We end up with Milo the black body guard and four armed Policeman escorting us out to the car waiting outside, well I say car, it’s a stretch limo… a stretch fucking limo. Jimmie and I scream like the pair of sixteen year olds we are as Len and Sean high five each other, we jump inside, Milo and the driver put our cases in the boot as they shout at a group of about ten girls and a couple of boys that are banging on the window of the car.

“They are proper mental here G, we were on some TV show last weekend and ever since then we can’t go anywhere without being recognised, it’s been mad.”

He pulls me onto his lap as he talks. “Dya like the car? We borrowed it from Kombat Rock.”

Kombat Rock are the American band Carnage are supporting, they’re world famous and have already had three number one albums and about twenty singles in the charts, they’ve been around for about eight years, everyone knows them, they have a reputation for drink, drugs, women and smashing up hotel rooms and they are the main reason for my little freak out in the airport building. I’m much calmer now, with my arms wrapped around Sean’s neck, his arms around my waist.

“Wait till you see the hotel,” Lennon says. “We’ve been on a tour bus most of the time but the label booked us into a hotel as we are playing here for two nights.”

“I booked us into our own room,” Sean whispers into my ear. “I can’t wait to get you naked.”

“Maca, I really don’t want to be hearing that, it’s bad enough knowing you’re shagging my sister, without hearing you talk about it.”

“Well you’re shagging her mate,” Sean tells Lennon.

“Excuse me boys but can we please just stop talking about who’s shagging who. Have we got our own room babe?” Jimmie asks Len.

“Yes babe, there’s no way we were gonna be sharing with Marley, not the way he’s been behaving.”

I look up at Sean, then across to Len. “Why, how’s he been behaving?”

“Like a whore,” the boys both say at once and laugh.

“What about drugs, has he been stoned all the time?”

The boys look across at each other guiltily, great; they’ve probably all been stoned all of the time.

Sean shrugs and pulls me in for another kiss. “Let’s not talk about Marley, you can talk to him later, we’re all going for an early dinner before the show.”

We pull up at the hotel and Jim and I just stare with our mouths open.

“We’re stayin’ at the Ritz? Fuckin’ hell, George, we’re stayin’ at the Ritz.” Jimmie can barely contain her excitement as we step out of the limo.

“Our bags,” I say to Sean as he grabs my hand and starts to lead me inside.

“Don’t worry about them babe, Milo or the bell boys will bring them up.” Well Sean seems to have adapted to this lifestyle pretty quickly I think to myself.

I travel up to our room in a complete daze; I have stayed in some nice hotels with my parents but at the time, nothing as swanky as The Ritz. Our rooms are decorated nicely but not over the top; as soon as the door closes behind us, Sean pulls me in for the longest of kisses, then he just holds me for a few moments, kissing my hair, my jaw and my neck, all the while breathing me in.

“I’ve missed you so much G, I’m so glad you’re here.”

We spend the next couple of hours reacquainting ourselves with each other, in the five and a half years we’ve known each other this is the longest we’ve ever been apart. Despite the fact that we’ve been having sex for the past couple of years, I wasn’t really sexually aware at this stage of my life. I was sixteen and probably having more sex than your average twenty five year old but that’s only because I was with Sean, if he hadn’t have come along, I’d probably still be a virgin. The boys at school didn’t interest me. Actually most of them gave me a wide birth because they knew who my boyfriend was and of course because I had three big brothers.

I knew I was pretty, I knew I had a fairly decent figure but I didn’t dress in a sexy way, I wasn’t aware back then that I could turn heads just by walking into a room. I didn’t lust after men or boys, it was just Sean, only Sean, sex for me at this time was only about Sean, one didn’t exist without the other. In saying all of that, I’d bought new clothes and lingerie for this weekend, things that were a little bit different for me. A skirt for one and a leather skirt at that, and a pair of red heels. My Dad told me I looked like a Drury Lane whore in the outfit; my Mum slapped him and told me I looked very sophisticated. I chose to believe my Mum; she had great taste in clothes and had helped me pick the outfit I was going to wear for the show. We had a lovely girlie day shopping and I had confessed to her that Sean and I were having sex; it was a bit of a wicked thing to do to her on reflection. We were sitting in a restaurant in Romford town centre. My Mum wouldn’t go to Macas or a café; she had this favourite little Italian place that we always went to when we shopped there.

“So you and Sean, it’s obviously still very serious between the two of you, this time apart hasn’t changed anything?”

I shook my head and looked down at my food, my Mum had poured me half a glass of wine and I took a big gulp, it was past one in the afternoon and I hadn’t eaten breakfast, the wine instantly went to my head. I actually had no appetite since Sean had left ten days ago and my Dad had commented the night before that I was looking skinny. I wasn’t skinny, not by a long shot but I knew that I’d lost some weight, hence the rich creamy seafood pasta dish I was now tucking into under my worried Mums orders.

“Why would time apart change anything Mum? I love him.”

“I know you do babe but you are still so very young.”

“You’ve been with Dad since you were thirteen,” I replied defiantly.

“That was twenty five years ago Georgia, things were different, lots of girls got married straight from school, we didn’t have the choices you girls have these days, the whole world is so much more accessible to you, so many more career opportunities available to women nowadays.” She took a long sip of her wine and refilled both of our glasses as I watched her, her blues eyes and mine are exactly the same shade nowadays, but where her lashes and skin are fair, mine are dark, she’s beautiful my Mum but right at that second she looked worried.

“We’ve always treated you like a grown up George, being the youngest, we just expected more from you and perhaps that wasn’t the right thing to do. You and Sean, you seem to be so serious about each other, you know he’s already spoken to your Dad about marriage?”

I didn’t but I wasn’t going to let her know that. “He loves me, we’ve spoken about marriage, and as soon as he has a deposit saved we want to buy a house.”

“What about a job, for you I mean, would you not like a career?”

“How can I get a job if Sean is going to be travelling with the band, and he’ll be Mum, they are going to make it big, I just know, this tour and the new album are just the start and I want to be there to support him. I want to be able to travel around the world with him, I don’t want to be stuck here in some poxy office, waiting for him to call or come home. These past ten days have been bad enough; imagine how long he’ll be away when he’s touring the states?”

I take a gulp of my wine.

“Okay, well I understand that you’re in love right now but what if things change, people do you know, you’ll be a different person by the time your twenty, you will want different things.”

“I will still want Sean, I will always want Sean.”

“Are you having sex with him George, are you sleeping together.”

My stomach lurched and I thought for a second I was going to bring up my lunch, my cheeks were burning; my Mum reached across the table and took my hand.

“I’m your Mum George but I’m also your friend, talk to me.”

I nodded my head. “Yes we’re having sex.”