What Happens in Glastonbury

That's My Boy

Being backstage sobered me up slightly, well, it didn't, there just wasn't any alcohol so I couldn't get any drunker. It was probably a good thing, despite the fact that I knew I needed the alcohol to survive this shit show, by shit show I mean Glastonbury festival as a whole, not Jesse's actual show. Which was about to start.

Mollie and I were up on what appeared to be scaffolding! looking down on the stage from the side. Which seemed like a safe place to put a very drunk girl, I really hoped I wouldn't fall on the stage below and ruin Jesse's show. I decided sitting on the cold, dirty metal floor was the best plan, so I did, which resulted in everyone else around me looking at me like a lunatic. I didn't mind. I was used to it by now, alcohol always caused me to do things that a normal human adult wouldn't generally do, I mean Mollie, drunk, she was fun and happy and liked to dance, she stumbled a little, it was cute, she still maintained her dignity and behaved like a human......me, I was, uh, well... there was the time I met a boy I liked after a night out at the pub I managed to convince him to get out of bed at 1am and come and meet me, stupidly he did, so I was stood giving him a blow job in the grounds of my old school when he looks down and says to me

"Do you know you're standing in mud?" I hadn't noticed, I looked down, my feet were completely submerged in mud up to my ankles, which would have been awful enough, but I had taken my shoes off because the soles of my feet were burning in pain from dancing in heels all night, the cold mud felt so good on my sore feel that I just kind of shrugged it off like eh and carried on. God know what kind of heathen he thought I was, unsurprisingly I never really saw him again. All dignity seemed to leave my body, replaced with alcohol where the dignity had once been, so I was used to the staring and the weird looks, I wasn't in a fit state to give a shit. Sure, I wished I was more like Mollie or any one of my friends when drunk but I wasn't, I was me, half girl, half beast and that was just the way it was.

I could see Jesse, waiting to go on, on the other side of the stage. The crowd were already singing one of his songs, loudly in unison, it was actually really lovely to hear, it must be so nice to be that loved by everyone I thought, I always felt a little bit like an outsider, a bit odd, I wasn't popular, I never had been and I'd certainly never been adored like he was, it seemed nice to be so accepted by so many people. He looked up at me, scanning the line of people up on the weird makeshift balcony for me, after a moment he clocked me, sat on the floor, he shook his head and smiled but he barely had any time to think about it as his name was announced on stage.

He walked out casually, as if he didn't have 200,000 people screaming for him. Man, he was cool! Way too cool for me. Maybe he'd dated all the cool girls and there were none left so now he had to make his way through the losers and weirdos, I wasn't sure which of those two categories I came under but definitely one of them.

He was wearing tight blue jeans, a white T-shirt and a black jacket. His hair was messy, it reminded me of his bed hair, and I wondered if he'd literally just got out of bed and left it like that. His trainers were insanely white as usual, how anyone keeps trainers white in this mud bath I'll never know, which only fuelled my thoughts that he literally unboxed and put on a brand-new pair every single time he was about to walk out on stage, insane!

"Hey Glaston-Berry how ya'll doing?" He yelled

Oh for fuck sake Jesse how many times have I told you it's Glaston-bree not Glaston-berry!

The crowd didn't seem to care as much as me about his mispronunciation, judging by the level of noise he got back from them, it was deafening! I heard a lot of 'I love you, Jay!' Which ordinarily would make drunk me want to punch them in the face, but I couldn't really be assed, it was a long way down and I wasn't sure I could decipher which ones out of a crowd of 200,000 so I decided I'd just let it go. Sober me wouldn't have cared, would have probably liked to hear people saying nice things about him but drunk me was definitely jealous... and punchy!

He started singing but he could barely be heard over the crowd, shouting and screaming at him, it was madness! The crowd were singing his song back to him far louder than he was singing himself.

"You're lucky do you know that!" Shouted Mollie

I just smiled up at her, stood beside me. In a moment of clarity, I did know that. I looked down at him below, commanding a crowd of so many people I couldn't see where they ended, it was just a sea of people as far as the eye could see. In every direction.

I was lucky, I hadn't given it too much thought before, most of the time since I met him had been consumed by trying to avoid being killed by him, I hadn't had time to properly think about him, about us, about everything really and I knew now wasn't that time, I was too drunk and not thinking clearly but I was thinking clearly enough to know how incredible he was.

I watched him below, doing his thing, he was so talented, I could see why he was so successful, his voice was so perfect. But more importantly all I could think about was now damn sexy he was! I had a soft spot for a man that could dance and man, he could dance. He was an amazing dancer. Most of his songs were slow, emotional, just him with a guitar belting out the words so there was little dancing but then there was the odd song with a faster tempo, and he would dance, and the girls would go absolutely nuts and I got it. I really understood the appeal, he had this thing about him, a quality, that special something you just can't explain, whatever it is he had it, it was like magic, he was magic, he had so much power over people's emotions. Mine included.

I watched him intently below, my heart pounding against the wall of my chest, wishing I could go down there and touch him, hug him, kiss him, well no let's be honest, what I wanted to do was go down there and shag his brains out! But I was sure the 200,000 strong audience did not pay to see that. Maybe they wouldn't mind though, my mind started to wander to that weird place again, I mean they'd get to see him naked, surely, they would probably like that. Nope stop, don't be stupid, not happening, no one wants to see that, just shut up and watch him sing I told myself.

I managed to behave like a normal human for the rest of the show. Apart from when Jesse dedicated a love song to me, and I burst into tears and sat and sobbed all the way through it like an absolute tool, but it could have been worse, I guess.

His set came to an end, I thought I might be deaf, the crowd had screamed for him for an hour and half with no let up. I didn't know how Jesse put up with that on an almost daily basis, it would drive me nuts!

I climbed down from the scaffolding viewing platform at the side of the stage, Mollie held into my arm, worried that I was going to fall and hurt myself, no, actually she was probably worried I was going to fall and embarrass her.

I didn't know how she wasn't in the same state I was, we both drank the same all afternoon, but it didn't seem to affect her like it did me.

We wandered around backstage trying to find the way out. I spotted a door in the fencing and headed for it

"Hey, aren't you going to stay and see Jesse?" Mollie asked

"Nah, he'll come out when he's ready" I said, I still wasn't thinking rationally, my body still running on pure alcohol

"You think he's going to just stroll out of the door into the festival when he's ready?" Laughed Mollie. I nodded

"Not a cat's chance in hell he will come out with the public, babe" laughed Mollie

"Yeeeeeah, he will. He's not fucking Jesus!" I replied

"No, I think Jesus would have an easier time walking around here unnoticed," said Mollie

"Just ring him and see what he's doing" suggested Mollie, it seemed like a sensible idea I thought, which was weird because I didn't usually have any sense of rationale when inebriated.

I called but he didn't answer, I knew he had to hand his phone over to his manager when he was on stage, maybe he didn't have it back yet.

"Come on, let's go get a drink" I said heading towards the door in the fence

"Ok, but he's gonna be pissed that you just left!" Said Mollie

"Ah he'll be fine, he's a big boy with plenty of girls to entertain him" I said waving my arms around in dismissal. Mollie followed behind me, probably pretending she didn't know me, all the way back to our tent, which somehow, I had found my way straight back to, it seemed that I developed the navigational exploration skills of Sir Ranulph Fiennes after several ciders! Who knew!