aura

Chapter 16

Gaga slept in the limo as she hadn't had much sleep after my 'encounter' last night. She looked beautiful, wearing her Jingle Bell Ball green wig in ringlets. Her skin was - as always - flawless and her lips were outlined in deep plum. She smelt of Taylor's cologne and cigarettes. "Gaga, we're here." I whispered softly in her ear, not wanting to jolt her awake.
"Okay darling. Thank you." Gaga kissed me on the cheek. "You ready to party 'til morning? Cos I am!"

The club was steaming. I was glad, because I wanted my first experience at a club to be so hot you'd have to crunch ice. I wanted hundreds of anonymous guys to try and chat me up. I wanted to get completely wasted. If I was gonna live like Lady Gaga, work like Lady Gaga, own the world like Lady Gaga, I needed to slay. "Indie, have a drink darling." Gaga giggled at me. She passed me a teensy bottle of something creamy and exotic smelling. I hesitated, then downed it in one. I read the label, 'Malibu, Coconut Flavoured Rum'. It sure tasted like coconut. I could have drank it like water. Gaga went over to the bar and lit a cigarette. I heard the bar maid telling her to stop. Gaga smiled bitchily at her and the bar maid just rolled her eyes. She stamped on the cigarette and ground it under her seven-inch heel, then grabbed another bottle of Malibu. Taylor was going to have to carry her home.

"Hey, Indie." Taylor smiled at me and led me up to the bar. "One martini please." The bar maid slid a cocktail glass - including olive - towards Taylor. He slapped a dollar bill on the bar and turned away from her. I sipped on the martini. "So, how are you?" Taylor grinned, his teeth dazzling under the fluorescent lights.
"I'm fine, thanks. What about you?" I stirred the olive round with my cocktail stick. Gaga was talking nonsense to some random woman a few yards away.
"Great. Even better now you're here."
"Taylor Kinney, are you trying to chat me up?! I can't believe you." I shook my head in amazement.
"Indie, I'll always have feelings for you. I always have. I just guess I have to control them sometimes. I love Stefani, but I'll never get over the fact I used to love you." Taylor kissed me softly on the cheek. "This is best for both of us. We've gotta stay friends, right? But nothing more." I smiled at Taylor.
"Another martini, please? Put it on the tab."

"Gaga, sweetie, we've gotta get back now. It's nearly two in the morning." Gaga just groaned at me. Everything about her reeked of liquor. The bar maid told me that after the Malibu she'd gone onto something stronger. Taylor told me it was probably tequila. Whatever it was, she needed to sleep it off. The limo arrived just in time. Even after a few martinis, the glare of artificial lighting still burned my eyes. I rolled up the windows to block out the cold, and tucked my coat around my shoulders. My head soon lolled onto the chair and I fell asleep.

"That bar probably shouldn't have been serving to minors." I just thanked Dorota for the hangover cure. Taylor was the only one still sane.
"Whatever, I still think they should have served more Belgian waffles. With extra whipped cream."
"And maple syrup darling. They're not waffles without syrup." Gaga downed another cup of coffee. I'd introduced her to the 'extra cream and two sugars' way of life. "I swear this coffee tastes like a doughnut making out with a cookie."
"That would be why I made it." Taylor grinned again. He was a grinning sort of person.
"You know, I think I'm gonna go back to bed. I'm too tired to focus." And with that I just crept under my covers and went to sleep.