Holly,’ Daniel said, approaching her with a clipboard in his hand. ‘OK, here’s the order of tonight: first up is a girl called Margaret, then a guy called Keith and then you’re up after him. Is that OK?’
‘So I’m third.’
‘Yeah, after—’
‘That’s all I need to know,’ Holly snapped rudely. She just wanted to get out of this stupid club and wished that everyone would stop annoying her and leave her alone to wish evil thoughts on them all. She wished the ground would swallow her up, that a natural disaster would occur and everyone would have to evacuate the building. In fact, that was a good idea. She searched around frantically for a button to raise the fire alarm, but Daniel was still talking away to her.
‘Look, Holly, I’m really sorry to disturb you again, but could you tell me which of your friends is Sharon?’ He looked as if he was afraid she was going to bite his head off. So he should be, she thought, narrowing her eyes.
‘Her over there.’ Holly pointed to Sharon. ‘Hold on, why?’
‘Oh, I just wanted to apologise for the last time we spoke.’ He started to walk towards Sharon.
‘Why?’ Holly said, the panic in her voice making him turn around again.
‘We just had a minor disagreement on the phone last week.’ He looked at her confused.
‘You know you really don’t need to do that. She’s probably forgotten about it completely by now,’ she stammered. This was the last thing she needed.
‘Yeah, but I would still like to apologise,’ and he headed over to Sharon. Holly leaped from her stool.
‘Sharon, hi, I’m Daniel. I just wanted to apologise about the confusion on the phone last week.’
Sharon looked at him as though he had ten heads. ‘Confusion?’
‘You know, on the phone?’
John placed his arm protectively around Sharon’s waist.
‘On the phone?’
‘Eh … yes, on the phone,’ he nodded.
‘What’s your name again?’
‘Em, it’s Daniel.’
‘And we spoke on the phone?’ Sharon said with a smile appearing on her face.
Holly gestured wildly to her behind Daniel’s back.
Daniel cleared his throat nervously. ‘Yes, you called the club last week and I answered – does that ring a bell?’
‘No, sweetie, you’ve got the wrong girl,’ Sharon said politely.
John threw Sharon a dirty look for calling him sweetie; if it was up to him he would have told him where to go.
Daniel brushed his hand through his hair and appeared to be more confused than everyone else. He began to turn round to face Holly.
Holly nodded her head frantically to Sharon.
‘Oh …’ Sharon said, looking as though she finally remembered. ‘Oh – Daniel!’ she yelled a bit over enthusiastically. ‘God, I am so sorry, my brain cells seem to be going a bit dead.’ She laughed like a mad woman. ‘Must be too much of this,’ she chortled, picking up her drink.
Relief washed over Daniel’s face. ‘Good, I thought it was me going mad there for a minute! OK, so you remember us having that conversation on the phone?’
‘Oh, that conversation we had on the phone. Listen, don’t worry about it,’ she said, waving her hand dismissively.
‘It’s just that I only took over the place a few weeks ago and I wasn’t too sure of the exact arrangements for tonight.’
‘Don’t worry … we all need our time … to adjust … to things … you know?’ Sharon looked at Holly to see if she had said the right thing or not.
‘OK then. Well, it’s nice to finally meet you in person,’ Daniel laughed. ‘Can I get you a stool or anything?’ he joked.
Sharon and John sat on their stools and stared back at him in silence, not knowing what to say to this strange man.
John watched with suspicion as Daniel walked away.
‘What was that all about?’ Sharon screamed at Holly as soon as he was out of earshot.
‘Oh, I’ll explain it to you later,’ said Holly. She turned to face the stage as their karaoke host stepped on stage.
‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!’ he announced.
‘Good evening!’ shouted Richard, looking excited. Holly rolled her eyes to heaven.
‘We have an exciting night ahead of us …’ he went on and on and on in his DJ voice while Holly danced nervously from foot to foot. She desperately needed the toilet again.
‘So first up tonight we have Margaret from Tallaght who is going to sing the theme to Titanic, “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion. Please put your hands together for the wonderful Margaret!’ The crowd went wild. Holly’s heart raced. The hardest song in the world to sing – typical.
When Margaret started to sing, the room became so quiet you could almost hear a pin drop. Holly watched everyone’s faces. They were all staring at Margaret in amazement, including Holly’s family, the traitors. Margaret’s eyes were closed and she sang with such passion, as though she had lived every line of the song. Holly hated her and contemplated tripping her up on her way back to her seat.
‘Wasn’t that incredible?’ the DJ announced. The crowd cheered again; Holly prepared herself not to hear that sound after she sang. ‘Next up we have Keith. You may remember him as last year’s winner and he’s singing “America” by Neil Diamond. Give it up for Keith!’ Holly didn’t need to hear any more and rushed to the toilet.
She paced up and down and tried to calm herself, but her knees were knocking, her stomach was twisted in knots and she felt the beginnings of vomit rising to her mouth. She looked at herself in the mirror and tried to take big deep breaths. It didn’t work, as it only made her feel dizzy. The crowd applauded outside and Holly froze. She was next.
‘Wasn’t Keith terrific, ladies and gentlemen?’
Lots of cheers again.
‘Perhaps Keith is going for the record of winning two years in a row. Well, it doesn’t get any better than that!’
It was about to get a lot worse.
‘Next we have a newcomer to the competition and her name is Holly and she’s singing …’
Holly ran to the toilet and locked herself in. There was no way in this world they were getting her out of there.
‘So, ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Holly!’
