Cold Comfort

by Isobel Hart

  “Yeah, well you just made it one hundred percent sweeter for him,” Matt said, looking at me with something that resembled sympathy. “The guy loves the chase almost as much as he loves getting into pussy. Why do you think he’s got such a thing for girls with boyfriends? He wants the unattainable. You better hang on to your panties, girl,” he said with a laugh. I determined to avoid Cat completely from now on.

  Chapter 13

  The band were amazing. They’d been great when we’d watched them doing the sound check, but when they went on for the performance it was a whole other level. I could see exactly why they’d had the success they had. We’d been offered tickets in the VIP section, so I could gaze up at them as they strutted on the stage; the throbbing drums combined with their skilful guitar and the sexy rasp of Cat’s voice, producing a heady mix that evoked a physical response from me I hadn’t expected. For all their male posturing, the boys were really talented. Musically their songs were complex – no cheesy rock songs in sight – and they executed them with perfect timing that spoke of years of practice. When they played ‘Enemy’, and I heard the key change I loved live, even I screamed with pleasure. For a couple of hours I forgot their obnoxious personalities and savoured the brilliance of their playing and the meaning of their words. Eddy just enjoyed seeing me enjoy myself.

  Their audience was completely crazy. The majority of the women screamed any time one of the band members tried to speak. I saw bras and knickers fly past me towards the stage, and some of the yelled descriptions of what the women wanted to do to the guys made me blush. If this was what they were offered on a daily basis, it was no wonder the guys made the most of it. The women were most definitely willing.

  The after-show party to celebrate the completion of their sixteen-week European tour was at a nearby club. The American tour was due to start in October. I hadn’t wanted to go to the party, but Eddy had insisted we at least have a couple of drinks, just so I could experience it. So far all I’d experienced was sitting in a corner of the VIP section and wishing I could go home. The women were six deep around all the guys. Each of them had women hanging off both arms – even some of the roadies were benefiting from the overspill. The women themselves left nothing to the imagination, their willingness to do anything to spend some time with a member of Cold Comfort apparent in their overtly sexual behaviour. When I saw a girl slide under the table between Henry’s thighs, I wished I could summon some surprise, but frankly I was only surprised it hadn’t happened sooner.

  “It’s a bit much, isn’t it,” Eddy said as he slid onto a chair beside me. I nodded. “I’ll take you home if you like?”

  “Please,” I said gratefully, grabbing my jacket. We stood up and slowly weaved our way past all the ‘Clingons’.

  “Watch it,” a polished and painted blonde said bitchily to Eddy when he bumped into her, spilling her drink slightly onto her hand. She sneered as she looked at him. “Mind where you’re going, Mr Magoo.” She shoved him, and I watched as he stumbled into a table, knocking over all the drinks. He was mortified, and I was just plain angry. I marched up to the woman.

  “Apologise,” I demanded.

  “Fuck off,” she said with a flick of long artificially blonde hair.

  “I said, apologise. He bumped into you by accident. You deliberately pushed him into that table.”

  “Delilah, it’s fine, really,” Eddy said from behind me.

  “No, Eddy, it’s not fine. This ‘lady’,” I said, making it clear that a lady was the last thing I thought she was, “needs to learn how to conduct herself in public.”

  “Or what?” she challenged me.

  Or what indeed, I wondered now she’d called my bluff. My first instinct was to punch her on the nose, removing her smug expression and spreading her pert little nose all over her face. I clenched my fist, preparing, when I felt a hand clasp mine, holding me back.

  “Get out,” a voice growled behind me. At first I thought he was talking to me, but then I saw the bitch blanch.

  “Cat, baby,” she purred, trying to turn on the charm.

  “I said get out, Veronica.”

  “Why are you defending them? He spilt a drink all over my pretty dress,” she said, pushing her tits out. There was nothing to see but her breasts.

  “I watched you push him into the table. He’s family. I want you to leave. Now.” The coldness in his voice made me shiver, glad I wasn’t the target. A member of the club’s security arrived, drawn to the crowd that was forming around us. After a quick word with Cat, the bodyguard whisked Veronica away. She was shooting me poisonous stares all the while, and at that point I realised Cat still had hold of my hand.

  I pulled it sharply away, turning to look at him. He ignored me. “You alright, man?” he asked Eddy.

  “Yes, fine. Par for the course. Thanks, Cat.”

  “Don’t thank me. Stupid bitch deserved much worse. Still, I thought it was better to stop Cassius Clay here popping her on the nose. Nice to know you’ve got people looking out for you, though, kid.”

  Eddy peered at me. “Were you going to punch her, Delilah?”

  “Maybe,” I admitted. He hugged me.

  “Let’s go back to the house,” he suggested, and I nodded, relieved.

  “You’re going?” Cat asked. He seemed disappointed.

  “Yeah,” Eddy said. “I think we need to pace Delilah if she’s going to cope being around you guys all summer.” He laughed, but Cat just frowned.

  “How are you getting home?”

  “Um, taxi,” he replied. “Is that a trick question?”

  Cat frowned again. “Is that safe?”

  “Cat, we’re just normal people. You’ll find normal people do things like walk around without security and get taxis all the time. Really, we’ll be perfectly fine. Anyway, I’ve got Delilah to punch anyone that bothers me,” he said with a grin. Cat didn’t seem to know whether to grin back or frown.

  “Thanks for your help,” I mumbled to Cat. “See you soon.” Then I grabbed Eddy’s hand and pulled him behind me, praying he didn’t trip over anything. The evening was just getting a bit too weird now.

  *

  After a leisurely breakfast the next morning Eddy decided we should do the tourist thing since I’d never really been to London before, so he bought us both tickets for the Big Red Bus Tour. It wound its way past all the major sights, and we hopped on and off, enjoying the chance to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. By the time we finally rolled back into the house it was nearly seven in the evening. We’d stopped to buy pizza on our way home, making sure we had enough for any extras who might be at the house.

  “Where the fuck have you been?” Matt barked as soon as we stepped through the door.

  “Sorry?” Eddy said.

  “Where the fuck have you been?” he said again.

  “Sightseeing. Why? What’s the problem?”

  “You don’t think you should have let someone know? You’re off God knows where with God knows who, and you don’t think to even give us a call?”

  “Sorry, Dad,” Eddy said, frowning now. “I didn’t know I was expected to check in with you. I kind of thought you’d have more important things to worry about than what your adult brother was doing on a visit to London.”

  “My visually impaired adult brother.”

  I tensed, knowing how much Eddy hated it when people made his sight a reason to not live his life the way he wanted to. “Fuck you, Matt,” he said, striding away up the stairs. I just stood there, holding four pizza boxes and wondering what I was meant to do now.

  Matt sighed. “I’m sorry you got caught up in that,” he finally said.

  I considered what to say, wondering whether I should bite my tongue or let him have it. My mouth, as ever, ran away with me. “I’m not the one you should say sorry to.”

  “You don’t think I should worry about my brother?”

  “Sure you should. That’s part of what comes when you love someone. But don’t let his sight be the
reason you worry. He’s amazing, working hard every day to make sure his sight is not a reason for him not to live his life to the fullest possible. You’re meant to be there supporting him, cheering him on, not becoming part of the problems he has to overcome.”

  He looked dumbstruck, like he didn’t know what to say for a moment as he thought about what I’d said. Then he nodded at me decisively. “Back in a second,” he said, taking the stairs two at a time. I stood there in the hallway with my boxes of pizza hugged against my chest as I wondered what to do. In the end my hunger was too great, so I made my way down to the kitchen and helped myself to some of the still warm slices.

  “Oh god, you left her alone with the pizza?” Eddy berated Matt when they both walked into the room ten minutes later.

  “Funny, Eddy,” I grumbled.

  “Did you or did you not get sacked from a pizza restaurant for eating too many of the pizzas?”

  “I may have,” I admitted.

  “Well then. What’s the damage?” he asked, scanning the boxes. There were three intact pizzas and one remaining slice of the fourth. Matt looked at me, impressed.

  “I was hungry!”

  “Obviously,” he said, taking a slice from one of the untouched boxes. His phone rang, and he glanced at the name and groaned. “Jesus, he won’t leave me alone today.” He answered with a curt, “They’re fine. They just walked in with pizza.” I wondered who the hell he was talking to. There was a second or two of silence and then; “Sightseeing, apparently… Look, whatever. You can stand down, Batman. They’re fine.” I looked at Eddy, who seemed as confused as I was. “Yeah, okay, I think they’d like that. I’ll bring them. Laters,” he said and disconnected the call.

  “Who was that?” Eddy asked.

  “Cat. He’s been blowing up my phone, worried about you not being home all day for some reason.” His eyes flickered towards me.

  “I’m touched,” Eddy said with a grin. “I never knew he cared.”

  “You may mock, but the guy was talking about sending people out to look for you. Seriously, he was obsessed. Which reminds me, I hear Veronica got in your face yesterday at the club.”

  “If that was the girl that pushed me, then yes.”

  “I’m sorry about that. She’s one of the sluts that hangs around the band, or should I say Cat, although Henry’s running a close second at the moment. I’ll have a word when I next see her.”

  “She’ll be back?” I asked, surprised.

  “She’ll always be back. They’re like flies on shit, her sort, always hoping for a hookup with a member of the band. Sadly most of us have already been there and done that. Sorry, make that all of us.” He gave an apologetic grin. I just felt sick at the thought for some reason. “So anyway, Cat thought you might like to come and watch us re-film one of our videos tomorrow. We did most of it a while ago, but they need to re-shoot a couple of scenes. It might be fun for you, if you want to?”

  “Hell yes,” Eddy said with a grin. “I’d love to. What about you, Delilah?”

  I couldn’t deny the thought of watching them work on a video sounded fun. “If we won’t get in the way,” I stammered.

  “Mostly you’ll be sitting around like the rest of us watching Cat make love to the camera. It’s usually boring as hell, but I guess when you haven’t seen it done before it’s a bit of a novelty. Just to warn you, though, we need to be out of the house by six a.m. Will that be a problem? I know what you students are like.”

  *

  Despite my assurances to the contrary, it was more of a problem than I’d imagined. When Eddy had burst into my room and told me I had ten minutes to get dressed and be out the house, because I’d switched off my alarm and gone straight back to sleep, I was not in the best of moods. The weather was forecast to be hot as hell, which would have been great if we’d been in Brighton and had the benefit of the coastal breeze. But in London it meant shoe-meltingly hot. I grabbed a pair of denim shorts and a thin floaty halterneck top that tied at the back of my neck. Cramming my feet into a pair of flip-flops I trudged down the stairs, pulling my hair into a ponytail as I went, and grunted a greeting at Eddy and Matt, who were both waiting by the front door. Eddy laughed, used to my poor morning communication capabilities. Matt just swore. I frowned at him, wondering what I’d done wrong now. “You don’t even know, do you?” he asked, reading the confusion on my face. I frowned again, wondering what the hell was with him this morning and why he couldn’t just speak in complete sentences. I chose to ignore him, grabbed the coffee in a travel cup Eddy was holding out to me and followed the pair of them to the waiting car, annoyed to see that even the groupies weren’t up and waiting this early in the morning.

  I drifted back to sleep against Eddy as we weaved our slow path through the London traffic towards our film studio destination for the day. “You need to keep her away from him if you don’t want her to get hurt,” I heard Matt saying as I began to stir, wondering if I was dreaming the conversation or if it was real. It seemed like something my subconscious might try and tell me.

  “She’s done nothing to encourage him,” I heard Eddy say.

  “Doesn’t matter. Looking like she does, believe me, she doesn’t need to do a thing. But she seems like a nice girl. Nice girls need to keep well away from him. He’s a mess at the moment.”

  “I hear you,” Eddy said with a sigh. I knew they were talking about Cat. And me. I didn’t want to let them know I’d heard any of what had just been said, so I made a big production of waking up, doing a full arm stretch like something out of a Kellogg’s advert.

  “Ah, the Kraken awakes,” Matt said, laughing. “You’ve got a bit of drool down the side of your face,” he pointed out. “And a big sleep crease on your cheek. It suits you.” Eddy laughed, while I just grabbed my still warm coffee from the holder it had been placed in and downed it in one go, scowling at the pair of them. Matt had become much friendlier towards me now, but I worried about what I’d heard him saying, and determined to stay as far away from Cat at the studio as I could manage.

  “What’s the theme of the shoot today?” I asked Matt as we drove in through the studio gates and pulled up in front of a warehouse.

  “It’s a club scene. Boy sees girl, but she’s with another guy so he’s jealous kind of thing. We’ve already done most of it… they just needed a couple of re-shoots. It’ll mostly be Cat.” I nodded; at least that freed me up from being forced into his company. I followed them into the dark space, blinded for a moment as my eyes took their time to adjust to the reduced light. By reflex I put my arm out for Eddy, who I knew would be finding it even more difficult. After a couple of seconds I could see enough to head with the others towards a cluster of people at the other end of the cavernous space.

  An area in one corner had been dressed to resemble the inside of a club. When I wondered why they didn’t just use a real club, Matt explained it required less effort with lighting and cameras than it would taking them to an offsite filming spot. The area looked authentic enough if you didn’t look at the edges. People were milling around, extras I presumed, judging by the clothes they were wearing.

  Matt made his way over to where some chairs had been placed for the band and slumped down in front of a mirror. A girl immediately began powdering his face. I laughed at how little he seemed to be enjoying it. Dougie and Cat were already seated, and Henry flounced in about ten minutes later with a blonde fastened to him. She wasn’t the same as the one I’d seen him with previously, but she looked like she’d been cast from the same mould. “I told Thea she could be an extra,” he announced. Thea simpered. I saw a guy I assumed was a director roll his eyes and say something to one of the other make-up artists, who immediately started doing some work on Thea. Fortunately Thea was already in the right attire, although I suspected it was the same outfit she’d been wearing the night before when she met Henry. Just a guess.

  Eddy and I found our way to a place behind the director, but out of the way, and sat ourselves down on some e
quipment boxes. From our position I could see all the band’s equipment set up. It looked like they were planning to shoot as if the band were playing on stage at the club. Sure enough, after about half an hour the band took to their ‘stage’ and began to play the track. The ‘clubbers’, including Thea, danced as if they were having one of the best nights of their lives, despite the fact it was eight in the morning. At first the director took time getting shots of the band playing and the clubbers dancing, without really focusing on Cat. It took a good couple of hours until he was happy, by which point the audience were tired of being repositioned in the same spots and having to look like they were having a good time. It was all relatively tedious.

  The band were excellent, though. Not perfect every time, and even though Cat wasn’t singing at full volume, just marking the song, his voice was incredible. “Cat, we need you now, please,” I heard the director say. “And Amelia and Robert.” Amelia was one of the usual blondes, but marginally prettier than average from what I could see. I watched as the director talked through what he wanted her to do. Robert was meant to chat her up, and she was meant to like it, while Cat sang on, watching from a distance, looking jealous. It seemed simple enough.

  Robert looked like he was completely into it as he leaned into Amelia, one hand placed against the wall beside her as he bent forward and whispered into her ear, making her laugh. They looked the real deal. I was impressed. “Good,” I heard the director say. “Cat, you need to look like you give a shit, for fuck’s sake.”

  “Are you enjoying the show?” a voice beside me asked. Eddy had gone to talk to Matt and the others, who were off to one side, while I’d chosen to stay clear of the band and watch the shoot instead. I turned to see a young guy, one of the clubbing extras, had moved to sit down next to me.

  “Yeah, I really am,” I said, realising it was true.

  “Takes a while to get it right, but it’s fun to see. At least the music’s good at this shoot,” he said with a laugh. “I was on a shoot for a chocolate bar, and we had to sit on the Underground on the hottest day of the year for about five hours. It was hell.” He smiled, and I smiled back. He seemed nice enough.