Crystal (29 page)

Crystal lit a cigarette, still smarting from Jake’s comment.

‘I’ve got your costume for the second scene and you’ll be pleased to know it’s a little less revealing,’ Danni continued.

Crystal watched, hardly caring as Danni held up a white costume. It was more like a bikini than a swimsuit. There was just a single strip of material linking the top and bottom, with a gold ring in the middle. It was the same as Belle’s costume. The idea was that Crystal would be filmed on the beach with Belle’s dancer. They’d lead everyone to believe it was Belle, because Crystal would be filmed from the back wearing a
blonde wig, but it would become clear that it was Crystal stealing Belle’s man.
How subtle was that
, Crystal thought miserably.

‘I’ll get all your old make-up off; we haven’t got long.’

Crystal felt completely drained as Danni got to work, wiping off her ruined eye make-up and giving her a sun-kissed look.

There was another knock at the door and this time it was Jez, holding a long blonde wig.

‘Hiya, darling,’ he breezed in. ‘Don’t let the bastards get you down. What was Jake’s problem back there? I couldn’t believe it when he said that to you. I’m so glad that you told him to fuck off. He totally deserved it.’

Crystal definitely did not want to talk about Jake, she just muttered, ‘Yeah, well, I just can’t bear that he obviously hates me.’

‘I’m sure he doesn’t,’ Jez answered, and was about to continue but, seeing the look on Crystal’s face, changed the subject. ‘Now let’s get this wig on you.’

‘I know I’m going to look minging with blonde hair,’ Crystal moaned.

‘Rubbish, you’re going to look gorgeous.’ Jez fiddled about with the wig, tugging it this way and that, until finally he was satisfied and let her look in the mirror.

Crystal stared back at an unfamiliar woman. It wasn’t as bad as she’d thought; in fact even she could tell that she looked good. She was a different kind of blonde to Belle who looked wholesome and fresh-faced like Claudia Schiffer. Crystal was more a Kate Moss kind of blonde, a bit unpredictable, a bit naughty, very sexy.

‘You see?’ Jez said, ‘you look fabulous. Now get back out there and wow those bastards and then tonight we’ll all go out on the lash.’

The second dancer Crystal had to get up close and personal with was called Marcus and he was a hundred times nicer than Kyle.

‘Don’t worry,’ he whispered, when they met, ‘I’m gay, so if you don’t mind when I’m kissing you, I’ll be thinking of Daniel Craig.’

‘And if
you
don’t mind,’ Crystal replied, ‘I will as well.’

The two of them laughed and for the first time since the shoot began Crystal felt relaxed.

‘Okay, Crystal and Marcus, I need you by the sea now,’ Jake called over.

Without acknowledging him, Crystal flicked back her long blonde hair and sauntered to the water’s edge.

The scene with Marcus was much more comfortable for Crystal. They had to kiss and caress each other but Marcus made it feel like he was being professional and just doing his job, whereas, with Kyle, Crystal felt as if he really did want to have sex with her. As a result they hardly had to do any retakes and Crystal was spared the humiliation of hearing Jake tell Marcus to kiss her and touch her body.

As they walked off the set Marcus said, ‘A few of us are going out clubbing tonight. Do you fancy coming?’

‘Kyle isn’t going, is he?’ Crystal asked; she definitely didn’t want to see him again unless she had to.

Marcus laughed. ‘No, he’s probably got an appointment with his mirror – don’t worry, we all hate him too.’

‘Okay, I’ll bring Jez and Danni along as well.’

‘Cool, see you later.’

Given how hard the day had been for her, Crystal was in the mood for kicking back. Jez and Danni agreed to come; Jez needed no encouragement, having developed a massive crush on Marcus. The other people were all from the crew and were lovely and down to earth. For the first time in ages she didn’t feel self-conscious in company, paranoid that everyone was staring at her and thinking she was a bitch. As her hair had been flattened by the wig, she decided to keep it on. Ironically, looking different made her feel she could be herself again – her old self, the cheeky, lippy Crystal, who wasn’t afraid of anything, who was up for a laugh. They all
ended up downing tequila slammers and dancing crazily in Manumission until four in the morning.

‘Tell me we haven’t got an early start,’ Crystal said as they stumbled back into the house.

‘No, we’re not filming until tomorrow night,’ Danni answered.

‘In that case,’ Jez put in, ‘who wants to have another drink?’

‘Yes!’ Crystal and Danni shouted back together, as Jez grabbed a bottle of Bacardi.

The three of them had lost all inhibitions and awareness that there might be other people nearby – other people who were sober and trying to sleep. They put on an eighties compilation CD and were continuing with their wild dancing and singing along raucously to ‘Relax’ when Jake appeared in the doorway, looking extremely pissed off.

‘Hey, turn it down will you?’ he shouted over the music.

‘Okay,’ Jez managed to reply and started staggering over to the stereo only to trip and fall flat on his face.

Danni and Crystal burst out laughing hysterically. Jez was groaning about his leg, which only made them laugh harder. Jake strode across the room and switched the music off.

‘I’ve got to be up early to start the edit, so I’d appreciate it if you kept it down,’ he said angrily.

‘You’re the boss,’ Crystal said cheekily, deliberately blowing her cigarette smoke at him.

Jake looked at her coldly. ‘I thought we’d agreed there shouldn’t be any smoking inside the house.’

Crystal shrugged and took another drag. After his comment today he could go and screw himself. As he walked out of the room she and Danni gave him the finger before collapsing in giggles again.

Crystal was not feeling quite so full of herself the next day. She woke at midday with a raging hangover and it was a real effort to drag herself out of bed. Downstairs the living room was trashed – there were overflowing ashtrays, empty bottles and glasses, someone had spilt their drink on the white sofa
and the room stank of cigarette smoke. At some point they’d been hungry and had made themselves toasted cheese sandwiches, and the plates were strewn around the room. There was no sign of Jez and Danni – probably still in bed, she thought. Jake and Gavin must be at the edit. Before she could face tidying up she just had to clear her head, so she poured herself a Coke, made some toast and went and sat by the pool, wincing in the bright sunshine, even in her dark glasses. She closed her eyes, wishing that the thumping in her head would stop. The one good thing about being hungover was that she couldn’t actually summon the energy to be worried or stressed about anything else. After half an hour she decided to go for a swim. She managed ten lengths and was starting to feel slightly better when she became aware of someone standing by the pool. She looked up. It was Jake. She carried on swimming. She had nothing to say to him. But he called out, ‘Nice of you to leave the house looking such a mess last night, Crystal. Are you waiting for the maid to clear it up?’

He sounded so hostile. Crystal swam to the side and looked up at him. ‘I’m going to sort it out in a minute. I just wanted to have a swim and clear my head.’

He didn’t move. And he looked furious.

‘Look, what’s your problem? I said I’d do it and I will. What’s the big fucking deal anyway?’

She was angry now. Why did he have to keep picking on her? She swam to the steps and pulled herself up, and marched over to the sun lounger to grab her towel.

‘The big fucking deal, Crystal, is that you only seem to care about yourself. You don’t give a shit about anyone else, do you? Last night you decide to get pissed and turn up the music, and stuff anyone else. It’s the story of your life.’ He had followed her to the sun lounger and was standing over her, shouting.

Feeling at a disadvantage in her wet bikini, Crystal wrapped the towel round her waist and then squared up to him. ‘It wasn’t just me making a noise last night and I’m sorry
if we woke you up. We’d all had a long day and needed to unwind.’ She tried to keep her voice steady.

‘That’s right, blame someone else. That’s you all over, you never take responsibility,’ Jake said harshly. ‘It must be so easy to be you, Crystal, riding roughshod over everyone else. So long as you’re okay that’s all the matters, isn’t it?’

‘You don’t know what you’re talking about, Jake! I know you hate me so it’s pointless me saying anything because I know you’re not going to listen. But you’re completely wrong about me. And I’ve had enough of you judging me and criticising me. I’d never do that to you, so why don’t you fuck off and leave me alone!’

She was absolutely furious now. This wasn’t about last night, this was about Jake offloading all his anger on her and she couldn’t take any more. He never wanted to listen to her side of the story. He went to say something else but Crystal muttered, ‘Forget it, I’m not listening’, and ran into the house before he could say anything else to upset her.

Back inside, she quickly got dressed and headed downstairs where she set to work on the living room. She straightened furniture, put away CDs, loaded the dish-washer, collected the empty bottles, emptied the ashtrays and did her best to get rid of the drink stain. When she’d finished, Jez and Danni wandered downstairs, both moaning about their heads. Feeling better herself, Crystal made them breakfast. All three were in the kitchen chatting when Jake and Gavin turned up for lunch.

‘Sorry we woke you last night,’ Danni said to the two men.

‘It’s okay,’ Gavin said, ‘I didn’t hear a thing.’

Jake shrugged. ‘No worries. I just didn’t like coming downstairs to a room that stank of smoke and was a tip.’ They all looked into the living room, now back to its pristine condition, and then back at Jake.

‘Well, it looked a mess.’ Jake looked questioningly at Crystal, but she turned away.

‘Sorry, we just got a bit carried away,’ Jez answered. ‘We wanted to cheer up Crystal because she’d had such a shit day, having to be groped by that creep Kyle.’

‘What about that creep Marcus?’ Jake asked sarcastically.

‘I didn’t mind being groped by him,’ Crystal replied. ‘He was cute. In fact I’m looking forward to later; don’t I have to pretend to give him a blowie?’

Jake was the only one who didn’t laugh. Crystal was just about to go upstairs and have a lie-down when Tahlia and Leticia turned up.

‘Hope you don’t mind us coming over. Belle’s in a mood, Dallas is working and we felt a bit lonely.’

‘’Course not,’ Crystal said warmly. ‘It’s great to see you; d’you want to go swimming, Leticia? I’ve got a while before Danni needs to put my make-up on.’

Squealing ‘Yes!’, Leticia raced to the pool and jumped in, closely followed by Crystal. Playing with Leticia helped Crystal forget her argument with Jake. It was impossible to stay angry when you were with an energetic seven-year-old. Leticia floated around on a lilo while Crystal pretended to be a shark. At some point Gavin and Jake wandered past but Crystal ignored them.

For the evening filming Crystal was dressed in another extremely revealing outfit – a tiny pair of black sequined hot pants, a black sequined bikini top and a pair of strappy sandals with killer heels. She could barely walk in them, never mind dance.

‘Honestly,’ she grumbled as Danni glued on a set of sparkly false eyelashes, ‘all I need is a sign round my neck saying how much I charge.’

Danni laughed. ‘You look great; stop obsessing.’

The filming was taking place round the luxurious pool at Dallas’s mansion; the three girls had to recline on the loungers while the men danced around them, then the positions switched and the men lay down while the girls danced for them. Typically, Crystal’s moves were more racy than Tahlia and Belle’s. They simply had to kiss their partners and hold hands, while Crystal had to sit on Kyle’s lap and act seductive. Having to touch his oiled body again made her
want to throw up and when he leered at her suggestively it took all her willpower not to slap him one.

It was the first time all three girls had been on set together and Crystal knew Belle wasn’t going to make it easy for her. Once the filming started, Belle stopped it several times, complaining that Crystal was getting the moves wrong (she wasn’t, but Crystal knew Belle wanted to make her feel bad). The fifth time Belle complained, Crystal snapped. She was hot, she was tired, she was hungover, and she was sick of people being horrible to her. ‘Belle, I know you’ve got a problem with me, but please can we get this shoot over and done with? Everyone’s knackered and you’re making it hard for them as well.’

‘Oh,’ Belle said, in her best snooty voice, ‘did
it
speak? Well, I don’t speak to
it
because I don’t usually have anything to do with whores.’

‘Come off it, Belle,’ Tahlia tried to intervene. ‘Let’s just get this finished.’

‘No, I won’t fucking come off it,’ shouted Belle, working herself up into one of her diva fits – Dallas wasn’t there, so she obviously knew she was safe from a bollocking. ‘I shouldn’t have to be anywhere near
it – it
makes me feel sick.’ She shouted over to Jake, ‘Can’t you film our bits separately and do
its
some other time?’

Jake shook his head and said wearily, ‘Can we please get on with it, Belle?’

But Belle had lost it big time, screaming back, ‘I would have thought you of all people would have understood how I feel! How do you know she didn’t two-time you!’

Jake walked over to Belle and lowered his voice. ‘Don’t presume to tell me how I should feel; you’ll never know how I feel and I’m warning you that if you don’t get on with the shoot right now, I’ll call Dallas.’

Belle looked as if she had plenty more to say but realising she’d gone far enough she stomped back to her position, pausing only to mouth ‘fuck you’ at Crystal.

Crystal didn’t know how she got through the next two
hours – she felt so humiliated and powerless to do anything about it. Only Tahlia’s smiles of encouragement and the sight of Danni and Jez’s friendly faces kept her from running away. They finally finished filming at one in the morning. Immediately Jez gave her a hug. ‘Come on, let’s go back to the house. You need a drink after all that.’