After The X Factor (One Direction)

Chapter 7

I can’t believe it. It’s true. Harry’s having an affair with that horrible, nasty, lying cheating model.

I don’t know what to do. I want to run from my hiding spot (a narrow alley around the corner from the gym where One Direction have been practising) and scream insults at the pair of them, whom are no doubt still together…

But I can’t do that. Not a chance.

No, I’ll just stay here, slumped against a murky wall beside smelly dustbins and let the lightly falling rain slowly soak every inch of me.

One positive point about this: I can’t admit that Ken was right and that it would all ‘end in tears’ – though this is the end, the rain is making it difficult to distinguish tear from raindrop.

But Ken was right about everything else.

Of course I was stupid to have waited so long before finding out. Who knows how long this has been going on? It could’ve been going on since they began rehearsals.

I suppose I should explain what just happened; to retell the story may provoke shock and confusion even from myself. It’s all still a bit of a blur.

Anyway, after I received that phone call from Freya she gave clear instructions for me to follow,

“Come to London this Saturday; it’s our last rehearsals, I’ll prove it then,” she had said, still sobbing a little.

“Right,” I had replied, finding a pen and jotting the instructions down on my hand. “What time?”

“Oh, erm…how’s half eleven?”

“Uh, fine,” I replied. I was still in total shock. I was shaking.

I did as she asked. I caught the train unbelievably early – having to walk through the pouring rain to reach the train station in Manchester – and arrived in London just before eleven. The rain was lighter in London, but it was clear from the shining, slippery surface of the pavement that it had been torrential only minutes before.

“Oh, for God’s sake!” I had exclaimed once leaving the train station in London when I slipped and dropped my bag, which fell to the floor and spewed the contents out across the ground. “Great, my phone’s broken,” I mumbled to myself. It must’ve hit the ground hard, landing in a puddle. The screen flashed blue for a second, but then went blank. Fantastic.

I hadn’t thought today could’ve gone any worse, for I already knew there was a chance of severe horror if Freya’s words were true, and Harry was cheating on me with Ashleigh.

It took me half an hour to find the gym, but when I got there, Freya was nowhere in sight. She had agreed to meet me opposite the gym, ‘I don’t want you to have to do this alone,’ she had confided in me. I told her Elvie had offered to come with me, but Freya quickly appointed herself as my company.

Though she wasn’t there. I thought it odd, but I didn’t have the patience to wait. The moment the big hand on my watch reached the six, marking half eleven, I darted inside the gym and out of the rain.

All was quiet. My boots made little noise against the carpet as I cautiously made my way towards the locker rooms, which is where Freya said she often saw them together.

I stopped dead in my tracks once outside the locker rooms. I could hear voices. The door was open wide enough so that I could squeeze through.

The room was large, with another room leading from it through a wide arch, and lockers lining every wall. Benches with coat pegs were positioned in the middle of the room. The voices, I could tell, were coming from the other room. I crept along the nearest wall and as I heard the voices clearer, I got confused.

One voice, male, was definitely Harry’s.

The other, female, was one I knew, though I had never heard Ashleigh speak before. It dawned on me who’s voice it was only seconds before I poked my head from behind a locker and saw two people, standing too closely together, talking and laughing.

Freya.

My mouth dropped open in shock. I didn’t understand what was happening.

From where I was stood I was certain neither could see me; Harry wasn’t looking in my direction at all and Freya was too busy gazing hungrily at Harry to notice his girlfriend standing around the corner.

“You’re great, you know?” Harry was telling her as he laughed. My stomach gave a lurch and I nearly keeled over.

She giggled, acting shy, and replied in a toxic voice, “Don’t! I’m really not!”

“You are! One of the best I know, for sure!” he told her. I didn’t even want to imagine what his face looked like as he told her.

Freya blushed and turned away. She raised her right arm and ran her hand down Harry’s arm from his shoulder, then took his hand and said kindly, “thank you.”

“Not at all,” he said, bending down and kissing her hand. I felt sick. Once he dropped her hand he leaned back against the bar on the end of a bench.

“So…what do we do now?” Freya asked, closing the gap between them so they were even closer than before.

“Wait? I don’t think anybody else is here yet.”

Freya glanced in my direction and I jumped aside, hoping she didn’t see me. “No,” she said, and I sighed a sigh of relief. “There are other things we could do instead of just waiting, though…” she suggested playfully.

“Like…?”

I couldn’t handle it any longer. I couldn’t stand there and listen to them. I had to run before I exploded. I couldn’t ruin their precious moment, either. As silently as I had entered, I fled the gym, not letting a single tear drop onto my face until I was carefully concealed behind the large bin in the alley.

I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but I know at first I was stood in an upright position with my back against the wall, my head flung against the murky bricks. Now, however, I had slid down so far that I was crouched just above the filthy, wet ground.

Going to check the time I see my watch has stopped thanks to the rain soaking it (another indication that I’ve been here a while is that I’m completely drenched, though the rain is even lighter than before) so instead I dig my phone from my bag to see if it’s working again. Luckily it is, though the flashing message icon distracts me from wanting to know the time.

I see the words ‘1 message from Freya’ on the screen and gasp in shock, throwing my head back and hitting it hard on the brick wall. I fumble to open the message and scan the words:

Change of plan – Ash is having lunch break early so meet at half twelve instead! Freya xxx

The message was sent at 11:06 this morning, not long after my phone had broken. What was she playing at? Was the thing with Ashleigh simply a diversion away from her relationship with Harry?

I need some answers.

Freya can wait, for now. I don’t need to speak to her just yet. I want to talk to Harry.

Hey, I’m in London. Can we meet at your hotel in an hour?

I address the message to Harry and send.

Now all I have to do is gather my thoughts and wait. And perhaps dry off somewhere away from the stinking, overflowing rubbish.

-------

Hey so was this another shocking chapter for you? ;) 

Anybody got any ideas on what the hell is happening, or what should happen? :) 

Comments and votes would be awesome! x