*Dakota’s POV*
Today was just… wow. First, I never expected to see Louis Tomlinson in a bush, oh and I completely forgot about losing my phone but he just happened to find it, and next… finding Harry Styles in a closet. Now, that was funny. Every time I think about it, I just crack up. Those were the two little memories that I knew I’d never forget, but they totally slipped my mind whenever I saw Pretty Boy slide his hotel key in a door and opened it.
It was apparent that someone was playing a guitar and Kariann and I felt hesitant before following the two boys in. Poor Potato Boy. He had a bad sprain and I was curious of how he was going to explain that to the public…
“I present to you…” Harry started, blocking our view in front of him and the sounds of a guitar stopping, “Angels of Columbus!”
That threw the two of us off. He moved to the side and Louis wobbled a little over, getting out of our way to get a look at the room. I didn’t even care what was in the room, the only thing I could see was the three boys that were together. Niall Horan was on the middle of the couch with a guitar on his lap, Liam Payne was sitting in one of the desk chairs with a paper in hand, and Zayn Malik was sitting on the arm of the couch, relaxing on the back of it.
All three of them smiled, and I wasn’t sure what to do. What was I supposed to do? I was locked in place where I was standing. I had no idea what to do. Niall placed his guitar down and stood, followed by the other two. “Thanks for helping out the guys.” Liam said, being the first to speak, “I guess we should have known better than to send them out for food when there’s a concert tonight.”
“You think?” Naill asked, “Now there’s no food!”
“Chill out, Nialler, we’ll order some pizza.” Harry said, digging out his phone, “I’ll do it. You girl’s hungry?”
I wasn’t sure how to react before Kariann answered, “Definitely. I’m starving.”
Harry looked at me, and I nodded. An arm was flung over my shoulder, as well as Kariann’s. Naill looked between the two of us, smiling. We both couldn’t help it. We grinned back. “Are you okay, Lou?” Liam asked his friend, helping him sit on the bed.
I looked over, seeing Louis nodding, face scrunched up in pain, “Yeah. I think I’ll need a pair of crutches though.”
“What about the concert tonight? Lou can’t be moving around with that sprain…” Zayn said, looking down at his wrapped ankle.
“It’s not like he can’t sing, though.” Harry said, putting his phone back into his pocket. “Do you still want to do the concert, boo?”
Harry took a seat by his friend, wrapping an arm over his shoulder. Lou smiled at his friend, “I’ll be fine, Hazza.”
“How are we going to explain that to the fans?” Niall asked, arm still over my and Kariann’s shoulders.
“I’m not sure…” Liam said, thinking, “We should keep it simple, though. We don’t want to come off as finding the fans annoying or anything…”
“Um… I have an idea.” Kariann spoke up, “Why don’t you say you tripped over some stairs and twisted your ankle in the process.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Naill complimented.
“What about his leg though?” Zayn asked.
“Well,” I spoke up, “you could say you tripped outside the hotel and the steps scratched the side of your leg… or a cat…”
“A cat?” Liam asked.
I shrugged, “When Louis jumped in the bushes we thought it was a cat.”
“Louis being attacked by a cat?” Niall asked, then he started laughing, “Oh, gosh, I can see it.”
Laughter filled the room and my own and Kariann’s were apparent. Louis pouted on the bed, but a smile was seen soon after. We all sat around after that, just talking. I was nervous at first, seeing out Kariann and I were both in the same room with five of the most popular guys in the world, but after a while, I became calm. It was obvious that these boys were normal, just like the two of us. They were close with one another and with the jokes and teasing on each other, it reminded me of Kariann and me when we’re together.
“Hey, since we’re still waiting on the pizza,” Liam said, “Why don’t we sing a song?”
Naill reached over me, where I was sitting by him on the couch and grabbed his guitar. “What song?” Naill asked, ready to play anything.
“Why don’t we let the girl’s choose?” Zayn asked, looking at Kariann, who was sitting back against the arm next to my legs, then to me.
I looked down at Kariann, “What song?”
“Um…” She thought, “Well, I don’t know what songs you know…”
“It can be anything. Even one of our own songs. Pick anything.” Harry said, who was sitting on the bed with Louis.
“Well…” Kariann started, looking up at me.
I bent down to whisper into her ear, “Why not let them sing our recent obsession?”
“Moments?” She whispered back.
I nodded. Kariann looked at the others, “How about Moments? We love that song.”
The boys nodded and Naill was prepared with the first note. And Liam started, “Shut the door…”
At the chorus, all their voices were brought together, “You know I'll be your life, your voice…”
They sung the whole song and hearing their voices live like this… it really was beautiful. It was a rare experience for the both of us. I hugged Kariann’s head and we were singing along with the boys during the chorus. The two of us clapped when they were done. The boys smiled in response. Not a minute after the door knocked. “Woot! Pizza’s here!” Niall exclaimed, throwing his guitar onto my lap and jumped up to get to the door.
I put the guitar against the side of the couch and Niall came walking into the room with five boxes of pizza. It was time to eat and I was hungry. We all got up, helping ourselves to a slice of pizza. At one point, I caught Kariann looking at her phone while chewing on some pizza. “What’s up?” I asked her, looking over her shoulder to see her phone.
“Guess who just texted me?” She asked, looking slightly annoyed and put the phone in her pocket.
“Stewart?” I asked.
Michael Alexander Stewart was her boyfriend. He usually went by Alex, but I call him Stewart because there were only about a million Alex’s in the world and it was the easiest way to keep myself from getting confused. Lately, he’s done nothing but ask if the two of them could hang out. I gave her a look of pity before whispering to her so the others wouldn’t hear, “Don’t let him ruin the fun for you. If he gets too annoying text him back that you’re busy.”
She shook her head, sighing, “It doesn’t matter. I’m just going to text him back later.”
I shrugged, showing that it was her choice. “Hey!” Harry exclaimed, “What’s the hold up? Let’s get this party started!”
“I don’t think watching horror flicks is much of a party.” Liam said to his friend, looking through some of the DVDs they had thrown on the bed.
“What about The Thing? We haven’t seen that yet.” Louis asked, holding up a case.
“I think we should stick to action.” Zayn said, “The girl’s probably don’t like horror movies.”
The two of us scoffed, “What!?”
“Don’t American girls hate horror?” Niall, shoving his umpteenth piece of pizza into his mouth.
“Hell no!” I said, walking over to the bed, “I love them. I don’t know about Kariann. I watch them all the time.”
“Okay, okay.” Harry said, feeling up to a challenge, “Have you seen this?”
He held up The Thing that Louis had before. I nodded, “Twice. Both with Kariann. The second time I actually fell asleep through it.”
Kariann popped up beside me, “Oh, yeah. I remember that movie.”
Now all five of them were fishing through the stacks. They held up multiple movies, Wrong Turn, IT, Saw, etc. It went on for a few minutes until Liam held up a movie called The Fourth Kind. “What about this?” He asked, curious.
Kariann said she’s never seen it. “Don’t you have the movie?” She asked me.
I nodded, “Yeah. I do.”
“So how about it? Did you get scared?” Niall asked, excited to know.
I bit my lower lip. Yes, actually I did. But I blamed the fact that it was supposedly based on a true story. I blame my dad on that one. Because of him saying that, I stayed up half the night, expecting a light to flash outside my window which indicated that you were about to get abducted. “I can see it on her face. She totally did!” Harry said, grinning like an idiot.
I stuck my tongue out at him, “Whatever. Let’s watch this. I haven’t seen this yet.”
I reached down and held up House of Bones. No, I haven’t seen it. And I actually wanted to watch it to. They all gave in and from there we cleared the bed and fit the seven of us on the bed. The bed was huge, so it wasn’t a problem. The fact they had one of the best rooms in the hotel, it gave them a king size bed, so we all fit on it just fine.
I made sure to sit by Kariann. Moral support, I guess. I didn’t know what to expect of this movie. It wasn’t that scary movies scared me, but they did one hell of a job grossing the shit out of me. We watched the movie. I rested my head on Kariann’s shoulder as it started. Always, never failing during a horror movie, I would try to scare Kariann. This movie was pretty intense too, so it wasn’t hard. I’d wait until the movie before I do it though.
Suspense was happening now. And without fail, I grabbed Kariann’s side, making a noise. She screamed for a brief second, smacking my hand off her side. She glared at me and I started laughing. I heard Harry laughing from beside her, since he saw what happened. With a smile plastered on my face, I leaned back against the bed, feeling my arm rest against Liam’s. He was grinning. He must’ve seen what I did.
The guys were pretty cool. That was all I could say. It was going to suck to leave them when Dad would come pick us up. I felt my phone start to vibrate in my pocket and I dreaded the call, since I knew it would be my dad.
Oh, I was wrong. Instead, it was my mother.
I answered the phone as I climbed off the bed to the bathroom so I wouldn’t disturb the movie. “Hello?” I breathed, shutting the door.
“Dakota?”
“Who else would it be?” I asked, tone just slightly sarcastic.
“Well, I don’t want your father answering.”
I looked at myself in the mirror as I spoke to her. I could see it in my face, the annoyance, the disgust. Why I hated my mother so much? Because for the simple fact she didn’t understand. She and my father divorced not six years ago but it didn’t take long for me to find out the truth about her. She was a cheater, a liar, and a narcissist. There were a lot more words to describe her, but I didn’t have my dictionary handy.
“He wouldn’t answer anyways,” I said, rolling my eyes.
I walked over, sitting on the toilet. “Why?” I continued, “What did you want?”
“I was wondering when you would come up? I haven’t seen you since before school let out.”
It’s been well over a month and a half ago since I’ve last seen her. “I don’t know,” was the only answer I could give her, because it was true. I really didn’t know.
I could hear the annoyed sigh through the phone, “I don’t get why you always wait so long until you see me. You barely call and I worry about you all the time. Ever since you’ve gotten a boyfriend you never come over…”
Huh? “We broke up, like, a month ago.”
“What!? How come I wasn’t told this?”
“It was never brought up,” I said, “Plus, I haven’t seen you since then.”
“Oh, Dakota, I seriously don’t know about you sometimes. What about school, you haven’t told me your grades since school let out.”
I shook my head, what the hell? “I already told you. As and Bs. If you’re so worried about me, I’m doing great. In fact, I’m in Columbus with Kariann and Dad. We’re going to a concert tonight. You don’t need to worry for the simple fact there is no point. Dad is taking care of me just fine. In fact-“
A knock was heard on the door. Oh shit, I almost spilled the beans about being in a hotel room with five guys who she probably doesn’t even know exist. Good thing that knock interrupted me. “I’ll talk to you later, Mom. I’m busy.”
“Fine. Whatever.”
Not even a bye or a “I love you” from her. Even if I hated how my mother way, I did love her. I made sure to say it. She hung up on me and I stuck my phone in my pocket, glad to be off. I opened the door, seeing Niall about to pee himself. I let him through and he ran in, shutting the door quickly. I shook my head and was getting ready to go back until I almost ran into Liam.
“You okay?” He asked, concern apparent on his face.
I nodded, “Yeah. It was just my mom.”
“You look annoyed. Are you sure everything is fine?”
I looked up at him and smiled, “It’s really okay. It’s normal actually. Are you waiting on Niall?”
Liam blinked, looking at the door. He looked down at me, “No. I was concerned about you. You was in there for a while. I thought you got into some trouble with your father.”
Oh, so he really was worried. I smiled, “It really is okay. Let’s go watch the movie.”
I brushed past him and back into the room. I crawled up beside Kariann. “Was it your mom?” She asked, knowing full well who called from my expression.
I nodded and the bed creased under Liam’s weight as he sat down next to me. Kariann hugged my arm, laying her head on my shoulder, “Sorry.”
I watched the movie silently, losing interest in it. It always happened. Every time I talk to my mother, I start to think. It’s always that one question: why? It was always her. I had no control over it though. I just had to go with the flow. That was all I could do. I had to accept what has ever happened and prepare for what she will do next in the future. Every mistake, every problem she creates. I had no choice.
For a moment, because of her, I even forgot about the five boys that were in the room with me.
I think it was Niall’s stench from the bathroom that made reality hit back.