The Takeover

by Oli White

  ‘It’s a bit weird,’ Ava added.

  ‘It’s not weird at all,’ I said, almost under my breath. I could feel a tightness in my throat and beads of sweat on my forehead. Hold it together, Jack. Don’t lose your temper.

  Ethan looked at his copy of the contract and shook his head slowly. ‘Well, the channel will have made their decision on presenters based on the episodes they’ve seen.’

  ‘So you mean Jack doesn’t feature in the other episodes either?’ Ella said, her brow wrinkling.

  ‘I haven’t actually seen the rest of the episodes, Ella,’ Ethan said.

  Yeah, right. He’d probably gone through them all personally, deleting any footage of me.

  ‘As I said to AJ, this is Glen and Olympia’s call,’ Ethan went on. ‘You know what the Americans are like; they’ll have their own take on who’s hot property as far as TV personalities go.’

  ‘Yeah, but this is a GenNext show, after all,’ Sai said. ‘AJ, is there something we can do about this?’

  ‘Look, it’ll be fine. I’m going to call Olympia now and get to the bottom of it,’ AJ said, pulling his phone from his pocket. ‘I’ll just tell her that without Jack there is no show.’

  Ethan put his hand on AJ’s arm. ‘Let me talk to Olympia,’ he said smoothly. ‘We have to play this very carefully with the American partners. They’re putting a lot into this and we need to look like we’re all on the same page. I’ll sort it out.’

  I felt like I was in a daze. How the hell could all this have happened in the space of a couple of hours? It was like everything was crumbling around me, too fast to stop it. I looked over at Austin. He appeared just as baffled as everyone else, but he hadn’t said a word … my best mate hadn’t even spoken up in my defence … and that was when I cracked.

  ‘OK, this needs to stop,’ I heard myself say. ‘This ridiculous sham needs to stop right now.’

  Ella touched my arm gently. ‘It’s OK, Jack. Ethan is going to make this right.’

  ‘No, Ella, he’s not,’ I said angrily. ‘That’s the last thing he’s going to do.’ I turned to Ethan. ‘You’ve been out to screw me over from day one, haven’t you?’

  Ethan gave a surprised laugh. ‘Jack, I—’

  ‘You’ve done your utmost to sabotage all the GenNext stuff. You’ve made moves on my girlfriend and tried to make me look bad while you’re at it, and you’ve stuck the boot in between me and Austin. I’m still not sure how you did that, but you did, didn’t you? And now I’m being pushed out of my own TV show – is that what’s happening next?’

  ‘Sorry, your show?’ Ethan stepped back with a look of phoney indignation. ‘Jack, Emerge is everyone’s show. It is and always has been a team effort and I’m going to do my best to make it work, I really am. And as for all that other stuff … mate, I really don’t know where it’s coming from. You know how much I think of you, Jack, and I’ve only ever wanted to support you—’

  ‘Oh, drop the act, Ethan, it’s getting really dull.’ I was on the verge of totally losing it with this guy.

  ‘Jack, just calm down a bit,’ Ella said softly. ‘This isn’t helping.’

  ‘Ella, can’t you see what’s going on?’ I said, my voice cracking. ‘Can’t any of you?’

  ‘Look, what happened between us wasn’t Ethan’s doing,’ Austin said, finally speaking up. ‘I think you’re upset about the way the show panned out and you’re taking it out on him.’

  I shook my head in disbelief, my whole body trembling. ‘Taking it out on him? I’ve kept my mouth shut for weeks. Guys, this is all wrong. Ethan is … he’s—’

  ‘Look, I’m going to go,’ Ethan cut in. ‘Jack, I’m sorry you feel like this, I really am. I’ve only ever looked up to you, so this is all a bit shocking to me.’ He grabbed his bag and coat from the couch, that sorrowful yet understanding expression back on his face. ‘AJ, I’ll speak to Olympia as soon as I can, I promise.’

  ‘Jack, you’re shooting the messenger here; this is not Ethan’s fault,’ Ava said, as Ethan headed for the door.

  ‘Yeah, let’s not turn the whole situation on him,’ Sai added. ‘That’s just bad vibes.’

  ‘If you guys think this is all perfectly reasonable, then I give up,’ I snapped.

  ‘Jack, I really think you need to go back to your apartment and calm down.’ This was AJ, and by the look on his face I’d lost him as well. ‘I think all this is making you stressed and you’re just lashing out without thinking about what you’re saying.’

  I took a few deep breaths and looked around the room as Ethan closed the door behind him. ‘I know what I’m saying, AJ. Trust me. I know.’

  ‘Come on, I’ll go back to yours with you,’ Ella said gently.

  ‘I think I need to be on my own for a while,’ I said. I felt as if someone had turned the gas down underneath me all of a sudden, my heart rate slowing.

  ‘OK. I’ll come down in a while and make sure you’re all right,’ she said.

  ‘Thanks,’ I managed. I looked around again at the others, Austin, Sai, Lily and Ava, who were all staring at me with mixed expressions of annoyance and concern.

  ‘Are you OK, Jack? Can I get you anything?’ Lily said.

  I shook my head, turned round and left the apartment without looking back.

  Outside the girls’ place, I felt so rattled that for a moment I couldn’t even remember which way my own apartment was. Eventually I headed up the corridor, my mind a mess of divergent thoughts and uncertainties. As I passed the lift, a voice spoke behind me. ‘Hey, Jack!’ I stopped in my tracks and looked over. Ethan was standing there, smiling like butter wouldn’t melt. My first instinct was to walk over and punch the dude, but all the anger had drained out of me, leaving me feeling tired and confused.

  ‘Why?’ I asked simply. ‘Why are you so determined to mess with me, Ethan?’

  The smile never left his face. ‘I tried to be your friend, Jack, I really did.’

  ‘You have never tried to be my friend,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘Not once.’

  ‘Oh but I did,’ he said. ‘I knew you wouldn’t remember our first meeting, and it was only, what, just over a year ago.’ He shook his head. ‘So arrogant.’

  ‘What first meeting?’ I asked, mystified.

  ‘I came to interview you for my college news website last September. Ring any bells?’

  I shrugged, my mind a blank.

  ‘I came all the way from Brighton that day and you didn’t have time to talk to me,’ he said. ‘Too busy getting ready to film your mate Cooper whatshisname’s show that night. Really nice.’

  The smile had finally slipped and his face was just blank, his eyes cold. Somehow it was even creepier.

  ‘I remember that day; it was crazy,’ I said, scrambling to recall the details. ‘I’m sure I would have tried to rearrange—’

  ‘That’s beside the point, Jack. You dismissed me. Just like you did when I sent the audition tape in.’

  ‘Are you serious?’ I said, stunned.

  ‘What gives you the right to treat me like that, Jack? What makes you think you deserve everything you’ve got?’

  ‘Deserve what? What have I got?’ I could hardly believe what I was hearing.

  Ethan’s expression had changed again; now his face was tight and angry. ‘GenNext, with all the fans and followers. Your friends. A beautiful girlfriend. Why should you have all that when you couldn’t even be bothered to give me the time of day?’

  It suddenly occurred to me that he was even more of a nut-job than I’d first thought. And a dangerous one.

  ‘Look, Ethan, I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding—’

  ‘There’s no misunderstanding.’ He cut across me. ‘What goes around comes around, Jack, and it’s time for me to get what I deserve. What I’ve worked so hard for.’

  I looked at him, not knowing how to respond to this new Ethan: this calculating, sinister Ethan finally showing his true colours.

  ‘So let me get this s
traight,’ I said, slowly. ‘You think you deserve my life, is that what you’re telling me?’

  Now the smile was back. ‘You said it, Jack, not me.’ He pressed the button for the lift. ‘And don’t think I’m finished yet, either.’

  I felt a surge of anger. ‘Do your worst! Those are my friends. I’m part of GenNext, and you will never be.’

  Ethan snorted a laugh. ‘Yeah, good luck with that,’ he said. ‘It’s not looking too good for you at the moment, is it? And there’s more to come, just you wait. We’ll see who your friends – and the fans – prefer in the end.’

  The lift pinged as it arrived, and Ethan stepped into it. ‘Sweet dreams, Jack,’ he said, disappearing behind the closing doors.

  And then I was alone in the corridor. Freaked out, and wondering what the hell I was going to do next.

  THE STING IN THE TAIL

  You know what it’s like when you have an argument or confrontation? When you just keep turning it all over and over in your head, torturing yourself about how the outcome could have been different: I wish I’d said this, or why didn’t I do that? Well, that’s what I was doing all the next day. I kept thinking about the scene with the GenNext team, and then the disturbing conversation with Ethan afterwards. The one thing I couldn’t forget was the look on his face as he’d stepped into the lift. The sinister, triumphant look that said that he’d won, at a game I hadn’t even realised I was playing.

  I kept telling myself that I should get out and about to try and clear my head, but I ended up just sitting in the apartment, alternating between looking at the online reaction to Emerge and checking my phone, which stayed silent. I couldn’t get hold of anyone, not even AJ, and that took me even closer to the edge. Where was everyone? Why was Ella ignoring my WhatsApps? And where was Sai? I hadn’t clapped eyes on him all day, and we were living in the same apartment. Surely I hadn’t been such a nightmare yesterday that nobody even wanted to face me … had I?

  So that was my morning: full of questions and uncertainty. While I should have been looking forward to the rest of the week’s episodes, instead I was dreading them; imagining my part getting smaller and smaller as each show went on until, by Friday, I was completely non-existent. And then there was Ethan’s ominous parting shot last night to consider. What the hell had he meant when he said he wasn’t finished yet? The only thing I knew for sure was that I had to get my friends back on side – especially Ella and Austin. I had to make them understand what was really going on; tell them in a calm, collected way so they’d realise I was deadly serious that Ethan had this spectacularly mad agenda that included – no, depended on – my downfall. Then, once I had my team back on side, we could all move forward without Ethan Harper, and if that meant losing the American show, so be it. Anything was better than having that snake in our lives. It all sounded OK in my head. In fact, after a couple of hours, I’d actually managed to turn my mood from despair to hopeful determination. It wasn’t to last, though. There was more to come, and it was even worse than I could have imagined …

  Around midday, there was a loud bang on the door that almost shook me out of my skin.

  ‘JACK! Jack, are you in there?’

  If I wasn’t very much mistaken, this was AJ’s ‘officially angry’ voice, and it was accompanied by him pounding on the door like there was a fire. What on earth was going on?

  Then I heard Sai speak. ‘Hang on, AJ, I’ve got a key here.’

  There was a rustling noise, followed by Ava saying, ‘Would you just open the flipping door, Sai!’ Her tone was more than a little panicky.

  Not wanting to face everyone in my Diesel pants, I dived into my bedroom and practically leapt into a pair of joggers, just as Sai opened the front door and I heard the clatter of feet heading up the hall towards my bedroom.

  Then I heard another voice: ‘Jack, it’s Ella. Are you home?’

  Hang on! Ella was here, too? ‘Yeah, I’m in the bedroom,’ I called out. I pulled on a T-shirt and threw open the bedroom door, half smiling, half bemused. ‘What’s going on, guys?’

  They all stood in front of me like a police line-up, with their expressions ranging from serious to distraught to furious: Sai, Austin, Ava, Ella and AJ. That was when I knew for sure. Something bad was going down.

  ‘How could you do it, Jack? How could you?’ Ava’s eyes were filled with tears. My mind exploded, firing every which way. What the hell was she talking about?

  ‘Do what?’ I said.

  For a few seconds everyone talked at me at once, too fast for me to make out any of what they were saying, aside from the fact that they were all angry and upset. In the end, Ella calmed everyone down and spoke softly, her voice quavering. ‘This is bad, Jack. Owl TV have seen the emails and they know everything.’

  ‘Emails?’

  ‘Between you and Glen,’ Austin said furiously. ‘Don’t pretend you don’t know what we’re talking about, Jack; this is really bloody ugly.’

  ‘Not to mention hurtful,’ Ava said.

  There was another blast of group jabbering, even more agitated than the last, while AJ stepped forward and handed me an A4 printout of a short exchange of emails between Glen and me. Confused, I looked through them. The emails had been sent from my address and even had my email signature at the bottom – the one with my Twitter username and link to GenNext. Only … I’d never sent an email to Glen. God, I’d never even sent the guy so much as a text, and as far as I could remember I’d never received one from him either.

  ‘I can’t actually believe this is happening, Jack,’ Ella said, as I scanned the words on the page as quickly as I could.

  ‘What do you have to say for yourself?’ Austin demanded.

  ‘Hang on! Just let me just read this,’ I said sharply, but the more I read, the more horrific it became, and the sicker I felt. The gist of the emails was that Glen and I were running some kind of scam together to rig Emerge so that one of the acts – Ace Love – would ultimately win the showcase and the record deal. Whoever had faked them had done a very nifty job too, because the language was just subtle enough that I had to read them twice before I could work out the hidden meaning behind the words. But there was no mistaking the fact that this fabricated scam had a massive financial pay-off, although the exact source of the money was never specified. Whatever the case, the information on this single A4 sheet was enough to convince anyone that Glen and I were being paid a large sum of money to screw over our employers, our colleagues, our friends … and the British public.

  For a few moments, I actually thought I might throw up. Then I started pacing up and down, still staring at the words and trying to take them in. ‘No, no, no. This is some kind of joke; it’s got to be. Tell me you guys aren’t swallowing this. This has got Ethan Harper written all over it …’

  ‘How did I know this was coming?’ Sai muttered, shaking his head.

  ‘Oh come on, Jack,’ AJ said. ‘I think we’ve all heard enough of the Ethan conspiracy to last us a lifetime. Why on earth would he want to sabotage his own show? If this gets out in the press, Emerge will be dead in the water and so will Ethan’s chances of presenting a US TV show.’

  ‘There’s no way Ethan would do that,’ Ella said firmly.

  I felt like I’d been sucker-punched. Ella thought that Ethan wouldn’t … but that I would? That was what she was saying. It was crystal.

  ‘What were you thinking?’ Ava said, the tears spilling down her cheeks. ‘You’ve betrayed us in the worst possible way, Jack.’

  ‘What happened, J?’ Austin said. ‘Did you just hate the fact that you weren’t able to run the show like you always do, so you decided to make a big fat profit out of it instead?’ There was such a biting edge to his voice it took me aback. ‘Is that what this is all about? Your bruised ego?’

  ‘No! This is Ethan,’ I yelled, flabbergasted. ‘I have no knowledge of any of this. I’ve never seen these emails before!’

  ‘Come on, man, it’s there on the page,’ Sai said. ‘How coul
d Ethan possibly have done this? Stitched you and Glen up with computer identity fraud? I don’t think so.’

  AJ held up a hand. ‘Look, everyone, let’s just calm down.’ Then he looked at me, sighing wearily. ‘Jack, I’ve known you for a long time, and if you’re saying you didn’t do it … well, then I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.’

  I was about to fall back against the door with relief, but then he said: ‘There’s just one thing that I have to do, and I’m really sorry, Jack, because I so don’t want to … I need to check your phone. Just to be sure.’ He held out his hand.

  ‘My phone?’

  I looked around at my friends. Ava turned her head away, not meeting my eye, and Austin was still glaring at me indignantly. I picked my phone up from the arm of the couch, entered my passcode and handed it to AJ. I didn’t know why he wanted to look at it, but I knew I had nothing to hide. He scrolled through it, brow furrowed, for what seemed like ages, and nobody said a word. For a moment I wondered if my alarm might go off and I’d wake up, realising that this was all just a nightmare, but that wasn’t about to happen.

  ‘Jack, can you explain this text?’ AJ said finally, holding out the phone to me.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Well, it seems to be a text from you updating an unknown number with details similar to those in the email, and confirming an amount of money. A very large amount.’

  ‘Show me that!’ I snatched the phone from AJ’s hand and looked down at the message, horrified. ‘I’ve never seen that before. That’s just … God, I don’t even know whose number that is, OK?’

  ‘I know exactly whose number it is,’ he said sadly. ‘It’s Glen’s.’

  Now I was just numb. Words were coming out of my mouth but I hardly knew what I was saying. ‘Look, I don’t know how, but yes, somehow … Ethan has … he’s got into my computer and my phone and … Look, he’s got this really intricate plot to get rid of me. Right back from Total Festival.’

  ‘Intricate plot?’ Ava said. ‘Jack, can you hear yourself? You sound insane!’

  ‘You should have heard him last night, after I left your apartment, Ella. The guy was threatening me with all sorts.’ I was desperate now, but Ella just looked disappointed; hurt.