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[ 34 ] Fishy Footage

Song: Run up - Major Lazer

I was pulling my hair out in the taxi, panicking on what I was going to say. Having Freddie next to me certainly wasn't helping. "Okay, so I'll meet him backstage and ask him how he is. No that's just wierd. I'll say I'm sorry. Wait, why am I sorry? He might have actually been the one behind this for all I know," I talked to myself.

Freddie smugly watched me, before pulling out his phone and tapping something. You couldn't blame me for being curious after what he did last time. So, I looked at the reflection of his phone on the car window to see what he's doing. Who's the sneaky one now?

He went on his phone before ringing someone and putting it on speaker. "Fred, who are you-"

"Hello? Who is this?" I heard someone ask on the phone. Not someone but a familiar silky voice that made mine sound like a talking warthog.

Yeah, we're talking about Clara.

"Oh hi, this is Graham Woods, Mckayla Silva's secretary. She's given me the job to talk to you about something that happened before she left New York."

I kicked him in the ankle, making him glare at me. It probably wasn't the best idea to kick my manager's foot. Oh well. What was he doing? I didn't know whether to freak out at what he'd already said or to worry about what was going to happen next.

There was a long pause at the phone before I heard a sniffle. What confused me was how worried Clara sounded afterward, "Uh, y-yes?"

Freddie nodded to himself, smirking. "You see, we seem to have found some footage of you talking to Kevin O'reilly just before the award. Is this right?"

I looked at Freddie blankly. What was he talking about? We didn't have any footage on anything. Suddenly intrigued, I listened to what she was saying. Something was wrong here.

After another long pause, she whispered to the phone. "I- I really don't know what you're talking about! I haven't done anything wrong."

Woah, we hadn't accused her of doing anything. Why was she panicking all of a sudden? "Are you sure Miss Gonzales? Because we seem to have CCTV videos of you having a conversation with him at around-"

I raised my eyebrows at Freddie asking him where he was going with this but he puts up a finger, telling me to wait. Thanks, very informative.

Clara interrupted him and I feel the tension in her voice. God, I could practically see beads of sweat running down her forehead. "Listen now, how much do you want? How much to keep it a secret and not tell Mckayla? Just give me a number and consider it done!"

Damn what was she hiding? I prayed that it wasn't what I was thinking. "Excuse me! I don't want money. We both know that what you did was a hundred percent wrong!"

She was pleading on the phone by then. Even the taxi driver seemed interested in what was going on. Nosy Parker. "How-how do you know about this? Before you do anything, let me explain myself. I only changed the names because I knew it was a chance to put my name out there. And I wasn't the only one to blame! Kevin accepted the money too so it's not my fault. Just- just take the money and we'll end this now. Just promise to not tell anyone. P-please?"

My face dropped and fell into the floor. Well, it didn't really. It would be pretty disturbing if that did happen. To put it frankly, I was shocked. Clara was the one behind this all? I stared at the taxi floor. I was stupid enough to think that she'd changed after watching one movie with her. For a second, I laughed at myself for being so dumb until I realised that this wasn't the best time to collapse laughing my head off. How was I so naive?

Of course, it made sense. After being all cozy with me, she was the last person I'd expect to do that. I didn't notice when Freddie ended the call but when I next looked up, he was looking at me with judgmental eyes.

If if was Clara then River... I banged my head against the window in despair, thinking about how I'd accused him. I replayed the airport scene in my head and cringed at how awkward this was going to be now that I knew it wasn't even him. Oh fuck, I was screwed.

"Mckayla, this isn't the time to feel bad. This is the time to pull yourself together!" Freddie said, slapping his hand in my arm at each syllable.

I jumped a little at him touch. "Pull myself together? Right, y-yeah. Uh, get a grip. I am Mckayla Silva. I-I can do this!"

Who was I kidding?

I groaned slumping back again. "Nope. I can't." I could have just told the taxi driver to drive back home. This wasn't going to work. Instead of slapping my arm this time, Freddie slapped my face. Uh, I was certain that this was assault.

But for the first time, I damn well appreciated it.

"Right, focus. Uh, I'll meet him backstage and tell him that I'm an idiot and doofus and twat and yeah, all that. I'll say that I'm sorry for assuming what happened and making rash decision and then beg for forgiveness," I was wincing at how awful this sounded. "And then hopefully he'll forgive me."

Couldn't forget the part.

"Well, you better be ready because we're here."

-xXx-

"Uh, just a right down here I think, and then a left? Maybe it was a left first. Wait, I do know where I'm going just give me a second." Did I know where I was going? Not at all. Did I know where the backstage entrance was? Nada.

It had been ages since the last time I'd come to a concert hall as big as this. Freddie sniggered at me before rolling his eyes. "Right, I'm just going to ask."

He chose to go up to a bulky security guard before asking his something. The bald guys checked up out before sighing and pointing to the right.

"Hah, I did know where I was going," I said to Freddie before following his directions. The concert was due to start at 8pm and it was coming to 7.45

Freddie tutted, "Sure you did."

Until that day, I didn't realise how big these arena's were. After jogging for a good ten minutes, my legs were killing. As we carried in walking I began to notice how there seemed to be an awfully large amount of people. I didn't think that it would be that crowded backstage.

Unless-

I whipped my head to Freddie who seemed to have been guessing what I was going to say. "Are you sure this is the way backstage?"

I put an emphasis on the last word. I swear to god...
Freddie shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, "I don't know. I don't work here, do I?"

Okay, he was going to be a twat. I didn't care. I wasn't surprised. This was Freddie we were talking about.  We continued to follow the directions that the security guard had given us until we entered the arena.

My hands dropped to my side in disbelief. For on the opposite side of the arena was the stage and we were standing right in the centre of the audience. Backstage was probably a good 350 meters away.

Oh dear... She doesn't have the best luck, does she? ):