Chapter One

Even though Ben was at least half an hour late arriving for the interview he and the rest of a1 were doing that morning for ‘Smash Hits’, there was still a massive crowd of fans, mostly girls, waiting for him outside the building where the magazine had it’s headquarters. Ben looked at them in amazement. He had no idea how the fans knew that a1 were meant to be doing an interview, he didn’t even know half the time, and they always seemed to be there, just waiting for the band to turn up.

Ben gave the crowd a quick wave before the car disappeared through the gates into the ‘famous people only’ area. He parked the car next to one he instantly recognised as Paul’s and got out. Chloe, his girlfriend of eleven months got out of the passenger side and stood looking in awe at her surroundings.

“You alright?” Ben asked with a smile, locking the car door.

“Yeah, I just… I mean, wow! It’s amazing!”

Ben laughed. Even though they’d been going out for almost a year, Chloe still couldn’t quite get her head around Ben being famous.

“It’s just a building. You’ve been here before.”

“I know but wow! I read this magazine and we’re standing in the V.I.P car park. There are real live celebrities in that very building!”

“As opposed to fake dead ones?” Ben joked.

Even though Ben had taken Chloe to work with him loads of times before, it never ceased to amaze him how excited she got about it. It wasn’t even like she hadn’t already met pretty much every celebrity that featured in teen pop magazines or on Top Of The Pops, but every time he took her along to an interview or gig she still thought it was the coolest thing ever. Magazine interviews and photo shoots were part of every day life for Ben and nowadays he didn’t think twice about them, but being with Chloe made everything seem so new.

Ben walked over to where Chloe was still gazing up at the tall brick structure and took her hand.

“Come on, let’s go inside. We’re already late.”

Ben felt Chloe melt against him as they walked as one towards the double doors. Once inside, they crossed the reception area and headed for the lift. It was still early so there weren’t many people around, and they were alone as the lift doors closed behind them.

“Are you sure it’s okay me coming along?” Chloe asked as the lift made its way up to the 4^th floor.

“Of course it is! The guys haven’t seen you for ages and they love spending time with you.”

That was so true. They all got incredibly well with Chloe; Paul treated her more like a little sister than Ben’s girlfriend, even though she was only a year younger than Ben! He hadn’t told any of them about Chloe coming to stay with him for two weeks and they didn’t know she was coming along today, so hopefully it would be a really nice surprise for them.

While Ben was thinking this, the lift had reached its destination and Ben led Chloe towards the room that had been designated for the interview.

“They don’t know about you being here so don’t let them see you straight away okay? I want it to be a surprise. Stay behind me.” Ben said.

“Okay.”

Ben knocked on the door and put his head round it to check it was actually the right room. Paul, Chris and Mark were sitting on chairs and a sofa talking to a journalist who’d interviewed them for ‘Smash Hits’ a few times before, so unless they’d all got the wrong room too, Ben guessed he was in the right place.

As the door opened, they all looked round.

“Hi, sorry we’re late.” Ben said by way of apology.

Paul instantly looked confused. “We?”

Pleased Paul had picked up on his little hint, Ben walked into the room with his mystery guest.

“Chloe!!” Paul shouted with joy as he rushed over to give her a huge hug. “What are you doing here?!”

Chloe looked at Ben wonderingly. “Have you not told them that either?” she asked, smiling.

“What? What?!” Paul asked excitedly.

“I wanted to surprise them!” Ben answered Chloe. Turning to the others he said, “Chloe’s staying with me for two weeks.”

“As of when?!”

“I got down yesterday.” Chloe told Paul.

“This is so cool! I haven’t seen you for ages!”

Mark watched the festivities from a distance. He couldn’t bring himself to join in. It’s not that he wasn’t pleased to see Chloe, god he was ecstatic, it was just that by not telling them that Chloe was coming, Ben hadn’t given him time to prepare. He needed to think up excuses and ways to get out of potentially devastating situations before he spent any time with her. Mark tried to remember how long he’d loved her. Forever it seemed, but it could have only been a few months. A few long, hard, soul-destroying months listening to Ben go on and on about how much he missed her, without ever being able to say that he missed her more than anything. He couldn’t even remember how it had all started. For the first couple of months Ben and Chloe had been together, he’d been in a relationship as well so everything was okay and he hadn’t even considered looking at Chloe in that way. But then Joanne, the girl he’d been seeing for a year and a half, broke his heart by finishing it and things had gone steadily downhill from there. He was the first to admit that to start with, Chloe was just one on a long list of desirable girls he’d been mentally building during the rebound period, but when his feelings of despair slowly faded, what he felt for Chloe was still there and he began to realise that maybe he wanted more than friendship from her.

That was when it had got difficult and awkward and all those other words used to describe bad circumstances. Because this was definitely, without any doubt whatsoever, a bad circumstance. Possibly the worst imaginable. He was in love with his best friend’s girlfriend. But because it was so bad, things could only get better right?

Wrong.

As Ben and Chloe got even closer, Mark had fallen even more madly and hopelessly in love with her. She didn’t know and nor did Ben, but Mark had told Paul who had told Chris, and although it was a slight relief to be able to talk to someone about how he was feeling, a part of him wished he had just kept it to himself so he didn’t have to worry about anyone else finding out. A part of him even wished Chloe knew, but that was closely connected to the part that dreamed of Chloe loving him back, directly opposite the part that told him he didn’t have a hope in hell.

Well it didn’t matter because he was already there, helplessly watching the girl he loved with all his heart falling in love with someone else. But not just anyone. His best friend. If it hadn’t have been Ben, someone he cared about, Mark’s life would have been simple, if not slightly devious. The plan would be: steal the girl. Simple as that and nothing to it. Except Mark had never seen Ben so happy and he didn’t think he could bear to destroy that. How had his life got so complicated all of a sudden? It just wasn’t fair…

Mark was shaken out of his reverie by the deafening silence that had suddenly fallen on the room. He had no idea what had just happened and he wasn’t sure if he’d been asked a question or not. After much deliberation about the best way to avoid questions about his thoughts, he decided to reply with one of the safest words in the English language,

“What?”

“Well aren’t you pleased to see Chloe?” Paul asked thoughtlessly.

“Course I am!” Mark managed to reply, forcing a smile.

And then there she was, standing right in front of him. The girl of his dreams, asking him for a hug. Mark willingly complied and for a few wonderful seconds, he could pretend that it was more than a friendly embrace.

After all the catching up, it was down to business and they began discussing the interview. Chloe was sitting on Ben’s lap surrounded by Paul on her right, Chris on her left and Mark in a chair next to him. The journalist Serena, who Chloe had met a couple of times before, was sitting opposite them holding a dictaphone, notebook and a ‘Smash Hits’ biro. Chloe was thoroughly enjoying the interview, she loved seeing “behind the scenes” as it were, and was listening intently to every word. Serena and the boys had talked about everything; what format the interview would be in, how many pages it would occupy, what it was going to be about, even the tone of it! Chloe found it so interesting, but even if it had been boring she still wouldn’t have minded, just being with Ben was enough, no matter where they were. Anyway, they’d eventually decided on having a double page spread for just a general interview as Serena had said the readers seemed to like that kind better than when a1 were interviewed about a specific subject. There was going to be a poster as well and they’d need some pictures to go with the interview, so a photo shoot had been arranged for immediately after.

When the interview with a1 was over, one of the most amazing things ever happened. Completely out of the blue Serena asked,

“How do you feel about me doing an interview with Chloe?”

Five heads immediately turned to look at her incredulously, not least Chloe’s.

“What?” they all said at once.

“Well, you know, as a kind of ‘meet the girlfriend’ type thing. We could tack it on the end of your interview, put it on the next page. It’s been done before, not in the same way exactly, but it worked well.”

There was a pause.

“Well? What do you think?” Serena asked.

Chloe knew exactly what she thought. Her head was spinning. Not only did she spend a good majority of her time these days hanging out with celebrities like it was the most normal thing in the world, now she was going to be in a magazine! Oh it would be so cool, she’d always always wanted to be interviewed by a proper journalist! She was about to agree to it when Ben answered for her.

“No.”

Now they all turned to look at him.

“What?” asked Chloe in a very small voice.

She couldn’t believe he’d just done that. Surely he knew how much she’d enjoy doing something like that so why had he said no? She was about to find out.

“I don’t think it would be a very good idea. For one thing, it’s private and I don’t particularly want my private life splashed all over a magazine. Plus, don’t you think it’s a bit insensitive to the fans? I don’t mean to sound big-headed or anything, but there are an awful lot of girls out there convinced we’re meant to be, so don’t you think it would be a bit like ‘Haha! Ben’s got a girlfriend!’?”

“I can see your point,” Serena said. “but I’d make sure it was tasteful. More like a ‘we thought you’d like to know’ thing. And you’ve been pretty open about your relationship with Chloe, most of the fans already know and are fine about it.”

“Which is great. I don’t want to ruin that by rubbing their noses in it and pissing them off. And I don’t want to expose Chloe to any jealousy. Angry fans are pretty scary!” Ben said.

“But if they get to know her in an interview there’s every chance they might like her, and they’ll approve more if they think she’s nice. Most fans just want to protect you from the so-called “evil girlfriend” who’ll break your heart and run off with your money.”

Chloe knew Ben was only trying to protect her and she appreciated that, but she did think he was over-reacting a bit. The fans were great to her! She’d met quite a lot of them by going to events with Ben and they’d all been really nice. She really didn’t think there’d be a problem. She didn’t want to say anything though because being a cautious sort of person, she was well aware that what Ben was saying could easily be true. After all, he did know a lot more about it than she did. He was the pop star, she was just the girlfriend. She did really really want to do it though…

“Why don’t you let her do it Ben?” Christian asked. “Look at her, you can tell she’s desperate to do it.” He smiled at Chloe. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice how her eyes lit up when Serena mentioned it.”

Chloe smiled back at Chris. She was actually really touched that Chris would stand up for her like that. He was a really nice guy though.

“Yeah, and don’t worry about the fans man, they’re cool. They didn’t do anything when they found out about me and Zara did they? If anything, they were happy that I was happy. And Serena’s right, they all know about you and Chloe anyway!”

Chloe didn’t know much about the whole Paul-Zara thing. She knew they’d been going out for a long time but she vaguely remembered Ben saying something about them breaking up when Zara accepted a job in America. It had been a mutual decision to break up and just stay friends, so they’d parted on good terms and Paul wasn’t too cut up about it. Unlike Mark. Chloe didn’t think he’d ever completely got over his break up with Joanne. She hadn’t really known him very well when he was going through it all, but she’d heard about it from Ben and apparently it’d hit him pretty hard. It might just be her imagination but ever since it happened, it seemed as though he was a completely different person. And not in a good way. When she’d first met him, he’d been chatty, friendly, happy, just really nice, but now… well it was weird. It seemed like he was almost keeping his distance. He hardly ever talked to her and he always seemed a bit on edge. If Ben had noticed, he hadn’t said anything and so this made Chloe think that maybe it was all in her mind because they told each other everything.

Chloe was worried about Mark. She didn’t like to see people unhappy and she really did care about him, or at least she had begun to care about him. It just seemed like all of a sudden, the ties of friendship that had started to form between them had been severed. She wanted to be friends with him, she wanted to be friends with all of the a1 guys, but it was very difficult when she never got to spend any time with Mark. She wanted to know what had made his attitude change so suddenly and she wanted to help, she just didn’t know how. Maybe if she could get him on his own…

“Yeah but she didn’t do a magazine interview about it did she?”

Ben, Paul and Chris were still debating whether or not Chloe should do the interview. Hang on, surely it was her decision?

“Ben, sweetie, I know you’re only thinking about me but don’t you think I should make up my own mind?” she asked gently.

Ben’s expression softened.

“I’m sorry Clo.” He said. “I’m being stupid. It’s just…”

Chloe felt Ben tighten his grip on her.

“I know. Thank you.”

Chloe knew that Ben knew she understood. And that the thank you wasn’t for letting her do the interview, it was for caring that much about her. That’s how it always was with them. They understood each other perfectly. They could tell how each other were feeling and even what they were thinking most of the time just from a simple look. That’s why they were so good together.

“So you’ll do it then?” Serena asked hopefully.

Chloe could tell she really wanted this story and that made her feel a little excited. She’d never been in a position to dish out gossip before, not that she was going to be telling any gossip about her and Ben, but she just felt really important all of a sudden. Like she was the celebrity! This was gonna be great!

Chloe looked at Ben and smiled.

“Yeah, I’ll do it.” She told Serena.

“Great! I thought we’d have a teaser at the end of the a1 interview saying something like, ‘It’s the girlfriend. But of which one?’ then maybe four pictures of you with each individual member so the readers don’t know who’s girlfriend you are until they turn over the page. Then there’ll be the interview with you and a few pictures of you and the band. Okay?”

Wow, she’d really been thinking about this hadn’t she? And she was actually asking her! She wanted her approval!

“Yeah!” enthused Chloe.

Serena turned the dictaphone back on and the interview had officially started. Before she asked the first question, Ben whispered in Chloe’s ear,

“Don’t answer any questions you don’t want to.”

Chloe nodded, what did he think she was going to ask her?!