Chapter 17

 

The opening show of the tour had been everything any of them could have hoped.  They had sung all of the singles with a few added surprises, and as was expected the show hadn’t gone without its fair share of hitches.  Christian had almost fallen off his stool during his solo spot after getting tangled up in his guitar lead, Ben had nearly rode his scooter right off the stage and into the crowd and Paul had nearly been knocked out by Mark’s microphone after he had waved it a little too enthusiastically in the air. 

 

“How was that for an hour and a half of pure pop perfection?” Karen shouted as they made their way back into the hotel.

 

“Fantastic!” Steph replied, her voice booming out ensuring that they could hear her through the buzz that was still echoing around their ears.

 

“It’s a good job the show was good, imagine how awful it would have been if it had been really rubbish and we would have been stuck seeing it so many times.”  Karen thought aloud.

 

“You’re quiet Mel,” Steph observed, turning towards the blonde girl and looking at her with concern, “didn’t you enjoy it?”

 

Mel turned, a huge smile spreading across her face and spreading right up to her eyes, “I loved it, it was fantastic.”

 

In all honesty she had more than loved it, it had been an hour and a half of heaven for her.  They had had amazing seats right on the front row and she had spent most of the show with her eyes locked into Christians, he stared at her most of the way through it, every now and again giving her his little dimpled grin or waving at her. 

 

“Right, up to the bedroom and then down to the bar?” Karen asked.

 

“Do you think they’ll be in the bar tonight?” Mel asked enthusiastically.

 

“If Paul has his way they will be,” Steph smiled knowingly.

 

Mel’s heart let out a little leap as the girls made their way upstairs to get changed out of their slightly damp concert clothes and into their evening wear.  Tonight would be the first night of many that she would be close to Christian.

 

The hotel bar was split in two sections, the smaller area was mainly taken up with the bar itself, and the larger area was full of tables and comfy chairs.  Picking up their drinks the girls made their way over to the far corner of the larger area and threw themselves down on a sofa.

 

An hour or so later there was still no a1.

 

Mel’s eyes quickly scanned the bar area, it was more or less deserted apart from a couple of middle aged business men sat at a table covered in documents.

 

“Where are they?” she muttered to herself, taking a sip from her Smirnoff Ice.

 

“I don’t think they are going to be down tonight,” Steph said matter of factly.

 

“But you said they would be before.”

 

Steph and Karen both turned to look at Mel and let out drunken giggles.

 

“Doesn’t matter Mel,” Karen slurred, “we still love you and we are more important than any of a1.”

 

Mel scowled at them and took a last swig out of her bottle, lining it up against the three other empties that were in front of her.

 

“What’s the time now?” she asked.

 

“2.00 am.” Karen replied.

 

“2.00 am?”

 

Karen brought her head closer to her watch, her eyes squinting right up against it.

 

“May be not I can’t quite see the numbers.”

 

Steph laughed loudly again, looking down at her own watch, “it’s actually 10 past midnight.”

 

“Oh,” Mel replied, heaving herself up from her stool and staggering slightly as she made her way back over to the bar for a new bottle.

 

“How many have you had?” she asked Karen.

 

“Lost count at 5.”

 

Mel quickly lifted her fourth bottle up to her lips, if Christian wasn’t going to make an appearance tonight she may as well just sit here and get blinding drunk, it was the only way she was going to feel happy.

 

“Slow down Mel!” Steph said, watching how Mel downed a huge gulp all in one go, “it’ll go straight to your head.”

 

“That’s the general idea,” Mel replied, tipping even more of the cool liquid down her throat.

 

“I’m so drunk,” Karen sighed happily in the corner, sinking herself down into the sofa and resting her head on Steph’s lap.

 

“Come on, I think we ought to be heading up to bed,” Steph said, gently scooping Karen’s head up off her lap.

 

“But they might come down!” Mel argued, “shouldn’t we just wait up a little bit longer.”

 

“They wont come down now, the gig finished hours ago,” Steph replied standing up and putting her arms around a giggling Karen.

 

Mel sighed and heaved herself up out of the chair before crashing back down with a thud.  Her whole head had started to spin.  Giggling slightly, she tried again, this time succeeding and following Steph, with the room moving all around her.

 

“We can’t go to bed,” Mel said as the lift reached their floor.

 

“Yeah,” Karen agreed, falling out of the doors and lying in the middle of the corridor, “the night is still so young.”

 

“We could just have fun in the corridor,” Mel smirked.

 

“What you mean?” Karen asked, looking up at her friend in confusion.

 

“Dares,” Mel replied.

 

“Right I’m off to bed,” Steph replied quickly, for some reason dares didn’t seem terribly fun to a person that hadn’t drunk very much.

 

“Fine, party pooper,” Mel said, flapping her arm at Steph in a drunken attempt to wave goodbye

 

She watched as Steph disappeared off down the corridor by herself.

 

“So what dare are we going to do?” Karen asked.

 

“We are going to take off our bras, put them on our heads and run down the corridor,” Mel said proudly.

 

To any sane person this would seem like a rather lame thing to do but in the drunken state that they were in Mel and Karen suddenly thought that this was the best idea anyone had ever come up with.  Giggling to themselves they wriggled out of their bras.

 

“They make good hats,” Karen observed as she pulled hers onto her head, the cups sticking out like little ears.

 

“They do,” Mel agreed, “quite a fashion statement.”

 

Both girls giggled as they began to skip up the corridor.

 

They stopped as the nearby lift let out a large shrill ping.

 

“Someone’s coming,” Mel hissed, giggling slightly yet also somewhat nervous about a stranger seeing her with her bra on her head.

 

“Lets be quiet,” Karen said, “may be they wont notice us.”

 

Both girls stood in the middle of the landing and watched as the lift door slowly opened and figures emerged.

 

“What’s the time?” a male voice asked.

 

His companion looked at her watch, “half past twelve,” she replied.

 

“Ahh plenty of time then!”

 

The figures began walking away, Mel and Karen crept after them, hoping to make it further down the corridor to their room before either of the shadows turned round and saw them.

 

“What for?” the female voice asked.

 

Mel gasped as she neared the couple, the voices belonged to Christian and Gabriella, they were walking up the corridor together and her hand was wedged firmly into the back pocket of his trousers.

 

“You know what for Ella,” he replied, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

 

Mel’s heart began to thud really loudly against her chest, each beat so painfully hard it felt as if it was about to break out of her chest and lay wounded and defeated on the floor.

 

“Are you being rude?” Ella asked him.

 

“Why is wanting to sleep with my girlfriend rude?” he asked indignantly.

 

That was it - tears were falling gently down Mel’s face, she didn’t bother to brush them away, instead letting them drop slowly one by one until her whole cheek felt damp.

 

She felt Karen’s arm gently link through hers as she was pulled through a door and into the safety of her bedroom.

 

“What happened back there?” Karen asked, she had suddenly sobered up and was looking at her seriously, taking the bra off her head and placing it down on the bed.

 

“Nothing,” Mel replied.

 

“Nothing?” Karen asked in disbelief.

 

“They were going to go and have sex,” Mel stuttered out before she could stop herself.

 

“What?”

 

“Didn’t you hear them?”

 

“Hear who?”

 

“Chris and Gabriella,” Mel replied.

 

“No,”

 

“They said they were going to go and...” Mel paused mid sentence, enhaling a deep breath of air and quickly wiping the tears away, “... it doesn’t matter.”

 

“Why are you crying if it doesn’t matter?” Karen asked gently.

 

“I’m just tired and drunk,” Mel confessed, “lets just get to bed before we wake Steph up.”

 

Turning away from Karen, Mel climbed into her bed fully clothed, pulling the covers tight around her she squeezed her head between her hands, trying to stop the dull ache that had begun to spread across her temple.