Part Twenty Eight.
Taking a deep breath as the dialling tone sounded in her eat Kimberley looked at Cheryl. Hearing Hilary’s voice she exhaled a shaky breath before speaking into the handset, her voice overly cheerful as she tried her best to remain positive.
“Hi Hilary...” she started, before she was interrupted by Hilary’s harsh tone.
“Kim, where the hell have you been? We’ve all been worried sick! Why didn’t your phones’ work out there? We’ve been trying to get in touch with you for days! Why the hell didn’t you give anyone any information on where you were staying? Spain! That’s all we knew. Fat lot of good that is to try and track you down!” Hilary paused in her rant to take a deep breath. “Are you ok? What about Cheryl?”
Kim smiled nervously as she listened to Hilary’s tone change, the initial anger in her voice fading.
“We’re fine honestly. A bit concerned now though. Is everything ok?” Kim questioned anxiously, staring at the answerphone which was still blinking furiously, 15 messages unheard.
“Are you in?” Hilary asked.
“Erm...yeah, literally just got back.” Kim replied, frowning at Cheryl, covering the mouthpiece as she whispered to her. “I think Hilary is coming over!”
“Ok well, I think I should come over. There’s some things we need to discuss. I wont be long.”
Kim flinched slightly at Hilary’s abrupt tone, looking at the handset strangely as she realised she had already hung up. Cheryl raised her eyebrow questioningly at her girlfriend, confused from her one sided take on the conversation.
“What the hell is going on?” she wondered aloud as Kimberley pulled her in for a cuddle, smoothing her hair out of her face as she looked into her eyes.
“I don’t know baby, but whatever it is it doesn’t sound good. I think Hilary might know about us.”
Cheryl looked up with a grin, pushing away from Kim as she headed to the kitchen, taking two mugs from the cupboard as she flicked the kettle on.
“Is that all? Who cares? Worst that happens is that she gets p!ssed off. We pay her not the other way around, who gives a crap if she hates it?” Cheryl smiled again, tossing teabags into the mugs, her body language clearly relaxing.
“Yeah...” Kimberley nodded, deep in thought. “I mean, what else could it be? I’m sure the girls were just ringing to warn us that Hilary was on the warpath...”
Cheryl agreed, passing Kim’s tea over as she cautiously lifted hers to her mouth, blowing softly into the hot liquid. Freezing to the spot she stared at Kimberley, eyes open wide as her jaw dropped slightly, realisation sinking in. With shaking hands she lowered her mug to the counter, swallowing the growing lump in her throat as she spoke.
“Kimba...it’s not just Hilary...it’s out. They know, everybody knows. That’s why all the paps were at the airport! I can’t believe it, how could we have been so f*cking stupid?!” she screamed, kicking the leg of the tall stool by the breakfast bar. “How could we have thought that by not telling anyone where we were that they wouldn’t find us? I bet that place was f*cking crawling with paps...we were just too stupid to see it. Too busy hanging off each other like stupid lovesick teens to see what was going on right infront of our f*cking noses.” Cheryl cradled her head in her hands, sliding down the cupboard until she was crouching on the floor.
Now it was Kimberley’s turn to freeze to the spot, staring at Cheryl as she continued to rant, cursing them both for being so blinkered.
“Cheryl...” she started, crouching by her side as she slowly comforted her, touching her shoulder lightly. She flinched as Cheryl pulled away, standing to her feet to walk across the kitchen, folding her arm’s as she stared out of the window. Brushing a tear away from her cheek she stood aswell.
