Chapter Three

Kirstie smiled to herself as she read the message that Matt had just sent to her. She let out a little squeal of excitement and rushed downstairs to tell Michelle the news.

"Oh, hey Kathleen, just the person I wanted to see." Kirstie smiled as she walked into the kitchen and saw that Kathleen was sitting with Michelle at the table. It had been a couple of weeks since the reunion and Kathleen had been coming over to see them regularly ever since. Even though Kirstie was thrilled that they had rekindled things with Kathleen she couldn't help but feel disappointed that once again she hadn't heard a peep from Chloe, despite a few attempts to try and reach out to her.

"Oooh, has something exciting happened?" Kathleen asked, snapping Kirstie out of her thoughts.

"I just got a message from Matt, now I didn't want to say anything until I was certain, but you know how he is a talent agent for boybands?" Kirstie started.

Kathleen nodded excitedly, having a feeling where this was going but not daring to hope.

"Well, he remembered that you are a journalist and was hoping that you would come along to a show this weekend where all of the bands will be performing and then you can interview some of them and write an article about them." Kirstie explained.

"I think he's hoping that it will be good publicity..." Kirstie started but before she could finish Kathleen leapt off her chair and rushed over to Kirstie, pulling her into a tight hug.

"Oh my god this is amazing!" she squealed, causing Kirstie's ears to ring.

"Oh, and the other good news..." Kirstie started when Kathleen finally let go of her. She smiled at the two of them as she paused for dramatic effect.

"Is that me and Michelle have tickets to go too." she eventually announced.

Kirstie burst out laughing as Michelle and Kathleen both pulled her into a hug, squealing and bouncing up and down on the spot.

"I literally cannot wait!" Michelle cried.

"I'm going to meet some famous people!" Kathleen squealed.

"Oh my god, we have to pick our outfits!" Michelle said excitedly, as she rushed to grab her purse. Kirstie smiled as she watched them rush around the flat, desperately checking that they had everything they would need for the shopping trip.

"C'mon then Kirstie." Michelle said as she took Kirstie's hand and pulled her after them.

"Hang on a minute, I need my jacket." Kirstie laughed. They stared at her impatiently as she pulled on her jacket.

"Right, I'm ready now." she told them, smiling at how infectious their excitement was.

Louise was rushing around backstage in a panic, desperately trying to find her hair curlers that she couldn't for the life of her remember where she had left them. This show was her debut and she only had a couple of hours to get her hair and makeup done, changed and complete sound check before she had to be on the stage. This was her big break; she had been trying to get here for the past ten years and now that it was finally happening, she was determined not to mess it up. She couldn't let all her hard work go to waste.

"Oh my god." she muttered, beginning to get flustered as she continued rummaging in drawers to no avail.

"Can I help with anything?" she heard a small voice from behind her.

She quickly turned around and smiled as she stood face to face with a young woman that she didn't recognize.

"I'm Chloe by the way, sorry I should have said." she smiled.

"I'm Louise." she smiled back at her.

"And I can't find my damn curlers, and I still need to do my makeup, I'm going to be so late!" she added, starting to panic again.

"Aren't these them up here?" Chloe asked pointing to the hook on the wall where the curlers were hanging.

"Oh god, I'm such an idiot." Louise chuckled, feeling slightly embarrassed that she had been looking for them for what felt like hours.

"I'm too stressed to think clearly." she told Chloe quietly as she picked up the curlers and slowly sat down. She sat staring at her own reflection, desperately telling herself over and over that she could do this, an opportunity like this was what she'd always wanted, and she wasn't going to mess this up now.

"I'm a stylist, I can help." Chloe smiled at her, the two of them locking eyes in the mirror.

"Thank you so much." Louise said as Chloe gently turned the chair around and rummaged in the makeup pouch that was always attached to her hip.

"The slight issue is, I don't normally do women, so I don't have much in here." she said thoughtfully.

"I have everything in here." Louise replied, handing Chloe her makeup bag.

"Perfect." Chloe smiled. Louise fell silent as she let Chloe get to work. Chloe couldn't help but smile to herself as she quickly applied the makeup. It felt so refreshing to be working with someone who didn't constantly belittle her.

"Thank you so much for doing this, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it." Louise said.

"It's okay, it gives me a break." she replied quietly.

"How long do we have?" Chloe checked as she applied the final touches of makeup.

"Half an hour or so." Louise replied, glancing at her watch.

"Okay, we need to get a move on." Chloe said, turning Louise's chair back to face the mirror so that she could work on Louise's hair.

"You've done an amazing job with my makeup, thank you so much." Louise stated as she looked at herself in the mirror.

"You are very welcome." Chloe smiled.

"Chloe, where are you?!" she heard Lee's voice calling from down the hall. Chloe jumped when she heard his voice, accidentally pressing the curler against her wrist.

"Damn it." she gasped in pain.

"Are you okay?" Louise asked when she heard the sizzle and smelt burning flesh.

"Yes, it's not too bad." Chloe insisted, trying to hide how much it hurt. She quickly placed her other hand over the burn, trying to hide it. She'd always hated fuss, but she couldn't stand to hear whatever sarcastic comment Lee was going to come out with. It was better to keep her head down and work.

"You need to put something cool on that." Louise said. Chloe opened her mouth to explain that she would be fine, but before she could say anything Louise stood up and left the room. As soon as Louise left the room Lee walked in.

"Where have you been?" he demanded as soon as he saw her.

"I was speaking to Matt about the logistics of the interview and then I stopped to help one of the singers with her makeup." she quickly explained.

"Right, well you do realise that you work for me and not 'one of the other singers'." he said, gesturing inverted commas as he did so.

"Technically I work for Matt." she sighed.

"Yeah, to look after us." he argued.

"Fine, what do you need?" she said sighing again as she gave up the fight. In all her life Chloe had never met someone who made her feel the way that Lee did, he was so condescending and patronising she literally felt like an ant under his shoe. Nothing that she ever tried to do for him was ever good enough, he still sneered at her from the high horse he seemed to think he was on. When she'd initially started working for the boys from Eclipse, she'd never been happier, but things had gradually got worse the past year; Lee's attitude had become more and more nasty. She knew that the fame was going to his head and that had to be the reason he treated her the way that he did.

"Well, aren't you forgetting something?" he said, smirking at her.

"Oh probably." she said, sounding defeated.

"I asked you for an Ice-Tea about twenty minutes ago." he said matter of factly.

"That's right you did, I forgot." she said quickly.

"Clearly." he snapped.

"I'll go and fetch it." she said quietly.