While on the Run

Part XI

I looked over at Niall just in time to see his hand cover his mouth as he smothered his yawn. In the darkened car, I was able to see his face lightly illuminated as he lazily scrolled through his phone notifications. I had my feet propped onto his lap, my body laying against the backseat of the car as I continued to check the time on my phone every 5 seconds.

Niall's hands lightly grasped my ankle and startled me out of my thoughts. "B, put your phone away. It's only 9:15 and we have plenty of time until our boarding starts."

"I know, but I'm just nervous..." I muttered.

"Well stop being nervous! I'm truly not sure why you're freaking out so much. It's just a plane flight," Niall stayed with a little chuckle.

But hearing him laugh at my nervousness immediately caused tears to start stinging the back of my eyes. I let out a sniffle. I knew I was just anxious about making the plane flight in time now, but this was the first step in the whole "world tour" business that would keep the One Direction crew busy for at least a year. If I couldn't get the boys to a flight on time, how was I supposed to keep them on schedule for a YEAR?

I sniffled again, and when I saw Niall's head shoot in my direction at the subtle noise, I pulled the neckline of my hoodie up to cover the bottom half of my face.

"B," Niall said, his thumbs slowly starting to rub the exposed skin between my sock and the bottom of my joggers. "B, c'mon look at me," he tried again after 30 seconds of silence.

I peeked at him from behind my hoodie, "Yeah?".

"You're not seriously nervous, are you?"

I rolled my eyes at his statement and took my legs off of his lap. My way of showing him how annoyed I was.

"Jesus B, stop that! There's no reason for any kind of nerves! Like none!" he exclaimed.

"How can I not be nervous, Niall? God I was supposed to get you guys to the freakin airport by 9:45 for a 10pm flight, we're 10 minutes behind schedule and Harry, Louis and Liam are probably making fun of me in the other car right now! I can't handle this, obviously!"

Niall was silent for another moment, and then started laughing.

Full blown, belly laughing.

As soon as I shook off my shock, I started crying for real. I could feel the tears falling down my cheeks before I could even control my emotions. How could he be laughing at me while I internally stressed myself out?

When Niall noticed, he tried to stifle his laughs and immediately reached over to my car seat to enclose me in a bear hug.

"Come here, B! You know I love you but seriously, this is such a small hiccup in the grand scheme of things. Do you know how many times we had to reschedule and book a flight for like three different times just because we didn't know how or when we were going to get to an airport?"

I looked at him expectantly, trying to get my sniffling under control. "How many times?" I asked sheepishly.

"A million!" he exclaimed, laughing the whole time. He sat back in his seat and threw his arm around my back. "Don't you worry your pretty head my pretty friend." Niall ducked his head to place a kiss on the top of my hair as I leaned my head to rest on his shoulder. "We got this."
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So, as it turns out, getting out of an airport with four of the most famous men in the world is not exactly the easiest task.

Especially when you're landing in New York City and there are hundreds of cameras waiting everywhere you turn.

Originally, the boys and I were not supposed to have this problem. We were supposed to be arriving at JFK airport in the very early hours of the morning, as to not cause much attention. Shockingly we made it on time, but our takeoff time was pushed back immensely due to fog in the sky.

Thus, here we are in the middle of the day, strolling through JFK airport at noon. What a wonderful opportunity for every magazine and newspaper company ever created.

This was one of the first times I was getting to witness One Direction being mobbed in a very public and open setting. It's so much different than seeing them get their pictures taken on the red carpet. Their security detail had already told the boys previously that they would have no time to stop for pictures and autographs with fans. The goal was the get us all in one car in as many pieces as possible.

As soon as our luggage was gathered, we made our way towards the exit of the airport, heads hung low, hats on and sunglasses poised on the brink of our noses.

As soon as we rounded the last corner of an almost deserted hallway, we immediately stepped into a huge space filled with screams, flashing lights, and the normal bustle of a daily airport.

I stopped dead in my tracks, and time seemed to slow down as I watched each band member with their security detail walk through the chaos, completely unfazed.

How were they so good at this? How is this the way that they lived their lives? It clicked with me right then and there that this life was so much more than I had anticipated.

Until this moment, no one knew that the band had a 22-year-old female manager to look after them.

Until this moment, no one knew who Blake, "B", was.

Until this moment, I didn't realize what I had truly gotten myself into.

I took a deep breath and told myself the facts. Some fans were going to hate my guts. Some fans were going to love me. There will be times where I absolutely love my job like nobody's business and there will be times where the boys want to fire me. Those were the facts, and I had to accept that.

One more deep breath, and I was able to take the world out of slow motion. I put an extra pep in my step to keep myself accompanied by the many security detail that surrounded us. As soon as we got outside, I straightened my glasses and handed off my carryon suitcase to our driver. I felt Harry's hand on my back as I was led inside a large, black vehicle.

A few minutes later, the boys and I situated ourselves with fresh water bottles, and tired looks on their faces. As I stared out the window and into the view of New York, I could help but mutter, "Let's do this."