Life Is A Rollercoaster (Ronan Keating / Boyzone / X Factor) fan fiction

Sixty Five

Michael

In truth I'd tried not to think about her, had tried so hard to make things work with Karen, and everything seemed to be fine.

We'd been nothing more than really good friends. I had never thought that she would look at me in that way, until the day that she opened the door and stared at me for the longest time.

Was that the moment I realised that she might have held feelings for me, even if she didn't truly realise it herself then?

Perhaps.

I couldn't say for sure.

But it was then that I remembered her blushing when I'd asked if Ro had been her favourite. Was I naive to think, to hope, that it could actually be me.

I'm not sure that I would ever have been brave enough to act on those feelings from my side, had my former bandmate not made quite such a spectacular mess of everything.

He'd always been the sort of man that thought with a certain part of his anatomy, rather than his head. It was a side of him that thankfully the fans were largely unaware of. His blonde hair, blue eye, butter wouldn't melt routine got him out a lot of trouble.

Truth was, Vic was smart, she probably would have seen through him eventually, and I do think he genuinely loved her at the beginning of their relationship. 

I don't know if he was jealous of her almost overnight success, he'd always been the one in the band chasing the limelight. 

The rest of us probably would have been content with mediocre success in the UK and Ireland rather than world domination, but that's probably a story for another day.

Whatever it was, the way he treated her towards the end of their relationship is one of the most idiotic things I have ever seen him do. 

Trust me when I say that over the years there's been a few...

She needed friends first and foremost and I was more than happy to be there for her. When I could. But it was difficult once the band was back together. I held out little hope of anything actually happening between us.

I knew how much she had loved Ronan, and how hurt she was, and even though she knew me almost as well as she knew him, I knew she'd find it difficult to trust any man for a long time.

 Particularly after the really nasty situation with her ex.

What I still don't understand to this day, is why Ronan decided to start a relationship with Laura. She'd always been of a bit of a nutjob as far as I was concerned, we'd had to sack her from of our Boyzone tours. 

So when I'd seen that she'd been working for Ronan, and Vic had filled me in on some things that happened in more recent years I just couldn't understand it.

Until I could.

She was good for his ego. She'd always made it blatantly obvious that she wanted him. He obviously thought he'd get an easier ride of things with her than his wife. He was deluded. But he'd never been able to say no to a pretty face.

Contrary to what had been written in the press, none of us had ever fallen out. We'd all just drifted apart, busy with our own careers as the hiatus on the band got longer. Ronan had just been the first one to reach out. 

He knew how much I loved song writing, as well as the more technical sides of creating a record. He'd known that I wouldn't say no.

When I was around Vic, I almost wished I had. 

Could there be a worse cliché than fancying one of your best mates wives? Probably not.