EPILOGUE
FEBRUARY 14. 2012
7:30 P.M.
NORTH SHORE BEACH
Backstage, Niall's mouth was running a mile a minute, filling all the boys in on how he'd spent his night with Emily. “She's incredible! She even went swimming in a fountain, clothes and all. You guys are going to love her.”
Harry's eyes widened. “Swimming huh? I wish I would have thought of that. The ocean was right there. I reckon I've ripped myself off.”
“You've been grinning like an idiot since you got here, Harry,” Liam said. “I think your date went well.”
“Grinning like an idiot,” Harry said. He held his hands up the way Liam so often did. “Pot? Kettle?”
Liam shrugged. “I'm not going to deny it. I'm a man in love.”
“Tell us about hot Lily, Zayn,” Louis said.
All four of them turned in unison to face Zayn, who was blushing. “She's just Lily.”
“Just Lily then,” Louis said. “You seemed pretty happy when I ran into you two this morning.”
“A real gentleman never kisses and tells,” Zayn said.
“Great. I'm pretty much ruined then,” Harry joked.
“What about you Louis, how was your tea with one?” Zayn asked.
“It started off rather boring, but I have a date tonight with one Kyley. A girl with a purple orchid.”
“What?” Harry bit into an apple and smiled. “A girl with a purple orchid. Sounds like a movie title.”
“Could be a movie, mate,” Louis said. “Weirdest thing ever. It will all make sense when we're on stage.”
Liam stepped forward. “Right then boys. It's Valentine's Day. We all have a lot to be grateful for. Especially the thousands of people on the other side of that curtain. Let's make sure they know it.”
Harry tossed the apple he'd been eating as they put their hands over each other and shouted, a pre-show ritual which now came as second nature, and headed out into the spotlight.
They exploded onstage. The excitement that hung in the air was electric and consuming.
Liam spotted Sarah front and center. He would've thought the stage lights were shining directly on her face for how much she was glowing. He walked directly to where she stood in the crowd and pulled her up onstage with him.
“You're insecure, don't know what for, you're turning heads when you walk through the do-o-or. Don't need make up to cover up, being the way the way that you are is enou-u-ugh. Everyone else in the room can see it, everyone else but you. Baby you light up my world like nobody else, the way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed but when you smile at the ground, it ain't hard to tell, you don't know-oh-oh, you don't know you're beautiful.”
Liam was singing to Sarah and Niall didn't think that was a half bad idea. He found Emily without trouble, problem was, she was three rows back. Unreachable. Niall pointed at her and as he sang, she threw her hands up in the air like she didn't have a care in the world, smiled, and began to dance. As he sang to her, her head fell back in laughter and he was sure he was the luckiest one of the bunch. Emily had to know she was beautiful.
