Page 21 of Going Solo

OK, this was definitely a narrative for the show, and it made me super nervous. I had to protect Cole.

“It’d be an honour,” I said. And left it. Dorinda’s eyebrows went up. I kept my face blank. After an awkward pause, she moved on.

“How are you finding living in the house? You’re rooming with Chase French, aren’t you? What’s that like?”

“Chase is great!” I said, meaning it. Chase was a rugby-fit lad with a voice straight from the Welsh valleys. What I didn’t say was I’d hardly spent any time with him, despite bunking with him. The producers had allocated our rooms, and Cole was up the hall with Yoshi Kawaguchi—a Japanese exchange student with an extraordinary voice who had auditioned on a dare by his host sister. Cole and I had tried to hide things, but Yoshi and Chase soon clocked what was going on between us and had been politely going to hang out in one room so Cole and me could make out in the other.

“What’s the best thing about living with Chase?” Dorinda asked.

The interview went on like this for another five minutes, asking about various contestants. Had I been reading too much into all the questions about Cole? I couldn’t shake the fear we were becoming a narrative for the show, and I had to warn Cole before he was outed on national television.

* * *

When I finally found him, Cole was sitting in the hotel dining room with Yoshi and Chase. I slid in beside him and stole a chip from his plate.

“Oi!”

“Ow, isshh hot.”

“A seagull doesn’t get to complain when he burns his tongue on the chips.”

I rolled the steaming-hot chunk of deep-fried potato around in my mouth, trying to cool it down.

“We’ll give you boys some space,” Chase said. He and Yoshi stood, picked up their plates, and moved to another table. Cole’s thigh pressed against mine.

“Hab you dub… your interbew… wib… Dorimba,” I said, forming the words as best I could around the hot chip.

“Yeah.”

“Dib she ars you a lob ob…” This was ridiculous. I swallowed the chip. It burnt all the way down. “Did she ask you a lot of questions about me?”

“About you?”

I nodded, stealing a sip of Cole’s water.

Cole shook his head. “No. She asked me about working with Robbie. Why?”

“I think they know we’re a thing,” I said.

Cole didn’t even blink. “They definitely know we’re a thing.”

“Oh.”

“That’s what Robbie wanted to speak to me about earlier.”

“What did he say?” I reached for another chip. Cole slapped my hand and I retracted it, shoving it inside the pocket of my hoodie.

“It was a warning. He said the producers have some storyline about us, he didn’t say what, but they’re trying to catch us on camera together whenever they can. Based on what he said, I’m surprised they’re not filming us right now.”

My eyes flicked subconsciously up to the CCTV cameras. “Why?”

“He didn’t know. Or, at least, he didn’t tell me. But he’s worried they’re going to turn me into part of reality TV’s first gay couple.”

“But you’re not out!”

“I know.” Cole looked down at his plate and began rubbing a chip through the sauce, making patterns. “But it’s not my dad I’m worried about. Robbie pointed out if they tell that story, that’s all I’ll ever be—a novelty. I won’t be known for my music, I’ll be the guy who had a teenage romance on television. Forever.”

I felt the crush of Cole’s words. He blew on his chip and bit it in half. As I watched him chew, the full potential of the opportunity we had in front of us dawned on me. My pulse quickened.

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