Crystal by Katie Price Page A

particularly like small children but she made an exception for Leticia because she was so sweet and funny. Rosie was blonde-haired and blue-eyed, warm and feisty, and Crystal adored her. She was like a mum to her. She was in her late forties and Leticia had been a bit of an unexpected arrival. The result, Tahlia told Crystal, of a two-week fling with a Jamaican music promoter she had met at the Notting Hill Carnival. He had promised to keep in touch but when he left London he never made contact again and Rosie didn’t have an address or number for him. Tahlia had always tried to help her mum with Leticia as much as she could.
    Crystal envied Tahlia’s family life; there might not be much money but there was always laughter in the house, and love – something that had been in very short supply in Crystal’s background.
    ‘I saw your mum on TV tonight, Crystal,’ Rosie said as they all sat down round the kitchen table.
    She’d insisted on making the girls scrambled eggs after hearing that they’d only eaten caviar all day.
    ‘Yeah, I saw the film this afternoon. She sounded really false, I thought,’ Crystal answered. Dallas had, of course, gothis way and they had filmed a piece with her mum in Spain. To Crystal it was obvious that her mum had been told what to say. All about how proud she was of her baby and how she was sure she would do well. When, in reality, her mum had texted her a couple of times in the last three months to say well done for getting through the audition, but apart from that nothing. Her mum’s take was that she had a new life in Spain and it was up to Crystal and her brother to get on with theirs. Crystal always tried to make out that her mother’s lack of interest didn’t hurt, but of course it did.
    ‘She didn’t, Crystal!’ Rosie exclaimed, but Crystal knew that she was only trying to spare her feelings. ‘I’m sure she’s really proud of you.’
    ‘Yeah, right,’ Crystal muttered.
    ‘Will she fly back for the final, do you think?’
    ‘I doubt it, Rosie, you know what she’s like.’
    Rosie sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Crystal, I don’t understand why she won’t. But I’ll be there and you might think this sounds really corny but I think of you as my other daughter.’
    Crystal felt her eyes unexpectedly filling with tears. Rosie gave her a hug. ‘You look exhausted.’
    ‘We’ve been working flat out,’ Crystal replied, which was true, but the real reason was that she had spent the last two nights with Max and she was feeling emotionally and physically shattered.
    ‘Still no man in your life?’ Rosie asked.
Great, this was all she needed.
    Crystal shook her head and avoided meeting Rosie’s eye.
    ‘I can’t believe a beautiful girl like you doesn’t have someone.’
    ‘
Mum!
’ exclaimed Tahlia.
    ‘Okay, okay,’ Rosie said, smiling. ‘You don’t mind me asking, do you Crystal?’
    ‘’Course not,’ Crystal managed to reply, ‘but it’s Tahlia’s love life you should be asking about.’
    She wouldn’t usually have dropped Tahlia in it, but she couldn’t bear having to lie to Rosie. Tahlia blushed and wasforced to tell her mum about Hadley asking her out.
    Rosie was delighted. ‘It’s about time!’ Crystal had to agree. For as long as she’d known her, Tahlia had hardly dated any lads and she’d never had a serious relationship. It was a total mystery to Crystal as Tahlia was a gorgeous girl and she always had plenty of men asking her out.
    They spent the rest of the night on much safer territory – analysing their chances of winning the competition and bitching about the other contestants.
    At midnight Rosie ordered both girls to bed. Crystal was on her last legs but she didn’t want to go to bed. She knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. She looked at her watch, imagining where Belle and Max would be now or, more to the point, what they’d be getting up to.
    ‘I’ve not been sleeping very well lately. I’ll stay up a bit longer,’ Crystal