Frustration -SERIES- [Part 1] [boyxboy]

Chapter Ten

Sally blushed as the others realised and looked at her with a mild sense of awe, and then the rumour was circulating around the entire schoolyard and we had to leave as people muttered, 'Name Withheld,' 'Sally Evans,' 'She's the keyboardist,' '... That show the other week,' 'She's going out with Conor Archibald.' I stopped at that one and looked around, but Sally surreptitiously tugged on my hand and pulled me out of the schoolyard.

'We haven't even released the first single yet,' she muttered, thoroughly embarrassed.

'The guy who runs your Facebook fan club goes to our school,' Jackson explained, looking a bit embarrassed too. 'Sorry about that.'

'No, that's okay... I'm just not used to it I guess.'

'Name Withheld are horribly unpopular at our school,' I joked, earning a dig in the ribs from Sally.

'You'll have to get used to it,' Jackson added, as they both ignored me. 'Once the record comes out... What are you guys doing here anyway?' He grabbed my hand and laced his fingers through mine naturally; I felt my palm clam up. His hand felt wrong in mine.

'Actually, we wanna ask you a favour,' Sally admitted, biting her lip.

'Oh? Okay. What is it?' He looked between Sally and I expectantly, and Sally gave me a meaningful look, telling me to say it. I shot the look back at her, and she returned it again. Eventually I sighed and bit the bullet.

'Sally showed us your play yesterday after you emailed it to her,' I started. 'It's really good, Jackson.'

He grinned. 'I know. Like Shakespeare, right?'

'We're not joking, Jackson,' I said seriously. 'You're an incredibly talented writer.'

He blushed. 'Okay. So what has this got to do with...?'

'Well... We were wondering if we could use your play to submit to Ms Hughes tomorrow afternoon.'

Jackson's eyebrows disappeared behind his wayward hair. 'Seriously?'

'Yes. If you'd allow us.'

'What about the other play? The one you and Josh and Conor wrote?'

'It's still missing, and,' I paused, then spat out, 'it was pretty bad anyway.' I hadn't read Conor's play... But I knew it wasn't bad. Aside from the fact that he was a good writer – a great writer – his play was more personal. It had a place in my heart whether I liked to admit it or not.

'Oh. Well then, yeah, I guess you can use my play. Go ahead.'

I laughed. 'It's not quite as simple as that.'

'You'll have to come up to Glenstal Abbey and sign a few things,' Sally explained. 'And if you have an agent or manager they should be there too.'

Jackson raised an eyebrow at her sceptically. 'I'll just bring my dad. What kinds of things do I have to sign?'

'Just some forms giving us permission to use the play and stuff like that. It's pretty straightforward.'

'Won't you get in trouble for using a play you haven't written? That was your punishment, wasn't it?'

'We won't be using Glenstal Abbey's lawyers, we'll be using our own,' I said assertively. 'One of the forms will say you can't tell anybody you wrote the play. And we'll have to discuss a fee of course.'

'A what?' Jackson stopped walking; I noticed we were near his house.

'A fee. We'll obviously pay you for the privilege.'

'Um, no, don't. It's fine. I don't want any money.'

I smiled in spite of myself and wrapped an arm around him. I still cared about him as a friend and he was obviously getting freaked out about how much this thing was escalating. 'Don't worry about it Jackson, it'll be really straightforward. We're not going to take the play for nothing, so you may as well accept the fact that we'll be paying you.'