Page 61 of Fake Rocks
“What are you going to do, Tris? You know you can’t go back to working with Col at the moment.”
“Thanks for the reminder.” I snorted. That much was true, I was sure Saff and Jonas wouldn’t want me anywhere near their house. She was right though, I needed a job. I couldn’t sponge off of them indefinitely. And if I got a new job, I could find a new circle of friends, maybe even a new girlfriend.
Make another new start.
33
Saff
“For fuck’s sake, Saff! Troy Carson again?”
Jonas stormed into my room, throwing something at me. I hunched under the covers, hoping he’d go away. I lost count of the Pornstar Martinis after six, or was it seven, and this morning’s hangover was already starting to kick in. The last thing I needed was Jonas going off on one about…
“Troy Carson? What the fuck?”
Today’sInformerlay on the duvet with a snap of Troy, his hand up my skirt, and me in glorious technicolour on their front cover, snogging each other’s faces off.
“I told you to stay away from him. I thought we agreed you wouldn’t go out with unsuitable men anymore.”
“Ha! That was until I discovered the person I thought wassuitableturned out to be nothing more than a common criminal. And you paid him to leave.”
I wished I could tell Jonas all the time I was kissing Troy, I had been thinking of Tris. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell him anything. What was the point of falling for someone you thought was perfect for you when they turned out to be a liar?
Jonas sank down onto the bed. “I’m sorry, Saff. It was the right thing to do. We should have done more checks at the start.”
“My love life isn’t a business transaction.” I pouted and pulled the covers up over my body. I was beginning to think staying in bed forever would be a good option.
“If you’d have stuck to the agreement and seen it for the business arrangement it was, you wouldn’t be hurting like this now.”
“How can you be so cruel? I can’t help who I fall for.”
Jonas waved the paper in my face. “This, Saff, this is what we were trying to avoid. You being branded the scarlet woman again. The label will go nuts when they see this. After the brawl at the gig the other night, I had to do some serious damage limitation. You being seen with Troy isn’t going to help your image. I thought you’d turned things around when you started getting serious with Tris.”
“And look how that turned out.” I couldn’t hide my sarcasm.
“You need to think long and hard about the future, Saff. Think of all the work you, Darren and the others have put in to get to this point and you’re about to screw it up on the basis of a shag with a married footballer?”
“He’s not married, he’s taking a break from his girlfriend.”
“That’s not the point, Saff, and you know it.” Jonas pursed his lips. My cousin threw the paper towards me with some force and I had to move to avoid it hitting me. “You need to think about what you want, Saff. The record company don’t have much patience left and I can’t come to your rescue every time something goes wrong.” He turned on his heel and stalked out of the room.
I fell back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. What the hell was I going to do now?
For the next week, I kept out of Jonas’ way, staying out late or at Rosie’s and only coming home if it was absolutely necessary.
I was knackered.
Almost every waking hour had been spent partying. After Jonas’ threats, I had to be careful to make sure I wasn’t in public with anyone so I could be spotted and papped. Thankfully, I’d been out with Rosie to several events, finding all sorts of new conquests who weren’t bothered about a quick shag in the toilets of a fancy hotel. I’d lost count of the number of drunken fumbles there had been with weak-chinned bankers who I had no intention of ever seeing again.
And there had been no coverage of Saff Barnes and her inappropriate behaviour anywhere.
I’d like to say I felt better. That I was slowly getting over Tris. The meaningless trysts didn’t make me think of him any less. But it wasn’t true. Rosie had got me to confess what had happened and I broke down telling her.
In truth, he was never far from my thoughts. The short time we’d spent together had been intense, all-consuming and I wondered whether I should have let him go so easily. I never asked him why he’d been in prison, why he’d felt the need to keep it from me. I could only think it must have been something dreadful. And Jonas kept reminding me good guys didn’t go to prison. Several times my hand hovered over my phone, wanting to message or call him. Each time I was about to press the button, I could hear Jonas’ voice reminding me he’d lied to us, kept something pretty serious away from us.
On the Friday night, Tommo invited me, Darren and Barney to a house party hosted by one of his old band mates.
The terraced Victorian house, south of the river, was reminiscent of the parties I’d been to at university. There were groups milling about in the hallway, the living room and the kitchen, people sitting on the stairs getting in the way of anyone who needed the bathroom or a convenient bedroom. The smell of alcohol and weed hung heavy in the air. I grinned. Maybe this would be a good night after all.
