"Oh yeah, before his dad bought him this place."
Eric's eyes widened and he laughed. I have no idea why. It didn't seem particularly funny to me.
"Did he tell you that story?"
I nodded.
"Jack's a strange one." Eric shook his head with a weird smile on his face. "Drink up your tea and you can sleep some more."
"Maybe I should leave today. I'm feeling better. I can look after myself."
Eric felt my temperature.
"You're still pretty feverish. Stay here. At least you know now."
I sunk back down into the bed and thought about what Eric had said. I was sure Jack would come up later and apologise and laugh the whole thing off.
I woke up to the smell of wonderful food. Spicy, garlicky smells. I'd barely eaten anything in the previous few days. I felt as if I could eat a horse. A huge horse. I jumped out of bed and headed downstairs.
Eric stirred something at the stove.
"Ah, you're awake. Do you want a shower?"
To be honest, I did feel pretty manky. I probably smelt a bit manky too. That was probably his way of saying I stunk.
"Sure, but I don't have a change of clothes or anything." I really didn't feel like putting my horrible old clothes back on. I'm pretty sure I'd sweat through them all.
"That's okay, I can loan you some pyjamas. They have a drawstring so you can tighten them to fit."
Eric ran off and returned with some neatly folded PJs and a towel.
"There's shampoo and everything in the bathroom. Help yourself."
I couldn't believe how good it felt to get under the warm water and wash all the sweat and grime from myself. I washed my hair and scrubbed myself clean. When I got out, I dried my hair and wished I had some makeup to put on. I looked through the cupboards. No cosmetics, as you'd expect, but they did have some high quality skincare.
When I came out, Eric had set the food on the table. Huge bowls of soup. I'd be almost totally cured after eating that soup, I knew it. My stomach rumbled and I wished Eric would stop fussing around so we could sit down to eat.
Then I noticed there were only two bowls of soup.
"Where's Jack?"
Eric shrugged. "He's gone out. Didn't say where he's going."
I started eating. My mouth nearly exploded from the hot chillies and I grabbed for a glass of water.
Eric laughed. "I didn't know you couldn't handle the hot stuff."
"I can handle it. I can handle it fine. I just wasn't expecting it. I'm fine now. See. See." I spooned the soup into my mouth and tried my hardest not to grimace at the spiciness of it.
Eric was such a good cook. No wonder, with a mother like he had. He also seemed to work hard at his graphics work outside of the band. Altogether, he'd make a good boyfriend for someone. Not for me, obviously, since it'd be not right for me to date someone from the band, and I really did not want a boyfriend. But he'd make a great boyfriend for Angie. Better than Jack. She just had to see past Jack's rock star glamour and notice Eric's good points.
"How are you feeling now?"
"Much better. You and Jack have been so lovely, looking after me and letting me stay here. I must've been a mess yesterday."
"Yeah, Jack was really worried about you."
That made my stupid heart skip a beat.
"So," Eric said, "what do you want to do after dinner? We could watch a DVD or something."
"Sounds perfect."
I helped him clear up then he got me a selection of DVDs to pick from. I expected guy movies, Fast and Furious type things or maybe music-type movies.
"So, who owns the chick flicks?"
Eric hung his head. He tried to look shamefaced but his mouth twitched at the corners.
"You big softie. Hey, what's this? Busty, Horny Babes?"
"Whaaaaat?" Eric jumped to grab the case out of my hand.
"Got you. You really believed it was though, didn't you? You totally fell into my trap. How many horny babe DVDs do you own?"
"Hey, I thought it could've been Jack's. Of course it wouldn't have been mine."
"Yeah, you are more the kind of guy who has his porn on the computer, right?"
I laughed and he slapped at me.
We curled up on the couch. I grabbed one of the blankets sitting on the floor and put it over my legs. It smelt of Jack.
"This is cosy, isn't it?"
Eric sat a big bowl of M&Ms down on the coffee table.
"I hope it doesn't put me in the friend zone." He gave me a lingering look, so that I had to break his gaze.
Was something going on there? Had Jack gone out and left us alone on purpose? I wasn't sure I liked that idea.
"Are we going to watch this or what?" I asked. Better to deflect comments like that than try to answer.
In the end, he'd convinced me to watch some Korean drama. I didn't care. Anything to just veg out on the couch was fine in my book. It was a bit of a pain to read the subtitles at first, but after the first episode, I really had to watch the next one to see what would happen.
"It's so predictable," I said. "The dumb girl is going to end up with the bad-ass guy in the end, isn't she?"
"So, you don't want to watch any more?"
"Hell yeah, I want to watch more. It's like crack cocaine."
He laughed.
"The evil chick might be evil but she has the best hair. And the best clothes. I'd totally date the evil chick. Would I look good with that hair?"
Eric nodded and grabbed a handful of M&Ms.
"And the nice guy, he has really good cheekbones. She should totally pick him. He has better genes for babies."
"Is that important?"
"Hey, no one wants an ugly baby."
Our laughter got cut short by a crash at the door. Jack was home. I could smell the whiskey on him before he even got into the room. Then I heard a high-pitched giggle.
A woman in a tatty red fake fur coat followed him in. She had hair that had been bleached to a strawy frizz, and red lipstick smudged across her mouth.
"Oh, Jack, there are people here," she shrieked as she came into the room. "Hope I'm not disturbing anything."
She threw herself on the chair, her legs flopping over the arm.
"Get me something to drink, will ya?"
I sat up straight on the couch. Jack came over and sat on the other arm of her chair putting his arm around her.
My stomach spun out of control, like I was going to be sick. I didn't know who she was but they were obviously very close. All that time he'd been looking after me and making sure I was okay, he’d just been being nice, obviously. Probably making sure that I'd be well enough to call the record company guy and get down to business. If this woman was his type, he must have no interest in me because I was nothing like her at all. She reeked of cheap perfume mixed with booze and bad fashion.
Eric had sat up straight too, obviously feeling awkward with them.
"Eh, what's this shit?" She grabbed the remote off the coffee table and turned the DVD off. "Put on some music. You guys need to learn to party. We need something loud."
"We were watching that," said Eric in a soft voice, but she ignored him. He exchanged glances with me, rolling his eyes.
Jack went into the kitchen and returned with two glasses of red wine, handing her one.
"Aren't you guys drinking?"
She spun around to look at us, slopping red wine on the floor as she moved. The muscles in Eric's face spasmed just slightly. Not enough that anyone else noticed but me.
Jack leaned over, resting his arm on her shoulder. She stroked his leg and whispered something in his ear. They both giggled.
Now they were really making me sick. She play-slapped him.
"Oh, Jack, you shouldn't say things like that." She looked at me as if to imply they were talking about me.
I tried to ignore her and talk to Eric but could barely speak over the sound of her screeching laugh. She'd kicked her shoes off and her skirt had ridden up her leg
s so that she was practically showing her underwear.
"Can you call for a cab?" I asked Eric. "I think I need to go home."
"You don't have to. I'm sorry for that." He looked over at the chick.
"No need for you to apologise." I smiled at him. "You've been wonderful, cooking me dinner and watching dramas with me."
Eric smiled and gave me that strange look again.
"Yo, Hannah, get me a top up will you?" Jack held his wine glass out to me. "You're our manager after all. You should earn your keep."
I gave him a withering look but he just laughed. It was like he was going out of his way to be as obnoxious to me as he possibly could.
"Yeah, me too." The blonde laughed.
I stood up.
"I'll go outside and get a cab," I said and walked from the room, making sure to keep my stride steady and not look at them. I would not cry. I would not show emotion. I would just keep walking out.
When I got outside, I realised I was still wearing Eric's pyjamas. I couldn’t go back in there though. I shivered in the cold and wrapped my arms around myself to keep warm.
I heard someone approach me. My heart jumped. Maybe he'd come to apologise.
Jack thrust a bag at me.
"You left your clothes behind."
I took the bag and fished my big cardigan out, wrapping it around myself. It'd hide the elephant print on the pyjamas and keep me warm.
"You didn't have to run off."
"Well, I didn't feel very welcome, you know."
He cupped my face in his hand and looked into my eyes for a moment.
"Don't fall me for me, Hannah. I'm not the kind of guy a princess like you should be thinking about. I'm damaged, more than you know. Women like Nancy know how to deal with me. But you, I'd destroy you without even meaning to."
I jerked my head away.
"What the hell are you talking about? I was having a fun time with Eric until the two of you came bursting in, so I have no idea what your stupid speech means. If anyone is falling for anyone here, I'd say you were falling for me. I'm not interested in you, not one little bit."
I glared at him through narrowed eyes.
"Yeah, well I'm not interested in you either." He folded his arms, practically snarling at me.
"Fine."
"Fine."
With that, the cab pulled up and I drove away.
Chapter 21
I punched the dashboard of the cab and screamed. The cab driver stole glances at me, thinking he had a crazy girl in his cab. Jack bloody infuriating Colt. I could kill him.
I'd given the cab driver my address but, when I got over my punching fit, I changed my mind. I'd still not heard back from Angie, so I searched in the bag for my phone. I pulled everything out of that bag, my manky old clothes and all, but I couldn't find that phone. I must've left it in Jack's bedroom, along with the dirty tissues. That gave me a small buzz, to think of all those tissues sitting around when he took that nasty woman to his bed.
I'd go to Angie's place and try to talk things over with her. When I explained, she'd be cool with everything, surely.
As if to make things worse, it started raining. I watched the drops splat on the window of the cab as the world outside refracted through them. The other day, when Jack had caressed my hair, I'd felt safe, like there was someone in this horrible world looking out for me but now, once again, I felt alone. Who did I have? Not my father, obviously. Not Jack. Not Angie, unless I made things right with her. I'd had so many friends once. People practically begging me to hang out with them, to go to their parties, to date them. Even then, I'd known it meant nothing. I saw them turn on anyone who wore the wrong clothes or had the wrong haircut. I'd been the same. I didn't even think anything of cutting someone who'd committed a slight transgression. We were an exclusive club and you had to know the rules to belong or it wouldn't be exclusive any more, obviously. Now I'd become a university dropout with a very dubious income, a shitty room and maybe three decent outfits, sitting in a cab, trying not to drown in self-pity.
When the cab pulled up, I put my bag on my head to protect myself from the rain and ran to Angie's building.
"What do you want?" she asked when she answered the door. She stood with one hand on the door as though she'd pull it shut any minute.
"Can we talk?" I shivered, even in that short distance, I'd managed to get damp in the rain.
"I don't think we have anything to talk about." She started to pull the door shut.
"Angie, is this about Jack? That was nothing. You got it all wrong."
She opened the door a crack.
"I got what wrong? I don't even know you, Hannah. I've worked my guts out helping you and I thought our agreement was that you'd help me with Jack. But, even more than that, I thought we were friends. I thought we were in this together. Now, I'm wondering if you were just using me. I don't really want to talk to you right now. And you owe me $15.65 for groceries."
She pulled the door shut and I stood staring at it then knocked again. She had to talk. She had to let me explain. How could I make things right if she wouldn't talk me?
"Angie, open up." I banged on the door. "Angie! Angie! Talk to me. You are my friend, right."
My only friend. I stopped knocking and listened for her. I could hear nothing though. I knocked again.
"If it's about the money, you can have money. It's not important. Just let me in so we can talk."
I heard footsteps and grinned. We'd make up. She'd listen to me and see reason then we'd be friends again and sit around bitching about what a bastard Jack was and making more plans for the band.
But the door didn't open. Instead, Angie turned on the stereo as loud as she could to drown me out.
I turned away. I'd really ruined things. The only person who still liked me was Eric and I worried about his feelings for me. I didn't want to give any false hope that things could be more than friendship between us.
I couldn't stay in Angie's doorway all night but I had no desire to go out into that rain again. It was only a few blocks to my place, so too close to even get a cab.
I ran out into the street and turned onto High Street, totally forgetting how crowded it got at night, with drunks crowding onto the streets outside cafés and bars to smoke. I'd have to run past them all unless I wanted to cut through one of the dimly lit back alleys. I figured it would be safer sticking to the main street. At least if I had to deal with drunks, better in a busy well-lit street.
I huddled in a doorway and rolled up the legs of my PJ bottoms. They'd already gotten soaked and flapped against my legs in the most disturbingly gross manner. I looked like a drowned rat, a rat in elephant PJs.
I wrapped my cardigan tighter around myself and pulled my door keys out of the bag and held them in my hand, ready to run inside when I got home, then took off down the street.
"Whoa baby, looking sexy!"
As I expected, shitty guys called out to me. I kept my head down and ran past them. Hopefully, they'd be too taken with their own drunken wit to worry about me. I just wanted to get home to my own room where I could escape from this shitty world. I could lock the door behind myself and hide in my own world with the blankets over my head. Well, first I'd have a shower and put on some warm clothes. Maybe tomorrow everything would seem okay. Maybe this rain would wash the world clean and I wouldn't have to deal with creepy rock stars and oversensitive friends and creepy drunks.
Another guy grabbed at me. I jerked away from him and sped on. This would have to be the most hellish night of my life. If Satan himself appeared and threatened to take me to the fiery depths of hell, I'd welcome it.
As I waited to cross the side street, a car pulled up, splashing water all over me. I shouldn't have expected anything less. I pretty much couldn't think of anything worse. My nose had started running again and I just wiped it on my sleeve. I was filthy anyway and I think I smeared dirt and grime over my face. My hair hung down in rat's tails and I could feel the rain dripping off my fr
inge, in cold rivulets down my face.
I ran along the next section of street. I just needed to get past there and I'd be home. It'd only be five minutes and I'd be in a warm shower.
As I ran by the last bar on the street, I barged into someone, like hitting a brick wall.
"Sorry, sorry," I said preparing to run on, but he had hold of me.
He bought his face close to mine and scrutinised it.
"I know you. Hannah Sorrento." He stepped back and looked me up and down. "Hannah Sorrento, I can't believe it. You've come down in the world."
My heart stopped.
Then he laughed a lot and nudged his friend. I tried to walk off but they blocked my way. The pair of them were huge.
See, here's the thing. When I was in school, I wasn't always so nice. Sometimes, I might have been a bit mean. Only in fun, you know. But some people don't see it like that. Some people stew over those things and hold it against a person for life. Maybe even looking for revenge. I include Mitch and Cameron in those people. Big, gallomping farm boys with no brains but lots of simmering resentment.
Mitch leaned over right in my face.
"Hah, those rumours I heard about her father must be true. He's a swindler." He pushed me to Cameron
"Karma's a bitch, isn't it Hannah?"
There was another one in their group too. Frog-face. I couldn't remember his real name. He'd always been known as Frog-face. He did something in the media now. As a camera flash went off in my face, blinding me for an instant, I remembered. He was a journalist.
Chapter 22
The next morning, I walked into the café with my head held high. So they’d taken a few photos. That didn’t mean anything.
Then I saw it. The newspaper sitting on the table near the barista. A huge photo on the front page of a bedraggled girl. A pain shot through my heart. A sharp, horrible pain that radiated out all over my being.
I couldn’t look at that picture. I didn’t even recognise the person on the front of the paper. She looked filthy and poor and ugly. I turned the paper face down, hoping it would disappear but it seemed like the noise and chatter in the café had turned up to deafening levels and the eyes of everyone in the room burned into my back.
Bad Boy Rock Star Page 15
