Well well, here we all are then. How are you all? Good, I hope! (Enough talking to yourself, get on with it.) Emm. This is a short chapter, but it leads up to something important and I was writing another story at the same time. Sigh. Life is tough. Look out for my other story - Powers that be. I think that you'll like it. Make sure to let me know that you like what I'm doing (or don't, I still want to know.) I'm open to comments, suggestions and proposals, just e-mail me - shiningstar@oceanfree.net . Thanks to all those who have already e- mailed me. Thanks to Sher (even though she thinks that she's too good to write to me these days :() )
If you believe that what I write here is true then you should be paying the men in white coats a visit. You know that, don't you? This is fiction. I confess! I made it all up! And if you're too young. Tut tut. What more is there to say?
Crazy. That's the only word that can do justice to the next week. On top of the normal 5 days of school I had photo shoots, magazine interviews and music to review and record. Throughout the week Cormac had stayed by my side or outside the classroom door. So far there was no- one trying to gain access to me, but I was assured that this was to change very soon. Britney had gone home to prepare to do her part for promotion in the states and I had been playing phone tag with Nick all week.
"Have you seen the video yet?" Asked Britney. The editing was finished, tapes had been sent to all the major TV stations, and I had just gotten my copy in the post.
"Not yet. I have to wait for the whole family before I'm allowed and Dad's not home from work yet!"
"It's better that way. I saw my first in a hotel room. I would have loved to have seen it with my mum." She sighed. "Sometimes I can't believe that I've come so far in so little time."
"You regret it?"
"No! Not for a second! I just wish that I had had more time to spend with my family over the last year, that's all. Just enjoy the time that you have with them. When you go on tour you're going to be so busy that you won't know what hit you!" I heard the front door opening and my mother saying.
"It's about time! Do you know how wired that boy's gotten waiting for you?!"
"It couldn't be helped. I had to tie up a really important case and it took longer then I thought it would. Sorry though." He apologised.
"Alright! He's home. We can watch it now!" I said excitedly to Britney. The newly extended family (My mother had taken Cormac into the fold) were all waiting in the sitting room to see the tape that mum had hidden when it arrived this morning, while I was in school.
She laughed. "Okay, I've leave you. When you've watched it enough give me a call back okay?"
"Deal. See you. Bye." After hanging up on her I rushed into the sitting room and fell onto the sofa. Helen gave me a dig for bothering her. Mum came into the room waving a tape box.
"Here it is everyone. What you've all been waiting for." She grinned. "We get to see how much of a fool you make of yourself Fiachra." The others agreed with her.
"Whatever! Just play the tape. Please!!!" I begged.
"Well. alright, but you have to promise to be quiet. Do you?" She teased.
"Come on, play it!" She consented, deciding that she had teased me enough. We sat in silence, watching me on television for the first time ever, singing and dancing. The three and a bit minutes were up quickly. I rewound the tape to play it again.
"It's great Fiachra. I didn't know that you could sing so well." Said Helen. I blushed at her comment. Until now I hadn't let anyone in my family hear me sing.
"I don't think that any of us knew. Anything else that you want to tell us?" Asked Dad.
"No, I think that's it really, so you like it then?" I said, looking for their approval. I got it from all of them.
"Excuse me, can I speak to Fiachra please" Asked a soft feminine voice from the doorway. I was engrossed in an essay that I was writing so I didn't hear it.
"Certainly." Replied my teacher. He waited for me to leave the room but when he saw that I wasn't paying attention he nodded to Stephen, who was sitting beside me.
"Ow! What was that for?!" I asked him.
"There's someone at the door for you." Stephen was calm about it because he had met Britney when she spent the week in Ireland. But, as I saw, he didn't reflect the classes behaviour. I got up quickly and left the room, closing the door after myself.
"Britney! What are you doing here?!" I asked, surprised to see her. When I had spoken to her a couple of days ago she said that she was as busy as ever recording, promoting and performing.
"I wanted to tell you in person." I said, being as obtuse as possible.
"Tell me what?" I asked suspiciously. She was up to something.
"We got the number one in the States!" She squealed, throwing her arms around my neck pulling me into a hug.
"Are you kidding me? I wasn't told." Please let it be true I begged silently. I looked over at Cormac, who was standing to the side as discreetly as possible.
"It's true." He confirmed. "I got the call this morning but they told me that Britney wanted to tell you herself so I kept it a secret."
"You little bastard!" I said, but I didn't mean it. I was on a high. Number One. The top spot in the United States of America's charts. Wow. I was stunned.
"Ok. What do we do now?" I knew that there had to be some repercussions.
"Well, I think there are about a dozen reporters waiting outside for you, and we are going out on the town tonight to celebrate." She said, the latter part sounding more like an order then anything else.
"Ok. Where's your bodyguard?" He was usually hovering protectively around."
"Helping your principal keep those reporters from knocking on your classroom door! Speaking of which, your principal asked me to ask you to come down to get rid of them before school finishes." I looked at my watch. That was 10 minutes away. We started walking towards reception.
"So how did you manage to get over here? I thought that you were really busy this week."
"Yeah, but it's understood that you get time off if you get a number one. You have to celebrate!" She laughed.
"True, so where do you want to go tonight?"
"Everywhere. With as many people as possible. Call BSB and see if you can get them to come over. We are going to paint the town red!" She was really excited. She must have heard of Dublin's reputation as 'Party capital of Europe'. We turned the corner into the main entrance hall of the school. There was a flurry as photographers grabbed their cameras up and blinding flashes of light lit up the hall in quick succession and reporters shouted out their questions, each trying to down out the others.
"Fiachra! How does it feel to have gotten the U.S. top spot?"
"Fiachra! How did you link up with Britney?"
"Britney! How long have you been going out with Fiachra for?" I waited for them to calm down before answering any questions, a technique recommended by James, my manager. It worked, and after a couple of minutes they were quiet.
"One question at a time please. Yes?"
"How does it feel to have gotten the Number One?"
"First of all, I haven't gotten the number one. Remember that it was a duet. And I was only told a couple of minutes ago. I'll have to let it sink in for a while first. But I'm delighted, I can't believe that we've done it. Yes you." I pointed at an attractive female reporter.
"The weeks Irish chart will be announced in the next couple of hours. Which would you prefer to have? The Irish or the U.S. number one?"
"Well, there are very good reasons for wanting both of them, the U.S. because I'm reaching a bigger audience and the Irish because it means a lot to be recognised and appreciated by your own people. But, since I have gotten the U.S. one I can't really say. But if I was asked yesterday I think I would have wanted the Irish one more."
"You wrote this song. What was your inspiration?"
"My imagination. I'm young, so I haven't been in that many relationships, and none that have been like the one in the song, so I'm working from what I imagine it would be like."
"Britney. How long have you been going out with Fiachra for?"
Britney laughed. It was easy to see that she didn't take the question seriously. "We're not dating. We just worked together and are good friends, but my relationship with Justin Timberlake is going as well as ever and I can't see a break-up any time soon."
"What are your plans now?"
"Well, tonight we are going out to celebrate, and tomorrow I'll be in school. After that, we'll see. I'm recording an album at the moment and I'm joining the Backstreet Boys on tour this summer."
"Britney. Are you planning any Irish dates soon?"
"Well, I know that I missed you guys on my last tour, but I hope to be able to play here very soon." Mr. Burke cleared his throat, getting the attention of the reporters.
"I'm sure that Fiachra and Britney would continue to answer your questions for quite a while, but school is ending in a about two minutes and when that happens nine hundred boys are going to be going through this exit. If you could please leave before then we would appreciate it. Thank you." They were thinking about ignoring him, but both our bodyguards stood beside Mr. Burke and crossed their arms. There was something about the image of two very strong men that encouraged them to leave.
"So. How did I do for my first press conference?" I asked nervously. I hoped that the reporters hadn't picked up on how tense I had been.
"You were perfect." And as students came around the corner they saw Britney giving me a kiss, just a quick one on the cheek, but enough for them to think what they wanted to think.
"Having fun?" She yelled over the noise coming from the dance floor. We had decided to go to this new place that had opened up in town and, though the queue was long, Britney's face got us in no problem.
I grinned at her. "Yeah. It's cool. Pity the guys couldn't make it though." I shouted back.
"Come on! I want a dance." She grabbed my arm and tried to drag me onto the dance floor. "What's wrong?" She shouted.
"I can't dance!"
"Of course you can! Look at the video and you can see that you can dance! Come on!" She tried to pull me again and I conceded. After a couple of minutes she started to get close. Real close, and she was running her hands up and down my sides. Confused, I pulled away from her. She came close to me again and this time, when I pulled away, she looked up at me in hurt confusion. She dropped her hands to her sides and stumbled away. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. What had she been doing? I mean, she's proclaimed Justin as her soul mate after all, she couldn't want me. Could she? I left the dance floor to look for her. After a couple of minutes I found her in a booth, head down and nursing a drink.
After sliding in opposite to her I asked her what was wrong.
"What do you think is wrong?" She looked up at me and I could see that she was crying, her tears making the mascara that she was wearing run.
"I don't know. Please, just tell me." She looked straight at me. Staring into my eyes.
"I'm in love with you Fiachra O'Neill. I want you, and you don't want me." She broke down again and started crying into her drink.
"Oh. Britney." I was stunned. What? How?
"What?" She snapped. "You've got some magic words that'll make everything better have you?"
"I couldn't love you Britney. You see." I broke off. Did I really want to tell her? I mean, I've only ever told my family and Helen, who is family really, and then all these other people enter my life, and now a member of the biggest boy band in the world knows. Could I really tell her?
"What? You're gay? Is that it?" She saw all that she needed to know in my eyes. But to my confusion she started laughing hysterically. "You are gay! Oh god! The only two people that I've ever really wanted and they're both gay! That's too funny!" She slapped her hand to her mouth and seemed to sober up pretty quickly when she realised what she had said. Now, I'm no Einstein, but I can do Jigsaw puzzles and what I saw here were the pieces falling into place.
"I've got to go." She muttered, fumbling with her handbag. She got up and left me sitting alone in the booth, shocked by what I had just heard.
"I'm sorry Sir, I know that you're on her calling list, but she checked out last night. Is there anything else that I can help you with?"
"No, no I don't think there is. Thank you." I hung up on the receptionist. At the same moment my mobile phone rang. I didn't recognise the number and it wasn't in my phone's memory.
I pressed the call answer button. "Hello?"
"Hi, Fiachra?" Said a nervous voice at the other end.
"Yeah, that's me. Who is this?" I asked.
"It's Justin, Justin Timberlake. Britney's emm. friend."
"Oh right, yeah. Hi." I guess I should have been expecting this call, after last night and all.
"Listen, Britney told me what she said last night and I wanted to talk to you about it."
"Go on." I prompted in a comforting voice.
"Well, I guess you figured who she was talking about, huh?"
"Yeah, it wasn't really that difficult. Listen, if you're going to ask me not to tell anyone, don't worry because I wouldn't do that to someone, not to anyone ok?"
"Ok! I didn't want to ask that! So you're ok with it then?"
"'Course I am!" Ironic really, if you stop to think about it. How could I not be ok with it?
"Ok, listen man. Only my closest friends know that I'm gay and that means two things." He sounded a lot more confidant then he had when he first called. "It means that you really have to talk to no one about it, and it also means that we're going to have to get to know each other a lot better. Ok?"
"Sure."
"Damn, I have to go, but I'll call you later if it's ok?"
"Ok Justin, whenever. Talk to you later. Bye."
"Bye." And then he hung up on me.
Right. That's that. Hope you're all enjoying the story. Write to me! shiningstar@oceanfree.net
Tim