Capturing Memories (NH)

Chapter 17: The Last Challenge

I decided to focus on going through my camera and thinking about the type of pictures I wanted to be taking tonight of the boys. I wanted to win this competition; not only that, I wanted to win Niall back. My only way at this point is to try to win him over by getting an incredible picture of him performing tonight.

I scrolled through Tumblr and Pinterest on my phone to see if I could find any inspiration to help me tonight while I hear the boys warming up their voices.

Simon walks into the room to get the boys for soundcheck. The boys wave goodbye to Mia and me as I continue with my research. "Is it okay if I play some music?" I ask Mia as she sits on the other couch on her laptop.

"Whatever, I don't care," she replies, and I roll my eyes. I decided to listen to some of Niall's solo stuff because I really enjoy his songs.

Thirty minutes passed, and it was finally time for me and Mia to check out the stage and adjust our cameras to the lighting. We followed Simon, who took us right up front of the stage and did everything we had to; figure out where we would be taking pictures, adjust lighting sensitivity, etc.

I finished before Mia did, so I headed back to the dressing room by myself. As I turned a corner towards the dressing room, I ran right into someone, "Shit, sorry, didn't see you," I say, trying not to drop anything.

Looking up, I notice that it was Niall, "Sorry, it was my fault, wasn't watching where I was going," he replies, looking up from his phone. "Hi, Charlotte."

"Hi," I reply with a little smile, "Pee break?"

"Mhmm," he answered, looking down at his phone again, "I should be heading back," he said, walking off.

I turned to watch him walk away, "I hope you are having fun," I say quietly before I turn to continue walking to the dressing room. "Fuck that was awkward," I mumble under my breath, he couldn't even look me in the eye.

I get to the dressing room and collapse onto the couch. Why did this have to happen? I was having the time of my life on this tour, and now it's turning into complete shit. I really want this job, but if things don't become better with Niall, this is going to be a long tour. I look up from my phone right as Simon enters the room, "Have you happened to find anything on who could have hacked into my account?"

He grabs something from the back of the room before walking over to where I was sitting, "not yet, but it takes a couple of days sometimes. Try not to worry too much," he replies. "Have you checked your laptop for possible clues?"

"My laptop has been on the bus for the past couple of days, so I will have to check once the concert is over," I explain, and Simon nods his head.

"We will figure it out, Charlotte, don't worry, love," Simon assured me before leaving the room.

Mia comes back about 5 minutes after Simon left and we just chill in the dressing room, silently waiting for the boys to get back. I hate the awkward silence, so I try to make small talk with her, "You ready for the last challenge?"

She doesn't break eye contact with her phone while she replies, "Yep."

I just nod and go back to scrolling down Instagram because if she isn't willing to continue on the conversation, I am not going to sit there and talk to myself.

It was probably around 10 minutes after trying to start a conversation with Mia that the boys came back. They all came over to join us on the couches, Niall sitting right next to Mia.

This boy knows how much I don't like her, and how she's been treating me like shit this whole competition. How could he be doing this to me? Sometimes I don't understand boy's brains.