and even more grateful that Elle had thought of a way to get it.
Everyone at the party dripped in designer tags, cracking hairstyles and accessories that made her drool a little. Gem scanned the crowd the second the poor escorts had slipped drinks into their hands and she couldn’t help feel sorry for them. Elle had her eye on a rock star, but her face fell when she saw him grinding against a bleached blonde.
The boys fawned over her, oblivious to her disappointment but Ciara wasn’t. She took her hand and squeezed hard. Then the three young actors noticed her.
‘Hey, if you two are bi you up for a threesome?’ one of them asked.
‘What?’ Elle asked, her hurt being replaced by her fiery temper. ‘Who do you think you are, asking us that?’
‘Lady, we’re stars. We don’t have time for teasing sluts who won’t put out.’
Ciara had a flash of what would happen next, but she wasn’t quick enough to stop her friend. The contents of her champagne flute soared through the air, splatting the middle boy and dripping down his – was that colour really gold or shiny beige? – shirt.
His face turned red and she got the feeling Elle had only just started, so she grabbed her and pulled her into the crowd. Gem didn’t follow, but Ciara didn’t have time to worry about that. Gem was the more laidback of the two and could look after herself.
She got Elle into the bathroom and the other girl whirled on her. ‘Can you believe the nerve of that Z list loser!’
‘If he tells security we’ll be thrown out. Deep breaths, Elle. Come on.’
Elle squeezed her eyes shut and did as she was told – for once. ‘You’re right. We need to get out there and have fun. Who cares if some vagina starved tween gives us shit?’
Ciara released the breath she’d been holding. ‘Exactly.’
‘Let’s go have fun!’ Elle, seemingly having done a one-eighty, linked arms with her and dragged her to the bar.
Pink champagne this time, and lots of chat with a few starlets who were not so down with the drinking – you couldn’t be too careful with the press waiting outside to snap every slip-up. Ciara was glad that would never be something she had to worry about.
A while later, she scanned the swarm of people there. ‘I wonder where Gem’s gone?’
Elle laughed. ‘Find a hot actor and you’ll find her.’
She pointed across the room to where Gem was standing close to Aiden Price, chatting away and grinning. Gem might not be coming with them after all. But then she leaned forward in what felt like slow motion, grabbed Aiden by his shirt collar and dragged him down for a kiss. He stiffened for a second, then seemed to get into it, and Ciara just had enough time to sigh in relief, before Gem clearly decided to live up to her YOLO motto and took it a step too far.
She wrapped herself around the actor like he was her personal get-off toy, grinding against him, right there in the middle of the room. Heads whipped round to stare and gossip. What made it all worse, Aiden was pushing her away but he couldn’t extract himself from her hold.
Shit.
Two security guards managed to do what Aiden couldn’t and ripped Gem right off him. Ciara shared a WTF glance with Elle before they were both putting their stilettos to work, scampering after Gem who was being carted off by two huge, scary looking men in uniform.
When she spied an unattended magnum of Moet on a table, she shared a quick glance with Elle, swiped up the bottle and they both burst into giggles.
‘He was so amazing,’ Gem said, swaying a little until she grabbed onto the bar of the cell.
Police cell. They’d only gone and gotten bloody arrested. Again!
Elle giggled. ‘So worth it then?’
‘Am I the only sane one here?’ Ciara asked.
The champagne buzz had quickly died when they’d tried to stop security from calling the cops – and holding a bottle of the restaurant’s Moet didn’t help convince the man she was an upstanding citizen. They’d been asked for their invitations, to which Elle had told them the actors had invited them but of course that just made matters worse as the guy she’d doused in champagne told security the ‘crazy British girls’ had attacked them.
Now they were all locked up for the night, until they ‘sobered up’ but Ciara was feeling far from giddy. Unlike her friends.
‘I’d kiss him again and again, even if it meant having to pee in front of my friends,’ Gem said, making her way to the stand alone loo in their cell.
‘Eww,’ Elle complained. ‘Can’t you wait till we get home? There are pervy looking cops in here.’
Gem ignored her and went on with her business. They stood in front of her to shield her modesty, though Gem was too far gone in an Aidan Price induced fantasy fuelled by too much bubbly to notice.
‘How are we going to get home, Elle? It’s not like we can grab a cab. We’ve been locked up!’ It felt silly to have to state the obvious, but really. One of them had to at least try and be a bit responsible.
Gem flushed, then had her second good idea for the day – just a pity she’d won the eejit award in between. ‘Call Zack. He’d bail us out.’
Elle said, ‘I don’t know the number by heart and my phone’s at home.’
‘I have his number,’ Ciara admitted and both of them turned to stare at her with wide eyes. She held up her hands. ‘I didn’t ask for it, he just scribbled it down in case we got into trouble.’
‘I’ll bet he did,’ Elle frowned. ‘But this does spell trouble, so bugger it. Let’s ask for our phone call.’
It took a lot of sweet talk to persuade the cops to let them get Zack’s number out of her bag, and then she was dialling with shaking fingers, not sure if she’d rather he was asleep already. This had to be one of those worst firsts she kept hearing about. How many people could say the first time they phoned their crush it was to ask for a bail out instead of a date?
When Zack answered, her hands started shaking.
‘Zack, it’s Ciara.’
‘Are you okay? Is Elle?’ he asked, sounding a little bit sleepy and a lot confused.
‘We’re all fine, sort of. Shit.’ How did she ask someone she barely knew to get them out of prison?
‘Ciara, what’s going on? You’re worrying me.’
Taking a deep breath, she blurted everything out, apologising every chance she got.
He listened all the way through her convoluted confession, never interrupting her and when she finished, there was a pause before he said, ‘Give
