Part 1
Kimberley's Point Of View
I walked out of rehearsals dripping with sweat, it wasn't attractive! I had just finished doing a four hour rehearsal for Shrek The Musical, and I was now on my way to meet with management and the other girls to talk about plans for our tenth anniversary. It was safe to say that we were all nervous about meeting Cheryl again. For the passed few hours, I had been bombarded with texts from Nicola, Nadine and Sarah all asking me what I thought it was going to be like. I told them that there was nothing to be worried about and everything was going to be fine, but even I didn't believe it.
“Kimberley!” A photographer yelled as he ran up beside me. “Is it true Girls Aloud are coming back for their tenth anniversary?”
“I can't say anything... sorry!” I laughed as I walked to my car.
“How's Cheryl doing?” Of course, it was always about Cheryl. No one was ever interested in what the rest of us were doing, it was just always about her.
“She's doing great!” I smiled enthusiastically. As soon as I got into my car and drove away, the smile disappeared from my face. How was I meant to know how she was when she hadn't bothered to return any of my calls or texts?
Thanks to traffic, I arrived at the management's headquarters half an hour later. I saw Nicola standing outside her car, waiting for me. She looked worried, but then again I didn't blame her. Cheryl had been like her sister, and when she left, she was alone for a while. I ended up being like her big sister after that, she would always call or text me for advice and to be honest, I didn't mind. I liked being able to help her out.
“You all right babe?” I asked as I stepped out from my car, locking it behind me as I walked towards her.
“Hey Kimba!” She smiled as she gave me a hug. “Everything is fine, just a bit nervous you know?”
“Yeah, course I know what you mean. It's gonna be a bit weird, we haven't seen her in a while.” Nicola slipped her arm through mine and we started walking to the entrance.
“Things have changed, she's not the same Cheryl.” Nicola whispered to me. “If she was, she wouldn't have left me. She was like my big sister and when she moved, it was like she didn't care any more.”
“I know babe.” I sighed. “Everything is going to be ok though. You've got me with you and Nadine and Sarah of course.”
“I know,” she smiled. “thanks for being there for me.”
“No problem. That's what friends are for.”
We stopped talking as we stood outside the meeting room. Nicola looked at me with worry in her eyes, I smiled at her and pushed the door open. Nadine, Sarah and most of management were already there. They all got up and gave us hugs and told us how excited they were to be working with us again. I noticed Cheryl and Hillary weren't here yet, but I had a feeling the two of them would arrive together.
“How was rehearsals then?” Nadine asked me as I sat down at the table in between her and Nicola.
“It went very well. I'm finding my feet now.” I smiled. “Not long until I actually have to perform though!”
“Oh babe, I can't wait!” Nadine squealed in excitement. “It's gonna be amazing seeing you up there!”
“I'm glad you're excited about it.” I laughed. “I'm so nervous!”
“Don't be, babe!” Sarah joined in. “The three of us are gonna be there on the opening night cheering you on! I even bought tickets to see it nearly every week.”
“Seriously Sarah?” I asked in disbelief. Sarah wasn't exactly the kind of person that could sit through something as long as a show. I thought she'd find it hard sitting through it once, never mind more than that!
“Yeah, we all sort of have. There's gonna be one of us there nearly every night. We sorted it out with your family so that every night there is going to be people you know in the audience.”
“No pressure then!” I laughed. “Thanks though, it means a lot to me.”
“So, Sarah.” Nicola started. “How's it going... you know? Sorry for asking about it, if you don't want to talk about it, then that's fine.”
“Oh it's fine, all my stuff is now moved out of his house and since the band is getting back together, I'm moving out of my mum's and in with Nadine for a while. You know, just until I get myself sorted out.” Sarah smiled, but you could still see the pain in her eyes.
Sarah's boyfriend had broken up with her three months ago. They had been dating for years, and when it happened, Sarah broke down. It was so bad that Nadine moved all the way from LA back to London to look after her. She had left her family and her business behind, and because of that, her boyfriend had also broken up with her.
“I can't wait for you to move in.” Nadine smiled. “It's just gonna be like old times. Even though I lived with Kimberley, you were always over at our house!”
“Ah, those were the days.” Sarah joked as she leaned back in her chair.
We all started discussing old memories we had together, purposely trying to miss out ones that had Cheryl in them. No one really wanted to deal with her until we had to, and as usual, she was running late and hadn't even shown up yet.
“Oh, and do you remember that time when me an-” Nadine was suddenly interrupted when the door swung open. Hillary walked in, and following her was a very tanned Cheryl. Next to her was her boyfriend, Craig.
I felt Nicola grab my hand that I had placed carelessly on the table, she was squeezing the life out of it. I think she was both scared and excited to see Cheryl. I placed my other hand on top of Nicola's and squeezed it reassuringly. Everyone looked at Cheryl, and then to Hillary, waiting for her to say something.
“Take a seat then, Cheryl.” Hillary said as she moved to sit on the other side of the table. Cheryl did as she was told, taking a seat next to Nicola. Craig sat at the end next to Cheryl.
“Kimba, can we switch seats?” Nicola asked, not making it a secret that she didn't want to sit next to Cheryl.
“Sure.” I replied as I got up and switched with her.
I quickly looked at Cheryl who was looking at both me and Nicola. I could see the hurt and confusion in her eyes, but I didn't feel sorry for her, she shouldn't have left and forgotten about us all.
“Right girls,” Hillary started, gathering our attention. “Isn't it nice to have Cheryl back? With her, is her boyfriend Craig, but I'm sure you all knew that anyway.”
“No one told us we were allowed to bring our boyfriends.” Sarah mumbled as she looked at Craig disapprovingly. We had never let our boyfriends sit in on our meetings before. We had never liked the thought of it. We were a girl band, so it was strictly only girls allowed into the meetings. Apart from our management team of course.
“Even if we were allowed, the only one that would have anyone would be Kimberley.” Nadine laughed, in which Nicola, Sarah and I joined in.
“Yeah, that's right.” Nicola joked. “All of us have no one. We'll be alone forever.”
“As long as we have each other, it won't matter.” Sarah replied placing her hands on Nadine and Nicola's knees. “As for you, Kimberley. You can *duck* off because you've got a boyfriend.” Nadine and Nicola both joined Sarah with laughter as I rolled my eyes at them. I turned to see Cheryl who was sitting there quietly watching us, not knowing what to do.
“Girls!” Hillary said as she cleared her throat. “I know Cheryl has been away for a long time, but it doesn't mean you can just forget her.”
“We're not forgetting her.” Sarah replied. “This isn't even what the meeting is about anyway. We're here to discuss the future of the band, so can we do that? Nadine and I have to leave in an hour now because I need to move out of my mum's house and into Nadine's tonight.”
“You need to go in an hour?” Hillary asked, clearly annoyed that they didn't have as much time as she wanted them to have.
“Yes, we did have longer, but you were late. So really, it's your fault.”
“Very well.” Hillary sighed. “Let's just get down to business.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~* An hour later ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“See you later babe.” I said to Nadine as I hugged her. “I can't believe you're actually letting Sarah stay with you, you do realise that you will now be having sleepless and drunken nights with her?”
“Oh, it won't be that bad.” She laughed, dismissing the thoughts with a wave of the hand before moving on to Nicola to give her a cuddle.
“Sarah, call me later yeah?” I asked as she wrapped her arms around me. “And if you need help with anything, just give me a call.”
“Ok, ok mother Kimberley! Calm down!” She laughed. “I'll call you when I've moved everything.” She gave me a hug and then turned her attention to Cheryl, just like Nadine had done.
Cheryl was still sitting down whilst the four of us were standing up. She was holding onto Craig's hand and they were both staring at us all. Pain was written all over Cheryl's face. It was clear that she wanted to be a part of our hugs and jokes, but she didn't know if she could be. After all, she had been away for a while.
“Well, erm, I guess we'll see you at the next meeting Cheryl.” Sarah smiled as she rested her hand on her shoulder. “It's good to know you're doing good.”
“Aye,” Nadine agreed. “It's really good to see you. I wish we had more time to chat, but we're on a tight schedule. We'll see you at the next meeting though.” She smiled encouragingly. “Anyway, we best be going now so we'll see you all later.”
The two of them practically ran out of the room, leaving Nicola, Cheryl, Craig and I in the room, along with Hillary and some others of our management team who were paying no attention whatsoever to us.
“Kimba, I've got to go.” Nicola said as she looked at her phone. “I've got a tv appearance in a few hours...”
“That's fine babe. Do you want me to come with you?”
“No, it's fine. My sister's coming with me, she's come to stay with me for a few days.” She smiled. “Thanks for the offer though.”
“No problem, text me what channel it's on and I'll be sure to watch it. I'll even Sky plus it like I've done for all your other ones.” I smiled. “You're going to do brilliantly. You always do!”
“Thanks babe!” She wrapped her arms around me. “I better be going now. I still need to pick my sister up and I don't even know how bad the traffic is going to be!”
“Wait Nic, one more thing!” I called as she turned around. She shot me a confused look and I had to laugh at how cute she looked. “When am I getting my Team Ginge top?”
“I'll get that sorted for you. Now I really need to go now!” She laughed as she walked out of the room.
Cheryl looked over at me as I leaned down to pick my bag up from the floor. I would hate to be in her position right now. Nobody was really speaking to her, Nicola hadn't even said goodbye to her. That must have hurt her, they used to be as thick as thieves. Things were going to have to change for our anniversary tour, or it was going to be extremely awkward.
“Baby, why don't you go and wait in the car?” I heard Cheryl say to her boyfriend. It was probably the most I had heard her say in the past hour or so, she had been so quiet. Craig did what he was told and soon enough he had walked out the room. I knew Cheryl wanted to talk to me, but I didn't want to talk to her with management standing there. She must of understood because she tilted her head to the side, indicating for me to follow her. I did.
“Can I talk to you?” She asked as we stood in the deserted hallway.
“I wouldn't have followed you otherwise.” I replied coldly. Now that all the other girls were gone, I didn't have to pretend that I didn't have a problem with Cheryl. The truth was that out of all four of us, Cheryl had hurt me the most. She had taken my heart and then broke it, and she did it on purpose.
