Please Don't Try and Turn On the Lights

1. A Hero in the Making

"A bottle of water, please," I chimed to the bartender behind the counter who gave me a thumbs up before turning towards the small fridge behind him.

It was unbelievably hot and even though it was only 11 a.m. I was already sweating uncontrollably. I could feel my mascara running and my hair was definitely not as pretty as when I had left the hotel earlier that morning.

I had been in California for a few days and was already contemplating buying an early ticket home, as this trip was not living up to my expectations at all! I had bought a 3-week Californian round-trip through my old university and before we'd left I had been super excited to meet new people. However, as the trip started, I slowly realised that all the other alumni knew each other beforehand, and therefore didn't show any interest in me whatsoever.

The round-trip included a day-ticket to the music festival Coachella and I had decided to go in the hopes of meeting somebody apart from my Uni group. I didn't even care about any of the concerts as I really wasn't that much into music. Therefore, I strayed away from my travelling group as soon as we entered the festival, and decided to get the full festival experience on my own.

The bartender placed a cold water bottle in front of me and asked for a dollar.

"On credit card, please," I said and held up my card.

"Cash only," the bartender said, pointing to a handpainted sign behind him.

"Shoot," I said, "I only brought my card."

The bartender was about to say something along the lines 'no-money-no-water', when I saw a guy next to me handing the bartender 5 dollars while saying "I'll get that"

"Oh, you really don't have to," I started arguing with the man beside me.

The man laughed and said, "So you would rather die of thirst than accept a dollar from a stranger at a bar?"

I shrugged at my own silliness. I mean, it was only a dollar.

The man continued, "plus, us Brits have to help each other out, yeah?"

I hadn't really paid much attention to the fact that he was British, but as soon as he had said it, his Yorkshire accent hit me like a truck.

"You' a Scouse, yeah?" he asked me, referring to my Liverpool accent, "One of my best mates is Scouse"

I nodded, "You' from the Sheffield?"

"Can't run from that," he laughed before turning to the bartender, ordering 5 beers.

"You want one?" he asked me, gesturing to the beer, the bartender was pouring.

"I'm good with water, thanks. I haven't really gotten used to the heat yet so I guess I'll have to drink loads to stay hydrated.."

"There's water in beer too," he said, winking at me, "anyway, don't let the heat get to ya'. You'll get used to it soon enough."

"Yeah, I can see you already got used to it," I laughed, gesturing to his black attire. It was close to 32 degrees and this guy was wearing a leather jacket over a black T-shirt, tight black jeans and Chelsea boots. He had his dark hair combed back and was wearing black Clubmaster Ray Bans. I was wearing shorts and a white top – and I felt almost naked compared to this guy.

"Yeah, it's hard looking cool in this weather," he shot up a laugh at my remark, accepting the beer from the bartender, "Cheers, mate," he said and handed the bartender 30 dollars.

"You here alone?" Leather-jacket-guy asked me.

I explained to him why I was in California and that I had ditched the group and planned to stray around the festival on my own.

"Oh no, no, no!" He said, "absolutely not! You can't experience your first Coachella on your own, love. Come hang with me and the guys."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to intrude!"

"Oh my, you are so bloody British," he said, "just accept the offer – you can leave if we turn out to be a complete bore!"

I had just said 'no' to be polite. This man in front of me was completely mesmerizing and I really wanted to get to know him more, so I ended up tagging along him, nervously fidgeting the label on my water bottle.

"So, why are you in California?" I asked him.

"I fly back and forth between England and L.A. a lot," he said, "we're going in there," he pointed to what was clearly a backstage entrance.

"Backstage?" I asked him and he nodded. "I don't have a backstage pass," I said in a small voice. I really didn't want to leave him so soon.

He shot me a wide grin, "don't worry, tosser," he said and pushed me in front of him through the backstage entrance. He nodded to the security guy who let us through.

"How did... What just... Wait – are you famous?" I asked him perplexed.

"Yeah, sorta," he shrugged dully.

"Sort of?"

"I'm in a band. Play the guitar, do a little bit of singing, you know. Nothing much," I could tell he was a bit uncomfortable talking about this.

"Don't you dare say I'm British when you're THIS humble," I laughed at him, "You have a backstage pass so you're clearly performing here. You must be in a somewhat famous band then," I stopped him and we now stood facing each other.

He shot me a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his neck with the hand that wasn't carrying the cardboard box containing five beers.

"Spill the beans!! Which band?"

"You probably won't even know us.."

"Just tell me!" I laughed impatiently.

"Well...it's Arctic Monkeys," he said.

"Yeah...I remember you guys!" I said. I had never really paid that much attention to Arctic Monkeys, but I knew they had had a few billboard hits in the past couple of years.

"We have a gig at the festivaltomorrow," he said.

"Oh! Wow! I would love to see you perform. I wish it was tonight – unfortunately, I only have a ticket for today."

He smiled at me and was just about to say something when some guy came flung his arm around learther-jacket guy's shoulders.

"Oi! There you are, mate! We're dying of thirst over here," the new guy said. He was wearing a white T-shirt and a denim vest. I was guessing he was one of the band mates from Arctic Monkeys.

"I made a friend on the way," leather-jacket guy grinned at me.

The new guy held out his hand to me "hi, I'm Matt," he beamed at me.

"Hi, Matt. Nice to meet you, I'm Rhea".

"Oi! British!" he exclaimed, "Well found, mate!" Matt said while giving leather-jacket guy a hard pat on the back. Matt took the cardboard box with the beer from leather-jacket guy's hand and held it up high. I could see a couple of guys yelling in excitement at Matt's gesture and I started to laugh.

"Rhea, yeah?" leather-jacket guy turned to me and said.

I nodded.

He held out his hand, "Hi Rhea. I'm Jamie"