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Back Unnecessary Drama Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. COVER PAGE
  2. TEXT LOGO PAGE
  3. ABOUT THE BOOK
  4. DEDICATION
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
  15. 11
  16. 12
  17. 13
  18. 14
  19. 15
  20. 16
  21. 17
  22. 18
  23. 19
  24. 20
  25. 21
  26. 22
  27. 23
  28. 24
  29. 25
  30. 26
  31. 27
  32. 28
  33. 29
  34. 30
  35. 31
  36. 32
  37. 33
  38. 34
  39. 35
  40. 36
  41. 37
  42. 38
  43. 39
  44. 40
  45. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  46. ALSO BY NINA KENWOOD
  47. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  48. PRAISE
  49. NEW MARKETING PAGE

Jesse and I stand up, and I feel everyone’s eyes on us. The pressure to perform both being in a relationship and sing at the same time is a lot. Lauren starts heckling, and I determinedly ignore her, but I can feel my face getting hotter and hotter. Jesse points to song after song, but I keep shaking my head. No, I can’t sing that. I can feel aggravation rising inside me.

‘Just pick one,’ Jesse says, and he’s clearly frustrated with me, and I can see Tristan’s eyes widen with concern.

Lauren stands up and grabs the mic off me.

‘You’re taking too long,’ she says. ‘I’ll duet with Jesse.’

I grab the microphone back.

‘Actually, we’ve already heard two songs from you tonight and it’s two too many,’ I say.

Lauren makes a face at me.

‘So start singing,’ she says. She’s looking at me like I’m the one behaving terribly, which makes me want to cry with frustration, because, yes, I am behaving terribly but also no one understands how misunderstood and alone I am in this horrible world.

‘I will if you give me a chance, but we know how much you need all the attention, all the time,’ I snap. All my emotions have merged into a kind of red haze of anger and Lauren is the easiest target here. A nice, familiar target.

‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ She grabs at the microphone again, and I wrap my hands tightly around it and push her away. She doesn’t let go, and we wrestle with the mic. I feel like we’ve stepped back in time and we’re seven and nine years old, wrestling over the TV remote or a hair tie or a piece of clothing or the last packet of tiny teddies in the box, or any of the many items we have fought over in our life.

Jesse jumps back to get away from us, and he trips over the microphone stand, and falls onto the floor, and I turn to grab him, and trip on his leg and fall as well, and Lauren comes crashing down on top of us both.

26

26

Everyone rushes over to help. Lauren and I are absurdly both still gripping the microphone, and Jesse is trying to wriggle out from underneath me, and Harper is saying, ‘Here let me help’, but not actually doing anything to help. Tristan says, ‘We need to separate them,’ like we’re toddlers, and there’s a lot of stumbling around, and Kendra falls over and her knee squishes my boob, briefly, and it hurts enough to send a jolt of rage through me and suddenly I can’t stand any of it anymore.

I haul myself out and stand up, and shove the microphone at Lauren.

‘Here, it’s all yours. I’m done.’

‘What is going on with you?’

‘Nothing.’