One More Spoon of Cough Syrup [Zayn Malik FanFiction]

Chapter 18

"I'm coming up now, coming up now, out of the blue," - 'Cough Syrup' by Young the Giant (or Saniya :S)

Zayn's throat improved a lot over the past couple of weeks - although his voice wasn't completely cleared, he could still sing and hopefully he could manage by taking more tea and lozengers. It didn't stop here however: symptom number four came along and appeared as phlegm. you aren't really supposed to swallow that. I told him that if it continued to the dates of the tour, he'd just have to go the the darker areas of the stage and spit if out while pretending to drink his water. That was the only idea we had.

Zayn's POV

I shook my head, still dazed about today - our first day of rehersals. I mean, it was crazy to think Hey, just off to rehersals - you know, going to sing to thousands of people soon - pretty cool, right?

I was in the kitchen, with everyone else having breakfast. Harry was at the stove making pancakes, while we were sat at the table.

Liam was flicking through channels on the radio, before giving up and returning from his room with a CD he burned himself.

"Oh, love this song," Saniya grinned. She stood at the kettle making tea for everyone, as soon as Use Somebody by Kings of Leon came on.

The entire morning was spent watching Louis and Niall slapping each other with various breakfast foods before Niall ate them while Saniya and Harry paraded around the kitchen singing to Misery by Maroon 5 as if they were on crack -  it was strangely relaxing.

Half an hour later, I trooped out from the bus with the other boys, Saniya, and Eleanor following. I felt my heart rise as Saniya gave me an encouraging smile. "First time I'm going to hear you guys live," she muttered, walking faster to come next to me. 

"No pressure," I commented sarcastically.

"Hey, don't worry," she chuckled. "I'm sure the hundreds of fangirls I've seen all over London are right about you guys."

I laughed, but still felt nervous.

We were greeted by a man dressed in a pinstripe suit, with a headpiece. "Our manager," I muttered to Saniya, solving her curiosity. Her wonder seemed to grow, however. I knew what she meant - how could such a mature-looking person be associated with us? How did he handle it? No offense to the guys, but someone who looked so composed couldn't possibly have anything to do with any of us.

The shcedule was set and we were told that we had to treat rehearsals like the real concert - meaning that we didn't just have sound checks. It was full-fledged moving around, co-ordination checks and in Liam's summary: 'Trying not to sweat too much'. Which was - surprisingly - very difficult when under  a two-hundred volt light bulb and in front of thousands of screaming girls.

Note sarcasm.

Eleanor took a seat at the very front of the arena, however, I noticed Saniya drift to the left-hand corner where the band was. I smiled as she got engaged in a conversation with them and went to get dressed. She was probably discussing an instrumental for her song.

We ran through the list of songs we were going to perform for the first concert and went through a session of choreography. I honestly wasn't sure why we did - we never followed it anyway.

I scanned the arena and spotted Saniya still with the band. She had an acoustic guitar in her hands and seemed to be experimenting with different notes. Every now and then, it seemed like she'd crack a joke, as the boys laughed every now and then with her. I smiled at the though that she made a nice impact on them.