She watched through the tinted car window as the security pushed the crowd back, the barriers making a path for the car to leave. It was so surreal. It frightened her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered, trying to focus
herself
on keeping composed.
“I was going to Stella. I was going to tell you tonight at dinner, and it was only just confirmed today. I wanted to surprise you.”
“Well you achieved your goal,” Stella snarled, unable to keep herself composed anymore.
“Stella, let’s talk about this when we get back to the hotel.”
“No Tristan. Let’s talk about it now. Tell me why?”
“I’ve been invited to perform at an award ceremony in London. It was only all talk, but it was only confirmed today that it was actually happening. Ben decided it would be a great opportunity to throw a last minute concert tour together around Europe to attract more international fans. The problem is I’m due to leave in a few days.”
Stella shook her head. “You think that’s the only problem?”
“Hear me out Stella. Doing this tour, its big for me, it’s bigger than big. My fan base has grown all around the world and I’ve worked so hard for this, to be in this position,” he sighed. “But then I met you. I thought of those nights when we first met, and when I saw you in the crowd after months of thinking about you I knew then I would never leave you again. The past week has been the best week of my life. I want to be with you now. But like I said, this is a dream of mine. So I would like to make you a proposal. I need to go on this tour, but I can’t bear the thought of leaving you. So I was thinking maybe you could come with me?” He looked at her stunned
face,
she opened her mouth to say something but no words came out.
“I know it’s probably too much to ask. I know you have a life here, but it will only be for a month and then we’ll be back. But if what you feel for me is anything like the feelings I have for you, you’ll say yes. You’re the most amazing, most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met. The feelings I have for you are real. My love for you is real. As crazy as
that sounds-
”
“No,” she whispered.
“What, what do you mean no?” Tristan asked confused by her bluntness.
“I can’t Tristan. I got a job offer yesterday. I was going to tell you last night. That’s where I went after work, to get a bottle of champagne to celebrate, but then everything happened.” She heard her voice break a little.
“Surely it can wait a month?”
Stella felt the anger rise in her again. “I’ve been waiting for over seven months for this. I did four years of University for it. I’m not about to throw it all away to go on some holiday with you.”
“But you said you didn’t even like it.”
“That’s not the point. I’ve spent years of my life waiting for this job opportunity. My whole life put on hold for it and now you tell me this, and I’m meant to just happily accept it?”
“I’m sorry Stella, please don’t be mad.” He lent forward and placed his hand on her leg, she quickly hit it off.
Tears fell down her cheek. “Don’t touch me. Please Tristan. Just leave me alone,” she pleaded with him.
Tristan’s face turned pale, her words slicing his heart open. She couldn’t let herself feel sorry for him now, she needed to get away. She knew this would happen, they were two people from very different lives, and it would never work.
“Take me home. I want to go home.” She kept her eyes to the front of the car as she spoke to Sam. He looked into the rear vision mirror waiting for approval from Tristan, she saw Tristan nod his head.
She wanted to cry, wanted to crawl up into a ball and weep, but she wouldn’t, not now. She held herself together, not letting her guard down in front of Tristan. The sooner she was safely home without Tristan the better.
“Whoa! What’s your problem?” Claire exclaimed as Stella burst through their unit slamming the door behind her.
“Men,” Stella grunted pulling the shot glass out of Claire’s hand and taking a swig, fighting back her tears.
No she wouldn’t cry, she would stay strong.
Claire stared at Stella in disbelief. “Jeez.”
Stella was furious. Tristan had just assumed Stella would go with him, and to announce it to the world before he even told her, she was so mad, angrier than she had ever been before.
“I’m guessing this is about the TV interview that was on tonight?” Claire asked her.
“Did you watch it?”
Claire nodded. “What happened?”
“Tristan decided that it would be best if the world found out he was leaving for Europe in a few days before he even told me!” she exclaimed. “And to make it worse, he asked me to join him.
Like I had nothing better to do with my life!”
“He asked you to go with him?” Claire looked stunned.
“Yes, can you believe it?”
“To Europe
?...
”
“Yes to Europe,” Stella abruptly said, confused why Claire wasn’t able to comprehend something so simple.
Claire grabbed Stella’s shoulders shaking them in excitement. “Holy shit Stella! You have to go! It would be amazing!”
“No Claire. I’m not going. I have a life here, and I’m not just going to up and leave for a guy I’ve been with for a week!”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not an idiot!”
Stella cried. She watched her sister take a step back, obviously hurt by her reaction. Taking a deep breath she continued. “Look I don’t want talk about it anymore. What are your plans tonight? Are you going out?”
Claire’s face turned into a smile. “Yeah I was about to head out to the club and meet Dave there.”
“Great. Let’s go.” Stella grabbed Claire’s arm and whisked her out the door before Claire had any time to object.
***
Stella could feel the shots running through her body as she entered the club. They had continued to take shots in the taxi on the way to the
club,
Claire taking every opportunity of Stella’s newly found partying desire.
The club was already jam packed full of people, Stella could smell the alcohol hit her nose as she lead the way through the crowd with Claire, not caring who she had to push to get through.
“I need to get you mad more often!” Claire shouted at her as they approached the bar. The music was loud and Stella could barely hear Claire’s words.
Stella rolled her eyes, leaned over the bar and waved her hand at the waiter. The waiter, a tall well-built man smiled as he approached the bar. “What can I get
ya
?”
“Two vodka shots and two vodka and lemonades,” she called over the music, the waiter nodding his head in reply.
Claire’s eyes narrowed. “Is that your plan? To get drunk and pass out in an hour?”
“I can handle a few drinks Claire,” she sneered. Even though they both knew Stella didn’t drink much at all, and when she did she never drank more than a couple of glasses. But she was in no mood to argue. The waiter placed the two shot glasses on the bench and filled them with vodka, Stella picked them both up and handed one to Claire.
“To men.
May they forever be a burden on our
life.
” Stella raised her glass to Claire who shook her head at her.
“Cheers,” she replied.
They
clinked
their shot glasses together and pulled them back into their mouths momentarily. Stella could feel the vodka burn down her throat. She cringed, fighting the urge to bring it back up.
“Your drinks.”
The waiter pushed the two glasses forward when he saw they’d finished their shots. Stella grabbed the drink and quickly chased the shot down.
“That will be thirty three fifty,” the waiter said.
Stella chocked back on her straw. Clearly remembering why she didn’t go out and waste her money at clubs, by the end of the night she’d be broke.
“I got it.” Claire motioned, handing over a fifty dollar note.
“Thanks. I forgot how much it costs these days,” Stella thanked Claire.
“It’s cool. It’s not every day I get to take my big sister out partying,” she winked.
The waiter handed the change to Claire and they turned. Scanning the room Stella spotted the dance floor, she grabbed Claire’s arm once more and pulled her through the crowd. She could feel the drinks taking full effect on her body as she stumbled into a few people, she giggled at her poor attempt at walking as they approached the dance floor.
Stella closed her eyes as she started dancing, feeling the rhythm flow through her. She loved to dance, loved the carefree feeling it gave her. It was the drinking and club scene she didn’t like that
held
her back from going out more often.
Feeling the music pound through her, she felt her body relax. She opened her
eyes,
Claire was enjoying the moment just as much as her. She smiled at her, thanking her for coming with her tonight. It was one thing she loved about Claire, not matter what, she was always there for
her,
she’d been with her through everything.
They continued to dance, changing their movements to the pace of the different songs that came on. She saw Dave find Claire on the dance floor and watched as they moved together. She had never seen Claire so hypnotized by someone, it made her smile.
Stella suddenly felt the warm splash of a drink hit her face, shifting her focus back to reality as she realised someone had just spilt their drink all over her.
“Sorry!” the apologetic guy fumbled his hand over her face, attempting to wipe her down. Stella swiped it away.
“I’ve got to go to the bathroom,” she yelled at Claire over the music.
Claire mouthed over the music asking if she was ok. Stella nodded and turned making her way through the crowd to the bathroom.
Stupid idiot,
she thought.
Once she found the bathroom, she realised how much she needed to go to the toilet, thankfully there wasn’t much of a line.
She emerged from the toilet shortly after and studied her face in the mirror. She watched the mirror move. She was drunk.
Really drunk.
She looked it too, as she eyed herself, holding onto the basin she tried to steady her unstable body.
She opened her clutch, searching through her bag to find some makeup to fix herself up. She found her phone. Five missed calls from Tristan.
“Dickhead,” she mumbled under her breath. Just as she was about to put the phone back into her clutch it rang, Tristan’s name on the caller id. She wondered whether to answer it or not, deciding she was drunk enough not to care she hit answer and held it to her ear.
“
Whatchu
want?” she questioned, her speech slurred.
“Stella, I’m sorry, look can we talk?” Tristan’s voice came over the speaker.
“Talk about what
Tristaaann
?
You being a selfish prick?”
“Stella, are you ok? Where are you?” She could hear the concern in his voice.
“I happen to be having a fabulous time, without you.” She laughed, not able to control herself anymore. The anger she had felt was now shadowed by her drunkenness.
“Are you drunk?” he questioned.
“What’s it to you?” She giggled a little bit more.
“Where are you?”
“Club 42.
What? You going to
come
partay
? HA! Good luck with that. There’s no way Ben’s
gonna
let you go partying at a club. Wouldn’t be…how do you say it…press friendly?” Stella laughed.
Tristan was silent.
“Exactly what I thought.
Bye
Tristannnn
,” Stella slurred as she hung up. She pushed the phone back into her clutch. Taking one last look at herself in the mirror, she pulled her fingers through her hair and wiped the eyeliner under her eye that had run from the spilt drink.
Good enough,
she thought.
She made her way back through the crowd to the dance floor. She spotted Claire dancing with Dave, grinding her hips against him, their foreheads touching. She was looking at him in a way Stella had never seen before. Claire was in love.
After that phone call, she was suddenly reminded of everything that had happened with Tristan. The last thing she wanted to do was be around Claire and Dave, drowning in their love for each other. She needed another drink.
She turned to the bar, squeezing her way through as she bumped into people.
After watching the barmen take orders it seemed they were completely ignoring her half of the bar. She was getting
frustrated,
her head was starting to spin.
“Hello! I need a drink here!
Oi
!” she yelled out over the bar, pushing her body up over the bench top, waving her hand for attention.
“You’re a feisty little one,” the guy next to her said. He was tall and well built, not as good as Tristan, but she didn’t want to think about Tristan right now.
“You’ve got no idea.”
“I’d like to find out,” he said eyeing her up and down.
Was this guy serious? If she wasn’t so drunk she would have given this guy a mouthful, but she could hardly put two words together right now.
“You
wanna
dance?” he asked when she hadn’t replied.
“As you can see, I’m trying to get a drink.” She rolled her eyes at him.
“And how’s that going for you?” he smirked.
Stella sighed in defeat, she wasn’t about to get served anytime soon and she needing to keep moving, every time she stopped still too long the room started to spin.
She grabbed the man by the shirt and pulled him onto the dance floor. “You better be a good dancer.”
The man chuckled, “I’m good at a lot of things, especially dancing.”
Stella rolled her eyes again, arrogant and cocky, great!
They found the middle of the dance floor shortly after their push through the crowd. She decided to take her dance moves up a notch as she copied some of her sister’s moves and tried them out. She hadn’t danced this slutty in a long time. Stella caught Claire’s glance when she wrapped her arms around the guy’s neck, grinding her hips back and forth on him. Claire’s faced hardened and she mouthed, “What the hell?”