A Greek Odyssey - Jason Fic

CHAPTER 83

Robbie shook the microphone, a look of confusion crossing his face. He noticed someone had switched it off, so the backing track had drowned out the sound of his voice. He spun round as he heard a sniggering sound and a muffled laugh.

'Right! who's idea of a joke was that? Come on out!' There was silence for a couple of seconds and then another giggle followed by someone muttering, 'no, you own up.' Another disembodied sounding voice whispered louder this time, 'no, you own up.'

Eventually Ronan and Mikey from Boyzone popped up from behind the stage, nearly wetting themselves with laughter. 'Sorry, we couldn't help ourselves mate,'  Mikey apologised, wandering over and clapping Robbie on the back.

'Wanker.' Robbie muttered in reply, a smile on his face. 'Did you want to give me bloody heart failure?'

'That was the idea.'

'You'd better not try a trick like that tomorrow night or I'll knock your fucking block off!' Robbie laughed. He knew that the two bands got on very well, from what the others had said about Boyzone to him, before he rejoined and that the real rivalry was made up by the press. It was true that both wanted to be the more successful of the bands, but it was a friendly rivalry and whenever the two bands appeared on anything together mayhem ensued, with them constantly playing tricks on each other.

'Rob, you know we'd never do anything like that tomorrow. Good luck, hope you really show the doubters tomorrow night.' Roanan replied, also clapping Rob on the back. He looked at them all in turn, 'right, we're all done here now. See ya tomorrow night.'

The rest of the sound-check went as planned and by the time they had  rehearsed the song three times they were happy with the sound quality and the staging and agreed that they'd got it nailed. The meeting with Simon Cowell followed, and he gave them a schedule of the running times for all of the show. He was hoping that this would be one of the biggest audiences ever for the X Factor. It wasn't every day that you had three of the biggest bands on one show, especially one who was performing together as a five-piece for the first time in fifteen years, so he had high hopes for the following evening.

By the time the lads had finished their meeting with Simon both The Wanted and Boyzone were long gone. After double-checking the schedule again, Gary suggested they meet at the studios at around 4pm, ready for the kick-off at 7pm so they could have one more run-through before the show and get settled into their dressing room. The studios had laid on cars to pick up the lads families, so that was one less thing for them all to worry about. The guests and families were all being collected so they would be at the studios for around 6pm, which would then give them time to see each other prior to the show starting.

Jason headed off home to Lexi, hoping she would be back when he arrived home as it was nearly 5pm. He sat down on the Underground train as it made it's way towards home and took his mobile phone out of his jacket pocket to see if she had messaged him. Smiling, he saw she had messaged him to say she'd had a lovely lunch with Dee, Katrina and the kids and as they were finished by mid-afternoon she'd decided to go and look for a dress for the following evening. The train pulled into South Kensington station and as Jason left the station he rang Lexi to see when she would be back.

'Hi luv, are you finished yet?' he could hear piped music faintly in the background as Lexi answered her phone after a couple of rings.

'Oh hi Jay! No, I'm just in Karen Millen. Hang on a mo...' he heard the sound of muffled voices and then Lexi came back on the line. 'Sorry, I'm not familiar with the area yet. I had to ask where I am. I'm in Barkers Arcade, just off the High street.' she giggled with embarassment that she'd had to ask where exactly she was. 'Where are you?'