Chapter 5

So, I basically chatted on the phone to Abbie for the rest of the night. There was no way I was gonna wait around for her to call. I had to phone her straight away!

I’m going out with Christian from a1 for God sake! This is no ordinary matter! I had to tell someone. I’d just burst if I didn’t.

And in these situations, Abbie is really the only person I can turn to.

She was gob smacked when I told her. I still don’t think she’d got over the fact that I’d snogged Christian from a1, but now she’d heard that I was going out on a date with him- tomorrow- as well, she was practically hysterical!

“Oh my God- Oh my God! You’re gonna have a famous boyfriend!” She kept screaming down the phone (sometimes the decibels were so high, I had to hold the phone away from my ear).

“You’ll get to go to all the fab parties!” She gasped. “And all the film premieres! And everyone’ll be taking pictures of you two, and you’ll be in really cool magazines, and- Oh my God- you’ll get to meet a1… Oh my God! You’ll meet Ben! You’ll meet BEN!”

Well, yes. Probably. And probably not, as well.

“It’s just a date, Abbie,” I said, trying to play it down.

“A date? Just a date? Kate! This is Christian from a1 we’re talking about! How can you just have a ‘date’ with him?!” She cried.

“Abbie, he’s really normal,” I insisted. “He’s not like famous-y at all. He’s so down-to-earth.”

“Bu-ut! But! He’s still Christian from a1! Kate- how can you be so CALM?!!”

I think she was more nervous than I was.

In fact, I knew she was more nervous than I was! And she wasn’t the one going out with him!

And of course, after all the “oooh! Oooh! Where are you going? What are you going to see? What are you going to wear? Arraaaghhh! Christian a1!! a1!!!” interrogating, I had to explain to her all about this afternoon, and how we’d met, and what we’d chatted about and then everything leading up to the snog.

And then she wanted to know how good a kisser he was (compared to my previous boyfriends), and if he was as gorgeous in real life, blah, blah, blah.

But then she asked the question I knew she’d been dying to ask ever since she’d found out I’d met a member of a1.

“So… er… so- did he talk about Ben?” She asked excitedly.

I really wasn’t sure whether I should tell Abbie what Christian had said. I mean, I know it wasn’t exactly confidential information about him doing no housework and being incredibly annoying, but I’m sure Christian- and Ben- wouldn’t be too pleased if I blabbed to the whole of my friends what kind of person he is!

And I do want Christian to trust me. That’s really important.

“Erm…”

“Did he mention him at all? Anything?” Abbie pressed.

“No,” I lied. “He didn’t really mention Ben. He talked about the guys in general, but not really Ben.”

“Well- what did he say?!” She asked.

“Just that they’re really nice guys and he got on well with them when he lived with them, but he needed a bit more privacy, so he moved out,” I said, trying to be as truthful as possible.

“Oh,” Abbie said. She was clearly disappointed, but there wasn’t anything I could do.

But Abbie isn’t the type to go and tell everyone secrets- so maybe I could tell her about Ben later…

It was around half past nine by the time I got off the phone to her. She just kept going on and on about how fantastic it was, this whole thing with Christian, and how we were gonna be ‘together forever’ and get married, blah, blah, blah.

And to be honest, the longer I spent on the phone to her, the more nervous I was getting about tomorrow.

I’d been ok on the phone to Christian- I don’t know what it is, but once I get talking to him, I become really relaxed and feel as though I’ve known him forever. Like we’ve been mates for a long time, or something. Even though we’d only met this afternoon.

But the more Abbie kept going on about me dating a pop star, I kept getting butterflies in my stomach and they were multiplying and multiplying and MULTIPLYING.

By the time I was ready to say goodbye to her, I could barely speak!

“Abbie, I gotta go. I need a goodnight’s sleep.”

“I know, I know! But I don’t want you to go! I wanna keep talking to you about Christian!” She whined.

“I can’t,” I said firmly.

“Fine,” she sighed. “I’ll manage, I s’pose.”

“Look- Abbie- I’d really appreciate it if you kept this whole thing quiet for a bit, ok?” I said firmly. “Don’t go telling Debbie, or Nicky, or Emm, or Danny, or ANYONE- ok not until… well… we’ll see.”

“Ok! Ok! I’ll try. But it’s hard. I really wanna tell everyone!” She laughed.

“Yeah, well don’t- ok? Please?” I begged.

I think she understood. “Yeah, yeah. Ok, I promise. No telling until you say so.”

“Ok, thank you. I’ll speak to you tomorrow,” I said.

“Yeah! You’d better!” She laughed. “I wanna hear every little, tiny, last detail of the date!!” She said.

I laughed. I knew that was coming!

“Of course. Tomorrow then, ok? Bye!”

“Bye! Arraghh! Christian a1!!” She cried, making me laugh.

I put the phone down and everything in the flat seemed to go quiet again.

I thought about tomorrow and the date, and shivered with excitement. I had to hug myself to calm me down!

God- I was really nervous now. Really, really nervous.

Thanks a lot, Abbie!

I kept thinking about seeing him again, and I was soooo anxious.

What if he was different?

What if he wasn’t interested anymore?

What if I turned out to be a total bore? Or the film was bad?

Arraghhhh… what if he stood me up?!

Kate- get a grip! I scolded myself. Everything’s gonna be fine. It’s gonna be fine.

You’ll have a great time.

A wicked time.

A fab time.

Just RELAX!

I took a deep breath. “Ok, ok, relax,” I said soothly to myself, trying to calm my nerves.

I decided I’d better go to bed. I’d had along day (you can say that again) and I was pretty tired under all the anxiety.

So I got up and turned all the lights off and went into my bedroom.

My bedroom was- if you hadn’t guessed- very small, very dark, and very HORRIBLE.

Well, not horrible. It wasn’t cold or draughty or anything like that. And the ceiling didn’t leak and there was no putrefying smell or anything.

No, it was just painfully small and completely crimson-red.

What with the double bed (Wahoo!), wardrobe, dressing table and the little table I have next to my bed, you could barely see a few square inches of crimson carpet. There really was hardly any floor space in this room. It was so teeny and crammed with too much stuff, but I couldn’t very well throw anything out could I? It had crossed my mind to change to a single bed, but that made me feel really sad and depressed, so I decided to keep the double bed. Not that anyone else used it, other than me! There was another door in the bedroom, which led to the bathroom, which was WHITE and crimson.

Wow!

And in there, it was so small, I only had room for a toilet, basin and a shower!

Not even a bath!

God knows the last time I’d got washed in a bath!

Yonks, and yonks ago!

I got washed and then ready for bed, and then tried to get to sleep. I always sleep with the lamp on, which you may think is really sad, but I can’t help it. I absolutely hate the dark. I really, really hate it. There is a reason behind it of course, but I don’t want to go into that now. But basically, I have to sleep with the light on. It helps me relax, anyway.

But I don’t think anything could have helped me relax, then.

I was really nervous about tomorrow. I kept tossing and turning in my bed; I couldn’t settle.

It was nervous energy, really. I was excited too- but more nervous.

I just wanted everything to go right tomorrow.

I hadn’t been on a date for ages, and Christian was soooo famous. I didn’t want to show him up.

I had to force myself to sleep, knowing that he ‘fancies me’ and of course, that he liked me enough to song me!

Yep, I went to sleep with his lips on mine…!

***********************************************

I overslept.

I’d meant to get up at around half past eight, but when my eyes slowly flicked open and moved to the alarm clock, it said:

9:47

My eyes opened wide in shock and I sat up and grabbed the alarm clock.

9:47

It still said.

“Shit!” I cried, and I put it back down on the table.

Oh my God- today was the day. Thee day.

I was meeting Christian in less than 4 hours!

ARRAGGGGHHH!!

I jumped out of bed and headed straight for the bathroom. I had things pretty much in order of how I wanted to do things, 1) wash- take a shower and wash hair, 2) sort out outfit for the date, 3) have something to eat and drink if up to it, 4) do hair and make up, 5) get dressed 6) phone for taxi (I don’t have my car, remember? And I am NOT walking into Greenwich), 7) when it comes, go and meet Christian.

Oh my God. So much to do; so little time.

I had to hurry.

I was even more nervous that morning. I suppose I’d had an ok sleep, but I still felt tired and really, really nervous. I had a sick feeling in my stomach.

What the hell was it gonna be like? What if everything went wrong? What if he’s just not interested? What if he’s not the same as yesterday? What if he’s “really, scary famous” ?

I kept jumping up and down on the spot, I was so nervous!

I had my shower, and washed my hair as well. I was determined to look my best! As that was up in a towel, and I was wrapped up in my bathrobe, I went over to the wardrobe to pick “the” outfit.

I was so confused about what to wear.

I didn’t want to dress up too much, ‘cos it was only the cinema, but I didn’t want to dress down too much, either.

I had to look casual, but not too casual. And I didn’t want to look tarty, either!

God, it was soooo difficult.

Jeans were a bit too casual, and there was no WAY I was wearing a skirt to the cinema!

I spent 20 minutes or so deciding. I am such an indecisive person!

But I had to get this right. This date was so important to me. Probably the most important date I’d had… ever.

So I had to be wearing the right clothes. Make up’s never a problem, ‘cos I hardly wear much. But clothes… clothes drive me insane.

I decided on not my best pair of trousers (as I didn’t want to use up all of my good stuff straight away), but my third best pair, some khaki coloured ones, an almost best top (again, not the best), a purple one with a silvery pattern thing on, and my khaki jacket. It was much more overcast today than yesterdays heat, and I didn’t particularly want to wear a vest top in front of him again anyway!

When I’d finally decided that that was the outfit I was going to wear, I laid it out on the bed and looked at it.

Hmmm… it would do, I guess. But I was running low on time and I couldn’t afford to change again.

That was about my 5th estimated outfit!

I tried to take a few deep breaths then to relax, but it wasn’t working.

I kept wringing my hands and checking the time.

Oh- I wonder if he’s as nervous as me?

Probably not. He’s probably fine about it. Really, really cool, calm and collected!

But I’m not! I wish I was, but I’m not. I feel sick. I need something to drink, I decided.

Vodka! Ha, ha, ha!

No. I’d better get a cocoa or something. I’m not really keen on tea and coffee seemed too strong right now.

So, I went off into the kitchen and began to make my fave Chocolate Orange Options drink.

Yum!

I checked the time again.

Nearly 11am.

Oh God!! 2 and a half hours to go… I was calling the taxi at 10 to one. That way, it would be here for one, and it takes twenty minutes to drive to the Odeon in Greenwich.

I didn’t want to be too early, but I didn’t want to be too late, either. If I got there about 1.25pm, that’d be ok, wouldn’t it?

Then I didn’t look too desperate or uninterested.

Oh, I hope he showed up…

My Options was soon ready, and I put it into a mug. I had thought about having breakfast, but I really wasn’t feeling up to it.

I felt sick. The butterflies in my stomach about the date made food the last thing on my mind. Maybe once we were at the cinema, I might relax and get something there.

Maybe we could share popcorn…

I made my way into the lounge to drink my cocoa, when I noticed there was a message flashing on my answer phone.

Funny. Someone must have phoned me when I was in the shower…

Then I realised who it might be and smiled.

Abbie!

She must have phoned to wish me good luck or something. That’s just the kind of sweet thing she’d do! Or to phone just to scream about Christian a1 again.

I sat down on the sofa, and smiled to myself. I played the message.

There was a bleep! And then the voice spoke…

“Hi- it’s Christian. Look- I’m really, really sorry but I can’t make it this afternoon. Something’s come up. I’m really, really sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. I’ll phone you later, ok? I promise. Bye.”