Too Soon

I was backstage with my camera while Of Mice and Men performed. I’d managed to meet a few of the bands and even speak to You Me At Six. I think they remembered me from an after concert interview. I haven’t been able to get any real interviews. All of the bands are busy and I only have today. Warped tour move to the next venue tonight.
I decided to sit down and got my phone out. I’ve already taken lots of footage and I still have my MTV Cribs of the tour bus which I uploaded on Austin’s laptop while they were doing meet and greets.
I dialled Scott’s number and waited.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“Are you busy?” I asked.
“That depends who’s asking, Gemma or Vienna? Because Vienna I haven’t got time for,” he laughed.
“Gemma,” I replied dryly.
“Oh, then I’m free to talk,”
“Ha ha,” I muttered sarcastically. “Guess where I am,” I urged.
“Houston, Texas?” he offered.
“Well done. But I mean guess what I’m doing right now,”
“Talking to me,”
“Scott, stop pissing me off,”
“Fine, what are you doing?” he sighed tiredly.
“I am backstage at Warped while Of Mice and Men are playing,” I grinned.
“You are not!” he exclaimed.
“Have you checked my blog?”
“Hang on, I’m going on it now,” he replied. “Oh Christ,” I heard Scott mutter.
“So?”
“How? Just how?”
“I bumped into Austin,”
“No shit Sherlock,” he replied dryly. “So you slept with him again?”
“A lady never tells,”
“But you’re no lady,” Scott joked.
“I woke up on the bus and I’ve been Austin’s girlfriend for the day,”
“Isn’t that morally wrong?” he asked.
“Not if you’re enjoying yourself,” I laughed.
“Of course,” Scott replied and I could imagine his eyes rolling.
“Excuse me?” a voice asked me and turned around. “Gemma Rae?” a man asked.
“Yes,” I smiled. “One second,” I begged and they nodded. “I need to go, Scott. I’ll call you later,”
“Cool,” Scott said and I hung up.
“Sorry about that,” I shrugged to the man.
“That’s alright. My name is Simon Hawly and work for an online media company that have been connected with Vans Warped Tour for some years now,”
“Okay,” I nodded.
“I think I have proposition for you,” Simon smiled. “If we can go somewhere and discuss it,”
“Of course,” I nodded. He started walking and followed him away from the stage and crowds and over to a tour bus.
“Please,” he urged. I walked inside and found myself in a very basic bus. It was smaller than most I’ve been in with shoddy fixtures and by the looks of it no back lounge.
“What’s this about?” I asked as I sat down.
“We’ve been watching your videos,”
“Oh really?”
“Yes, and we are very impressed,” Simon explained.
“Thank you,”
“Your most recent one, the tour of Of Mice and Men’s bus was awesome. We’ve been trying to work out how you managed to swing it,”
“I can be very persuasive,” I nodded knowledgably.
“You have a flair about you and that’s rare. A British charm,” Simon added. “Anyway, to the point,” he laughed. “We are a company called ‘Followers’ and we are only active during tour festivals, Warped being our main one. We give people the real life Warped. How? By regular blogs, interviews and fun stuff with the bands,” he said. This all sounds very rehearsed.
“So you tour with everyone?” I asked.
“Right,”
“I’m sorry but you said you had a proposition?”
“We want to take you on. Free for you of course. And the pay is good, we’ll increase what you get by fifteen percent,”
“Fifteen,” I repeated. “I don’t know, I have a plane back to England in a few days,”
“Do you know what an opportunity I’m offering you?”
“I do,” I nodded. “Let me think,” I breathed.
If I took this I would be getting a wider audience as well as giving those that watch my blog an insider. I could have the opportunity to try all of the things I’ve never been able to because of bands needing to move onto the next venue. Not to mention the number of photographers on tour I could pay to do me a shoot and boost my portfolio.
“Is this temp? Just for Warped tour?”
“Just for Warped tour,” he agreed.
“I think I would be happy to take the offer, as long as I have freedom to do my own videos and ideas, not be shadowed by you,”
“Complete freedom,” he agreed.
“Then I think we have a deal,” I replied. He put his hand out for me to shake and I took it. “I think I should get my things,”
“We will prepare a contract,”
“Brilliant,” I smiled.
I stood up and headed for the door. I stepped down and looked at my phone. I had a text from Austin. ‘Have I been dumped?’ I laughed and put it back in my pocket.

Notes

Hey! What did you think? Gemma's coming on tour. What will happen? :)