In The Dark

41 - August 4th

Sam was standing in the centre of the sitting room of the hotel suite with his eyes glued to the TV. He'd been flipping through the channels and had stopped to watch TMZ when he'd seen a photo of the Spice Girls on the screen. Harvey Levin, the host of the show, had brought Melanie up as their discussion topic and he and his crew were debating whether or not she was faking everything.

One member of the crew, Max, a tanned, surfer-esque man with long, blonde hair had called Chester and had him patched through on the audio feed. The two were friends and TMZ wanted to get the inside scoop on what went on behind the scenes. They had a photo of Chester in the bottom corner of the screen as they asked him questions about the interview he'd done with the girls.

"Everything those girls do is completely dictated by how they think Melanie is going to react," Chester replied to the question he'd been asked. "We weren't able to get a whole lot of footage behind the scenes with her because she was sick that day and everyone is incredibly protective of her. Radio One had been there with the guys for the morning and they said she hadn't seemed well when they were there either. We had to cut our interview with her short because she wasn't feeling well."

"But all of that seems so easy to fake," Harvey snorted.

"I've signed an NDA and can't go into detail, but she definitely wasn't faking," Chester responded.

"The attention they're getting from all of this is phenomenal. They're over a month in and they're still on every news outlet on a daily basis," said Harvey. "These girls are smart when it comes to marketing themselves. I'm still convinced this is just a really brilliant scheme to keep themselves relevant and attract even more attention. Their album sales went up exponentially this month because they've garnered a whole new audience. People that used to despise their music are suddenly becoming fans."

"I'll be completely honest with you, Harvey," Chester replied. "There's pretending to be scared and then there's legit fear. You can actually feel how tense she is just being in the room with her and getting her to say anything is like pulling teeth. I genuinely felt bad asking her questions. You'll see when we air the interview on Friday. I'm 100% convinced it's not a hoax."

"What are you watching this garbage for?" Simon scoffed as he entered the suite with one of the hotel bellboys. The bellboy was pushing a trolly of boxes and bags from Nike Town, Ralph Lauren, Kappa, Alexander McQueen, and Adidas, which he unloaded onto one of the cupboards before dismissing himself. Simon handed him some cash as a tip before closing the door.

"It's good press, at least," Sam responded, grabbing the telly remote and turning the screen off. "Maybe the tabloids will let down a bit. TMZ is one of our main problems in terms of bad press." Simon snorted, knowing the tabloids would continue to write about the girls regardless. Sam nodded towards the packages curiously.

"Gifts for Melanie from Victoria's mum," Simon replied. "She said she saw Melanie in the papers with her clothes hanging off of her and she wanted to step in."

"It's not that bad," Sam chuckled, pulling out a tiny, black Adidas top from one of the bags.

"A size and a half, according to Kenny," Simon retorted, referring to the girls' costume designer.

"She let him take her measurements?" Sam asked with disbelief.

"Not without a great deal of coaxing," Simon replied with a sigh. "She was nearly in tears by the time he was done with her." Sam looked at him sympathetically and folded the clothing before putting it back in the bag.

There was a quiet tapping on the door of the suite and Victoria's mum and dad, Jackie and Anthony, and her boyfriend, David, let themselves in. Simon introduced them to Sam, made sure they'd settled into their own hotel rooms, and offered both of them a drink. They'd just arrived from the airport on their trip to visit with Victoria and the girls and check in with how everything was going.