Between a Rockstar and a Hard Place by Portia MacIntosh Read Free Book Online Page B

but notice how
uncomfortable it is. It’s only as we stop kissing for a second that we realise
the bed is moving – no, it’s not a ghost, someone is in it. Have I come to the
wrong room? This is the room Claire told me to come to. Still on top of me,
Troy pulls back the covers and sure enough there is someone underneath me, and
that someone is Dylan. In his own room, in his own bed, alone – well, until
Troy and I joined him.
    ‘Nic,
please don’t have sex on me,’ Dylan says with a groan, pulling the covers back
over his face.
    ‘Oh
yeah, because you’d never do that to me.’
    ‘That
was one time,’ he replies with a chuckle, wiggling free from underneath us.
    Troy
and I stare at each other in amazement for a movement. We’ve found him in the
one place we never would have considered looking for him.
    ‘Dill,
I’ve been looking for you all night, what are you doing here?’
    ‘I
was tired,’ he replies, pulling the covers up over his face.
    ‘Yeah,
I’m not surprised,’ Troy chimes in.
    Dylan
sits upright in his bed and glares at Troy.
    ‘What’s
that supposed to mean?’ he asks defensively.
    ‘This
poor girl – your friend – has been chasing a trail of tail all over town to try
and find you.’
    ‘I
can’t help it if the ladies love me,’ Dylan says smugly with a wiggle of his
eyebrows.
    ‘Yeah,
and the men,’ Troy quips.
    Dylan,
who didn’t look that healthy to begin with, goes ghostly white as he realise
that we know about Lola.
    ‘You’re
lucky this girl cares about you,’ Troy continues. ‘Because without her you’d be
in big trouble right now, and can you imagine the headlines if she sold your
secrets. Don’t take her for granted.’
    ‘What
headlines?’ Dylan persists, not knowing to quit while he’s ahead.
    ‘Take
a wild guess, Dylan Queen,’ Troy says with a laugh.
    Dylan
jumps out of bed and goes for Troy, but I step between them.
    ‘Come
on boys, crisis averted, there’s no need to fight.’
    Dylan
points a finger right in Troy’s face. ‘Fuck you, X Factor boy,’ he yells as he
backs down.
    ‘Dylan,
be nice to Troy, he’s spent all night helping me find you. Now quick, pack up
your things and let’s go, we’ve got twenty minutes to get you to the tour bus.’
    Dylan
does as instructed, and while we have a little time alone together Troy and I
say goodbye.
    ‘Well,
it’s certainly been fun,’ he says.
    ‘It
has – in places. Mainly the places with you.’ I smile.
    'Nicole,
can I ask you a question?'
    'I
do,' I sing in reply to the marriage proposal I knew he was never going to
make.
    'Hey,
I just met you-'
    'And
this is crazy, but here's my number, so call me maybe,' I interrupt, never one
to be able to resist a sing-song.
    Troy
laughs and shakes his head.
    ‘Seriously,
Nicole. I’ll be in Leeds in a few weeks. Can see each other again?’
    ‘I’d
like that,’ I tell him honestly.
    Troy
pulls me close and kisses me again.
    ‘Get
a room,’ Dylan says, dumping his bags by the door and shooting me a look like
I’m the one holding things up. 'Preferably not one that I'm sleeping in.'
    Way
to ruin the moment, Dylan.
    As
the three of us make our way to the lift, things feel a little awkward.
    ‘Troy
just invited me to one of his gigs,’ I say to fill the silence. ‘You should
come too, Dylan.’
    ‘Ha!
Can you even sing, X Factor boy?’
    ‘I
wasn’t on the X Factor, and yes, I can sing.’
    ‘Course
you can.’
    I
don’t know if it’s because Dylan and Troy are bickering or if it is because
we’re running out of time, but this is one of the longest lift journeys of my
life. The silence doesn’t last for long before Troy starts singing.
    ‘Well
I'm not the world’s most physical guy but when she squeezed me tight she nearly
broke my spine, oh my Lola, lo-lo-lo-lo Lola. Well I'm not dumb but I can't
understand why she walked like a woman and talked like a man, oh my Lola,
lo-lo-lo-lo Lola.’
    It
doesn’t take long for Dylan to catch on that