Chapter 14
Dear Kian
Really sorry but gotta go home right now. No time to explain. Good luck for rest of you tour.
Love Alena
He froze. Alena was gone? What happened to her. What was wrong? Terror gripped him. He could see tear stains on the note. He had to find her and see what was wrong. She couldn’t just leave. He loved her. He got out his cellphone and frantically punched in her number hoping to reach her. Her voice message came and said “Sorry, I’m not here right now but leave a message and I’ll get back to ya. See ya”
“Alena! Where are you? Tell me what’s wrong! Ring me! cried Kian leaving a message. He ran to her room. Pushing open the door he realized that it wasn’t locked. All her things were gone. Everything was in a mess and it seemed that she had left in a hurry. He collapsed on to the bed feeling the world had crumbled in and fallen down on him. He felt like sobbing, like tearing something, like punching something. But he did none of these and walked back to his own room wearied and tired from all his emotions.
“Hey Ki, what are ya doing?” asked Shane coming into the room. “My Gosh! What’s the matter with you? You look like you have just been mown over or something!”
“She’s gone. She’s not coming back.” and with that Kian did let his tears flow.
“Who? What happened?” asked a confused Shane. He sat down next to Kian.
“Alena. She’s n..no..no coming b..ba...back. She left a n..no..note.” choked out Kian with his head buried in his hands.
“Come on Ki, you don’t know that, maybe it’s like an emergency at home so she went back and is coming back later. Have you rung her?”
“I know she isn’t coming back! I feel it! I rang her. Her cellphone’s been turned off. I can’t reach her at all. I’ve lost her! I’ll never be able to tell her I love her....” Kian shook uncontrollably. Shane didn’t know what to do.
“I’ll call the others.” Shane got out his cellphone and called Bryan. “Hey Bry, round up the other guys. Conference in my room right now. It’s an emergency!” he hung up. “Kian, I’m sure we can come up with a way to find her. We’re so stupid! Why didn’t we ever ask her for her address?! Damn!”
After 2 mins the other lads arrived. “Hey what’s up? What’s the big emergency huh?” asked Bryan, walking through the door. “Whoa what’s with the water works?”
“Shut up Bry. This is no time for stupid jokes” said Shane shooting a dirty look at Bryan. Bryan mouthed sorry and put a guilty look on his face. The lads seated themselves around the room all giving concerned looks at Kian. Shane told them the situation, right from the start, about how Kian felt about Alena. How he loved her and now she had just suddenly went. She was gone. All the lads were speechless about how Kian felt about Alena except Nicky. He had seen how Kian looked at Alena, how he acted towards her. It was just like how he was when he fell in love with Georgina but he was as equally shocked as the other lads. He couldn’t believe Alena just upped and left like that. No explanation, nothing except a note. The lads cried out in indignation over the injustice of it all.
“How could Alena do that? That is so low!” cried out Bryan.
“I can’t believe it, she doesn’t seem that kind of person.” put in Mark.
“Well that just goes to show that you can’t judge a person too easily.” shot out Bryan.
“Yeah...hey come to think of it, we’ve never actually heard her talk about herself or about New Zealand. Strange.. she must have some sort of secret..” said Mark.
“I don’t believe she is that kind of person” commented Nicky looking at Bryan “but I do agree that she does pretty much hide her past. She seemed to change the topic everytime we asked about New Zealand.”
“I’ve noticed that too..” said Shane. “I wonder what her secret is?”
“Kian, what are you going to do?” asked Nicky quietly. Kian shook his head in despair. He couldn’t speak for a lump was in his throat and his heart drowning in a river of pain.
“We couldn’t find her, her cellphone’s been turned off and we don’t know her address in New Zealand.” answered Shane for Kian.
“What can we do then?” How can we find her?” said Mark.
They all sat in gloom, wondering and finding no solution. then Bryan snapped his fingers and yelled “I’ve got it!! We can go ask Louis, I mean he hired her so he must have her address!”
Shane thumped Bryan on the back and laughed delightedly. “Man, sometimes you are a jerk but this time you’ve really outdone yourself!” Bryan thumped him back playfully.
“I am never a jerk!”
“Yeah, yeah whatever, come on guys! What are we waiting for? Let’s call Louis!” cut in Nicky. Kian looked up, hope dawning in his eyes. Shane grabbed his cellphone and called Louis.
“Hey Louis, quick, we need to know Alena’s New Zealand address. It’s an emergency! Hurry up! Uh huh..yup...yup.. got it! Thanks. Hey Louis we got some other news for you. We’re taking a slight detour to New Zealand.”
“What?!” yelled Louis so loudly that Shane had to keep the phone away from his ear. “What about the tour? Japan? Are you out of your minds?! I FORBID YOU!!”
“Sorry Louis. Can’t stop us. We’ve made up our minds. Just make up something. You can do it. Sorry really got to go. Got a plane to catch.” answered Shane.
“NO!!! If you leave, you’re through! I’ll wash my hands entirely of you all!”
“No you won’t Louis. You’re a smart guy. Ciao!!” and with that Shane hung up.
“SHANE!! Why did you do that for?!” yelled out Bryan. “Hey if you want to throw your career down the gutter no-one’s stopping ya but I plan to stay in the business!”
“Calm down mate. Louis is a smart guy. We’ve made him big money. He wouldn’t be as stupid to drop us now. We’ve made it now. It doesn’t matter if he drops us, we can still find someone else.” reasoned Shane.
“Yeah..whatever...” mumbled Bryan.
“Aw come on Bry. It’s for a mate. For real love. It’s worth it.” put in Nicky. “I’d do it.”
Bryan snorted.
“I’m sorry you guys. I don’t want to drag you guys into this. I’ll go alone if you want.” murmured Kian.
“No way, we’re going with ya, you need support” insisted Shane glaring at Bryan.
“I’ll ring and book the next flight to New Zealand.” said Nicky enthusiastically.
“Don’t worry Kian, we’ll find Alena for ya.” said Mark patting Kian on the pat.
“Hey guys. The next flight directly to Dunedin is in another 5 hours.” called out Nicky.
Kian groaned. 5 hours was such a long time.
“Hey Ki, come on, cheer up. It’s not that long. Gives us time to pack and everything. Come on mate. Start packing. Everybody back to their rooms. Meet back here in an hour.” ordered Shane. Everybody dispersed leaving Shane and Kian alone in the room.
“Come on Ki, don’t just sit there, start packing! 5 hours ain’t that long!” said Shane.
Kian started packing, multiple emotions flowing in and out of him - Fear, what if he couldn’t get Alena back? What if she didn’t love him? What if he lost Westlife? - Love, he knew he loved Alena, beyond belief. - Pain, how could she just leave like that? Didn’t she know how he felt? - Gratitude, to the lads for being there for him, for supporting him. All of this rushed in and out of his heart one at a time. He felt so helpless. He was going to confront Alena when he found her, he wasn’t going to hide it anymore, he couldn’t keep it in. Their bands song ‘Can’t lose what you never had’ came to mind. He smiled grimly. How it reflected his feelings but he knew that if she did turn away it wouldn’t be OK. He’d die. His soul would be no more. Tears leaked out again. Where is she?