WARNING: I know Tammy seems awful, but give her a chance. There's a big reason why she is like this and you'll know it, eventually. Don't give up on her just yet. Also, she swears a lot.

-:-:-:-

Chapter 2 ~ Tammy

“Grimmy!” Leanne cries out as we make our way down the halls in the studios of Radio BBC1. It’s fucking early in the morning, I’m grumpy and I haven’t had coffee, but we have to be here just to keep promoting our music.

Nick Grimshaw, host of the Breakfast Show on BBC1 is supporting us a lot, he is fun and we like him. He can take a banter, and that’s a requirement to hang out with us. Otherwise, you may end up visiting a therapist. I’m not trying to be mean, it’s the truth. We are a bit hard to get along with. It’s no surprise. We’re very different from each other and our personalities are extremely different, yet we work on stage. We really work. And modesty apart, we’re fucking awesome, man.

And as in ‘we’ I mean Leanne, a blond and fit girl with electric blue eyes, big boobs and very feminine who happens to be the drummer; Emma, the tallest of them all, with sensuality that runs in her Latin blood, with dark hair and piercing greens is the bass player and second voice; Skyler with her messy dirty blond hair, blue eyes, extremely pale complexion is the first guitar and a freaking genius –give her an instrument, she’ll master it in a couple of minutes–; and me, Tammy, lead singer and second guitar. We are in Prodigy, the revelation of this time. Man, we came here to change the world with our music, to be the biggest stars everyone has ever seen and no one will stop us.

“My beautiful Leanne!” Grimmy exclaims walking towards us and grabbing the drummer in his arms. Leanne is probably the most cheerful and nicer of the band, she is always flirting and likes when men look at her with desire in their eyes. Certainly, she is the one who cares the most about looks and that stuff. “How have you been? You look astonishing, as usual.” Leanne gives him one of her signature smiles that make men go crazy.

“I’m a bit sleepy, but I’m okay,” she answers.

“I’m a real zombie. I need coffee if you expect me to stay awake during your show,” I interrupt and he looks at me, not surprised at all. I’m not known for the best manners. I’m known for my blunt honesty and how I don’t hide anything during interviews. I always say what I think or feel in everyone’s face

“I figured. Coffee and some sandwiches are waiting for you in the booth.” I smile radiantly when I hear his words. Coffee, that beverage of the gods!

I don’t wait for another word, I just walk past him in the direction of the booth, leaving everyone behind. Coffee is more important. I need it or I’ll start eating brains. From afar I hear Nick adding, “Always a pleasure to see you, Tammy!”

I snort. I know I’m not the nicest girl around, that I’m rude and awful, but that’s my style, that’s what I’m selling. That’s the image I’ve build to fill this role. I’m a rockstar, not a silly pop singer who sells her personal life to write some songs expecting pity from everyone else. I want people to know I’m strong, that not because I’m a woman I have to be fragile and crying over a breakup. I can wear the shoes of a rockstar and I can make any guy tremble. Rudeness is part of my image, it comes with the pack of being in a band like Prodigy. We’re not a girl band, we are a rock band and we are the best out there. Our name says everything, each single one of us is a prodigy.

I get to the booth, I don’t even acknowledge the presence of the DJ and I just attack the little table with the coffee machine and the little sandwiches. Sweet and perfect breakfast! I should’ve eaten before I left my flat, but who can eat that early in the morning?

A few minutes later I hear Grimmy and the girls walking into the booth, soon they are next to me and I just give them a little peek before focusing my attention on my phone. I’m checking my rising number of followers and all the mentions. It’s good to see people that appreciate real talent.

“You know, Tammy, you have the social skills of a monkey,” Grimmy says nonchalantly and I take another sip of my burning coffee.

“Drunken monkey,” I correct him using the words Leanne and Emma have told me so many times. Not that I care.

“Fair enough,” he laughs and I shrug, shoving my mobile into my pocket again and taking a new sandwich. Man, these are good. “But you need to work on that. You can’t expect to be on the media and be like that.”

“Why not?” I defy him, staring right into his eyes, challenging him to say something. I hear Skyler chuckling as she grabs a cup of coffee for herself.

“Because it’s not nice and people will hate you. You’ll only bring bad publicity to the band,” he advises and I leave my cup on the table carefully, taking my time before I reply.

“First off, being the arsehole I am only boosts out reputation of bad and tough girls. Second, people can hate me but that can’t deny my music is great, so I don’t really care. I’m not amusing people with my personality, I’m giving them my talent. Two separate things, Nicholas.” His eyes widen at my words and I don’t care if I’m a bitch, I know what I am doing.

“You can’t change her, Grimmy,” Emma tells him grabbing his shoulder. “No one can, it’s hopeless. We made peace with that already,” she carries on and I smile brightly. Not the slightest offended by her words, after all it is the truth.

He looks at me for a few minutes, like examining me, seeking something I don’t know. Whether he is trying to figure me out or to find a solution, it is a lost cause. “You know what? I know the perfect guy for you,” he says out of the blue, surprising me. Lucky I am not drinking coffee, I would’ve spilled it all over his face.

“Excuse you?” I raise my eyebrows incredulously. How is it that we ended up talking about a perfect guy for me?

“Yeah, I bet you two would get along perfectly. Plus, he is really good publicity for you. He is also famous, and you can never have enough publicity, right?”

I look at the girls. Skyler doesn’t look interested, she is literally in this band only for the music. She doesn’t really care how big we are as long as we are the best one out there. Leane seems to glow at the possibility of me on a date. Emma smiles, pleased with this news, and I know why: she appreciates publicity as much as I do. We both want to be the biggest band ever. I date guys, I date a lot –which has given me a reputation already–, but nothing serious. Only one-night stands, unless the bloke is really great, then I can keep him for a week. When you’re famous, many things become easier; getting laid is one of them.

“Oh, really?” I mutter still not quite believing him.

“Oh yes! His name is Liam and I can set you two up. It’s gonna be perfect!”

I think about it for a few seconds. Publicity is always good, tabloids will speculate who is my next victim and for how long this will last. It will give us probably a new interview and with that, another chance to promote our music. And maybe he is hot and great in bed. It’s a win-win situation.

“Okay,” I accept.

And that’s how I ended up here, in a bar in front of a little boy. A lesbian, for crying out loud! I should’ve known better when I saw Grimmy smiling like that when I accepted. This is all a joke for him, to set me up with a foetus like this kid.

He is taller than me with short brown hair and chocolate eyes, thick lips and sharp features, yet they still make him look young and soft instead of manly and tough. He can’t be older than twenty, I refuse to think he is my same age. He is built, but next to me everyone looks built as I’m really skinny –not bulimic or anything, I’m just naturally skinny. It seems like he goes to the gym, I mean, I can see his forearms and they look rather impressive, but then I see his baby face again, with that puppy look and I forget how great his body is. He still looks like a girl.

He is not my type. Not even in a hundred million years!

“You must be Tammy,” he says with a deep voice and kind of a posh accent. My accent is very cockney, after all I was born and raised in the suburbs of London and it wasn’t an easy life. Next to him I sound like a troubled girl that lives on the streets and has no study whatsoever. But I did finish high school!

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I blurt out as I keep staring him from head to toe, blinking several times just as if like that I could bring a real man in front of me. “I should’ve never believed Grimmy!”

“Pardon me?” He inquires very shocked, his accent so thick. It like his cheeks explode when he pronounces the P.

“What are you? I mean, seriously, you look like a girl. Is this some sick joke? Am I being punked?” I look around, expecting to see Ashton Kutcher. “Oh wait, Ashton doesn’t run Punked anymore,” I think out loud as my eyes come back to the boy in front of me. “Are you really Liam?” I ask hopefully, maybe he is waiting for another Tammy.

“Yes,” he answers and my hopes shatter. He sees my expression because his eyebrows rise in annoyance and hurt. “You’re Grimmy’s friend?”

“I wouldn’t call myself his friend, but kinda,” I answer shrugging, hating that fucker for setting me up with this boy. “How old are you? Are you really a guy? ‘Cos you look like a girl. Like Justin Bieber, you know?”

His shocked expression is even more noticeable now, like he can’t believe what I’m saying. But what? Has he never heard people calling Bieber a lesbian? Isn’t that like common knowledge already?

“Hey! What have I done to you?” He spats and I roll my eyes. “Why are you being so rude?”

“I’m just disappointed. Grimmy promised me something different. Who are you, like really? He told me you were famous, too.”

“I’m Liam Payne,” he says as if I should know with only that bit of knowledge. I look at him expressionless just to make him know it doesn’t ring any bells. “From One Direction?”

I narrow my eyes, thinking long and hard and it actually takes me five good minutes to put the pieces together and my shock and disappointment are way over the moon. “From that stupid boy band everyone seems to adore?” I blurt out, completely astonished.

“Hey! Can you stop?”

“I’m sorry but Grimmy promised me a man, not an NSYNC wannabe. I’m leaving. I don’t care how popular you are, I can’t do this.” I turn on my heels, ready to leave that bar and in it, that Liam boy.

I’m so gonna kill Grimmy, I don’t see the funny side of setting me up with a guy that looks so correct and good, someone with an honest and cute smile, with hopeful eyes, a good attitude and a posh accent. It’s like he is all I’m not attracted to! And something tells me I’m not his type either.

“Hey, wait!” He calls me and soon I feel his hand on my elbow. “I mean, I came here, you came here… I don’t want that to go to waste. At least we can try, you know? Just so it won’t be a waste of time having come here.”

I stare at him, kind of surprised that he is actually trying when I didn’t say a single nice thing to him. He can’t be that good, can he? No one can! A normal person would just dismiss me and tell me to fuck off for being rude and mean.

This boy is crazy.

Anyways, he is mega famous and Grimmy was right in one thing: he is great publicity and I’m friends with any kind of publicity. So I cock my head to one side for a couple of seconds before answering.

“Okay, but let’s go outside. I wanna smoke,” I tell him and I know he is not pleased that I smoke. I smile, impressing him is not in my list of priorities.

-:-:-:-

I know, I know... Tammy is awful (yet I adore that she treats Liam like that xD), but I promise she is more, way more than what you see now. That's why the story is called Masquerade. Tammy, and Liam, wear so many masks and they need to take them off.

Dedication to @hannah_liam13 becuase I promised her this long time ago.

Bel, xx