1Dentity (One Direction Affection: Book 1) [Watty Awards 2012]

15: Expiration Date

☆ 15: Expiration Date ★  


I take out a six plates from the cabinet and place them on the counter next to the freshly cooked buttermilk pancakes. The smell of eggs, bacon, biscuits, and pancakes fill the tour bus kitchen, which was fairly small, but since none of the boys were up yet, I had all the room in the world to make a decent breakfast for the boys.

Luckily, living with Aunt Julia, I manage to pick up a few things about cooking. 

Since I woke up early this morning, rather than sitting around doing nothing, I decided to cook the boys a nice breakfast. Not only for their benefit, but for mine. I always helped Aunt Julia in the kitchen whenever I had something on my mind, and this morning is no different.

All night I kept replaying yesterday's events in my head. The Pairry sign, the fan kissing Harry, my conversation with Liam, my run in with the nosy fans. All of that was just in the first day of the tour. Now I don't even know what to expect anymore. 

"Do I smell food?" Niall asks as he came into view. His blonde hair was sticking up in all directions and his blue eyes were still drowsy. Niall takes a quick sniff at the air in front of him before his eyes snap open. "It is! It's real food."

I take a plate from the stack that I had set out earlier and hand it to him. "Help yourself."

"You're an angel, Paige! An angel," he says excitedly as he takes the plate and begins piling on a mountain of scrambled eggs, four strips of bacon, two biscuits, and three pancakes. 

"You know, Niall," I say as I pour myself a cup of coffee. "You do have band members that'd like to eat as well."

Niall is just about to put another scoop of eggs onto his plate when he stops. "But, I got here first." He complains. "Isn't this first come first serve?"

"Well it's not really fair if the boys are competing against you," I point out with a chuckle. "I mean, you do have a knack for sniffing out food."

"It's a gift," he shrugs as if I was complementing him, which I'm sure he thinks I am. "Fine, I'll put some back."

Niall begrudgingly tosses back a strip of bacon, half a biscuit, and a small spoonful of eggs. I'm about to point out that he hardly put anything back, but I figured that I shouldn't try to push my luck. Getting Niall to put back his food is a prize all on it's own. 

"So, why'd you decide to cook us a buffet?" Niall asks in-between bites. 

I slowly stir cream and sugar into my coffee, before answering him. "I don't know. I guess, I was just in the mood to cook."

"Well, whenever you feel the urge to cook," Niall tells me with a goofy, pancake filled smile, "Please, don't hesitate to bake me a cake or something."

I chuckle. "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." 

I hear foot steps coming down from the hallway of the bus. I turn in my seat and find Harry standing in nothing but a pair of plaid pajama bottoms. He was scratching his head, still overcome with drowsiness. I had to admit, he wore bed head well.

"Mornin', Harry," Niall greets. "Paige made us breakfast."

"I see that," Harry says in a raspy voice. He stops and looks at the counter, which was full of the breakfast I had just finished preparing. He examines every single dish I had made, before turning around and pulling out a banana from the bowl next to the fridge.

"You're not going to eat any?" I ask, a bit defensively. I know I shouldn't feel hurt that he didn't want to eat the breakfast I made, considering I didn't only make it for him, but come on! He could at least take a freaking piece of bacon to show some gratitude.

"I'm not that hungry," he says simply as he begins peeling his banana.

Moments like this is when I wish I could just throw a plate at Harry and be done with everything. However, this isn't The Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner show. I actually have to deal with my problems the mature way, although I'd much rather drop a boulder on Harry right now.

"Can I have his share, then?" Niall asks, already getting up to refill his plate.

"Go for it," I say to Niall with a shrug. "At least someone appreciates my hard work."

Yes, I added that for Harry's benefit and by the way Harry glared at me, I could tell that he knew that was aimed at him.

Suddenly, three sets of footsteps came running into the front area of the tour bus. Louis, Liam, and Zayn were all still dressed in their pajama's and Liam was carrying a laptop.

"Paige!" Louis shouts. "Code Black!"

"Louis, I seriously think you need to give me a list with these codes." I say curiously, turning in my seat to get a good look at them. "What's a Code Black?"

"Look for yourself," Zayn says pointing to Liam's laptop.

"You need to see this," Liam says as he moves my coffee to the side to make room for his laptop. YouTube was opened up on the browser. All the boys gather around the laptop, including Harry who was still munching on the banana.

"Oh, god," I say as my eyes settle on the video that was up.