John and Sharon collected Holly in a taxi and she refused to talk to them, cursing everyone for forcing her to do this. She felt physically sick and she couldn’t sit still. Every time the taxi stopped at a red light she contemplated jumping out and running for dear life but by the time she would build up the courage the lights would go green again. Her hands fidgeted nervously and she kept opening and closing her bag, pretending to Sharon she was searching for something just to keep herself occupied.
‘Relax, Holly,’ Sharon said soothingly, ‘everything will be fine.’
‘Fuck off,’ she snapped.
They continued on in silence for the rest of the journey: even the taxi driver didn’t speak. After a tense journey they finally reached Hogan’s, and John and Sharon had a hell of a time trying to stop Holly ranting (something about preferring to jump in the Liffey) and persuading her to go inside. Much to Holly’s horror, the club was absolutely jammed and she had to squeeze by everyone to make her way to her family, who had saved a table (right beside the toilet as requested).
Richard was sitting awkwardly on a stool, looking out of place in a suit. ‘So tell me about these rules, Father. What will Holly have to do?’
Holly’s dad explained the ‘rules’ of karaoke to Richard and her nerves began to build even more.
‘Gosh, that’s terrific, isn’t it?’ Richard said, staring around the club in awe. Holly didn’t think he had ever been in a nightclub before.
The sight of the stage terrified Holly. It was much bigger than she had expected and there was a huge screen on the wall for the crowd to see the words of the songs. Jack was sitting with his arm draped around Abbey’s shoulders; they both gave her supportive smiles. Holly scowled at them and looked away.
‘Holly the funniest thing happened earlier on,’ Jack said laughing. ‘Remember that guy Daniel we met last week?’
Holly just stared at him, watching his lips moving but not giving a damn about what he said. ‘Well, me and Abbey got here first to keep the table and we were having a kiss and your man came over and whispered in my ear that you were gonna be here tonight. He thought we were going out and that I was doing the dirt!’ Jack and Abbey laughed hysterically.
‘Well, I think that’s disgusting,’ Holly said, and turned away.
‘No,’ Jack tried to explain, ‘he didn’t know that we were brother and sister. I had to explain …’ Jack trailed off as Sharon shot him a warning look and silenced him.
‘Hi, Holly,’ Daniel said, approaching her with a clipboard in his hand. ‘OK, here’s the order of tonight: first up is a girl called Margaret, then a guy called Keith and then you’re up after him. Is that OK?’
‘So I’m third.’
‘Yeah, after—’
‘That’s all I need to know,’ Holly snapped rudely. She just wanted to get out of this stupid club and wished that everyone would stop annoying her and leave her alone to wish evil thoughts on them all. She wished the ground would swallow her up, that a natural disaster would occur and everyone would have to evacuate the building. In fact, that was a good idea. She searched around frantically for a button to raise the fire alarm, but Daniel was still talking away to her.
‘Look, Holly, I’m really sorry to disturb you again, but could you tell me which of your friends is Sharon?’ He looked as if he was afraid she was going to bite his head off. So he should be, she thought, narrowing her eyes.
‘Her over there.’ Holly pointed to Sharon. ‘Hold on, why?’
‘Oh, I just wanted to apologise for the last time we spoke.’ He started to walk towards Sharon.
‘Why?’ Holly said, the panic in her voice making him turn around again.
‘We just had a minor disagreement on the phone last week.’ He looked at her confused.
‘You know you really don’t need to do that. She’s probably forgotten about it completely by now,’ she stammered. This was the last thing she needed.
‘Yeah, but I would still like to apologise,’ and he headed over to Sharon. Holly leaped from her stool.
‘Sharon, hi, I’m Daniel. I just wanted to apologise about the confusion on the phone last week.’
Sharon looked at him as though he had ten heads. ‘Confusion?’
‘You know, on the phone?’
John placed his arm protectively around Sharon’s waist.
‘On the phone?’
‘Eh … yes, on the phone,’ he nodded.
‘What’s your name again?’
‘Em, it’s Daniel.’
‘And we spoke on the phone?’ Sharon said with a smile appearing on her face.
Holly gestured wildly to her behind Daniel’s back.
Daniel cleared his throat nervously. ‘Yes, you called the club last week and I answered – does that ring a bell?’
‘No, sweetie, you’ve got the wrong girl,’ Sharon said politely.
John threw Sharon a dirty look for calling him sweetie; if it was up to him he would have told him where to go.
Daniel brushed his hand through his hair and appeared to be more confused than everyone else. He began to turn round to face Holly.
Holly nodded her head frantically to Sharon.
‘Oh …’ Sharon said, looking as though she finally remembered. ‘Oh – Daniel!’ she yelled a bit over enthusiastically. ‘God, I am so sorry, my brain cells seem to be going a bit dead.’ She laughed like a mad woman. ‘Must be too much of this,’ she chortled, picking up her drink.
Relief washed over Daniel’s face. ‘Good, I thought it was me going mad there for a minute! OK, so you remember us having that conversation on the phone?’
‘Oh, that conversation we had on the phone. Listen, don’t worry about it,’ she said, waving her hand dismissively.
‘It’s just that I only took over the place a few weeks ago and I wasn’t too sure of the exact arrangements for tonight.’
‘Don’t worry … we all need our time … to adjust … to things … you know?’ Sharon looked at Holly to see if she had said the right thing or not.
‘OK then. Well, it’s nice to finally meet you in person,’ Daniel laughed. ‘Can I get you a stool or anything?’ he joked.
Sharon and John sat on their stools and stared back at him in silence, not knowing what to say to this strange man.
John watched with suspicion as Daniel walked away.
‘What was that all about?’ Sharon screamed at Holly as soon as he was out of earshot.
‘Oh, I’ll explain it to you later,’ said Holly. She turned to face the stage as their karaoke host stepped on stage.
‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!’ he announced.
‘Good evening!’ shouted Richard, looking excited. Holly rolled her eyes to heaven.
‘We have an exciting night ahead of us …’ he went on and on and on in his DJ voice while Holly danced nervously from foot to foot. She desperately needed the toilet again.
‘So first up tonight we have Margaret from Tallaght who is going to sing the