Quest For A Popstar Read online

  “Tom?”

  “Mmm?” He pulls off my shirt.

  “Do you love me?”

  He looks into my eyes, smiling. “Of course I do. I want to marry you, don’t I?” He kisses me deeply, his tongue exploring my mouth.

  He has my bra off in a flash and turns me, lowering me onto his bed. He grabs my boob as he continues kissing me.

  My phone rings.

  “Wait.” I reach for my bag on the floor.

  “Ignore it.” He grabs my arm, wrapping it around him.

  “No, it could be important.”

  “Hailey, don’t.”

  I grab my bag and pull out the phone. He growls and rolls off me.

  “It’s my mother.”

  He groans.

  “Hey, Mom.”

  “Hailey!” Her bright voice rings down the line. “What is this about you getting into Quest for a Popstar?”

  “Oh, yeah, I auditioned,” I replied with a wince. Usually I tell her everything, but this had all happened so quickly.

  Tom sits up, running his hand through his hair.

  “Mom, I’m kinda busy. Can I call you back?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? I would have gone with you,” she says, completely ignoring me. “I haven’t heard you sing in years. You know how I love to hear you sing. Oh, Hailey, you might meet Jeffrey Halloway. You know he’s my favorite singer.”

  “Mom, please, let me call you back.”

  “I had to hear it from Tom!”

  “Tom?” I glance at Tom, wondering when he’d talked to my mother.

  “Yes, he called me to ask if you could actually sing. Imagine my shock!”

  “You called my mother?” I ask Tom.

  He shrugs. “Yeah. I was worried about you.”

  “Is he there?” Mom asks. “Tell him hello for me. We’d love to see him again. When’s he going to make everything official?”

  “Mom, seriously, I have to go.”

  “Oh! Of course. You’re on a date, aren’t you? All right, hon. Call me when you can.”

  “I will. Bye, Mom.”

  “Bye, Hailey!”

  I hang up and roll over to face Tom. “Sorry. You know she would have kept calling until I answered.”

  He scoffs. “Whatever.”

  “Tom. Come on.” I kneel up and wrap my arms around him.

  He runs his hand over my arm. “All I want is your undivided attention.”

  “And you’ve got it.” I kiss his ear. “I’ve turned my phone on silent. No more disturbances.”

  He twists to face me, wrapping his arm around my waist. “Good.”

  Chapter Three

  When I awake, Tom is still sleeping. I slip out of the bed, heading for the shower. As I approach the door, Karen steps out. “Oh!”

  “Sorry.” I shuffle back.

  She smiles. “No problem. I didn’t realize you were still here. I thought you were leaving this morning.”

  “I am. I gotta clean up and get to my apartment to grab my bag.”

  “All right.” She tucks her blonde hair behind her ear. “Anthony left a little while ago, so don’t worry about him walking in on you.”

  I chuckle. That happened once before. He thought I was Karen. We both freaked out. “Thanks.”

  “Is Tom taking you down?”

  I shake my head. “He has some family obligations.”

  “I bet he’s bummed.”

  “He seems to be.”

  She grins. “Good luck. I can’t wait to see you on TV.”

  “Thanks.”

  She steps aside to let me into the bathroom.

  I shower, dress, and rush into the kitchen, stealing one of Tom’s toaster waffles. As it cooks, he stumbles down the stairs in just his pajama pants. “Hailey.”

  “Got some morning wood there, babe.”

  He glances down and lowers his hands over himself. “Are you leaving?”

  “My flight’s in two hours. I gotta go get my stuff.”

  He shuffles over and wraps his arms around me. “I’m gonna miss this.”

  “What? Rubbing my face in your sweaty armpits?”

  He tickles me. I laugh, squirming. He grins and kisses me. “Don’t let anyone hit on you, flirt with you, tell you to use your body to win, make you wear slutty clothes—”

  “Tom.” I grab his chin. “I’ll be fine.”

  He kisses me. “Call me if anyone tries anything on you, and I’ll be there on the next flight.”

  “I will.” I kiss him again. The waffle pops. I grab it, lather butter on it, and dash for the door.

  “Hailey.”

  I look back at him.

  “Come back to me, okay? No matter how it all turns out.”

  “I will.” I blow him a kiss and dash out the door.

  ***

  Clarissa chats away about how everyone at her school is jealous of her going on the show. I scan my ticket to check in, and she hands me hers, not really paying attention. I scan her in. “Where do you want to sit?”

  She leans over to look at the image of the plane. “Oh, there aren’t many pairs left.”

  “Nope.”

  She points to two seats near the middle. “That’ll do.”

  “You should get seats near the front of the plane,” Lucas says. “You can get on and off faster.”

  “There’s three there,” Isaiah says, reaching over my shoulder. “I’ll take that one with you guys.”

  Lucas scowls, pressing on his screen. The empty seat blinks unavailable.

  “Jerk,” Isaiah grumbles.

  Clarissa presses on the two seats across the aisle and hits confirm.

  “I’ll sit behind you then.” Isaiah winks at me and scans his ticket.

  We make our way through security and sit at our gate to wait. My phone buzzes and I pull it out to see a text from Tom.

  Tom: Be safe. Good luck.

  I smile.

  “Is that your boyfriend?” Clarissa asks. “Do you have a picture of him?”

  I nod and pull up a picture of us at his work Christmas party.

  “He’s cute,” she says.

  “I think so.”

  Isaiah snatches my phone from me. “He’s okay, I guess. Not as hot as me, though.”

  Lucas snorts but keeps reading on his Kindle.

  Lydia leans over the chair to look at my phone. “Yeah, my brothers are hotter.”

  “Lydia.” Clarissa frowns.

  “What? Brittany’s always going on about how hot Arnie is. I don’t think my brothers are hot, but everyone else seems to.”

  Arnie stares at her with wide-eyed alarm.

  “Let me see.” Levi grabs the phone. “He looks like a moron.”

  “Levi!” Clarissa snatches my phone. “If Hailey likes him, then he must be a great guy.”

  “It’s not any of your business anyway,” Lucas says.

  Isaiah flops into the chair beside me. He smells so good. “How long have you been together?”

  “About six months,” I answer.

  “Six months, eh?”

  “Isaiah,” Kessa says calmly.

  He glances over, smiling. “Yeah, Mom?”

  “Go get everyone something to drink.” She digs into her wallet.

  “Send Arnie.”

  She raises an eyebrow at him.

  “Fine.”

  He stands, strolling over to her with his left hand in his pocket and looking like he owns the world. She hands him a ten, and he walks away looking smooth and cool. So hot.

  “So, six months?”

  I look at Clarissa as she tilts her head and waves my phone in front of me.

  “Yeah. We met at a mutual friend’s birthday party. She introduced us, and we hit it off right away.”

  “I’ve never had a boyfriend.”

  I stare at her, completely stunned. A girl this beautiful can’t have been passed by. “Really?”

  She nods. “Not that I’ve really tried to get one. I see couples my age and all it seems
to be is drama. I prefer hanging out with my brothers anyway.”

  Lucas glances up and gives her a nod.

  I really don’t get him.

  “Do you think you’ll marry this guy?”

  I smile. “We’re talking about it. But not until I graduate. We’re too young right now.”

  “Fair enough. Mom and Dad married young. She says she’s glad she did because it meant she spent more time with him.”

  “Oh.” I don’t want to ask what happened to him.

  “He died,” Lydia says with a sigh. “Heart attack when I was eight.”

  “Oh.” I stare at my hands, not sure how to react. “I’m sorry.”

  “You’re making her uncomfortable again,” Lucas says.

  “Shut up, Lucas,” Clarissa responds. “We’re not making you uncomfortable, are we?”

  I don’t want to answer that question.

  “I didn’t think so.” She wraps her arm through mine. “Dad was amazing. He was a lot like Lucas.”

  Lucas stands and walks away. Kessa touches his hand as he brushes by.

  “Lucas took it the hardest,” Clarissa whispers. “He was nineteen, and he and Dad were tight. They were working on Lucas’s car when it happened. I think he feels guilty for it.”

  “It’s not his fault,” I say softly.

  “We all know that. He just misses him.”

  The attendant calls for our flight to board.

  I lean over and grab my bag, standing beside Clarissa. Isaiah appears, hands everyone a bottle of water, and snatches his bag. He slips into the line beside me. “So, Hailey, we don’t really know that much about you.”

  I shrug. “There’s not much to know.”

  “Aw, come on. How about, do you have any siblings?”

  “Yes, do you?”

  He smirks. “Five of them. Each more irritating than the next.”

  “I’ve seen worse.”

  He leans closer. “So? How many?”

  “I have two younger brothers. Much younger. They’re a product of my mother’s second marriage. They’re eight and six.”

  “Pains?”

  “Not really. My stepdad can be a pain. They’re kinda cute.”

  “Don’t like him, huh?”

  I shrug. “We never saw eye to eye, that’s all. I think it’s because I don’t look much like Mom, so he assumes I look like my dad, her ex. It’s a bitter reminder for him, I guess.”

  “What happened to your real dad?”

  A hand smacks him across the head. “Back off, moron.”

  I look back at Lucas, alarmed.

  Isaiah swings around, his fist aiming for Lucas’s gut. Lucas grabs it and twists his arm. “Don’t even try.”

  “Enough,” Kessa says firmly.

  They turn away from each other.

  “So, your dad,” Isaiah says, his shoulder pressing against mine.

  “She doesn’t have to say,” Clarissa says softly.

  We reach the flight attendants taking our boarding passes and Isaiah moves away from me. I let out a long breath. His intensity and closeness make me nervous. He’ll make keeping my promise to Tom hard. He really gets under my skin and forces my hormones into overdrive. But Tom is real. I have a future with him. Isaiah is a passing whim.

  We head to the plane and Clarissa slips in beside me. “I’m sorry about Isaiah. He’s a huge flirt. You say the word, and I’ll get him to back off.”

  I sigh. “It’s okay. I’ll handle it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. I don’t want to cause problems between you guys.”

  She smirks. “You don’t need to worry about that. He’s so protective of me it’s embarrassing.”

  We make our way to our seats, and I let Clarissa take the window. I’m prone to nausea during takeoff and landing. The last thing I want to do is puke all over my new friend in front of her terrifyingly gorgeous and erratic brothers.

  I shove my bag into the overhead compartment, and Isaiah slips by. I gasp, swearing his hand brushed over my butt. But he doesn’t react when I glance at him; he just shoves his bag in beside mine.

  Someone moves behind me. Lucas places his bag in his overhead. I shut the hatch and sink beside Clarissa.

  “So, are you nervous?” She grins as we buckle up.

  The flight goes quickly, and Clarissa and I talk easily together. Every now and then, Isaiah pops his head over, but he always leans back when Lucas throws him a scowl. Apart from that, Lucas pretty much ignores us.

  We land in L.A. and find our shuttle to our hotel in Hollywood. I’ve never been to Hollywood before, so I watch out the window as the freeway shoots by, waiting to see those famous letters up on the hill.

  When they appear, Clarissa clutches my arm, letting out a short squeal. “I can’t believe we’re here!”

  “Me too.”

  We arrive at the hotel where three rooms were booked for us—the guys all in one, Clarissa and me in another, and Kessa and Lydia in the last. Kessa’s room has an adjoining door with the guys’, but mine and Clarissa’s is across the corridor.

  Clarissa and I retreat to our room and collapse on our queen-sized beds.

  “This is incredible!” she exclaims.

  “I know!”

  She sits up, grinning, then grabs the remote and turns on the TV, surfing for a music channel. When she finds one playing the top-twenty countdown, she turns up the volume and launches to her feet on top of the bed.

  “Come on, Hailey!”

  I jump up on my bed, and together we sing along loudly…badly. But we don’t care. We’re free, living the dream.

  When the song ends a commercial starts, so she mutes it. We flop onto our beds again. “Clarissa?”

  “Yeah?”

  “No matter what happens, this moment made it all worth it.”

  She chuckles. “We’ll be friends for always.”

  “I hope so.”

  She sits up on her elbow, facing me. “Of course we will. I’ll make sure of it.”

  I sigh, slipping my hands under my pillows. “I’m not very good at keeping friends.”

  “I doubt that.”

  “No, it’s true. It’s not that I lose friends, it’s more that people don’t seem to stick around. They drift away and I stop seeing them.”

  “I won’t let that happen.”

  I look into her eyes and have no doubt she would do exactly that. “I’ve never met anyone like you before. You and your whole family are all…” I try to think of the right word. “So vibrant and alive.”

  She giggles. “You’ll get used to us.”

  I smile. “I’d like that.” I gaze at her. “Why, out of all the people at the auditions, did you talk to me?”

  She shrugs. “You looked like you were going to throw up.”

  I laugh. “Great.”

  She chuckles. “You looked nice, and so alone. My family’s my rock, and I felt bad that you had no one with you.”

  I sigh. “Tom’s freaking out about this. He thinks I’ll get exploited.”

  “It’s likely.”

  I stare at her, surprised by her response.

  She shrugs. “We’re young women. That’s what people expect to see. But I won’t go there. I already made up my mind that I won’t be sucked into the crap, which is the first step, I think. When you already know you won’t do something, it’s easier to say no.”

  I run my hand through my hair. “I like that, and I can see what you mean.”

  I decide right then that no matter what, I’d stay loyal to Tom. No matter how much Isaiah flirts with me and how gorgeous he looks, I’d stay faithful.

  ***

  The noise from within the theater overwhelms me before I step through the door. Clarissa clutches my arm, squeaking with excitement. Like the auditions, hundreds of people fill the room—singing, pacing, talking. Suddenly, I don’t feel so good.

  Clarissa tugs me forward, following after her family. Lydia falls in beside me, grabbing my hand. She smi
les sweetly up at me, which makes me feel a little more at ease. But I have to sing solo. They have each other.

  The four celebrity judges walk across the stage. Everyone falls silent to watch. The “main” judge, the one known for being tough, speaks into a microphone. “Welcome, everyone. I’m Steven Williams, as you all know, and Jeffrey Halloway will give you the rundown before we begin.”

  All the cameras turn off and the crew step away from them. Jeffrey—my mom owns every single album he ever released—takes center stage. “Hi, everyone.”

  Everyone responds with a chorus of hellos.

  “I’m about to give you the hard truth. You will all receive a contract that you must sign before we can begin. It states that if you participate in the show, you cannot talk about it or anyone on it without permission from the producers. All questions you are asked must be approved, along with the answers you give. If you are accosted in the street, you must answer only with ‘no comment.’ If you all recall, we had some drama with a few of our contestants last year.”

  A murmur erupts.

  “Oh yeah,” Clarissa whispers. “There were two married couples, and one of the wives had an affair with the other husband.”

  “I remember.” Who doesn’t? The scandal still appears up in popular tabloids. That’s probably why Tom is so concerned about me.

  Jeffrey raises his hand, ending the murmuring. “Read the contract carefully. You don’t want to get your ass sued.”

  Crew members hurry to hand out the contracts to every act. I sit on my own while the Murphys gather together to read over the document. I scan through, finding most of it agreeable.

  “Six months?” someone exclaims.

  A producer hurries over.

  “Six months?” he hollers. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  I look down at my contract and find what he’s ranting about. No album or tour releases while the show runs, or for six months after. Only the winner has that option. Considering I don’t have anything to lose, it doesn’t bother me, but it seems to cause quite a stir. I guess everyone knows their chances at winning are slim, but they have a good chance at scoring an agent and recording contract.

  Several acts leave while this discussion continues. Clarissa looks to me, concern in her eyes. I shake my head. She smiles.