We spend the next few days of the tour trying to scope out the potential rat, making sure to keep our investigation on the down low in order to keep more people from knowing the truth.
"We should ask the Little Mix girls. Maybe they know something we don't." Caleb points out as we walk down the halls of the venue in Manchester. There's only 2 more shows left on the tour (this one in Manchester and the final show in London) so we don't have a lot of time left. I shrug my shoulders and begin walking over to the girls dressing room. We walk in and there's Perrie, Jesy, Leigh-Anne and Jade all sitting around talking and using their phones.
"Hey can we talk to you guys about something?" I ask nervously as I close the door behind us. The last thing we need is more people sneakily finding out more information. Now it seems like I can't trust anyone on this tour besides my immediate group of friends, to me everyone else is a suspect.
"Yeah sure, what's up?" Jesy asks, looking up at us. We take our seats at the various couches, chairs and beanbags around the room and Erica nods over to me to talk.
"Well...there's someone on this tour who ratted to the press about my break-up with Liam. Do you girls know anything about that?" I ask inquisitively.
"Oh my God, really? We would never do that to you!" Jade says hastily, waving her hands in front of her.
"No, we don't think you girls did it!" Caleb clarifies. "We just want to know if you know about anyone who might have."
The girls exchange looks with each other, slowly shaking their heads. I sigh in defeat, at this rate we'll never find out who did it.
After leaving Little Mix's dressing room, I'm starting to lose faith in ever finding who did it. What am I even going to do when I do find out? Punish them? Make them take it all back? Beat the shit out of them? I have no idea, I just want to know who I'm not supposed to trust anymore.
"Don't worry, we'll find them." Erica reassures me, patting my back. I sigh, internally rolling my eyes. There are hundreds of crew members on this tour and any one of them could've 'accidentally' come across this information and sold it to the press for extra cash. My thoughts are interrupted with the loud ringing of my phone, I looked up to the caller ID and gulp: Liam. Caleb and Erica see this and give me a gentle squeeze.
"We're going to go investigate some more, you take the call." Caleb says quietly, as he and Erica walk away. I lean against the cool wall of the now empty hallway and press the green accept button.
"Hello?" I ask. I already know who it is but I've just been used to answering the phone this way.
"Hey babe! Just calling to say that I miss you." Liam responds happily.
"Aw I miss you too." I say, trying to act as cheerful as I can and trying to block out the preoccupations of my mind.
"What's wrong? You sound like somethings bothering you." Liam asks. Leave it to him to instantly figure out that something's wrong just by the sound of my voice.
"Nothing." I lie. He doesn't need to know this, I know it'll only make him angry.
"How many times do I have to remind you that you can't lie to me. I can tell something's wrong." Liam states firmly. He doesn't sound like he's trying to be encouraging about it, it sounds like he's a bit annoyed that I'm trying to pull the wool over his eyes again. 'Wool over his eyes'? Did I just age like 30 years?
"Uh..." I stammer nervously, scratching the back of my neck. There's no way I can get out of this. "...well.." I begin.
"Mari! Come quick! We have a lead!" Caleb whisper yells as he runs over to me. Bless Caleb and his impeccable timing.
"Oh, I gotta go, tour emergency! Sorry babe! I love you, byeee!" I hang up quickly, not waiting for him to respond or refute. "Seriously, you're my life saver!" I say to Caleb as he grabs my arm and hobbles me hastily down the hall. I wish I could go faster but this stupid boot is slowing me down.
"I am in more ways than one! I think we might know who did it!" Caleb reports confidently.
"Who?!" I exclaim, giddy with the news.
"Well we don't know who did it yet, we just know people might know." Caleb informs me as we slow down near the catering table. We're approaching Erica and...Karli and Annette? Have they done it? Or do they have valuable information? Either way I'm desperate to hear what they have to say.
"Hi Marielle." Annette says with an apprehensive smile. I smile back and say hi, a bit nervous at what's to come.
"Okay, spill." Erica says flatly, crossing her arms over her chest. She's normally a pretty shy girl but now it looks like she's playing the bad cop here.
"Well...we were all in rehearsals a few days ago and all the dancers were talking about something random, I don't even remember what it was and we looked over and saw Ryan talking to a reporter who had just done an interview with the girls..."
"WAIT RYAN?!" I exclaim in a harsh whisper. I look around to make sure that none of the crew around us heard me and the coast is clear so I sharply turn back to them for them to continue.
"Yeah and we were all really confused so we waited for him to be done and he started walking over to us with a smug smile on his face. We asked him what he did and he said 'Don't worry, you'll know soon enough.' And then he just walked away." Karli finishes.
Caleb and Erica are shocked but I can't even think about that right now with all of the rage inside me. How dare he betray me like this all out of spite and jealousy! Just because I don't like him back doesn't mean he can just go blab to the press about personal information that I confided in him! I remember telling him that things were complicated between Liam and I...but how did he know that we were broken up?
"I...I just can't believe this." I mutter, shaking my head. "How did he know?" I turn to Caleb and Erica while Karli and Annette just stand there nervously.
"We must've been talking about it that day we all went shopping! He probably just kept it to himself." Caleb says, deep in thought. I flip through my own memory trying to see if there was a time like this but I can't think of any. It's the only logical explanation because it was just part of casual conversation and he was a good friend so I thought I could trust him at the time...I know not to now.
"We have to go kick his ass right now!" Erica shouts angrily. If I weren't so mad right now I would probably laugh at tiny little Erica being this fiesty.
"No. I don't want to create drama so close to the end of the tour. We have to find a better way to handle this." I put my hand on my hip and look down, deep in thought.
"Or we could get someone else to handle it." Caleb says with a devilish smile. I look up at him quizzically, not understanding what he's talking about. This boy is all about making things entertaining so God knows what he has up his sleeve.
