Chapter 2
trying to go to sleep after staying up last night. Just sitting there, on
the hotel’s bed, flicking through the channels, feeling absolutely bored
when he found ‘Notting Hill’ was on one of the cable channels.
He was feeling so lonely last night so what could he ask more than a good
movie when all of his friends were asleep, dreaming of only Heaven knows
what. So there he was, with massive eye bags under his already
exhausted-looking blue eyes, trying to go to sleep.
He turned around to find a good spot when he felt something warm was
splashed on his trousers. ‘Oh shit!’
He heard a voice cursed and forced himself to open his heavy eyes.
‘Great, just what I need!’
He whispered softly before spotting a girl holding a glass with half of what
seemed like red wine to him.
‘Oh my God, I’m so so sorry. I don’t know why I’m so clumsy today. Jeez, I’m
so sorry, here, you might like to, umm, wipe your, umm, trousers yourself.’
She said as she handed in pieces of squashed tissue from her jeans’ pocket.
Nicky took the tissue and wiped his trousers only to find that it was indeed
red wine that was spilled all over his trousers.
‘I’m so sorry. Oh God. Do you have tissue?’
The girl turned to another girl whose face was expressionless. She handed
the girl a couple more of tissue mechanically from her black handbag. Nicky
didn’t know what made him did it but he scrunched his eyebrows when he saw
the other girl, the one with the black handbag. The handbag matched her
beautifully, the colour was exactly like her hair. So black, more black than
the blackest thing he had ever seen. But the expressionless face sort of
annoyed him. If she at least smiled then it would brighten up her whole face.
The girl with the wine suddenly pulled her friend by her hand and now the
expressionless girl was facing Nicky but he could spot a grinning face
behind her. The expressionless girl bit her lip and she looked like she was
about to cry when her friend pulled her away and whispered something to her.
Nicky was left in his own seat for a few seconds and he occupied himself by
looking at the sky’s view. Not too unusual though, same thing over and over
again, clumps of white clouds with an amazing light blue background which
never failed to amaze him after all these times he spent on the plane.
Bryan was practically drooling in his sleep and Nicky felt like chuckling at
him seeing Bryan’s parted lips shot him with a strange idea of colouring it
with the reddest lipstick. ‘Sorry about that.’
The girl was back but without the expressionless one, handing him more
tissues. Nicky didn’t know why but he felt a slight disappointment. Call him
nasty but she looked like a perfect piece of art, so mysterious yet contains
so much emotion. ‘Hey, you don’t have any red lipstick by any chance do you?’
The girl looked at Nicky strangely, as if he was an alien and he was talking
in a completely different language.
‘Oh no, don’t worry. It’s not for me, it’s for this one beside me here.’
‘Oh! Sure, sure.’
The girl searched her bag and found a perfectly rose red lipstick and handed
it over to Nicky, trying to hold back her giggles. Nicky leaned over to put
the lipstick on Bryan. Bryan didn’t move at all so Nicky had some more ideas
and drew some more with her lipstick.
‘Oops, sorry about your lipstick. I guess it’s kinda squashed and ugly now.
Hang on, I’ll buy you another one. Do you want the same one?’
The girl appeared to be nervous, like she didn’t know what to say. ‘Umm..’
Before she could answer, Nicky already called an air stewardess and asked if
they had the kind of lipstick he had ruined. The air stewardess returned and
shook her head apologetically.
‘Okay, we’re landing in about fifteen minutes. I’m sure we can find one in
the Duty Free. By the way, I’m Nicky and this poor lad over here is Bryan.’
‘I’m Stella.’ Bryan stirred and woke up after coughing a bit. ‘Hey.’
Bryan greeted Nicky, oblivious to what had happened to his face. Stella
started giggling as soon as Bryan opened his eyes and Bryan was starring at
her strangely. ‘What’s gotten into her?’ ‘Dunno.’
Nicky shrugged, his face turning all red as a result of holding back his
laughter. ‘Excuse me for a minute. Need to go.’
Nicky stood up for Bryan and, by then, more passengers were looking at them.
The giggling Stella, red-faced Nicky and confused Bryan.
As soon as Nicky was sure that Bryan had gone into the toilet, he started
laughing so hard he woke a baby up. The parents looked quite annoyed but
Nicky managed to apologise in between his laughter.
Seconds later Bryan got out of the toilet and by then the rest of the lads
had find out what Nicky had done and they were all laughing at him.
‘Don’t worry, pay off day is coming really soon.’ ‘You look gooor-geous Bryan!’
Bryan shot Shane a look that could kill and sat down on his seat as the
captain announced that they were going to land.
Floods of fans were in the airport’s ground to greet them and that seemed to
shock the other passengers as they didn’t realise who the lads were until
they got off the plane. They stopped to sign some stuff and posed for a few
pictures before proceeding on.
‘Okay, go on and choose another lipstick. Whatever you want, I don’t really
mind cos I’ve ruined your lovely old one that’s sticking on Bryan’s shirt.’
Nicky started laughing again followed by Stella. ‘Oh the shirt, the souvenir!’
‘Quit it Nicky.’
Bryan gritted his teeth but he was about to break into laughter as well. He
lost and the laughter escaped freely out of his mouth. ‘I’m Bryan.’
‘I know, Nicky told me. I’m Stella.’
Bryan and Stella shook hands while Nicky once again looked at the other girl
behind Stella. The expressionless girl.
‘Oh sorry, this is Emily, my bestfriend. Em, this is Bryan and this is
Nicky..of Westlife..’ ‘Oh!’
Bryan laughed again, followed by Nicky, feeling fooled. They were flying
from London to Dublin and it was very rare when someone who had a very thick
English accent had never even heard or seen Westlife before in their lives.
Emily didn’t extend her hand nor did she really respond to anything but she
did look Nicky straight in the eyes. It felt weird for Nicky, too weird in
fact. ‘Okay, let’s go Em. We can’t waste their time.’
Stella suddenly pulled Emily’s hand, tearing her gaze on Nicky and Nicky’s
on hers. Stella chose her lipstick but it was a branded one so she was about
to put it back when Nicky took it and paid for it.
‘You shouldn’t have done that you know. I could always choose a normal one.
I just didn’t really realise what I was choosing. Sorry.’
‘Hey, I already said it’s completely fine. I mucked up yours anyway. You
sure you don’t want one Emily?’
Nicky was trying to get a reaction out of Emily endlessly but never got one.
Not even this time. She didn’t shake her head nor did she nod her head.
‘Umm, let’s just go hey? Thanks once again, Nicky. See ya!’
Stella pulled Emily and walked away after waving to the rest of the lads.
‘Hey, where are they going?’ ‘Dunno.’
Nicky shrugged, looking back at Mark, still feeling weird about it all. No,
not about it all, it was her, Emily, Nicky thought.
They were waiting for their luggage and the lads were extremely happy
because they were home again and they were about to get some holidays. A
well deserved holiday that was, after being away from home for months. ‘WAIT!’
Nicky suddenly yelled, running after Stella and Emily, leaving his luggage
behind. But he didn’t realise the mistake he was about to make by running
after Emily and Stella. The fans were ready to greet them again in the front
lobby and he managed to stop running before making a fool out of himself
running into the fans. They all had lovely banners and welcoming balloons he
always loved. They all were saying ‘Welcome Home’ and that was his favourite.
He looked back and found the other lads were coming his way so he approached
Bryan and stopped him. ‘What Nix?’ ‘Listen, remember Emily?’
‘Yeah, Stella’s friend. What’s with her?’
‘No, you don’t understand. Remember my senior high prom? Emily? Connecting
to each other? Emily Lynsaght. Does that name mean anything to you?’
Nicky was practically jumping up and down, being really impatient about it
all. He remembered telling Bryan about it all once. They were introduced to
Emily at around the same time and those flashbacks had just hit him when
Emily was gone.
‘Of course! What was I thinking? I thought they looked familiar. My God!
Stella’s gorgeous really.’
‘Tell me later. Now I really need your help. Distract the fans for me will
you? Dance like a chicken or whatever but, please, I need to catch them.’
‘Both or Emily?’
Nicky’s cheeks were colouring. After all these times he was still thinking
about her especially when he was feeling lonely. After that day he asked her
the question, he never really got to talk to her properly and she always
seemed to try to ignore him. Some days he would see her watching the
football game with her mam sitting next to her, cheering everytime HomeFarm
scored or everytime Nicky managed to prevent the ball from entering their
goal. Some days he saw her standing on the bus stop waiting for her bus and
she saw him too but none of them made a move to talk to each other again.
Ever. Until now, when he was given the second chance to see her again.
‘Shut up. Now, please Bryan. I’ll get you Stella’s number.’ ‘Ummm..’
‘But Bryan, you’ve always embarrassed yourself anyway.’
Bryan tapped Mark’s shoulder and signaled Mark to take over his trolley. He
ran to the fans and started doing crazy things like an eedjit would. ‘DEAL!’
He yelled to Nicky who gave him a thumb up. Nicky ran as fast as he could
through the emergency doors of the airport. He knew it so well because he
had been there so many times with the lads. ‘Emily! Emily Lynsaght!’
He managed to spot her back. Luckily he was paying attention to what she was
wearing. Emily turned around and so did Stella. Nicky ran to catch them.
‘Oh my God, Emily! I thought I knew you.’ ‘You actually know this lad Em?’
Emily, again, didn’t react. She looked at Stella and, as if Stella
understood, she nodded. Nicky didn’t care anymore, he leaned forward and
gave Emily one massive hug. ‘We’ve got so much catching up to do eh?’
Nicky was expecting at least a reaction back from her. Maybe a pat on the
back or whatever but he didn’t get what he expected at all.
‘Are you alright, Em? Oh my God, so nice to finally see you again! How’s
your dad?’ ‘Em, let’s go.’ ‘Hey, wait! Where are you staying?’
Stella looked over to Emily for a while the turned back again. ‘Emily’s.’
‘Same place?’
Stella nodded then left with Emily, leaving Nicky buried in his own
thoughts. What could be so wrong with Emily, he thought. He always pictured
her as a very warm and affectionate girl. He was going to go and see her
today for sure, he thought again as he walked back to the main entrance to
join the rest of the lads. He was determined to know what was wrong with
her. He wanted to know, more, he needed to know.