Our first world tour was over, and while it had been stressful and exhausting at times, I can honestly say it was also the best time of our lives. The opening dates in the US had gone incredibly well, and we were finally starting to crack that market. This was largely because journalists in Europe kept describing us as the band that could become as big as U2.
That comparison didn’t really have much to do with the music itself, even though there were similarities. It was more about the fact that we were from Dublin, just like them, and that Bono was a huge supporter. He spoke about us so positively in the media that people who might never have noticed us suddenly paid attention. He became something of a godfather figure to the band, and the publicity he gave us was invaluable.
By the time the tour ended, we had sold over fifteen million copies of our second album. Our popularity had exploded, and everyone seemed to want a piece of us. Fans and paparazzi were almost always camped outside our place. There were never massive crowds, but whenever we stepped outside, there were always a few fans waiting and a couple of reporters hiding nearby, ready to snap photos.
We were desperate for them to move on to someone else. We assumed they’d eventually get bored of taking the same pictures of five annoyed-looking guys in hooded tops every time we left the house - but so far, that hadn’t happened.
We were living in Notting Hill, London, and had jumped at the opportunity to buy an entire building. We’d often told Tom, our manager, that we wanted to live together, never really believing it could become a reality. We all wanted to stay close, and in a way it felt like a continuation of our childhood - still living next door to one another, just on a much bigger scale.
One day, Tom told us about a new real estate project an acquaintance of his had mentioned. An old warehouse was being converted into seven apartments. The moment we visited and saw what was being done with the place, we knew it would become U-N-I’s headquarters. It was perfect - an opportunity we couldn’t pass up. The apartments were huge, and we could design them however we liked, but what really sealed the deal was the security. We could come and go without worrying about fans or reporters waiting at the front door. There was also a great outdoor space, and three empty apartments we could use however we wanted. The smallest one was destined to become a recording studio, and we talked about turning the others into a gym and a game room. We all agreed the last one would be for Rachel.
Jordan and I managed to convince her to move in with us because she wanted to attend art school in London. She had always been incredibly creative, she loved to draw, paint, and make things. After our breakup, we didn’t speak for a while, but the distance didn’t last. She was friends with all of us, the guys adored her, and I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it. Slowly, we began spending time together again, cautiously at first, just as friends.
Things returned to normal fairly quickly between her and Jordan, Dylan, and Damon. Being around Robbie again was much harder for her, especially at the beginning, particularly when he was affectionate with me - but eventually she learned to live with it.
The first time she saw us kiss, we were at a small party at Jordan’s place, celebrating his nineteenth birthday. It was late, everybody had gone home. We were a bit drunk, and Rob and I ended up making out in the corner. My back was against the wall, my hand tangled in Rob’s hair, his hand roaming over my chest, and we were kissing pretty passionately. I was sure she had left, but when I opened my eyes, she was there, watching us. I froze a little, and Rob sensed it. He looked at me, then turned to see what I was looking at. When he saw her, he immediately let go of me and stepped back. She looked at me with the saddest and most resigned expression on her face, and probably fully realized at that moment that she really had lost me for good.
After that night, I felt a shift in her. I could tell she was beginning to move on, that she was ready to forgive me, and ready, finally, to be my friend again.
I found out later that the reason for this change was a chat she’d had with Rob. I had warned Rob that she may want to talk to him when I’d told him that I was going to break up with her.
And she did. Rob only told me about their conversation long after it had happened.
Rach had been waiting for him in a café not far from the college she had been attending for only a couple of weeks. It was October when they had this chat and it had been raining all morning. When he got there, his hoodie was completely soaked and she laughed at him.
“Is that all you’re wearing?”
“I left in a hurry, it’d almost stopped raining.”
The truth was, Rob hadn’t wanted to tell me where he was really going. He’d said he had an errand to run for his mum and took advantage of the brief lull in the rain. I remember that day clearly. We’d had sex just before he left, and I didn’t want him to go anywhere. I’d tried to convince him to stay. I couldn’t understand why this errand was suddenly so important.
Rob told me later how nervous he’d been as he watched her order a drink, trying, and failing, to read her expression. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand how much I cared about her, or how important it was that he at least try to make things right. He didn’t want us to stop spending time together, and he’d often told me he never wanted me to feel like I had to choose between my love for him and my friendship with her.
“Chillax Rob, I’m not here to rip your head off, or any other body part for that matter,” Rach said to him, sitting opposite him.
“Rach I,” Rob said and she held up a hand to stop him.
“I need to say something and I need to say it first, okay?”
He nodded and this is how Rob told me the conversation went that day.
“I really wanted to hate you. To be honest, sometimes, when I think of you and Mark together, I still do … I wanted you to mess up with him so I could have a right go at you ...”
“I know, I’m sorry. Everything has changed for you because of me…, but Rach, I swear to you, I had no idea things would happen with him when they did, I swear to you I didn’t. It surprised me almost as much as it did you.”
“I never would’ve thought, I mean, I kinda did, I mean, don’t take this the wrong way, but you… I kinda knew you secretly had feelings for him, but I’d never thought he would reciprocate… ”
“I didn’t either, but now, it just feels so right…”
She sighed deeply at that, Rob told me.
“I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to hear this.”
“It is so frigging tiring holding onto all that anger... I just want to slap the heck out of you right now.”
“Why don’t you?” Rob suggested.
“Rob, I asked you to meet me here, because, I needed you to hear what I have to tell you… I started really watching you and Mark together, at rehearsals, gigs, when we all go out for a drink and uh…I know you try not to let anything on when I’m around but I can still see it, I can see that you two have something which, seeing as I’m being totally honest with myself as well as you, Mark and I never did. Before, I thought you had a great friendship, and it’s great for him that it’s turned into something more, I know he needs you in his life, I see that he needs you to…. protect him I guess…. and you’re the only one who can, I won’t deny that, and I see the way he looks at you and how happier he is when you’re around, so if you’ll let me carry on loving him, without the whole romance thing, can we be friends again? Not just for Mark’s sake, for ours.”
Rob was relieved and so was I when he told me what she had said. We had both hoped Rachel would say something like that.
“He needs you to stay his friend. Honestly today, the best I was hoping for was that you wanted to come up with a way for us to be around each other without Mark getting worried that we’d have a big bust-up at any minute.”
“Yeah. It hasn’t been easy…”
“Rach, you’re right, Mark does still love you, of course he does. Any chance you might love me a little bit one day?”
“Don’t push your luck buddy… but if you carry on making Mark happy who knows what might happen.”
“We both want the same, to see him happy.”
“Yes, we do…. I’ll do my best to get over him and to forgive you, but it’s hard because I just know I’ll never find someone like him, ever…”
“Of course you will,” Rob had tried to reassure her and I felt so bad that she felt that way.
“Oh come on Rob. I thought he was the one …. How would you feel if you were in my shoes? I know how you feel about him, I know you think he’s it, you hope to build a future with him. That’s how much you love him, I can tell. I had the same hopes, so don’t tell me that I’ll find someone else, when you’re responsible for stealing all my dreams away, you have him now, you’re happy and I’m not and that’s not fair, that’s not fucking fair.”
Rob stared at her. “You can slap me, go on, I know you want to!”
“Shut up!” she complained.
“Look Rach, I don’t know what the future holds but again, you’re right, I believe he’s it for me and I love him. I know it’s not something you want to hear, but I do, I love him and I hope you won’t stay mad at me for too long because in the end, it won’t change anything, you know Mark doesn’t want to see you hurt, I don’t want to see you hurt so think of it like this, instead of one gay best pal you could have two. Double the fun.”
She had reacted positively to that joke.
----
It was eight am, we were still in bed in our Notting Hill apartment. I had been awake for like half an hour, scrolling through social media when he awoke.
"Come on, sleepy head, wake up. We have press to do this morning."
"Uhhh, go without me," he groaned, stretching his arms.
"Yeah, you wish!"
He checked his phone as well and after a few minutes, I got up and put some pajama bottoms on. He followed suit and as we started heading out of our bedroom, I turned around and said,
"Hey, why don’t we stop for takeout at that organic place on the way? Like last week, it was excellent."
"Yeah, sounds good." he agreed, flashing that lazy grin I could never resist.
He placed his hand over my lower back and gave me a quick peck on the lips, which I returned, making it last a bit longer. I had just intended to kiss him briefly though but we never had much self-control when it came to each other. He kissed me back, with a little more pressure and a slight shiver ran through me as his tongue quickly slid into my mouth. He wrapped his arms around my back and pulled me into him and I embraced him tightly. We closed our eyes and started kissing more deeply. I got hard instantly and pressed my crotch against his morning wood, grinding my cock against his and grasping his broad shoulders.
He broke the kiss and we looked at each other and grinned slyly.
He slipped his hand down my pajama bottoms, not breaking eye contact with me and grasped my cock firmly, squeezing it, forcing a groan out of me.
"I just can't keep my hands off you," he smiled as he began stroking me firmly.
"Ooh," I quietly moaned.
He placed his other hand behind the back of my neck and gently kissed and licked my lips as his thumb spread the precum over my cock and his hand moved up and down my erection smoothly. I pressed my body firmly against his to increase the sensation and his hand rubbed against his crotch as he jerked me off faster and faster.
He placed gentle kisses on my cheek, then my ear, letting them trail down to my neck and before nibbling at it so softly that it made me tremble and shivers ran up and down my spine.
I moaned quietly, enjoying his nibbling and stroking; he raised his head and looked into my eyes as his hand continued pumping my cock and I humped myself against it.
I smashed my lips against his and slipped my hands down his pajama bottoms, grabbing his muscular ass cheeks, pulling him into me a little more. His hand on my cock was squeezed between our bodies, which just increased the pleasure I was feeling and I lost myself more and more in the sensation, loving the feeling of his hand running over my cock.
"I'm almost there," I whispered as I closed my eyes, running my tongue over his lips.
My cock was now leaking and his hand was rapidly moving up and down my length.
"Yeah, come on, shoot it, shoot it," he murmured and softly licked my tongue and pressed his lips against mine, kissing me lovingly and letting out small sexy sighs.
I moaned and he began to furiously pump my cock as I squeezed him to me.
"Come on shoot it, baby," he moaned sensually again, and I buried my face in the crook of his neck, smelling him and feeling his warmth against my face as I concentrated on my approaching orgasm.
Suddenly, my cock pulsed in his hand and I groaned,
"Oh yeah".
My whole body tightened and jets of cum started shooting out of me, soaking his hand as well as my pajama bottoms. He continued stroking me, holding me tight against him too.
When my orgasm subsided, I raised my head a little and kissed him softly again.
"That was so good," I giggled. My hands slowly released his ass cheeks and moved up his back, I squeezed him to me a little harder, "you're the best!" I said invading his mouth with my tongue again, and we kissed passionately for a few seconds.
"Come on, I'll return the favor in the shower," I told him, grinning slightly.
We headed toward the bathroom and stepped inside the shower, letting the water spray over our bodies for a moment, enjoying the warmth of the water. I rested my hands on Rob's shoulders and pressed a kiss on his neck. He turned a little to face me and I leaned into him, wrapping my arm around his shoulders and bringing my lips to his. We kissed deeply and I gently pushed him closer to the shower wall and backed him up against it, my lips never leaving his.
Pressing my body hard against his, I let one of my hands slide down his arm and then up his chest, feeling his hard body against the palm of my hand. I caressed his pec and a sensual moan escaped his lips when I started nibbling at his neck and lightly pinching his nipple.
“You make me so horny,” he moaned with a smile as he kissed my cheek, he was running one of his hands up my back while the other one rubbed the back of my neck.
“I can see that.” I whispered with a grin as I brought my hand down to his erection, wrapped my fingers around it and gently stroked him, “damn, I love this thing,” I smiled as I felt that my touch made his gorgeous dick throb and pulse in my hand.
He held me closer against him, and one of his hands slid down to my ass. He began caressing my ass cheeks as I teased his neck and shoulders with my lips and tongue, still holding and stroking his hardness, my hand pressed between our bodies. Feeling how turned on he was and how hard his cock was made me want to have him in my mouth and I started kissing down his chest. He closed his eyes to enjoy the feeling and held my head as I found his hard nipple. He moaned to encourage me to suck and lick it and I gave special attention to his chest as one of my hands roamed up and down his tight stomach.
My lips descended further down and I knelt down in front of his hard member. I looked up at him and smiled as I wrapped my hand around his erection and gave it a few strokes. Then, I gazed at his beautiful dick, pointing straight out, so hungry for it that my own dick started to respond. I wrapped my lips around the head and started a slow up and down motion, only taking a couple of inches inside my mouth. I could hear him moan a little but the noise of the water made it harder to concentrate on the hot and sexy sounds he was making. I started pulling on my dick to add to the pleasure I was feeling, as I took more of him in my mouth. I grasped his balls in my hand and rolled them around as I bobbed my head up and down his cock a little faster, taking a little more of him each time until I relaxed my throat and let his cock slowly enter my mouth almost completely.
“Ohhhhh,” he moaned hard as his hand grabbed my hair.
I pulled back, bobbed my head up and down a few times and slowly went down on his pulsing cock again. Rob sighed and quivered, loving what I was doing. I continued blowing him for a while, until my knees started to hurt and I slowly stood up again, kissing up his chest and finally reaching his neck.
"You’re so damn hot, I love your hard dick in my mouth." I told him as I stroked him, increasing my pace, he had his eyes closed, "Whatcha thinking about?" I asked him
"You," he answered with a moan.
"Yeah? You want me?" I asked, kissing the area right behind his ear.
He moaned and I took his hand with my free one and pressed it on my chest, making him run his fingers between my pecs and over my abs,
"I'm right here, you can have me whenever you want."
He caressed my chest and squeezed my pecs and I forced my tongue inside his mouth, kissing him hungrily for a few seconds as I continued jerking him off. We really didn't have time to make this last. My hand slid quickly up and down his shaft, precum escaping his slit. He was getting close and I kept up my pace. In my effort to get him off rapidly but with maximum pleasure, I pressed my finger against his hole. He pushed back on it and it easily popped in. He gasped and relaxed again,
"Oh yeah, make me cum!"
I massaged his hole with my finger and he whimpered, leaning his forehead on my shoulder. I continued jerking him off and my finger slid back and forth, teasing him gently.
"Are you close?" I asked and he nodded slightly, concentrating on my hand on his cock and my finger up his ass as he caressed my back.
"You like my finger up your ass? Feels good? Imagine it’s my cock, slamming hard and fast inside you." I moaned, inserting another finger and he clung to me. "You love it when I fuck you, don't you? I bet you’d want me to fuck you right now, come on, are you gonna cum for me? come on baby, shoot your load for me," I urged, jerking him off faster.
He let out a deep groan and let loose a stream of white semen that shot over my hand.
"Ohh god, Mark,” he whispered, leaning his body against the wall.
He touched his cock and shuddered a little, feeling too sensitive, he took a deep breath and just stayed there, basically waiting for his orgasm to subside.
"Damn, we really are gonna be late," I laughed and started soaping his chest.
He smiled and we stepped underneath the water to wash ourselves. I had done a great job of turning myself on too and I was hard again but I didn't do anything about it, although Rob did jerk my cock a few times and left me wanting more. We got dressed and left without eating anything to stop at an awesome take-out breakfast restaurant.
We started the day with a radio interview, just Rob and me. We rarely did interviews as a full five-piece. Usually it was Rob and me, sometimes Jordan would join us, or it would be Jordan and Damon, or Rob and Jordan. Dylan hated interviews and always found a way to wriggle out of them. I had to admit, though, that Rob and I loved doing them. Most of the time, we genuinely enjoyed ourselves, joking around and having fun with the journalists.
We were simply being ourselves, and whenever we read comments online, fans often said we came across as fun, cool, and easy-going, genuine, sweet people who hadn’t let fame go to our heads. We made a real effort to keep our feet on the ground and to be kind and available to the people who supported us.
When we arrived at the station, we were warmly welcomed by the staff and the radio host. After the usual prep, since the interview was being filmed as well as recorded, we took our seats and got started.
"We’ve got Robbie and Mark from U-N-I today with us! What’s happening guys?"
Rob started with a bit of a joke,
"What’s happening is, we’re just, you know, it’s just a regular day in the life of soft rock superstars."
The host laughed and asked,
"What would you say if I said ‘How is it hanging’?"
Rob replied with a smile,
"It’s hanging good!"
And I added,
"To the left!" because I just knew it had to be a question about a sex-related topic.
The interviewer clapped his hands and screamed enthusiastically,
"YEEES!! I’ve done that question for a year and nobody would give it the right answer!!"
I smiled proudly and Rob laughed,
"We would always come through if you want penis jokes!"
We all laughed and he said again,
"Yeees !", thrilled that he had finally found someone who gave him the answer he had been waiting for.
And I thought that we really had to stop doing that in interviews. But we couldn’t help it, it was just fun. And most presenters like him knew we liked joking around and so their questions were not always very serious ones with us. We knew there were a few rumors going around on social media, on fans forums about Rob’s sexuality and about our friendship, because we did joke a lot about it. I guess it was a way for us to pave the way for when we were finally ready to come out publicly.
Our fans had actually come up with a name for it, mixing our last names Myers and Emery into "myemers", and they would post pictures of the two of us from interviews or on stage, on which we appeared to be close and a bit more than just very good friends. There was indeed a lot of chemistry between us on stage and fans had definitely noticed something. Although I don't think they actually believed it to be true.
Now he added,
"Ok, I’m gonna ask you a serious one, are you ready?"
"What is it?" Rob asked, because I knew him so well I could tell he was immediately a bit worried.
He was always scared that one day somebody might just ask him ‘are you gay’?
But he didn’t, the host just asked,
"If you had the choice between a bionic arm and a bionic leg, what would it be?"
Rob asked,
"Is it like a trick question?"
"No."
" Is there a correct answer? To the left? Is that what we’re supposed to say?" we laughed.
"Ok, I would always go for the arm!" Rob answered.
"Why?"
He looked at me and I said,
"Because it would come in useful some nights."
We laughed and Rob asked him,
"What would you go for?"
"I think the arm."
"Why?"
"Just because you guys said it."
"Just cause you’re copying us!" Rob said
"Yeah, I’m sucking up to you!" he joked.
"Yeah you haven’t thought this through!" Rob joked.
"I don’t know, I just don’t have any questions prepared, I figured I’d just made them up like this."
"Ah ok, so now do you wanna ask us about how often we get drunk or something?"
"Yeah, ok," he laughed.
"Terrible radio host," Rob joked.
"Maybe I should just start talking about your next record and your projects and stuff like that?"
"No, no, no, it’s alright," I said, "let’s keep going this way!"
"You like this way better?"
"Yeah!" we answered.
And the interview actually became more serious and focused on our music, eventually he asked us,
"Is it the idea of like being a band at the moment, and being a band that is going to transcend generations, is that what you mean? Like a band like U2? Because I think that’s maybe the point you’re at, you can become a historic band."
"Well maybe." Rob answered. "But we have to get a bit better."
"Are you just talking about music though?"
"Basically, yeah."
"Really? Because I feel you have already raised the bar with "A message". Again, so many songs that make the listeners feel deeply. They pull your emotions and send chills down your spine!"
"Yeah, seems like we're good at writing those kind of songs, aren't we!" I said.
"You really are!" he confirmed enthusiastically. "Your songs are again so powerful on this album, everything just sounds so good! This is a very vibrant and exciting album in my humble opinion, the atmosphere is just… cool. People are wondering, what is the song 'A message' about?"
We both looked at each other with a smirk on our lips and Rob leaned in closer to him and said in a whisper,
"Maybe someday, we'll tell you!"
This song was 'A message' to our gay fans, as well as a song about our relationship. Again, Rob was making one of those innuendos about his sexuality that always kept the fans wondering.
"So you’re gonna record another new exciting album, it’s cooking?"
"As soon as we finish this interview… " I joked.
"Yeah you should start baking! Where are you gonna record? You can record anywhere!"
"Well no, we can’t actually," I laughed "Our manager told us the other day, you know you have to stay in London, not enough money."
"We would love to record in our… building, where we all live," Rob explained. "We’re in the process of building a recording studio there, we hope it can be ready for us to record the next album there."
"Yeah? That’s great! 'Cause you all live together still! And really, it’s just about a bunch of guys who get together as friends and …"
"And who have a lot of musical sex!" Rob joked, finishing his sentence.
He laughed and repeated,
"And who have a lot of musical sex, I love that!" he chuckled, "No, but is it just about being a band, being in the same room and playing darts or pool or whatever and making music, is it important to still keep that, when you have the money to go wherever?"
"I think if we lost that connection," I put in, "then everything else would fall apart. But if we think that we’re playing well together, then everything else tends to be good. And we just know that the best way to do that is to go into a little room, have Jordan and Rachel, who’s a friend, paint it, and just play in it you know. It’s not rocket science, we don’t want to make things more complicated than that. We just have to find ourselves a great producer that breaks us down to the very root of our personalities and that’s what Luke Morton did on ‘A message’"
"Well you know what? I can see you guys have really grown, 23 now? I can see it right now! Are you gonna work with Luke Morton again?"
"Maybe." I answered. "But we don’t know if he wants to work with us again. Rob drove him crazy" I joked.
He laughed,
"I did not! Jordan did."
"Are you impossible to work with?"
"No - maybe," Rob said. "But he pushed us a lot to do things we’ve never done before, and it can be difficult, you know. ‘Cause he’s just gonna say, you’re just not good enough, go back in there and do it again," he said authoritatively.
"And he does that!" I added. "He makes us work hard and we really salute him for that, because we don’t want to enter the safety zone and be in danger of repeating ourselves."
"Yeah we don’t want to be in danger of repeating ourselves," Rob repeated twice and laughed.
"Do you feel the pressure? People are expecting a lot from you, the world waits in optimistic anticipation for your third release!" he said dramatically and added," People wanna see what U-N-I still has up their sleeve! Because you have already changed your sound between your first two albums, so…’
"Not dramatically", I answered. "we believe that there'll be a sound shift. We aren't afraid to be experimental and to be daring but we don't want to wander too far from our core sound. We do wanna try new things on every album we release though. I know we might go against what the fans are expecting on a few songs." I smiled.
"Hey, do you guys like piano?" Rob asked. "Well here's a trumpet solo!" he exclaimed.
The host laughed and Rob added. " A message' is a little less personal than our previous work. So, if you're one of our fans who like to lock themselves in a room and cry about how you personally relate to the song "Shiver", you might not be as crazy about our new album. But who knows what kind of songs are gonna emerge in the future? We haven't really started yet. You're right though, we are risk takers musically, but we don't want to take people's expectations in one delicious scoop and toss them out the window!"
The host asked,
"Well, I have to tell you, I think you're not gonna disappoint because I believe the production work on your second album was already a lot better. Things build and fall so smoothly, it flows so well. It's like you're telling a story, which is awesome. A little bit of piano over here, a touch of acoustic, some epic electric guitar work to spice things up, your voice is amazing…there really aren't any bad songs on the album, and really some songs are quite simply phenomenal."
We thanked him and he asked,
"So, when you play together then, how do you approach song writing when you’re in the studio?"
"We just play long enough and just wait you know," I answered. "We just play longer than other people. ‘Cause I think the great songs are just around, and if you wait long enough, they will just eventually fall down onto you."
"That’s a nice way to approach it."
"Yeah," I confirmed.
"Do you realize now, everything that’s happened to you so far? Because when your first album went to number one, you just had no idea how it happened. But now you’ve come all this way, you’ve done all these interviews, are you in that same mindset of, ‘I didn’t expect all this to happen’?"
I answered,
"I think the more we go on, the more we know we’re gonna have to do lots of interviews and talk about ourselves and what we do in the studio and all that, so we just have to make sure we like what we do and we’re enthusiastic about it. But to answer your question though, it’s a yes, we realize what’s happening now and we’re trying not to fall in any traps, like fighting over money or stuff like that, and so far, so good!"
"Yeah," the presenter added, "people say, we do it cause we love the music, I think that’s easy to say when you’re very successful, right? Do you think, if it hadn’t had broken for you guys you would still be doing it, and still trying to break?"
"I hope so," I answered. "I’m pretty sure that we’d be playing on, you know, weddings and hotel resorts somewhere, but we’d probably be the same people."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, I’m pretty sure." I confirmed. "Jordan might have done something else," I laughed. "He might have said, ‘fuck this’, I’ll see you on Saturday for rehearsals to hang out but I’m not playing in hotel resorts seven nights a week."
Rob laughed.
"Do you get along as a band? I know you’re very close-knit, but there must be a bit of eye-rolling and door slamming, you must do each other’s heads in sometimes, in the same way that a family does."
"Not really,," I said.
"No?" he asked surprised.
"No," Rob agreed. "I think on our last album we had one fall out between myself and Jordan, that lasted about three minutes. You know, apart from me and Jordan, everyone else is very calm. So, we’re really working on it. And we’re a lot better, aren’t we?" he asked me.
"Yeah," I answered.
"Yeah, would you agree?" he asked again.
"I would agree, yeah," I said and he pushed me with his shoulder because he knew I was lying.
The host added,
"I think that as the lead singer and frontman surely it’s your job to not be calm! It’s what we call LSD ! Lead Singer Disorder!"
"Yeah ? LSD? Funny, I like it!" Rob laughed, " See!" Rob turned to me pointing at the interviewer, ‘he told me, "I’ve got an excuse now, it’s LSD!"
I laughed.
"That's convenient. What’s Jordan’s excuse? ‘Cause he’s actually more hyperactive than you are!" I joked and Rob laughed.
Indeed, he and Jordan just loved going out, drinking and partying at every opportunity, always making more friends and meeting new people, they constantly needed to be doing something entertaining when Dylan and me, even Damon, were more quiet and enjoyed spending more quality time together, writing music or just hanging out together.
"But I think it’s important that I’m surrounded by people who keep me sane, you know," Rob said. "They can eye roll me and slam the door in my face, and I just have to take it."
" 'Cause you need them."
" ‘Cause I need them, yes!" he agreed and smiled at me.
He asked us a few more questions and we wrapped up the interview.
When we left, my phone rang. It was Tom, our manager.
"Mark, are you guys done?"
"Yeah, we’re about to head out."
"Ok, don’t! A taxi’s coming to pick you up, you’ve got a quick interview with ‘The Sun’, and then you’re done for the day, alright?"
“The Sun?” I asked, caught off guard. “Why?”
“I don’t know. They want to write a piece on you, I guess. I’ll meet you both over there.”
"That’s just weird Tom, why would a tabloid like that want to interview us?"
‘The Sun’ was like the worst tabloid newspaper in the UK. These people just liked to slag people off.
"Hey, I don’t know, just go, it won’t be a very deep interview with them, that’s for sure, what are you worried about?"
I remained quiet for a few seconds and finally said,
"Well, that they might know something about Rob and me."
“No,” he said quickly, his voice reassuring. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with that.”
“Alright,” I replied, though the unease hadn’t gone away. “See you there.”
I turned to Rob who had heard the conversation.
"Don’t you find that weird? That the ‘The Sun’ wants to interview us?" I asked him.
“Yeah,” he said, frowning. “It is.”
“Tom doesn’t seem worried,” I said. “Maybe we shouldn’t go.”
“No,” Rob replied after a beat. “We should. If they know something, I want to be sure.”
When we got there, they showed us in a room and asked us to wait for a moment. We sat on one of the large sofas. There was orange juice on the coffee table. We had some as Tom asked us a few questions about the interview we’d just finished.
The room was small but cozy, its walls covered with old articles and clippings. I stood up to take a closer look while we waited for the journalist to arrive.
After a moment, he walked in. He was tall, quite handsome, with a distinctly English air about him, and he looked to be in his thirties.
He wasn’t alone.
A large Black man followed him in immediately. He looked like a security guard, serious, unreadable, and took up position by the window without a word, staring out at the street below.
I glanced at Rob, then at Tom. Both wore the same tight, uneasy expression.
Why would a journalist need a security guard?
We already knew the answer.
And we knew that they knew.
To get in touch with the author, send them an email.
