Crystal Read Online Free Page A

was nothing wrong with you, was there?’
    Crystal suddenly remembered and tried to protest, but Max wouldn’t have any of it. ‘Just make sure you see me when you finish boot camp.’
    ‘I’m sure we’ll all meet up soon,’ Crystal replied, trying to play it cool. ‘See you, Max.’
    She felt distracted for the rest of the night, obsessing over Max when she should have been focusing on what she was here for. Mind you, if there were any prizes to be won for sucking up to Dallas, it looked like Belle was on course to get one. She stayed by his side, hanging on his every word throughout the champagne cocktails and three-coursedinner that Dallas had laid on. While he didn’t give much away he seemed to enjoy the attention; Belle was extremely pretty and an accomplished flirt when she wanted to be. Crystal did not think this was a good thing. She had overheard several of the other groups gossiping about Belle’s behaviour round Dallas and knew it would make Lost Angels extremely unpopular with the other contestants, who were bound to think they would have an unfair advantage with Dallas. The boy band kept trying to flirt with Tahlia and Crystal – the vast amounts of alcohol they’d knocked back had made them bolder. But Crystal and Tahlia were watching their intake – limiting themselves to a couple of glasses of champagne, wanting to be fresh in the morning. Also Crystal didn’t want to look pissed as they were all being filmed for the show. The other groups apparently didn’t have the same concerns; they were drinking like it was going out of fashion. At midnight the two girls decided to go to bed; by now all the other groups were hammered, singing and dancing along to the Scissor Sisters blasting out of the stereo. Belle and Dallas were nowhere to be seen.
    ‘God, I hope she knows what she’s doing,’ Crystal muttered to Tahlia as they made their way up the staircase.
    They were woken at seven by a loud knocking at the door. Crystal dragged herself out of bed to open it and was handed a piece of paper by one of the production team. Yawning, she quickly read it. They had to be downstairs in fifteen minutes, ready to start rehearsing their songs.
    ‘Shit!’ she exclaimed, telling Tahlia to go and wake up Belle and running into the shower. When she emerged five minutes later, Tahlia said, ‘I knocked and knocked for Belle but there was no answer, and when I tried to open the door it was locked.’
    ‘Well, maybe she’s gone jogging,’ Crystal answered, thinking it highly unlikely; Belle was not known to be an early riser.
    She and Tahlia were the first downstairs. Coffee and croissants were laid out and the two girls helped themselvesand watched as the other contestants staggered in, stinking of booze, bleary-eyed and looking as if they’d hardly slept.
    ‘Jesus, I’m wasted!’ one of the boy band members – she couldn’t tell them apart, they all looked the same – said to Crystal, sinking into a chair next to her. ‘We didn’t get to bed until four.’
    Crystal smiled sympathetically but inside she couldn’t help thinking
one up to Lost Angels
. Except where was Belle? Next Dallas marched in. He stood at the door surveying them all and then he let rip: ‘So you guys have been dreaming all your lives of being singers. So much so that at the first chance of free booze you lose it? It’s pathetic!’ he barked. He looked round the room, and seeing Tahlia and Crystal looking so fresh he added, ‘Well, not everyone, I see. Well done, girls, you passed my first test. Now where’s that other band member of yours?’
    ‘Here,’ Belle called out from the doorway and everyone turned to look at her. She was dressed in a white Juicy Couture tracksuit and looked glowing. ‘Sorry I’m late; I’ve just been doing Pilates. Nice gym, Dallas.’ If it had been anyone else Dallas would have hit the roof, but as it was Belle he just smiled and told her to sit down.
    ‘Yeah, right, I bet the only Pilates