Page 110 of Sky Full of Stars

“You look really familiar,” one of the American guys says to me.

“If that is a pickup line, don’t bother,” Kevin interjects from beside me. “She’s totally taken. And no offence, but you wouldn’t stand a chance against her guy.”

“Kevin,” I hiss, one that was rude, and two he doesn’t need to defend me.

“No, no,” the guy holds his hands up in defence. “It wasn’t a line. You just…I’ve seen you before, hey Shelley,” he nudges the girl beside him. “Doesn’t she? She looks like someone. Who is it?” he has a weird drunken frown on his face as he tries to figure out how he knows me. His friend, Shelley shrugs as she looks at me.

I’ve never seen this guy before in my life so he has to be thinking of someone else. I’m about to tell him that when he snaps his fingers.

“Ohhhh, I remember now,” he points at Kevin. “Yeah, man I wouldn’t stand a chance,” he laughs loudly. “You’re the girl Aidan Gass is all over. The singer from BreakNeck.”

“Excuse me?” I straighten from the bar and look at this kid with wide eyes.

“Yeah, you’re like trending. Everyone wants to know who you are.”

“What?”

He fumbles out his phone. His friend Shelley now realises what he means and starts enthusiastically nodding her head at me. I lean in to look at his phone and there it is, right in front of my face. A photograph of me and Adam. Then another. And another. All from inside the bar in London, Knowhere Special, we are close together, he’s touching me in most of the pictures. Nick is in a few.

The headlines question who I am, what I’m doing with the band, some insinuating things that make my blood boil. The only people in the bar that night were with the band. Someone they trusted took those pictures and sold them. Again.

Everything around me turns to white noise. It will only be a matter of time before I’m identified. The last time, my face wasn’t clear, with these I might as well have been posing for the camera. Any anonymity we hoped for has well and truly blown right the fuck up.

I’m shocked out of my trance when Kevin leans across me and pushes the guy to the side.

“Hey, don’t do that!” Kevin shouts knocking the phone out of his hand and I realise he was trying to take my picture. “Come on,” Kevin grabs me and pulls me away from the group, who are now staring at me with a different look in their eyes.

Elle is getting our things and hurrying towards the exit. People start shouting behind us as we dash out into the busy street. Luckily, it’s so busy we dart away from the bar without anyone following us. I blindly follow the others. Kevin has his hand around my upper arm, helping me along. Elle finds us a cab. I barely manage to get my head around what happened, so am grateful they’re here to get us back to the hotel.

“Are you alright?” Elle asks. I’m sandwiched between them.

“I don’t…I’m not sure what…”

“Maybe you should call Aidan,” she says with a sympathetic look on her face.

Elle is famous in her own right, maybe not to the extent Adam and the rest of the band are, but she is a public figure and I saw first-hand how people turned on her just a few days ago, when she had no way of controlling the situation she found herself in.

So many people love and adore Adam, as Aidan. They’ve cultivated his image as a single, hot rock star and seeing him all over someone, the press will be relentless trying to find out who I am. I wish I hadn’t drank so much because not only is this situation getting to me, but I also feel the alcohol swishing around my stomach, I am going to puke.

“Take deep breaths,” Kevin says, his voice gentle. “It’s gonna be alright. We’ll get back to the hotel and figure this out,” he gives my hand a squeeze, which I only now realise has been in his since we got in the cab.

I pull out my phone and search, finding more news outlets got a hold of the pictures. With every new article my heart plummets.

“It’s all over,” I say quietly.

“What do you mean?” Elle asks me.

I am in total shock. Seeing myself like this, my morals and character being questioned by complete strangers. This is only the beginning. Adam told me repeatedly his life is difficult in the spotlight, to a degree I understood what he meant. I’m not prepared for this.

“Life…my life isn’t going to be the same. And I don’t know if I can deal with that.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

I burst onto the stage where the roadies are setting up for sound check, barely able to contain the anger raging through me. Dex is fiddling with his drum kit on the raised dais. Nick is sat in the corner on top of an amp, his earphones are in as he stares at his phone. I don’t see Arch but he isn’t who I’m searching for.

Bianca’s head rises when I spot her. Her back straightens as I storm across the stage. I swing up my phone, images of the stories I’d woken to this morning clear for her to see.

“What the fuck is this, Bianca?”

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