Girls Who Play Guitars

•you know where to find me•

~ELLIE'S HOTEL ROOM~

Ellie lay across her bed in her hotel room still in the tiny green dress, scratching away in her notebook. She'd nearly finished her new song. Well, in reality, it had finished itself as soon as Daniel had whispered those words in her ear earlier on. Now she had a new song desperate to get out of her head. It seemed to be a melancholy one about how Ellie had felt when she'd seen Glue perform and she realised how incredible Daniel was and how much he had the music inside him—possibly even more than Ellie did—and how much he now overwhelmed her.

The lyrics had formed in her head in the taxi back to the hotel, and she had to get them on paper before they disappeared.

She had been in her room an hour before there was an urgent rapping on her door.

Her heart flipped.

Even though she knew it wouldn't be Daniel, deep down she hoped it would be.

She clambered off the bed, almost getting her foot caught in the quilt cover.

Mirror check. Just in case it was him.

Her makeup had stayed put, and a cockatoo hadn't nested in her hair yet. She sniffed under her armpits, turned on the side table lamp, smoothed the bedcovers and sauntered over to the door.

She would explain to Daniel how she had to focus on the band.

Maybe she could explain about Ash and the pap and how she'd told them both to bugger off.

Maybe she could snog him a little so she could remember what it felt like before he left.

Then she could carry on with the tour and taking Jessie down and then work on the next album—a whole album of songs inspired by him—armed and ready for Slider's future.

She was going to hold herself to it.

But her fingers still shook when she unlatched the door.

Kim stood in the hallway with her arm tight around Meg's shoulder. Tears ran down Meg's face as she peered miserably at Ellie from underneath her dripping mascara.

"Oh my God!" Ellie pulled them both into the room, closing the door. No one needed to see Meg in that state. "What's happened?"

Meg let out a huge sob and wiped the back of her hand across her face, spit and snot leaving long silvery trails across her mouth and cheeks.

"I found her in the hall," Kim said. "With this." She put a large and expensive looking half-filled bottle of vodka on the table.

Ellie grabbed Meg's arms and forced her to look at her. "Megsy? Are you okay?"

Meg lifted her watery eyes, let out another pained moan, and flounced over to the bed. She flopped on to it; her face pressed into the pillows, and started crying in loud gulps and gasps.

Ellie met Kim's eyes. They both knew what this was about. It had happened so many times before.

But Ellie had to make sure Meg was okay before she told them both to go back to their own rooms and she could continue working.

She perched on the bed and rubbed her hand up and down Meg's convulsing back. "What happened, Megsy?"

"Some girls took him!" Meg moaned into the pillow. Ellie noticed all her mascara was coming off onto the clean sheets. She glanced at Kim, who was paying an unusual amount of attention to the room, checking behind the curtains, looking inside the cupboard and the ensuite.

Ellie kept rubbing Meg's back. "Coral told me you all went clubbing?"

Meg rolled onto her side and curled herself around Ellie's waist, her voice blubbering with tears and sobs. "We did! But there were these girls from the Gold Coast ... " Ellie waited while Meg took in big breaths " ... all dancing around in bikinis ... and you could see ... their ... their"—Meg waved her hand at Ellie's chest—"boobs, Ellie! They were nice boobs, Ellie! But James couldn't ... they took James with them!"