Oh my God, Cole Newton just said my name in front of the entire town and surrounding areas. My face flushed with embarrassment as a spotlight lit me up for all to see. My brain said to move or do something, anything, but my body wouldn’t co-operate.
“Melrose, why don’t you come down and join us?” Cole asked, so politely. If I could function, I might have politely acquiesced to his request.
Thankfully, Dallas was actually thinking. She jumped up from her seat and grabbed my hand. Apparently she was coming with me.
The spotlight followed us to the aisle where a security guard escorted us to the stage. Cole put his hand out as he helped me up the stairs. Dallas tagged along, clutching at my dress the entire way.
“Just smile and you’ll be fine,” Cole whispered into my ear. I stood there like an idiot, seeing all those faces staring back at me.
He took my hand and turned me to face him. Cole was just as gorgeous as he was earlier. He kept my hand so I couldn’t freak out and run off stage. I admit, I was thinking about it. He anchored me in place though, keeping me from floating adrift.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another of the band members, Reed, take Dallas’s hand and guide her to the other side of the stage. Reed was her favorite, I was glad she was living out her dream too.
The guys launched into their next song, Falling Stars, a soppy love ballad. Cole looked deep into my eyes, singing it only to me. It was like the rest of the stadium faded away and it was just the two of us. Nobody else existed or mattered.
My stomach fluttered, the butterflies going into overdrive. I had dreamed of moments like that but I never thought they would actually happen – especially to girls like me. Those kinds of things happened to the outgoing girls like Dallas, not the ones who worked at Burger Nation and their mother ran out on them.
The skin where our hands connected was burning, sending out waves of warmth up my arm and down my legs. I couldn’t help but stare at him like a fool, he was just so beautiful with those green eyes and sandy blonde tresses. I desperately wanted to run my fingers through his hair, I bet it was as soft as it looked.
The song ended too soon, I didn’t want to leave. I could have stayed there and listened to Cole sing for the rest of my life and I would have been content.
“Please give a round of applause to our volunteers,” Cole said to the audience, while still holding my hand. He guided me to turn just a little to take them all in. I bet every girl in the stadium hated me right then.
Reed brought Dallas back, she quickly gripped my arm like we had just won the lottery. Cole leaned in and placed something in the palm of my hand. He whispered, “Just for you.”
It felt like a piece of paper but I didn’t dare check to confirm it. Cole walked us to the edge of the stage as the other guys whipped up the audience into another screaming frenzy.
The same security guard took us back to our seats. All the girls along the way shot daggers at us. If looks could kill, I wouldn’t even have made it past the first row.
The minute we sat down, I opened my fist to see a small torn off piece of paper. On it was a phone number with the words ‘Call Me’ handwritten on it. Cole had given me his digits, his actual, real phone number.
And he wanted me to call him! I pinched myself again, just to make sure I wasn’t still asleep and drooling on my pillow in my bedroom. None of it seemed real, like I had stepped into someone else’s life and the universe hadn’t corrected its error yet.
“What’s that?” Dallas asked, looking over my shoulder. I quickly folded the page and slipped it into my purse.
“Nothing, just a candy wrapper,” I replied. I was certain Dallas wouldn’t believe me this time.
“There was writing on it.” I wished she didn’t have to notice every little detail about everything.
“It was just the brand name, it was nothing but trash.” I shrugged, turning back to the concert so she got the hint and let it rest.
I waited for the inevitable correction of the balance of the universe for the rest of the concert. But it didn’t come. Dallas and I walked the mile back to her car and joined the gridlock of traffic to leave the stadium.
The entire way home, she gushed about Two Dimension and going up on stage. Dallas was convinced Reed was in love with her now. Apparently her grand connection with Cole had been forgotten and shifted to Reed. He’d better alert his security team – he had a new stalker.
She dropped me back home and I tried to get some sleep. My ears were still ringing from the noise, it felt like my head was wrapped in cotton wool. I placed Cole’s note on my bedside table, staring at the numbers like they were going to jump off the paper.
I didn’t know whether I was game enough to ever dial it. Cole was probably just joking, it probably wasn’t even a real number. Sure, it was the right length, but it probably called an all night pizza place or something. It wouldn’t actually call Cole Newton. Would it?
I agonized over it all night, barely sleeping a wink. I spent the next day doing the same. I would pick up my cell phone, start dialing, and then cancel halfway through. I just couldn’t do it. I would rather believe Cole really gave me his number and asked me to call him rather than dial and find out he had tricked me. Reality ruined everything.
“What’s that?” My little sister, Jemma, asked as she stood at the door to my room. She knew not to come in without an invitation. I had trained her well.
“Nothing,” I replied, hiding the note. “What’s up?”
She pressed her little lips together, the way she always did when she didn’t know what to say. “Nothing.”
There were times when I really didn’t like my little sister, mainly because she could be a huge pain, but other times she looked so sad I wanted to cuddle her and make sure the world didn’t hurt her any more than it already had. Today was one of those days.
“Come in and tell me what’s on your mind.” I patted the spot on the bed next to me. She ran in and jumped up, wrapping her arms around my waist. “Has something happened, Jem?”
She shook her head against my side. “I missed you.”
“I haven’t gone anywhere.”
“You weren’t here last night.”
“It was only for a few hours, I came home and tucked you in before I went to bed.” Of course, she didn’t know that because she had been sound asleep at the time. I still did it though, I liked making sure she was okay before I went to sleep.
“You did?” She asked incredulously. I nodded. “Were Two Dimension really good?”
“The best. I’m sorry you weren’t there.”
“Dad said I could go next time if they come back.” I offered to pay for her ticket and everything but our father had said she was too young to go to a concert. The only way she could go was if he could go too and he was working last night so that didn’t work out. “I played Monopoly with Lizzy instead.”
“Did you win?”
She nodded proudly. The first mistake Lizzy probably did was underestimate Jemma’s ability to carefully calculate her next move in the game. That girl might only be nine years old, but she was crazy smart when it came to board games.
I hugged her tight. “Good going, Jem. Want to play Mouse Trap?”
She jumped up off the bed. “Yeah!”
I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Jemma. At the very least she took my mind off Cole’s note. I considered talking it over with Dallas but I knew she would only have to see the note for a second before calling the number. She had impulse control issues.
The next day at school, I was still struggling to take my mind off it. I wished Cole had my number so he was the one making the decision instead of me. Although, waiting for his call would probably be even more torturous.
“What was he like close up?” Marina, one of the girls in my grade who normally wouldn’t be seen dead talking to me, asked. I was surrounded by eager faces, everyone wanted to know every little detail about my time on stage with Two Dimension.
“He was reall
y nice,” I replied. What was I supposed to say? That his hair was perfect? That his eyes sparkled under the stage lights? That his skin was as soft as a baby’s behind? It was all true, but it felt weird saying it.
Marina gushed, like I had just exposed something juicy. “I bet he was amazing, like you could just eat him alive.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” All the questions I had fielded that day were just from four minutes on stage. I could only imagine what they would do if I told them I’d spent close to an hour with him.
Not that I would tell them about what happened in the supply closet. It was nice having a secret, something only Cole and I shared. It felt naughty and fun at the same time. Telling them would somehow ruin it, they would probably accuse me of making it up too.
During every break, I was ambushed by more girls demanding all the gory details about my time on stage. People that had never spoken to me before started asking me questions. I was sure they had never even known my name before Saturday night.
Apparently Dallas and I were famous. The difference being she reveled in the attention. I had heard five different versions of her story throughout the day, each time she told it she embellished a little more. Soon, she would add that Reed asked her to marry him or something.
It put a smile on my face every time I remembered my secret meeting with Cole. Dallas had nothing on my real story, but I wasn’t telling anyone. It was only for Cole and I, something the rest of the world didn’t know about.
When I left school and arrived home, I closed my bedroom door and stared at the note again. All I had to do was dial and I might get to speak with Cole again.
Or I could end up ordering a pizza and have my heart completely shattered into a million pieces. My whole fantasy about being special to the biggest heartthrob in the world could vanish into thin air. It was a big risk to take and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to do it yet.
But life was supposedly short, right? I had heard people say that all the time. Maybe I should seize the moment, carpe diem and all that.
My gaze kept flicking back between my cell phone and Cole’s handwritten note. Even his handwriting was beautiful, cursive with perfectly round letters.
It would be pretty mean to give me a fake number. At least if it was, I hadn’t told anybody so no-one would know of my humiliation. I would be able to be utterly miserable and embarrassed alone. At least that was something.
But the number might be real. Cole Newton’s phone number might be in my hand right now, his voice just a call away. It seemed so impossible.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I gathered my courage and dialed the number. It took me three attempts before I got it right. All I needed to do was hit call and I would know the answer to my burning question.
Too late to back out now, Melrose. I hit call and held my breath.
CHAPTER 5
Star Struck Page 4