“Okaaaay.” The waitress looked at Grace, then me, then Grace again. “Shame. I love that video. Was watching it last night. My favourite ever Christmas number one.”
“Number thirteen.” It popped out before I could stop myself. I shrugged. “At a guess…”
But after a very suspicious look, she finally left. I exhaled so hard, I basically deflated.
“Grace,” I whispered, clutching her arm, as I checked Zaiynab and Matt were none the wiser. “Tell me this isn’t happening. HOW did she know?”
“I dunno,” Grace whispered back. “But we have to keep calm. She’s only one person. And I think we threw her off the scent.” I was going to have to check YouTube later, wasn’t I? That stupid music video from years ago, with my stupid green face. If people had started to watch it again, I was in serious trouble. And the stupid song was still playing. How long did it go on for? Two hours?! It felt like five days already.
“Honestly, Grace. If anyone find outs my life will be over. You know what happened to Cliff? I mean, Daisy.” The name was stuck for life. “And to Noah when he knocked over that candle?” Grace nodded slowly. Poor Noah got his hand covered in wax and two years later he was still getting tagged in Madame Tussauds pictures. “You-know-who” – I jerked my head towards Zaiynab and Matt – “will never speak to me again.” I picked up a tiny, tiny marshmallow, but dropped it back in my drink, too sad to eat it. Double tragedy.
And now Dad was ringing. “One sec…” I gestured outside, relieved to have an excuse to avoid hearing child-me singing the last line. Maybe cold air might help calm me down. But Dad just wanted to know if I wanted to join them to do an interview in London. Which didn’t make me calm at all. It made me want to move to Lapland and live in an igloo far, far away from anyone. I put the phone down and bent over double.
Someone was yelling, “Whhhhyyyyyyyy!”
And that someone was me.
“You OK there?” Please no. Please don’t let that voice belong to who I thought it did. I stood up slowly.
“Just, you know…” I tried to look as normal as someone who had just been yelling to themselves in the freezing-cold night could. “…vocal warm-up stuff.”
“Cool.” Zaiynab nodded – she looked so cool in a black fake leather jacket. Did cool people not feel the cold? And I was wearing a penguin jumper. I WAS WEARING A PENGUIN JUMPER! I folded my arms tight in front of me. “Kind of neat we ran into you. We wanted to let you know that sadly for you we’ve narrowed it down to a final two.” Ouch. My stomach sank. Had I even come close? “Just a final stage left. Getting one more set of lyrics in.”
I tried to nod and look neutral, and not like I was having the worst three minutes of my life.
“We’ve already got the track.” Matt sighed. “But we’re struggling for lyrics that feel right.”
“Well, I hope you find someone good.” It was hard to look that enthusiastic when my dreams had just been crushed, and I didn’t have a coat and had lost feeling in three out of four of my limbs.
Zaiynab’s eyebrows lowered. “What? Are you out then?”
“Out?”
“Yup. You’re one of the final two.” My mouth fell open! I was still in the running! They liked my stuff! “I only said sadly cos it meant more work for you…”
“Whoa. I mean … what?!” I might be in The POWR?! “I mean, I’m in. SO IN!”
“Great, we’ll DM you the track…”
But before I could say thanks, the waitress burst out of ALottaWaffle holding up her phone.
“IT IS YOU!” Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no! On her phone was the video of The Brussel Shouts… “Elf girl?”
Zaiynab and Matt looked at me, confused. I looked at the waitress, hoping she might somehow fall down a drain. But she wasn’t only one inch wide, and there was no drain, and the video was still playing … AND WHAT COULD I DO?!
I could… Nope, literally no idea. But Grace could help. Grace always helped! I bunched my fist, and keeping it behind my back, banged on the misted-up window by where we were sitting.
“It really isn’t.” I banged some more. Please come out, Grace! “Honestly,” I looked at Zaiynab and Matt. “There’s been some kind of mix-up.”
“Everything OK?” Grace appeared like some kind of Christmas angel. She looked round at what was happening. “Mol, I thought you might need this.” She held out my coat, right in front of the phone. Genius.
“Thanks, Grace. It is very cold brrrrrr.” I was talking extra loud to mask the tinny sound coming out of the phone. I had to get everyone to leave. And quick! “So very cold that we can’t just stand here chatting. Vest weather, as my aunt says. And hypothermia is no joke.” Please let me stop talking. “Toes can fall off and everything. So, I’ll bid you adieu.” I actually bowed at Zaiynab and Matt. Why was I like this?! “But thanks SO MUCH, you guys.” I side-shuffled towards the door, Grace sidestepping next to me, both of us ignoring that a very confused waitress was still looking down at the video and then back at me. “And top tip time! You should probably save your battery. The cold makes it really drain.”
Safety was in touching distance! But that’s when a couple holding hands walked round the corner, the guy giving the girl a quick kiss on the cheek, their arms swinging as they laughed.
They looked really in love.
And they looked really like Simon and a new girl. Because they were.
“Shall we go in?” I swivelled round and tried to bundle Grace inside. But she’d already seen.
“Si…?” she said quietly, almost to herself. But the waitress was waving at the girl. And she was steering Simon over. And he realized too late who else was standing here.
At least the video finally stopped. But then again, so had my heart. Simon didn’t even drop the girl’s hand, not until she hugged the waitress as Zaiynab and Matt headed off.
“What are you doing here?” the waitress asked, not realizing the atmosphere had turned frostier than a snowman with two snow-girlfriends.
The girl grinned. “Just saw Sleigh Another Day.”
The exact film Simon said he wouldn’t see with Grace. And he’d gone on their year anniversary.
“And what a night to see it,” I said, my eyes locked on Simon. I wanted to say more but knew Grace would hate it. What kind of a guy would do this?
But Simon just shrugged. “Yeah, it was great. Although, some bad news.” What’s worse than “I’m cheating on your best friend”? “That party thing? Turns out we’re double booked. You’re going to need a new venue.”
“Are you kidding me?” Had he really just cancelled the one thing we’d had booked for Grampy G’s Grotto? I looked at Grace. She was just standing, staring, not even blinking.
“Sadly not. But I’m sure you guys can be resourceful.” He didn’t care one bit! “Anyway, we’ve got a booking we need to get to.”
