No Matter What (5 page)

The kettle flicked off and he poured the boiling water into his mug, realising he’d forgotten to put in the teabag.
 
Rooting around in the back of the cupboard he managed to find a box containing three teabags.
 
Looked like shopping was on the cards this afternoon then.
 

He carried his tea over to the kitchen table and sat down with the newspaper, aimlessly flicking through it but not taking notice of anything.
 
He was too busy remembering the day he and
India
had been told they were actually only half brother and sister - the day before his thirteenth birthday.
 

Their mum had always been a bit of a hippie at heart, a child of the sixties. She’d followed The Beatles through every phase and had seemed to share that whole concept of free love that was floating around in the latter part of that decade.
 
So much so that a one night fling at a music festival had resulted in the birth of his little sister, named
India
because of the fact The Beatles had visited that country in their hippie phase and their mother had always wanted to go there.
 
His dad had never been anywhere farther than
Blackpool
on a caravan holiday in 1962 and had gone ballistic when the truth had come out.
 
Their mother may have been scatty with a head full of idealistic dreams but she hadn’t been able to keep the fling a secret from her husband.
 
He’d stood by her, brought
India
up as his own, but their relationship had never been the same again.
 
There’d been rows, recriminations and countless affairs for both of them meaning that, for Terry and
India
, home life had never been settled.
 
They’d both escaped outside on their bikes or to the field at the top of their street to kick a football about with their mates, more often than not ending up back at someone else’s house for tea where they’d experienced what it was like to have a mum and dad who weren’t fighting constantly or disappearing off out with their latest fling not knowing whether they’d be back home that night or not.
 

It had been tough but it had brought him and
India
closer.
 
She’d been a little tomboy growing up, always in jeans and trainers and never bothered about falling over and scuffing her knees or elbows.
 
Scars were never something she’d cared about, and she hadn’t changed that much now if he thought about it.
 
Sure, she’d grown up into a great looking kid but she never felt comfortable in the skirts and heels she had to wear for work, she’d told him that herself.

He smiled at the thought of his baby sister, all blonde hair and blue eyes, and he wished she was here with him so he could keep a closer eye on her.
 
She never mentioned anything about any men she dated and he only hoped that any who did cross her path looked after her, or they’d have him to answer to.
 
To all intents and purposes she was all he had due to the total lack of concern coming from any parent, and he just wanted to make sure she was ok.
 

She’d handled the whole half brother/sister thing much better than he had but he often wondered if it played on her mind.
 
She’d never asked their mum anything about her father and he often wondered if she ever thought about him.
 
Especially after the recent divorce of their parents.
 
He was surprised it hadn’t made
India
think more about her real dad.

He shook himself out of those thoughts and took a large gulp of now lukewarm tea, shutting the paper and pushing his chair back, standing up just as the ‘phone rang.
  
He picked it up and leaned back against the kitchen counter.

“Hello?”

“Terry?
 
It’s
India
.”

“
India
!
 
Hey, sweetheart, can you speak up a bit?
 
The line’s really dodgy and I can’t hear you very well.
 
You sound like you’re on the other side of the world or something.”

“Well, actually, it’s funny you should say that ...”

CHAPTER 4

India
felt sick.
 
Kenny Ross - she’d been told she’d be screen testing with Kenny Ross and now all the nerves she’d had in the first place had multiplied tenfold.
 
What the
hell
was she doing here?
 
Why she’d let Charley talk her into doing this she had no idea.
 
She’d left the safety of a city she knew like the back of her hand and the security of a job that she rather liked to fly over to
L.A.
with Reece Brogan - movie star - and screen test for a
Hollywood
film!
 
She was quite positive she was still in the middle of some crazy dream and she’d wake up any minute in front of TVAM and the familiar voice of Anne Diamond telling her everything was as it should be.

She sat down on the edge of her hotel bed and looked around the room.
 
It was amazing!
 
She was more used to the basic hotels they’d experienced on holiday in Benidorm and
Ibiza
, or the B & B’s they’d stayed in when she and Charley went out of town to see some band or other.
 
She wasn’t used to king-size beds, big screen TV’s and bathrooms with telephones in them.
 
What was
that
all about?

She got up and went over to the mini-bar, opening it up and looking inside.
 
Gin.
 
No, not her kind of drink.
 
Vodka.
 
That was more like it.
 
She took out the miniature bottle and opened it, not even bothering to look for a glass.
 
Sitting back down on the bed she finished the drink in two mouthfuls, letting the warm liquid slide down her throat, choking slightly as she swallowed too quickly.

Her mind wandered back to the screen test and the information she’d now been told.
 
She’d automatically thought she’d be testing with Reece but that wasn’t the case.
 
The part she was testing for would have the most scenes with Kenny Ross; therefore the chemistry had to be right.
 
She felt quite ill at the thought.
 
She’d had a huge crush on Kenny Ross for ages, a real daydream-every-second-about-him kind of crush.
 
The kind of stupid crush that meant you went to see one of his films five times in one week just-because-he-looked-so-hot kind of crush, and now she was going to be standing right beside him, looking at him in the flesh, and she couldn’t quite get her head around it all.
 
It was too much, it was like some crazy dream that was skipping from scene to scene far too fast so it all became disjointed and surreal.
 
Yet here she was, sitting in a hotel room in the middle of
Los Angeles
waiting to do a screen test with a
Hollywood
actor she’d thought she would only ever dream about meeting.
 
It was mad!

She fell back onto the bed and threw her arms up above her head, staring at the stark white ceiling above her.
 
She was shattered and emotional.
 
She’d only arrived in
L.A.
two days ago but this was the first time she’d had a chance to actually sit down and take it all in.
 
Reece had been amazing; it was hard to believe he was such a big star because he was so down-to-earth.
 
He’d made it really easy for her to become totally comfortable with him as he’d carefully explained everything that would be happening when they arrived in the
U.S.A.
 
Her feet hadn’t touched the ground since, but Reece had been with her every step of the way.
 
He’d organised visa’s, every piece of paperwork she’d needed; he’d done all of that for her because she’d been in a complete daze since that night in
Newcastle
.

As soon as they’d arrived in
L.A.
he’d showed her around, made sure she knew what was what, but there was so much to take in.
 
Her head had been spinning ever since she’d got off the ‘plane.
 
She’d had meetings with one of the movie’s executive producers, a friendly and funny guy in his thirties called Vince, who’d made her feel completely at ease in a totally alien environment.
 
She’d been introduced to agents and casting directors, she’d listened to advice and had been talked at until she could no longer think straight.
 
She’d had photographs taken in a professional studio and they’d made her look incredible, but none of it felt like it was happening to her.
 
It was almost as if she was watching it all happening to somebody else and she was just hovering around on the sidelines.

She’d also found out that Michael Walsh, the movie’s director and another actor she greatly admired, was going to be conducting the screen test tomorrow and that had done nothing to abate any of the nerves building up in her tightly knotted stomach.
 
She’d never sleep tonight, that was a given.

Sitting up, she reached for the remote control, flicked on the TV and started skipping through the channels.
 
She was missing ‘
Coronation Street
’.
 
She should be at home, with a cup of tea, watching the soaps instead of whatever it was she was supposed to be doing here.
 
She finally fell upon a comedy show she recognised and left it playing in the background as she got up and walked over to the window.

Terry had gone mad when she’d ‘phoned him from the airport and told him where she was.
 
He couldn’t believe she’d just upped and left the U.K. with a strange -
 
even if he
was
incredibly famous - man and his entourage and gone to The States on some whim.
 
He’d found Reece’s whole spiel of an acting role in a movie wholly suspicious and the more she thought about it, that’s exactly how it must have sounded when she’d relayed what had happened back to him.
 
This wasn’t a usual occurrence in anyone’s life let alone an ordinary twenty-two year old Geordie girl’s so he had every right to be suspicious.
 
He was her big brother and he worried about her.
 
What she was doing must be giving him sleepless nights.
 

She pushed a hand through her hair and sighed, leaving the view of palm tree- lined streets behind her as she walked into the bathroom, going over to the sink and splashing cold water on her face.
 
She felt guilty now.
 
She should have thought this through, she should have told Reece he was crazy and gone back to work at ‘Wheatman and Rogers’ and forgotten all about this whole stupid idea.
 
What on earth was she doing?

She walked back into the bedroom and sat down on the edge of the huge king-size bed, reaching for the ‘phone.
 
Maybe hearing about what was going on back home in the real world might help calm her down a bit and she punched in Charley’s number.
 
She couldn’t help smiling to herself.
 
Charley was going to freak at the news she was going to be up close with Kenny Ross tomorrow, and she couldn’t wait to tell her.

***

Charley put down the ‘phone and sat back in the chair behind her reception desk at ‘Wheatman and Rogers’, sighing loudly as she looked at the normality going on all around her while
India
was in the middle of a dream.
 

She couldn’t believe her friend was going to be meeting the gorgeous Kenny Ross tomorrow.
 
How many times had the pair of them watched his films and fantasised about what it would be like to meet him, to look up into those gorgeous, dark eyes of his?
 
Now
India
was going to be doing just that.
 

She fiddled with the pen she was holding, unable to stop the wave of jealousy sweeping over her.
 
It could have been her that Reece had approached if only she hadn’t got talking to David Henderson.
 
He might be on track to become a partner in the firm, and he
was
really good-looking with a healthy bank account and a Mercedes, but if she hadn’t let that one little episode of flirting distract her then surely Reece would have come to her instead of
India
?
 
She was better looking for sure.
 
What was it in
India
he’d seen?
 
She should have done what she’d originally planned and stayed close to Reece that night, made sure he’d known she existed instead of disappearing off like she had.
 
She could kick herself!
 
She was happy for
India
, Of course she was.
 
She was her best friend and this was a fantastic opportunity for her.
 
But Charley couldn’t help feeling just a tiny bit jealous.