Best Friends Rock! (6 page)

When the main reception desk downstairs rang through to say that the car had arrived, Ellie jumped to her feet and grabbed her bag. She double-checked that she had her notebook and pen and made her way to the door.

“Good luck,” called Francesca, and Ellie turned to thank her before hurrying to the lift. In spite of being rather nervous, Ellie was confident that she could handle the whole thing without any problems. It would be up to her to put Joe at his ease, so she must be friendly but professional.

It didn't take long to get to the hotel, which looked very grand. There was even a doorman. He opened the door for her, and smiled. Ellie didn't think she looked lost, but he seemed to think she might be.

“Reception is straight through here,” he said cheerily. “They will help with whatever you need.”

“Thank you,” said Ellie.

The hotel lobby was enormous, and the thick carpet muffled every sound so effectively it made her want to whisper. She waited at the desk for a couple of minutes, while the receptionist attended to a large woman with several pieces of luggage. Once the woman had gone, with a young porter to help her with her luggage, the receptionist looked at his computer screen for a few seconds and then smiled at Ellie.

“Can I help you?”

“I'm from
Heart
magazine,” said Ellie, feeling rather
important. “I'm here to do an interview with Joe Steel.”

The receptionist tapped a few computer keys. “And your name is…?”

“Ellie Ixos,” said Ellie.

“Ah yes. I have you here. We're expecting you. You'll be in the library…” He pointed to one side. “It's not really a separate room, but it's tucked away, and will suit you fine, I think. I'll ring up and let them know you're here.”

“Thank you.”

Ellie made her way to the book-lined corner that was the hotel library. It was perfect. There were a couple of comfortable chairs and a low table, piled with magazines. As she was deciding which chair to sit on, a waitress arrived with a tray full of drinks and tempting nibbles, which she set out on the table.
Heart
magazine, or at least Francesca, had thought of everything.

Ellie sat down and opened her notebook, but before she had time to read over the questions she proposed asking Joe, he arrived.

The tall, slim figure hesitated for only a second before striding into the library. He looked a couple of years older than Ellie, was wearing scruffy, low-slung jeans, and a rather crumpled T-shirt. In some respects he could have
been any one of the many ordinary boys she passed in the street every day, but Ellie was sure she detected in him a confidence that set him apart. Not many teenage boys would be so self-assured in these surroundings, unless they were used to them. She quickly scribbled
confident
in her notebook before getting up to greet him.

Ellie didn't usually approach boys she hadn't met before with such ease, but she was in charge here, and she didn't want to appear nervous. It was her interview, and whatever happened was up to her. So she crossed the floor quickly and held out her hand with a smile. “Hi! I'm Ellie Ixos.”

Joe looked at her hand and she withdrew it awkwardly. Maybe he was right. People of their age didn't shake hands as a rule. That was something older people usually did.

“Hi.” Joe shook his long, dark brown fringe out of his eyes. He looked amused, and smiled slightly. Ellie's heart did a little flip. She hadn't thought that he was her type, but he
was
rather good-looking. There was definitely something about him.

“So…have a seat.” Ellie retreated to her chair and he collapsed nonchalantly into his, carelessly sprawling his long limbs.

“There are some weird book titles here,” he said before she could frame her first question. “I noticed one the other day called
Avoiding Huge Ships
. Who's going to want to read that?” His transatlantic drawl made him even more appealing to Ellie.

She replied quickly. “Sailors, I suppose?” and almost immediately regretted her words. Judging by his expression he hadn't meant it seriously. But it seemed he was willing to try conversation again.

“All we can see from our hotel suite is the garden,” he volunteered in a disgusted voice. “I was hoping for a view of that huge wheel you have by the river, or maybe the Tower of London. Who wants to see a garden in London? And they charge extra for that. It's crazy!”

“Oh.” Ellie was rather thrown, but tried to be helpful. “Well,” she considered. “I suppose whoever booked the suite could have asked if there was a good view.”

“Coulda,” he agreed. “Shoulda…” He shrugged. “But didn't.” He smiled at her, and Ellie found herself smiling back.

Joe leaned back in his chair and looked at the nibbles on the side table. “Am I allowed some of those?”

“Of course!” Ellie was surprised that he had even
asked, though Claire had said he was polite. And it
had
been polite of him to ask, but now, after reaching for the nuts he was tossing them haphazardly into his mouth, and paying no attention when several missed and rolled onto the floor.
Typical boy
, thought Ellie.

“Didn't have time for breakfast,” he offered, although she hadn't asked why he seemed so hungry.

“So, Joe…”

He looked at her and she tried to arrange her face into one of professional interest, though what she really wanted to do was grin at him. “What's it like having Rocky Steel for a dad?”

“Well…” Joe began to look a bit shifty. “It's all right, I suppose. He's quite kind…and he can be really generous. He buys us…me…stuff when we're on tour.”

“What sort of stuff?”

Joe shrugged. “Just…stuff. You know…games…books…to keep us occupied.”

“Do you get to go to all his gigs?”

Joe shrugged, and another couple of nuts rolled off his lap and onto the floor. “Some of them.”

“That must be very exciting. Because he does do outrageous things onstage, doesn't he?”

Joe looked rather embarrassed. Ellie supposed it could be embarrassing having a father who in her opinion wore ridiculous clothes, and rode his motorbike onstage, but that's what the readers would want to know. Did Joe have ambitions to be as crazy as his father, or not? It was difficult to tell much from the boy sitting opposite her. And now he didn't seem quite as confident as she had at first thought.

“Didn't your dad fall off the stage on his motorbike one night?”

“Did he?” Joe looked confused, but he rapidly recovered himself. “Oh yeah, p'raps he did. I guess. Last year some time, wasn't it?”

“You'd forgotten?” Ellie was astonished. “But I'm sure I read somewhere that his leg was in plaster for ages and the band were getting worried that it might not mend properly.”

“Oh? Right. I mean yeah. That's it. It was worrying at the time. Can I have some of that soda?”

Before she could answer, or pour it for him, Joe had leaped up and slopped some into a glass. It foamed up and overflowed into the tray the glasses were on.

“Oops.”

“It doesn't matter.” Ellie got up too and helped him mop up the spill with a couple of napkins. Their hands touched and they both pulled away. “So do you mind having a dad who does things like that?”

Joe looked at her, and Ellie looked earnestly back at him, with her most empathetic interviewer expression this time securely in place. To her disappointment, instead of opening up, he turned away and swigged the drink in one. Then he went over to one of the bookshelves and stared at the books, saying nothing.

Ellie was worried. This wasn't going at all well. She couldn't seem to find anything that would make him open up. The trouble was, every time she looked at him she couldn't help thinking how attractive he was. Did that get in the way of her being a professional interviewer? Maybe she was putting him off because he thought she was flirting with him, but she really, truly wasn't.

She wished Francesca was there. Francesca would have known how to gain Joe's trust and get him to start talking. She wanted the real deal on Joe's life, not this surface stuff where he said nothing of any consequence. But how could she get through to him? Should she say she was sorry to hear about his parents' divorce? Would that
help, or make things worse? The questions flew through her mind, but she didn't have any answers. She simply didn't have enough experience of interviews to know if she was playing this right or making some silly mistake. Ellie wondered if she ought to make an excuse and go, but she didn't want to admit defeat.

She told herself that she ought to give it another try. He hadn't had any crisps yet, and he'd been enthusiastic about the snacks. In fact that was almost all he
had
been enthusiastic about, apart from maybe the books. Perhaps she could lure him back to the chair with crisps. Or should she take them to him and share the book titles with him for a while? Would that help? Did he really like books? Or was he just bored with the interview and her?

Ellie picked up the dish of crisps. She had to do something. She could hardly build an article around Joe having a possible interest in books! Fleetingly, she wondered if she ought to try matching his silence. She'd heard that loads of people got unnerved by silences, and had to fill them. But she rejected that idea. It would be unnerving for her, but might not be for him. That would never do!

She looked at the bowl of crisps in her hand. She
wouldn't take them over to the window. She didn't feel right conducting an interview standing up. If he wanted more to eat he'd have to come back and sit down. Then she'd give it one last go. But as she cleared her throat to speak, Joe Steel spun round and glared at her.

“It's no good!” he said angrily. “I can't do this.”

Ellie looked at Joe in horror. “What do you mean?” It was one thing for her to consider pulling out of the interview, but quite another if he thought she wasn't worth talking to.

“Yeah, well. It's not easy pretending to be someone else.”

Ellie stared at the frowning boy in front of her. “I don't know what you're talking about,” she said at last. “Do you mean you're trying to behave like your father but don't really want to? Actually, I was going to ask if you felt very different from your dad.”

Now it was his turn to stare at her. “No!” he said, taking a handful of the crisps she was holding and throwing himself back into his chair. “No way!”

Ellie sat down and waited until he'd chomped the crisps and brushed the worst of the crumbs from his T-shirt. “Well what
do
you mean?”

Joe Steel was having difficulty meeting Ellie's eyes. “I feel kinda bad.”

“You don't need to feel bad,” said Ellie, sympathetically. “It can't be easy.”

He looked at her now, and the smile was back, reaching his eyes as well as his mouth. “You're really great, you know that? I thought you'd be some old lady journalist, but you're my sort of age. That was a real shock. That's why I can't do this. It's not fair.”

Ellie couldn't help smiling back at him, but she was even more confused than before. “I still don't understand what the problem is,” she said. “All I wanted to do was ask you a few questions about what life is like, spending the summer touring around with your dad.”

“That's just it,” he said. “I'm not spending the summer with my dad.” He must have seen the confusion in her expression because he leaned forward until he was looking right into her face. “Rocky Steel isn't my dad.”

Ellie was thrown into turmoil. If Rocky wasn't Joe's real father, who was? And what did that do to the interview? She wished she'd done more research. How long had Joe's mum and Rocky been together? Had Joe only recently become the stepson of a rock star? If so, surely the whole interview was pointless? She had to try and rescue something out of this mess. Then another thought struck her. Could this be something to do with the divorce? Had it just come out that Joe wasn't really Rocky's son?

Ellie didn't really want to say anything about that sorry mess, but she had to do something, so she looked at him sympathetically. “So he's actually your stepfather?”

Joe was shaking his head.

“No! No! I'm trying to explain but you just don't get it. Rocky Steel isn't my dad…because I'm not Joe.”

Ellie fumbled to put the bowl of crisps onto the table without dropping them. “You're not Joe Steel?” she said faintly.

“No.” The boy studied his shoes. “I'm not…Sorry.”

Ellie was reeling from this piece of information, but she tried to remain calm. “Then who are you?” she asked at last.

“I'm Connor.”

“Connor who?”

“Constantis…but you won't have heard of me.”

“You're right. I haven't.” The thought struck Ellie that she had jumped to conclusions when he…Connor had appeared. Had she asked him who he was? No, she didn't think she had. She'd simply introduced herself, and assumed that he was the boy she'd been expecting. It must all be her fault…but then…surely any normal person would have put her right straight away? Why hadn't he? Ellie's embarrassment quickly turned to annoyance. How dare this…
person
come strolling in here, impersonating Joe Steel. How had he managed it? He'd seemed
nice
, but maybe he wasn't as nice as she'd thought. He'd been taking advantage of her. He'd been eating
Heart
's nibbles, and drinking their cola and…how
dare
he? Ellie glared at him. She felt humiliated. Had she been set up? If so, by whom? She was sure it wasn't the sort of thing Sophie would do…surely her friend Claire wouldn't either? And Francesca had arranged the interview in good faith. So it must be something to do with this boy who had suddenly become Connor instead of Joe. But how? And why?