Starstruck (29 page)

‘Emily,
no! You didn’t!’

‘I
thought I could trust her.’ Emily falls to her knees and bursts into floods of
tears.

‘Why
on earth would you think you could trust succubus?’ I yell. ‘And I asked you
not to tell anyone! I trusted you!’

 It
breaks my heart to shout at her when she’s crying like this, but look what
she’s done. She’s made me look like a complete slag and she’s made Dylan look
like an adulterer – and adulterer with a heavily pregnant wife.

‘You’re
hardly around at the moment, and she’s just so easy to talk to.‘

‘So
you thought you’d tell her one of my biggest secrets? What else have you told
her, eh?’ I’m joking, but then I noticed the look on her face and I can read
her like a book. ‘Are you fucking kidding me? What else have you told her?’

Emily
sobs. ‘Back when the Plastic Rap story broke, I panicked and thought maybe
she’d blabbed, but then you said you thought it was one of the girls there, and
I realised I could trust her.’

So
it was Vicky who leaked it.

‘Anything
else?’

‘I
might have mentioned some stuff about Two For The Road.’

‘You
stupid cow! What have you done? Did you not think it was a bit suspicious when
we read that article about me?’

‘You’re
right, I am a stupid cow! I’m so sorry.’

‘So
let me get the straight,’ I ignore her apology. ‘She has been living in your
house and you’ve not only been doing everything possible to make her happy, but
you’ve been telling her all my secrets?’

‘I
didn’t mean to,’ she whispers.

‘Do
you even realise what you’ve done? You’ve probably ruined my career because no
one will trust me now! You’ve probably ruined Dylan’s marriage - he’s got twins
on the way for God’s sake!’

This
makes Emily cry more and I feel a pain in my chest. I want to hug her, I want
her to hug me, but she has totally let me down.

‘Nicole,
you have been able to trust me with a million other things,’ Emily tries to
reason with me.

‘It
doesn’t matter how many times I’ve been able to trust you,’ I tell her. ‘It
matters how many times I haven’t.’

A
switch is thrown in my head and my sympathy for her stops instantly when the
magnitude of what she has done hits me again.

‘Get
out,’ I say to her as calmly as possible considering the circumstance.

‘Nicole,
just let me explain, it’s-’

‘Get
the fuck out of my office!’ I scream at her again. I watch as she grabs her bag
and runs out of the office in a flood of tears, then I throw my arms around
Jake.

‘Come
on, Nic,’ he says softly.’ Let’s try and get you home.’

Why
is it that when things seem to be going well for me, something crazy happens
and ruins everything?

I’ve
always craved a celebrity lifestyle, but if this is what it’s like then I think
I’ll pass – although it might be too late for that because this morning I was
chased by the paparazzi! I’m on the front of a national newspaper!

Having
made it home safely (our office has a backdoor – who knew?), the first thing I
did was call Dylan to warn him but he didn’t pick up. I got a text a few
minutes later saying Charles had called him to tell him and that he was trying
to get out of the hotel unseen. That’s when I realised – Charles! I’m going to
call him and explain, just as soon as I work out what to say. The important
thing to remember is that I haven’t done anything wrong but I’m a bit worried
after our last misunderstanding. He knows me, he knows Dylan, he’ll be fine
about it. So why am I worried?

I
pour myself a large drink – alcohol is absolutely the right thing to do. Having
a hangover is only making my situation worse, and vice versa, so if I can get
back to being tipsy then things will be a lot easier. As I lean forwards to
pick up my mobile I catch a strong whiff of chemicals - it’s my post-foam party
hair. My head suddenly feels unbearably itchy. Perhaps I’ll have a bath before
I call Charles, give myself a little time to calm down.

My
hair is washed and I feel considerably less foamy, but I can’t bring myself to
get out of the bath. My phone is on top of the draws next to me, staring at me.
I know I should ring Charles. No more putting it off, I’m going to do it right
now and get it out of the way.

I
dry my hands and pick up my phone. His mobile is switched off so I call his
office and it rings for ages, in fact I’m just about to hang up when he
answers.

‘Charles
Pace.’

‘Charles,
hey, it’s Nicole.’

He
doesn’t say anything, forcing me to speak first.

‘How
are you?’

‘I’m
a bit busy actually, Nicole. One of my married clients has been caught having
spent the night in a hotel with another woman.’

I
giggle, before realising that he isn’t joking around.

‘I
can’t believe people are thinking that! You know this is Vicky trying to get revenge
on me or something. The bitch even used
my
camera to take those
pictures.’

‘What
is it your lot say? A picture is worth a thousand words?’

‘Something
like that.’ I giggle nervously.

‘Nicole,
this isn’t funny,’ he snaps angrily at me.

‘Charles,
I’m really sorry.’

‘You’re
sorry? It’s going to take a bit more than sorry you stupid little girl.’

‘You’re
not the first person to have a client get a bit of bad press you know!’ I raise
my voice slightly.

‘You
think that’s what’s bothering me?’ he asks. ‘Disgusting. Nicole, you not only
shagged someone else behind my back, but you shagged one of my clients. You’ve
fucking humiliated me!’

I
try to speak but my voice fails me.

‘You
don’t honestly believe that?’ I eventually manage to whisper. ‘You don’t think
I’d do that? He’s my best friend and he’s married. What kind of girl do you
think I am?’

‘I
know exactly what kind of girl you are,’ he says coldly. ‘Now if you’ll excuse
me, I have a lot of fucking work to do today.’

‘Charles,
wait. Please, I don’t know what to do. I’m being chased by photographers, Vicky
has set me up, I’ve fallen out with Emily. What do I do?’

‘I’m
sorting things out for Dylan because he pays me. If you want a bit of damage
control then I suggest you do what all the other kiss and tell slappers do and
hire someone.’

‘What
did you say?’ I ask, regaining a bit of my confidence. My mind instantly goes
back to that conversation I had with Mark on tour. He told me that no one has
the right to call me names like that, and he’s right. Charles might not believe
me, but I haven’t done anything wrong.

‘You
heard me. You know after I saw those photos online, with you all over that
boy,’ I can hear the disgust in his voice as he speaks. ‘I thought that maybe
you were a bit of a slapper, but you promised me that I could trust you. Well
look where it’s got me. You’re nothing but a dirty little slapper, Nicole.’

I
am not usually very good at controlling my temper, and today is no exception. ‘Fuck
you!’ I shout, throwing my phone. As soon as it leaves my hand I realise what I
have done. My phone lands in the bath with a big splash. It’s only in the water
a matter of seconds but I fear the damage has been done. Jumping out the water,
I grab my towel and dry the phone. I prod a button but it fails to light up
this time. I panic because my entire life is in this phone and I can’t remember
what you’re supposed to do with them if they get wet. I wrap it back up in the
towel and run out of my bathroom, maybe if I blow it with my hairdryer it will
help to dry it out. I grab my dryer from my bedroom and hurriedly plug it in.
I’m just about to switch it on when I hear my front door open. Suddenly very
aware that I am naked, I grab the towel from my phone and wrap it around
myself. No one can get it without a key so it must be Jake.

‘Jake,
is that you?’ I shout.

‘Yep,
you ok?’ he calls back.

‘No,’
I cry. ‘Can you come in here please?’

‘Whoa!
I’m not looking!’ he says as he walks through the door and realises I’m wearing
nothing but a towel.

‘I
dropped my phone in the bath, what do I do?’

‘Not
that!’ he says spying my hairdryer. ‘That will only drive the water in
further.’

He
grabs my phone and does something I wouldn’t have known how to do.

‘Put
this somewhere safe,’ he instructs, handing me my SIM card. ‘Do you have a
vacuum cleaner?’

‘Do
I
have a vacuum cleaner?’ I echo with a laugh.

‘Do
you have any rice?’

I
stare at him blankly.

‘Right.
Of course you don’t. I’m gonna pop back to mine with this, don’t go anywhere,’
he calls as he runs towards the door. ‘It’s crawling with photographers out
there.’

‘Thank
you,’ I call after him.

Ruining
my phone is just the shit-flavoured icing on the cake today. I feel so alone,
and I have no one to talk to. I glance over at my telephone, my proper
telephone that is. The only reason I have a landline is for the internet, I
hardly ever use this phone. I need to talk to someone, but all of my numbers
are in my mobile. I know Emily’s number off by heart of course, but I don’t
want to speak to her. I can’t believe she’s done this to me. If she told me a
secret and asked me not to tell anyone I would never ever blab. Especially not
to someone she hated. Has this been Vicky’s intention from the beginning? I
feel sick at the thought of her scheming behind my back all along. At least I
know where Scott Hale got his story from. Oh my God, that day when I read the
story, it was Vicky who egged me on and told me to send Scott a nasty message.
If I wasn’t feeling so devastated I’d probably be impressed.

Part
of me thinks that I should forgive Emily, but today I have lost everything. My
boyfriend, my credibility, my mobile phone... I may as well add a backstabbing
best friend to the list. I pick up the phone as I consider whether to call her
or not. There’s a card poking out from underneath the phone and as soon as I
see it I realise what it is and what I should do.

I
punch the number in and sigh with relief when it is answered straight away.

‘Hello
mum,’ I say as cheerily as I can.

‘Hello
darling, what a nice surprise. How are you?’

‘Not
so good actually.’ I burst into tears.

‘Nicole!
What’s the matter?’ she asks me. I try to reply but once again my voice fails
me. ‘You sounded so happy in your last e-mail. Have you had a row with your new
boyfriend?’

My
mum waits patiently for me to stop crying and I explain to her what has
happened in parent-friendly detail.

‘That’s
horrible!’ she exclaims. ‘I’m sorry I’m not there to help you, darling. Do you
want me to get your dad to book you a ticket over here? You could be here by
this time tomorrow.’

‘I
don’t want to run away, mum. I have to fix this. I have to keep the magazine
going and I have to make people see that I haven’t done anything wrong.’

‘You’re
a brave girl but I don’t like to think of you upset and alone. I thought better
of Emily.’

‘She
just got caught up in it I guess, I don’t know how I’ll be able to forgive her
though.’

‘Give
it time, love. Oh, my poor little girl!’ It sounds like my mum is crying which
makes me feel even worse.

‘Jake
is looking after me, mum. Don’t worry.’

‘You
could do a lot worse than him you know.’

‘I
know, but we’re just friends,’ I remind her.

‘I
know, but maybe he’s the kind of man you should be going after.’

‘No
more southerners,’ I hear my dad call out. I’m not even sure he knows what is
going on yet, but as far as he is concerned it always pays to remind me of that
little snippet of advice.

‘Say
hi to dad for me,’ I say with laugh, instantly cheered up just for hearing
their voices. ‘I’m going to go, Jake will be back with my phone soon.’

‘Well
take care of yourself, and remember we’re not that far away, you could be here
in a matter of hours if you wanted to. Let your mummy look after you,’ she
teases. ‘You’re still my little girl.’

‘I
know, thanks mum. It’s nice just hearing your voice.’

‘Why
not go back home for a few days. It’s the perfect place to hide,’ she suggests,
but the idea of going back to the village and staying with uncle Pete is not
one I’m overly keen on. Uncle Pete is dad’s brother who is house sitting while
the parents are away which basically means he’s living there with my old bag of
an auntie and my goody-goody cousins. The day I left the house I locked my
bedroom door and took the key with me.

‘I’ll
be fine, mum. It’ll blow over in a couple of days.’