Rivals at the Reality Show

I never would’ve thought that posting punk-rock covers of famous songs on YouTube would make us famous. Even now, when rehearsing our newest single with the band, the idea was sending a chill down my spine. My eyes travelled along the walls of my parents’ battered garage, skimming over the posters of famous rock bands we took inspiration from, when we were younger.

The lead singer of one of my favourite bands screamed into a mic, and the image took me back to when The Broken Red Guitars first started. We were all teenagers covered in acne, and afraid of rejection. Especially me. I never had confidence. The memory of Mrs.  Smith’s rejection haunted me even to this day…

I chose to brush it aside. I was already thirty, just like all my friends from the band. I had everything I wanted… Except a lover.

Although our agent paid for a fancy studio we could record in, we still preferred playing here. This garage helped us remember our roots.

I glanced at each member of our little, but loyal group, smiling at everyone. Eve, our bass player, with her copper hair and sparkling aquamarine green eyes, was the heart of our team, the one who gathered us all together, and came up with the idea to post covers on YouTube. Then, there was Gilbert - my best friend and the lead guitarist, and the craziest drummer in the world - Marvin. We came from different paths, but our love of music connected each and every one of us.

They didn’t notice me observing them, though. As always, the music was in their veins and their souls. Once we started playing, we lost track of time and space. This time was different for me for some reason. I was feeling sentimental. Emotional. I guess, deep down, I knew things would change after the reality show.

When the song was finished, a silhouette appeared outside of the garage. It was Arthur, our manager. It was only last week that he told us about the new idea the agency cooked up for us. And although we were a bit reluctant, it did seem like a great option for increasing our popularity.

As I understood, in the show business there was no such thing as enough money (or too much, for that matter). And, Arthur being Arthur, wanted us to earn even more. YouTube covers, bar performances and charity concerts weren’t enough anymore. We needed to go big. And, according to him, what better way to do that than by facing our competitors?

“Are we ready?” Arthur beamed at us, asking as if he was going to join us. Nope, as usual, we had to do all the hard work.

Were we? I didn’t know. Gilbert needed to part with his girlfriend, Manuela, behind, to move in with us – and our rival band – for a week. Eve was an independent woman, so, I was sure this strange reality show would put the least strain on her. I was worried about Marvin, though, because he tended to bottle up everything that bothered him…

And then there was me. How was I going to deal with this? Our fans hated the fans of Purple Vanilla, but I didn’t agree with all the fights. I actually thought that Purple Vanilla were cool, and wanted to meet them. I adored their newest album titled “The Lost Train.” It was about a metaphorical journey through life. All songs were titled: “Station: Home,” “Station: Love,” “Station: Heartbreak,” and so on. They were written by Wilk, and composed by both him and Austin. Skyler added her dream-pop, psychedelic vibe to their acoustic tracks, turning each song into a masterpiece able to touch young people’s hearts. I felt really mad respect for Purple Vanilla, especially Wilk. His lyrics were so incredibly powerful… I didn’t know, where he learned to write them, but, I wanted to have attended that literature teacher’s class.

Arthur mentioned that by participating in the reality show with Purple Vanilla, we could convince our viewers, we could create something awesome together. I couldn’t wait to do it! It should be interesting…

*

Ugh, I hated it when Arthur kept changing the goalpost!

But then again, I was also aware that if he had told us at the beginning what we were getting ourselves into, we wouldn’t have agreed. Not a chance. Competitions, yeah, right. The promise was broken, the trust gone. How could we move on from that?

Arthur sensed my anger, because he quickly added: “Look, it will all be fine. All you guys need to do is stick to your scripts. It won’t be that hard. Everyone will have a role to play, just like in the band, yes?”

I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn’t see. He was travelling in the front of the minibus, while we were at the back. Everyone was either busy gloomily looking out the window, at the beautiful lanes we were driving down.

“This is different.” I protested, a little upset, none of them said anything, leaving complaining to me. “How do we know if we can do it, if you don’t even tell us what our roles are going to be? Shouldn’t someone inform us, what lengths we’re expected to go, to get more fame? What if they make me pretend, I’m a chicken? I don’t want to do this!”

I knew I shouldn’t act like this… But the more Arthur lied to us, the less I trusted him. And he just told us that one of us would be lying in the reality show. Literally, his or her role would be to deliberately sabotage everyone else’s mission. Now, I couldn’t trust my friends, either! This was sick.

Arthur cleared his throat, looking a tad bit uncomfortable now. “You will find out soon enough, what your role is, and you will still have free will to a certain extent.”

That certain extent was what worried me, but I let it go for the time being. Gilbert placed a hand on my shoulder.