What She Wants (58 page)

‘We’ve met,’ Darius said shortly. ‘At an awards ceremony last year.’ He turned back to Nicole and Lorelei, enraged to be ignored, stomped off in high dudgeon. That was when, had Nicole but known it, it all went pearshaped. Lorelei was planning her revenge. Nicole talked to Darius for ages, even when Zol from Coral Fish sent a message over that he was leaving and did she want to leave with him? Eventually, Nicole left Darius to go to the ladies. She was smiling as she swayed along on her new high-heeled sandals, then, before she knew what was happening, a blond giant picked her up in a bear hug

and dragged her outside to where Lorelei was waiting with the limo.

‘I have to get back to Darius,’ slurred Nicole from the depths of the leather seat.

‘Not tonight, dearie,’ snapped Lorelei.

Lorelei made the limo driver take them all to another club and although Nicole spent ages tearfully trying to find Darius’s mobile number in her phone’s address book, she was too drunk to do it properly.

Depressed that he’d think she’d dumped him, she sank three tequila slammers to make up for it. And it was only thanks to the blond giant kindly putting her back into the limo at four in the morning that she got home at all.

The following morning, when nobody answered the phone which had been ringing loudly for at least twenty minutes, Nicole dragged herself and her hangover out of bed, made it shakily down the stairs to the hall and picked up the receiver.

‘Hello,’ she croaked.

‘How was the party?’ Sharon asked sharply.

‘What party?’ Nicole’s head was pounding.

‘The one you were at last night? The one you went to after you’d told me you were doing nothing?’

Nicole sat on the bottom step and leaned against the wall with its yellow wood chip paper. She felt awful. Her stomach felt as if it was the epicentre of a force ten gale. If she could keep still for a few moments, maybe the nausea would pass.

‘It was just a spur of the moment thing,’ Nicole said weakly. ‘I’d been asked to this party but didn’t want to go really.’

‘Well, you looked as if you were enjoying it in the Globe today,’ Sharon snapped. ‘Have you seen it yet? I’ll read it to you: New kid on the block, Nicole - latest megabuck signing at LGBK - bit the Coral Fish launch party in trendy club Shiva last night with wild child Lorelei, who says they’re best friends and will be touring together on the Teen Stars

roadshow. Sultry Nicole, whose first single is released in May, says she’s a huge Coral Fish fan and loves their music. I love their music too,’ Sharon said, her voice wobbly. ‘You know that. I’ve got their last two albums. But you never even mentioned you were going to their party. Just because you didn’t want there to be any chance of your boring ordinary old friend coming along, you decided not to say anything. Fine.’ There was no disguising the hurt in Sharon’s voice. ‘Be like that if you want.’ ‘Sharon,’ protested Nicole feebly, ‘I wasn’t going to go to the party. When you phoned, I thought maybe you and I could do something but you were going out with Michelle

‘Yeah, sure. Like you’d really prefer to go out with me and have a few slammers down the pub when you could be in some nightclub knocking back champagne with bloody Lorelei. Stupid bitch, she is. You always said you hated her.’

Now was not the time to explain that, having actually met Lorelei and found her to be a stuck-up little prima donna, Nicole hated her even more than she had when Lorelei was just another beautiful, distant face on MTV.

‘Sharon, it wasn’t like that.’ Nicole didn’t know which was worse: having a murderous hangover or having Sharon furious with her.

‘I suppose the next time I see you, it’ll be fifty years later on a documentary about your fabulous life and I’ll be just one of a throng of boring old pals you haven’t bothered to get in touch with!’ Sharon hung up.

Utterly miserable, Nicole made it to the kitchen to get a pint glass of water, which she puked up ten minutes after drinking.

Darius phoned next. He didn’t sound pleased, either.

‘You got home all right, then?’ he said, his clipped upper class tones sounding icy. ‘I was worried when you disappeared and never came back. I searched for ages but the cloakroom girl said you’d gone.’

The vague memories of the night before hit her. Lorelei

had had her kidnapped and Nicole swore Lorelei had done it as revenge because she’d liked the look of Darius but he hadn’t given her a second glance. And now Darius was furious with her, which wasn’t fair.

She did her best to explain what had happened but she felt so nauseous, she could barely speak.

‘It was nothing to do with Zol,’ she said finally. ‘Lorelei had me kidnapped.’

Darius clearly didn’t believe her.

‘I wouldn’t advise you to go off with Zol,’ Darius said coldly. ‘He’s dangerous. He does every sort of drug under the sun. I thought I was going to take you home?’

‘You were,’ Nicole said sadly.

‘I’ll see you in a few weeks,’ Darius said then, as if he was consulting his diary about a dentist’s appointment. ‘I’ll be talking to Bob about the album, naturally, but that’s all.’

‘But aren’t you coming with me on the Teen Stars roadshow?’ Nicole asked. ‘I thought you were going to be with me …’

It was a seven city tour and it was seen as an ideal way to let a novice performer learn the ropes, to polish their act before they had to hit the big time and to garner new, young fans. Some acts never made it any further than the Teen Stars roadshow, because they simply didn’t have what it took. Nicole was absolutely terrified she’d be among the inevitable casualties. Because she was his discovery, Darius had planned to go along for the ride. But he’d changed his mind.

‘You’ve already met Lorelei,’ he said coolly. ‘You’ll be fine.’

Nicole felt as if she’d lost her only ally in the world.

Nicole knew her songs backwards, and she irritatedly told her mother so when Sandra flustered round her as Nicole packed for the tour, worrying about whether Nicole would be able to perform in front of all those people and what if she forgot the words …

‘I hope you know them forwards as well,’ cackled Reenie from her overseer’s position at the end of Nicole’s bed.

Nicole, miserable because she hadn’t spoken to Darius for a week and nervous at the idea of performing live, snapped: ‘That’s a stupid thing to say!’

Instead of barking back, the way she did when she and Sandra rowed, Reenie Turner looked deeply hurt and said nothing. From the way her shoulders drooped as she left the cramped bedroom, Nicole knew her grandmother was upset.

Even Sandra gazed at her daughter with reproachful eyes but said nothing as she too left.

Nicole crammed her suitcase shut furiously.

What were they like? They spent their lives squabbling and now, the one time Nicole had said something smart, they were both behaving like outraged doves with ruffled feathers, cooing in shock and confusion. It had been a stupid thing to say.

Nicole stared fiercely at herself in the mirror, not really noticing the tiny little denim jacket she was wearing with the black cargo pants, an outfit that had thrilled her when she first got it. People said such stupid bloody things to her. Couldn’t they see she was stressed?

But there had been no reason for her to be horrible back, she knew. She never was. In fact, she couldn’t remember a time when she’d been so sharp with her poor gran. A wave of deep shame swept over Nicole.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

‘Your car’s here,’ roared her mother from downstairs.

Nicole dragged the suitcase downstairs and said hello to the driver.

She popped her head round the sitting room door.

‘Well, bye,’ she said brightly. There was no sign of her grandmother.

‘Where’s Gran?’ she asked her mother.

‘Gone home. Have a good time.’

Sandra didn’t even get up from her chair to say goodbye, which was most unusual. Sandra had been so excited about

the Teen Stars roadshow that Nicole had half-expected a fanfare of neighbours and a bottle of sparkling wine. The grumpy, nervous Nicole would have felt irritated by such a display. But the ashamed Nicole felt her eyes go misty at the lack of the neighbours, the sparkling wine and the proud family farewell.

Only Pammy gave her big sister a huge hug. ‘Say hello to Lorelei,’ Pammy said in her breathy voice. ‘I love her.’

You wouldn’t if you knew her, Nicole thought grimly. She held her little sister tightly and said she would say hi to Lorelei. ‘Go in to Mum, Pammy,’ she ordered, and she shut the front door behind her. Nobody waved from behind the curtains of 12a Belton Terrace.

Nicole climbed into the car and sat, red-eyed and silent, all the way to the airport. This pop star business wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

At Heathrow, the Teen Stars roadshow acts were congregated in one of the business class lounges and Nicole’s first thought was that the entire group resembled a slightly older than usual school tour. The various record company and management staff were like the teachers, anxious at the thought of taking care of the singers, all of whom were carrying on as if they’d been let out of convents for the day and were determined to create as much havoc as possible. Nicole could see four members of the supposedly sweet and innocent Carli Girls sitting in a corner smoking, knocking back glasses of red wine, and telling ribald jokes to a photographer, while Gregory, a fresh-faced young ex-soap star who was adored by teenage girls and their mums alike and who’d fronted a ‘be nice to your parents’ campaign, was smoking and screaming down the phone at someone, with every second word a profanity. Tina, a child prodigy who sang Nolan Sisters covers, was busily painting on Cleopatra-style eyeliner in a compact mirror and sneaking surreptitious gulps of the Carli Girls’ wine while her mother wasn’t looking.

Only Euston, a five-piece boy band with the squeakiest image in the world, were behaving. They were playing travel Monopoly. There was no sign of horrible Lorelei. Maybe she’d cancelled, Nicole hoped. She didn’t want to ever set eyes on Lorelei again. Nicole was welcomed by both the LGBK and Teen Stars staff who were there to make sure that the paths of their young stars ran smoothly and without too many scandalous inches in the gossip columns. They’d have their hands full. ‘We were worried about you,’ said Andrea, the publicity woman from LGBK who was going to be travelling with Nicole. Andrea looked about twenty but as she was publicity manager, she had to be older, Nicole reckoned. Hopefully, she’d be fun and they could have a nice time. Nicole longed to be able to confide in someone and say she was as nervous as hell about the whole roadshow thing. But now was not the time. ‘Traffic was terrible,’ she said brightly, determined to be as professional as possible. ‘So, what’s the plan?’ ‘We need some photos for the Teen Stars magazine,’ said Phyllis, the most senior Teen Stars tour person, who looked around three times Andrea’s age and was obviously well used to ordering wild young bands around. ‘Could we have the group together?’ Phyllis called in an authoritative voice that brooked no argument. In a flash, the Carli Girls stabbed out their fags and whipped out expensive compacts to re-do their make up. Phyllis swiftly removed the offending glasses and everyone tried to look like young, happy, squeaky clean pop stars. Gregory swore viciously one last time, hung up his phone and smiled the lovely, sweet smile that women of all ages adored. ‘Hi babe,’ he said, wriggling in beside Nicole and brushing back a swathe of naturally blond fringe. ‘Haven’t met you before. This tour could be fun.’ Nicole glowered at him. She wasn’t dumb enough to fall for such a two-faced jerk.

‘Hello,’ said a familiar, hated voice. ‘Stealing my boys again, Nicci. Very bad of you. I can see I’m going to have to watch you.’ It was Lorelei, dripping vitriol in skintight pink lace; an outfit that was extremely out of place in Heathrow at two in the afternoon. She looked as if she was ready to start dancing round the pole in a strip club. Lorelei couldn’t be only nineteen, Nicole decided. She was obviously one of the undead and had been walking the earth for centuries looking for people to torture. It would take a long time for anyone to become as twisted as Lorelei and nineteen years just wasn’t long enough. ‘Are we ready?’ said the photographer. Lorelei, scene stealing as ever, decided that she wanted to be in the middle of the group, so she clambered all over everyone else and plonked herself in the middle, managing to stab Nicole in the arm with one deadly fingernail. ‘Ouch,’ said Nicole. ‘Sorry diddums,’ said Lorelei. ‘Me didn’t mean to hurt you, diddums,’ she added in babyspeak and hugged Nicole. ‘We’re bestest friends, you and me.’ And so it was that the first picture of Nicole’s groundbreaking first tour was of her clutched in Lorelei’s deadly grasp, with Lorelei looking angelic and Nicole looking grim as she realized that there were three more weeks of this to go. Lorelei had messed things up for Nicole with Darius and Nicole was determined to pay her back if it was the last thing she did. Darius hadn’t phoned since that morning after the Coral Fish launch and when she’d rung him in the hope that they could make things up, he’d been cool and businesslike, as if she was just another LGBK act instead of someone special. Nicole had hung up and allowed herself to cry a few bitter tears. It astonished her how miserable she felt without his friendship.

The tour, despite everyone from Teen Stars saying the opposite, was surprisingly hard work. There were sixteen venues and two performances in each, often on the same day. Once the second gig was over, everybody was too tired to do anything except shuffle off to bed. Or at least, that was the plan. But Lorelei, Gregory and the Carli Girls generally found a burst of energy from somewhere and were determined to party. Nicole soon found that asking for a room on a different floor of the hotel and making sure that nobody but Andrea and Phyllis knew the number was the only answer. She discovered this after the first two nights in Manchester when Lorelei and Gregory set off a fire extinguisher outside her room door and then scarpered, leaving her peering confusedly into the hotel corridor just as security rounded the corner. It had taken a lot of effort to explain that she’d just woken up and had nothing to do with the prank. However, trying to avoid the vindictive Lorelei had one magical effect: Nicole’s performing nerves disappeared. At rehearsals, she was too busy waiting for Lorelei’s next practical joke to be nervous and by the time the actual performances came round, she’d realized that she simply loved being onstage and could perform in her sleep. As the Edinburgh Clarion music reporter wrote: The Teen Stars roadshow may be manufactured pop, but you’ve got to applaud the organizers for bringing us the charismatic Nicole. With the voice of a husky angel and the looks of an Indian goddess, she’s surely the star of this show. And from the screams she gets every time she’s on stage, the fans think so too. This glowing review did not endear her to Lorelei, who broke two nails with rage when she read it and proceeded to spill nail varnish all over Nicole’s prized D&G flower print jacket by way of revenge. Nicole, fed up with being dignified and professional, put Lorelei’s vast collection of make-up in the backstage microwave until it all melted into a Technicolor puddle. She then