Revelry (Taint #1) (35 page)

“You’re not from here, are you?” he asks.

“No, I’m not. That’s a keen observation though.”

“Where are you from?”

“Australia,” I reply, and skull the remainder of my beer.

“Well then, Australia, now that you’re finished, you gonna let me buy you that drink or not?”

“No, I’m really not,” I say, and stand up from the stool. “To be honest, I already have way more rock star than I know what to do with. So thank you, but no thank you.”

Realisation dawns on his face. “Wait, you’re the redhead.”

“I am a redhead, yes, again, very keen observation.”

“I saw your video.”

“What video? What are you talking about?”

“The video with you, Cooper Ryan and Levi Quinn.” He arches a brow at me and prompts, “In the elevator?”

The blood drains from my face. I feel it. There one minute, and gone the next. I stagger a little on the spot, and Smirky grabs my elbow to steady me. “That was you, wasn’t it? Fuck that shit was hot. You know, if you want a future in porn I know someone.”

Oh my god. I sit down hard on the stool and he grins at me. “Wait till I tell Mikey about this. Hey Mike!” he screams across the bar to the stage. “I found the redhead.”

Everyone in hearing distance turns to look at me, and I shoot up from my seat, sprinting from the venue. I run as fast as my feet will take me, and I have no idea where I am, but the streets are dark and I think I’m in a less than desirable neighbourhood because the buildings all around me are run-down, some with missing windows, some completely picked bare of building materials that might have been of a use to someone.

My phone rings, the shrill sound echoing into the empty street, but I ignore it in place of bending over and vomiting on the pavement. And all over my lucky red Cons, which aren’t so lucky any more, it would seem. My phone rings out and then starts up again immediately. I let it ring as I bend over, clutching my stomach, trying to rid my body of the bile, and then, because my day couldn’t quite get shit enough, it starts to pour. Fat raindrops hit my face and body.

This time, when the phone rings I answer it. “What?”

“Where the fuck are you?” Coop says.

“I don’t know.”

“Why didn’t you answer your phone? What the fuck, Ali? You disappear when I’m onstage. James said you were accosted by groupies, and then you just sprinted off into the night by yourself. Do you know how stupid that is? Where the fuck are you? The bus is ready to leave. I’m getting in a cab and I’m coming to find you.”

“I don’t know, okay?” I mutter, on the verge of tears. “I have no idea where I am. I’m lost and I’m cold and they know.”

“Who knows? What are you talking about? Are you high?”

“No, I’m not high,” I snap. “Everyone knows, Coop.”

“Ali-Cat, you gotta talk to me, babe. Everyone knows what?”

“About us. Levi, you and me.” I swallow down the lump in my throat, tasting bile. “There’s a video.”

“FUCK!”

“I’m going to go home.”

“What are you talking about? You’re not going home. Tell me where you are and I’ll come find you.”

“I don’t know where I am, Coop. I don’t know what I’m doing.” Tears fall down my face in a torrent, washed away by the rain. I bend over, clutching my stomach again, though I know there’s nothing left to purge. “How did we get here?”

“Fuck, Ali, don’t fucking freak out on me now. Look around you. Where are you? Is there a street sign?” I peer up the road, locating one. “I’m on Wiltshire Street.”

“Wiltshire Street, now,” he says, I assume to a cab driver because I hear his door slam and the soft rumbling of an engine in the background. “I’m in the car. I’ll be there in twenty minutes, okay? We’re going to sort this out. We’ll figure it out, just … no more talk of leaving, you got me?”

“Okay,” I whisper.

“Ali?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really sorry, babe. This is all my fault.”

I shake my head, as though he could see. “No, it’s not. It’s mine.”

After twenty minutes of standing in the freezing cold rain, a cab pulls up and Cooper jumps out before it’s even pulled over to the curb.

“Ali,” he says as he wraps me up in his arms. He smells like sweat and cologne, a heady mixture.

“Fuck, you scared the shit outta me.” He pulls back to look at my face. “You okay?”

My teeth chatter and my whole body quakes as I nod, and then I shake my head and lean into him.

He doesn’t say anything about the vomit on my shoes, or more than likely on my breath, and I appreciate that. Instead, he bundles me up in his coat and hurries me inside the cab, instructing the driver to take us back to the stadium. When we pull up outside the lot at the back, there are more than just fangirls waiting—set up around a barricade is several paparazzi.

Levi, Zed and Ash all pose for photos with fans and sign pictures and skin for the awaiting fans while the photographers go to town on the free picture opp. That is until the cab door opens and Cooper steps out, and then the vultures descend.

Stadium security presses the crowd back, but the paps sneak through, catcalling to Cooper, “Who’s the redhead?” and “Is it true the video was a publicity stunt?”

Cooper’s face is stoic, until one reporter asks whom I like having sex with more, and Cooper freezes. He lets go of me, and whirls, fists ready to fly, but Levi gets there first. He smacks the guy out in front of everyone, and all to a barrage of flashing cameras. I bury my face in my hands as I’m ushered into the bus by Zed, while Ash and Levi push Cooper inside after us.

“Guess we know who top dog is in the bed room,” another pap calls, but the damage is already done.

“Fuck!” Cooper shouts, kicking the shit out of the coffee table.

James peels away from the edge of the curb, but the throng of bodies is so tight we’re not moving anywhere. I stand, shivering in Cooper’s coat, and Deb hops up from the couch, springing into action.

“Ash, get Vanessa on the phone.” She points to Levi. “This idiot needs a lawyer’s council before we cross the border and leave the state. And we need someone on the phone to that hotel. Find out who uploaded the tape. That shit needs to be taken down now.”

Ash pulls his phone from his pocket and wanders off towards the back of the bus.

Deb continues barking directives, “Cooper, if you don’t calm the fuck down right this second, I’m gonna have Zed strap you down, and imagine what that’s going to do for publicity.”

The windows on the tour bus are tinted, but that means nothing when you have a telescopic lens and a big-arse flash, or so we’d learned when we left San Francisco and pics were snapped of the boys chugging back a celebratory beer at the dining table as we’d pulled out of the lot there.

“I can’t believe you hit him,” Coop sneers at Levi.

“What, like you weren’t gonna do the same thing?”

Cooper grinds his teeth. “Yeah, I was.”

My teeth bang together. I know I should try to get warm, but I’m in shock. It’s kind of a stupid thing to be in shock over, because it’s not like I just got beat up, or raped, or had a car accident. I just made a colossal mistake, and the whole world now has a front row seat.

“I think I’m gonna be sick again,” I mutter, and my knees give out a little. Zed catches me, and I stare up at him like a deer in headlights.

“Jesus Christ, someone get her in a fucking warm shower,” Deb says.

Both Coop and Levi make a move towards me and come to a stalemate. Deb throws up her arms and says, “Fucking hell, will you two idiots pull your goddamn heads in?”

Then she leads me away from them and into the tiny bathroom. Once inside, she shuts the door and bends down to untie my shoes. “Eeew, gross.”

“Oh yeah,” I say through chattering teeth. “I kinda threw up on my shoes.”

“Ya, sure did,” she exclaims, and then mutters something about not being paid enough money for this job.

“You know, you’d make a good manager,” I say.

“What?”

“You’re bossy, and you handle those boys better than anyone.”

“Well despite what they’d have the public think, there really isn’t that much to handle. They’re a bunch of idiots.”

“Yeah, I kinda got that.”

“Listen, as kinky as the press are gonna make this shit out to be, I know that’s not why you’re here. But you need to be prepared, they’re gonna have a field day with this shit, and no one is going to spare the feelings of a cute redhead who is banging two of the world’s hottest band members. This very well could ruin your career and theirs. So you all need to sort out your shit.”

“I just can’t believe we were stupid enough to do that in public, and I can’t believe someone would stoop low enough to sell that to the press.”

“People will do anything for money, Ali. The sooner you learn that, the better off you and the boys will be.” She leans around me and runs the water. “Now do you need me to undress you or have you got it covered?”

“I got it. I’m fine.”

“Good, then take as long as you like, but remember none of them have showered after coming off-stage, so unless you want the bus to smell like stinky jock sweat all night, I’d save a little hot water if I were you.”

Once she’s gone, I undress and jump beneath the weak, warm spray. Sadly, it’s not even hot enough to take the chill from my bones, but at least I don’t smell like vomit anymore. Deb or one of the boys must have gone through my stuff to find me some clothes, because there’s a pair of jammies sitting just inside the door when I get out of the shower. I dry and put them on, and then I open the door to face the music. Pity the music is just a mess of my own creation.

T
he giant flat screen shows video footage of the elevator where we had sex. The elevator where we had sex, believing we were in the dark. Because if the elevator was down, then surely the computers and cameras were, too, because that totally makes sense.

I sigh internally, covering my face with my hands as I watch a black and white us go at it in the lift with tiny pixelated black squares that say “too rude” covering our bits from the world. It looks as though whoever was operating the camera that day figured himself an amateur porn cameraman, because it cuts to several different angles and zooms in on the money shot, which is of course of Levi coming down my throat while Cooper comes inside me.

“Well if you’re gonna make a porno, there are certainly worse ways to do it,” Deb says. “Levi, I never gave you enough credit. I apologise to your penis. It’s fucking huge.”