obvious that girls tuning into the show were going to love them. The idea for the next link was that Ella and I would do it together, talking a bit about the band’s formation and history before they launched into their first number. We were only about thirty seconds into it when—

  ‘OK, CUT. Let’s hold it there a moment!’

  I was literally mid-sentence when Ethan yelled over at us.

  ‘Can we just hold it for a sec? Thanks,’ Glen added wearily.

  ‘Jack, can I have a quick word?’ Ethan said, beckoning me over.

  ‘Yeah, of course.’ I looked at Ella and shrugged, then headed over to where Ethan was standing peering into the monitor.

  ‘What’s up?’ I said.

  ‘We’re thinking this intro link would be better if it was just you,’ Ethan said.

  ‘What, without Ella?’ I said. I glanced over at Ava, who was standing behind the camera, but she looked as confused as I was.

  Ethan nodded, narrowing his eyes. ‘Mmm, I think so, yeah. That’s what we were thinking, isn’t it, Glen?’

  Glen opened his mouth to speak, but just then Ella walked over.

  ‘What’s happening, Ethan?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s just that we think Jack looks very strong here, but Ella, you’re not really coming across.’

  ‘Not really coming across how?’ I said, irked.

  ‘Don’t get me wrong, I’m not casting aspersions on anyone’s presenting skills,’ Ethan said. ‘That straight-to-the-point, robust sort of approach you’re going for is great, Jack. I just think it’s making Ella’s delivery seem a little bit quiet in comparison, and it’ll be stronger if you do the link on your own.’

  I looked at Ella, who was frowning.

  ‘What do you reckon?’ I asked.

  ‘Well, you did talk over me a couple of times,’ she said with a shrug. ‘Maybe Ethan’s got a point.’

  ‘Did I?’

  ‘You did, Jack,’ Ethan nodded. I gritted my teeth.

  Ella turned to Ethan and Glen. ‘Look, I’m happy for Jack to present solo if you think it’s stronger. I’m all about what’s best for the show.’

  ‘Sorry, Ella,’ Ethan said, rubbing her shoulder.

  ‘No worries,’ Ella said, with another shrug.

  ‘Ready to go again?’ Glen asked.

  I took a deep breath and headed back to my mark, a white gaffer-tape cross on the floor, a few feet in front of the band. ‘I’m ready.’

  ‘OK, rolling,’ Ava shouted from behind the camera.

  ‘When you’re ready, Jack,’ Glen said.

  Once the band had done their bit, we all gathered in the lounge-style area to set up for the next shot. Olympia had arrived back at the studio after a lunch meeting. ‘How’s it all going, guys?’

  ‘Really good,’ Ava said, beaming. ‘We got some great stuff this morning. We’re just setting up to interview The Getaway after their performance.’

  ‘I’m happy to see that you’re keeping it quirky,’ Olympia said.

  ‘That’s what we do best,’ Sai replied, grinning.

  ‘Fabulous! Loving the enthusiasm.’

  ‘Actually, I’ve had a brainwave about this next section,’ Ethan said, rubbing his stubble – another new acquisition of his since I’d let mine grow. ‘Just thinking outside the box, as you’d say, Olympia. Why don’t I step in and do some of the post-performance interviews with Ella?’ Olympia raised an eyebrow, and Ethan glanced over at me. ‘It’s just that Jack is very dynamic on the intro links, whereas Ella has got that amazing way of relating to the artists, which I think the audience will love. If I co-present with her, I think her personality will really be able to shine through. After all, we made a pretty good team at Total.’

  ‘Er … I’m not so sure about this,’ I said. ‘Everyone loves the way Ella and I do interviews together. It works because I go for the humour while she asks the more serious questions.’

  ‘I totally get that,’ Ethan said, ‘but it means that sometimes Ella ends up looking like the straight woman to your funny-man routine.’

  Funny man?

  ‘I never really thought about it like that,’ Ella said.

  ‘Look, don’t get me wrong,’ Ethan went on. ‘I think that works great online, but maybe it’s time to mix things up.’

  ‘You are looking especially fine on all the intro links, Jack,’ Ava said. ‘I say let’s give it a go. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll go back to our usual way.’

  ‘Fine by me,’ Olympia said, turning to answer her constantly ringing phone.

  ‘Great,’ Ethan smiled.

  I felt completely stumped. I knew that if I kicked off about this I’d look like I was being difficult.
I mean, it wasn’t like Ethan was saying I was crap – in fact it was almost the opposite – but he’d somehow convinced everyone I was overshadowing my girlfriend on camera and that he and Ella might be a better fit. I had to hand it to him: whatever he was up to, he was doing a bloody great job. I looked at Ella to gauge what her reaction was, but she was busy getting ready for her next shot.

  Ethan smiled affably at me. ‘Jack, you and Austin can pop off to catering and grab lunch now if you want to. You must be starving.’

  ‘Actually, I am hungry,’ Austin said, nudging me. ‘Let’s eat, J.’

  At that moment, eating seemed preferable to watching Ethan cosying up on a couch next to my girlfriend, so I followed reluctantly.

  As I passed Glen on my way out of the studio, he turned to me with a raised eyebrow and I nodded back at him. Yeah, I thought, Glen knows what I know. He knows that this isn’t going to be easy for him … or for me.

  THE BETRAYAL

  And so it went on. For the next three days I flew solo with most of my filming while Ethan monopolised Ella. And was I dying to put a stop to it all and confront Ethan? Tell him that I was on to him? You bet I was … but that was easier said than done. First off, we had just under three weeks to film and edit five forty-five-minute episodes, and so far it was actually going pretty smoothly and the set-up was working. Ella was great at the interviews, and as much as I loathed him, I could see that Ethan made a pretty good wing man for her. And I was happy with what I was doing too: all the spiel about the bands and artists before they performed, peppered with a few quirky critiques and comments. I was having fun. Sort of. What did I have to complain about, aside from the fact that I wasn’t standing next to my girlfriend in any of the shots? Which brings me to the second reason I didn’t kick off. Ella. We still hadn’t really got back into synch after Total and then the news about Lewis, so the last thing I wanted to do was rock the boat. Plus, Ethan had cleverly arranged things so that if I complained, I’d look like I didn’t want Ella to shine on screen. So I bit my tongue and got on with it.

  By some miracle, we finished filming at a reasonable time on Saturday night, but there were no big GenNext plans to party our way around London on our first weekend there, even though we had Sunday off – we were all too knackered. No, I was going to slump on the sumptuous cream couch in our riverside apartment and watch something unchallenging with mild violence on the enormous Samsung 4K: Independence Day: Resurgence or Guardians of the Galaxy – something like that. I just needed to crash and relax, big time.

  That afternoon I’d left the studio before anyone else. Ella still had some filming to do and said she’d text me when she was finished, but that she and Ava had an evening lined up of face packs, nail varnishing and whatever they could find on Netflix featuring either – or preferably both – of the Hemsworth brothers. Yeah, I thought, I’ll give that one a miss. Sai, meanwhile, was taking Lily for dinner at one of the restaurants in the Shard – very nice – so it would just be me and Austin in the apartment, which I was looking forward to. The night after Lewis’s visit we’d had our boys’ night out together back in Hertfordshire, and I think it had helped him to get a lot of his worries off his chest. Since we’d arrived in London he had got into the swing of things on set, but I could tell that he was still struggling a bit. It would be good to just hang out together and order some Thai food. Only … no Austin. Weird, as he’d said he was coming straight back to the apartment after filming, and my watch was telling me it was 8.40 p.m. By 9.30 I’d got used to the idea that I was going to be spending the evening on my own, semi-horizontal, watching Marvel superheroes battle it out.

  It was just after 10 p.m. when the apartment door slammed shut suddenly, making me jump, and Austin walked into the living room, a strange expression on his face.

  ‘You all right, Austin?’ I said. ‘Where have you been, mate? Have you eaten?’

  ‘I’m not hungry,’ he said abruptly.

  Hang on – something was wrong here. I sat up on the sofa. ‘Austin, what—’

  ‘Well, cheers, mate. Thanks a million for that,’ he said.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ For a moment I thought he was going to cry, he looked so furious.

  ‘Don’t play all innocent, Jack. I know you said something,’ he spat.

  ‘Said something about what?’ I was bewildered.

  ‘To Ethan. I know you said something,’ he said.

  ‘Ethan? God, he’s the last person I’d talk to about anything.’

  ‘Clearly not in this case. It’s bad enough feeling like this in the first place, but to end up with everyone talking about it behind my back … that’s harsh, Jack.’

  I got up and went over to him. ‘Just tell me what Ethan said. I guarantee you this is all some sort of misunderstanding, whatever it is.’

  ‘I don’t think so.’ Austin sidestepped me and sat down on the couch, arms folded, jaw tight, TV still raging in the background. ‘He asked me if I was OK this afternoon. I don’t know: maybe I wasn’t on the best form, maybe I looked a bit fed up. Anyway, I said I hadn’t been feeling great lately. He said he’d been chatting to you so he knew something was wrong.’

  ‘What?!’

  ‘He then went on to tell me that his Auntie Alison has mental-health issues. Apparently she had a nervous breakdown. Then he very kindly assured me it was nothing to be ashamed of and how impressed he was that I was working through it.’

  I was gobsmacked. ‘Austin, I swear—’

  ‘Mental-health issues! I mean, God, who else have you been talking to? Ella, AJ?’

  ‘No one! I never said anything to him, Austin. You’ve got to know that.’

  Austin looked down at the floor, shaking his head. ‘You must have, Jack, because I haven’t said anything to another living soul. I don’t get it. Do you realise how on the edge I’ve been while this show is going on?’

  I was at a loss. Who else could have told Ethan about Austin’s depression apart from me? Only it wasn’t me. Jesus, I wouldn’t trust that guy with my date of birth, let alone sensitive information about my best friend. I racked my brains for a moment when he might have heard Austin and me talking privately … but there was nothing.

  ‘Look, Austin. Why don’t we try to figure this out between us? Let’s—’

  ‘I’m not staying,’ Austin said, getting up again. ‘I just came back to tell you how pissed off I am.’ He headed towards the door, shaking me off when I tried to grab his arm. ‘Just keep out of my way for the time being.’

  ‘Austin, this is all down to Ethan!’ I said desperately. ‘However he found out about this, it WASN’T from me!’

  Austin spun around to face me. ‘God, J, listen to yourself. Blaming Ethan is pretty low. You know, the weird thing is, he was really cool about it. Once I got over the fact that I was bloody mortified, we had a good chat. He actually sat down with me and tried to help me to understand why I’m feeling this way.’

  ‘Austin, mate, you’re not thinking straight. This is insane …’ I almost bit my tongue.

  ‘Perfect choice of words, Jack,’ Austin said. And then he was out of the door, slamming it shut behind him.

  I stood in the middle of the living room for a moment, trying to think straight. What the hell had just happened? In the whole time we’d been friends, Austin and I had never had a really big argument, not one that could hurt our friendship. I’d never seen him like that before: cold and angry, clearly hurt by my perceived betrayal. The thought that he believed I would betray his trust like that made me feel sick.

  I sat back down on the couch, unsure what to do with myself. I WhatsApped Ella to see if she was awake, but the message went unread; clearly she and Ava had turned in early after their night of Hemsworth gorging. I tried calling Austin, but it went straight to voicemail. I WhatsApped him too, but like Ella the message went unread. He’d turned his phone off, or he was flat-out ignoring me.

  God, how the hell had it come to this? How had Ethan managed to turn my best fri
end against me in one short afternoon? Something was very wrong with all this, and I needed to get to the bottom of it.

  When I woke up the next morning, I felt like death. I’d been awake for hours tossing and turning after the scene with Austin, unable to believe that we’d fallen out, and that he could have trusted Ethan over me. I ended up drifting into an exhausted sleep, and by the time I got up it was after 11 a.m. A quick glance at the GenNext WhatsApp group informed me that Ella and Ava had headed into central London to grab brunch and do some shopping, and Sai was spending the morning with Lily. There was also a separate message from Ella saying, Looking forward to seeing you later, sleepyhead! ♥♥♥ This cheered me up slightly, until I noticed that Austin hadn’t been in touch, and still hadn’t even read my messages from the night before.

  I came out of my room and looked around the flat. It was silent, and peeking into Austin’s room I could see that his bed was still made. So he definitely hadn’t come back after our argument, and it looked like I was spending at least the first half of my day off alone. Normally I would have been happy to have a bit of time to chill out, maybe catch up on some GenNext admin, but with the worry over my fight with Austin firmly lodged in my stomach, I was in serious need of distraction. Right, time to FaceTime Mum and Dad. I hadn’t spoken to them for a couple of days, so I was due a catch-up. I wasn’t sure I could bring myself to tell them about the argument – I knew that it would worry Mum – but maybe just chatting with them would cheer me up. I texted first to make sure they were at home and that they had the iPad on, gave them a couple of minutes, then sat at the desk in my room and called.

  They were sitting in the kitchen at the breakfast bar when they picked up, both smiling happily, mugs of coffee in hand, and a pang of homesickness flickered through me.

  ‘What’s happening, Jack? Is it all going well?’ Mum said eagerly. ‘I’ve seen your pictures on Instagram. It all looks very glamorous, I must say.’

  ‘It’s really good, Mum,’ I said, not totally truthfully. ‘The show’s going well, and there’s so much amazing talent.’