We spent two days total in Seattle; one full day of press for the band, plus another half day of press and the concert that night. As we settled back into the bus the following morning, ready for the three hour drive north to Canada, the musicians among us were grumbling.
'I'm thinking we just send a bullet-pointed letter to each of the publications that are set to interview us,' Philip was complaining. 'One: no, we don't know when the next album is coming out yet. Two: yes, we're working on new material. Three: Conor does most of the songwriting. Four: yes the rest of us help. Five: yes, Sally is very pretty and yes, we do see her like a sister. Six: American fans are great, we're very lucky to have them. Seven: touring here is awesome, thanks for having us. Eight: yes, we're really looking forward to tonight's show. Nine: sorry, we can't answer any questions about Tyler Lincoln. And ten: thanks, it was nice to meet you too.'
'If I get asked one more fucking sexist question about what you all think of how long it takes me to do my hair and make-up I'll scream,' Sally muttered.
'Just tell them it takes the rest of us way longer because we haven't had as much practice,' Tarquin advised her.
'Yeah, you should get really into it,' Daniel said enthusiastically. '"It actually takes way longer because I have to help them with their make up,"' he pretended to quote. '"Philip has no idea whether he is an autumn or a winter and Conor has the worst trouble picking out lipstick shades that go with his skin tone.'"
Sally laughed. 'They would print that as a pull quote in huge pink text right next to pictures of the two of you, and I would fucking rip it from the magazine and frame that shit.'
'I really wish I could print this conversation,' Jackson muttered to me from where we were sitting a little further down in the bus.
'You could paraphrase,' I suggested. 'Just take the make up bit. Blow it up into a pull quote like Sally wants and gift a framed copy to her.'
'There's an idea,' he joked, nudging me.
'How is all that going anyway? Was your editor happy with the first article? It's going to press today, right?'
Jackson nodded. 'Pretty happy. She loved the article itself, and she's really happy with how "intimate" I am with the band,' he added.
'But?'
He shrugged. 'Nothing.'
'Come on,' I said, elbowing him. 'Tell me.'
'It's not a big deal.'
'Dude.'
He rolled his eyes. 'I could be a better photographer.'
'What does she mean by that?' I knew Jackson had to submit a handful of candid polaroid shots for the magazine to scan and include with each article; they were really going for the whole old-school, rock-star, on-the-road lifestyle vibe.
He shrugged again. 'Not sure. That was all she said.'
I laughed. 'That sounds really passive aggressive.'
'She's just busy. It's my job to figure out what she means and deliver it. I wonder if she'd accept a little text box where each of the photos are supposed to be, with just a really detailed description of what was happening in the shot. That, I can do.'
I laughed again. 'Well if you like, I can take the pictures for you.'
'Seriously?' he asked, turning to look at me properly.
I nodded. I hadn't expected him to want to take me up on it, but it wasn't exactly a huge commitment on my part.
'You're sure you don't mind?'
'Of course not. Why would I mind? It will be fun. We'll be like Woodward and Bernstein.'
'You're completely saving my ass,' Jackson said, grinning. 'Thank you so much.'
'It's not that big of a deal, dude.'
'Maybe not for you, Mister I Can Turn A Pile Of Trash Into Art With A Camera And The Right Angle. Writing I can do. Pictures not so much. I'll email my editor and let her know. Your byline will be right under mine.'
'Oh, cool, I get a byline?'
'Obviously. I'm not going to take credit for your work. That would make me a sucky friend and also it would be illegal.'
'Sick.'
——————————
We eventually made it to Vancouver, after a very draining episode of passport checking at the border that took almost an hour, and spilled into our hotel gratefully. We were going to be staying here for a massive five days, only two of which the band had to work for.
'Okay,' Sally said, rubbing her hands together excitedly. 'We have almost an entire day of freedom at our disposal. Where do we start?'
'Yeah, we've forgotten what it's like to have free time, what do we do with it?' Conor demanded jokingly.
'Save adventures for tomorrow,' Rachel advised them. 'Take today to do nothing. Josh and I were just gonna go to the beach. You guys should come with us.'
'Ohh, yes please,' Sally groaned. 'I want to lay on some sand and do nothing for eight hours, that sounds perfect.'
'You know what would make it even better,' Jackson suggested musingly, 'is if you wore that bikini you got in LA...' He trailed off when she elbowed him, but she was grinning.
'Okay, let's all go change and freshen up and meet back here in half an hour,' Sally suggested. 'You guys are all in, right?' she asked, looking to Conor and I and the rest of the band. It didn't really seem like we had a choice, so we nodded.
'Will you wear a bikini?' Conor asked me innocently as we made our way towards the elevators, and I punched him in the arm.
'Shut up.'
'Okay, how about a Speedo?'
'I will if you will,' I said mildly.
'Don't tempt me,' he replied, smirking.
Forty minutes later we were all walking along Vancouver's Sea Wall towards one of their many beaches, carrying bags with towels, sunscreen, bottled water, and a couple blow-up beach balls. Rachel and Sally were wearing light cotton sundresses over their swimsuits and the rest of us hadn't even bothered with pants; electing instead to throw some t-shirts on over our swimming trunks. We were also all careful to wear sunglasses with snapbacks pulled low over our faces to do our best to avoid being recognised.
The Sea Wall was busy, but though a handful of people stopped and stared and whispered to their friends, nobody approached us and we arrived at the beach unmolested.
We set about laying out or beach towels and everybody immediately disrobed. Whatever they say about the Great White North, Vancouver was sweltering in mid July and temperatures were in the mid-thirties. Everyone was sweating.
Sally and Rachel broke off slightly, laying out on their towels and chatting about, I dunno, how much it sucks being a minority probably. Tarquin, Philip, Daniel, and Josh set about blowing up the beach balls and one of them produced a frisbee; they spread out over some of the available space on the beach and started flinging it aggressively to one another.
Jackson, Conor, and I laid out our towels like the girls and settled on them comfortably. The sun was high in the sky and I felt a little like I was boiling alive in my own sweat, but it was still a lot better than dealing with summer at home, which was rain.
'Oh man,' Conor murmured from my right, laying out with his hands folded behind his head. Jackson was laying on his tummy, propped up on his elbows, on my left, messing with his phone absently. 'I need to look into becoming a groupie. This is more like the life I had imagined.'
'I think you'll find Tyler and I are also both working this summer,' Jackson commented mildly.
'Yeah,' I said cleverly. 'Shut up.'
'Talk to me when you have to deal with press all day,' Conor retorted.
'We are the press,' I informed him.
'Jackson doesn't count, he doesn't ask me stupid questions. Over and over again. And since when do you count as press?'
'I've been hired,' I said proudly. 'I'm Upbeat's newest photographer.'
Conor propped himself up on his elbows and looked at me over the rims of his Ray Bans. 'What?'
'Jackson apparently sucks at taking pictures so I'm gonna do it instead. I get a byline and everything.'
'Seriously?'
I nodded, and Jackson chimed in with a confirmation.
'Why didn't you tell me?!' he demanded.
'I mean it only happened a couple of hours ago.'
'That's so cool,' Conor said happily, laying back down. 'Model, music photographer... Your resume is going to be more full than mine soon. Plus, now I get my own personal music journalist and my own personal photographer. I'm not sure my narcissism will survive this.'
'If it seems like it's getting out of hand I can always write a hit piece on you,' Jackson suggested, grinning.
'And I'll include some really unflattering photos,' I added.
Conor scowled. 'Screw you guys.'
'Oh, that's some ego talking right there,' Jackson decided. 'I feel a negative review coming on, do you?'
'I'm going to take a picture of him from a very unfortunate angle.'
'Bullshit, I don't have any of those,' Conor smirked, and we laughed.
'Okay, I'm dehydrating like crazy here, where's the bag with the water?' I asked looking around.
'I think they're using it as a goal-post,' Jackson said, squinting in the direction of the boys, who had progressed to playing soccer with one of the beach balls.
I pushed myself up and made my way over to them, rustling around in the bag and grabbing one of the bottles, opening it and gulping from it deeply, before turning to make my way back to Conor and Jackson.
Before I could take more than a few steps, I was tackled from behind by a screaming, laughing pile of smooth skin and hair.
'What are you doing here?' Chloe demanded, attaching herself to me piggy-back style and laughing as I managed to remain upright.
'Being full-body assaulted by you,' I answered, hooking my arms under her knees to keep her from slipping. 'What about you?'
'Full-body assaulting you, of course!'
I laughed and carried her back over to where I'd been sitting, depositing her on my towel where she landed gracefully and glanced from left to right at Jackson and Conor coolly. 'Hi, boys.'
'Welcome aboard,' Jackson said, pretending to salute her.
'What are you guys up to for the day?'
'Just going to chill here for as long as we can, I think,' I said, squeezing in next to her.
'Is it cool if I hang? Cumatilis sent a babysitter to look after me but she is crazy boring.'
'Cumatilis?'
'The brand I'm working with this week. Cumatilis Swimwear? This is one of their's,' she added, gesturing to her bikini-clad body.
'Haven't heard of them,' I admitted.
'Can't be too surprised. They only do swimsuits for women. For now,' she adding meaningfully, winking at me over the top of her sunglasses.
'What are you guys gossiping about?' Tarquin asked before I could ask her what she meant, as he, Philip, Daniel, and Josh dropped their towels around ours and settled onto them. It looked like beach sports were over for now.
'Hey, Chloe,' Daniel said bravely, and she smiled at him from behind her sunglasses.
'Danny, right?' she asked, even though she definitely knew his name.
'Yup,' he replied, clearly not interested in correcting her, and the rest of us snorted behind our hands.
'Why have you guys stopped? The show looked real good from over here,' she said, teasing them. He stuttered around a response, but she had already started standing up. 'So many boys,' she said with pretend annoyance, jogging over to where Sally and Rachel were laying and joining them on their towels.
'You scared her away,' I told Daniel severely, and Philip punched him on the arm.
'What did I do?!'
'Got all up in her face with your toxic masculinity,' Jackson said seriously.
'What do you have that I don't have?' Daniel demanded, looking at me furiously. 'She adores you and you're not even remotely available, for a whole bunch of reasons.'
'It's probably that, dude,' Conor said evenly. 'Stop trying so hard.'
'Never,' Daniel muttered, glowering.
My phone buzzed on my towel beside me and I picked it up.
He is like a little bunny and I am like a fox.
Chloe Watson 15:05
I snorted with laughter and showed the screen to Conor.
'Ha!' he said loudly.
We spent another couple of hours relaxing in relative anonymity on the beach, the sexes reintegrating at some point so we were all spread out happily in our section.
'How is it still so hot?' Sally demanded later, fanning herself with her hand. 'This is not what I learned about Canada in school.'
'Maybe we should get in the water for a while,' Philip suggested lazily.
'No way,' Sally informed him. 'That would wreck my hair.'
'So what you're saying is that you would be pretty annoyed if we were to pick you up and dump you in the ocean,' Conor asked, as if looking for confirmation.
'Oh, you better fucking not,' she said threateningly.
'And say if you were to get dumped in the ocean,' Josh asked Rachel pointedly. 'Would it ruin your hair as well?'
'Oh no, I really want to get dumped in the ocean,' Rachel said earnestly, obviously trying to go the reverse psychology route. 'Please, go right ahead.'
'What about you Chlo?' I asked, grinning.
'Fucking try it,' she said archly, and that seemed to be the cue; Philip, Daniel, Josh, Jackson, Tarquin, and Conor scrambled to their feet, laughing, to each grab a girl under the arms or by the ankles and carry them at a run towards the water.
Conor and Jackson had a hold of Sally; Josh had Rachel by the shoulders with Tarquin at her feet, and a commendably courageous Philip and Daniel had picked up Chloe.
The girls were screaming and laughing and I dove into one of the bags we'd brought with us, grabbing Jackson's polaroid camera and snapping a photo. Then I picked up my DSLR and took a few more as Chloe, Rachel, and Sally were dropped under the water; as they broke the surface; as they flipped their hair back and water droplets flew everywhere; as they jumped on the boys and brought them down too.
Then I put the cameras away and jogged down the beach to join them.
——————————
'Oh my god,' Conor murmured later as we sat up in bed after dinner. 'These are so fucking good.' He was flipping though the pictures I'd taken at the beach, which I'd uploaded to my MacBook. 'Have you shown these to Jackson yet?'
I shook my head. 'I'll show him tomorrow. I think the polaroid came out pretty well, but it's pretty easy to make the digital shots look like polaroids if he prefers them. I may do that from now on anyway, for outdoor shots at least. Polaroid film works a lot better in darker lighting.'
'Mm, say more clever photography things,' Conor said happily, smiling at me, and I rolled my eyes. 'Did you tell Chloe about the Upbeat thing?'
I nodded. 'She was pretty excited. She said once I've "established myself" she'll insist on only ever being photographed by me.'
'Daniel is right, you know, she adores you,' he observed.
'Jealous again?' I teased.
'No, but seriously. I'm pretty sure you've got yourself a friend for life in her.'
I shrugged. 'I hope so. She's great.'
'Which day is that event she wants you to go to?'
'Wednesday, which is pretty perfect,' I said happily. Wednesday was the day Conor and the others had press all day, so we wouldn't have to sacrifice any of our free time together.
'I can't believe we get to spend so much time together,' Conor said, closing my laptop and putting it aside, then scooting over in the bed to wrap his arms around me. 'You're gonna get so sick of me.'
'Never,' I said happily, allowing myself to be pulled against him cozily. I reached for the hotel room's TV control and switched on the flatscreen at the end of the bed, settling against Conor to watch a couple of hours of cartoons.
Conor is still the single hottest boy I've ever seen and even after two years I find it kind difficult to keep my hands off him, but one of the best parts about being in a relationship for this long is cuddling up and watching movies and just being happy and comfy. You'll never hear me having anything bad to say about butterflies and electricity and fire, but it's also really nice to take a break from that and just sort of be together. Nobody would have made the mistake of calling Conor and I "friends" at the beginning, but friendship is the most important part of our relationship now. Not much makes me happier than just sitting or laying around with him, talking and joking and making one another laugh.
'So what's on the schedule for tomorrow?' he asked sleepily, after we had turned out the lights and he was spooning me.
'No schedule. That's the point, remember?'
'Hmm. There has to be something you want to do though.'
'Well.' I squirmed and rolled over so I was facing him, with his arms still around me, touching my forehead to his. 'One of the guys I worked with on the Calvin Klein thing was pretty insistent I take you up a mountain while we're here. So we could do that.'
'Just you and me?'
'Yeah.'
'Then count me in.'
I felt a familiar flush of happiness in my tummy, like I always do when Conor makes me feel like his favourite person.