Page 27 of Fake Rocks
But this was Saff Barnes.
Her response was a picture message of her and a girlfriend sipping from glasses of champagne, no doubt in a club somewhere. I recognised her friend as Rosie Tatton; the model. They both looked wasted. I glanced at the time. Ten thirty on a Thursday night, obviously nowhere near time to be going home yet.
I chewed the inside of my cheek, wondering whether to send her one back. But I was in bed in only my boxers. It was too soon to be sending herthatkind of picture, even as a joke. Instead, I found the shot of me in the suit and sent it instead, not expecting any response.
Almost immediately, she replied with hearts and the drooling emoji. I hoped it was a compliment.
You should be heading home soon. We’ve got a long journey tomorrow.
I can sleep on the train, lol
Oh, so you’re going to be amazing company then…how am I going to get to know you better?
After I’d pressed send, I instantly regretted the last question. Why would she want to get to know me better anyway? This was purely a business arrangement, not real life. As long as I knew the basics, I didn’t need to know anything else.
We’ve got the whole weekend together; you’ll get to know me. Night Tris xxx
I stared at Saff’s last message, the dots telling me she wasn’t active any longer.
Maybe Aunt Annie was right. I needed to be careful. I didn’t want to get hurt.
Although a small voice in my head told me it might already have been too late.
15
Saff
We nearly missed the train.
Obviously it was all my fault.
After staying out with Rosie until stupid o’clock, I slept through my alarm and didn’t wake up until Jonas started hammering on my door. In a fit of organisation I had, at least, got the essentials for the trip ready and all I had to do was throw in a few bits. Anything else I’d have to buy in Manchester.
Tris had worked with his uncle in the morning, already showered and changed, and was sitting in the living room waiting for me when I barrelled down the stairs with my stuff.
“Late night?” He quirked an eyebrow at me.
I remembered our message exchange and him telling me I ought to go home. I really should have taken his advice. For once, I wasn’t horribly hungover, just tired. The shoot had been fun and going out with Rosie always guaranteed good times, but staying out late when I had a big weekend ahead hadn’t been the best idea. Rosie had spent much of the evening grilling me about Tris. Clearly, the uni explanation hadn’t washed with her. I answered as best I could, trying to remember the salient points, so when I finally introduced Tris to Rosie, he wouldn’t screw up the story.
Jonas warned me I’d be asked questions about Tris and about the band, so I had to be sure I had the stories straight. The band responses were easy. The fact Tommo was joining TheSB had become common knowledge, plus Darren and I had been working on new stuff, so I had the band covered.
Tris was a whole different story.
A story I determined to get to know on the two and a half hour train journey.
Which, we nearly missed.
We got to the platform as the guard was about to close the doors, but we managed to get on board.
Our tickets were in First Class, and we found our seats easily. The other passengers in the carriage stared at us as Tris hoisted our luggage onto the rack. I’m pretty sure they felt the girl with pink hair, tattoos and a nose ring didn’t belong with them in their business suits and designer labels. I sat down and smiled at them all, safe in the knowledge my shoot yesterday had probably earned me more than their annual salaries - and that was with pink hair.
“Can I relax now?” I asked Tris as I sank into my seat. We had a table for four and sat opposite each other.
“Well, apparently you’re going to be catching up on your beauty sleep, so I guess the answer is yes.” Tris gave me a crooked smile and then turned to pull a magazine out of his bag. “I came prepared in case I got bored. Oh, and I brought these in case I needed to block out your snoring.” He waved his headphones at me.
“You don’t know if I snore!” I protested.
“You were this morning.”
