Strings (29 page)

             
The genuine fans who cared about their music and didn’t give a damn about the soap opera of their private lives were quickly out in force, pleased to hear the news about the single.

             
‘Do you know if she’s doing any better?’ Luke asked Dale, hoping to hear some positive news about Melissa. He didn’t want to discuss the day’s other events. As far as he was concerned, it was done with.

             
‘No, mate, she isn’t I’m afraid.’ Dale couldn’t lie and say she was OK. Beth had spent every day either with her or on the phone checking on her, and the previous night had been one of the worst since they’d split. Melissa had sobbed her heart out, and she’d been drinking again. In the end Beth had gone to her and was now staying there for a few days.

             
‘Does Beth still hate me?’

             
Dale shrugged. It was hard for him because he loved Beth, but he didn’t like her bad mouthing of Luke, which she’d been doing since this whole thing broke. He understood why she was angry but she had to understand that he wouldn’t abandon Luke. Regardless of what he had or hadn’t done, he didn’t like hearing some of the things she said about him, particularly when nobody knew what really happened.

             
Dale had been so angry with her after her little show at his mum’s. She had shouted all kinds of things at Luke and when she slapped him and then went to punch him, Debbie had stepped in. Dale had to drag her out of the house and calm her down. They’d fallen out, and hadn’t spoken for the rest of the day. So it wasn’t just causing problems for Melissa and Luke, it was affecting everyone.

Dale knew Luke better than anyone
, and the things people had been saying about him were untrue. It was all so wrong.  

             
‘Sorry this has caused you issues.’ Luke didn’t want to see anything come between Dale and Beth, and had already forgiven Beth for the slap. She was standing up for Melissa and he expected nothing less.

             
‘Don’t worry about us. We’re fine,’ Dale assured him.

             
Luke told him not to be too hard on Beth as she was only doing what any other best friend would do in that situation.

‘She’s a good girl. Don’t worry, she might hate me but I don’t hate her.’ Dale was relieved –
another reason Luke was his best friend was because he had a good heart.

             
The news about Melissa worried Luke, so he called her again. To his surprise she answered this time.

             
‘Hi, Luke.’ She sounded miserable and his instinct was to drop everything and go to her. Hearing her made him realise how much he had missed her lovely voice – the one he would hear after every show, meeting or interview, and every night and morning. Melissa was the person he called when he wanted to share the good things in his life, and she calmed him when he was worried about something. Dale was a great help as a best mate, but it just wasn’t the same. The thought of never hearing her voice again made him shudder.

             
‘Liss, I know you wanted space but I need to see you, just a few minutes, please,’ he begged. ‘Five minutes is all I’m asking for.’

             
‘Have you lost your mind, Luke?’

             
‘Yes, I have,’ he answered. ‘This is wrecking my head.’

             
‘Yeah, it sucks ...’

             
After a few awkward minutes she agreed to see him the next day. His spirits lifted a little, but Dale secretly knew where this was really heading and he just didn’t have the heart to point it out to him.

*****

Luke sat outside the house he used to share with Melissa, both scared and excited about seeing her. The street seemed oddly quiet – maybe for once he was being left alone. But he doubted it.

             
The door opened as he approached, and he ducked in quickly. His heart skipped a beat as he saw her. He thought she looked as pretty as ever, but tired, sad and thinner. Her navy cords, which normally hugged her figure, hung off her. He knew she wouldn’t be eating properly. Melissa wasn’t a comfort eater, in fact the opposite. If she was sad or worried she couldn’t eat, but instead chain smoked to get her through.

When she saw him,
Melissa thought about running to him and forgetting everything. They could lock the doors behind them and hide until the world forgot about them. But the doubt and the hurt would be locked in with them. Luke looked so hopeful that she almost felt cruel.

             
‘Hi, beautiful.’

             
‘Don't say that,’ she snapped. She didn't want him to be nice to her because it would make what she was about to do so much harder. Seeing the hurt on his face made it easier,
she thought. They went through to the lounge and she offered him a beer. He took it then she sat on the floor in front of him.

‘I miss you,’ he said reaching down and stroking her cheek. But she pushed it away
.

His touch made her realise how much she missed him too
, but she couldn't let him get to her. She’d made her decision, and she had to stick to it. She asked him again to be honest with her but he said the same thing he had said all along. He couldn’t remember.

They talked it through for over an hour
but ended up going round in circles and she still didn't get the answers she wanted, so she decided enough was enough. Luke had hurt her and she was hurting him now by giving him false hope. This was the end.

He’d be leaving in two weeks to start their American tour so she had to let him go. If he wanted that
life then he could have it, and he needed to be free from all this – they both needed to start rebuilding their lives.

             
‘Luke, I still love you, but you’ve broken my heart.’ She looked at the floor because looking in his eyes would make it worse.

             
‘Liss, please don't.’

             
‘I'm sorry. I’ve tried, but I can't get the image of you and
her
out of my head. It makes me sick. I can’t bear it, that slut’s hands all over you. You promised me that I was the only one you wanted.’

             
He told her again that she was, and it was all a pack of lies, but it was no good. Melissa told him to go to America and enjoy the tour, without her holding him back. He could live that life and maybe one day when they’d grown up and he’d got it out of his system they could at least be friends. But right now she wanted him to leave her alone, and move on. It was killing her to be so close to him, and she felt confused by all her emotions. The part of her that loved him and wanted him was fighting with the part of her that hated what he had done, and wanted him gone. These emotions raged against each other and his begging didn’t help. He looked so lost, and she wished she didn’t love him so much.

             
She stood up, grabbed her purse and pulled out her credit cards. She gave them back to him, then grabbed Chloe from the spare room and handed her back to him too. She walked to the patio doors and stared out. ‘Please, if you have any feelings for me, prove it by doing as I ask and leaving now.’

             
Luke placed the cards on the coffee table. He told her they were hers and she could use them if she ever needed them. She shook her head, but he left them anyway.

‘I meant it when I told you I loved you
, and that never changed. But I guess you never knew me at all,’ he said before he left.

             
‘No, I guess I didn’t,’ she whispered.

             
Melissa waited until he’d forlornly packed his stuff into his car and driven away, then she let it all burst out as she collapsed to the floor. Her life had just walked away. She cried till her throat was raw and there were no tears left.

             
Luke put his foot down, and tried not to cry. It wasn’t permanent. He would win her back, he thought to himself as he drove to the only person he could trust right now.

*****

‘Bee, I know you don’t like me very much right now, but I need to see Dale,’ Luke said as Beth opened the door to him. He looked so awful that she took pity on him.

             
‘Fine, come in,’ she said as she shouted for Dale to come and deal with it.

             
Dale ran down the stairs, but his smile faded as he saw the look on Luke’s face as he stood numbly in the doorway. Dale ushered him inside, and he immediately broke down.

             
‘I’ve lost her. She won’t listen to me.’ Melissa had reduced him to tears. The only other girl who had ever done that was Chloe, but that was different.

             
‘Why can’t I remember anything?’ He smashed his fist into the wall. ‘This has hurt her so much, and I don’t know how to fix it.’

             
‘I’m sure in time it can be fixed,’ Dale assured his friend.

             
Beth didn’t answer, but she was confused. Luke was devastated about losing Melissa and she could see the sheer shock in his face. Beth knew that if Luke couldn’t prove he hadn’t cheated, he would never get her back. Melissa had made a promise to herself that she would never take a cheat back, no matter how much she loved them. Beth knew she wouldn’t make exceptions, not even for Luke. If she didn’t have absolute trust in someone, it was over.

             
Beth watched as Dale talked to him. The famous front man, the up and coming king of rock, crying over a girl, and Beth didn’t know what to believe any more. The fact that Luke loved her with all his heart was clear. You could see it in his eyes when he looked at her. So why would he be so stupid, when he knew very well that in this day and age, celebrities couldn’t put a foot wrong without being snapped?

Kicked

May 2014

‘Please … stop!’ Kelsey begged as the boot of her attack
er made contact with her arm. Rather than stopping, she laughed and did it again.

             
‘No way, skank,’ the girl hissed at her. The attacker was a big girl with ash blonde hair, pushed under a pink baseball cap. She glared down at her shaking victim.

             
‘Give her some more…she deserves it,’ her friend laughed, egging her on, yet not actually taking part in the violence. The friend was shorter, with bobbed auburn hair. Both were wearing distinctive black hoodies, with Black Eagles gig dates listed down the back, and a band logo on the front.

             
Kelsey knew she was in trouble as soon as the girls followed her into the toilets. She hadn't been out in weeks, and now wished she’d stayed hidden. But Darren wouldn't have it. She had run out of excuses, and she had to ‘be nice to his friends’, as he put it.

             
Kelsey still owed him £3,000, but that was just a way to keep her chained to him. Darren said he was her boyfriend, and that he loved her, but in reality he was her pimp who had trapped her when she was sixteen. She’d had nothing, she was lonely and scared when he found her on the street, cold and hungry. She wasn't a bad person, she had just made bad choices. Darren was nice to her at first. He took her in and showered her with presents, giving her all the things a girl wanted in life. Then he started taking her to clubs, and got her into drugs. Kelsey felt as though the life she suddenly had was like a dream come true, and he was her knight in shining armour.

But what she didn't realise at the time was that nothing comes for free.

              They’d been ‘dating’ for four months, when Darren suddenly turned. He told her that she had to repay him for all the things he’d given her.

‘I’m not made of money,’
he’d said.

             
Kelsey had no money, and he knew that. He said she could pay him back in other ways by helping out some of his friends. She begged him not to make her do those things, but he had a hold over her, and she knew she had no choice. He reminded her that she needed to help him, and she had to repay her debt. He gave her more drugs to help her get through it, and she was becoming addicted.

             
‘Kelsey, baby, do it for me. You know I love you but he’ll give us three hundred just for a couple of hours with you. All you have to do is be nice, do whatever he asks then I’ll come and get you later,’ he would say.

             
Kelsey was so young and naïve then, and she believed what he told her. She thought Darren actually loved her. But in reality, he was an evil predator who abused vulnerable girls. No matter what she did, she would never clear her debt, and nor would the other four girls under his spell.

Luke Black was supposed
to free her from all this, but no, she had failed there too.

It
was all such a mess. She didn't realise how bad she would feel after going through with it. It wasn't as though she knew Melissa Webb, so what did it matter, she’d thought. But it did matter, because what Kelsey did destroyed an innocent girl’s life. Seeing her boyfriend like that must have been heartbreaking, and Kelsey wished she could take it all back; rewind to that night and walk away from the hotel and Luke Black.

             
‘Girls like you are disgusting. Melissa’s worth a million of you,’ the girl taunted before kicking her again.

             
‘Have you seen yourself? I mean, look at her, and look at you!’ The bigger girl pulled Kelsey in front of the mirror and held up a magazine with a picture of Melissa and Luke leaving a bar, hand in hand, smiling. ‘Look at them, look what you did!’ the girl said shoving another magazine in her face. These were recent pictures of Melissa on one of the rare occasions she’d left her house, looking a shadow of former self.

             
Melissa looked miserable, heartbroken. Even the pictures of Luke made her feel bad. He looked shell-shocked, his handsome face lost.

             
Despite what she’d been through, Kelsey had never regretted something more than this. She had caused it, and she couldn’t change it. But her need to survive was important, and she had needed the money. She needed to try to escape from Darren’s clutches. And she still needed more.

‘I know what I did
was wrong, but it wasn't just me. I’m not the only one to blame in this. You don't know anything about it…I never meant to hurt anyone!’ Kelsey yelled, kicking out in defence.

             
The girl’s friend joined in the attack, laughing while they punched and kicked her until they finally got bored and fled, leaving her battered and bruised, crying on the floor.

             
She finally managed to sit up, every part of her body aching. She held some tissue to her split lip, and reached for her phone which had been kicked across the floor. Calling a number she hadn't used in a while, her anger flared up again.

‘
I want money, or I will cause so much more damage. Don’t think I won’t open my mouth. I could drop you so far in the shit there’ll be no coming back from it. You know I don’t bluff. So pay up in two days, or I’ll start talking.’