Unrequited
Page 3
Jess doesn’t want to think about that question because from where she’s sitting, there’s a lot that could possibly go wrong. Annie’s always been the ringleader in schemes like this. She’s already texting Lucy and setting up a secret meeting between the three of them. She tells Lucy it’s about a surprise for Kat so she must keep it hush-hush.
‘Kat is @elle_twentysix?’ Lucy repeats after Annie delivers the exquisite secret. She actually has to sit down before she falls down. ‘Our Kat? Kat who, quote, “hates Unrequited with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns”. Angus Marsden has fallen for her?’
‘Look — here’s proof,’ Annie says, gleefully thrusting Kat’s concert ticket at Lucy, whose hazel eyes widen like they’re being propped open on sticks.
‘OMG! This all makes sense now!’ Lucy cries. ‘What does?’
‘The conversation I had with her at lunchtime! I knew something was up when she was drifting in and out all morning. I demanded she tell me what’s going on, and she wouldn’t. I just nagged her and nagged her until she caved and she said, “I met someone last night”.’
‘She did?’ the twins say in unison, hooked on every word of Lucy’s story. ‘Then what did she say?’
‘Well, she was really weird about it, actually. She said she couldn’t really tell me anything about him. And now we know why!’
The twins soak up this new information.
‘She said it was clearly all in her head. Why would someone like him look at someone like her? And she said he couldn’t get away from her fast enough. She’s actually really gutted about the whole thing!’
‘Of course! The backstage pass!’ Annie splutters. ‘He didn’t show! We overheard the security guard saying he was off chasing some girl . . .’
‘Yes, according to breakfast radio, he went back into the auditorium looking for her. I can’t believe he was actually looking for KAT!’ Lucy says, shock waves rising by the minute. ‘And then she replied on Twitter last night! Straight to ANGUS MARSDEN! And she didn’t tell me!’
Annie and Jess exchange glances. ‘Um, Lucy. That’s the reason we wanted to speak to you. You see, Kat doesn’t know . . .’
‘Doesn’t know what?’
‘We wrote that tweet.’
‘YOU wrote it! Why?’
‘Well, we didn’t think she’d do it herself. So we did it for her. We didn’t realise she liked him so much. She was acting like she couldn’t stand him, even though he’s obviously perfect!’
‘But that’s what some people do when they like someone,’ Lucy explains. ‘What are you going to do now? She told me at lunchtime that she’s definitely going to forget about this guy. As soon as possible. Which is not going to be easy because apparently every time she hears Unrequited she’s going to be reminded of him.’
‘Obviously!’
‘Oh, and the other thing she said is that it was sort of a relief he wasn’t interested because she was kind of scared of how intense things felt, especially when it was all so fast. If anything had happened, she’d have bolted in the other direction.’
‘Oh.’
‘So we can’t tell her about this.’
‘Right.’
‘But equally, for her sake, we can’t let him get away . . .’
‘So you’ll help us, Lucy?’ the twins ask.
‘Hmm . . . let me think. Impersonate Kat on Twitter? Snag Angus Marsden and give her time to get used to the situation?’
‘Will you?’ the twins practically beg.
Lucy smiles. ‘That’s what friends are for, isn’t it?’
Chapter 6
Halfway through sound check, the band’s manager, Michael, pulls the plug. Literally.
‘Angus! What is going on with you? You’ve missed another entry. You’re forgetting lyrics. Your timing’s out. And get off your damn phone!’
Angus shakes his head, trying to concentrate. He apologises to Michael and the band and crew. ‘Sorry. Won’t happen again.’
It does happen again, though. In the very next song. Michael fumes so much he’s practically speechless, and while they’re standing there in silence, Angus’s phone pings, the way it’s been pinging all afternoon. Michael glares at him.
‘I’m turning it off, okay?’ But Angus doesn’t want to turn it off. She might eventually reply to his message and he wants to be online when she does.
‘It’s that girl, isn’t it? What, is she texting you now?’
‘Nothing since that tweet last night.’ It’s killing him, but he doesn’t say so.
‘Awww . . . Angus is in love!’ Reuben jokes, jumping on his friend, ruffling his dark, curly hair and knocking them both to the stage floor. ‘And for once, he’s the one doing the chasing!’
Angus isn’t amused and Michael looks like he’s ready to give up. ‘Guys! You’re acting like a bunch of amateurs. We have a concert to put on in exactly three hours. I don’t care if Angus is in love.’
‘I’m not in love,’ Angus clarifies, although he wouldn’t want to be attached to a lie detector right now, because he’s definitely in something. He doesn’t even know her name. Wondering who she is has been driving him insane — that girl in the pink top, moving in the audience to a completely different beat. At first he thought she was just the most uncoordinated person he’d ever seen. Then he noticed the earphones. Then he watched her leisurely checking her phone like she wasn’t in the middle of a concert and eventually he had to admit that she wasn’t remotely interested. There was something maddeningly attractive about that. He never has to try this hard.
He goes to switch off the phone but, in doing so, he sees a message pop up on the screen announcing a tweet from @elle_twentysix.
‘Sorry. I’ve just got to look at this message . . .’ he says absent-mindedly and Michael shakes his head and calls a five-minute break.
‘This is hopeless! I’ve never seen him like this,’ he says to the lighting guys, gulping his takeaway coffee which has gone cold during Angus’s shenanigans.
‘She replied?’ Zach asks, dark eyes intrigued as he throws a brotherly arm around his band-mate.
‘This girl is maddening.’ Angus hands over his phone and Zach reads the tweet aloud for the benefit of the group.
‘So, Angus tweeted, “Not an Unrequited fan, then?” And this girl tweets back, “Who?”’
‘A woman who can slice you to pieces in a single syllable!’ Reuben muses. ‘I like her.’
Angus has never been jealous of any of the guys since they first got together as a group, but he finds himself clenching his jaw, and Reuben notices.
‘Hey, cool down! I don’t like her like that.’
Since the band released its first single, getting girls has been the least of their problems. Getting away from girls has been the thing. They’re not in Sydney long so Angus is suddenly feeling the pressure of a deadline.
‘What are you going back with?’ Zach asks.
‘I don’t know yet! She’s not making it easy.’
That’s the best bit, Angus realises. There’s something intoxicating about this girl, making him jump through hoops to reach her, and he still has no evidence that she’s even interested. To make matters worse, as if the band and crew aren’t hassling him enough about this, the Twittersphere explodes with re-tweets and comments. Alex laughs out loud and shows him the first Instagram meme about her ‘Who?’ comment. Already.
Zach grabs a microphone, cues the drummer and bass guitar and starts improvising.
I never have to work this hard . . .
‘Zach, no!’
Angus groans. But it’s too late. They’re off. Why does everything have to turn into a song!
Alex: With just a single word you caught me off-guard I’m not asking much, just a little smile
Zach: Just a little smile
Reuben: Whatever you want me to do.
‘Not you, too, Reuben!’
Xavier: You know I’ll do it, anything for you But don’t keep me waiting, you’re driving me wild
!
Zach, Xavier, Alex, Reuben: You’re driving me wild! Flirt with me!
That’s it, Angus thinks. Can’t beat ’em. He rolls his eyes, takes the microphone and belts out an impromptu chorus.
Angus:
Oh mystery girl, please
You got me down on my knees
You deadpan anti-fan, you make me so mad,
But it’s so hot, and I got it bad
Flirt with me!
Michael starts screaming at the sound guys to get this down. It’s Angus’s life but the band’s business. This public romance, if you can call it that, is getting way out of control! Angus sighs. ‘I just wish I could be a normal person for ONE DAY. We can’t go anywhere.’ The worst bit is, he wanted this. He asked for it. He’s the architect of his own situation right now and being a pop star has been his ambition since he was six. He loves it, too. Most of the time.
‘Just not right now,’ he says under his breath, and he knows he has to set this aside and give his all to this concert. For his fans. Somehow, he musters the strength to switch off his phone.
Chapter 7
Another day, another train. This one heading for Sydney Uni where Kat has a play rehearsal with the university drama club. She’s taking an early-entry performance course at uni through Year Twelve, and that’s how she came to audition for the chorus in Legally Blonde. It clashes with her HSC study schedule, and the main problem there is her mum. Angela Hartland was never going to be genuinely supportive of anything that took her daughter away from ‘serious subjects’, particularly if that lure was music. She and Kat fought for weeks over whether or not Kat was going to do the musical. It wasn’t pretty, and Kat was amazed that she won the argument.
There’s no way around it. Music reminds Angela of Luke. Kat’s dad. His dream of being a musician caused an accident that cost him his life, not long after the twins were born. Angela still hasn’t got over how it happened. He and his producer and manager had been up all night recording, which was something they did often. He’d been obsessed with it. Then he was exhausted, driving home, and . . .
She hasn’t listened to music since.
Kat’s world fell apart that day. She didn’t just lose her dad. She lost the music out of her life, and without music she can’t even . . . it’s how she breathes. Every time her mum caught her humming a tune, she’d cry and tell her to stop. Seriously, no wonder Kat bawled her eyes out the entire way through Frozen. Poor Elsa! Locked away and told to reject the one thing that makes her who she is! Kat gets it!
She checks which station the train is pulling into. Three to go. Time to devour a packet of dried mango. She and Lucy practically live on the stuff.
You know, there’s a big part of her dad in Kat, not that she’d ever dare mention this to her mum. It’s much easier to keep her songwriting to herself the way she has been now for years, and to confine her singing to the musical, and the shower — both of which her mum is tolerating, at least. How she’ll respond when she finds out how close Kat is to switching her uni preferences and listing the Bachelor of Music in Composition first, she doesn’t want to think about. She just knows she wants to.
At every station, Kat finds herself looking up from her script and checking who gets on the train. At every single station, she’s disappointed. She knows it’s optimistic. Of course McDreamy wouldn’t be on a train with her, two days running. Even if he was on the train, how would that look? Like she was his groupie? What would she even say?
Eventually, the train pulls in to Redfern station and she walks ten minutes to the campus. Rehearsals are held in a studio at the Seymour Centre and she enters at the stage door, grabs a cup of water from the cooler and hangs out with the rest of the chorus cast until the lead actors arrive.
Everyone looks up when Sarah Elliott walks in, principally because she’s gorgeous. She could be a model, but she’s too busy being a law student and volunteer worker and actor, and Kat develops a galloping inferiority complex the second she lays eyes on her. There is no way that she will ever, even if she has a million years in which to get her act together, look that good, walk that well or be that confident. She expected Sarah to be really detached and aloof, but she’s the opposite. The entire ensemble instantly loved her.
They get straight into rehearsals, as usual, and Sarah’s amazing. AMAZING! Nobody can take their eyes off her. Kat feels more and more privileged to be there at all, given she really hasn’t had much experience or training other than the one or two high-school musicals that she begged her mum to let her do along the way. She’s floored after the rehearsal when Sarah takes her aside.
‘You were great tonight, Kat! I’m so glad they’ve brought you into the show. And you’re the second Kat I’ve come across today! Are you right to get home?’
‘My mum’s picking me up,’ Kat replies, feeling about twelve and wishing she’d said something more interesting. She watches Sarah breeze out of the room in the same way she’d breezed in, before running over to a guy waiting in the shadows under the trees. She throws her arms enthusiastically around his neck.
Boyfriend? Probably. She’d be astonished if Sarah didn’t have one.
If only she felt that confident around boys herself. Having been pushed away by the guy on the train and overlooked by Angus Marsden in his headlong dash to chase some other girl, she’s feeling about as attractive as one of Cinderella’s stepsisters right now.
‘What’s going on with the twins?’ her mum asks once they’re out of the theatre car park. ‘They’re up to something — they’ve been whispering and giving each other strange looks all night.’
‘Who knows? I’ve done my sisterly duty for the week. I can’t believe I had to take them to that concert.’
‘Can we not re-hash that, Kat? You made your thoughts clear enough when you got home last night! I’m grateful you took them. It meant a lot to them.’
Truth be told, Kat can’t be bothered re-hashing it either. It’s late and she just wants to get into bed and drift off after a draining twenty-four hours. She flicks the car radio over and the announcer is introducing a special segment.
‘Now for our pre-recorded interview with the boys from Unrequited, who met up with us earlier today to talk about their Sydney shows, their new album and of course the topic on everyone’s lips today — Angus Marsden’s blossoming romance with an unidentified tweeter named . . .’
Kat switches channels, fast. She’s had just about enough of Angus Marsden and his blossoming romance with some other poor girl who no doubt fell hard for his charms and hasn’t yet seen them for what they are: completely fake.
When she gets home, she notices the twins have been using her laptop again. It’s so annoying! They’re both asleep and she refreshes the ‘Guest User’ screen and it’s open, of course, to Angus’s Twitter page.
‘Do not read it!’ she commands herself, only to have the weaker part of her brain override that command with a delusional desire to see what all the fuss is about.
She reads the tweets in question and giggles. They’re between Angus and what looks to be some twenty-six-year-old named Elle, who appears to have him wrapped around her little finger already.
Good taste in music too: Paloma Faith! Pretends she doesn’t know who Unrequited is. Classic.
And his comeback: ‘Be gentle! You’re killing me . . .’
That last tweet is pretty cute, Kat thinks. This Elle has him right where she wants him. Or doesn’t want him. It’s hard to tell. Imagine having that much sway over a guy like Angus Marsden. She hates to admit it but the thought of that is just a teensy bit tantalising.
‘And maybe a lot out of your league, Kat,’ she says before realising she’s talking out loud, to Angus’s Twitter page, which must surely be a new low as far as interactions with the opposite sex go.
Chapter 8
By the time Sarah crawls into bed, it’s obscenely early on Wednesday morning and she’s exhausted. It’s not so much from the big day that she’s had, but from the
constant pretending.
Law is really not her ‘thing’. She’s only doing it to impress her dad, who has pretty much called the shots on her education since pre-school when the teachers identified Sarah as ‘gifted’. It’s like he’s been managing her career since she was four. The only place — the only one — where she feels truly herself, is on stage. It’s ironic because there, she’s always being someone else.
Actually, there is another place where she feels comfortable, and that’s whenever she’s hanging out with Joel. Her best friend. The brother she never had. Her stand-in formal partner in Year Twelve when she didn’t want to take a proper ‘date’. The person who makes her laugh until she cries. The guy against whom she measures every other, which is probably why she’s almost eternally single.
She switches the light off, rolls over and adjusts the sheets around her. Joel’s dated a few girls over the years, and Sarah always marks those periods in their friendship as downtimes. It’s like she has to step aside and back into the shadows a little, while another girl is in the spotlight. Inevitably, things don’t work out. He won’t commit. The girl is spooked by his closeness to Sarah, and it’s all off. Then she gently picks up the pieces and they ramp up their friendship again. Coffees, dinners, DVDs on the couch, charity balls . . . He’s always there for her, even when he’s technically ‘taken’.
At least, that’s how it’s always played out until now. There was something about their conversation over coffee and again after the rehearsal tonight, that’s really unsettling her. At first she assumed this new crush was just another passing infatuation on his part. She’s seen him through plenty of those and he doesn’t even know this girl from the train. They had, what, ten minutes of time together and suddenly he’s in love with her? It’s so not his style!