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‘That was Arlo. One of the guys I’m in a band with at uni.’

A white-hot flash of jealousy stabbed Rocco’s gut. ‘Your other, far inferior band.’ Rocco meant to say it jokily, but he could hear the bitter edge to his words.

But Jay didn’t pick up on any underlying feeling of ill will. He turned to Rocco, his face flushed with excitement.

‘We played a gig a couple of weeks ago, a battle of the bands type of thing in the student union. It was a good night, you know. We were totally on it. There was a scout there from a record company. He loved us. And now the big bosses want to see us.’

‘Your band doesn’t even have a proper name,’ Rocco said in annoyance.

‘I don’t think that matters.’ Jay puffed his cheeks out as he ran his hand through his hair, looking at Rocco incredulously. ‘Can you believe it? We never even thought of anything like this happening. We just like playing together. I mean, probably nothing will come of it, but… fuck!’ A wide, if incredulous smile, split Jay’s face.

‘Where does that leave you and me?’ Rocco said, knowing he sounded petty.

‘We’ll still do tonight’s gig… I still love playing with you.’

‘Don’t do me any favours,’ Rocco spat back.

‘Oh man, come on. If it was the other way around, I’d be happy for you.’

‘So magnanimous from the guy signing a record contract.’

‘Rocco! I’m not signing anything at the moment. It’s just a meeting. It could end up amounting to nothing, you know how these things go.’

‘No, I don’t actually know how these things go.’ Rocco slumped against the wall and folded his arms.

‘I didn’t think you were that serious about music,’ Jay said. ‘What we do here is a laugh, a bit of mucking about.’

‘It’s fucking convenient to say that now. Or do you not think I’m good enough? Not like your new band.’

‘No! You’re great on the guitar and your songs are amazing. In fact, it was the one we wrote together, “Twisted Serenade”, that the scout was most impressed by.’

Rocco let that sink in for a moment before saying, ‘You let your other band play my song?’

Jay looked taken aback. ‘Our song.’

Rocco ignored this and continued to glower at Jay.

‘I’m sorry, man, I’d been playing it and Cole asked what it was and it kind of went from there and we played about with it.’

‘You played about with it? Without even asking me?’

‘I didn’t think it was a big deal. I didn’t think you were serious about music. You’ve always said you wanted to play the guitar because girls thought it was cool and would shag you. And it’s worked.’

Rocco saw red, mainly because Jay had hit a nerve of truth. ‘Don’t act all principled, like you don’t care about that.’

‘I don’t.’

Rocco snorted derisively. ‘What, it’s all about the music?’ he shot back sarcastically.

‘Yes. I’ve never thought of doing anything with music. None of us did. But, since we found out that record label was interested, we started to imagine what it would be like; to get paid enough to live on and get recognition for doing something we love. Nothing beats the feeling of being on stage. I don’t care about any of the other shit like fame or women. I just want people to love my music.’

Rocco got even more angry at this. Was Jay having a go at how shallow he thought Rocco was?

‘Yeah, right.’

‘It’s true. And… for the last few months,’ Jay continued, blushing slightly, ‘since I’ve been away, I’ve realised there’s someone I like. Really like. As in I actually think I love her. It’s Frankie.’

Rocco stared at Jay, the red mist descending.