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Live While We're Young

Cheryl's POV -

My nerves faded away after the first few lines. I did as Liam said, and tried to enjoy myself. Falyn and Emery’s part went really well, then we sang the chorus. I looked out into the audience and caught a glimpse of Ashlyn sitting near the front row. I gave her a small wave and she nodded at me, enough to let me know that she saw me. I also noted that she didn’t have a camera or phone in her hand, so at least no embarrassing videos of me singing would be going into the hands of the boys.

The chorus ended and it was my part. I swallowed hardly while the girls gave me an encouraging smile.

You can do this, Cheryl.

Smile on your face, and do it! I took a deep breath, and started. 

Hey boy it’s now or never, it’s now or never,
don’t overthink just let it go.

Suddenly, something happened which none of us were expecting. I felt a hand on my shoulder and whipped my head towards it.

My gaze went from the hand to the arm, and finally, to the face. Zayn. Zayn Malik. Zayn freaking Malik. A look of disbelief was clear on my face, while the girls on either side of me let out ear-piercing screams. Somewhere, Harry, Louis, Liam and Niall had also appeared.

“What?” I whispered, still looking at Zayn’s face like he was an alien. He put his arms around me and gave me a squeeze then looked into the audience, singing.

Don’t let the pictures leave your phone, ooh.

The audience cheered loudly, while I looked from Harry to Louis to Liam to Niall and back to Zayn. They were…here? Right now? On stage? With me? What?

“Told you we would be coming back for you soon.” Zayn whispered, bending down and hugging me close to him in front of hundreds of people.

“I-I-um…” I stuttered, still unable to believe that they were standing right next to me. In the next few seconds though, my brain caught up with my sight, and I flung my arms around Zayn, clinging to him.

“Thanks for coming back.” I said, tears of joy in my eyes. I looked at the other boys and gave them a happy smile, knowing that I couldn’t just rush to them at the moment, because we still had a performance to do.

The song which had been abandoned by us girls when the boys magically appeared were sung again by their rightful singers. The girls and I elapsed into silence while the boys sang.

The girls looked at me, disbelief, happiness and shock written all over their faces. I shrugged at them, still trying to wipe away the tears that seemed to keep flowing. I had no idea why I was crying. They were here, which was the thing I had been hoping for the past month, and now I was just crying. Well, the girls were close to tears too, though theirs were tears of excitement that their idols were standing meters away from them. The boys were singing facing the crowd, but every once in a few seconds, one of them would sneak a peek at me, smiling in pure joy.

“Sing with us!” Harry beckoned at the girls. Each of the boys pulled one of the girls towards the microphone and they sang together. Falyn, Emery, Mia and Callie seemed to have overcome their rush of emotions, because now they were singing along, faces still shining with joy.

“Come on, Cheryl, you sing too.” Zayn said to me, holding the microphone towards me. I waved it away.

“No, I can’t! Not when…not when you guys are here.”

“Of course you can, silly!” Louis reached over and shoved the mike into my hand. “Sing!” He insisted.

Let’s go crazy crazy crazy till we see the sun.