Rehearsals this week have been absolutely gruelling, we haven't stopped we're on a constant loop of playing our set until it's perfect, Alex is adamant that we will not leave until it sounds absolutely perfect, Monday's rehearsal wasn't so bad we basically chose all the songs for our set adding in a couple different ones than usual just to spice it up a bit, we then started playing and we didn't leave until gone 7pm since Alex started freaking out saying that we weren't going to be ready in time.
Tuesday was worse than Monday, I was very rudely woken up to my phone buzzing with 10 missed calls from Alex at 6:30 in the morning, when he then rung me again for the eleventh time I answered and snapped at him since I was so tired asking what was wrong he told me to be at our rehearsal space at 8 to start the day, yeah I wasn't very happy with him neither were Sammy or Oscar. We then then finished Tuesday off around 6pm since we all wouldn't stop complaining to Alex for keeping us for so long so he let us go, we had been playing consecutively for a good 9 hours that day having short 10 minute breaks in between. Wednesday and Thursday were no better same routine as Tuesday, I felt exhausted getting into bed last night, the longing I felt to be able to just run and jump into bed was unreal.
And here we are now Friday the day before our gig I still feel extremely tired but it turns out Alex is gonna be nice to us today and let us go a little earlier so we can get a good nights sleep, I have never seen Alex so stressed in my life, he's crazy when he's stressed so I wouldn't want to piss him off when he's stressed otherwise he'd probably bite my head off. The only time Alex usually gets stressed is when one of us is running late for a gig or we miss a day of practice but this week has been a whole new level it's kind of scary.
As we're packing up I look over at Sammy, she looks quite pale and tired I stand from my seated position on the floor from where I was packing up my kit and walk over to her. "Hey Sammy, you okay? your looking kind of pale are you gonna be sick?" I ask worriedly
She looks up at me "Huh? Oh no no I'm fine I am absolutely knackered though, I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up falling asleep in my car in the car park" she says jokingly
"I feel the same" I laugh "I've never felt more tired in my life, are you sure your okay though? you really don't look well"
"Yeah I'm okay I'm sure I'll feel better tomorrow, just gotta go home and do what Alex said and have a good nights sleep" she says the last part as she yawns
"Okay if your sure" I say with a shrug, if I'm being honest I don't really believe her but I don't to push her, I could be wrong and she could just be like she said tired but I just have this feeling that I'm right. I walk back over to my kit and finish packing up ready to set up in the club tomorrow, if there's one thing I hate about moving around to play different bars and clubs it's the fact that we all have to take our instruments with us me with my drum kit, Alex and Oscar with their guitar and bass and amps plus the microphones and stands and then theirs Sammy with her keys, it's a lot to get around luckily we have a little van that we use to transport the instruments from place to place it's Oscars dads van he used to use it for his work but he doesn't need it any more so he lent it to the band and it's been very useful.
Once I finished packing up I moved my kit to the van ready for Oscar to drive to the club tomorrow, I then walk over to my car it's pretty decent it was a gift for my 17th birthday, I have a white Citroen C1 it does need to go in for a clean but other than that it's in really good condition. I slide in the drivers seat and put the key into the ignition and just before I pull out of the car park I decide to put on some music, I've really been into P!nk quite recently like I've always enjoyed her music but over the past couple of weeks I've been playing her songs non stop, I go through these phases of loving certain artists for a small amount of time until I get bored and move onto the next. Her new album The Truth About Love came out last week and it's brilliant so this is what I listen to on my way home.
The drive home was a lot slower than usual as it's the time of day where everyone's finishing work and are trying to get home for the day but I'm living smack right in the centre of London what was I expecting? After about 45 minutes of being stuck in traffic when it should've only taken me 10 minutes to get home, I pull into the car park below my flat building and pull the key out of the ignition then stepping out of the car and locking it as I walk towards the stairs that lead up to my flat, I pull my coat closer to my body as I shiver, even though it's only late September its bloody freezing here in London oh how I miss summer.
Unfortunately for me the lift in the building is broken so now I have to climb three flights of stairs to get home, the lift has been broken for about two weeks Phil the manager of the building keeps saying that it'll be fixed shortly but at this point I'm losing hope. As I reach the door to my flat the door next to mine opens, when I turn my head I see it's Mrs Bennet, Mrs Bennet is a lovely lady she was very kind to me when I first moved in even though I was as talkative as a lemon because I was so nervous and awkward, but she showed me that I had nothing to worry about as she has baked me some gorgeous chocolate chip cookies as a welcome gift, that woman can bake I'm telling you.
"Off for another date with Gordon are we Mrs Bennet?" I ask cheekily, ever since I arrived here Mrs Bennet has going out quite regularly with a man called Gordon I've personally never met the man but if Mrs Bennet likes him I'm sure he's wonderful.
"Oh hush yes I'm going to see Gordon but we're nothing but friends dear, nothing romantic going on between us" she states confidently I don't actually believe their friends, I do think there's something more going on but I guess the only confirmation I'm going to get is from Mrs Bennet herself but I don't see myself getting that anytime soon.
"Mmhm whatever you say Mrs Bennet I'm sure Gordon would love to hear you calling him a friend instead of a lover" I tease
She gasps and narrows her eyes at me she, pointing her finger playfully at me "Now missy stop sticking your nose where it doesn't belong, now I best be off I wouldn't want to be late"
As she reaches the top of the stairs i shout out to her "Don't do anything I wouldn't do but I'm sure Gordon wouldn't mind having a bit of fun either"
She turns her head and glares at me rolling her eyes before descending down the stairs i giggle at her reaction
As I open the door to my flat and step inside I'm met with a wall of heat I sigh at the feeling of warmth that closes all around me, the heating in my flat must've kicked in by itself because of how cold it was. I shut the door and remove my coat, scarf and boots I trudge slowly into the kitchen opening the fridge to find not much at all I really need to go food shopping I decide on just making myself a small bowl of pasta I'm not too hungry anyway so I'm not looking for something huge.
While the sauce is heating up and the pasta is cooking I decide to pick out a movie too watch while I eat my dinner, I sit on the floor in front of my tv and open the door to the cabinets below in search of a DVD after spending a few minutes choosing a film I decide on the notebook, this film makes me extremely emotional I've watched it too many times to count yet it never fails to have me sobbing my the end I don't know why I put myself through the sadness but sometimes I'm in the mood just to have a good cry.
I walk back into the kitchen to see if my pasta has cooked fully and too my luck it was ready to go so I dish it up on too my plate and grab my self some cutlery to go sit down in my living room to watch the movie. Luckily I finished my food fast enough so that I wouldn't be a sobbing mess when trying to eat my food, By the end of the movie my face is stained with tears and smudged mascara while the skin underneath that mess is red and blotchy from me constantly rubbing my eyes, too tired to clean up I decide to just head straight to bed heading to the bathroom first to clean up my face by removing the make up and washing my face too then brush my teeth before heading into my room to change into some pyjamas which are just some shorts and a T-Shirt I then crawl under the sheets staring up at the ceiling thinking of what tomorrow could bring when I slowly close my eyes and sleep takes over.
The next morning I woke up at 10am deciding it would a good idea to get out of bed I walk out of my bedroom and straight into the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea, I never used to really be a big fan of tea but over the last couple of years it's grown on me while waiting for the kettle to boil I fetch a bowl and some cornflakes since I was in the mood for a cereal this morning. After finishing making my tea I head off to the living room and place my tea and bowl of cereal on the table in front of me and search for my phone I soon remembered that must have left it in my coat pocket after coming home yesterday, I walk over to my coat and dig through the pockets in search of my phone I soon find it and walk back over to my sofa to only drop myself on to it I reach for my cereal placing it in my lap while I open up my phone deciding to check out twitter since I hadn't been on there in a while scrolling through my timeline to see there's nothing that interest going on I hop on over to Instagram to do the same but yet again nothing interesting too see I just ended up liking a couple of posts and then switching my phone off out of boredom.
To occupy myself I decide to clean up my dishes that have been left unwashed from last night and this morning humming along to a tune that I'd heard on the radio I'm not an awful singer I can hold a note but I'm most certainly not the best I've done backing vocals for the band once or twice and I didn't really mind it if I'm honest, after finishing up I decide to have a shower and start getting my self ready for tonight since I'm going to be heading over to Sammy's for a couple of hours before we need to head to the club.
Heading in to the bathroom to turn on the shower to heat up the water I then remove my clothes and underwear and step in to the hot shower, I'm not much of a bath person I definitely prefer having a shower I just think it's a lot quicker and easier, grabbing the shampoo bottle and squeezing a dollop into the palm of my hand I place the bottle back and start massaging the shampoo into my roots then slowly manoeuvring down to my ends I rinse out the shampoo and repeat the same thing with the conditioner except I mainly focused on my ends instead of my roots, I then use my vanilla body wash all over and give my skin a good scrub after rinsing myself down one final time I step out of the shower and wrap a towel around myself to then I also wrap my hair in a towel to keep it out of the way.
I make my way back into my bedroom to pick out my outfit for the evening I usually wear black jeans and vintage band tee and just try dress it up a by adding some heels and heavier makeup so that either results in just more eyeshadow or a coloured lip. However tonight I want to switch it up a I've decided on a simple black leather skirt with a black bralette underneath a sheer black top tucked into the leather skirt I pair this with some black chunky heeled boots, I'm never usually this confident with my clothing always feeling like I'm going to be judged for my body like I used to back when I was still in school however I'm trying my best to crack my shell at least a little bit and trying to boost my confidence one way or another and I think this is a good start.
I curl my hair into light waves and apply my makeup I decide on a bronze look today just something fun yet simple, I've always enjoyed applying my makeup I remember when I was younger my mum had this one eyeshadow pallete that she would always use and I remember constantly asking her if I could use it she always said no, she would always tell me that I didn't need the makeup because I was beautiful at first I believed her but as I got older and the more kids in school would tell me that I was ugly and call me horrible names the belief I had faded, I never really told my parents about the rude kids in school I always just thought it was better left unsaid but my parents were always suspicious since Natalie was my only friend but decided to not approach me about it.
After I finish applying my nude lipstick I leave my room and walk out into the hallway to grab my leather jacket and put my boots on, picking up my phone and car keys as I walk out the door. Walking down the stairs down to my car, wearing theses boots to walk down three flights of stairs was not a good idea but beauty is pain what can I say, as I reach my car I slide in the drivers seat trying not to flash any one that's walking by in the process, I shut the door and start the car, pulling out of the car park and driving towards Sammy's flat she doesn't live toor far from me it's a 7 minute drive on a good day and lucky for me it's a good day.
When I find a parking space I pull in and hop out quickly, making my way up to Sammy's flat once I reach her door I knock after a couple of moments waiting I hear nothing on the other side so I knock again and call out too her "Sammy? Are you okay? Open up" still hearing nothing I knock again a little bit louder I soon hear movement coming from behind the door.
As Sammy opens the door I take in her appearance luckily she's dressed and ready to go but she still looks really unwell
"Hey Elle sorry I fell asleep on accident, come in you know where to go" she says while letting out a yawn
I eye her worriedly as I walk through the door and into the living room to take a seat on the sofa, Sammy comes in behind me and sits by the side of me on the sofa, she's wearing a cute black dress that hugs her in all the right places and sone black heels, her hair is sat in natural waves over her shoulder and she's done a very simple makeup and that's how can tell how pale she looks.
"Seriously Sammy? Your obviously not well look at how pale you are, do you have a high temperature?" I ask as I press the back of my hand to her forehead, she does feel quite hot but before I can say anything she backs away from my hand.
"Elle I'm fine I promise I'm still just a little tired from the past week that's all Alex's ridiculous schedule just really did a number on my sleeping pattern, do you want a cuppa? Since we have some time to kill" she asks as she stands up and walks to the kitchen I hate the fact that she keep changing the subject and just putting it off as tiredness I'm just worried she might push herself a bit too much tonight
"Sure yeah that would be great" I sigh in defeat
She makes us our drinks and comes back too sit next to me on the sofa, we end up chatting about how tonight's going to go since we are both rather excited for the up coming event.
Soon enough it's time for us to leave and head to the club to start setting up, we've decided to walk to the club since it's not too far away from Sammy's house and since we have our after performance ritual it would be much easier if I just stayed at Sammy's for the night instead of trying to get home afterwards.
It only takes us just around 10 minutes to walk to the club so it wasn't too bad it was a little cold but that's what you get for wearing nothing but a skirt, sheer top and a leather jacket too keep you warm, once we reach the entrance we give the security guard on the door our names and he lets us in.
As soon as we walk inside there's a lot of people here already drinking, partying and having a good time the interior of the club is quite dark and there's not too much light, very different from the usual clubs we play in. Since this club is very well known for its international DJs I was quite surprised when Alex said we had been booked here, but I am super excited nether the less.
We walk to the back off the club where there is a small stage set up for us Oscar and Alex were already setting up as we walked up to them I'm assuming Alex heard or some cause he turns around to face us
"Wow hello sexy ladies! You both look incredible, if I weren't gay I'm sure I'd be really turned on right now" Alex says jokingly while giving each of us a hug
I laugh at Alex's comment "thanks Al sorry we're a couple minutes late"
"Honestly it's fine I didn't even realise the time myself so don't worry it's all good" he says as he turns back around to finish setting up
"So how long have you guys been here?" Sammy asks as she walks away to her unpacked keys as I do the same with my drum kit
"Around 10 minutes I'd say" Oscar replies
"Ah that's alright then at least you weren't waiting around for us for too long then, are you guys nervous? I feel more excited than nervous if I'm honest" I ask
They all shrug " i mean yeah I'm definitely nervous but I think that if I treat it as something more important than a normal show we do then I'm likely to make myself look like a clown and I'd rather not, so I'm just treating it like our regular shows, nothing is different" Alex says confidently both Oscar and Sammy nod in agreement as do I
"Fair enough" I say simply nodding my head
By the time everything is set up and ready for us to perform we have about 20 minutes until we're due to go on we start at 7:30 then finish at 9:30 so we have a full 2 hour set list waiting for us, our shows only usually last an hour and a half but we're getting paid for two hours so that's why we added a couple extras to the set
I decide to use bathroom before we have to perform since I don't fancy having the sudden urge to take a piss while playing, I've been wondering around the club by myself for the past 10 minutes or so I was with Sammy but she somehow disappeared, Alex is here somewhere with Joe, Joe doesn't come to every show we do but he comes to as many as he can since he's still in school he has a lot of work to do most nights so he tries to get out to see us as often as he can and god knows what Oscar's doing probably attempting to flirt with every female in this club, he really just can't keep it in his pants
I soon see a sign that leads to the toilets, stepping inside I see Sammy's front leaning up against the counter with her hands flat out resting on top of it and her head hung low
"I knew it! I fucking knew it I knew you weren't well why didn't you just tell me all those times I asked if you were okay?" I asked walking towards her I know how I acted wasn't the most sympathetic way of approaching it but again I'm not good with that sort of thing and plus I like proving people wrong and knowing that I'm right
As I approach her she lifts her head to look at me she looks like she's grown even paler than before and there's a small tint of colour under her eyes
"Yeah way to state the obvious thanks for the fucking sympathy Elle" she glares at me I raise my hands in front of me in surrender
"I'm sorry you know I'm not like you know the best at that but seriously Sammy are you really sure you want to perform? You kinda look like you just need to wrap your self up and go in hibernation and come our next week" I say shrugging my shoulders
She lets out a giggle "yeah you know that sound pretty amazing right now but I'm not letting you guys down we've all been so excited for this gig for so long now I'm not going to step away now no way in hell especially when we're supposed to be on in like 10 minutes" she stands up properly to face me "also I'm sorry for snapping like that you were right and I shouldn't have kept it from you, if I'm honest I don't know why I thought keeping it from you was a good idea I guess I was just kind of scared that maybe you guys would cancel the gig because of me and I didn't want to let you down since I know how excited you all were, and your still excited now hell even I feel excited now even though I feel like absolute shit" We both laugh together at her statement
" it's okay I understand why you kept it from us cause I definitely would've told Alex to cancel since I don't you over working yourself but as long as your sure and you want to perform then we'll that's your decision to make" i look at her seriously
"Thanks Elle I'm sure though I'm not letting you guys down we're gonna turn shit up tonight so put on your baddest bitch face and get ready cause we've gotta be out there in like 5 minutes" she says looking at her phone
"Oh shit wait let me go pee first" I rush into the cubicle as I hear her snicker from the outside I quickly finish my business and go wash my hands I dry them off and turn to face Sammy
"Are you ready?" She asks
"as ready as I'll ever be" I say and we walk out of the bathroom together we walk to the back of the stage we're the boys are waiting for us
We do our little good luck chant before we hear our band being introduced, this is it I'm so excited! See here's the thing people get wrong about me they think because I'm shy and awkward when I talk to people that I could never perform in front of a crowd but honestly that isn't that case, when I'm performing I don't have to speak to anyone I don't have to make eye contact with anyone I can just stay in my own little bubble and enjoy the music that I'm playing I don't have to pay attention to anyone else, I used to be afraid to perform in front of people but I've learnt that I don't really need to pay attention to them in order for me too perform so now it's easy peasy to get up on stage and have a good time, however me interacting with people that I don't know still doesn't go down well I still become a nervous awkward stuttering mess it's really awful and quite embarrassing but I'm trying my best to get past it
We walk out on to the stage after being introduced and we get straight into our set with the first song being "Mr Brightside" by The killers I bloody love this song it's incredible and a great way to get the crowd up and dancing, singing along to every word it's amazing to watch people get so lost in the music I absolutely love watching it
Our set runs very smoothly for the rest of the gig, people seemed to really enjoy it which really makes me happy since how much time and effort we put into rehearsal Sammy seems to be doing okay we have two songs which are "Summer of '69" by Brian Adams and then "I gotta feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas I'm so happy we're close to the end of our set because I really need to pee again why is it the one time I need to focus and have no distractions my bladder just decides to be annoying
As soon as we've walked off stage I make a dash to the toilets coming out 5 minutes later feeling much better as I head to the bar to find Sammy I hear my name being called I turn around to see Alex walking towards me
"Hey what's up?" I ask as he comes to a stop in front of me
"Hey uh there's this guy that wants to have a word with you" he says his tone showing he's slightly confused "I'm not sure what he wants but when I came off stage he pulled me aside and asked if he could speak with you"
"Um I'm not sure" I start to become nervous and begin to pick at my nails
"Hey look you don't have to if you don't want to" he says gently while rubbing the top of my arm "I think he just wants to talk to you about the gig nothing major I can go tell him that you don't wanna talk if you'd like me too"
I sigh "no no I'll talk him if I want to put my self out there more then I need to actually do something about It don't i?"
"Well yes your right you do but if you really don't feel comfortable then call me over okay? And I'll sort you out"
"Okay I will thanks Al" l say thankful of his kindness
"Okay well he's just over there come on I'll walk you over" he says as he motions to the opposite side of the bar
As we walk across the bar I notice a guy already looking at us I'm assuming that's him then, I look down at me feet nervously as we walk until Alex comes to a stop as do I, I slowly lift my head too see a guy older than both me and Alex
"Well here she is" Alex says to the guy Alex leans down and whispers "I'll be watching the whole time I'll only be a couple of feet away alright?" I give him a slight nod he pats me on the shoulder and walks away
The guy takes a step forward and extends his hand out "hi it's nice too meet you I'm Jon, Jon Shone"
I reluctantly reach out to shake his his hand "H-hi I'm uh I'm Eliza it's nice too meet you too" I stutter out I curse myself for looking like a nervous wreck in front of him
"I saw your whole gig and may I just say you guys were insane absolutely amazing I loved the whole thing" he says kindly
"Thank you" I breathe out
"I wanted to talk to you because I have a proposition for you"
"Okay?" I asked confused
"I'm a musical director and I'm currently working with a rather famous band, our drummer unfortunately had to part with us due to some personal issues so after seeing your performance and watching you play I wanted to ask you if you'd like to do a trial run with us and the band to see if you'd want to work with us full time" he explains
"Oh um I'm sorry but may I ask who this band is?" I ask timidly
"Oh yeah of course" he says reassuringly "It's One Direction"
What the fuck?
Hello my dudes I hope you enjoyed this chapter we are starting to get in to the juicy stuff now which is exciting! I'm really enjoying writing this story right now gives me something to do when I'm not doing school work but I really hope your enjoying it so far!
I apologise for any typos!
My Twitter: only_angelx28
I hope your having a lovely day where ever you are with whatever your doing,
And I'll see you in the next one my dudes :)
All the love,
-G