Sing For Me

Chapter Nine: (Un)Equal Exchange

"Seriously. What the fuck did you give her?" I ask the attendant again as if she didn't hear me the first time.

"N-nothing," she replies, her eyes shifting away to the side. Behind me, I hear Red's knocking on the bathroom door has paused.

I crouch down, so I'm eye-level with the attendant. I take note of her name badge for the first time. "You put something in that cocktail you gave her, didn't you, Natasha?"

She flinches, and her chin starts to wobble.

"Natasha, I just want to help my friend. I can't do that if I don't know what she's taken. Tell me – do we need to be calling for an ambulance right now?"

Natasha's eyes start to well up. She sniffles and rubs her nose on the back of her shirtsleeve. "I-it's nothing, I promise. Just some date rape drug I got from my ex–"

Behind me, I can hear Red start to pace. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me..." she picks up her radio. "Steve, can we get security up here, please? And Wayne? How quietly can we bring in paramedics? I don't want another public relations meltdown like we dealt with in Auckland..." Red steps out into the hallway, closing the door behind her.

My pulse is racing so hard, and all I can think of is getting Abbey out of here and to a hospital as quickly as possible. Natasha grabs my arm. "Y-you don't understand, please! I didn't mean to hurt her! It's just... the hot seat girls, they always look like her! They're so... so perfect. No one like me ever gets picked for that kind of thing... I just wanted a chance..."

I try to swallow the lump in my throat, but it's going nowhere. So, when I speak, my voice is all tight and thick and hard. "You know what, Natasha? If she dies as a result of whatever mystery drug you laced that drink with, I'm sure they'll take that all into account at your murder trial."

Natasha's eyes are as big as saucers. She breaks down in full, body-wrenching sobs. It's like, for the first time, she's finally seeing the seriousness of the situation. Of what this could mean for her.

I'm so furious I can barely process whatever excuse she throws at me next. My head is buzzing with so many panicky thoughts and feelings that I just want to scream or hit her or run away. I take a step back and force myself to breathe. To focus.

Nothing matters right now. Nothing but Abbey, getting security to break that damned door down and making sure she's safe.

***

When Red comes back in with three security guards in tow, she's looking somewhere between rabid-dog furious and deer-in-the-headlights scared. It's a face that is almost comical on someone so used to being in control.

"Steve, take Natasha here down to Security. Ash and Ant, the door, please."

"Please, no! You can't do this to me! I just wanted a chance to meet Aidan! No!" Natasha screams as Steve leads her down the hallway, into the bowels of the stadium somewhere.

I hover next to Red as they break down the door. The moment the door's broken open, I run in. "Abs, you okay?"

Abbey's curled up in a corner by the sink. She opens her eyes groggily. "Wha? Did I miss something? How was the hot seat, did we win?"

I push her moist hair back off her forehead. "Oh, thank God." I breathe. "Don't worry, there are paramedics on the way."

Red hovers above us. She checks her watch, grabs my arm and pulls me away from Abbey, all shark smile. I can already see the ask behind her eyes, even before she's opened her mouth.

The show must go on.

"What about the hot seat? She signed a contract. Just because she's... incapacitated..."

"Wait, what? Do you really a contract matters right now? Or that it matters at all, period? She's a person. And you're worried about filling a seat and a few words scrawled on a stupid wad of paper?"

Red puffs herself up to full plume. "A contract is a contract, honey. I'm not going to let her weasel her way out of it that easily."

"She was drugged." I fire back at her. "You think you can just slap a couple layers of make-up on her and put her out there?"

"No." Red snorts, looking down at my hot mess of a friend sprawled on the bathroom floor. She looks me up and down, appraising me. "You'll have to do it."

"Err, what? No! I'm taking my friend to the hospital."

Red waves a hand at me. "The paramedics will be here in a couple of minutes. And unless there is someone in that seat then your friend will be held accountable for any profit losses incurred by her non-appearance. End of story."

"That's fucking ridiculous."

Red shrugged. "She's the one who signed it. Either you park your ass on that chair, or she'll be served with a million-dollar lawsuit by morning."

It took a moment for my brain to tick over. For it to register that this wasn't some kind of horrible, sick joke. That Red was actually dead serious. That I couldn't just run away and leave this stupid concert with all its swoozy people and crawl into a hot shower.

"Fine. I'll do it."

Red looked smug. There was no empathy in her hardened eyes; all I saw was a pure, vindictive delight. I realized then that her job description was less about caring for the hot seaters, and more about making sure that the whole hot-seat sham ran smoothly. It was all a set-up, like some kind of reality TV lottery, all to keep millions of fans hoping that one day they would meet the man of their dreams. That one day, they might even get the chance to seduce him.

"It's all part of the business, sugar!" I hear an unfamiliar voice in my head. It was from something. A TV show, or maybe a movie. To be fair, my brain is practically turned to goop inside my head.

"Let's just get this over with," I say to Red, as she pushes me towards that big sticky leather seat. Out on the balcony, fans are screaming, and the laser lights are far too bright. It's like walking into an alternate world.

"It's all an act." Says the voice in my head, but this time it's my own.

And you're the living, breathing bait, baby; so smile sweet.

~~~ A/N ~~~

Thank you for reading! What did you think?

Is Abbey going to be okay? What's going to happen to Meg in The Hot Seat? Tune in 26/09 to find out! :)

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Have a terrific day!

Emxx

~~~ <3 ~~~