Lonely and Tired

Revelations

Brian and I set the plates down on the table and resumed our seats, the scrutiny was still there but it wasn't as blatant. It was okay, I could be like one of the Madagascar penguins, 'smile and wave boys, smile and wave.'

A glass of red wine appeared in front of my face. I took it and realised I had a beer in one hand and a wine in the other. I was the epitome of class. No wonder these people luuurved me. "Thanks Val."

"I really love this one. I hope it's up to your usual standards."

I blinked at her in surprise. "Val, have you seen your house? I'm pretty sure that everything here far exceeds my usual standards. I have no doubt that your standards are in a stratosphere above mine. I mean, clearly your husband's band is doing okay for themselves."

This time the eyes focused on me weren't narrowed in judgement, they were wide with astonishment. Brian just roared in laughter. What the fuck was so funny?

"Oh yeah? Did I forget to mention that although she likes our music she doesn't know who we are?" His broad grin retreated to a thin-lipped smirk.

"Oh my god you are such a jerk! You are so lucky I don't have my phone in my hand at the moment," I exploded. I could feel the heat of a blush spread across my cheeks. "I do so know who you are! You are Brian, he is Matt, he is Johnny and he is Zacky. Sorry Brooks, I actually didn't know who you were."

"Okay smartass. What I meant was you don't know anything about our band and how successful we are." Brian's face was solemn but his eyes were dancing.

"Wow. You should hear yourself. Don't you know who I am?" I mimicked. "Get over it. You're famous so what? Well I'm Instagram famous but I'm not going to sit here and tell you how many Instagram followers I have!"

Matt laughed. "It's all good. I'm perfectly happy with you knowing that I'm Matt and nothing more than that. You can find out everything else you want to know by having a conversation with me." The other guys made sounds of agreement.

"C'mon Ace," Brian persisted, "Don't you want to know how many awards we've won?" There was a chorus of groans. I looked at him in amazement, his arrogance knew no limits. There was that smug smirk and raised eyebrow again. I was about to let him have it when he nudged me with his elbow. The bastard was trying to get a rise out of me. Well this fish was not rising to the fly, no siree.

"Jerk," I muttered giving him a half-hearted kick to the shins.

He burst out laughing again before his expression changed to one of curiosity. "How many Instagram followers do you have?"

Before I could put him off with a vague answer Val interjected. "She has two hundred and fifty thousand followers." Thanks a bunch Val.

Brian's jaw dropped open and he looked at me in amazement.

"It's not a big deal," I mumbled.

"Sounds like kind of a big deal Ace. Go you huh?" He wrapped his arm around me again and gave my shoulder a squeeze.

Uh. He was gorgeous and the feel of his arm around me was just a little bit too enjoyable for comfort. Over the past couple of days he'd proved to be both great company and irritating as fuck. I wanted to slap myself because I knew exactly which direction my unruly thoughts were headed. Straight into crush land. As much as I'd tried to keep my friends away from Ryan, he'd tried to keep his away from me because my crushes had historically never ended well. Usually they ended up with me and Kelly, crouched under the back deck of my parents' house and downing a cask of Fruity Lexia as I wailed for the love that could never be. I was not doing that again. For a start Kelly was in London although I was sure Cathy would be a willing substitute, secondly Cathy's house didn't have a deck only a patio and the final, and most important, reason was I didn't even know if they sold cask Fruity Lexia in the USA.