Chapter 8 – Lacey
"From a café singer into an international pop star, here is your Linette." The crowd erupted in cheers as my best friend walked onto Rob Skinner's stage and took a seat across from him.
"So miss... what is your last name?" He started.
"It's a secret. I just don't want paparazzi on me all the time." Linette lied.
"Alright, well I heard that you are here in London on tour. Who are you with?"
"McFly." Linette smiled towards the crowd.
"Oh! How's that going for you? Are they good boys?"Nope.
"No they're very, very naughty." Linette answered. I smiled. Psychic.
"Really? How so?" Rob asked intrigued. This is McFly…
"They're very energetic. Once when I went shopping with them I couldn't stay in a store for very long because they got me kicked out." I smiled at the memory. Good times, good times.
"What happened?"
"Well Danny was being silly. That's all you need to know. The way the boys act on stage... they act like that all the time." Linette explained. Well not really… times that by ten and that equals my boys… did I just say my?
"I'm sure they are tons of fun." Rob smiled. Tons.
"Loads."
"So I hear you guys are staying a little longer in London to film a video. Tell us about that video for Why."
"Well I decided since I released the single here I might as well film it here. Actually, since I'm not the traditional image of a pop idol, the recording company has given me some liberties on my music video. I can say it'll be quite sexy." Linette smirked.
"Oh, what's going to be in it?"
"Well I can't give it all away since then it won't be a surprise, but there will be me in the rain. So I hope I don't get sick like Tom did after The Heart Never Lies video."
"I've also heard that apparently McFly will be starring in your video."
"Yeah, they all have little parts in it."
"The video is about your boyfriend cheating. Who's playing the boyfriend?"
Linette laughed. "It's Danny." She totally wishes it were Tom and that she'd be the girl he slept with…EW I can see it happening…EW…
"Do you think he'd ever cheat on you if you two were dating?" Um… he'll cheat on Ashley that's for sure. God she's such a hoe. Look at her in the audience… just watching. Oh my God it would be so funny if something fell on her messed up face right…now. Damn it. I wish I could smash her face in… oh my God that would be so funny too. No! Better yet something hits her in the face and while she's on the ground I beat her already broken face in. That would be genius. I glared and she glared back. EW don't look at me… hoe… Dude I should jump in the crowd and smack her face. O shit, I was totally not paying attention to the interview!
Linette laughed again. "I don't know. I haven't really talked to the guys much about that sort of thing, but I'm sure Danny wouldn't do that. He's a sweet guy." Yeah bitch Ashley, and he wouldn't backstab his best friend either…
"Who do you think is most likely to cheat on his girlfriend out of the crew?" Rob smiled.
"Um... wow that's tough. Do I have to pick?"
"Well I'm sure the audience would like to know which one is the naughtiest of the boys." Rob laughed.
"But they're all naughty." Definitely.
"Alright then, which do you think would be most loyal?" Isn't that basically the same question?
"I think Tom would be the most loyal to his girlfriend." Ashley smirked. Bitch.
"I'm sure the audience would love to know: if you could date any one of the boys, which would you choose?" Tom!
"Um... well they all have good qualities. Dougie is absolutely adorable but he's a little to young for me." And I have dibs. "Harry is really fun to talk to. We have great times. Um... Danny and I are more friends really and we piss-take each other all the time. And Tom is really sweet, but he has a girlfriend. So I'm pretty sure I would date Harry." Total lie. I raised my eye brow at her and smirked. Linette slightly glared at me.
"If it was based on looks, who would it be?" Tom.
"Tom." Owned. I looked over at Ashley whose jaw had dropped all the way to the floor. Double ownage... That's right… that's a word now… Lacey's dictionary…could you imagine if I had my own dictionary? That would be insane! What would I call it? Lacey's World…oh my God Elmo's World… God I hate that show…'That's Elmo's World'. God what a retard! I wanna smack him too. Ok I swear to God I must have ADD or something!
"My, my, that was quite fast. I was so sure you would say Dougie or something."
"I don't know. I'm more attracted to Tom... I guess. But yeah, most girls would say Dougie first, I guess." Damn right they would.
Rob chuckled. "Who do you think is the best kisser?
"Oh, Danny by far." Linette joined Rob in laughter.
"Seems like you have some experience in this."
"Uh…" Linette turned bright red and began to fiddle with her hair. "I...uh..." I rolled my eyes. Genius!
"Now we have some questions from the audience. Alright go ahead." A girl with red curly hair stood up from her seat and grabbed a microphone.
"Have you seen any of the guys naked?" Down to the point much?
"Actually I've seen Danny naked. But then again, who hasn't seen that?"
"What's the weirdest thing you've ever seen any of the McFly boys wear?" A brunette stood up next.
"I've seen one of them in woman's underwear. And I saw one sharing the same pants with my manager." I burst into laughter. The girl sat down.
"If you could spend £100,000 which one of them would you spend it on?"
"I wouldn't spend it on any of them. I'd keep it for myself. Dougie would go buy porno, Harry would get facial hair surgically put on, Danny would buy a straight perm and God knows what crap because he always loses his things, and Tom wouldn't even take the money from me. So I'm better off spending it on myself."
"Who was the worst kisser?"
"Um... I've actually only had 3 kisses. One of them was with Danny, but it wasn't bad. I can't say any of them were bad. There were only 3 guys. It's hard to compare."
"If you could lose your virginity to one of them who would it be?" Another brunette asked. Watch her say Tom.
"Um... well I heard Dougie's bad in bed..." Pfft, right. Then again… I've never tried him… oh God pay attention woman!
"That's so mean." The brunette laughed.
"It's what I heard from him." Linette shrugged.
"Um... Danny would make jokes about me the whole time. I'm tied between Harry and Tom." It's totally Tom.
"So..." The brunette pressed.
"Maybe I'd just have a threesome?" Oh dear God! "I'm kidding! I think I'd pick Tom." Pfft, she thinks!
"Oh, I see you might fancy Tom?" Rob Skinner laughed.
"Not necessarily. But I'd definitely pull him. Pull is the right English slang right?" Linette slightly blushed.
Rob laughed once again. "Sure is. So what's your plan on pulling him?"
"Well he has a girlfriend, so I wouldn't even dare but if he didn't, I would just grab him and kiss him. It's how I pulled Danny." I smacked my forehead. Fucking genius!
"So you and Danny are dating?" Rob smirked.
"No, no, we just kissed." Linette brushed it off.
"So who's your next victim?"' Tom.
"I don't know, perhaps Dougie. It would be fun." Oh, excuse me? My jaw dropped.
"Well that's all the time we have, thank you so much for being on the show." Rob smiled and outstretched his hand.
"Thank you for having me on the show." Linette smiled and shook his hand. She stood up from her seat and walked off stage to me.
"What was that?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest.
"Aw, don't be mad." Linette laughed as she wrapped me in a hug. "Anyway I have to go. Tom's driving me to the concert hall early."
"What did I say to you?!" I heard a screeching voice shout from behind us. I spun around and there was Ashley, pushing her way through the crowd of people.
"I don't really listen. You have a really annoying voice so I kind of tune out when you start talking to me." Linette rolled her eyes at an infuriated Ashley.
"You stupid bitch! Stay off my man!" Ashley screamed as she finally got close enough to us. I looked around and I could notice everyone around stopping to stare.
"What do you want?" I snapped. No one said anything bad to my best friend without me stepping in.
"You'll never learn will you?!" Ashley kept yelling. She raised her hand swiftly and before I could stop her she slapped Linette hard across the face. I could see the red mark immediately as soon as Ashley had lowered her hand. No one lays a hand on my friends. I quickly raised my own hand and punched her square in the face. She stumbled backwards as blood started slowly dripping out of her nose.
She glared at Linette and acted as if I weren't even there. She ran towards Linette and pushed her to the ground. I acted on instinct and jumped on her in turn. All three of us were rolling around on the floor and we were all hurting one another not really caring who we hit, as long as we caused damage to Ashley.
Soon, security guards rushed to the scene and pulled me off of Ashley and Linette.
"Oh shit what happened?" Danny asked as he rushed by our side while security was still holding us back.
"The bitch just jumped at me." Linette yelled while I was struggling to get out of the man's grasp and punch that stupid lying hoe in the face. She already looked pretty messed up. She had a bleeding nose and scratches all over her arms and her hair was a complete mess but I guessed I didn't look much better.
"I don't know why she hit me, Tom. She's jealous of us." Amber whined turning to Tom. The security guard let go of her and she ran into Tom's arms, burying her face into his shoulder. Tom looked over at Linette with a questioning look and then he shook his head at her as he walked away.
"Are you serious?" Linette yelled after him as the two security guards let go of us. She rolled her eyes at Ashley as Danny led her away from the studio and the people that had crowded around were now all going their separate ways.
I was left alone standing behind stage.
"Lacey!" Someone shouted my name and I quickly spun around at the unfamiliar voice. "Hey! How have you been?" A man with dark brown wavy hair that fell slightly over his eyes, pale coloured skin and chocolate eyes ran up to me and embraced me. Who is this guy?
"I haven't seen you in forever!" He let go of me.
"Um…excuse me, who are you?" I asked, quickly trying to fix my hair. He chuckled.
"I'm Jacob! Remember? Jacob from the café? Linette's old best friend?" He smiled.
"Oh?" I pretended I knew who he was. He smiled knowingly as he pulled out a picture.
"I knew you wouldn't remember me. I seem like I'm some crazy fan so I brought a picture." He pulled out a folded picture from his wallet that was of him and Linette standing outside in front of a light post, the city lights glowing brightly behind them. Quite a romantic picture if they were dating. I stared at the picture for a moment longer and then it clicked to me.
"Oh, Jacob!" I exclaimed and smiled up at him as he stuffed the picture into his shirt pocket.
"Do you want to go to dinner tonight?" He asked sweetly.
"Tonight? I have a concert tonight." I smiled apologetically.
"But you always go to Linette's concerts. Come on, please, I would love to get to know more about her through you." What?
"Maybe tomorrow. Just take me out for lunch." I brushed his comment off.
"No, tonight." The look in his eyes changed for a second…or did I imagine that? "I can't tomorrow; I'm leaving town." He added sweetly. Um…what the hell is with that? This is way too weird…I watch too much CSI…oh God like that one episode where Greg Sanders…oh my God he's hot…oh but so is Ryan Wolfe…who do I like more? What if Dougie, Ryan Wolfe, and Greg Sanders all asked me out, who would I say yes to? Damn that's a hard question – oh my God focus!
"Why don't you just come to the concert?" I offered.
"No, let's go for dinner." Something in his voice made me agree. This was way too strange. What would Ryan Wolfe do? No! What would Ryan Wolfe and Greg Sanders do in this situation together? Ok, I need to get tested for ADD.
"Um… alright… but I need to go like right after."
"That's fine." Jacob had turned all sweet again. He led me to his car which I was sceptical to get in at first but then I realized it couldn't be so bad. I texted Linette the licence plate of the car and wrote 'Just in case.' Yeah, too much CSI.
I sat down at the small table in a small café. I guessed Jacob was against the whole restaurant scene and more into supporting small cafés.
"So how have you and Linette been?"
"I've been great actually. I'm really glad I got Linette such a good career."
"How is she? Is she happy?"
"Really happy." I sipped on the French Vanilla that the waitress had just placed on the table.
"She doesn't seem happy." He leaned back in his chair.
"What do you mean?"
"You took her away from her friends and family." Jacob looked annoyed as he too sipped from his cup of coffee.
"She can go back and visit them anytime. It's not like I'm keeping them away from her." I answered. Ok, weird much?
"You took her away from me."
"You're here now, aren't you?" Oh dear God, he's going to rape me. How am I getting home?
"But Linette isn't." Silence. "So does she ever mention me?"
"I don't remember. She talks about a lot of things." I noticed hurt and anger suddenly sparkle in his eyes. "Oh wait, Jacob right?" I quickly added. "Oh sorry I thought your name was Jack for a moment. Sorry. Oh God, Linette won't stop speaking about all the times she spent with you at the café. She said she wanted to visit you first thing when she had to the chance to go back to New York." Creepy. "You should come to her concert! I'll give you backstage tickets just to see her."
His smile grew so large I was amazed it didn't hurt his cheeks. "That's good. We used to be the best of friends."
"Oh, hey, what happened to your girlfriend?" I remembered Linette mentioning Jacob had a girlfriend.
"She's great. We broke up actually, right after Linette left. That's ok though, we're still best friends. So what does Linette say about me?" Weird…
"Lots of stuff. I kind of don't pay much attention to her when she starts rambling about you. It's so much to listen to and it's always so nice and lovey-dovey, it makes me jealous." I lied. So if Ryan Wolfe wanted to jump in through the café window, pick me up in his arms and run away with me, I would be more than thankful…or Dougie could do that… I have no problem…either way someone needed to save me … like now…
"That's good. I talk about her a lot too."
Silence followed. We spent another two hours at the café and Jacob would not stop asking me about Linette. It was probably the most uncomfortable two hours I have ever had to go through. He kept asking about the interviews and her kisses and Danny and Tom and especially Harry.
I was quite sceptical to get in a car with him after our conversation which had been all about Linette.
He parked the car in front of our hotel and I smiled a fake and sweet smile at him as I closed the door behind me. He quickly drove off and I sighed a sigh of relief…he was so creepy.
I stepped inside the hotel and headed for my room quickly. All I needed was to change and then I could go to the after party. I was determined to get a kiss from a certain Mr. Poynter. It just felt like today was the day to do that. I just had a feeling.
I opened the door to our room and was about to step inside but I stopped. I bent down to pick up a piece of paper that lay neatly on the ground.
Linette,
I love you with all my heart and soul. I can't get you out of my mind, let alone my heart. You belong there – you belong with me. You left me. Why would you do that to me? You left me crying at home and you never even told me when you would be back. Why would you do this to our love? You said you loved me so why are you going around being a whore? Why are you kissing other guys when your lips should only meet mine? You turned into a whore now… what happened to the Linette I loved? But don't ever worry baby, I still love you. I'll see you soon and I'll make sure I'll wear your favourite cologne.
Love you all the way to death and back.
Wow, could this night get any worse and creepier? I wasn't so sure this was from Tom or Harry or Danny or Dougie anymore. Maybe Ashley? She'd never write a letter like that; no way it couldn't it be her. Then again, it couldn't be a big deal either.
I placed the letter down on the table once again and ran to go get changed. I quickly called a cab and I got to the after party in only ten minutes.
"Lacey." I said to the security guard holding the list. He let me go through and I immediately spotted Danny flirting up three blondes. I ran towards him and embraced him tightly.
"Oh my God I had the creepiest night!" I yelled over the loud music. "Where's Dougie?"
Danny pointed in a million directions and I was perfectly aware that he was completely wasted and would probably pass out at any moment. I noticed Dougie talking to Linette on the far right of the party. I pushed my way through the crowd of people. I needed to tell Linette about this whole Jacob situation and I was determined to get Dougie by the end of the night.
I stopped immediately. Linette's arms wrapped around Dougie's neck and her lips quickly met his in a kiss. I could feel my whole body heat up with hurt and my heart shatter inside. Why would my best friend do this to me? Tears spilled out of my eyes as I ran away from the party. I wanted to go home. I needed to go home.
Wow, could this night get any worse and creepier? The words rang through my mind that had only crossed my thoughts an hour earlier.
It just did.
