Page 13 of Going Solo

There was a loud bang on Cole’s bedroom door, followed by the boom of his dad’s voice. “Sleep!”

“I have to go,” Cole mouthed silently. “Talk tomorrow?” I nodded, and we quietly said goodnight.

* * *

We spoke again the next night, and the night after that, until it had become our routine. We’d text during the day, while I was working at the salon. Then, after dinner, I’d bound upstairs to my room, check my hair, apply a little lip gloss, and wait for Cole to call. We’d chat for hours, until it was time for sleep, learning each other’s innermost thoughts and secrets, all the while wishing we lived close enough to hang out in person. I was feeling more and more confident that this was athing. The instant crush I’d had was developing into something much deeper. We told each other everything. One evening, as I was telling all my business, I confessed to Cole how desperately I wanted to be famous.

“When you’re famous, you can leverage it,” I said. “There’s always a way to make money, always a product to endorse, always a guest list to get your name on, you know? We have some celeb clients at the salon. Do you know Priti fromDress for Successex? She says if you treat your fame like a business, you’ll never be poor.”

“Is that what this is about for you?” Cole asked.

“Of course, babes. Isn’t it why we’re all there? Don’t you want to be famous?”

Cole didn’t answer right away. “I just want to make good music, you know?”

“But you’re already making good music. What you want is for a bigger audience to hear it.”

“True, I guess.”

“Exactly, babes, it’s a platform. The show is how we get from where we are today to where we want to be tomorrow.”

There was another thoughtful silence from the other end of the phone. Cole was a deep thinker. I waited for him to speak.

“Right now, I want to be where you are,” he said, and all my limbs tingled. “I want to see you. For real. Not on camera.”

“The London auditions are still two weeks away.”

“I don’t want to wait two weeks,” he said.

I’d forgotten to breathe by this point. If a paramedic had checked my vital signs, they’d have pronounced me dead at the scene and would’ve been calling my next of kin. “I can’t wait two weeks either.”

“So, I had an idea,” Cole said. “Mum and Fiona have appointments booked at your salon this Saturday.”

“Do they?” Who’d put that in the diary? Mum must have taken the booking from Orla directly.

“Mum’s taking Fiona in to get her hair coloured for her birthday. It’s a girls’ day out. I was thinking… I could come down with them.”

“For a girls’ day out?”

“Keep up,babes. While they’re having a girls’ day out, maybe we could… hang out. You know. In person.”

My squeal of delight was so high-pitched, it rerouted migratory birds and interfered with aircraft landing at Stansted Airport. Saturday was only four days away. I was going to need a top-up spray tan in the morning.

* * *

The next night our conversation got deep and meaningful. When it was too late to talk without Cole getting in trouble, we switched to text messages.

Toby:What’s ur biggest secret?

Cole:You know I’m only out to a few people.

Toby:Not that. There must b sumthing else.U tell me urs & i’ll tell u mine!

Three dots appeared in the chat, then disappeared again.

Toby:I’m serious. Cum on, u can trust me. i trust u!

The three dots returned, bouncing up and down on the screen. It took a while for Cole’s reply to come through. I could imagine him lying back in his bed, shirt off, tongue poking deep into his cheek.

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