Famous Most Wanted

'Why is it so bloody cold!?' shouted Johnny, huddled on the sofa in front of the fire. 'It's May! Spring. Why is it so bloody cold!?'

'It's that radiator down there,' called back Taylor from upstairs. 'It's not so bad up here.' Johnny discarded the blanket across his shoulders and went upstairs.

'What are going to do if we freeze?' he asked. Taylor stuck her head out her door and raised an eyebrow at Johnny.

'We're not going to freeze, Johnny.'

'What makes you so sure, Tex? We're stuck on the top of a mountain. Who would even know if we froze up here?' Taylor stepped out her room with a sigh and folded her arms.

'Stop being a whiny rock star.'
Johnny shrugged.

'But what do we do if it gets colder? We can't stay here. I wont stay here. Not to freeze. What a shitty way to go.'

'Johnny, we're not going to freeze,' Taylor sighed.

'That rad's already packed up,' he pointed out. 'How long before they all go?'

'Look, Johnny, It's cold because we're in cottage on the top of a mountain, with no double glazing and bad central heating. Besides, if things get really bad I'll just call Vinny and get him to come pick us up.' Johnny watched Taylor a moment. He narrowed his eyes questioningly at her.

'Call Vinny?' he asked slowly. He took a step forward. 'On what? We have no phone, remember?'
Uh, oh, Taylor thought. Mistake. Taylor blinked nervously and watched Johnny close the gap between them.

'Texas?' he asked. He never called her Texas. Only Tex. He must have been serious. 'Do you have a phone?'

'No.' She tried to laugh it off but Johnny wasn't fooled. He shrugged, like he didn't care and walked past Taylor. She released the breath she'd been unconsciously holding. She heard a noise in her room and her eyes widened. She ran into her room and found Johnny lifting her mattress, looking for the phone.

'Nooo!' She cried and charged at Johnny, tackling him to the ground. She landed on top of him and they chorused an ooph.

'Why are you hiding it from me, Texas?' scolded Johnny, trying to push Taylor off of him.

'There is no phone!' she yelled.

'Well, you're certainly making that obvious,' he glared sarcastically. Taylor shifted uncomfortably and sat on Johnny, holding his shoulders to the floor. She glared back at him.

'Stop, Johnny. Just stop. I don't want to be fighting you constantly. Why can't you just understand that everything I do, I do for your best interests?' Johnny stopped squirming and looked up at Taylor, a frown still knitting his eyebrows. 'It would be lovely to give you the opportunity to phone your mum and tell her you're okay. I would love to give you that but I can't. Do you understand that, Johnny?' Taylor asked. 'I know how much you need it. Not just for your mum's peace of mind, but for your own as well.'

Johnny sighed and rolled his eyes away from Taylor's stare. 'You know that no one can know where you are. No one is safe with that information. Would you really want to endanger your mum like that?' Johnny glared back up at Taylor, as if to say you know I don't, but stubbornly refusing to actually answer. Taylor sighed this time.

'Johnny, please don't try and look for the phone. It's for emergencies. It's for if we get found or caught. Don't make me throw it off the top of this mountain. Cause I will if you keep pursuing it. We may need it.' Johnny's eyes flicked back to Taylor's and held them. Suddenly her self-assured calm and strength disappeared. In that second he held her eyes, Johnny took full control of the situation.

Taylor was then painfully aware that she was sat on top of Johnny. She cleared her throat and made to stand but Johnny sat up. Taylor found herself in Johnny's lap, her legs either side of his hips. His smirking face was inches from her own. Taylor simply stared at him, open mouthed. Johnny rendered her useless in situations like these. All her training and self-defence classes never prepared her for this. How did one defend themselves from a horny rock star?

His arms encircled her waist. His touch was electric. She wanted him and this was the biggest test. In the most comprising position to date, Taylor had to find the urge to resist him.

He wasn't trying anything. He was waiting for her to make the first move, she realised. He was waiting for her to give into him.
He was going to be disappointed. She wasn't giving in today.
How could she possibly give in? Some days she hated the bloke. Everyday she felt she was at war with a difficult child, and this child had to be told no.

Taylor stood and Johnny's arms fell away. His smirk didn't falter and it unnerved her. He knew, as well as she, that one day she wouldn't be able to say no any longer.

***

Zach, Curtis and Tommy entered their rehearsal space to have a casual practice and discuss the future of the band. As they shut the door behind them, they noticed their manager slumped out on one of the sofas.

'Kev?' asked Curtis with a frown. He stepped forward and dipped his head to get a better look. Kevin had a bottle of cheap vodka in his hand and looked like death.

'Oh, Kev,' he sighed. 'You can't even drown your sorrows in style.' He took the bottle from him. 'What the fuck's this you're drinking?' He looked at his manager. 'How much that put you back, eight quid? Christ, Kevin.' Curtis shook his head and put the bottle on the coffee table. He walked to the liquor cabinet Johnny had insisted on and opened it. He began pulling out expensive whiskeys as Zach crouched down in front of Kevin.

'What're doing, man?'

'It's over,' sniffed Kevin, not so cool anymore.

'What's over?'

'Everything. I went to Johnny's. There's flowers and messages like the prick's dead. Who knows, maybe he is.'

'Where's this doubt come from, man? You were so positive before,' Zach asked with a worried frown. Kevin said nothing for a few seconds where the only sound was of Curtis filling four glasses with whiskey.

'I met Jeremy Rush today,' he sighed, lowering his pathetic, self-pittying gaze.

'What?' asked Zach.

'Why?' cut in Tommy, sitting down next to Kevin. 'Jeremy Rush never has meetings. He has people for that. Fuck, we ain't even met the guy and he's our boss, sort of.'

'Well, it was obviously a big enough deal for Jeremy to summon me,' moped Kevin.

'What'd he say?' Asked Zach, taking the glass that Curtis held his way.

'He seems to think Johnny ran away.' Kevin took a sip of his new whiskey.

'What? Of course he wouldn't,' objected Tommy. 'Johnny loves all this.'

'It doesn't matter whether he loves it or not,' interrupted Kevin. 'If someone trashed your home and threatened your life, would you stick around?' Kevin looked at Tommy. He was silent, as was Zach and Curtis.

'You think he's gone, Kev?' Asked Curtis, breaking the silence in a small voice. Kevin shrugged and shook his head.

'I don't know what to think anymore. But if Johnny left through choice, with the intention of not being found, then I don't think we're going to find him. This is Johnny, we're talking about. He's a secretive, resourceful little fucker. Maybe he doesn't want to be found.'
The room fell silent again as they all processed Kevin's words. Zach stood.

'If what you say is the truth, then it's been a damn good ride.' He then laughed. 'And trust Johnny to jump off when it's at it's full momentum.' He raised his glass and the others stood and raised theirs. 'To Johnny, the crazy, arrogant, selfish, brilliantly talented motherfucker.' They all clinked their glasses and murmured 'To Johnny' before knocking back all their drink.

'Now lets go get rat-arsed,' grinned Zach.

***

Johnny and Taylor sat at the kitchen table, determined to finish the woodland scene puzzle. Other than the distant sound of a clock ticking upstairs and the odd natural creek of the cottage, there was silence.

'This is embarrassing,' moaned Taylor. 'We should have this built by now.'
Johnny heaved a sigh and cracked his neck.

'Gonna get a serious ache leaning over this thing any longer. Why don't we just quit?'

'Johnny Carolina defeated by a puzzle?' quipped Taylor with a raised eyebrow.
Johnny shot her a dark and unimpressed look and she smiled to herself. 'How are you getting on with The Shining?' she asked instead.

'Finished it,' Johnny yawned, not bothering to cover his mouth. It was like a lion yawn. Loud and manly and unattractive.

'Any good?' Taylor enquired.

'Yeah, better than the film. That Jack Torrance is a psycho!'

'Think that's the idea,' smiled Taylor.
Johnny shrugged.

'Was a little unnerving at times. I mean, that situation isn't too far a stretch from ours.' Taylor looked up at Johnny slowly, unsure. 'Think about it,' he encouraged. 'Like the Torrance's, we're stuck here for the foreseeable future. No connection to the outside world while we slowly go mad, try to kill each other and then freeze.'
Taylor blinked.

'When was the last time you slept?' she asked nervously. Johnny rolled his eyes.

'I'm not saying it's gonna happen. I'm just not ruling it out. And now I've read that book, the idea's in my head now. I might smash the phone and sabotage the car.' Taylor laughed at Johnny's outburst.

'Gimme a break. Knowing you, you'd take the phone and steal the car. Anything to get you back to London.' Johnny shrugged.

'Whatever. Just don't freak out, yeah, when I smash your door open with an axe screaming “Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!”' he grinned like a maniac and Taylor burst out laughing.

'I think that quote was made for you, Johnny. You're a bloody head case.'

That Evening, Johnny decided to root through the cupboards again, this time checking the drawers in the living room cabinets.

'I don't understand the pleasure you get from going through other peoples stuff,' Taylor said from the kitchen where she watched him rummage. She wore a confused look and held a cup of tea in one hand, as she leant against the counter.

'It's not other people's stuff, it's our stuff,' objected Johnny.

'Well, it's not really, is it?' Johnny looked up at Taylor from a drawer.

'This is our home, Tex,' he said in all seriousness. Something hit Taylor right then, as Johnny turned back to the interesting, Mary Poppins style drawer he was pulling constant crap out of. Johnny had called it their home, like it really was their home now, like she was now properly living with him, like she was no longer being paid to protect him, but to live with him.

Our home, Taylor thought, looking around the open plan downstairs. She looked back at Johnny. It was the first time she considered it their home and it gave her a strange and warm sensation.

'What's this?' Johnny's frowning voice brought her back to earth and she saw him looking through a tatty, black, leather bound book. She frowned also and walked over to Johnny. She looked over his shoulder at it.

'It's a guest book,' she confirmed. Johnny looked up at her.

'Huh?'

'The guest book,' she repeated. 'Who ever stays in this cottage on holiday signs the book when their holiday's over, to say how it went and what they thought of the cottage.' Johnny looked back at the book, flicking through page after page.

'All these people stayed here,' he said distantly. Taylor wouldn't have minded reading through the guest book at some point. She was interested to see what people had to say about it.

'Should we sign it?' Johnny said just then. He looked back up at her and she met his eyes.
'When we leave and go back to our old lives, should we sign the book?' Taylor wasn't sure what to say for a moment. Part of her longed for the day she could go back to her old life, yet there was a part of her that wanted to cling onto this one, cling onto him.

She didn't want to sign the guest book and state what a wonderful time she'd had. That would only mean it was over. No more Johnny. He had changed her perspective on life. He'd made it more colourful, enriched it, somehow. Her old life would seem poor and boring in comparison to the one she was living right now with her secret, personal rock star. How would life ever be the same? Taylor wondered. She smiled at him instead.

'Yeah sure. Sign it. It would be nice for the owners to see that you had such a great time here. They'll probably open it to the public.'

'And I wouldn't expect anything less,' Johnny muttered.