Lullaby (The Fable Series, Book 2)

Chapter Fourteen

I hurry over to where Jamie, Zee and Grace are sitting at our usual spot near the Night Owl's stage.

"Oh my god, finally!" Jamie exclaims, jumping up and pulling me into a tight hug. "We were getting worried. What with your fainting habit and all. Your coffee's probably cold by now, and Zee ate half your cranberry muffin."

I give Zee and Grace a quick hug before flopping down into a faded burgundy velvet armchair.

"Sorry," I say, taking a sip of my lukewarm but still delicious coffee. I steal a quick glance back behind me. Mrs. Leyton and her spidery suitor have left. Thank god. "I got sort of... caught up in something."

"Oooh, do tell!" Jamie says, her eyes widening. "It doesn't have anything to do with five super hot boys you're mingling with, does it?"

I hesitate for a moment, unsure of how to respond. My besties know that I'm spending all my time with Fable right now, working on a project – that part was impossible to keep a secret, seeing as Zee was with me when I walked into my kitchen to find Felix and Alastaire washing dishes. Not to mention the time that Felix showed up in my living room during the "where is Ashling" debacle and sent Jamie and (almost) Zee into a screaming fit.

But I've been careful not to tell them anything more than what they've seen for themselves. They don't know that I'm working on an album, they don't know the boys are staying in a cabin in the forest, and they certainly don't know anything about the puzzling experiences I've had since becoming entangled with the band.

"So?" Jamie continues, impatient for some news. "What's happening with Fa-"

"Jamie, you know she can't talk about the... F-word," Zee interrupts her, the last part a whisper.

"You don't need to tell us anything you don't want to Ashling," Grace says, pushing a mousy blonde shoulder length ringlet back behind her ear. "We understand that. All of us understand that." She looks pointedly at Jamie.

"Did they make you sign a non-disclosure agreement?" Jamie asks me, ignoring Grace.

"Well... no..." I answer uneasily.

"Then there's absolutely no reason for you not to tell your BFFs every last detail," Jamie says. "So, are you actually staying a house or a hotel with them or something? Where have you been all this time? What's the top secret thing you're working on? When can we meet them? Has anything happened?"

"Happened?" I repeat.

"Well, yeah," Jamie says. "You're not exactly bad looking. And you're spending time with the self-proclaimed 'harem king' and his equally hot friends. Who do you like the most?"

I don't know what to say. There's no way I'm going to tell my friends anything personal about Fable. Not only out of respect for the band's privacy – but also to protect them. I don't want to get my friends mixed up in something that could be dangerous.

"I don't like any of them like that," I say. At least, I don't think I do.

"What's Ben like in real life?" Zee asks suddenly, a hint of pleading in her voice. When she first got into Fable, she had the hugest crush on Lyall, but switched to Ben a few months ago. She has a poster of him in her locker, and I saw one time when I slept over at her house that she'd written I <3 BEN CASSIDY on all her pairs of panties. She's in seriously deep.

I wish I could tell her how awesome he is in person. How he cracks the lamest jokes that are so bad they're funny, how he ate a whole pizza with chopsticks the one time because Alastaire was making fun of his Japanese heritage. How he's a total undercover anime freak, and he told me that he cried during the sad bits in Inuyasha and Attack on Titan, but his manager told him to keep that side of himself secret, because it doesn't suit his 'fireball badass' public image.