Chapter 11

All five boys walked into the conference room of RCA records in America. They were all dressed up in their best suits and looked tidy. Sat around the huge rectangular table were Anto, Louis and three record company bosses. They sat at one end while the boys nervously sat down at the other end closest to the door. Bryan wanted to leave and the room suddenly became stuffy. He could hardly breathe. “Good evening Gentlemen,” said Paul, the vice president. Kian gulped down some air. Mark weakly smiled back. Shane hadn’t showered that morning. Kian ended up sitting next to him and almost choked in his stench. “Now,” said Paul with a hint of anger. “I hear we have a few problems among us. We have all reviewed the problem and come up with a conclusion so we won’t keep you gentlemen waiting any longer.” Shane just sat lazily in his chair looking down at the floor while the others fiddled nervously with buttons or shoelaces. Sweat began pouring from Bryan’s head. I’m not going to like this he thought. “We are going to release you all from the contract for three months. In those three months I want you all to think about what this is doing for you. I want Shane sobered up and all of you friends again. Just like you used to be. You fly home today and I will call Anto three months to this day to re-start the schedule. Good evening gentlemen.” With that he and his two associates got up from their seats and left the room. Bryan began to cool down a bit.

“I can’t believe you did that Kian!” Cherie yelled pushing him through their front door out onto the porch. “And I had to find out from someone else at that!”
“I’m sorry,” Kian pleaded. “I was drunk. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“Don’t lie to me Kian.”
“I’m not lying. Please. I love you.”
“Well the feeling isn’t mutual anymore. I trusted you Kian and you let me down. I’ll never be able to trust you again.”
“Cherie…”
“No more excuses. I don’t want you near me ever again!” Cherie slammed the door on him. Kian stood looking at the door for a few more minutes then he looked up at the blue sky and left. He felt his life was over. She was the only one that ever understood him. He walked along London Bridge slowly while looking down at the water. A few times he thought about jumping in. Each time he bottled out. It was dark by the time he got to the other side. He still didn’t feel any better. He had nowhere to stay. He had no idea what to do. He called a taxi and got in.

“Kian are you alright?” Hollie asked opening the door. Kian’s face was tearstained and she pulled him in. “What happened to you?”
“Cherie kicked me out. She hates me. She found out about what happened at the party.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you.”
“Where’s Shane?” Kian asked looking around him.
“He’s not here. I don’t know where he his. I don’t care anymore. He’s shut me out and I don’t know what to do. His drinking has become his life. Even the meeting didn’t scare him.” Tears came to her eyes and Kian put his arm around her. He leaned in.
“We can’t help him until he sees what he’s doing. He needs to want help before we can give it to him.” Hollie looked into Kian’s eyes and smiled. Kian leaned in further and kissed her. Hollie didn’t mind and returned the favour.

For the next month Kian stayed with Hollie. They cheered each other up when they were not feeling good. Shane began to see them getting closer and closer along with everybody else. Every time he was around neither of them spoke to him or even looked in his direction. He began to feel shut out even more. He was feeling guilty for putting them together and started to drink all the time. There wasn’t one moment in the day that he was sober. Things were going from bad to worse and nobody could stop it. He had to try and find a way out of it all.