Beautiful Trouble

Chapter Seven

During the show, I jumped, danced, clapped and fell in love with the band. Kendall and I found a new obsession, and all seemed to have been forgotten on my part about Gary's P.A and him blanking me during the meal. I didn't care about any of that. All I knew was that you should never meet your idols, especially not romantically. At the end of the night, the room began to clear, and the boys stepped down from the stage. Mark skipped over to us, the lord only knows where he'd mustered his energy from, "Did you like it, well, what did you think?" Kendall looked at him with adoration, "It was brilliant, Mark, really, it was!" He put her hand on her hip, pulled her close and she wiped the sweaty hair that was stuck to his forehead from his eyes before giving her a warm embrace and... a kiss? On the lips? It's amazing what you miss when you're sitting in a toilet cubicle. And from the other side of the room, Gary, Howard and Jason were talking and mopping their brows with the towels provided by the venue. Gary looked over and locked eyes with me. Awkwardly, I smiled. "Kendall, I promised Dad we'd be back by eleven" I bluntly said, switching my gaze from Gary to her and Mark, who still had their lips locked. "Yeah, ok then" She smiled, pulling away, "See you soon, yeah?" Mark nodded, slipping a piece of paper into her handbag "It's Gary's number, I don't have a mobile, but keep in touch, yeah?" She blushed, nodded and then turned away. Linking arms with me, we left the club and headed from the taxi rank. Well, I thought to myself, that was a fucking disaster.

"I won't ask" Kendall began when we got into the taxi, "But what the hell is going on?" I stared out of the window, refusing to make eye contact with her, "We almost kissed" I simply said. It sounded stupid, I knew it did, but it was the truth. "Only almost?" "Well, yeah, his P.A didn't seem to like it" I replied, still refusing to make any eye contact, "And then he ignored me for the rest of the night. I mean, it would have been nice for Gary to have come looking for me rather than Mark... do you know what I mean?" She put her hand on my shoulder, providing some sort of comfort. "I know what you mean, but hun, men are dicks you know?" "Not him" I said, feeling myself welling up once more, "He's different, I know he is... but how can he get that close and then just switch off?" Kendall bit her lip, as if she was holding something back from me. "Go on, tell me?" I said, tears rolling down my face. "You might as well, my night couldn't get any worse..."

"It wasn't Gary's P.A who spotted you both, it was Howard." The taxi fell silent for a matter of minutes before I registered what Carly was saying. "Howard?" I had to clarify the information in my head before I could even digest what was being said, "Howard alerted Gary's P.A? But why would he even do that?" The taxi driver broke my train of thought "£6.50, please, love?" I thrust a ten pound note in his direction, "Keep the change" I quipped sharply. I just didn't understand. Why would Howard drop his friend in the shit? Something didn't add up.

Mum must have been looking out of the blinds for us arriving home, as when we got out of the taxi, she was waiting at the front door, a smile on her face, full of anticipation, "So then, how was it? Did you love it? What were they like?" She winked, indicating that one of us might have had a soft spot for one of them. "They were alright... nothing special." I didn't want to talk about it right now, and even though Carly was standing behind me, I could tell that she was gesturing to Mum to not pursue the subject. "And if I ever bump into Howard again, there's going to be bloody trouble!" I muttered under my breath as I stormed up the stairs, "Night mum, Kendall, you coming?" Mum looked in disbelief, "Howard? Did you say Howard?" "Yeah... why?" I stopped at the top of the stairs and turned around. Mum looked as though her blood was running cold, goosepimples rising on her skin. "Surname? Howard's a little bit of an unusual name, isn't it?" Carly interjected "Donald" She laughed, "We were joking that he's named after two ducks, that's the only reason I remember!" Before she had even finished explaining why she found it funny, I was left dumbstruck and Mum shot up the stairs, brushing past me and ran into her bedroom, "Dave, we NEED to talk!" was all we heard before the door slammed and all of the lights went off in our household for the night. Kendall obviously hadn't picked up on the reference that Donald was my surname. Our surname. The penny dropped after a few moments silence, but still, nothing was said. Nothing needed to be said. But why? All would probably become clear in the morning.