Star Struck

by Jamie Campbell

The line rang and rang. My heart pounded in my chest as I waited for voice mail to pick up. Perhaps that was a good thing, then I would know for sure who the number belonged to. If it wasn’t Cole, then I would know he was just joking with me.

  I really wished it was his number. He seemed like such a nice guy, so down to earth and sweet. The way he hugged me in the supply closet was so gentle and warm. Surely that same guy wouldn’t have been so mean to me?

  “Hello?” Oh. My. God. It was Cole. “Hello? Anyone there?”

  Oh right, I had to talk too, that’s normally how conversations went. “Um, Cole? It’s Melrose Morgan.”

  “Melrose? Hey, I’m so glad you called. I thought you might have decided not to.” He sounded happy but then turned uncertain at the end.

  “I, uh, was at school.” Hopefully he wouldn’t remember that people didn’t go to school on Sunday, I didn’t have an excuse then.

  “Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forget about things like that.” He laughed, smoothing out the awkwardness. “I hope you didn’t mind when I called you on stage on Saturday night. I just had to see you again and it was the only way I could think how.”

  My heart leapt, permanently fixing itself in my throat. I thought it might choke me if I didn’t talk it away. “It was a little embarrassing,” I confessed, the understatement of the century. “I don’t know how you do it all the time, standing up in front of all those people.”

  “I’ll let you in on a little secret, when the lights go down you can’t see a thing and forget how many people are out there.”

  Now it was my turn to laugh. “So that’s how you look so confident? You don’t even know they’re there?”

  “That’s about it.” He had the best giggle in the world. Seriously, I could listen to it all night. It was putting me at ease, my heart rate started to return to normal. “The guys have been teasing me for two days about getting you up on stage. We don’t normally bring anyone up.”

  And then my heart was set fluttering like crazy again. “You don’t?”

  “No. I told you, I had to see you again and it was the only way I could think of. I knew you were coming so I thought it might be my only chance.”

  “Why did you want me to call you?” I asked, trying to avoid any silence that might suddenly turn up in the conversation.

  Cole sighed on the other end as some voices filtered through in the background. He was probably somewhere amazing, somewhere I could only dream of being. When he spoke next, it was just in a whisper. “I was hoping you might agree to go on a date… with me.”

  He sounded doubtful, as if I would say no to a date with Cole Newton. “Sure, that sounds like fun. Wait, but aren’t you touring?”

  “On Friday night we’ll be playing in Wesham City. I can send a car over to pick you up on Saturday?” Wesham City was about an hour’s drive from Meadowbrook. I could have made the drive myself but it sounded so much better having a car come to pick me up.

  But I didn’t want to sound desperate. He probably asked girls on dates all the time, I didn’t want to be just another one of them. “I don’t know…”

  “I promise you will have fun. I will do everything in my power to make sure that happens.”

  What about if he turned out to be the exact opposite of what I thought? He could have been hiding what a jerk he was while we were in the supply closet. Some guys could probably hide their true nature for a while before revealing themselves to be completely horrible. You heard those kinds of things about celebrities all the time. Perhaps it was better to be delusional than know the truth?

  “Come on, say yes, Melrose. I promise I’ll look after you.”

  My grandmother once told me to ‘regret the things you did, not the things you didn’t do’. She was talking about entering the state eisteddfod at the time, but I got the feeling it applied to a whole wide range of things too.

  If I didn’t go meet with Cole, I would always wonder what it would have been like. It would be my story about the lost opportunity of my life – the moment I regretted not doing something. I had to take the leap of faith.

  “Please don’t make me beg, because I will,” Cole continued.

  “Saturday sounds cool,” I replied, trying to sound calm about it. I didn’t want Cole to think I was a total nerd. I would try to hide it for as long as possible.

  “Great, say ten o’clock in the morning?”

  “Sounds perfect.” I hoped he was smiling as much as I was, I didn’t want to be the only one grinning like a fool.

  “I didn’t get you into any trouble the other day at work, did I?” Cole asked, completely changing the subject. Either he was really concerned, or he wanted to wipe away his stupid grin too.

  “No, my boss didn’t even know I was hiding a wanted fugitive.”

  He chuckled. “I want you to know that I don’t normally go around hiding in fast food joints. I don’t usually make a bolt for it.”

  “What was different about the other day?”

  He hesitated and I thought I might have overstepped some boundary I forgot was there. It wasn’t like Cole had to spill his guts out to me, he didn’t even know me.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,” I added quickly.

  “No, it’s okay,” he assured me. “I was talking to my brother on the phone when the girls found me at the hotel. He had kind of given me some news that I wasn’t expecting and I sort of freaked out. It felt like I couldn’t breathe unless I got out of there.”

  I knew that feeling well. Whenever I thought of my mother I found it difficult to breathe. “I can understand. I mean, not about being chased by a bunch of girls, but about the freaking out part. I tend to do that sometimes.”

  “It sucks.”

  “I know, right?”

  The voices in the background on Cole’s end started to get louder. It was a mixture of males and females. “Hey, Melrose, I’m going to have to go. Sorry to cut it short. I’ll see you on Saturday?”

  “I’ll text you my address.”

  “I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “Thanks for calling.”

  “Thanks for giving me your number,” I replied, with equal gratitude.

  “Thanks for coming into my life. I’m going to be counting down the days until Saturday. Good evening, Melrose.”

  “Good evening, Cole.” I didn’t want to hang up, but I didn’t think we were up to the ‘No, you hang up first’ stage. Plus, that was just vomit-worthy. I would never be one of those girls.

  Long after the line went dead, I stared at my phone. I pinched myself again, still making sure I wasn’t asleep. Saturday seemed like so far away, but probably not enough time to convince my dad it was a good idea.

  I had two options, tell my dad the absolute truth that a superstar wanted to take me out. Or, I could lie and tell him I was going to work or hanging out with Dallas. I decided on gauging his mood and picking my moment during the week. It was a game of waiting and seeing.

  I made it to Wednesday before I had to tell someone my secret. I was bursting at the seams and unable to contain my excitement any longer.

  After school, I walked home with Dallas. Her house was closer than mine and I couldn’t wait much longer. We sat in her rehearsal room – yes, she actually had a rehearsal room for her dancing – and I took a deep breath.

  “Cole Newton asked me out on a date,” I blurted out. I had been having the conversation in my head for two days and it always sounded more eloquent than that. I certainly didn’t just blurt it out.

  “Yeah, right,” Dallas laughed. “And Reed asked me to go to prom with him.”

  “No, seriously.” I gave her the whole story, from our chance meeting on Saturday to the telephone conversation we had on Monday. I didn’t leave out any of the details.

  The entire time, she sat there with a stunned look on her face. I had to pat her arm to make sure she was still alive. “Dallas, say something.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  I took Cole’s note from my handbag
and showed it to her. “This is the note he gave me, you saw it on Saturday night. Remember? I told you it was a candy wrapper.”

  She snatched it from me, holding the note up to her eyes to examine it in greater detail. “Anyone could have written this.”

  Next, I pulled out my cell phone and showed her the text messages I had been exchanging with Cole all week. He was dropping clues about our date. There had been three clues so far, be prepared to walk, be prepared to scream, and be prepared for ice cream. I honestly had no idea what he had planned.

  Dallas took my phone and scrolled through. “This is seriously Cole Newton’s phone number? You aren’t having me on?”

  “Would I really joke about this?” I asked. If I wanted some attention, I wouldn’t make up an imaginary date with the hottest guy on earth. I had some scruples.

  She looked me in the eyes and I refused to blink. I was telling the truth, she had to believe me eventually. She kept glancing at the phone like it was a bomb about to explode.

  “O… M… G,” she said slowly, sounding out every letter and making them pop. Suddenly, she shrieked. “Cole Newton is totally in love with my best friend! This is fantastic!” She jumped up and threw her arms around me. The impact made me stumble backwards until we both crashed onto the floor.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” She demanded after recovering.

  “I didn’t think you’d believe me.”

  “I’m your best friend, Melrose. This is huge, epic. What are you going to wear? What are you going to do with your hair? How did your dad take the news?” Her questions poured out in one quick succession. She was making me dizzy just listening to her.

  “I have no answers to any of those questions.” I giggled. At least I had someone to be super excited with now, I didn’t have to hold it all in.

  “You haven’t told your dad yet?”

  “I don’t know if he’ll let me go.”

  She placed her hand over her heart and grew serious. “I promise to hold your secret. Tell him you’re going shopping with me. I will stay indoors all day so he won’t know the truth.”

  I sighed. “I really should tell him everything. What if Cole turns out to be a serial killer or something?” We exchanged a glance before bursting into laughter. Someone with more twitter followers than an entire country’s population probably couldn’t get away with murder. Let alone multiple murders. “Okay, so perhaps he doesn’t need to know.”

  “That’s my girl. Now, sit down and tell me everything Cole has ever said to you. I need all the details.” Dallas settled herself on the floor and prepared herself for all the tiny details.

  I obliged and told her everything. Thankfully, every little thing Cole said or did was burned into my memory. I could relive every moment for Dallas in scary detail. I hoped Cole never found out and thought I was a super stalker or something. Because I wasn’t, I just had an exceptionally good memory.

  When we were all talked out, I was even more excited about our date on Saturday. It seemed to take forever for the days to go by.

  By Friday night, I could barely sleep. I had picked out my outfit, thanks to Dallas’s help, and told my dad I was going to be out so I couldn’t babysit Jemma. All that was left was to wait for ten o’clock.

  CHAPTER 6