Following the Stars

Chapter Ninety Six

Lexie took a deep breath after hanging up the phone and braced herself on the sink. Johnny's phone had been answered by Kate. She was so confident it had all been a big misunderstanding but now with the photos of the two of them sneaking into a hotel, the weirdness of not having heard from him at all and the fact the morning after the woman in question had answered his phone all led her to believe one thing.

After taking a while to compose herself, she picked up her phone again and dialled Kate. It took all her strength to be brave and not to break down on the phone but she had to keep face, at least for now until she had it out with Johnny.

"Lex, are you ok?"
"I'm fine, sorry it's early, no comment on everything, don't respond to anyone or anything until I say so. I'm gonna be on set all day so I won't be reachable. I'll call you tonight to debrief ok?"
"But Lex..."
"Bye Kate."

Lexie hung up, text her mum back that she would talk to her later and put her phone on do not disturb. She couldn't face dealing with everything with only an hour until she was due on set. She finished getting ready and headed downstairs to meet Travis at the agreed time.

They rode in the back of the car to the set in silence, Travis was obviously aware that her fiancé was cheating on her with a supermodel, Lexie rolled her eyes. Did everyone know? What was this, some sick joke? When she arrived at the location, normally Travis would follow her everywhere, today she didn't want to be smothered so asked him to kindly wait in a trailer and do some work or even better take some down time. He refused the latter but agreed to keep his distance. She told him she didn't want to be disturbed until the end of the day and got on with heading to hair and make up.

Meanwhile back in the city where Jeff and Johnny's concert had been, the latter woke up with a pounding headache. "Fuck me." He sighed gasping for water. It had been a while since he had drank and smoked that much. He remembered smoking Cuban after Cuban, and drinking a lot of red wine and a lot of whiskey. The night had been long, and was slowly coming back to him. He knew that they had a great time celebrating finishing the European leg of the tour before they hit America next week. The party was good fun but would have been even better with his girl there, he missed her so much and decided to call her and tell her how much he did. He reached around on the bedside table for his phone but it wasn't there. Eventually he gave up, he had everything but his phone. He assumed it was still in his pocket, and clocked his jeans thrown over a chair in the corner of the room. Right now though with the hangover kicking in, that looked like the longest distance so he rolled over and snuggled back in to the bed, planning to only take 5 more minutes respite.

Two hours later, a loud banging on the hotel room door woke Johnny from his slumber, he was completely startled and dazed as he slowly headed into the living area of the suite to open the door. A frazzled looking Stephen and Gina stood there. Both of them looked rather ropey too so he was glad it wasn't just him that suffered after a night on the booze. "Johnny! It's gone 2pm, have you slept the entire day?" The pair made their way in and the three sat on the couch. "Well I'm not as young as I used to be, this hangover is killing me." "You're telling me." Stephen said rubbing his temples. "So what can I do for you?" Gina's eyes widened. "You mean you don't know?" "Know what?" "The headlines?" "What headlines?" "The ones that came out overnight about you and Kate having an affair." "What?" Johnny was now very confused, "It looks like the scumbags were very tactful in only photographing you and Kate sneaking in last night, the images are everywhere, there are articles insinuating this has been going on some time." Gina said. Johnny's eyes widened, "But, it was a party for fuck sake, we were all there?" "Yeah they are just being slimy mate, probably because you look too happy in your engagement photo they are printing this shite." Stephen said as he sipped a bottle of water. "Shit." Johnny stood and rushed into the bedroom grabbing his jeans to find his phone and it wasn't there. He looked everywhere, checking every pocket of every item of clothing he wore the day prior. He ran back into the living area. "My phone. It's gone." "Dont worry, if you wanna call Lex, use mine." Gina passed hers over and Johnny paced as he waited for the phone to ring. It went straight to voicemail. He hung up and within two minutes tried again and the same thing happened. "Try Kate." "She's in London." "Yeah but she might have spoken to her before she went to set." Johnny called Kate from Gina's phone, that also went to answerphone. "Fuck!! What am I gonna do??" Johnny said pushing his hair back off his face. "It's ok don't panic we will sort this. Shall I order you a new phone?" Johnny nodded worrying about his fiancé and what she would think of the headlines.

Lexie was giving it her all today and was on fire when it came to her scenes. She was just so glad to focus on something else for a while rather than Johnny and Kate Moss. The scene wrapped and the director approached. "That's it for today! Well done guys." "Oh really? Can we not just do one more?" Lexie asked and the director chuckled "I love your dedication madam but no! Go home get some rest, see you Monday!" Lexie sighed, she knew everyone on the set had seen the headlines, they were unmissable, everywhere, she saw people looking at her and whispering before heading into her trailer to change. Travis knocked a few moments after and entered. "A lot of people are trying to get hold of you." "I'm just not in the mood Trav. Actually can you call Kate and tell her I'll call her in the morning. I just want to be alone tonight." Travis went to speak and then nodded when he saw the stern look from the woman. Lexie had noted how Travis mentioned a lot of people, and not the name of her fiancé.

The Deuters and Johnny were still locked in Johnny's suite trying to figure out what to do. Nobody could get hold of Lexie and Gina was attempting to call Kate again as a last resort when her mobile rang.

"Hello!? Oh Hi Leslie, yes how are you? Oh. I see. Yes, oh goodness that's great thank you. Yes I'll make sure somebody is there. Perfect. You're a life saver, thank you."

Gina hung up and looked at the two confused men. "Leslie?" Stephen asked. "Yes that was Leslie Webster, Kate's agent, she said that Kate accidentally took Johnny's phone from a table last night thinking it was hers, it was dead so she charged it and only figured it out this morning. She's sending it to the hotel now." "Oh well that's a relief. At least you'll get it back and won't have that agro," Stephen said to his best friend. "Yeah. And hopefully I can call Lex again." That reminded Gina to attempt to call Kate again. Finally she got through.

"Hi Kate."
"Oh boy do I need to speak with you. What the fuck is going on? I can't hold the fort much longer. How has this happened? Lexie is beside herself she won't speak to anyone and she's just had Travis call me and tell me she doesn't want to hear from anyone."
"Woah woah, wait up. What?"
"Lexie. She's beside herself, she saw everything this morning, she flipped, well she didn't flip, she was scarily calm actually, she told me to handle everything and she would call me tonight, she hasn't. She just got Trav to call."
"You mean she believes it?"
"Well I guess so? She messaged me last night about some work stuff and said she hadn't heard from Johnny all evening and then she wakes up and he's in a hotel with his ex? You do the maths."
"Oh fuck... Johnny please tell me you text or at least contacted Lexie at some point last night?"
"Ummm oh god I dunno we text a bit before I went on.."
"And then..."
"Umm... no I don't think I did."
"Oh sweet Jesus. I need to call Travis. Johnny lost his phone, well we were at a party and he put it down long story he's not got his phone right now, he's not had it since we arrived at the party last night, he wasn't at the hotel alone with Kate, we were all there. It's the press playing with people again,"
"Oh FUCK." Kate responded. "You better call Trav. She's not in a good place apparently." She added before hanging up.