Chapter 8

Anna was in hospital for another week until she was released. She felt completely fine but was told to take it easy for at least the next week. Nicky took the orders seriously and refused to let Anna do much. She wanted to go shopping with him but he wouldn’t let her. “You can’t keep me locked up in here,” she complained to him. “You can come with me next week when you’re more up to it,” he answered.
“But I feel fine now,” she argued.
“I don’t care. You were told to take it easy so I’m making sure you do. End of case.” Anna slumped down on the sofa in a huff as Nicky got his coat on.

“Where have you been?” Hollie yelled at Shane who came through the door. He hadn’t been home all night and she had been worried sick. Shane looked dishevelled and dirty. His hair was stuck out in all places and he couldn’t stand up straight. “Out,” he growled at her. “What’s it to you anyway?”
“Have you been drinking?”
“No!”
“Tell me the truth!”
“Leave me alone!” Shane yelled then he stormed up to their bedroom and slammed the door. Hollie walked over to the phone and dialled Kian’s number.
“Kian? Did you manage to talk to Shane yesterday?” she asked as soon as he picked up.
“Yeah. I tried to get him to talk to me but he wouldn’t. He hasn’t even been to see Anna. I think that would do him a world of good. He doesn’t seem to care about anything anymore. He was drinking again the other night.”
“I think he’s been drinking this morning. He’s just got in and he looks rough. He smells of alcohol as well.”
“Don’t worry Hol, we’ll snap him out of it.”
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Two months later things had gotten worse by Shane hid it from everybody else. He would drink all afternoon and all night. He would sit in the park from about lunchtime until six in the morning. He spent all his time in that corner with his bag of lager cans next to him. Sometimes he wouldn’t come home at all. He would tell everybody he wasn’t feeling well or he was staying with his parents for a couple of days.

Jai, Daniel, Claire, Mark, Anna, Nicky, Cherie, Kian, Emily, Bryan, and Hollie decided to go ice-skating. Nobody had spoken to Donna since they got back home from their holiday and she soon moved out of the house. Shane as usual was ‘not feeling well’ and stayed at home. The ice rink was open for everybody but since it was 9am they were the first ones there. Only Hollie and Anna could skate. All the others held onto each other and the sides of the ice so they didn’t fall over. Hollie saw a group of about ten girls come in, get their skates and sit down to put them on. She and Anna skated off away from the rest who were still clinging onto the sides. The girls came to the edge of the ice. One of them breathed in loudly in shock and it echoed around the rink. ‘Uh oh,’ Anna thought as she watched them from the opposite side. “Oh my God!” said one of the girls and turned around to tell the others. Sounds of: “I can’t believe it’s really them,” “Let’s go say hi,” and “Did anyone bring a camera?” filled that corner of the ice. They all stepped onto the ice and skated over to where the others where just letting themselves go of the wall. They were all making bets with each other to see who could stand on the ice the longest and didn’t notice the girls at first. At the other end of the room, Anna and Hollie began to get worried. They had seen scenes before where they boys hadn’t had their security with them and they had to try and pull themselves free. The girls made a circle around them. They all looked towards the girls. Bryan was so shocked to see them standing there surrounding them like that, that he forgot to concentrate on standing up and fell over pulling Daniel with him. In Daniel’s haste to stay standing up he grabbed onto Nicky’s jumper but Nicky was too unsteady and fell over as well. Cherie and Claire ended up tripping over them pulling Emily, Mark, Kian and Jai with them. Hollie and Anna stood there laughing along with the girls that were around them. “Ok, we promise not to tell anyone about this,” laughed the girl that first noticed them.

That night Westlife had a party to launch their third album. Shane showed up later then everybody else. He tried to look the part but he had been drinking beforehand and was acting like an idiot. Kian asked Anna for a dance because she looked bored sat on her own. It was a slow song but Anna didn’t mind. She agreed. Cherie had tonsillitis and didn’t feel like coming to the party. Kian led her onto the dance floor and put his arms on her waist. In return Anna put her arms around Kian’s shoulders. Nicky was at the bar with Bryan and didn’t notice the look in Kian’s eyes. His eyes glistened as if he were the happiest man alive to be dancing with Anna. He had a strange feeling every time he looked her way or thought about her but he wasn’t completely sure about it until now. He loved the way her blondish hair shone and her brown eyes glistened. Sometimes you could mistake her eyes for green. A lot of people had mistaken them for green before. Kian’s heart began to beat faster as Anna wrapped her arms tighter around his shoulders. He realised he really liked Anna. That was one thing he was really sure of. One thing he didn’t know was whether it was love or just a crush. Whatever it was he couldn’t let Nicky find out. It could ruin everything between them for good. Nicky was one of his best friends and he always intended it to be that way. But what was he going to do about it? What was he going to tell Cherie? Whatever happens it doesn’t look like it would end with smiles all round.