Girls Who Play Guitars

•i'll play it the way i want•

"We've been Slider," she bellowed. "Get your dacks wet for Glue with this one! It's fast, and it's loud. It's called 'North'!"

As they launched into their closer, Ellie shut her eyes and played feverishly. She kept her head lowered, concentrating hard on making the music powerful under her fingers. There was nothing they could do to win the crowd over. Whether they loved or hated it, Daniel and Glue could have this crowd. Slider was headed elsewhere.

At last, the set was done.

Ellie handed her guitar to Lachy, gave him a quick hug.

"Insane, Ellie," he beamed. "You punked up 'Green'. Insane."

Ellie adored how Lachy understood her.

Gripping his arm, she caught his eye, hoping to tell him how much she appreciated him.

She headed off stage behind Meg and Kim as the cheers grew. They weren't for Slider. They were because Slider had finished. Supporting totally sucks, Ellie thought. It was like starting all over again. Ellie hoped it wouldn't do any damage to their cool-as-fuck reputation.

Daniel was nowhere to be found in the backstage darkness. Ellie didn't expect him to be there — he had enough to do to prepare for his gig.

As Ellie passed Brenin, she could tell from his steely look he was wondering what he'd got himself into.

Brenin stepped in next to Ellie, giving her a curt nod. "I heard from the lawyer."

"Straight down to business then?" Ellie wiped her forehead with her wrist and stepped in beside him, heading back to the dressing room. Ellie hadn't sweated much and wondered if she'd worked hard enough.

"We have to find an Australian lawyer."

Ellie stopped on the stairs. "How come?"

"Our guy in London says the case has to be looked at under Australian Law." Brenin folded his arms. Ellie noticed he wasn't wearing a suit but a pristine, well-ironed black t-shirt, black jeans and expensive-looking black leather lace-up boots. Everything Brenin wore looked brand new. Ellie approved. It was so much better than those souped-up suits she'd seen him in.

Then again, Ellie wondered what Daniel would look like in a suit ...

"Are you listening to me?" Brenin guided Ellie to the side of the stairway as two crew members pushed through, grumbling at them in the dark.

Ellie stepped aside and focused on Brenin's stern grey eyes. "We need an Australian lawyer."

"Jessie and Sam are apparently in Melbourne hooking up a local lawyer too," Brenin said. "We need to do the same."

"They're in Melbourne?" Now it was Ellie's turn to frown. Even though Australia was a big country and they were two thousand kilometres from Melbourne, Sam and Jessie felt way too close for comfort.

"I'll sort out the lawyer," Brenin said. "What you three need to do is assure me you won't have any contact with Sam or Jessie, or anyone who knows them. Can you do that?"

"I can't even look at her, let alone talk to her," Ellie said, rubbing her hand across her forehead.

"Good. Under no circumstances can any of you talk to Jessie, or be seen with her." Brenin unfolded his arms and motioned for Ellie to continue down the stairs. "Tell the others. It's important. Especially Meg."

Ellie groaned. "Yes. Fine. I'll tell them."

"And when you're at home in Port Lagan, you need to find evidence–diaries, or notes, or videos. Some kind of proof that you wrote the songs. Anything."