Crystal (4 page)

Everyone filed silently out of the room. Crystal didn’t dare say anything until she was sure they couldn’t be overheard. Once they were back in the rehearsal room she turned to Belle, who looked pale, and said, ‘Well, is there something you need to tell us?’

Belle was just about to reply when the door swung open and Dallas strode in. ‘Sit down, girls, we need to talk. First of all, Crystal and Tahlia you need to know that there is nothing going on between me and Belle. She has a boyfriend, I have a girlfriend, and as far as I’m concerned she’s just another contestant; that’s it. I give you my word.’

Crystal looked at him closely. Was he telling the truth? She didn’t know for sure, but she had a pretty good idea that Dallas would be perfectly capable of lying in the interests of self-preservation.

‘But I’m afraid it is going to be harder for you now to get through to the next stage.’

‘What!’ the girls exclaimed in unison.

‘You are going to have to give the performance of your lives on Friday – you’ve got to be better than the others by the widest of margins. It cannot look as though I am favouring you. I’ve got my reputation to think of. People can’t think I favour pretty girls.’

‘But you’ve just said there’s nothing going on!’ Crystal couldn’t stop herself from saying.

‘And that’s the truth,’ Dallas answered coldly. ‘I’m just giving you the facts; we’ve got to consider what people will think.’ With that he got up, and just as he was leaving the room he added, ‘You’ll also be doing a photo shoot tomorrow with Max and I want you all to stress how much Belle and he are in love. It will look good.’

Crystal, Tahlia and Belle stared at each other as Dallas shut the door. Crystal felt too wound up to speak, afraid that if she opened her mouth she would lay into Belle and say something she might regret.

‘Okay, Crystal, can you get in closer to Max, and Max put your arm round her,’ the tabloid photographer barked out instructions to Lost Angels and Max as they posed in Dallas’s beautiful walled rose garden. The whole experience was torture for Crystal. Max was his usual charming self, flirting with her and telling her how beautiful she looked, when he thought no one could hear, but the rest of the time he was all over Belle. They’d had to do group photos and then she and Tahlia had to watch while Max and Belle posed together for the photographs that were supposed to tell the world how much they were in love. So there were shots of the couple kissing, of them in each other’s arms, of Belle sitting on Max’s knee.

‘Are you sure this isn’t going to backfire?’ Crystal asked Dallas who had come along to watch. ‘I mean, isn’t it all this lovey-dovey stuff a bit sickly?’

Dallas laughed. ‘Crystal, I had no idea you were such a cynic. Trust me, it won’t. People will just see a couple who are in love; they’ll think it’s romantic.’

Crystal wasn’t so sure and she couldn’t help wondering why Max was so keen to play the role of the loving boyfriend. Didn’t he suspect Belle at all? Wasn’t
he
worried about the story? She made an excuse that she needed a drink and headed back to the mansion. Soon the journalist would be
interviewing them, and she and Tahlia were supposed to enthuse about how much Belle and Max were in love. It wasn’t something she was looking forward to. She’d almost reached the house when Max called out to her as he strode after her through the grounds, ‘Hey, are you okay? You’ve hardly said a word.’

She turned and Max was so close to her that their bodies were almost touching.
God he was so fucking sexy.
She longed to get closer still, to slide her hands under his shirt, touch his golden-brown skin, kiss those lips . . . She shook her head, trying to get a grip. ‘I don’t know, this whole thing just seems so corny to me.’

‘So, you don’t buy into the whole fairy-tale romance between me and Belle?’ He asked mockingly.

‘I don’t know,’ she replied, staring back at him. ‘Should I?’

‘For practical reasons, yes, you should.’ He paused and reached out to brush back a lock of hair that had fallen on to her face, and Crystal felt a spark of desire at his touch. ‘I don’t know what Belle got up to with Dallas, probably nothing, but I’m doing this for Lost Angels
.
If I don’t, you’ll be screwed, the public will hate you and I want you to do well. But I’m doing it for me as well. I’ve got a proposition – I’d like to manage the group. I’ve got some great contacts. You’re the really talented one, Crystal, and I think we’d make a good team. If you go with Dallas you know he’ll end up ripping you off; his kind always do. And just how long do you think he’ll be interested in you? It’ll last a few months, you’ll churn out the album and then he’ll forget all about you and be on to the next reality show winner. Whereas I would be with you one hundred per cent. What do you think?’

For a moment Crystal was lost for words, trying to figure out her feelings – was Max interested in
her
or just the group, and did he have true feelings for Belle? Then she spoke. ‘It’s an interesting thought, Max. I’d need to talk to the others and I’d need to know what you could offer us.’

‘I think I could take you all the way, Crystal,’ Max replied, staring into her eyes, and Crystal found herself thinking
God
yes.
Then Belle called him and the spell was broken. ‘Just think about it,’ he said to her as he turned to go.

The story about Dallas’s alleged special relationship with Belle came out the next day and was front-page news in one of the more downmarket tabloids. Crystal had got up at six, dressed in her gym kit and run to the newsagents in the nearby village to buy the paper – she’d hardly slept the night before worrying about what it was going to say. The article was short on facts and big on rumour; its only source an anonymous contestant who claimed that Dallas and Belle had been spending a lot of time together
alone
, and that Dallas was therefore bound to favour Lost Angels. The paper had used one of the girls’ early publicity shots and Crystal felt horribly pessimistic as she looked at their smiling, hopeful faces. Was this going to be the end of them? Before they’d even had a chance to prove themselves? But by the time she had walked back to the mansion, anger and determination had taken over. She was not going to let this defeat her.

Belle went mad when Crystal showed her the paper, throwing it across the room and shouting that it was all ‘bollocks’. But just as Crystal couldn’t read Dallas, so she couldn’t tell if Belle was lying or not. However, she knew that worrying about it would get them nowhere. So after letting Belle moan about the unfairness of it all for half an hour and listening to Tahlia worry, Crystal insisted that they put it behind them and get back to rehearsing. And for the next two days she was the one who held them together, made them continue rehearsing long into the night when they were all knackered, and told them to ignore the other acts who continued to give them the cold shoulder. It was so ironic, she thought, that the song which Dallas had given them to perform was Destiny’s Child’s ‘Survivor’.

‘We’ve got to be perfect,’ she insisted when Belle complained. ‘Anything less and we just won’t get through, you heard what Dallas said.’

Crystal woke at six on Friday and couldn’t get back to
sleep. Today would decide their whole future. She lay in bed willing herself to be strong, trying to push everything out of her head except the performance later that day. Max had texted her the night before, wishing her luck and suggesting they meet the following week to discuss his proposal. As usual the prospect of meeting him sent her emotions into free fall. At eight all the contestants had to assemble in the dining room where they would be given the instructions for the day. They were expecting to perform in one of the mansion’s vast rooms but Dallas, being Dallas, had a little surprise for them. ‘In half an hour you’ll be getting on a coach to London. You’re going to perform your song on stage at Earl’s Court with a full orchestra. ‘Each group will have an hour to rehearse. Then at two it will be the real thing and I’ll be deciding which four groups will be going on to the next round of the competition and which will be going home.’

Crystal looked at Tahlia and Belle – they all looked shocked at the prospect.

‘I expect
you
knew that already,’ one of the other contestants said snidely to them as they left the room.

‘Fuck off, of course we didn’t,’ Belle snapped back.

‘Yeah, right,’ the girl answered, shooting Belle a filthy look. Belle was about to answer back but Crystal grabbed her arm and whispered, ‘Just leave it, Belle.’

They arrived at Earl’s Court at midday. Crystal walked into the vast auditorium, feeling completely overwhelmed. Lost Angels had never performed at such a venue, nor had they ever been backed by an orchestra. True, none of the other bands had either but then Lost Angels were under pressure to be nothing less than the best. They didn’t perform very well during the rehearsal. Belle forgot her words, Tahlia came in too early and Crystal failed to hit a note, something that had never been a problem before.

‘It can’t end here!’ Crystal said as they sat in the dressing room, trying to stop them all feeling pessimistic and downhearted about their chances. ‘We’ve worked so hard to get
here. I know the rehearsal didn’t go well, but we’re better than the other acts. Let’s just go through the song one more time.’

Lost Angels were the last act on stage. Crystal walked on with a lot more confidence than she felt. The lights were shining directly on them so she couldn’t see anyone in the auditorium, but she knew Dallas was there, joined by his two singing coaches Kathy and Frank. Then the music started up.
This was it.
As Crystal began singing, the nerves suddenly left her. She could do this; she was a good singer and so were the others – they deserved to go through. It seemed that Tahlia and Belle felt the same way and this time they gave as close to a perfect performance as Crystal thought was possible. Surely it had been enough to secure their place? At the end Dallas simply said, ‘Wait on the stage, girls, the other acts will be joining you and I’ll be telling you who’s in and who’s out.’

The other acts walked on in silence – everyone was too apprehensive to speak.
Please let us get through
, Crystal found herself thinking over and over, digging her fingernails into her palms. She knew the cameras were on her, recording everything for the TV, but she was past caring about looking cool. She wanted this more than she had ever wanted anything and if she didn’t get it, she didn’t know what she would do. But then her thoughts were interrupted by Dallas’s voice: ‘I’ve made my decision and I’ve decided that—’ he reeled off the names of three of the other acts and Lost Angels, Crystal took a sharp intake of breath, waiting to hear their fate – ‘will not’ – he paused for effect and Crystal thought she would scream with the tension – ‘will not be going home. You’re all staying with me.’

Crystal didn’t hear anything else, as she found herself whooping with delight and hugging Tahlia and Belle.
They’d done it!

‘It’s a fucking stitch-up,’ one of the contestants whose group hadn’t made it said loudly, bringing Crystal brutally back down to earth. ‘Come on,’ she said to the others, ‘let’s go
to the dressing room.’ She wanted to celebrate their success without being watched and without having to hear the snide remarks.

‘Well done, girls!’ Kathy, their singing coach, walked into the room and hugged them all. ‘You were fantastic, by far the best.’ She was followed by Dallas who actually smiled at them. ‘You were great, well done.’ Belle ran over and threw her arms round his neck and hugged him while Crystal and Tahlia stood awkwardly to one side. Then Dallas walked over to them and gave each of them a kiss on the cheek. But just as Crystal was thinking that he wouldn’t give them such a hard time now they’d proved themselves, he delivered another of his bombshells.

‘Okay, so you’re through but I can guarantee it’s going to be harder for you. You’re going to have to work extra hard so that the public don’t think I’ve favoured you. And you’ve all got to have whiter than white images – there can’t be any more scandal attached to the group. So that means no shagging around, no going out drinking and partying. If there are any skeletons I need to know now so I’m prepared. The press are bound to go digging around. So, Belle, is there anything I need to know?’

Belle shook her head and said confidently, ‘No, Dallas, there’s nothing.’

‘Tahlia?’

Tahlia shook her head and whispered, ‘No.’

‘And you, Crystal?’

‘I have no skeletons,’ Crystal replied.

Three Months Later . . .

‘
PLEASE
, DALLAS, CAN’T
we stop now? We’re all knackered!’ Crystal was so exhausted she didn’t think she could sing another note. Her throat hurt, her eyes were sore and she could feel the beginnings of a spot on her chin and Crystal
never
got spots. She looked pleadingly at Dallas. But as usual he didn’t budge. Immediately he was on talkback through the studio glass in his best sarcastic LA drawl. ‘Listen, cupcake, if you want to stand any chance of winning this competition stop whining and concentrate on getting this song right. At the moment it sounds shit.’

‘Come on, Crystal,’ Tahlia said encouragingly. ‘We can do this.’

Belle rolled her eyes at Crystal and muttered, ‘Let’s get it over with.’

Trust them to toe the line
, Crystal thought bitterly; she was always the one who stood up to Dallas and spoke up for the band. They’d made it through to the semi-final but had had to fight for their place all the way through the live shows and consistently outsing the other acts. There had been no more rumours about Belle and Dallas’s relationship, but you know what they say about mud sticking . . . and the public didn’t like it, nor did the other acts. It had felt like a very lonely three months for the girls, constantly trying to prove themselves.

The music started up in their headphones, Crystal closed her eyes, took a deep breath and for what seemed like the
hundredth time that day began singing ‘When Will I See You Again?’