Chapter 25
"You boys ready for this?" I asked, smiling proudly. "It's your sixth biggest concert of the year."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Aren't all of our concerts big?" he pointed out.
"So?" I retorted. "Your point?"
I went up to him and straightened his bow tie. "You nervous?" I asked.
"Nope," he replied confidently. "This'll be a piece of cake."
I moved on to Louis. "Excited?" I asked, getting up in his face. He took a step back. "Yes," he replied. "But a little nervous too."
"You'll be fine," I encouraged him and went up to Niall next.
"Niall!" I gasped. "Were you eating Nando's with ketchup again? I told you you're supposed to eat it with barbecue sauce!"
"BBQ sauce," Liam agreed.
"Whipped cream!" Niall protested.
"Ketchup!" Louis argued.
"Mayonnaise," Zayn piped up.
"Mustard," Harry chirped.
"Shut up!" I ordered and they quieted down. "Who cares," I sighed. "You've still got something on your shirt."
Niall and I both rubbed at it, but that only seemed to make it worse. "Stop it!" Zayn said, slapping our hands away. "Chill, Lily, it's not like anyone will notice." I pouted slightly but I obeyed him anyway.
"What about you?" I asked Zayn. "Excited, nervous, or all of the above?"
"All of the above," he replied. "But hey, who isn't?"
"Me!" Harry said.
"Liar," Zayn retorted. Harry didn't bother defending himself.
I finished with Liam. I ran my hands through his fuzzy hair like I had all those days ago, back in the beginning.
"How are you?" I asked sweetly.
He sighed. "Could be better," he said. "I'm blaming it on you."
I frowned. "Why?" I asked in a complaining tone.
"You're keeping me stressed out," he explained. "You are driving me crazy with all of your pranks and friendships and whatever! But I love you anyway." He pinched my cheek playfully. I pried his hand away and gave him a half-smile. "I'm sorry about that," I said admittedly. "And I love you too." We embraced briefly.
I backed up a step and grinned at the boys. "Alrighty!" I said loudly, clapping my hands together. "Go out there and make me proud, boys!"
Starting with Liam and ending with Harry, they raced out. Oddly, they each pecked my cheek on the way. Weird, but okay then.
I leaned against the backstage wall, still grinning. I clapped my hands along with the rest of the fangirls as they cheered for them. They started out with "Up All Night", which was like their theme song other than WMYB. I rocked out by myself in the shadows.
They continued to sing and hop around onstage, and my heart longed to join them. But I had to stay where I was. I had already caused Liam so much trouble already, why should I add to his plate?
After a while, they brought up the tweets fans often sent them. I grinned evilly and pulled out my own phone.
"My weirdest dream?" Louis mused. "Um, I think I was at a coffee shop and a large lobster came crashing in--"
"Okay!" Harry shouted, cutting Louis off as the fans laughed. "Mine was the usual: kissing a pretty girl."
"Average!" Niall laughed.
"Here comes another tweet," Liam said. It came up onscreen, and I covered my mouth with my hand to keep from laughing too hard. The other boys started cracking up while Liam looked stricken. It was obviously mine. It said: "GET SINGING YOU BASTARDS!!" Quite like that.
"From @1Dee_Lily," Liam said, not reading the tweet out loud. The fans in the crowd that knew me started screaming, and I started blowing kisses, even though I knew they couldn't see me.
"She's backstage...."
That only made the boys and I laugh harder. "Delilah!" Liam yelled and I smiled at him, waving prettily.
"You heard the girl!" Louis cried. "Let's get back on track."
Liam must be super pissed: I tweeted him, I used a bad word, he yelled at me, AND I had a Twitter account, something he had not known about yet. I guess I just did add to his plate after all. Oops.
Near the end of the concert, the boys gathered together into a little huddle. I gave their backs an odd look, and I knew the fangirls below were pretty confused too. What were they up to?
After a minute or two they separated. "Okay," Niall said into his microphone. "We've decided to add one more song into our concert. How's that?"
The fans screamed in delight and agreement, and I found myself joining them. I clamped my mouth shut.
"This song is for a special lady," Harry said, grinning and winking.
Immediately the girls started looking around, probably wondering who he was talking about. I know I was. I felt a pang of some kind of weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. He had a special lady?
Of course he does! the rational part of my brain snapped. He's Harry Styles, girl! He's bound to have a special lady! Besides, why do you care?
I don't know....
The familiar tune of "Another World" began to play, and I squealed excitedly, jumping up and down. Screw "One Thing"! This song was my drug!
As they started singing, I started to dance again. I probably looked like a spastic idiot, but I didn't care. My love for this song had to come out somehow!
When Niall sang his line, I joined in. "WORDS WILL BE JUST WORDS!!" I hollered. "TILL YOU BRING THEM TO LIIIIIIIIIIIIFE!!" Gosh, I loved that part!
Then Harry was singing next, and I looked up. I loved his voice: it could go on for so long, reach amazing heights and plummets, and it was downright heavenly. As those fangirls would say, my ovaries just exploded.
"I'll lift you up, I'll never stop," Harry sang, and I caught him glancing at me. "You know I'll take you to another world. I'll build you up, I'll never stop. You know I'll take you to another world."
He finally looked away when Zayn started singing. I looked away myself, a blush rising to my cheeks. That song was so wrong. But why would Harry seem to be singing to me? What about his "special lady"?
They all stampeded backstage after the show. "Hey, Lily!" they usually greeted me than dived into the showers. I smiled slightly and shook my head.
For some reason, Harry lagged behind. He drained a water bottle. I went up to him a little awkwardly.
"Hey," I said.
"Hey," he replied and continued to drink.
"So...." My voice trailed off. "An extra song, huh?" I asked.
"Yep," he said cheerfully. "I like that song. It's one of my favorites."
I snorted. "Of course it is," I said, putting emphasis into my voice. He smirked, his dimples appearing.
I decided I should just put it out there. "Is there something you're not telling me?" I asked, suspicion in my voice. I relaxed; that came out a lot smoother than I was hoping.
Harry glanced at me. "No, why?" he asked. I stared at him. Dammit, he didn't seem to be lying. But I wasn't giving up yet.
"Oh, it just seemed that you were singing 'Another World' to me," I said nonchalantly. Was it just me, or was he blushing?
"Whaaat?" he exclaimed, drawing out the word. "No, of course not....!" I narrowed my eyes at him. "Alright, alright," he sighed, holding up his hands in surrender. "But I can't tell you why. It's a surprise from Liam."
My eyebrows shot up. "Seriously?" I squeaked excitedly. "What's the surprise?"
"I can't tell you," he chuckled. "But it will all come out soon. I promise." He walked away.
I stared after him thoughtfully, and smirked. Nice recovery. He was totally lying. All I'd been was a little demon to Liam, why would he want to surprise me? Unless it's the adoption papers. Harry was clearly hiding something from me.
My smirked faded into a smile as I remembered all of the events and feelings I'd been getting around him.
And I think I knew what it was.