The Kiss Off (23 page)

They each pushed a pair of earplugs into their ears. Then an announcer’s voice boomed all around us.

“Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Steriphone stadium, school is now in session, here is the Academy of Liiiiiieeeeeeeessss!”

“Oh my God,” I said, holding my hands to my ears as I was deafened to all noise except for the high pitched screams coming from the stadium. Mads and I exchanged grins as there was a flash of sparks behind the drum kit, the boys jumped into the air in unison and as they landed the song started. The screaming never stopped.

Mads and I danced on the spot, watching as they ran around the stage, jumping, hurling themselves around, but somehow always back in front of the microphone at the exact moment they needed to sing, it was all timed to perfection, I couldn’t have been prouder of how far they had come.

Another girl came up to the side of the stage and stood beside us, watching. I smiled at her absent-mindedly, but went back to watching the band. She had long thick platinum blond hair and a hell of a spray tan and I grimaced when I noticed she was wearing an Academy of Lies tee shirt, over her white skinny jeans. A fan hoping to meet the band when they came off stage, I guessed.

Mads’s eyes widened and she nudged me, then nodded toward the girl. I tried to be casual, not to blatantly stare at the chick, she was standing right next to me after all, and then I realized who it was.

But Mads beat me to it. “You’re Roxy Washington, aren’t you,” she said. The girl froze for half a second before giving a reluctant smile.

“You found me out,” she said.

“You totally deserved Best Kiss,” Mads said, nodding. “That kiss was hot. I’ve watched Party Shenanigans like a thousand times.”

“Thanks,” she said.

“I’m Mads,” Mads said. “I’m here with my best friend, I’m sure you know Poppy,” she said. Like I was
that
famous. I doubted little Miss Movie Star had any clue who I was.

“Poppy, yeah,” Roxy Washington said, blinking. Her eyes flit, looking me up and down, sizing me up. It was subtle, but I caught her. “You’re Ty’s uh, you’re Ty’s-”

“Girlfriend,” I supplied. “Yeah.”

“That’s so cool. He’s great, isn’t he? Don’t you think he’s great?”

“Yes,” I said. Yes I think my boyfriend is great. He’s my
boyfriend.

“He’s so great,” Roxy Washington said again, looking back at the stage. An uneasy shiver ran down my spine. What the fuck was this?

“How do you two know each other?” I asked. He’d said something about sharing studio space but I wanted to hear it from her.

“Oh you know, we see each other out at clubs, sometimes if I’m having a blast I’ll text him, get him to come down.”

“Him and the boys, you mean,” I said, motioning to the stage. “The band.”

She shrugged. “Sure, sometimes. You know, he’s been such a doll, he’s teaching me how to play the guitar, too.”

“Really.”

“Yeah, so I can play some tracks live sometimes when I do mall appearances and things. Instead of just being yet another girl wailing into a microphone,” she smirked. “I’ve recorded my own album, did you know? It drops in December, right in time for Christmas. Drops means it’s out in stores, just in case you didn’t-”

“I know what dropped means,” I said.

“Oh, okay.”

I stood there staring at her, my eyes narrowed for a moment. Mads took my hand and squeezed it, digging her fingernails in.

“So you have an album coming out, that’s pretty cool,” she said.

Roxy Washington flashed Mads a grin, her teeth shone like neon, there must have been some UV lights somewhere. Had to have been. They could not have been that white.

“Yeah, December fifth. It’s also going to be available on iTunes and my website. You should totally buy it.” She nodded vigorously. Mads nodded and smiled back. Roxy Washington looked down at her cell and held it up, pointing to it. “I better take this,” she said and dashed down the stairs for some quiet.

“Wow,” Mads said as we both continued to look at the stairway. “I don’t think I like her at all.”

“Mmm,” I said.

“You caught that whole vibe, right?”

“Yep,” I said.

“What a bitch.” Before we could continue this conversation, two women ascended the stairs, and one of them had pink hair.

“Jeri, Lana!” I threw open my arms and we group girly-hugged, jumping up and down.

“It’s so good to see you, Mads, this is Jeri and Lana, Jeri’s with Tommy and Lana’s Seb’s girlfriend.”

Mads hugged them both like long-lost friends. Lana shot a dirty look at the metal staircase.

“That was Roxy just now, wasn’t it?” she said.

“Yeah,” Mads and I said.

“You better watch out for her,” Jeri said. “She is all over Ty in a big way.”

My stomach lurched. “How do you mean?”

“She’s subtle about it, but trust me.” Lana nodded, with serious eyes.

I turned back to the stage and watched Ty, the brilliant front man, as he talked to the audience, making them laugh and scream even louder. They loved him, adored him. We all peered out at the crowd, at the handful of rows at the front that we could see, as someone screeched her declaration of love at Ty. Someone jumped up and down toward the front, holding up a banner that stated ‘I wanna have your babies!’. More girls screamed of their love until all that could be heard were girls screaming.

He laughed, looked around at his boys and took a bow. “Thank you,” he said. “We love you too.”

“These girls are going insane,” Lana said. “Tell me I wasn’t like that as a teenager, Jeri.”

“No,” Jeri said. “You were way worse than that.”

“I hope Throwdown get as big a reception as the Academy, they’ll be pissed if they don’t, right?” Mads said.

Jeri didn’t look worried. “Oh they will, it’ll be fine,” she said. “Those people out there might love the Academy, but they’re here for Throwdown. I bet it’s going to get even louder.”

“I think I’ll head downstairs,” I said. I couldn’t deal with louder, I couldn’t deal with just plain loud, right now. I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t hear myself think. And I needed to think.

“The party’s in Throwdown’s dressing room, but if you want some quiet, well, quiet
er
, ours should be empty now,” Lana said as I placed my hand on the stair rail and Mads followed me away from the stage.

We walked past Throwdown’s dressing room, which had a big, burly security guy with a shaved head standing at the door. He looked scary and stern, but as we walked by, his face lightened into a friendly smile and he nodded at each of us in greeting. There was a small crowd inside, small because it was a small room, and the men of Throwdown were chanting ‘chug chug chug’ as a woman with ginormous fun-bags popping out the front of her tiny navy dress was chugging from a bucket. Yes really, a bucket. It was all very classy.

“Poppy,” Mads said from behind me. I turned around to see her waiting at a door, motioning for me to come inside.

“Oh,” I said, noticing the Academy of Lies sign stuck to the door. I’d walked right past it. We entered and closed the door behind us. Boy clothes were strewn across the room and there was a corner with a makeup counter set up and a big mirror with exposed light globes propped on the table, leaning against the wall. Mads wandered over and inspected herself and the make up on the table.

“It’s all boring colours,” she pouted.

“That’s because it’s make up for boys,” I said, flopping into the worn suede sofa. I exhaled. “Do you think he’s cheating on me?” I asked. “For real, what do you think, Mads. Because what everyone’s been saying…”

“Poppy.”

“I think he is,” I said. Mads opened her mouth to speak, but shut it again. “I think he’s seeing other girls. Probably even Roxy Washington.” And like she had heard or name, or my very thoughts had summoned her to us, Roxy Washington pushed open the door and walked in. She stopped with surprise when she saw us, and then smiled and made her way over to the big glass bowl filled with ice and water bottles, beer and soda cans.

“You’re not watching the show?” she asked, cracking open a 7-Up. I listened to it fizz, the gas rushing out. It was the only sound in the room. Well, aside from the muffled thud of the drums and undecipherable song lyrics.

“No, I came to see Ty,” I said. “Not the show.”

“Oh,” Roxy nodded, taking a swig from the can. “Me too, I’ve seen them play a bunch of times.”

Why was she telling me this, why was she telling me this? What did she want me to think of that? She’d come to hang out with Ty. Well she couldn’t hang out with him,
I
was going to be with Ty. Had he invited her too? Or had she just turned up like some celebrity ‘Best Kiss Award’ It Girl stalker?

I watched as Roxy Washington put her can on the table and fished out a small tub of lip-gloss from her purse.

“What flavor’s that?” Mads asked, leaning in for a look. Roxy dipped her finger in the tub and then held it up to Mads’s nose.

“Guava-strawberry,” she said. “I got it as swag at the launch of that new makeup line Delish, it tastes so good. Ty loves it.”

She stiffened. I stiffened. She wouldn’t look at me. Mads would though. Her eyes widened and she glanced at me in panic before her features returned to normal again, hiding everything.

“Ty loves it?” I said. “How does Ty know what it tastes like?”

Roxy pressed her gloss-coated fingertip to her lips, rubbing it back and forth, back and forth. Concentrating harder on that task than was necessary. Much, much harder.

“Ty doesn’t exactly seem like the type of guy to be trying on your new lip gloss, Rox,” Mads said.

“Yeah,” Roxy said, screwing the lid back on the tub, then looking carefully at her bag as she opened it and hunted for the perfect spot to put the gloss. Or she was looking for something else in her bag. Or she was stalling. I knew which my money was on.

“How does Ty know what your lip gloss tastes like, Roxy?” I asked again.

Mads stepped up into Roxy’s face. “Yeah, how?” I stood up and walked slowly toward them. Roxy flinched and stepped away. She didn’t realize that she was actually inching closer to the one of us that was more likely to punch her in her trout pout.

“Answer me!”

Mads slammed her fist against the table with a bang. Roxy flinched again, her eyes darting back and forth between us.

“It was just a couple of kisses,” she said. I couldn’t…did she just say? I had nearly prepared myself, like I knew some of it had to be true, but I hadn’t wanted to believe it.

“You little-”

“No Mads!”

Mads was ready to pounce, but I put a hand on her shoulder, distracting her, stopping her from giving the starlet a black eye.

Sure, I just knew in my gut that they had kissed. Nightclubs, guitar lessons. All that alone time. He had slipped up and he was going to be punished for it. A kiss, sure. But a couple of kisses? He had kissed her a
couple
of times? I hadn’t expected that. And this girl, this It Girl with so much money, so many friends, so much fame… how many famous boyfriends had she had? She could have anyone. But she decided she wanted
my
one. She couldn’t go for a single guy, she wanted what she wanted. And then just took it.

I glared at her, my teeth clenched. Taking a step closer, I could smell her stupid lip-gloss. That Ty liked. As the muffled opening chords of The Kiss Off vibrated around the stadium and the crowd cheered even louder, I formed a fist, pulled my arm back and gave Roxy an uppercut to the nose. She screamed and collapsed onto the floor. Blood droplets spattered onto Ty’s face on her tee shirt.

Mads gave me a surprised pat on the shoulder. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

“Poppy!” Lana ran into the room and then stopped, surveying the room, Roxy on the floor holding her nose, and me shaking my hand as my scraped knuckles reddened and stung.

“Poppy,” Lana said again, holding out her cell phone to me. “Tell me this isn’t you.” The cell was open to an internet page. A picture on an internet page. A photograph. Mads peered over my shoulder and gasped before I could turn the screen away from her.

He’d done it, he’d posted it. I was naked, on the internet.

***

Chapter Eighteen

I paced the few steps of space in my bedroom, wearing a pair of baby blue sweatpants and slippers but I still had on my Rolling Stones top. I held a pad and a pen, and my guitar lay on my bed beside Mads who was hugging my teddy bear, Mr. Snuggly, and watching me pace.

“Does anything rhyme with lying, cheating, betrayer?” I said. Mads made a thinking face. I continued. “How about scumbag rot in hell I never want to see you again? Something’s gotta rhyme with that, right?”

“Maybe you should keep it simple,” Mads suggested, stroking my teddy’s head.

I couldn’t stop moving, my body felt gross and I thought I might throw up a bunch of times, but nothing had happened. I was naked on the internet. How many people had seen it? How many people were
going
to see it? It was tagged with all sorts of words, Academy of Lies, Ty, PoppyLongStocking, Poppy, The Kiss Off, sext, slut…I didn’t want to think of the other words. He had gone to a lot of effort to make sure anyone searching for him or me would find my boobs. Little girls who loved the Academy’s music were probably going to find my naked body now. Dirty old men, too.
Oh God, dirty old men
. It was only a matter of time before it was all over TMZ and Entertain Me. Hopefully I was overestimating my fame.