‘I’m going to miss you Tessa! Call me and text me whenever you can, okay?’ Eleanor requested, throwing her arms around me once again. The girls had been with us for 10 days, touring along with the boys but it was time for them to go, management was strict and didn’t allow the boys to be distracted. Dani had left a little earlier this week because she had some shows in which she was performing, as did Perrie leaving Eleanor the only girlfriend left.
‘Hey, neglected boyfriend standing over here!’ Louis chimed in, earning a playful smack from Eleanor. ‘It’s not like I won’t see your pretty face on TV or internet everyday right, Boo Bear?’ she teased, kissing him on the cheek. ‘Don’t call me that.’ Louis scoffed, pulling her into his arms, tickling her sides. ‘Okay, stop acting all lovey dovey and say goodbye. We have to go guys, come on. I hope to see you soon Eleanor.’ Paul interrupted, smiling at Eleanor before taking off. I followed Paul after I waved at Eleanor once more, my happy, cheerful façade slowly crumbling and making room for my tiredness. For the first time ever I was happy to know we had a long journey ahead of us, the thought of a catching up on a few hours of sleep and not be surrounded by three very cheerful, bubbly girls.
The traffic was insane, with all the fans that were lined along the streets screaming for their ‘future husbands’. They had caused us a lot of delay so the boys now had to hurry to their interview in Dublin. While they were being interviewed by some radio station I decided to wait for them outside, at the back entrance where no fans could come of course.
The wind toyed with my hair, blowing it all over the place while the fresh air filled my lungs and made my head a little bit clearer. It was quite late already but Dublin was full of life. The sound of cars honking and rushing by was all around me, making me miss home a little less. I had just called my sister, knowing my parents would be fast asleep already, and hearing her voice and stories about school made me realize how much I actually missed home.
I was snapped out of my trance when I felt a large drop of water landing on my head. I looked up at the sky, dark clouds were gathering; it was probably going to rain very soon.
‘Hey.’
I turned my head to the side, as Zayn walked towards me.
‘H-hey yourself. Ready to go?’
He shook his head while searching for something in his pockets. ‘Nah, needed a smoke.’
I nodded, looking up at the sky once again. ‘Do you mind if I do?’ Zayn suddenly asked, a lot quieter than before. ‘’Course not, go ahead.’ I said, silence falling over us.
‘So, I wanted t-‘ he was cut short by a drop of water hitting the tip of his nose. He went a little cross eyed looking at the small drop, making me chuckle as he wiped it off.
We both looked up at the sky as more and more raindrops had started to fall on us. A rational person, like me, would run for cover but suddenly I didn’t feel so rational anymore and I felt the sudden urge to dance in the rain and let go. Zayn thought otherwise, he pulled me to a small dry spot, making us standing chest to chest and we were still getting wet actually, Zayn was taking up way too much space.
‘What’s the point of staying here?’ I asked him, ‘Come on, we’re still getting wet!’ I yelled over the pouring rain.
I soon grew tired of standing under the small covering, so I decided: what the heck! And I just stepped out in the rain. The rain had worsened by now, it had gone from a light drizzle to a full on rain storm.
I twirled around in the gray cement, feeling the droplets of water hitting my face. I didn’t care about getting wet, my clothes were already soaked, in life you had to step out of your comfort zone, do something you’ve never did before and that was exactly what I was doing now. I felt like flying, just twirling around in a little circle.
‘What are you doing?’Zayn cried, still hiding from the rain.
‘What do you think I’m doing? I’m dancing in the rain!’ I yelled, stepping closer to him and grabbing his hand.
‘No, Tessa! Don’t!’ Zayn whined when he realized what I was doing but I had already pulled him into the pouring rain, soaking his clothes immediately.
‘Come on Zayn! Dance with me. Sing!’ I grabbed his other hand and started dancing with him, well that meant I was making a fool out of myself while Zayn looked like he was about to cry. Niall had told me about Zayn’s dancing issues and I’d noticed how shy Zayn could be out in the public.
I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the worst. If Zayn was too stubborn to make a fool out of himself, I’d do it for him. I hadn’t had time to listen to all of their songs, but I had listened to their first album, liking one song in particular.
‘I’ve tried playing it cool, but when I’m looking I can’t ever be brave, cause you make my heart race!’ I sang while trying my best not to sound like a dying bird. By now all my clothes were sticking to my body and my hair was all over the place but I felt free too, relieved. Zayn’s face lit up and he seemed to swallow something away when he started dancing with me.
‘You call that dancing Zayn?’ I yelled, making even crazier movements. ‘That’s not all you’ve got, come on!’ That did it for Zayn, he grabbed my hands but he didn’t enter my personal space but just enough for us to dance properly. Zayn twirled me around, but he still wasn’t singing, so I did it for him hoping it would do the trick. ‘Shot me out of the sky, you’re my kryptonite. You keep making me weak, frozen and can’t breathe.’
‘Some things gotta get loud, cause if not, they just don’t make you see,’ He finally sang with a voice that would make angels jealous probably. ‘Cause you’ve got that, ONE THING!’ We sang, well Zayn sang and I simply yelled but it worked, Zayn was smiling like he did when he was around Perrie, this wasn’t the tired, sad smile I had seen on his face for the last couple of weeks.
‘So get out, get out, get out of my head and fall into my arms instead!’ We were suddenly enveloped by two pairs of arms and I immediately recognized Louis’ and Niall’s voices. ‘You’re crazy!’ Louis said, instead of looking for shelter again he danced around with us, twirling around with Niall. ‘We know!’ I grinned, winking at Zayn. I then noticed Liam running towards us too while Harry was standing in the dry spot, filming us all with a cheeky smile on his face.
‘Can I borrow her for a minute Zayn?’ Liam asked while holding out his hand. Zayn courtly bowed and handed my hand over to Liam’s, joining Niall and Louis in their ‘special dance’.
‘Sure you can Liam.’ I answered, smiling brightly at him. We danced and joked around for a few minutes before Niall tackled him to the ground so that Louis could lift me over his shoulders. ‘Louis William Tomlinson, if you don’t let me go this second I’ll.. I’ll-‘ ‘Yeah yeah, keep talking. It’s time for a dance of!’ He interrupted my futile thread.
So, we can now all say for sure that I’m the worst dancer out there. I was so glad Dani had already left, she’d probably kick my ass just for sucking this much at dancing, but hey; the boys weren’t really the best dancers out there either.
‘You call that dancing?’ I stopped spinning and glared at Harry who had joined us in the rain.
‘Oh, like you would know!’
‘I would! I’m the dance master after all!’ I scoffed at him, pssh dance master.
‘Well, if you think you’re that good why don’t you show me how a dance master does it!’
‘Are we ready boys?’ Harry asked the others who were nodding eagerly, even Zayn. ‘Don’t be too overwhelmed by our sexiness.’ Louis sassed before counting down.
The first few seconds they were doing some weird elbow move while moving side to side. I looked at them incredulously, what are they doing? ‘What are you doing?’ I asked, barely containing my laughter.
‘Our infamous ‘inbetweeners dance’ of course!’ Harry stated, the idiot..
Afterwards they went through a range of dances I recognized from their concerts, from the sprinkler to stop the traffic. By the end of it, I was laughing so hard that my sides felt like they were on fire and my jaw sore. ‘Y-yeah, you were right, you are the dance master.’
‘Guys! We’ve been looking all over for you, we have to leave now. And o my god, why are you so wet?’ Paul exclaimed, gasping for air in the doorway. He held up a hand to stop Louis from answering. ‘Never mind, I don’t even want to know. Get to the bus, we’re going to the hotel.’ Was all he said before Paul disappeared again, probably making sure no crazy fan girls could get to the boys.
Louis and Zayn didn’t feel like leaving so they just ran away from us, but soon enough Niall and Liam had caught up to them and were now dragging them back to the entrance like they were 5.
Harry and I looked at each other shaking our heads, smiling. Harry bowed down and grabbed his, dry, jacket of the ground before turning around to face me. ‘Here take this, dancing queen.´ He smirked and I gratefully put on his leather jacket which warmed me up a little. ´Yeah, you betcha I´m the dancing queen.´ I joked. ´Young and sweet, only seventeen.´ Harry softly hummed, bumping his hips against mine, well that means his hips reached my waist, seeing as I was that much shorter than him. ´Ugh, get lost Harold, you´re bruising me.´ He simply laughed at my scold then raced away to jump on Liam´s back, almost knocking the both of them to the ground.
So much for a little quiet time.
****
I´m awoken from my very much needed, very beloved sleep by the shrill ringing of my cell phone on my nightstand. I moan and pick up the phone, it better be none of the boys or I´ll kill them very slowly. The only time I could really catch up on some sleep was when we were sleeping in a hotel and those nights are pretty scarce when touring across the country. ´Hello?’ I pathetically choked out.
´Miss Collins, it’s always a pleasure hearing you.’ Suddenly I’m wide awake after hearing that voice also known as Simon Cowell’s. I sneaked a quick glance at the clock, 7 AM?! How in the world is that legal on a Saturday?!
‘Christ.’ I mumbled, holding the phone away from me for a moment while I tried to relax. ‘Good morning mister Cowell.’ I was now hoping for him to tell me to call him Simon, but he didn’t.
‘I’m sure you haven’t had the opportunity to go online this morning so I figured I’d do the honors of telling you.’ His icy voice said, making shivers run down my spine. I sat up a little straighter in bed and tried to control my rapidly beating heart.
‘Online?’ I ask, confused.
‘I take it from your tone you’ve got no clue about what I’m saying, so I’ll explain. Our dear friend, Harry Styles, has the tendency to post everything he can on any type of social media site and I’m afraid you’ve been his last victim.’
My brain couldn’t fully register what Simon was actually saying, socal media? What the hell was he talking about? The only time I was Harry doing something on his phone was- ‘Oh my god!’ I exclaimed, not realizing I was saying it out loud. That little shit!
‘I take it you weren’t aware of Harry’s hobby. But that wasn’t exactly why I called, I wanted to give you a heads up about the situation. Obviously the fans have seen the video, even your mum has seen it and I’m sure she’ll call you later this day, but that’s not my point, the point is.. The fans loved it. They love you..’ Simon explained, staying silent for a moment to help me letting it all sink in.
So millions of people have seen a video, which I hadn’t even seen myself, and decided they liked me? All because of one video? And where did Harry get the idea from that it was okay to post it without asking me or the other boys first? My head was exploding by all this information already and the sun wasn’t even fully risen yet.
‘S-so? What does that mean?’ I asked after a few minutes with an unsteady voice.
‘It means you’re popular Tessa. The fans, the media want to see more of you, the girl who brought back the smile on Zayn’s face and not only that but they think you brought the ‘boys from the stairs’ back.’ Popular? More of me? The boys from the stairs? What kind of stuff is this dude taking so early?
‘Boys from the stairs? They want to see more of me? Because of one video? Which, may I add, I haven’t even seen.’
‘Long story short, at the beginning of their career the boys filmed their video diaries for X-factor on some stairs, keeping the fans updated all the time, nothing scheduled by management or anything. I’m surprised you didn’t know. Yes they do and I do too. I was right hiring you, the only downside for you is now that you’re going to be followed by paparazzi all the time presumably. I’ll give Paul a call about that so do not worry about it and the second thing is, I want to see more. More of the boys and more of you, Harry hasn’t been linked to another woman since you’ve arrived,’ That’s because he keeps annoying the crap out of me with his stupid pranks, I added silently.
‘They all smile a bit more and look less tired, so keep doing with you’re doing. We’ll talk soon, but maybe you should make a twitter account. You know what, you must. It’ll keep the fans happy and you can update them with One Direction’s shenanigans.’ He sounded so pleased with himself, like he figured out how to brush your teeth without drooling. What? Oh right, I’m the only one who isn’t capable of brushing my teeth normally, thank you very much.
‘O-kay, I’ll do that then..’ I mumbled, interrupting Simon’s rambling. ‘Fabulous! If you’ll excuse me, I have to go on and take care of some business. I’m expecting your very first tweet sometime later today. Goodbye!’ The beeping sound in my ear told me Simon was gone and did Simon Cowell seriously say fabulous? Well no time for thinking about that, I was way too furious.
I quickly changed in some yoga pants and stormed out of my hotel room, taking three big steps before I stood in front of Harry´s room. With my hands held into fist I banged at the door so hard the whole floor would probably wake up, but I couldn´t care less this time. ´Open up, you little shit! I know you´re in there!´ I yelled, pounding my fists even harder on the door.
I may not seem like, or act, like it but I can be a very violent person. Silent waters run deep right? Well I’m definitely running deep on violence, sorry. So when the door was finally opened I was surprised to actually see mister Styles himself behind it, with a very guilty look may I add. ‘H-hey, what’s up Tessa? Nice to see you this early, looking all glowing and beautiful.’ Harry tried, stumbling backwards when I pushed him out of the way to get into the room.
He was sharing his room with Niall who was looking like he had just woken up, which I bet he did, seeing his hair was all over the place and he looked very sleepy. ‘’Morning Tess, what’s up?’
‘What’s up? What’s up?’ I hissed, paying no attention to Niall. ‘I was woken up by a call from a certain someone,’ I started, Harry eyeing me carefully. I had noticed how my stuttering would completely disappear whenever I got angry, that´s probably the only positive thing about me being angry.
‘Simon Cowell called me this morning, telling me how a certain video posted by a certain person has gone viral. And now all your fans know of my existence and they’re going to kill me in my sleep and they want to see more of me! Me?!’
Niall actually found this pretty funny and couldn’t stop laughing, yep that’s Niall Horan for you, the leprechaun who thinks everything is funny. But that’s also the reason why I find him so unbelievably adorable.
‘Oh-kay.. So that’s good right?’ Harry asked cautiously. He was ruffling his hair, his classic move, what meant he was nervous.
‘Good?! You think that’s good?! Have you seen me? I´m not the kind of person that should be on the internet.´ My voice faltered at bit at the end, my anger slowly subsiding.
Harry’s face changed rapidly when he noticed my change in mood and he visibly relaxed. ‘’I’m sorry Tessa, I really didn’t think much of it when posting it.. It’s just, you and the guys were having so much fun and it was so good to see and..’ I shook my head, shaking all the anger off and took a careful step towards him.
‘Yeah never mind, I´m being so incredibly stupid. Sorry for w-waking you, I’ll meet you guys downstairs later okay? Don’t forget to write something for the jars! Bye now!’ I word vomited before rushing out the door with flaming cheeks. Way to go Tessa!
*****
Walking around in the hotel room with nothing but a big fluffy towel on made me calm down a bit. I knew I had overreacted but the fact that Simon wanted me in the spotlights more made my stomach hurt and my head spin, I could barely act casual with the guys, let alone when there were camera’s around, Paul had always made sure I’d never be seen.
Before I knew it I had wasted 2 hours just lounging around in my room, my head spinning from all the worrying, but I did get the chance to finally talk to my mum, but she didn’t respond the way I had hoped she would.
‘Hello?’
‘Mum, it’s me!’ I said, trying to sound calm,
‘Hi baby! It’s so nice to hear your voice again. I don’t have to ask you how you’re doing right?’ She asked accusingly.
‘W-what do you mean?’ Cue the feigned innocence.
‘You’re popular honey! Don’t you know? Your sister showed us the video, you looked lovely and, oh my, these boys are handsome!’
And that’s how the whole talk went, my mum drooling over the boys and me trying to make her see the bad side of all this, she didn’t see it of course. A sudden knock on my door made my head shoot up immediately.
I wasn’t due to be downstairs for another hour, so I had no idea who could be banging this loudly at my door. Assuming it was most likely Niall wanting to hang out I shut off my laptop and stumbled my way over to the door. I swung it open and took a step back in surprise when my eyes met a familiar pair of green ones.
‘Harry?’ I cried, looking up at him confused. ‘Uh.. Come in.’ I said, opening the door wider and he stepped in with a smile. After I shut the door behind him I stared at him questioningly.
‘Hey Tessa.’ He said cheerfully, sounding nothing like this morning. I raised an eyebrow at him, what was he doing here? Hadn’t he already apologized?
‘Err.. I had some time left after packing and Niall’s gone with Lou and Liam so..’ He began, looking around in my hotel room. I didn’t have to ask what Zayn was doing as he was obviously still in bed.
‘So I called Simon earlier and he explained it a little more.. I thought I could maybe help you with that twitter account..’ I was a bit taken aback as I stood there in my baggy sweats and my hair not fully dry yet.
‘Uh.. I-I don’t know Harry.’ I began, his face fell and he shoved his hands in his pockets. ‘Yeah, you know what you’re right I-‘ He started, putting his hands on the doorknob ready to leave.
‘Hang on,’ I said, putting my palm on the door, stopping him from opening it. Now it was his turn to raising his eyebrow and looking at me confused.
‘Y-you can stay. Just don’t post something stupid okay, I’ll be right back.’ I said and hurried to the bathroom to change into some appropriate clothes while Harry did his thing on my laptop.
‘Okay, so your twittername is @TessC and you already have 800 followers! All we need now is a picture.’ Harry said happily, waiting for me to join him with that. ‘Errr.. Okay. How did they find me?’ I asked, not really understanding the whole ‘follower’ principle.
Harry shrugged, his cheeks turning a bit red. ‘I ehh, maybe tweeted my followers to ehh, follow you?’ He says hesitantly.
I sighed but shook my head afterwards, not wanting to make him feel guilty about it. ‘It’s fine, what about the picture thing? ‘S not like I take pictures of myself all the time.’ Harry smiled at that, showing me his phone.
The phone showed a picture of me from the day before, dancing in the rain. It actually looked kind of cool and not at all like me. ‘Y-You have pictures of me on your phone?’ I asked, my cheeks turning the same color as his. ‘Nope, just this one. Why? Do you want me to?’ He answered with a cheeky smile what made me roll my eyes. ‘No thanks, but yeah that one’s fine. Do your thing.’
Afterwards Harry handed me the laptop back and told me to tweet something and change my bio, so I have been staring at the screen for almost 5 minutes now, not having any idea what to say.
‘Just say hello Tessa, it’s not that hard.’ Harry chuckled. I sighed and typed something in the small ‘tweet’ box.
@TessaC: Hi guys, I’m Tessa and I’ll be updating you on the adventures of your five favorite men.
‘So who’s your favorite?’ Harry asked after reading what I posted. ‘Seriously Harry? I’m not telling you.’ I blushed, looking away from him. I wouldn’t ever admit that he was my favorite. Not because of his looks or his voice, well his voice was a big plus, but because of his humanity, Harry is the youngest but also gets the most hate and the way that affects him makes him human the most, that’s what I think is special.
We sat in silence for a few moments, just looking at my followers rate going up rapidly before Harry spoke, breaking the stillness.
‘Err, Tessa?’ He said, swallowing nervously.
‘Hmm?’I mumbled, fascinated by this twitter thing.
‘I… uh… I just wanted to apologize again for er.. the whole twitter thing before..’ He said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
‘Oh, no don’t apologize. It’s fine, I understand now.’ I said, looking down at my hands, ‘It’s not your fault..’
‘Yeah it is,’ He stammered, ‘I should know better by now.. I guess I just sometimes forget that.. you know..’
‘That you’re a world famous pop star who has girls following and stalking your every move..’ I finished flatly for him.
‘Yeah that..’ He said with a half smile, I half smiled back and turned around, shoving the laptop away.
A ringing noise came from Harry’s pocket suddenly. ‘Er.. excuse me.’ He said, jumping up from the bed to walk around in the room while answering his phone.
I sat awkwardly on the bed, waiting for Harry to finish his phone call.
‘Yeah.. okay! Liam I heard you the first time!... Yeah she’s with me! Alright, we’re leaving right now! Hmmh, bye.’ Harry roughly put his phone back into his pocket and turned around to speak at me.
‘Liam just called-‘ ‘You don’t say.’ I interrupted him with a grin. He looked at me confused before he laughed with me. ‘You’ve been spending way too much time with Louis alright.’ He grinned, pushing my shoulder teasingly. ‘As I was saying, Liam called to let us know that we’re leaving in 5 minutes, so..’
‘Yeah, I’ll meet you downstairs.’ I said, turning around to gather my stuff and my suitcases. Harry was already half way out the door before I called his name, making him turn at me. ‘Thank you,’ I said, making him arch his eyebrows with a full out dimpled smirk.
‘You know, for helping me with this stuff.. I’m not very good with technology.’ I said, vaguely waving my hand.
‘S not a problem, glad I could help. See you downstairs?’
‘Yeah, see you downstairs.’ I watched him walk out the door with a smile, happy I had this little bonding moment with Harry, I’ve had them with the rest of the boys, especially Zayn and Niall but Harry always kept his distance, obnoxiously flirting and that was that. I felt like I could call Harry a friend now, something that made my insides tingle with happiness. ‘Cause that what it was right? Happiness.