Telltale ~ Liam Gallagher

JANUARY 2001

"No seriously," Zara speaks into her microphone, the slight breeze in the room getting caught in her tight baby pink dress and causing the skirt to billow out like an upside down umbrella. "This year has been immense; the beginning of my acting career," (I try not to choke on my rose champagne) "and a substantial increase in advertising work. I'm living the dream." She laughs fakely, winking at Liam who stands next to me in a navy blue suit with a pale yellow shirt. He smirks back at her.

"Of course there are people to thank but I won't bore you with the names; they know who they are." She continues, staring straight at Liam and not at her hard-working and underpaid PA. "All I will say is help yourself to champagne and nibbles, we've enough to feed a small army, and if you'd be so kind as to pop a little change into our charity collection pots that would be fantastic." I roll my eyes as she receives a huge round of applause whilst skipping down the steps from the stage she hired.

"Jealous are we?" Liam comments beside me, eyeing up his champagne with a confused glare.

"What makes you say that?" I retort, drinking my own and feeling it burn its way down my throat.

He only shrugs and mumbles, "Nothing."

The napkin incident (as I'm referring to it for now) has gone by unspoken, and we can both sense the awkward rift between us which is far more prominent than ever.

I watch Zara point at Liam and mimic pulling him towards her with her drunk limbs. "I think you're being summoned." I nod towards the tipsy blonde.

He sighs ever so slightly, if I hadn't been paying attention I might have even missed it, but he does so with the smallest clenching of his jaw, passing me his champgane flute gingerly.

He's got a reputation. Everyone knows it; and as much as I enjoy Zara being knocked down from her stage every so often, I really hope he doesn't hurt her. She might be a drama queen, offensive and brash at times, but she doesn't deserve to be cheated by some twathead rockstar.

The music turns slow all of a sudden and I sink into the folds of my clothes. I went with a trousersuit this evening; I couldn't face wearing the very dress Liam Gallagher said made me look beautiful.

"What do you think then," a redhead slides next to me, eyes a piercing blue complimented by the burning silver of her jewellery. "A good match?"

I look on at the 'happy couple' and shrug. Zara has her toned arms wrapped around his neck as they sway along to the music. I can't catch his expression, but the tiniest part of me hopes he isn't enjoying it.

"Perfect." I nod. "A perfect match."

She sips some of her drink and closes her eyes for a moment or two, "I thought that too." She whispers. "When it was us."

Us?

"I'm sorry," I chuckle nervously, staring dead at the neatly tiled floor, "I don't follow?"

She laughs at me, slightly manic sounding at first, before allowing her smooth voice to calm. "She wasn't the first." Is all the redhead says before abandoning her glass on the vast table behind us and walking towards the exit to meet her chauffeur. I dump Liam's glass as she did, and consider following her for a moment.

I'm intrigued.

With a quick shake of my head, I pull my thoughts together and drain the remaining champagne. I'm going to feel this tomorrow for sure.

After realising that no one at this event is really bothered by my existence, I take myself outside of the building for a smoke. I gave up two months ago but my new years resolution was to start again - why the fuck not.