Chapter 8
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.
Chapter 9
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