Starstruck (18 page)

Luke:
Hello?

I
suppose I could just sign out and pretend I didn’t see his message, but then
again I don’t want to sever ties with the band.

Nicole:
Hey.

Luke:
How are you?

Nicole:
Fine thanks, you?

Wow,
this is awkward.

Luke:
I’m great, just bored backstage. We’re back on tour, as of today.

Nicole:
Really? Is Eddie ok?

Luke:
He’s fine. His leg is in plaster, but he’s loving all the attention.

I
bet he is. This is probably the best thing to ever happen to Eddie, the
groupies will be all over him – more so than usual. I don’t really know what to
say, so I say nothing. The ball is totally in his court.

Luke:
We’re in Leeds on Friday, I can put you on the guestlist if you like?

Nicole:
Thanks, that would be great.

Luke:
+1?

Nicole:
Please. Will bring Emily.

Luke:
Great. Looking forward to seeing you, so sorry about last time.

Nicole:
Don’t worry about it, honestly.

Luke:
We’ll talk about it properly on Friday?

Nicole:
Sure.

Luke:
Well I’d better go get ready.

Nicole:
Ok, say hi to the boys for me.

Now
there’s a conversation I’m going to do everything I can to avoid having. I’ll
take Emily with me, under strict instruction that she doesn’t leave my side for
a second. I remember doing something similar at school when I knew that a boy I
didn’t like was going to ask me out, I asked one of my friends to promise not
to leave me alone with him. Then again, as soon as he asked her to she walked
off and left me alone with him and I ended up being his girlfriend for six
months, but Emily would never do that to me.

I’m
feeling really nervous about going but I don’t want to end up out of the loop,
especially now I’m probably out of Dylan’s loop. At least we’ll be in my home
town, which means I can go home afterwards. If Luke thinks I’ll be sharing a
bunk or a room with him he can think again.

‘So
come on, how was it?’ Jake asks me.

‘It
was ok, I guess,’ I tease, amused by Jakes interest in popular culture and the
gossip from Dylan’s wedding. He couldn’t have cared less about all this stuff
until he met me and although he pretends he still doesn’t care I know better.

‘Tell
us everything,’ Emily insists.

‘It
was
so
glamorous,’ I spill. ‘Well, ninety-nine per cent glamorous.’

‘What
do you mean?’ Emily looks confused.

‘Crystal
Slater – sorry, Crystal King.’

‘You
didn’t like her?’ Em asks me.

‘Honestly?
She’s a horrible little chav. I went down there with an open mind and I gave
her a chance, but I really didn’t like her.’

Emily
and Jake are both staring at me, absolutely fascinated by my story. We wouldn’t
be able to have this conversation if Vicky were here because I don’t trust her
at all. Luckily she’s gone out to pick us up some lunch which gives us a chance
to have a decent conversation.

‘She
was horrible to me from the word go, I didn’t stand a chance. If she wasn’t
going to try, then why should I?’

‘She
probably feels threatened by you,’ Jake tells me frankly. ‘We’ve all seen you
with Dylan, you’re his right-hand woman. He hangs off your every word. She’s
not going to like that.’

‘Well
I can’t imagine I’ll be his right-hand woman anymore, not now he has a wife.’ I
say the word wife in a silly voice.

I
go on to tell them all about it, everything from Daisy the cow to Dylan going
missing, although I’m careful with what I say about Charles – it’s not that I
don’t trust Jake, it’s just more of a girly conversation.

I’ve
only just finished telling my story when Vicky comes barging through the door.
As she does, our conversation stops rather abruptly, none of us thinking fast
enough to pretend we were talking about something else. Vicky dramatically
throws the bags containing our lunch down on her desk hard and my initial
concern is with my sandwich.

 ‘Don’t
stop on my account, carry on,’ she yells, already in a full-blown strop.

‘We
weren’t talking about anything in particular,’ I tell her with a forced smile,
although judging by the look on her face she isn’t buying it.

‘Bullshit!’
she shouts.

‘Vic,’
Emily speaks to her in a hushed voice. ‘Don’t forget who you’re talking to,
Nicole is still your boss.’

Vicky
screams before turning on her heels (the heels of her feet, I’ve never seen her
wearing a stylish pair of shoes) and walking straight back out the door.

‘Oh,
for God’s sake! Talk about over reacting,’ I say.

‘Shall
I go after her?’ Emily asks me. I’m thinking no, but I tell her yes.

‘She’s
taking advantage of Em’s good nature,’ I tell Jake when Emily has left the room.

‘I
know, but she won’t listen. You’ve been away a lot recently, so the two of them
have been together a lot. Can’t you just sack her, Nic? We don’t need her
really. ’

‘I
want to, believe me. I don’t think I have a real reason though.’ To be honest,
I have no idea about that side of things, but it didn’t really matter when I
was only employing my friends. I’ll have to have a word with ET.

I
walk over to Vicky’s desk and inspect my lunch. Panic over, my sandwich is
fine, so I head into my office with it. Jake is back at his desk happily
tapping away at something I probably couldn’t understand, so I shut my door
behind me. That way I don’t have to face Vicky when she comes back - if she
comes back.

I
scroll through some of the press releases in my inbox to see if there’s
anything special. This is the most stressful time, just after we put an issue
online, because we have to start finding things to fill the next one. There’s
nothing jumping out of the screen at me but I don’t need to worry just yet.

I
am stopped in my tracks when I notice a new e-mail come through. It’s from
Charles.

I
click the message instantly. I haven’t heard from Charles since that text just
after he left me at the station.

“Though
you might like to see a couple of these – strictly for your eyes only.”

I
download the attachments excitedly. The first one I open is a photo of me and
Dylan from the wedding. Wow, what an awesome photo, it pains me that I can’t
show anyone yet, but I know that the magazine is out later this week. The
second photo is the one of me and Charles, and I can’t help but notice what a
cute couple we make - not that we are a couple. Oh dear, there’s that crazy
talk. You know, those little things you hear other girls say right before you
thank God you’re not one of
those
girls. I look so happy in this photo.
I’m not drunk, I’m not hanging off a celebrity, I’m not in some random club,
I’m just myself, standing next to a normal bloke, and I’m smiling. I feel vain
just thinking it but my dress looks amazing, and despite not having enough time
to finish my hair it still looks pretty good. I’m so proud of these photos, I
can’t wait to see the rest. I want to show Emily as soon as she gets back,
although I already feel a strong sense of loyalty towards Charles and if he
says they’re for my eyes only then I plan to keep it that way.

I
can hear Emily and Vicky chatting with Jake - Emily must have been able to talk
her into coming back, what a shame.

Deciding
to keep out of her way, I stay in my office until 5pm, but unfortunately I
can’t go home without walking through the main office. Let’s say I could fit my
arse through the window, we’re way too high up for that to be an option.

When
I walk out into the main office, despite the fact that it is 5pm, everyone is
hard at work and in total silence.

‘Jake,
are you ok switching everything off?’ I ask, trying to avoid eye contact with
Vicky although I can feel her eyes on me.

‘Yeah,
no problem. See you tomorrow.’

‘I’ll
call you later.’ Emily smiles at me.

‘Yeah
sure, see you all later.’

‘Wait,’
Vicky calls after me. I take a deep, calming breath before turning to face her.

She
makes her way across the room to me with a smile on her face, but she’s still
got that look about her, the kind of evil look that would make you think twice
about leaving your children or small animals with her.

‘I’m
sorry about earlier, Nicole. I just thought you were talking about me but don’t
worry, Emily told me everything.’

I
look over at Emily, hoping that she didn’t actually tell her everything. She
probably made something up.

‘Oh
good,’ I say as sincerely as I can manage. ‘Forget it ever happened.’

‘I
will,’ she says, and then she does that last thing I would ever expect her to
do. She hugs me. I have never seen Vicky show anyone any kind of affection, and
here she is, giving me a hug.

‘There,’
she says, finally letting go. I can see Jake sniggering behind her back.

‘Well,’
I say, still rather shocked. ‘See you all later.’

How
weird was that?

Maybe
it’s because the past couple of weeks have been so eventful, but this week has
been so bloody boring.

Work
has been quiet, Vicky has been behaving, I haven’t heard anything from Dylan...
I wonder when I will hear from him. I wonder if he’s allowed to talk to me. I
can’t say I’ve had much experience with pregnant women but going by what I’ve
seen in the movies, hormones can make them a little touchy, right? I don’t know
how true that is, but I can imagine Crystal being a total nightmare, sitting on
her arse, demanding weird things in the middle of the night (like a sheep to
sacrifice).

I
haven’t heard from Charles either, not since he emailed me those photos. Not a
call, text or email. You know what they say, you don’t miss something until
it’s gone. A week without drama, and I’m missing it. I get the feeling that’s
all about to change though. Luke text me this morning to say he was excited
about seeing me. The poor bastard, he probably thinks he’s going to get lucky
tonight. I sent him a polite reply, but nothing is going to happen between us.
It’s not that I’m going soft but he isn’t just another band member, he’s been
my friend for years and I’m not about to ruin our friendship by sleeping with
him. The worst thing I could do would be to demote myself from friend of the
band to just another groupie.

Today
is going very slowly. It’s 4pm now, at five I can go home and get ready which
will take a couple of hours – I’ll probably be late, but what’s new?

Spinning
around in my chair as I often do to pass time, I stop to face the window and
gaze out over the busy streets of Leeds. I have such an amazing view from my
office window and yet I rarely stop and appreciate it. I’m really lucky the ByteBanter
team took me on because I could never afford the rent on an office like this –
or on my flat to be honest, my parents pay for that. They told me they were
moving to France for my dad’s job, my little brother too, and after all their
efforts to talk me into doing a degree we decided it would be best if I stayed
here. They weren’t supposed to be gone very long – a year or so – but things
took off over there and the years soon piled up. I’m not sure when they’re
coming back, but in the meantime I get lots of free holidays.

Our
family home isn’t actually that far from Leeds but I haven’t been back since
they left. I didn’t fancy living alone, it wouldn’t have been a fun trek to uni
everyday and village life just isn’t for me. So everything is as I left it –
well, it should be. My auntie and uncle are house sitting for us but I don’t
visit them. Mainly because my auntie is a bitch but also because I would remind
me of how much I miss my mummy and my daddy. I even miss Jack, my little
brother/ nemesis, but most of all I miss our dog, Harley. I haven’t seen any of
them since July when I popped over for a few days. My Mum is always trying to
talk me into moving there, and believe me it’s tempting, particularly on a cold
and gloomy day like today, but I’ve come so far with the magazine, it would be
a shame to give it all up to live it up in France. I think.

My
phone rings, which is lucky because I was on the verge of feeling lonely,
abandoned and emotional. I spin my chair meaningfully until I am facing my desk
again. It’s Charles.

‘How
are you?’ he asks me.

‘I’m
great, thank you. How are you?’ I neglect to tell him that I am bored, lonely
and missing my mummy.

‘I’m
good. What are you doing tonight?’

‘I’m
going to a gig – just one of the bands I work with.’