The driver stopped in the middle of an ordinary street. “I hope you’re hungry,” Cole said. I slid out of the car, still with no idea of what we were doing.
Then I saw it.
An all-hours ice cream parlor. Cole took me straight there. My eyes bugged out of my head when I saw how many flavors the place had. It smelled like waffles and hot chocolate fudge.
I chose Fudgeberry Swirl, Cole chose Triple Chocolate. The lady behind the counter blushed a deep shade of red as she spoke with Cole, obviously recognizing him.
Cole had two types of fans. The screaming, I’m-going-to-die kind, and the shy oh-my-god-I’m-talking-to-Cole-Newton-act-cool kind. This girl was of the second variety. She wouldn’t actually confess her fandom but would tell everyone else who she just served about a second after he left.
She would also take a photo covertly when he sat down instead of asking for a selfie with Cole. I made sure I looked reasonable as I ate, just in case I ended up in the photo too.
“What did you think of the show?” Cole asked as we took a seat in the back – better for privacy and it reduced the risk of being recognized.
“It was great, as usual.”
“You always say that.” He grinned, showing me his dimples and stealing a spoonful of my sundae.
“I always mean it,” I replied. “I always enjoy watching you perform. I’m your biggest fan, remember?”
“I’m your biggest fan, Melrose Morgan. Have I told you how cute you are? And how much I like you?”
“Not in the last ten minutes.”
He stole another spoonful. The thief! I took some of his Triple Chocolate in retaliation. “Well then, Miss Melrose, I think you are the cutest, hottest girl in the world. And I love you.”
I kissed his ice cream lips. “And I love you too.”
Cole wasn’t supposed to be outside the hotel without a team of security so we didn’t stay longer than we needed to. It would only take one fan to scream about his presence in the ice cream parlor to make it impossible for us to leave.
We took a cab back to the hotel, the driver guiding the car through the crowds of girls still waiting to catch a glimpse of Two Dimension.
Someone spotted Cole in the cab and started screaming, throwing herself at the window. The cab had to inch forward after that, making sure not to run over any of them.
The security guards noticed the trouble we were in and started to pull the girls away from the cab. They were absolutely crazy, putting themselves in danger just to get a glimpse of Cole.
I understood the zealous girls, mainly because once it would have been me and my best friend Dallas doing the same thing. But even we had limits.
Reaching the door to the hotel was a relief. Cole made sure I was safely inside before he turned back to the girls. “If you all form a line, I’ll meet every one of you.”
The girls screamed.
I knew I wouldn’t be getting Cole back for a long time.
He gave me an apologetic look before he started signing and taking photos with the girls. It was sweet of him to do it when he didn’t have to. He could have ignored them and just gone to bed.
But he didn’t. Which was one of the reasons I loved Cole so much. He really cared about people and he treated them nicely.
I went back to my hotel room and took a hot shower, continually checking out the window to see if the crowd had reduced in numbers. When they all disappeared I would get Cole back.
He knocked on my door after midnight. “I’m so sorry, Melrose. I didn’t mean to cut into our time and leave you alone.”
I grabbed him by the shirt and planted a kiss on his lips before dragging him into the room. I closed the door with my foot, making sure he couldn’t get away again.
He looked a little startled when I let him go. “Don’t say another word of apology. You did a nice thing. Now it’s my turn.”
We curled up on the bed together and fell asleep within minutes. My head was on Cole’s shoulder, the perfect place for it.
Chapter Four
There was some panic the next morning when Cole wasn’t in his own bed. Scott almost sent out a search party before trying my room as a last resort.
Waking up in Cole’s arms was the very best way to start the day. Unfortunately we didn’t get to enjoy it for too long.
The boys of Two Dimension had a photo shoot scheduled early so they barely had time to scoff down breakfast before piling into a van and being taken away.
Cole insisted I come with them so we could spend as much time together as possible. Scott tried to talk him out of it but he wouldn’t change his mind.
The shoot was being held on the top of a fancy building. It had real gold statues in the garden they’d built on the roof. It was crazy to think how much money they’d spent on the area.
I was given a chair out of the way and told to stay there. No prizes for guessing who had barked that order at me. I didn’t mind so much this time because I could see everything and it was a beautiful day so the weather was pleasant.
The boys took a bunch of photos together before splitting off and doing some individual shots. After those they then did group shots without Luke.
It was really sad seeing the group missing one. I know they had to be careful and plan for Luke maybe not being in the band anymore but it still felt weird.
Luke took the empty seat beside me while he waited for the others. I didn’t know what to say to him but it felt like I had to say something. “I’m sorry to hear you might be leaving the band.”
He took a long sip out of his water bottle before he answered. “I’m not. The band has been a great experience and I’m so grateful for everything we’ve done. But I need to move on, I miss home too much.”
“Is that the only reason? You miss home?”
“It’s a crazy life and I just don’t want to do it anymore.” He forced a reassuring smile. “The band will go on without me. Once everyone adjusts they won’t even miss me.”
“You’ll always be missed. Every one of you are important in your own way,” I said. I wanted to say the magic words to convince him to stay but I knew they would never come.
Luke had obviously made up his mind and thought about it intensely. Nothing anybody could do would change his mind.
“When will you leave?” I asked, hoping for some time in the distant future.
“As soon as we figure out a few contract issues. Our lawyers are looking into it now.” He laughed. “They don’t know if it’s legal for me to go yet. They could sue me for breaking contracts.”
“The other band members could sue you?”
“Yeah. They said they wouldn’t but anything could happen if it gets nasty.”
The boys had all been best friends, I couldn’t imagine them holding Luke hostage if his heart was no longer in the band. Cole wouldn’t, anyway. I was certain of it.
“Melrose!” Cole called out. “Come have your picture taken with me.”
I shook my head. They had all been in hair and makeup, I hadn’t. There was no way I wanted to intrude on their shoot.
Cole was persistent. “Come on! I want a photo with my hot girlfriend.”
“You should go, he’s only going to keep asking you,” Luke said dryly.
Embarrassed about everyone looking at me, I got up and begrudgingly went to Cole. He pulled me in close while the photographer continually took pictures.
Cole pulled a silly face and made me laugh. From then onwards, I couldn’t keep the smile from my face. He always made things seem like fun instead of work.
“Come on, let’s go,” Dylan called out. The other band members all grabbed their things to go.
“We’d better get going,” Cole said before thanking the photographer and everyone else on the shoot. We joined the others but there seemed to be tension between all the boys.
We all climbed into the waiting van.
And then it all exploded into an argument.
“I’m tired of you goofing around at these
shoots,” Dylan said. “We have a job to do and it’s going to put us all behind schedule for the day.”
“Hey, ease up, man,” Reed replied. “It’s just a little fun. If we don’t have that then what’s the point of this whole thing?”
“The point is we’re supposed to be professionals.”
“Yeah, and we’re all seventeen. How about you act your age occasionally?” Reed arched an eyebrow and Dylan huffed.
And then it got worse.
“If this is about me taking a few photos with my girl, then back off, dude,” Cole added. “You know how much I miss her when she’s not here.”
I remained completely quiet. Awkward didn’t even begin to explain the atmosphere in the van. I considered opening the door and jumping out just to get away from it all.
“We’re all missing people,” Luke said. “You act like you’re the only one but we’re all going through the same thing. This is exactly why I don’t want to be in this band anymore.”
“So you’d rather run back home to mommy and disappoint millions of fans? Good one, bro,” Nick said.
“I’m not running anywhere, clearly! You guys won’t let me out of a contract we signed when we were fifteen years old!” Luke yelled at everyone. He slumped back in his seat with crossed arms.
“It’s up to the lawyers, man. More people than just us five rely on this band. We’re a business, we can’t just do whatever we want.” Dylan, always the voice of reason.
“You could all let me go if you really wanted to. You know that. Nobody is going to argue with all of you if you all agree.”
“We don’t want you to go, man,” Cole said.
“And I don’t want to stay so I guess we’ve got problems.”
“More problems than we can jump over,” Reed added.
“How about we all stop whining for a while and get on with it? We could all still be in high school dreaming of being rock stars instead of actually living our dream,” Nick said. I think they were more words than I’d ever heard him say at once before.
“Maybe that’s preferable to being here right now. At least then I could go two feet without being followed by a hundred people.” Luke huffed and clamped his lips together, like there might be more he would say if he didn’t stop himself.
That was probably a good idea.
We reached our next destination – the arena. The moment the van stopped, Luke pulled open the door and stormed off inside.
Scott was waiting for us, a bemused look on his face as Luke stomped past him. “Where are you going?”
Luke replied by flipping the bird.
Dylan, Reed, and Nick all went silently inside, ignoring Scott. That just left Cole and myself. He hurried up to us. “What’s going on?”
“We had a fight,” Cole replied. He was still mad, the anger rolled off him in waves.
Scott threw his hands up into the air. “Can’t you boys do anything else these days? I left you for ten minutes. Hurry up and get inside.” He turned around and took his own advice, heading for the door.
“Are you okay?” I asked Cole once we were alone.
“I’m just so annoyed at Luke and his attitude. He should be grateful. Out of the billions of people on this earth, only a tiny handful get to do what we’re doing. He should be thankful and just do it. I don’t understand why he wants to quit so bad.”
“It sounds like he’s just tired of it all. I think he misses home. You don’t get much free time.”
“But this isn’t going to last forever. Eventually all our fans will move on to another band, they’ll get sick of us. Then we can do whatever we want.” Cole’s eyes were sad, frustrated at not being able to do anything to fix the situation.
I didn’t know what to say. A part of me really agreed with him because I knew of a thousand people who would easily trade places with them.
But, at the end of the day, we couldn’t walk in Luke’s shoes. He was obviously going through something that we didn’t understand.
I wished I could solve all their problems.
Chapter Five
The band’s earlier fight was apparent when they went on stage later than night. I doubted any of their fans in the audience noticed, but I did.
All the boys were giving Luke the cold shoulder, largely ignoring his presence on stage. Nobody was really talking to each other, not even Scott could convince them to get over it. They seemed like a train wreck just waiting to happen.
The guitars were a little out of synch, a few words were mucked up in the lyrics, Reed almost fell off the stage at one point, and nobody really bantered with the audience. Cold was the best word to describe the whole debacle.
Being on stage was the last place they wanted to be that night.
It was worse after the show. They stomped off stage with looks of thunder across their faces. I raced after them, not wanting to get lost in the labyrinth of corridors.
Dylan spun around to face Luke as they entered the green room. “You stepped on my guitar lead three times tonight. Get your act together, man!”
“I didn’t mean to. If you stuck to your mark I wouldn’t need to get anywhere near you,” Luke yelled back.
“I can walk wherever I like. It’s called being spontaneous and a good performer.”
“No, it’s called getting in other people’s way.”
Scott stepped in before it got physical. “Hey, hey, calm down. Let’s all get some sleep and regroup in the morning when you’ve all cooled down.”
He might have got them to shut up, but he didn’t stop them shooting daggers at each other. I waited silently, almost glad to get away from them for the first time ever. Two Dimension were fractured, I just prayed they weren’t broken.
Cole stormed off while I trailed behind him. He stopped in the corridor, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down.
I just stood there, frozen. Nothing I could say would have made him feel any better. This was one problem I couldn’t fix for him.
As much as I wanted to.
If I could have done, I would have waved a magic wand and transformed the band back to the happy best friends they were before. But something had changed in their dynamics and I didn’t think it could be undone.
After a few minutes Cole composed himself. He raised his head to look at me. “We should get moving so you can catch your flight.”
I nodded and we left the arena. A car was waiting just outside the door – so were a bunch of fans. For the first time ever, Cole walked straight past them and climbed into the vehicle.
Something was majorly wrong. Maybe it wasn’t just Luke’s departure, perhaps there was more going on in the band than I knew about.
Whatever it was, I still didn’t want to leave Cole. When we reached the airport and were waiting for the call from his private jet, Cole wrapped me in his arms and I snuggled into his chest.
“I’m so glad I have you,” he said into my hair. I squeezed him a little tighter.
“You’ll always have me,” I replied. “I’m sorry things are a bit rocky at the moment. I’m sure it will all work itself out.”
“I hope so.”
The pilot called through that he and the plane were ready and we walked hand in hand onto the tarmac. The moon was perched high in the sky, lighting up the night as if it was day.
Cole pulled me in for a kiss and I fought back tears. It seemed like we were always saying goodbye. There was never enough time with each other.
“I’ll see you soon, Mel. Don’t forget that I love you.” He braved a smile but I could tell he was still sad. Not just about me leaving but about everything.
“I love you too. Promise me you won’t forget that it will get better. Nothing lasts forever, you guys will work it all out.”
He gave me another kiss and nodded. “I promise.”
I forced myself to walk away from him and board the plane. I waved to Cole through the small window when the door was closed.
He blew me a kiss and waved back, just like he a
lways did.
Long distance relationships were hard.
There were far too many goodbyes.
I didn’t remember much of the flight home. I felt the usual terror of taking off and landing, gripping the seat far more tightly than was needed.
When I got home I went straight to bed, exhausted both physically and mentally from the weekend. Even so, I didn’t sleep very well. I was too worried about Two Dimension and their troubles.
The next morning, Jemma wanted to hear a full recount of my time away. Then when I went to school, Dallas wanted the same thing.
I didn’t mention any of the drama, keeping my story focused on how great it was to see Cole. If news of their split got out, the band would be hounded by the media until they got all the details.
“Hey, Melrose,” April, a girl who barely knew my name a few months ago, said as she sidled up to me at my locker. “Tell me, are you the one responsible for the breakup of Two Dimension?”
Apparently word was already out.
Chapter Six
“What are you talking about?” I asked. I was trying to play dumb, but I wasn’t a very good actress. I knew exactly what April was talking about but didn’t want to admit it.
She hit a button on her cell phone and held up the screen for me to see. I skimmed through the article from Gossip Online.
Luke had released a statement overnight, saying he was leaving the band. He stated it was for ‘personal reasons’ but there was plenty of speculation over why he had made his decision.
I was one of those reasons. Some people claimed I was getting in the way, telling Cole and the band what to do and Luke couldn’t take that kind of interference anymore. It was completely untrue, but there was more than one person saying those things online.
“You should break up with Cole and apologize,” April said. “If there is no Two Dimension in this world, then my life has no more meaning. You have to fix this, Melrose. Otherwise you’re going to have a lot of angry people after you.”
Star Crossed Collection Page 2