"Oh a pimp. I ain't paying anyone to have sex with me." Richie said.
I left it at that.
Erica
Even though we'd just eaten burgers and fries, somehow there was room for some of the handmade chocolates left on the table and Freya poured us both another glass of champagne. This time we took them through to our bedroom where we both relaxed on our massive beds.
"This is the life." Freya sighed. "It almost makes up for the fact that Rex isn't the slightest bit interested in me."
Freya was too far away and also she'd put the box of chocolates on her bed, so I walked over with my glass of champers and a pillow and made her move up. It wasn't like there was no room. I laid at the side of her.
"Zak's not the slightest bit interested in me either. Let's face it, we're just two more faces in a sea of females. They have a never-ending supply. Somehow, we have to be different. Now, Stacey's told me that Zak is so used to getting anyone he wants that if I show I'm resisting him I might pique his interest. Though I did ask how he'd know I was resisting if he didn't realise I existed in the first place."
Freya chewed on her bottom lip for a moment.
"Hmm, maybe doing what I've done with Rex and basically throwing yourself at him. Then he'll either take you up on it and you're winning, or he'll get fed up, like Rex and try to get you to leave him alone. So now I need to do what Stacey says and ignore Rex. I'll flirt with someone else."
I stared at her.
"Not with Zak. I don't want Zak for heaven's sake. There's Roman and then there's Carl, Tobias, and Splinter from The Seven."
"We need to find out why his nickname is splinter." I said.
"I hope it's not because he has a tiny cock. That would make one less."
"Can you not go for Tobias either cos he asked me out to dinner."
"When?" She leaped up against the headboard. "When did this happen? Why did you not tell me? Oooh did you say yes?"
"No. It was about five seconds after I'd sat next to him. He said just to let him know if I wanted to go out later in the week."
Freya sprung forward, looking much more animated. I wasn't sure if it was getting behind this treat em mean idea or the champagne she'd knocked back quickly. "You can use him to make Zak jealous."
I shook my head. "No, I wouldn't do that. It's not nice. But, if Zak fails to show interest in me then I'm going to accept. He's nice. I'd be stupid to not go."
"We are stupid though aren't we, babe? We have our hearts set on famous rock stars. Are we dreaming, Erica? Are we aiming too high?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "Look, we didn't expect to meet them. I didn't expect to run their fan club. We didn't expect to spend a week with them. Let's have no expectations and hope everything works out."
"Okay." Freya nodded. "No expectations, but we need to look scorchingly hot at all times and we need to play hard to get. So, tonight at the after-party you have to get up close and personal with Zak, and I must ignore Rex altogether. Deal?"
I shook her hand.
"Deal."
I had not brought any clothes with me that in any way would serve to be seductive, so we headed out to central London to try to find a new outfit each as I was a size larger than Freya and two inches taller.
She had me way out of my comfort zone trying on a silver wrap dress with a black belt. "Are you sure I don't just look like a chicken ready for the oven?" I asked her.
"Are you kidding me? You look like a star. Look when the light catches it, it turns all different colours and it clings to every curve in all the right places. You look amazing. You need black and purple nails, black shoes, a purple and silver bag. Oh and a black hair clip and you'll be sorted."
"Okay, you try yours on then now." I said. We were sharing a large changing room for two.
Freya put on the black jumpsuit she'd chosen. Plain, and not at all figure-hugging. She still looked cute, but it wasn't an attention seeking outfit.
"Do I look like I don't care, but in an I'm still sexy way?"
"Absolutely."
"Fantastic. Let's get some shoes and accessories and go back and get ready, because," she looked at her watch, "in three hours time we'll be in the VIP section watching the bands."
"This has already been one of the best days of my life, and not only is it not over yet, but there are another six days with the bands to go." I squeezed Freya's arm.
"How will we ever return to our normal dull arse lives?" Freya sighed.
It was a question I wasn't willing to think about, because it was too sad to contemplate.
Our seats were on the front row. The. Front. Row. Vikki guided us down and she explained that the first four rows were celebrities and dotted in between them and on the row behind them were security dressed as normal concertgoers. I spotted Harley and Carmela from Britain's Best New Band. There were also a few people from the latest series of Love Island; a new male singer recently signed by Bill Traynor, the bands' manager; and some soap opera stars and other TV presenters.
We soaked up the atmosphere of the bustling and busy auditorium and then the lights went down and The Seven came on stage. They all appeared one by one as if by magic; seeming explosions making band members appear. A box was brought on stage and twirled around, open and empty and then when it span around again Donna was in it and she stepped out to gasps and applause. And then an empty cage came down from the ceiling. Donna and the other two female band members made a show of covering the cage with a black cover and then they pulled it away, and Stacey was inside it. Everyone, including Freya and me screamed. The cage doors opened out and she stepped to the front of the stage. The band took their places and they started their set.
They were spellbinding. We'd seen them play in the competition and I’d seen some clips of them live on YouTube but no one could have prepared me for hearing Stacey's mountain of a voice now she'd done months of touring. I knew she was leaving soon and I also knew that she would be a West End star. She just owned the stage. They may have been a band, and there had been rumours Donna was jealous of the attention Stacey got, but she outshone them all. They were quite simply Stacey's backing band, whether they liked it or not. Maybe once she'd left, they could form a more equal group, but Stacey Granger would be a hard act to follow.
The time flew and when the band finally said goodbye and a tannoyed voice announced that there was an interval before The Paranormals took to the stage, I realised that I'd forgotten about everyone else around me apart from Freya. We'd shared some smiles and 'wows' throughout their appearance, but other than that we'd been entranced.
We quickly moved to use some bathrooms earmarked for the VIPs and got back to our seats as early as we could as we didn't want to miss a single second of our band.
"This is it, Erica. We're finally going to see a whole show of The Paranormals. Hear new material. Take note of the new songs so you can tell the fans about some of them." Freya almost squealed. She looked around. "Do you think we'll actually get to meet some of these celebrities to talk to, or do you think they'll keep their distance from us plebeians?"