”He said I was fat!” Desma blubbered, sobbing theatrically into her hands. “He called me a whale!” Okay, so maybe he hadn’t actually said that she was overweight. He’d just given her a disgusted scowl and flattened himself against the wall to let her pass. But still, it was insulting, and a good story was never great unless you embellished it with certain details. “What the hell was he even doing in the tour bus?”

She was quickly encircled by the long arm of Grant, the youngest. “S’okay,” he reassured her, patting her shoulder. “You’re not fat, Dezz, he was just mad ‘cos you wouldn’t give him a second of your time.”

She sniffed. “You think so?”

“Yeah,” Grant grinned, beaming at her over his sunglasses. “I definitely think.”

She gave him a small hug, but it wasn’t thirty seconds before she broke down again into a wailing fit. “You don’t think I’m fat, do you, Jonas?” she cried, addressing the oldest member of the band, who was the only one of the five boys that wasn’t huddled around Desma, comforting her. He was bent over his guitar, strumming the E string thoughtfully, frowning as he tried a couple chord combinations and shook his head, disappointed with the sound. “Jonas?” Desma asked again, more insistently, urging him to deny the claims completely.

“What?” Jonas stirred, as if waking from a daze. “No, ‘course not, Dezz, you’re a stick.” With those few words, he looked back down at his instrument. Frustrated, Desma turned around and pulled Grant into a giant bear hug. He looked shocked at the sudden attention, and he turned bright red, but he couldn’t wipe the sappily happy grin off his face.

“You have to get back at him,” Desma demanded tearfully, at a decibel so even Jonas in the corner could hear her clearly. “I want Lucien Malfoy to pay.”

-------------

“Joy, you’re smiling,” Euan pointed out as he hung up his base after a big show. “You never smile. And we fucked up Hopscotch with my Heart. Why are you so happy?”

Joy, the band’s manager, just smiled knowingly, shook her head, and continued whistling down the hallway. The boys just stood and stared after her. She was never cheerful. It was all part of the irony.

“I’m going to crash,” announced Desma. She always announced her business to everyone in the room who was willing to listen – she tended to claim attention that way. “I’m exhausted. See you all tomorrow.”

“Bye,” answered Natasha cheerily, as Desma sauntered out. As soon as the lead singer had made her way out of the room and up to her bunk, Natasha’s face fell, and she stuck her tongue out at the closed door. “Have a nice beauty sleep, bitch,” she sneered. “Maybe you’ll die in your sleep this time. A girl can hope.”

“Play nice,” Keagan said distractedly, obsessing over a smudge on the side of one of his drums. “Mum said I could fire you if you got too annoying. And we don’t really need an assistant manager, anyway.”

Natasha opened her mouth to retort snidely to her little brother, but thought better of it and shut up. The band was pretty popular, and they paid her a fair amount for doing what she did. She wouldn’t be able to bear the humiliation of being given the boot by none other than Keagan. “Joy’s just happy because she’s getting lucky,” she said, changing the subject.

“What, really?” Chaz, who was usually completely apathetic about anything and everything that was discussed that wasn’t about pizza or skateboards, suddenly looked up with interest. “Joy’s getting some? With who?”

“Only the dreamy Lucien Malfoy,” Natasha sighed like a schoolgirl. “Honestly, she’s not that great, I don’t know how she ever gets guys like him. She even got him to tell her that he might leave his betrothed for her. Isn’t that romantic?”

“What?” Grant leapt up. “Joy’s getting nookie from Lucien Malfoy?”

“Definitely. I caught them at it last week. Every Tuesday, the bathroom of the tour bus. It’s disgusting. But oh my god how I wish that was me.”

Grant ignored Natasha’s aspirations and grinned. “Boys,” he said. “I think we just found a way to get back at him for Desma.

-------------

“Have you got the picture?” Grant hissed, tuning his strings hurriedly as they waited in the wings to stroll on stage.

Chaz rolled his eyes. “I gave it to Harry the lights guy,” he replied boredly. “Don’t worry, he knows the cue and everything.”

“Good.” Satisfied, Grant was beaming when the starting band walked off stage, and he strode to the microphone amidst the cheers and calls of the crowd. “Hell-oooo London! Are you ready to rock tonight?”

The crowd roared its approval.

“We’re ready to rock tonight! But before we do – “ at this point, Desma was staring at Grant, wondering why he was going off script – “I’ve got something to show you.”

He scanned the audience. It wasn’t a huge multitude, and the people who showed up were local faces – people he’d gone to school with, people that he hung out with. They were pretty big on the wizarding scene in the city, even though they’d encountered limited success in places where they weren’t playing for their friends.

“I’m sure you all know our dearest friend Lucien Malfoy!”

The crowd clapped again to show that they were familiar with the famous name, but there was less energy in the air. They were confused. They wanted to hear music, not shout-outs to people that they knew by face but didn’t know personally.

“And if you know his fiancée, Patricia Goyle,” Grant roared, “you’ll know that this is definitely not her.”

And, right on cue, an enlarged picture suddenly floated in the air behind the band. Joy’s shirt was off, but her body was hidden by Lucien’s broad shoulders. Her face, though, was clearly visible, and it was perfectly apparent that the woman kissing Lucien on top of the loo was certainly not his betrothed.

There was a collective gasp, and a couple jeering catcalls, and soon the wave of ridicule began. Grant grinned and bowed triumphantly, turning to catch Desma’s eye. She was positively glowing, giggling at the picture that suddenly loomed behind her, and she looked back at Grant, mouthing thank you. Inspired by new vigor, Grant lifted his pick high up in the air, brought it down hard, and began to play.


-------------

“I’m sorry!” Grant cried, chasing after Joy in the hallway. “I just wasn’t thinking! I didn’t realize what it would do to you!”

“Damn right you didn’t!” While Grant almost never say Joy laugh, he had certainly never seen her cry, and it was starting to scare him. “You never think, Grant! When will you fucking learn that sometimes, she’s just not worth it?”

“What?” Grant suddenly asked, on his guard now. “What do you mean, she?”

Joy scowled at him. “Don’t pretend like this wasn’t all about her,” she accused hotly. “And you know perfectly well who I’m referring to.”

“Well – “ Grant was dumbfounded. “Is it that obvious?”

“The way that you smile when she clings to you? Yeah, blind people can tell. You’re a fucking idiot, Grant.”

“Hey!” he protested. “She got happier, didn’t she?”

Indignant, Joy drew herself up. “That’s not the point!” she screeched. “And can’t you see, she didn’t really care if she got back at Lucien or not! She was just saying it to get someone to save her!”

“Well, I did,” Grant replied ostensibly. “I did save her.”

“She didn’t want to be saved, you moron!”

“What?” Grant’s head was spinning. “Joy, you’re not making any sense. Stop crying, please. Here, here’s a tissue.”

“She wanted Jonas to save her, asshole, not you! And let me tell you, Jonas would never have gone sneaking about to take pictures of my private life and then shown the proof to the whole fucking city.”

And Grant knew she was right, on both counts.

---

They’ve formed a band, the five of them. Euan on bass guitar, Keagan on drums, Chaz on keyboard, Grant on rhythm guitar, Jonas on lead guitar, and Desma on vocals. To tell the truth, Jonas had a better voice, but Desma was prettier and she couldn’t play the guitar worth shit (even though she had said she could at auditions) so she was the singer, and thus, the face of the band. Joy was their emotionally dead manager, and Natasha was their assistant. Together, the eight of them travel a small circuit in the greater London area and beyond, showcasing talent across England.

It didn’t take long for Desma, who was loud and selfish and attention-seeking, to decide that she wanted Jonas. As the oldest, he was mentor and big brother to everyone – that included Desma, who he saw as a little sister who could get a little irritating at times. But Desma was determined to have him, and so she started doing everything she could to get his attention – this included making loud jokes at Natasha’s expense (the two girls had been best friends at first, but when Desma started cracking puns about her dearth of love life, Natasha began to hate her) and spending a lot of time clinging to Grant.

At seventeen, Grant was instantly smitten by the pretty girl who entered his band and didn’t seem to mind hugging him. He was timid and mundane and ordinary – but around Desma, he was different. He was daring, dashing, and his temporary audacity, while it always got him into trouble, also always seemed to impress her. So he kept fooling around, wading into deeper shit just to entertain her, until he stopped and looked around and found that he was neck-deep.

Now Joy won’t speak to him, and neither will Natasha. The rest of the guys could care less what Grant did to other people, so they stuck by him. Lucien Malfoy hired the meanest, most ruthless attorney he could find – a wealthy shark named Cinderella Black, who agreed to represent him in a suit against the band for costing Lucien’s job, marriage and reputation. But as soon as she walked in to meet the members, it was clear that Jonas was getting starry-eyed. Cinderella herself seemed to find him quite attractive, and so the first meeting was more spent flirting than negotiating a settlement.

The sparks that flew between Jonas and Cinderella didn’t sit well with either Desma or Lucien. Desma saw their meeting as all Grant’s fault, even though he was only trying to help her, and now she’s furious with the boy. Lucien is starting to think that Cinderella might actually fall for the man and throw the case on purpose – but his reputation is on the line, and he’s not above using blackmail and violence to persuade her to see eye-to-eye with him.