"And then she just kissed me...it was the happiest moment of my life"“And then of course, as if that wasn’t all crazy enough, and hurt me to my core, there was the whole fiasco with Nicole.”
This comment, her own comment, solicits another long pause from the blonde singer, and she stares at her soup with an intensity that suggests she is willing it to leap out of the bowl and drown the nosy journalistic type sitting opposite her. She takes a spoonful eventually and puts her spoon down gently on the plate the bowl is perched on. The slight clink on the expensive china causes her to look down.
“I never really had what you would call “friends” when I was growing up. I had a few buddies and the odd boyfriend here and there, but I never stayed in one place long enough. Even when we moved to London, I moved school a few times, and so it was hard to find someone who could be a real friend.
“That was why Nicole Woods was so important to me at first. After I launched myself into this industry, SS took me under their wing, and Nicole was the first person who really spoke to me as an equal, and not some newbie who they had to look down on to be cool. It was she who invited me out on my first massive tour, and she was always there to lend a hand, and offer some support.
“That was why what happened in Anaheim hurt so much, mentally I mean.”
A few more spoonfuls of soup split the conversation again. If I wasn’t getting an insight into one of the most complex minds in music, I reckon I’d have grown tired of these recurring musings that Katie was partial to. However, I waited patiently again. My soup had long gone, and I was aware that the wine bottle was now empty. That was fine though, it was probably for the best that neither of us drank too much alcohol. As I let my thoughts drift a little, Katie began to speak again, softly at first, stuffing a piece of buttered bread into her mouth as she did so.
“Nicole made a remark on Twitter to Chaos. You know that right?” I nod slowly and pick up my Dictaphone, sliding it slightly close so it can pick up the soft tones. “Well, to her, that remark was like, trying to be funny, and trying to make me laugh. Looking back, I see that it was riddled with sarcasm and yeah, it was supposed to be a joke. But at the time, I saw it as if she was waving a red rag to a very angry, horny, and liable to spread it’s own shit, bull.”
She’s interrupted again as the waiter comes over to ask if Katie has finished with her soup. The bowl is only half empty, but she drops the piece of bread in her hand into the bowl and turns her head away again. This still amazes me. The waiter lifts the bowl and the spoon from Katie’s side of the table, and, as if he doesn’t notice how she continues to ignore him, he turns away from the table and marches back to the gold-doored kitchen. Katie composes herself for a second.
“Yeah, so I called Nicole out, and I dropped off the tour right there and then. Should I have dropped off? No. That was childish of me to do that, and in retrospect, I could have really damaged my rep over here. But I guess that’s just Katie huh? All about the passion. I mean, I still haven’t managed to finish a tour yet!”
She laughs at her own comment, but then, as if her very own words brought about a realisation, she stops as abruptly as she started. Staring at the table, she shuffles her feet further onto the chair beneath her. I shoot a glance to the stressed concierge, but he has been replaced by a plump woman who seems disinterested in the welfare of the expensive furniture. I look back to see Katie shoot me a glance, scolding me for not paying attention.
“You know the rest right? Well I’ll tell you anyway. I was up in my hotel room and she comes screaming in there, and totally busts up my arm, and my face, and my ribs. I tried to fight her for a bit, but then she totally got the better of me. Does that still happen? Nooooo. When we wrestle now, Katie always wins.” She laughs, even at the slightest talk of the here and now, and I see genuine happiness in her eyes again. Can it even be possible for one girl’s moods to continually fluctuate in such a manner?
“From there, I was like majorly depressed for a while, and I had to try to get back to work. And one night, she just called me up.”
Katie looks towards her win glass and finds it empty. She sulks, jokingly, and then checks the bottle in the cooler, also empty. She looks at me with wide, questioning eyes, and I pull the company credit card from my pocket, tapping it slowly on the side of the table. I order another bottle of white and Katie opens up again.
“Yeah so, she invited me to the Dirty Bastard one night, and I was so scared. I didn’t know what she would want to talk to me for. But I made her promise not to beat me up again.”
The wine arrives quickly, and Katie grabs for the bottle again. She fills her glass and offers the bottle to me, which I politely decline. I watch as Katie sips daintily on the edge of the wine glass, and replaces it on the table.
“So we talked for a while when I met her there. I’m not scared to admit, I was terrified. I sat there shivering with fear….I mean she had called me a “deranged freak” in Chaos the night before, and said she didn’t regret what she did to me.
“It was a strange situation, and Nicole kept asking me, ‘are you scared of me Katie?’ I had to admit that I was, totally. It wasn’t a nice place to be that night if you were me. I thought I was gonna shake the cast clean off my arm!”
She takes a big gulp of wine this time, and gives a satisfied sigh. People in the tables around us have started to realise who she is. Repeated mention of the name “Nicole” and the incidents which led to Katie’s broken arm have caused quite a stir, and people are starting to turn and look at Katie. I try to keep the conversation focused on just us, so that Katie doesn’t get freaked out.
“I stayed initially because I thought if I left the bar, that she’d beat me up outside. I thought I’d be safer with a lot of people around, you know? And then everything changed.”
It’s as if the room lights up on the saying of these words. As soon as they exit Katie’s mouth, her lips curl into the happiest smile I have ever seen from the teenager. She tries to hide it from me, but in the end she can’t. I reject her apologies for smiling, and urge her on with the story.
“She reached out, and I was totally scared. But she pulled the hood down on my sweater…and then she just kissed me. She kissed me, and all at one it was the happiest moment of my life.”
Part 4 coming soon…
