A/N: Like I said, this is a different type of writing for me, so I really want some suggestions and comments before continuing any further. I apologize for typos. And the concert scene in this was written after the actual show in the London Arena this year, so I hope it was good:)
Vote if you are so proud of those five boys:)
Chapter 2:
"Are you ready now?" Tori asked as she walked into the bedroom, glancing down on me where I lay on the bed. I had quickly dressed in a blouse and printed pants, then decided to spend the rest of the hour until the concert writing on my laptop. I was working on the sequel to my book that had been published a year ago, and was almost through with it. I loved writing, and spent as much of my day as possible doing it. Although my previous book had not yet gotten much fame, the company I had signed to write for promised that it would be a success soon.
"Are you writing?" My friend asked. I looked up to see her reading over my shoulder, dressed in a cute sundress and jean jacket. Her blonde hair was curled down her back, and her light dusting of makeup showed off her natural beauty. "It looks good." she said.
"Thanks." I shut my laptop and hopped off the bed, not really wanting to talk about my book. I liked keeping it a secret. "Is it time for me to head to my death yet?"
"No, just the Torturitorium.." she giggled and I gave her an odd look, not understanding the inside joke. "Nevermind." she rolld her eyes and grabbed my wrist, dragging me from the room and out to the cab waiting in front of her house.
Sadly, it was not a long drive to the theater, placed directly in the middle of London, but it did take a full half hour for us to reach the entrance, as the traffic was dreadful. As we waited to enter in the long line of other teenage girls, Tori's excitement began to effect me.
"I can't believe this, Del. We are abou to see them...live!" she screamed in my ear. I did not understand what the big deal with One Direction was, but I was definitely pumped for the concert. The thumping of the bass shook us from even where we stood, and lights collided in different colors in the room ahead. Hundreds of girls around me were crying, and hyperventilating as I expected they would, but it is was the normal, anxious girls around me that made me wonder if you did not have to be a freak to love them.
"Yea," I yelled back to Tori. "This is actually pretty cool." My words were lost in the noise as the line moved and we were finally able to enter the theater, crowded full of more people than I had ever seen in my life. It was hot, loud, and extremely exhilirating being in a huge room of so much excitement. We found our seats, which were to the left of the stage, and we actually had a pretty good view. I was able to see everything on the stage, including a large screen and a staircase? No one else found it strange at all as Tori and I were slowly surrounded by girls in One Direction t-shirts, carrying posters with phrases such as, "Marry me, 1D" and "Louis, I love your bum."
"D-Delia...i-it's starting." Tori muttered, her eyes glazing over as the lights died down, and a deafening silence fell over the crowd. A video began above stage, on a huge screen. It introuduced each one of them, in a playful style that made my heart start to pump like I was a fangirl. Dramatic music began to play, causing the suspense to rise more and more in the arena.
"London, England," said a voice over the speakers. "I would like to introduce to you the biggest boyband in the world...Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Zayn Malik...I give you One Direction." Five boys appeared on the stage, holding microphones, dressed in what could only be described as hipster clothing. Sparks like red fire exploded from the front of the stage as high-pitched screams filled the air, screaming their love for the boys.
"Helloooo, London!" said one of them. From the name chanted around the theater I guessed his name was Liam. I felt embarrased for a second that I had always called him Harry. To be truthful, I had called them all Harry, since his was the only name I ever heard.
Soon enough, the deep bass began again, thumping through my body like a second heartbeat. I had never been to a concert before, and I was strangely glad this was my first. Ha, One Direction was my first...
"It feels like we've been living in fast forward,
Another moment passing by
The party's ending but it's now or never
Nobody's going home tonight."
The entire place erupted into singing the lyrics along with the boys, including Tori.
"This isn't What Makes You Beautiful?" I questioned into her ear.
"Well, duh," she said, laughing. "That was the first single."
"You mean they have other songs?" She ignored me as the song reached its bridge, and my attention went back to the stage. The boys did not dance or stand by each other as they sang, but rather skipped and played around on the stage as they sang, sometimes stopping to mess with one another. I had expected sychronized dance moves, and cheap boy band poses, but was instead faced with real fun on stage, like they were actual teenage boys. I quickly admired that about their performance.
They sang three more songs, stopping in between to thank everyone and say how much they appreciated their support. I quickly became entrance by every song, loving their harmonization, and their heavenly voices. Just watching them on stage, singing with so much passion and vigor, I became intoxicated by their voices, and hypnotized by their movements. I felt like an actual fangirl.
After a stage change the boys came back on, and the blonde one, Niall I remembered, spoke to the crowd. "So now it is time for the most important part of a One Direction concert...Twitter!" I watched them stand on the tiny stage created in the middle of the audience. Harry began scanning the crowd near us, and Tori grabbed my wrist and began waving our arms wildly. With a chuckle into the microphone, Harry returned the wave, causing Tori to scream a noise louder than I thought a human could possibly make.
Niall answered the first question about his guitar, as Liam, for some odd reason began singing the theme song for Batman. After a "technical difficulty" they answered a question about Disney movies and found the Tweeter out in the crowd, followed by one about food, where they had a problem spotting out Row S, finally settling that it did not exist.
"It looks like they have to use the Lou." said Tori in my ear and I burst out laughing at how true that statement was. They could not quit moving around the small platform, and spent much of the time bumping into one another.
"No kidding." I responded with a grin.
The rest of the concert was spent watching them sing and play around on the stage, dancing to the upbeat songs and swaying to the slower ones. I had thought that this would be the most dreadful experience of my life, and would hate Tori afterwards, but I was truly enjoying this, especially since I was spending it with a close friend. Even more surprising than that, not only did I love the concert, but I seriously loved those boys. I would never admit that, though.
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*Louis' P.O.V.*
"That was g-g-great!' I cheered as we ran off the stage after the final performance. My head was buzzing with the music and electricity flowing throughout the whole building. I grabbed my side as I took deep gulps of air to catch my breath, enjoying those few seconds when I come off stage and I still can not believe how amazing that feeling is. I am so lucky for this to be my job, and to finally be on tour again.
"You got that right." agreed Liam, patting my shoulder. "Nice solos tonight, Lou."
"I know," I snorted, but winked at him. It always meant a lot when the other boys commented on my singing, since I got a bit self-conscious when it came to that. It's not that I thought I was a horrible singer, just that hearing the voices of my best mates always impressed me, and then mine would come out sounding totally odd compared to theirs.
A large weight fell on my back and gripped my neck hard, legs wrapped tightly around my waist. "Give me a ride, now!" demanded Harry from behind me, kicking my side like a horse.
"Hazza!" I yelled loudly, making the backstage assistants stare at us, but I never minded attention. "I'm so tired. I can't move, mate."
Zayn, the Bradford Bad Boy that he is, swaggered up to us, wiping the sweat off his brow. "Don't take no for an answer, Harry." he said and slapped his bum. Shrugging my shoulders, I took off through the sound equipment and mist machines and down a hallway to our dressing rooms, the other boys close behind.
Everytime we passed the workers that were able to make this all happen we yelled in harmony, "Massive thanks to your hardwork." They grinned and laughed as we passed in a rush of excitement we needed to blow off.
Harry yelled at the top of his lungs from my back, "And the first concert of the tour is a success!"
We laughed as Niall pushed open the door to our dressing room, revealing it to be filled with security, management, and a very weary-looking Paul.
"It certaintly was." said the director of Modest management. "But we have another issue to discuss. I am sure you have seen those tweets." It was a vague statement, but we all understood, and slowly I let Harry drop off my back, knowing how much they hated any shows of affection between us. We nodded dejectedly, remembering the tweets we had read before the concert, sporting the battle cry Death to 1D. I had tried to push it into the back of my mind, and forget about it, because I knew there were always going to be people out there that hated us, but now it has come up again and it makes me shudder. There have never been death threats like this before.
"We saw them, yes." Liam answered, being the only one brave enough to speak.
The man in front of us nodded, and motioned for us to take a seat in our own chairs. "Yes, yes. And I do believe it to be an issue. We can not let this continue any further. Those tweets have been deleted, but more will come and it will grab the paparazzi's attention for sure. If people are making threats to One Direction, that means your hate is spreading, and that means people will stop listening to your music and stop buying merc-"
Paul jerked forward, his huge size visibly fuming at the man from Modest, though he seemed entirely unaffected by Paul's display of anger. "That is not the problem here!" he began loudly, causing me to flinch back in surprise. "These boys' lives may be in danger and you only care about the money? We have to protect them first."
"Oh, but dear Paul." returned the man calmly. "If you truly felt they were in danger then why did you let them go out there tonight and sing, completely vulnerable in front of thousands of people?"
Paul's eyes flickered to each one of us individually as he tried to form words, but he finally slumped in defeat and backed up to the far wall.
"That's what I thought." The man, tall and gray-haired, tsked at our Irish security manager. "Now as I was saying. To stop all this hate, I believe we need to find a new way to grab people's attention. To make them see that One Direction is still the freshest band out there. I am not sure what I am going to do yet, but be prepared for something big and unexpected."
"How you can you prepare for something you can not expect?" said Niall curiously, then closed his mouth when he realized he had spoken aloud.
The man in front of us glared down at Niall with venom. I felt him shake beside me, and I slipped a hand between us to lightly tap his lower back, assuring him we were still here. " Just be ready for something big." he hissed. "Or I will have to find the next best thing elsewhere." Leaving us chilled by the open threat, he and his band of assisstants exited our dressing rooms. Now the room seemed smaller, as if it were slowly contracting into us, until we would be trapped in its grip forever.
I realized I had not taken a breath since we walked in when Zayn whacked my back, reminding me to fill my lungs. "Alright there, mate?"
"Yea, just fine." I whispered softly. All the boys were staring at me, waiting for me to make a joke that would make this situation easier, or lighten the mood. That was always what they wanted me for, a good laugh from some random antic I come up with. At the moment, nothing came to me, nothing not even a single word to say. I knew I was letting my friends down by staying quiet, but they can not expect me to always be the positive one, or the clown of the band. I was getting older, and it was stupid to depend on me, anyway.
Realizing my stupor, Harry leapt to his feet, arms spread wide. "Well, come on lads, let's get this gunk off our faces and take one more round around the stage."
"No time, Harry." said Paul, who I realized was still in the room. "We need to get you back to the hotel before anything happens..." he trailed off, but it was obvious he believed we were in danger.
I did, too, for that matter.
Paul led us to the back exit, where a large group of security guards were prepared to take us to the van. When we reached the door, my heart stopped. That could not be...no...
"Is that...people? Fans?" Niall asked. It already looked like he was sweating bullets. Liam put an arm around his shoulder to comfort him, but Niall only began to shake.
"It is." said Paul, referring to what we were all hearing. "But I wouldn't call them all fans, son. Half are some pretty insane fans, breaking through the line of security to get to you. The other half are.."
He did not have to finish the sentence, neither did I want him to. We could clearly hear the chanting through the wall.
"Death to 1D!"
"Death to 1D!"
I watched Harry bring his hands to his face, trying to hide his emotions. I wrapped an arm around him, knowing exactly what was going through his head. We understood that some people did not like us, but what had we done to make them hate us with such an extreme? I knew that Harry was blaming himself for all of it, and I could not accept that my best friend was so upset over something he could not control.
"Don't, Haz." I whispered in his ear. He leaned into me to hear, like usual. "Don't you dare blame yourself." He looked up at me with watery eyes, shining with quick forming tears.
"But, Lou, I should have-"
"No." I said sternly. "You have done nothing wrong, you have been perfect." Harry wrapped his arms around me, letting silent tears ruin my shirt, as the chanting turned into yelling. Zayn stood behind me, watching the ground, continuosly running his hand through his quiff. He would not let us know how much this bothered him until much later, when he felt he could talk about it. Liam and Niall stood side by side, heads hung together, whispering something inaudibly. I wanted to help everyone, help them understand this is not our fault, but how could I? I felt like it had to be our doing, or at least mine, and I could do nothing to help my fellow bandmates when I felt so lame and down.
"Boys, I know this is hard, but we need to get you in that van now." Paul said kindly.
"In dat van?" Niall questioned, pointing outside. "De one surrounded by people who want us dead? I'm not going through dat." His accent became thicker as he spoke, as it did when he was scared.
" Well, I guess you have two options then." Paul shrugged. He opened the door slowly, letting the sounds from outside grow stronger, until they seemed to fill my entire mind and body, like they would never leave. "Stay here until they break in." I felt Harry shudder against me. "Or take the risk and get out while you can."
Liam and I met eyes to converse silently, seeing how the other boys were too overcome to consider anything. I was the oldest and he was "Daddy Direction", we had to make the choice. Liam silently told me to say what was on my mind, knowing exactly what it was.
I took a deep breath. "I've never hestitated to take a risk before."
A/N: Hmm, suspenseful much? Sure hope so! Please remember to comment, I really need it! And please vote and fan if you like it, which I hope you do:) Did you like the Larry moment?
Teaser: Delia and the boys meet! And it is all downhill from there;)
Update will be soon!
Much love
-Lisle