Chapter 2
I was sitting in the lobby of a hotel in central LA, sprawled out onto a couch where I had been for the past half hour with my entire luggage laid out in front of me.
The receptionist that kindly told me earlier to take a seat, there had been a problem with my booking it seemed. I tried to get in touch with Hilary to see if she had the conformation details, but it was the middle of the night back in England so I wasn’t expecting a reply.
But to say that the customer service in this “5 star hotel” was appalling is an understatement. I just couldn’t be bothered right now, if I had to sit here much longer I was either going to fall asleep or start to cry. I just wasn’t to curl up into a bed and wish the world away.
I slumped back into the couch and tilted my head back. Closing my eyes I could feel tears at the back of my eyes, gathering there from prolonged frustration and tiredness.
I felt the couch beside me dip and someone place there hand lightly onto my shoulder, yet I still couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes.
“Nicola?” I heard someone whisper into my ear.
“Nic it’s Nadine, open your eyes honey”. I sighed with relief, feeling some tension leave my body at the thought of her familiar company.
Before I opened my eyes to face my friend I heard a familiar American drawl, “what’s wrong with her?”.
Jason was here to, I thought to myself. “she’s had a long flight” Nadine told him, sounding slightly frustrated with is impatience.
“Why don’t you ask at reception for the room she’s supposed to be in?”. I heard Jason huff and walk off.
I and all the girls had met Jason for the first time at the Brit Awards earlier this year. To be honest I didn’t really know how I felt about him, he was nice, got along with the rest of the lads and they seemed really happy. He was quite supportive too, especially considering he had only witnessed Nadine’s fame in America and nothing near the level that we experienced back home.
We didn’t really know the ins and outs of their relationship; Nadine was never the type of person to divulge that type of information. Even if things were going horribly wrong she would still most likely insist that everything was completely fine.
“Nadine” I whispered to her, finally deciding to open my eyes.
“hey you” she said pulling a smile across her face. She always seemed to just glow, it wasn’t fair really. Here I was in complete emotional turmoil, with no doubt looking just as bad as I felt, while she was radiant. “I didn’t think you were sleeping”.
“sorry, it’s just been a long flight” I said while sitting up from my slumped position. “what are you doing here?”.
“I got your hotel details from management and thought I’d come to see if you needed help settling in, and then see if you wanted to go over anything before the meeting”.
I sighed aloud. *Business. It always seemed to be about business when it came to Nadine. Talk to us bout recordings, about schedules, about tours, about anything related to the band but that’s where it seemed to stop. Once we had a break she could basically drop off the face of the earth until the band reformed, for business. I didn’t understand why that’s all we were to her when she was so much more to the rest of us.
“Nicola they said that there has been a mix up with your booking” Jason said as he returned to us. “they say they don’t have any other rooms available”.
“what?!” Nadine shouted “how can they have a mess up like that and just leave her sitting here with nowhere to go!!”. I looked at her, a little surprised at her outburst. It was easy to forget that Nadine had a bad temper sometimes. She was quite easy going and polite, but would never stand for it when someone didn’t do their job right.
I knew by the look on her face that she was going to give these people a piece of her mind and as much as I appreciated her need for all things to be fair and just, I just didn’t want to deal with it all. I was too tired.
I watched her as she went to stand up “Nadine please” I said, taking hold of her hand.
“Don’t, it’s okay, we can just find somewhere else for me to stay” my voice came out strained and tired.
Her face softened when she looked at me, I could feel my eyes really welling up now, I just wanted to sleep.
“oh honey, I’m sorry” she said while crouching down to hug. I held back slightly, knowing that if I let her comfort me it would just open a faucet and I would be an emotional wreck for the rest of my time here.
“Why don’t you come and stay with me?” I heard her asked. I looked up at her surprised. But the surprise on my face was nothing compared to the shock evident on Jason’s.
“what?” I asked
“w- what” I heard Jason repeat.
Nadine turned to Jason and shot him a dirty look.
“come stay with me” she said, turning back to face me and smiling. “I don’t know why we didn’t just decide that earlier”.
“c’mon, off we go”. Before I really knew what was happening Nadine had taken my hand, pulled me up from off the couch and began to lead me out to her car outside. Not before ordering Jason to collect all of my luggage and place it in the back of the car.
The whole trip to the house had been half an hour of Nadine mostly talking, about her bar, the gorgeous Californian weather and the Coldplay gig. I think she knew I was too tired to produce much of a response and Jason spent most of the trip scowling in the back seat and not saying a word.
We arrived and Nadine ordered my upstairs to a guest room, insisting that I catch some sleep and then she would wake me up for dinner. Jason had seemed to disappear, he clearly wasn’t impressed by the recent development of events but I didn’t really understand why.
As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light.
