Warm breeze. Bare feet on silk-soft sand. The smell of frangipani flowers, twisted in our hair. Issy and Verushka stand beside me. Declan’s girlfriend couldn’t make it – she’s playing in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
A steel band plays ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ by Elvis Presley, and we start down the sandy path to the waiting groom. Jamie catches my eye and gives me The Smile. I return it, shyly. I’m starting to get used to it.
When Orli reaches the top of the aisle, the other bridesmaids and I go to our allotted places. Jamie takes my hand in his. It’s a beautiful wedding and Orli looks more angelic than ever in her flowing white dress, with her thick golden hair. She gazes at Sam with a mixture of laughter and devotion. He’s lucky to have her and he knows it.
In a way, I envy them. Being a rock star’s girlfriend sucks sometimes. I know there are a dozen paparazzi cameras hidden in the bushes, and they’re all focused on Jamie and me, not Orli and Sam. Tomorrow, all the stories will be about us, and when we’ll follow in their footsteps. But I have no plans in that direction. I’m eighteen, with my life ahead of me. Who knows what will happen next?
Jamie thinks he does, but then, Jamie is the most romantic boy I know. He has the soul of a poet, and poets dream big dreams. He wanted to settle down in a house by the sea with Sigrid and the Malteser diamond, until he discovered who she really was. He’s crazy, but I love him.
Will we survive the stories and the lies on the internet, and the girls who’ll follow him on tour while I go to art school? I can’t be sure. But twining my fingers into his on the beach today, I want us to.
Sigrid tried to break us apart. She gave a big interview soon after our relationship leaked out, saying I was her assistant and I’d ‘stolen’ Jamie from her. She was angry and hurt and it was obvious she was still in love with him.
Watching her rant and rave online, and all the comments mounting up underneath, defending me and criticizing her, I felt almost sorry for her. Almost. But I only had to remember that day in the dining room to find that my pity evaporated pretty fast. The support from the Pointer Sisters, meanwhile, means more to me than they will ever know.
Being a rock star’s girlfriend has its compensations.
Jamie standing in the kitchen at home, singing Ariel’s song to her, a cappella, solo. She nearly forgot to breathe.
Taking my whole family on holiday with his mum, to an island not far from here that was so beautiful I’m not sure I’ll ever recover.
Planning a mini-festival at the Hall next year, for fans of the band and local families. All those dreams we had about the place – he wants to turn them into reality. (Except the cheese part. He was joking about the cheese part.) Maybe one day we will.
He has the greatest smile in the world. This is official. It is even mentioned in Wikipedia. It still melts me every time.
The thing is, I melt him too.
‘Nina Nina Nina Nina.’
He sings my name under his breath, while Orli and Sam look lovingly at each other and say the vows he helped them write.
I rub my fingers against his. Rough and smooth. Skin against skin. That chemical rush never ceases to amaze me. It may break them, sometimes, but love is what hearts are for.
Some of his lines run through my head. They’re for my sister, and me, and for Aunt Cassie, and Orli today, and for everyone who has ever loved – like a love song should be.
And now you’re flying through the air
Like a bird, like an angel
Across the golden sky
Take me there
Take me anywhere
THE END
PLAYLIST
There are two critically important songs in this book: ‘In My Life’, by the Beatles, and ‘Kashmir’, by Led Zeppelin. I’ve known all the Beatles’ music all my life, but I only encountered ‘Kashmir’ properly recently, sitting quietly with my eight-year-old, and the spellbinding effect on us was similar to the one it has on Nina. I can still feel the chills.
All the songs mentioned in the book are important to me in one way or another. Here they are, along with some others I’d love to have included. I hope they get you dancing like nobody’s watching, and inspire you to make new discoveries of your own.
CHECK OUT SOPHIA’S
PLAYLIST ON
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Writing a book is a solitary process, but I couldn’t possibly have written this one without the help and inspiration of many wonderful friends. Thank you all.
To Theresa Waterlow, for donating Nina’s name. And Orli Voght-Vincent for donating her own name – a prize she won in a short story writing competition. I hope you both like who you became!
Melita and Rosella Gostelow for believing in Nina’s story all the way through, and Emily and Sophie Bennett, Freddie Rawlins, Archie, Alice and Eliza Reed and Louisa Hughes for helping me to find my way to the end.
My fabulous friends in the Sisterhood, the Yoga Girls and the Walkers. Especially, this time, Keris Stainton, Keren David and Susie Day, for your help when the story was a patchwork of scenes, and I hadn’t even decided on a tense.
The Reeds and Mark and Belinda Tredwell for giving me precious space to write.
The Year 8 girls at The Abbey School, Reading, for all the insightful comments and title suggestions. You were brilliant.
Adam Norsworthy for tips on band life when I really needed them. Keith Richards, Hunter Davies, Stephen Davis, Rod Stewart, John Taylor and Jo Wood for writing such entertaining and fascinating autobiographies and biographies. Rock is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
Professor Jim Al-Khalili and Professor Mark Miodownik for a fascinating discussion on Radio 4’s The Life Scientific, which introduced me to the importance of making things in the art of being happy. This strongly influenced who Nina was in the book, and how she coped, and is a recipe I use myself when I’m feeling low, and which I cheerfully pass on to my readers.
Jenny Savill at Andrew Nurnberg Associates for believing in Nina from the start, and Rachel Hickman for her support all the way through. Barry Cunningham, Rachel Leyshon and everyone at Chicken House. Helen Crawford-White for my cover, which actually helped me finish the book. And Bella Pearson for being an utterly brilliant editor, whom I’m so lucky to work with.
To Freddie and Tom for putting up with me when I was spending more time in Nina’s world than in my own.
And Alex. In the immortal words of another epic band, thank you for the music.
about the author
Sophia Bennett would have loved to be an artist, fashion designer, or the lady who does costumes for Jane Austen films. However, not being able to draw or sew very well made those careers unlikely. Luckily, she also loves to write. She is the author of the internationally successful Threads series, as well as The Look, You Don’t Know Me and The Castle, and has written for The Times and The Guardian.
She lives in London with her family, and is known for her shoes and her writing shed. You can find out more about her on her website: www.sophiabennett.com
@sophiabennett
SophiaBennettAuthor
Page 303 W.B. Yeats: from ‘Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ from The Wind Among the Reeds (1899)
ALSO BY SOPHIA BENNETT
THE THREADS TRILOGY
Nonie’s passion is fashion. Humanitarian Edie wants to save the world. And budding actress Jenny has just landed a part in a Hollywood blockbuster.
But when these three friends meet a young refugee called Crow, wearing a pair of pink fairy wings and sketching a dress, they get the chance to pool their talents and do something truly wonderful, proving that fashion fairy tales really can happen.
‘Great fun. It goes at a cracking pace
and girls will love it.’
JACQUELINE WILSON
‘. . . the next Princess Diaries – only hotter.’
THE TIMES
THREADS
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-910002-94-0, £6.99 • ebook, ISB
N 978-1-909489-24-0, £6.99
BEADS
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STARS
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ALSO BY SOPHIA BENNETT
THE LOOK
Ted is tall. Freaky. When she’s spotted by a model agency, she can’t believe it. At the same time, her gorgeous sister falls seriously ill.
With her world turned upside down, Ted must choose between fame and family. Can she be a supermodel and a super sister? All in five-inch heels?
‘. . . one word, BRILLIANT. A difficult topic,
sensitively handled.’
CATHY CASSIDY
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-910655-72-6, £6.99 • ebook, ISBN 978-1-908435-16-3, £6.99
ALSO BY SOPHIA BENNETT
YOU DON’T KNOW ME
Me and Rose. In a band. Singing together, all the way to the live finals of Killer Act.
Only to be told one of us must go. But no girl would drop her best friend in front of millions . . . Would she?
If this is fame, it sucks.
Everyone’s talking about us, but nobody knows the truth.
‘. . . her best yet.’
AMANDA CRAIG, THE TIMES
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-910655-73-3, £6.99 • ebook, ISBN 978-1-908435-80-4, £6.99
ALSO BY SOPHIA BENNETT
THE CASTLE
It’s not just the bridesmaid’s dress that Peta has a problem with – it’s the whole wedding. How can her mum remarry when Peta’s army-hero dad isn’t dead?
When Peta receives clues that seem to prove he’s alive, she sets out on a crazy mission. Somewhere across the sea, her father’s being held in a billionaire’s castle.
Dad would do anything to save her – and now it’s her turn to rescue him.
‘. . . a fun, frolicking, and increasingly frightening
adventure.’
TERI TERRY
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-909489-78-3, £6.99 • ebook, ISBN 978-1-909489-79-0, £6.99
Text © Sophia Bennett 2016
First paperback edition published in Great Britain in 2016
This electronic edition published in 2016
Chicken House
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Sophia Bennett has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved.
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Produced in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
Cover and interior design by Helen Crawford-White
Cover photographs:
hands © Annette Shaff/Shutterstock;
pedals © optimarc/Shutterstock;
microphones © bogdanhoda/Shutterstock
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data available.
PB ISBN 978-1-910002-72-8
eISBN 978-1-910655-56-6
Love Song Page 27