Chapter 24
It was dark inside – so dark that it took a few minutes for their eyes to adjust and get used to their new, unfamiliar surroundings. Eventually they could just about see the outline of lots of people moving around the large room, their silhouettes flashing on and off to the music.
“There’s got to be some famous people in here somewhere,” Steph muttered, glancing casually around her.
Unfortunately, a1 were very much a band that kept themselves to themselves, and they soon discovered that the only famous people at this party were the boys.
“This is so boring!” Karen muttered, leaning against a wall and sipping her drink, “my 18th was more exciting than this!”
“It’s just a pain we can’t get anywhere near the boys,” Mel replied, scanning the packed club for a sign of Christian.
So far the brief meeting at the door was all that she had got, they all seemed to be permanently congregated at the other end of the room, and Del had already walked past twice and told them not to go over and bother the boys.
“Ooooooh hang on, spoke too soon, here comes Ben!” Steph whispered, pointing to the large outline staggering towards them.
“I’m going to the toilet,” he announced happily as he walked past them, a security guard holding him up by each arm to prevent him from falling over.
“How pissed are you?” Karen giggled, watching as the two burley men helped him through the toilet door and then guarded it to prevent anyone else going in.
“Wonder if the others are that drunk?” Mel craned her neck to look at the other three boys who were still at the other side of the room.
“Bet you anything that Paul is!” Steph replied.
“Ooooooh, watch it Ben, is coming back.”
This time he had managed to shake off the security men and walked right over to them, placing a hand on Steph’s shoulder and slurring his words slightly.
“I am a kickboxing champion you know,” he told them, holding his finger up in the air and rotating it in a circular shape, “and if you do this it scares people!”
Giving them a wink, he quickly walked away, the security men still trotting after him despite his protests.
“OK, that was strange!” Karen laughed.
“Ooooooh please lets go over to the other end of the room,” Mel suddenly burst out.
Steph snuck a quick glance over to the boys, Del wasn’t anywhere near, but it still seemed a bit rude of them to just march over. When it came to interrupting the band during their private off duty time they liked to play it carefully.
Today seemed to be an exception to their rule however as Mel was already half way across the room and by the time they had caught up with her they were at the boy’s table.
“Sorry!” Steph muttered, “you probably don’t really want us hanging around down here.”
“No, its fine!” Mark said cheerily – he was the only person in the world that didn’t need alcohol to be chirpy. He always seemed so high on life, even with a glass of coke in his hand.
“You got your camera girls?” Paul asked, grinning at them cheekily.
Karen looked at him cautiously, no matter what she said he probably had an answer up his sleeve. “No not tonight.”
“Awwww, I wanted to do my porn face for you!”
“Your what?”
He immediately lowered his gaze down to the floor so they could no longer see his face, bringing it up again slowly, his mouth pouting slightly and his eyes squinting up at them.
“And that’s your porn face?” Karen asked, trying to hide her smile.
“Yep!” he replied, taking another swig from the bottle of beer that was hanging off his fingers.
“Looks more like he’s constipated if you ask me,” Mark replied.
“I’d agree with that!” Steph smirked. “Blimey poor you – you are surrounded by a right load of drunks.”
“Yep,” Mark smiled, “Ben is out of it, Paul is just as bad and Chris is in a really quiet mood.”
“What’s wrong with Chris?” Mel asked, suddenly interested in the conversation again.
“Not sure, think he’s missing Ella. She stayed back at the hotel tonight and he’s over there sulking.”
He nodded towards the corner of the room and for the first time Mel noticed him, sat on a chair with his back towards them.
This could be it – the moment she had been waiting for, he was all alone – there was no Ella.
She walked slowly towards him, trying to size up how he was feeling by his body language seeing as she couldn’t see his face.
As she got nearer she realised that he was actually sat on a little stool, his shoulders were slouched and his whole body was leaning forwards, his head drooped slightly.
Nervously she put out a hand to touch him on his shoulder.
“Chris?”
No response.
“Chris?”
Taking a deep breath she stepped even closer, leaning slightly against his back and wrapping her arms round his neck.
She leaned in and whispered in his ear.
“Chris?”
Finally he shook to life, gently taking hold of her hands that were hanging down in front of him.
“Ella?”
The name hung in the air – bouncing around the walls and then hammering hard down onto her skin in painful little stabs.
She quickly pulled her hands out of his grasp.
He turned round to face her.
“Mel?” he asked in puzzlement.
“Yeah,” she said, now somewhat embarrassed about how forward she’d just been.
“What …”
She broke him off before he could embarrass her further. “Sorry, I just wanted to check you are OK.”
“Oh”
“Are you OK?”
“Yeah.”
She turned away from him, her face glowing red in humiliation. She chocked out a quiet “good” before moving away from him as fast as she could – eager to get some distance between them.
That had been so embarrassing, and awkward – there had been no connection at all between them, he had looked at her like she didn’t matter to him at all, she could have been anyone – he just wasn’t interested.
He wasn’t interested in anyone apart from Ella.
She moved quickly against the waves of people all around her, finally finding the ladies and pushing her way into the safety of the wide open space inside.
There she let all the emotions spill out, leaning against the sink she began to sob, each tear dropping into the basin and trickling down the plughole.
The door behind her pushed open and Steph appeared, she stopped as soon as she saw her tear stained friend.
“Mel what’s happened?” she asked, pulling her into a tight hug.
“Its Chris.”
“What did he say?”
“I asked him if he was okay,”
She began to sob again, her breathing coming out in little tremors, stopping her voice from coming out. Steph gently stroked her hair until she had calmed down enough to speak.
“What did he say?” she pressed.
“He said yes.”
Steph waited for her to finish, but no more was said, Mel completely collapsed in her arms – her face red from the effort and her eyes full of blood shot.
“Mel what is going on with you?” she finally asked, “you’re not making any sense.”
“I’m OK,” Mel replied, sounding like she was trying to assure herself just as much as she was assuring Steph.
“No you’re not, you’ve lost the plot.”
“Don’t know what you mean.” She turned quickly away.
“This obsession with Christian it has to stop.”
Mel shrugged her shoulders, “don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Mel we’ve seen it, Karen and I have both been talking and we’re worried about you – you’ve changed.”
“I haven’t, I’m just the same as I always was” Mel insisted, wiping the tears from around her eyes.
“OK fine, I’ll believe you if you look me in the eyes and tell me that you don’t have any feelings for him at all.”
Mel glanced up at her quickly, “I don’t.”
“You’re lying, I’ve seen the way you are around him – you go mad. You’ve turned into one of those obsessive fans.”
“I’m not an obsessive fan!” Mel snapped back quickly, pulling out of Steph’s grasp, “don’t you ever call me that again.”
“Mel you’re obsessed and you have a problem.”
“I don’t! I love him and Christian loves me, I know he does.”
There it was – the words that she had never uttered out loud before were now echoing around the empty toilet and Steph was standing in front of her open mouthed.
“Melissa you don’t.”
“Who are you to say who I do and don’t love?”
“You can’t love him, you don’t know him.”
Mel laughed sarcastically, “don’t know him! We’ve been following them for years Steph, of course I know him.”
“We’re fans, that’s all Mel. We know Christian from a1, we don’t know who the real man behind that is at all – you are in love with an image.”
Mel stepped back, and leaned against the cool wall, “don’t you start talking to me like I’m some silly little crave with a crush on a popstar, it’s more than that.”
“It isn’t,” Steph insisted, “you have a silly idea in your head about someone you know nothing about.”
“I love him, I know I love him – it feels like love.”
“And how do you know what that feels like?” Steph asked in exasperation, “you’ve had two relationships, both of them years ago and before all of this.”
“I just know OK?”
“Please, think about what you are doing, you’re going to get hurt”
“I’m not, as soon as Ella is out of the way we can be together and everything will be fine again.”
Steph looked at her in shock. Now she really was talking like a mad person. “What are you going to do?”
“It doesn’t matter – all that matters it that Chris and I have to be together.”
Walking back over towards her, Steph put a hand on each of Mel’s shoulders. “Let me help you out of this, please.”
“I don’t need to be helped, I’m fine.”
Steph’s eyes began to fill with water, finally she had to shut them, causing the first drop to squeeze out of her eye and fall down her cheek.
“Mel, please,” her voice began to tremor slightly, as the tears continued to flow, “come home, don’t go on to London, leave him alone and get on with your real life.”
Mel brought her face up to meet her friend’s gaze, the emotion in her voice genuinely touching her.
“Karen and I have decided we aren’t doing the London part of the tour,” Steph continued, “we can’t afford to and we’ve missed too much college, come and stay home with us.”
Mel examined her friend’s tear stained face, “OK, I wont go to Wembley”
Turning on her heel Mel left the room – knowing that things were about to get very different.