Page 19 of Going Solo

“I think you’re beautiful.” Cole stood and put his guitar down against the wall. “If the song didn’t give it to you, I think you’re the most amazing boy I ever met.”

I felt my face burn red and my heart thump harder. “What are you like?”

He picked up his vinyl. “You don’t have a player, do you?”

I shook my head. Cole took his phone out of his pocket.

“Have you ever heard the Velvet Underground before?”

I shook my head again. As the tinkling music started to play, Cole moved slowly towards me, his eyes never leaving mine. He rested his hand on my shoulder, the back of his fingers gently tracing their way up my neck and along my jaw until his thumb found my chin. I gripped Cole’s waist. He leaned in and kissed me. Short and sweet. Then he pulled off his vest—his flat stomach and bare torso filling my whole field of vision like the world’s sexiest IMAX cinema screen. I could barely breathe. My entire body was tingling. My pyjama bottoms were hiding nothing. Cole straddled me, his knees sinking into the mattress. His lips found mine. As we leaned back, his body found mine. Finally, my head found the wall.

“Ouch!”

“Sorry!”

After a pause to confirm there was no damage, we lay down the correct way along the bed. I closed my eyes to move in for a kiss, misjudged, and we smacked our teeth together.

“Ouch!”

“Sorry!”

After about half an hour, we’d got the hang of making out. Our hands were exploring each other’s bodies—hungrily, urgently—and, eventually, unable to resist any more, I reached down and grabbed the little gold packets Aunty Cheryl had given me.

“Are you sure?” Cole said. I was well beyond the point of no return, but Cole had clearly internalised Fiona’s lectures about consent, and I rated that.

“Yes,” I said, breathlessly, having never wanted anything so much in my entire life.

In that moment, I would have given Cole Kennedy the world. It felt like he was givingmethe world. As the Velvet Underground sang softly about pale blue eyes—perfect, somehow, for the moment—we pressed our naked bodies together, and poked and probed and winced and laughed and fumbled our way towards our urgent, ultimate, cataclysmic goal. And I felt more whole, more complete, morefull, than I had ever felt in my entire life.

Local lads advance in TV talent quest

Twelve East Anglian residents are among the 107 hopefuls currently in London for filming of the group stage of hit reality TV show “Make Me a Pop Star.”

Among them are sixteen-year-olds Tobias Lyngstad of Colchester and Cole Kennedy of Polstead.

Kennedy, who attends the June Brown Performing Arts College in Sudbury, is the son of dairy farmers Andy and Orla Kennedy of Dollops Wood Farm.

“Music is my life, and I want to share that passion with the world,” Kennedy said.

Lyngstad’s father, Bjorn, is a project manager for construction giant EssBuild. His mother, Chloe, owns a salon in the Colchester high street.

“This is a life-changing opportunity,” the Hawthorn Academy and Sixth Form College student said.

The boys have struck up a friendship and travelled down to London together with their mums for filming. Famously, the show’s contestants all bunk together in the same hotel during the competition.

“I’m treating it like a great big adventure,” Kennedy said.

In the group stage, contestants must perform a specially prepared song for the judges. They are then sorted into three groups. Each group is mentored by a different celebrity judge over the course of ten days, during which time they compete and collaborate through a workshop process designed to see talent rise to the top—either in groups or as solo artists. At the end of the group stage, twenty-one acts go through to the televised live shows, when one act is eliminated by public vote each week until the final.

The first chance the show’s fans will have to see Cole and Tobias on television is in three weeks’ time, when the East Anglian auditions episode (filmed in July) goes to air. Once the pre-recorded audition and group stage episodes have been shown, the live shows—featuring the final twenty-one contestants—will air on Saturday and Sunday nights from late September until Christmas.

ChapterEight

Robbie Johnswagger shot me daggers and held up a hand. “Stop, stop. All of you.”

Seven male voices petered out.

“What the hell was that, Toby?”

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