small world

chapter 45

 SHAUNA

Happy Sunday! Sorry this was delayed extremely, I was having a hard time and couldn’t bring myself to write. I really love this chapter and I hope you to too! Leave your thoughts below, they really mean a lot to me.

PS I said this before and I’ll say it again; I reached 100,000 reads! I honestly can’t even begin to wrap my head around the idea that one hundred thousand times someone has taken the time to read something that I have written, that a story that I made up is now something you all have read. I can’t even believe that or express how grateful I am for those of you who love Small World the way I do. You all mean so much to me for making writing this worth it and I appreciate you endlessly.

HARRY

DAY 21: NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE (4:21 PM) 

We were in the ‘Music City’, the beautiful Nashville, Tennessee where so many legends have come to play, and here we were. Some nights I’d stay up, my mind restlessly wandering back to three years ago, being in a garage band and hoping to be a fraction as successful as I am right now. Fast forward to the present, I’m with four people who started off as strangers, then my competition, and now my brothers. We did a headline tour in Europe and now we’re building a fanbase in America. I’m playing shows a few times a week and having the time of my life with the greatest friends I have ever known. Together we have made a name for ourselves, and on many sleepless nights I’d count my blessings, a part of me knowing I’d never be able to wrap my head around the dream that has become my reality.

Though it was an honor to be here, the greatest part about being in Nashville was that it was day 21 out of 25, and by Friday I’d be on a plane to go home. After almost a month I could see my mum and my family and eat home-cooked meals and share my stories. I could hang out with all of my friends and go out where I am actually at the legal drinking age. And most of all I can be with Charlie and absorb all the time I have lost with her, rememorizing everything about her as in the last few weeks I find myself forgetting how her lips taste and how her fake laugh sounds. I’d have the time to catch up and spend time with them all and I couldn’t wait to be there; but nothing ever goes as planned.

It was just a few hours before our Nashville show, sitting at the table eating a burger with Nialler, whilst a familiar quadruple heavy knock pounded from the other side of the door before it burst open urgently to reveal our impatient tour manager.

“Boys, Simon’s on Skype. Big news, come over to our bus.” Mike announced and the two of us just stared blankly at him before he spoke more sternly “Now please,” before turning on his heels and leaving. Niall and I looked at each other nervously and he’d dropped the burger from his grasp that had been just before his mouth and I stood to get the others who were in the back room.

“Did you hear that?” I said and they turned to me with looks imprinted on their faces that revealed otherwise.

“Whut?” Zayn said pulling a side of his headphone away from his ear while Liam paused his FIFA game with Louis.

“What’s going on?”

“Simon’s on the Skype boys, lets go!” Niall called and they rose simultaneously. We filed out of the bus, congregating in front of the managers before stepping in. With wide eyes looking nervously into four other equally curious pairs, we telepathically wished each other luck, and went to find out what was happening: all we could hope for was that ‘big news’ meant good news.

“Hello boys,” his voice bellowed statically from the speakers of a Mac Book Pro set out on the kitchen counter with five chairs set up for us in front of it and we all greeted him individually as we sat down, nervously tapping our feet and mussing with our hair.