Chapter Thirty Five
Kimberley sat in the living room of the flat and looked out of the window from the relative safety of being behind the net curtain. Cheryl had been gone a few hours, but still the photographers were pitched up outside, just far enough from her doorstep for it to be legal, yet close enough for her to still feel their intimidating presence.
She was used to the paparazzi, or at least she was used to Cheryl’s paparazzi, who seemed to follow her everywhere, but normally when Cheryl left, so did the camera’s. This time however, there was no getting away from them, and she felt trapped.
is this what Cheryl feels like all the time? She wondered to herself as she averted her eyes from the scene below and stared in to her half empty cup of tea.
The television was turned on in the corner of the room but she wasn’t really watching it, it felt good to hear somebody else’s voice for a change though as the strange yet familiar voices shouted.
In reality she had only been in the flat a couple of days, but with nobody to talk to and nowhere to go, a few days had already started to feel like weeks. It wouldn’t be too much longer until Cheryl would be back home and at least then she could have some sort of conversation with someone other than herself.
She was so used to being around a lot of people every day of her life that moments like these only seemed to show her how alone she felt when they weren’t there. She shook the thought from her head and took a drink of the tea that was now cold.
She got up and put the cup in the sink before returning to the living room. She found herself gravitating towards the window again, and going through her latest ritual of counting how many camera’s she could spot. There was at least a dozen down stairs, and that didn’t include the two she could see hiding in the bushes that seemed to be pointing right up to the window.
All throughout Girls Aloud, she had been the one who tried her hardest to keep out of the glare of the media unless it was necessary for the band, and now here she was, thrust in to the spotlight when she least wanted it.
Her phone vibrated away in the corner and she managed to answer it just before it rang out.
“Kimberley?”
“you don’t know how good it is to hear your voice” Kimberley replied, maybe just a little bit more desperate than she would have liked to have sounded.
“I take it its not going well then?” Nadine’s familiar voice came down the phone.
“that’s a bit of an understatement…the paparazzi are everywhere, I haven’t even left the flat for three days” Kimberley told her, as she sat down, away from the window.
“do you want me to come around?” Nadine asked, her voice showing a bit of concern that Kimberley was on her own.
“don’t be daft” Kimberley laughed, although secretly she was hoping Nadine would see through her words to what she actually meant to say.
“okay then” Nadine replied to Kimberley’s disappointment.
“I’ll be fine” Kimberley said down the phone, although she wasn’t really saying it to Nadine, it was more of a pep talk to herself.
“right well I’ll see you in twenty minutes then” Nadine laughed and hung up the phone.
-
“they are like a pack of wolves” Nadine said by way of a greeting as she squeezed through the front door of Cheryl and Kimberley’s flat. Kimberley looked at her sympathetically before pointing to the sofa which Nadine sat on.
“tell me about it” Kimberley replied, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. She took Nadine’s coat and hung it up in the hallway.
“so its been pretty relentless then?” Nadine asked, walking up behind Kimberley who had made her way in to the kitchen to make the girl a drink.
“I keep hoping it will die down eventually, but up to know its been pretty much full on” she said, washing out two cups in the sink and putting the kettle on.
“maybe that’s the price you have to pay Kimberley” Nadine replied with a shrug of her shoulders as she hitched herself up on to one of the high stools in the kitchen.
“what do you mean?”
“Cheryl and the media come as a package Kimberley, whether that’s the way you want it or not” Nadine replied, choosing her words carefully as she heard the way they were coming out.
“she doesn’t go looking for them…but they still find her, and if they find her, well…they are going to find you as well aren’t they? Maybe that’s something you will just have to put up with to have her”
“but I’m a private person Nadine, I don’t want my life on show like that” Kimberley replied, walking over to the other stool with the two cups. She passed Nadine hers before sitting down.
“you know what you need?” Nadine asked, her face breaking out in to a smile.
“what?” Kimberley asked, her expression suggesting she knew what Nadine was going to say.
“you need a good…”
“Nadine” Kimberley cut in indignantly.
“…shopping trip” Nadine replied with a laugh, clearly changing what she was originally going to say. “you need a good shopping trip” she repeated, shrugging her shoulders to imply she wasn’t aware of what Kimberley had meant.
“maybe I do need to get out a bit” Kimberley sighed, changing the subject, although she threw Nadine one last look first.
“the Kimberley I know wouldn’t let a few camera’s stop her from having a good time” Nadine replied happily, letting her hand fall on to Kimberley’s wrist, she squeezed it affectionately.
“sometimes…I don’t know if she exists anymore Nadine” Kimberley replied quietly before getting up off the seat and walking back in to the living room.
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