Chapter 14

The Function Hall at the Conrad Hotel was almost crammed full of people on Christmas day. The hall was buzzing with people talking and the hotel manager had put up balloons and streamers on the walls. The place was brightly decorated and everybody was having a good time. Time went by quick and shortly after 3am everybody started pouring out of the hotel. Kian went straight to his hotel room while everyone else went home. He laid in bed for a while just staring at the ceiling thinking about what he was going to do about Cherie and Hollie. He still loved Cherie but he couldn’t help feeling something for Hollie. He wasn’t even sure if she felt the same way. Cherie had been avoiding him since they had their argument. Eventually he started to drift off to sleep only to be woken up by his mobile ringing full blast. He had forgotten to turn it off. He slowly got out of bed and made his way sleepily across his room to the desk by the door where his mobile was charging. “Hello?”
“Kian?” came the reply on the other end of the line. They sounded upset. “It’s Susan. Something has happened to Mira…”

For a whole week Kian kept the biggest secret of his life. Something happened to Mira and he wasn’t planning on telling anybody soon. It could ruin the New Year for everyone and he didn’t want to do that. Not just yet. He walked into the Swallow Hotel in Birmingham as if nothing had ever happened. RCA Records had hired out the function room and a whole floor of rooms for Westlife and their families to spend New Year together. Shortly before midnight Kian couldn’t hold it any longer. He had to tell somebody. He went over to the bar where Hollie was sitting. She noticed the worried and upset expression on his face.
“What’s up Ki?”
“I really need to talk to you. Can we go upstairs?”
“Sure. I don’t feel like staying down here anyway.”
They went into the lift and made their way down the corridor to Hollie’s room right at the far end of the hallway. Hollie opened the door and let Kian in first. As soon as she shut the door Kian started to cry and sat on the bed with his hands covering his face. Hollie sat down next to him and put a protective arm around him. Kian poured out his heart to her starting with Mira and how he couldn’t tell anybody about it just yet. By the time he had finished they both had their arms round each other crying.
“I don’t know how I would cope without you right now,” Kian said.
“The same goes for me as well. I can’t get through to Shane anymore. He refuses to speak to me anymore. He stayed in a hotel over Christmas. I give up talking to him.”
Hollie and Kian sat and stared into each other’s eyes for a few minutes. Kian moved closer to Hollie and kissed her, not coming up for breath. They both fell onto the bed where Kian began to unbutton her shirt. Hollie didn’t make a move to stop him, she took everything in as he took his shirt off. Kian stopped kissing her and looked into her eyes with a needy expression. Hollie looked back then reached for his trousers…

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…Happy New Year!! The whole room erupted into a very drunken version of Auld Lang Syne while Nicky proceeded up onto the makeshift stage where the DJ was. After everyone had settled down Nicky took the microphone.
“Ummm…Happy New Year everyone.” The shaking voice travelled through the speakers around the room. Everyone turned to the nervous blond guy on the stage who had gone rather pale with the fear of rejection. “I would love to make a big speech and everything but I don’t really want to bore you with all that so I’ll just get down to the point.” Nicky hesitated. He was sure that he wanted to marry Anna but he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to ask her in front of everyone. Everybody’s families were there including his own and Anna’s. His friends were somewhere on the dance floor probably laughing at him by now. “Get on with it Nicky!” Nicky recognised Bryan’s voice from the mass of people in front of him. He began shaking even more as he put the microphone up to his mouth. “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. He started to walk down the steps from the stage to where Anna was standing at the bottom. “Anna…I love you.” As he reached the bottom he bent down on one knee and reached his hand into his pocket. Anna was starting to go red as Nicky pulled out a small red box and opened it. “Anna…Will you marry me?” Anna stood shocked as Nicky stood up with a hopeful look on his face. Anna mumbled something that Nicky couldn’t quite hear. “What was that?” He asked.
“Yes! I will,” she said smiling. Nicky put the diamond ring on her finger and wrapped his arms round her while everyone else in the room cheered. “I love you too Nick."