At Seventeen

Chapter 21

"We didn't even expect to see Shane," she told Eimear.  "Just thought we'd have a look at the place anyway."  Sonia seemed friendly, but her friend glared at Eimear, who heard Bryan ask her, "What's your name? Odette? Oh that's a gorgeous name, she a Cork saint or something?"

Odette giggled.  "She is a saint, but her saint day is celebrated in France.  My dad is from Paris," she added, looking at Eimear as if she was daring her to challenge the fact.

"Oh, we forgot, Odette," said Sonia, turning to her; "Lads, would you mind if you got into a picture with us?  I have Odette's camera here somewhere."

"No problem," said Shane calmly, and he and Bryan posed with the girls.  Odette handed her camera to Eimear.  "Don't break it," she said sharply.  From her expression, Eimear could have been a rat or some sort of vermin equally unpleasant.  Trying to control her immediate but intense dislike of the girl, Eimear took the photograph.  Sonia took the camera from her before Odette had got near her, and thanked her.

After a brief chat with the lads, Odette trying to attract the attention of Bryan in particular, they remembered that they had better be leaving.  "We're only here on a day trip," Sonia admitted.  "We've  two more hours till our train leaves, and we've loads to get through.  I have to visit my auntie yet - thanks for the picture!"

Both Shane and Bryan, in perfect unison, said it was nothing, a pleasure, all the rest.  Odette shot Eimear a final venomous look before Sonia pulled her by the arm and they went out onto the street.

"Nice girl, the talkative one," commented Shane, "the other was kind of cold, wasn't she?"  Eimear felt a stab of jealousy - Shane had thought Sonia was a 'nice girl' at the very least; something she doubted he would ever even attribute to herself.  Bryan laughed at Shane.  "I don't know what you mean by cold! Haha!  Yeah, she didn't talk to you, so you got all offended, didn't you?"

"She didn't talk to Eimear either," replied Shane.  Eimear was surprised that he had noticed, but pretending not to be, she said, "She was glaring at me any chance she got to."

"Jealousy," Shane said simply.  "You came in here with Bryan and I, some of the fans kind of get possessive, they think they own us.  That's why when we have girlfriends, Louis insists to the journalists that we don't.  When I was with my last girlfriend we couldn't tell anyone we were going out.  It was a nightmare."

Eimear realised he was referring to the ill-fated Cassie, the story of whom Kian had related to her after their confrontation at the hospital.  "Is that why you broke up?"

But just then, a woman came out from behind the counter, her face beaming.  "Shane, you brought Bryan at last!  You were in the other day, weren't you, but Shane didn't come with you.  He's been terrible lately," she said to Bryan, who nodded and grinned infectiously.  Eimear avoided his eyes, but Mrs Filan swooped down on her.

"And Shane, who is this young lady?  You never introduced me to her.  Hello, dear, I'm Mae Filan.  Delighted to meet you."  She shook Eimear's hand warmly.  Eimear was taken aback, she had not expected such a cordial welcome.  Shane cleared his throat, and said, "Mam, this is Eimear."  And he continued with the necessary introductions.

"Well."  It wasn't a very inspired beginning, but both Nicky and Cassie were so stunned to see each other again that it was all they can say.  They had also contributed "So" and "Eh" to their conversation.  It definitely wasn't the stuff of bestselling novels.

After about their fifteenth attempt to talk, Nicky managed it.  "So... well, eh, what brings you to Ireland again?  Or do I have to ask?"

Cassie smiled a dazzling white smile.  "Yeah, I was gonna ring, but then I thought, Shane ain't sounding so great on the phone, y'know, so I came over.  LA to NY, from there to Dublin.  I thought he was there, but I called Louis and he says they all gone back to Sligo.  So I started hitchin' rides.  I was gettin' kinda tired when you picked me up, I swear to God I ain't ever been so pleased to see somebody.  I had two rides already to Kennymagad or wherever that hell hole was."

Nicky had forgotten Cassie's somewhat entertaining style of speech.  She lived in California, but was originally from Alabama, and it showed.  She was far more fiery than any of the Hollywood primadonnas could be - unless they knew her personally, and then they were just as bad.  He couldn't help but grin.

"D'ya think Shane'll be pleased to see me?" Cassie asked him imploringly, taking a cigarette box.  "Oh, sorry, 's okay if I smoke, ain't it?"  Nicky couldn't exactly refuse it - she'd already taken out her lighter and by the time she finished her sentence, a cigarette was lit and she took a long drag out of it.  "Ohhh that's better.  D'ya know, Shane hates me smokin'," she sighed.  "Says it ain't good for me.  I know that too, but I ain't dead yet, I'm not just gonna give them up."

Nicky had never been on his own with Cassie before, and he began to see something of Mark's view that Cassie was a bit of a no-hoper.  "Ye might sneer, and call me jealous and everything else, but she has no brains at all,"  Mark had said one time.  Shane and Cassie had gone off on their own that particular day, and Bryan had met up with some members of N'Sync which he was friendly with.  Nicky and Kian had stayed with Mark and played pool - one of the advantages of being successful was that they could have a pool table in their penthouse suite.  It wasn't the Beverly Hills, but none of them cared, so long as there was a pool table and a PlayStation handy.  All of them were practising like demons on the NBA Basketball game especially - anything to beat Bryan, who ruled supreme at computer games.

He realised with a shock that between Cassie's constant chatter (considering the time it had taken for the pair to start talking, she was making up for the silence of both of them), and his plunges into dreamland, they were only 20 miles from Sligo.  This, Cassie failed to sense, and she continued to drone on about her friend Tiffany with the four storey mansion, swimming pool and tennis courts as if they had a three hour journey yet to go.

Hand in hand, Kian and Jane slipped silently out of the car.  This was slightly noticeable in itself - they were only at a petrol station after all.  But both sensed the need to keep this entanglement of theirs very secret.  Pretending to be getting a carton of milk from the fridge in the convenience store, Jane slid her fingers down Kian's palm, resting between his fingers, closed on a can of Coke.  They exchanged glances.

Kian hurriedly shut the fridge as both put their hands out of it, and Jane stood by the door until Kian paid for the bag of popcorn he had taken from the shelf.  Jane stood by the automatic doors until Kian came by, watched him leave for the forecourt, and casually got up and left also.  Once they had reached the car, they couldn't control themselves anymore and started laughing and kissing each other.

"We shouldn't be doing this, it's too dangerous," whispered Jane.  But she was smiling, her eyes were on Kian and nothing else, and she looked anything but worried.  Kian silenced her protests with another kiss.  "Danger makes it more fun."  They both grinned.

They were not aware of Victoria Crowley several metres away from their parked car.  The briefcase containing her laptop PC was left untouched beside her, she was all eyes for the couple in front of her.  It had been lucky she had brought her digital camera with her.  It meant she could take pictures silently.  And lucky too that she had one at all - Victoria had only got her job with The Sligo Champion last month.  She hadn't made much impact so far, there was only so much local journalism could go.  But a nice front page slot of Kian Egan and his new girlfriend would do wonders for her.  It might just give her the recognition she needed.  And deal a blow to Louis Walsh, Kian's manager, who had once turned Victoria down at a girl band audition in Dublin.  He'd have a job explaining to the Irish media that Westlife had no girlfriends now.  She began to concoct the picture caption and headline, full of vengeful thoughts.

Shane was struggling to get away.  He was growing more and more embarrassed at Eimear hearing about his horses, his admiration for Michael Jackson, and his performance as Danny in 'Grease' when Summerhill College had staged it.  "He was good looking even then," said Mae, winking at Eimear, who grinned.  She liked Shane's mother very much.  Bryan also listened in amusement, despite having heard these stories several times, he never tired of it.  Shane decided it was time to go.

"We're supposed to be visiting Mark, Mam," he said, standing up and giving her a kiss on the cheek.  "Visiting time will almost be over."  Bryan, knowing that when Shane meant business, he meant it, stood up also, and congratulated Mrs Filan on the 'feast' she had given them.  Mae gave a fond goodbye to Eimear, and calling Shane into the kitchen, said, "I'll see you sometime soon, Eimear, I expect.  Don't forget to call in."

Shane wondered why his mother wanted to call him into the kitchen, she obviously wanted to say something that wasn't appropriate in front of Bryan and Eimear, but why?  He soon found out.  "She's a lovely girl, Shane, you could do a lot better with her than that American one."

"Mam, I'm grand," her son replied impatiently.  "We've split up, Cassie and I.  I'm fine, I don't need anybody."

"Yes you do," his mother scolded him.  "You must get very lonely on tour, over in America and everything, the number of times you ring at three in the morning...."

Shane gave her a hug.  "But you're my mam, not my girlfriend."

"Exactly, I worry about you.  And young Eimear is a very pretty girl."

Shane shook his head exasperatedly.  "I'm off, Mam."

Mrs Filan remembered herself.  "Shane, I was talking to young Barry Feehily today, he came around with a message for you from Nicky...."  But it was too late, her son had not heard a word, he had already made his way some distance down the street with Bryan and Eimear, on their way to visit Mark.  Never mind, it would be a nice surprise for the lads to see Nicky.

Chapter 22

Unfinished Stories

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