Please Don't Try and Turn On the Lights

26. Surprise

Katie and I had arrived in L.A. one hour ago.

Unfortunately, Jamie hadn't been able to get us tickets before friday, so we were in a bit of a hurry to find Jamie's hotel room, get changed and then head off to the venue were the award show was to be held. He had made sure that a car would pick us up and had even remembered to leave an extra key card in the reception of the hotel.

It was the same hotel as last time and I figured that this was where they were always staying whenever they went to L.A.

Things were going according to plan and as I was showering, I heard Katie squeal from the living room before I heard Jamie's voice too. I was happy for my friends and I couldn't wait to surprise Alex and get the same welcome as Jamie had gotten.

As I entered the livingroom, Jamie and Katie were snogging heavily on the couch. I cleared my throat and Jamie got up to hug me even though I was only in a towel. He kissed the top of my head, "hi love," he said, "I missed you too."

Katie was smiling from ear to ear at us.

-

Two hours later, Katie and I were finally ready. She was wearing a green floor-length dress and I was in an elegant orange pantsuit that really emphasised the tan that Katie and I had been working on the past weeks.

Jamie had left about an hour ago to meet up with the rest of the guys for some red-carpet event and had left us a note with the address and a number for the taxi company.

I was starting to get a bit nervous so Katie poured me a shot of whiskey to calm my nerves before she called us a taxi. She was jabbering the entire ride to the venue but I couldn't really concentrate much on what she was saying. I just wanted to see Alex.

As the car finally pulled up in front of the venue I was anxious to get out of there but as I realised that there were cameras everywhere, I hesitated a bit more.

"It'll be alright," Katie said as if she could read my mind, "just smile, keep your head up and keep walking," she said, "I've done this a million of times and they only rarely ask me anything seeing as they have no idea who I am," she laughed, "come on!"

She got out of the door on her side and I stepped outside on the other side of the taxi.

She took my hand and pulled me towards the vultures with the cameras. I could tell that they had no idea who we were but they happily clicked their cameras anyway just in case. As we reached the stairs and hurried inside, Katie looked at me, "See? Now that wasn't so bad, huh? That was definitely the worst part of the night. Now there's just fun left!"

I nodded.

"Let's see if we can find the guys."

We strolled across the hall and in through heavy double doors that led to a dimly lit room full of people. Katie and I scanned the room for familiar faces and the room was full of them: Some I recalled I had seen before and some I had definitely seen before: Noel Gallagher, Katy Perry, Bono, and some guy I knew was very famous but I couldn't quite place.

Finally, Katie squealed, "There's Matt!" She pointed to a guy in a blue tartan suit with his hair in short spikes. I knew that he was clearly uncomfortable in the suit and that's why he kept his teenage-like spiked up hair. I loved him for that; he was in a room with some of the biggest stars in the music industry and he was still Matt, the man-boy from Sheffield. Next to him was a small figure in a purple dress; Breana.

We went towards the couple but didn't get very far before I heard someone call, "Well, I'll be damned!" in the same Liverpool accent as I had.

"MILES!" I said and ran to him for a hug. Katie clearly only had eyes for Matt and Breana and went straight to them.

"Wow, you look fabulous, love! Absolutely ravishing!"

"Thank you, you look very radiant as always, Mr. Kane!"

"Nah, this old thing," he laughed and tugged at his black jacket.

"Love the red leather pants!" I said

"Can you keep a secret?" he whispered, " they're hot and tight as hell! I have to go to the bathroom every half hour just to check everything is alright down there."

He had always been able to make me laugh, "you poor, poor man!"

He took two glasses of champagne from a tray next to him and handed one of the glasses to me, "Alex didn't tell me you were coming tonight," he then said.

"It's a surprise. He didn't know - still doesn't. I haven't seen him yet."

"He doesn't know you're coming?" Miles said, concern flooding his voice.

"No? Is that bad?"

"He just hates surprises is all. He's very structured you know - and he's been under a lot of stress lately."

"You don't think he'll be happy to see me?" I asked. A knot in my stomach had started to form.

"Ah, this is coming out all wrong, love! I'm sure he'll be delighted to see you! Do you want to go find him?"

I nodded feverishly. There was nothing that I wanted more right now. "I saw Matt and Breana down here before," I said and gestured towards Katie who was now hand-in-hand with Jamie.

"Katie's here too? Is this Jamie's doing?" Miles asked me.

I nodded and we started walking towards our friends. Miles went straight to Katie to greet her.

"RHEA!" Matt exclaimed, "What a lovely surprise! Katie said you were here too!"

"Yeah, I've really been looking forward to this!! Where's Nick and Alex?"

"Actually, I'm not sure.. Nick is probably off with Kelly somewhere but I haven't seen Alex since he went to get a drink half an hour ago or summat."

"Let's check the bar," Jamie said and put his arm around me.

We searched the queue around the bar a few times but there was no sign of Alex.

"That's weird," Jamie said and ran a hand through his slicked-back hair.

"Could he be outside smoking?"

"Good thinking - of course he's outside smoking," Jamie laughed, "he hates parties like this. And he hates award shows even more. He's probably off calming his nerves with a fag."

Jamie put his hand on the small of my back and let me out through the doors to a small alley decorated with plastic furniture, small trees and fairy lights. It looked like it was taken from a fairy tale.

"Wow," I breathed but the words got caught in my throat as my eyes landed on Alex. He looked so handsome. He was wearing black from top to toe and his hair was so long these days that his quiff came off as messy even though I knew he had spent hours on it. Even though he was wearing his stupid sunglasses, he looked better than ever and I had to fight the urge to run towards him and fall into his embrace. That was until he took a drag of his cigarette and I noticed that he wasn't on his own. He had one hand on the wall next to a very pretty girl's head. She was giving him a blinding smile, licking her lips ever so often. Alex took a step closer to her and leaned down as if he was about to kiss her.

"OI TURNER!" Jamie called out just at the right moment. Alex turned around, clearly annoyed that he had been interrupted.

"What?" He said in a bored tone.

"You daft fucker," Jamie then said. I could hear the anger in his voice.

Alex looked confused until he realised who was standing next to Jamie. His facial expression changed from annoyance and confusion to utter shock. He dropped his hand from the wall and took a step towards me and said my name in a whisper.

I could hear the girl next to Alex say "Hi Jamie! Long time no see," in an American accent. But I paid her no attention and had my gaze firmly upon Alex.

"Surprise, asshole" I said with bitterness in my voice.