Chapter Sixty-Two
“Thank you so much for doing this.” Rose said to Paul as they drew up to the station. “Think you might have saved me from a fate worse than death!”
Paul smiled. “That’s okay, just helpin’ out a mate. Want me to come in with you?”
Rose looked at the clock on the dashboard.
“No, it’s alright. The train’ll be here in about 5 minutes; you better get off to the interviews, or whatever it is you’re meant to be doing this morning.”
“Who knows? I just turn up and sit there!”
“Will you ring Mark, let him know I’ve gone home?”
“Yeah, course I will. Anything else you want me to say?”
“Um…” Rose thought. “Just that I need a bit of time to think, or something. Not too dramatic!”
Paul nodded. “Okay. Take it easy, alright?”
Rose smiled. “I will.” She got out of the car and grabbed her bag. “See you soon!”
“See ya babe.” Paul said.
He watched her until she disappeared from view before pulling off the side of the road and heading towards the place the interviews were being held. He switched the radio off and pressed speed dial 7 on his phone. He had it all hooked up to the car and set to speakerphone so he wouldn’t have to compromise his driving while he was having a go at Mark. No, he was planning not to get cross or take sides, or anything, but poor Rose! She didn’t need to put up with Mark’s mood swings, and appeared to not be willing to, which was fair enough. Paul wondered if this was the end for them. He hoped not, coz they did seem to be good together, but Mark really needed to get his act together if he wanted to keep Rose.
“Hufmlph?” Mark answered, sounding decidedly hung over.
“Heavy night last night?” Paul asked with a grin, despite the nature of his call.
Ahh, he’d loved to have been there when Mark woke up this morning.
“Paul?”
“Certainly is, mate. I’ll see you at the interviews in like half an hour, but I thought I’d let ya know that Rose has gone home.”
“She’s gone home?”
“Yeah, I’ve just dropped her off at the station now.”
“Is she okay?”
“Well she didn’t want to see you until she’d had a chance to think about things…”
“Do you know what happened?” Mark asked.
“Yeah, she told me.”
“Paul, I didn’t-”
“Look, I don’t really wanna get involved, just give her a bit of space, okay?”
“Yeah. Okay.”
Mark put his phone on the bedside table.
She’d gone home? She’d gone home without even saying goodbye? Oh no, this was bad – he’d really messed up this time. She wasn’t going to come back, he knew she wasn’t, and who could blame her?
Mark put a hand to his face.
“Owwww.” He moaned haplessly.
He couldn’t believe last night had happened. No, re-phrase that: he couldn’t believe what he’d done last night. The worst thing was that he could remember every single little detail clear as day, and hear everything that had been said in surround sound. And oh, it had been awful. He’d been awful. The stuff he’d said to Rose… how could he say something like that? He didn’t even know where those words had come from! He’d been so horrible to her! That would have been bad enough without the situation, but the fact that he’d said that to her because she wouldn’t sleep with him… Well, that was just one more relationship ruined, wasn’t it? Maybe if it hadn’t been for that, then Rose might be able to forgive him, but the impression he must have given her by acting like that would no doubt prove to be irrevocable. He just couldn’t believe he’d done that! What was he thinking?! Of course he wanted to sleep with Rose - he was male, after all – but if he’d have been thinking at all, he wouldn’t have wanted it to have been like that, and he certainly wouldn’t have reacted that way when Rose said she didn’t want to. Ohhhh, he was just an idiot!
“Mark?” he heard Chris shout from the landing.
Mark closed his eyes and pretended he was asleep.
He felt awful, his girlfriend was leaving him; the last thing he wanted to do was some stupid interviews. He wasn’t going to go, he could not be bothered.
“Mark?”
Still Mark kept his eyes shut.
Chris came into the room and Mark could feel him coming closer.
“Mark, are you awake?”
Mark didn’t move.
“Mark, come on, we’ve gotta go now.” Chris said, shaking Mark.
Mark wondered whether snoring would be a dead give away that he wasn’t asleep, or whether it would convince Chris that he was.
“Ohh, fantastic.” Chris said crossly.
There were footsteps back across the room and the door closed again.
Mark let out a sigh of relief. Thank God for that. At the moment, all he wanted to do was lie here and die very quietly on his own.
Ben gave Chloe a kiss. “Ready to go?”
She nodded and grinned. “Yep!”
“Excellent.” Ben said with a huge grin on his face. “Shall we, then?”
“Okay!”
Ben picked up two of Chloe’s three bags, Chloe picked up the third and her jacket, and they both left Chloe’s house.
“Bye Benj!” she called before she pulled the door closed.
“Bye!” came the shout back from her brother.
“Wait a minute, your brother is here?” Ben asked, looking at Chloe in surprise.
“Yeah!”
“Your brother was here when we were having sex, not quietly, in the next room?!”
Chloe laughed at his concern. “He was asleep!”
“Yeah, but…!”
“Ohh, he wouldn’t have even known what we were doing, don’t worry!”
Ben shook his head. “You know, it’s very confusing your brother being called Ben.”
“And my dad.”
“Your dad’s called Ben? Why!?”
Chloe shrugged. “Lack of imagination? Ohh, you have to meet my dad – he’s so cool.”
Ben smiled as they walked up the drive towards the taxi that was waiting.
“You’re coming to live with me.” he said.
Chloe grinned. “I know!”
“In my flat!”
“I know!”
“We’ll have to have a housewarming.” Ben said as they put Chloe’s bags in the boot. “Well, a flat warming. Fancy a party?”
“Is your whole life made up of parties?” Chloe asked.
“No! I do other things too!”
“Like what?” Chloe teased.
“Like… I go shopping sometimes.”
“Oooh, the lifestyle.”
“Shut up you! Sounds to me you don’t wanna be part of my life.” Ben said, grinning at Chloe.
“Maybe I don’t.”
“Well off you go then!”
Chloe giggled. “Don’t be silly! I can’t wait to be part of your life!”
“You already are, babe.” Ben said, kissing her.
“Can’t kiss me while I’m walking and carrying heavy bags.” Chloe said. “Make me fall over. And anyway,” she said feigning shame. “The neighbours will see!”
Ben laughed.
“Oh you can laugh. But they’ll all be watching, you know.”
“Really?”
“I live in the tiniest village ever, literally just leaving the house makes the front page, never mind that I’m walking to a taxi with a celebrity carrying all my worldly possessions. And they know mum isn’t here, coz obviously they’ll have been watching as she left, so they’ll probably think I’m eloping, or something! Well, whatever makes them happy.”
“Should invite them to the party.” Ben said.
“Yeah, as if!”
“Who are we going to invite?”
“I dunno! It’s up to you!”
“Why is it up to me?”
“Well… coz it is! I can’t invite my friends, anyway. It’d be way too far for them.”
“Why don’t we just invite the other guys, and then their girlfriends, or whatever?”
“Yeah, okay! Yay, coz that means Rose can come! Can’t she.” Chloe said, looking pointedly at Ben.
“Of course she can. I am gonna make up with her.” He said.
“I know.”
“So it’d be Paul, Chris, Mark, Rose… oh, but that would mean we’d have to invite Kate.”
“Who’s Kate?”
“Chris’s new girlfriend.” Ben made a face. “She’s-”
He was interrupted by his phone ringing.
“I thought your phone was off?”
“So did I.” Ben said, getting it out of his pocket and looking at the display. “Oh no, it’s Del.”
“Are you gonna answer it?” Chloe asked.
“I don’t know.” Ben said, looking worried. “He’s gonna be so mad.”
“Ow, I feel really bad now, coz it’s my fault you’re not where you’re supposed to be.”
“No, it’s not your fault! I wanted to be with you! I needed to be with you.”
Chloe smiled.
The phone kept ringing.
“He’s not gonna hang up.” Ben said, looking at his phone. “He knows I’ve turned it on.”
“Haven’t you got an answer phone on it?”
“Nah, coz fans get my number and leave me annoying messages.” Ben said.
“Maybe you should answer it.” Chloe said.
“I dunno. Trying to work out if I’ll be in more trouble if I answer it and say I’m not going to the interviews, or if I just go missing for the morning. You’re a very bad influence on me, you know!” he said, grinning at Chloe.
“You know, it could be said to work both ways.” Chloe said.
“We’re both bad for each other!”
“In a good way, though.”
“Of course.”
“At least they can’t sack you.” Chloe pointed out.
“That’s true, actually! What’s the worst they can do?”
“Band needs you.”
“Yeah, it does!” Ben said, turning his phone off. “They can all sod off. Today is our day.”
“He’s turned it off.” Del said tetchily.
“Has he?” Paul asked, kicking his heels against the wall he was sitting on.
“Is he doing this to wind me up?”
“Dunno.”
“I am going to kill him. I know he thinks he can do what he wants and get away with it, but he can’t! This is his job! He has to do this! What could possibly be more important than doing his job?!”
“Where is he?” Paul asked disinterestedly.
“I don’t know! If I did, I’d drag him back by his bloody hair.” Del said crossly. “Where are the others?”
Paul shrugged.
“What’s wrong with you?” Del asked.
“Nothing.”
“If you’re in a mood for these interviews…”
“I’m just thinking, alright?” Paul said.
There was a silence as Paul continued to swing his legs against the wall and Del paced tensely up and down.
“What do you think about Ben and Chloe?” Paul asked.
He was trying not to think about it, but all that stuff Rose had said about Ben earlier had got into his head and was… not troubling him, but it was niggling a bit. And he didn’t know why.
“Who?” Del asked distractedly, looking at his watch.
“Who’s Chloe?”
“Yeah.”
“Ben’s girlfriend. You knew that!”
“Ohh, hang on, is she that 15-year-old he’s shagging?”
“Er, yeah.”
Del laughed. “You can hardly call her his girlfriend, can you?”
“Why not?”
“Paul, come on, you of all people should have realised he’s just using her!”
“Me of all people? Why do you think he’s using her?”
“She’s 15! Like Ben’s going to be interested in having an actual relationship with her! She’s just some gullible little fan who’ll do anything Ben wants her to, and Ben’s planning to use that to his full advantage.”
Ooh okay, that struck a chord with what Rose had said.
“Chloe’s really nice!” was all Paul could come up with in her defence.
Which was pathetic, really.
“Fancy a go, do you?” Del asked crudely.
“Del! No!” Paul said, imagining what Ben would say if he’d heard that.
He’d probably really lay into Del. You couldn’t say a bad word about Chloe when he was around. Not that anyone would. Except for Del, but he didn’t know her.
Oh, again with the Rose thing. She’d told him that he didn’t know her. Which was fair enough, coz he didn’t, but… oh, why was this bothering him? He just couldn’t work it out!
“Well, what do you think about Rose and Mark, then? Coz that’s a bigger age gap, is Mark using her?”
“Nah, that’s different.” Del said. “It’s not about the age gap, it’s about the person.”
“So what, Ben would use someone and Mark wouldn’t?”
“Yeah.”
“You can’t really say that, Del.” Paul said.
“Why not?”
“Because… well Ben’s meant to be a mate, isn’t he?”
“We’ve never really been that good mates.” Del said. “And you forget, I work with you guys, I know everything there is to know about your personal lives.”
“You don’t know anything about mine!” Paul said.
“I know more than you think.”
“Okay, go on then, what sort of person am I? Say I was sleeping with a 15-year-old, would I just be using her?”
“They’d probably put you in prison, Paul.”
“Oh shut up, I’m not saying I’m actually gonna do it, but I wanna know what you think. If you’re so sure you know us.”
“Yeah, but come on, you and a 15-year-old? I don’t think so.”
“Why is that so unbelievable?”
“Do you go around looking at 15-year-old girls like that?”
“No, but…”
“So it’s not a fair question coz it’d never happen.”
“What about Chris?”
“Chris is too sensible to do something like that.”
“And I’m not?”
“You wouldn’t do it for different reasons.”
“Which are?” Paul asked, feeling himself getting quite cross now.
He didn’t like what Del was implying.
Luckily for both of them, Chris chose that moment to arrive.
“Am I late?” he asked, walking up to them.
“Where’s Mark?” Del asked.
“Um, he’s not here.” Chris said.
“But he will be soon, right?”
“Not exactly.”
“Why not?” Del asked, regarding Chris suspiciously.
“He’s got a hangover.” Chris said.
“What?! Oh, no, you’re kidding me right? Mark has a hangover?! What the hell is the world coming to?! Why would he do this to me? Why would he do this to me today of all days?!” Del ranted, looking worryingly like he was going to go right over the edge any minute.
“Mark’s got a hangover?” Paul asked Chris.
“Yeah, I couldn’t wake him up.”
“Oh.” Paul said, wondering whether the news that his girlfriend had left without saying goodbye and don’t want to see him had anything to do with the fact that he couldn’t be woken up. “Ben’s not here either.”
“I know.” Chris said, lowering his voice. “He’s at Chloe’s house.”
“What?!” Paul exclaimed.
“What?” Del asked, looking at them.
“Nothing. Get back to being stressed.” Paul said, turning back to Chris. “How do you know that?”
“He told me last night. He wasn’t in the bet of states, but I’m pretty sure I heard him say he was going to see Chloe. And come on, where else would he be?”
“What’s more important to him than his job?” Paul said, nodding.
“Yeah, so, that’s where he is.”
“So he’s not coming then?”
“Doesn’t look like it.”
“We’re gonna get killed, aren’t we?” Paul said.
“Yeah.” Chris confirmed.
“Oh, I can’t deal with this at the moment.” Paul said. “What’s happening now, Del?”
“I don’t know! You can hardly go and do the interviews just two of you, can you?”
“We could…” Chris said.
“Yeah, shall we?” Paul asked, not quite believing he was volunteering for work.
But then, he was trying to cover his own back. Well, and Chris’s. He knew only too well just how bad a telling off they were all gonna get from Tim, and unless him and Chris did something good to stand out from that, they’d just be grouped with Ben and Mark.
“Yeah, come on Del, don’t worry. We’ll go and do them. No-one’ll ever know.”
“Oh, Tim will.” Del said. “I shall be making very sure of that.”
“Del, don’t bother.” Paul said.
“Don’t bother?! Ben and Mark can’t just turn up when they feel like it! They need to understand that this is what they do to get paid, not as a hobby.”
Paul shook his head. “Come on, let’s go and “face the press”.”