Bring Me Home by Nicola Haken

Author:Nicola Haken [Haken, Nicola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-05T18:30:00+00:00

Ten

Hugo

I’d never enjoyed travelling, but having Helen with me made it so much better. A week into the tour, and Helen and I were almost always together. Life was just as I’d imagined it years ago, back when I first auditioned for Next Up. This was the dream. Right here, with Helen. Every night, I hit the stage. I sang and played, got high from the atmosphere. It added an extra thrill knowing she could hear from her spot behind the stage. The days were spent with my best friend. We talked about life, the important parts, the things we’d missed. We chatted shit, too, discussed random nonsense that made no sense to anyone else but us.

I wrote lyrics for her. She drew pictures for me. We held a competition to see who could fit the most Maltesers in their mouth and Helen reminded me what a sore loser she was. I hadn’t seen such a huge pout on her face, or anyone’s face, since the day I beat her at Monopoly three times in a row. We were seventeen then. She’d tossed the board.

My only regret was delaying this, being too much of a coward to come back for her sooner.

Everything was fucking perfect. The funk that’d been teasing me before I returned to the UK had packed its bags. Turned out I didn’t need the pills after all. I wasn’t slipping into depression again, just guilt. I’d missed Helen, that’s all. She was the only drug I needed. She’d brought me back as a teenager, and she was doing it again now without even realising it.

I loved her.

“Ah, Manchester,” I breathed, collapsing onto the king-sized bed. It was almost two AM by the time we’d reached the hotel. After completing two shows in Cardiff and three in Birmingham without a day off in between, I was knackered, which wasn’t new. I’d been feeling more tired than usual this week. I was used to late nights. Performing. Being on the road. It’d been a while, though, so I put it down to that. Readjusting.

“All right, stop. This one has a piano!” I heard Helen call from another part of the suite. She made me chuckle. This was the third hotel she’d been in, but the extravagance of it all was still so new and exciting to her. I remembered that, how cool it was, how every new place took your breath away a little. Hearing the delight in her voice, I felt a stab of sadness knowing it would wear off.

“Come to bed, Heli. Busy day tomorrow!” Same as every day.

She appeared under the archway a moment later, leaned against the wall that separated the bedroom from the dining area. She looked stunning, as ever, despite tiredness tugging on her eyes. Reaching up, she pulled the band from her hair, let her auburn waves bounce onto her shoulders. “Are you still nervous?” she asked, shimmying out of her jeans. I’d noticed over the last couple of days, that I’d started looking away as Helen changed.

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