One month later
I wish I could say Harry was blown away by my sparkling wit and dazzling personality, but of course he wasn't. He must meet so many people on a daily basis, our little conversation on that balcony must have been out of his mind as soon as he walked away.
It wasn't his choice and I can't say if he'd have picked me anyway. It's one thing to talk to someone you happen to be in the same breathing space as, quite another to employ someone with no qualifications and only a vague sense of social norms to organise your entire career.
Which is why they didn't choose me.
Star rang me a week later to say that I'd kind of, sort of, got the job.
Well, not THE job but a job.
I'm 'part of Harry's team'
I have no idea what this means. It makes him sound like a superhero with a load of minions. So I'm a minion. The littlest runt minion who has even even less of a clue what to do than the rest.
Unsurprisingly, they chose one of the other girls to be his actual PA. Stars friend managed to get me a job though, but I'm yet to find out what it actually is. All I know is that my hours aren't set and they'll call me when they need me.
Which appears to be never.
It's been three weeks and I still haven't heard anything, apart from being called to an extremely boring meeting to sign a load of confidentiality forms and stuff. There was a clause saying that I wasn't allowed to have a relationship with my employer, ie Harry. There's zero chance of that. My closest relationship right now is with the fridge and the couch.
So. I'm still living at Glens. I'm still broke. I have an ambiguous job title and I'm yet to work a single day in my new role.
Still, since I met him I've actually given One Direction a listen.
Actually they're pretty decent. Who knew?
***
The living room door opens Glen walks in clutching a mug of tea. He's wearing an oversized backstreet boys T-shirt and his boxers. Glen has obsessively attached himself to every boyband since the 90s.
"Christ, are you still in bed?"
"It's hardly a bed." I mutter, pulling my duvet up along the couch so he has room to sit down.
"Sorry if the free accommodation isn't up to your standards princess." I roll my eyes and take the tea off him.
"What are you doing today?" I ask the daily question, as if either of us actually do anything on a day to day basis.
"Well... I've got a date."
"What?!"
"Yeah... I'm going for a coffee with this guy-"
"Which guy?"
He pauses.
"I met him on tinder-" He quickly holds up his hand to shush me as I groan. "No, this one seems really sweet, he's-"
"Glen! Remember your last internet date? And the one before that? Oh, and don't forget the guy whos idea of a first date was to take you to a holocaust museum-"
"I know! But honestly, this is the one. I can feel it. I mean, how else am I meant to meet people? You're like the only person I hang around with and much as I love you, the idea of sleeping with you physically repulses me-"
"Well thanks." I mutter.
"No really, the thought of it makes me want to vomit-"
"Ok I get the message."
"It's just gross. I mean the thought of having sex with you-"
"Glen if you want to make it to this date alive you better shut up now."
He opens his mouth to speak before thinking better of it.
"So... This date?" I say eventually.
"Well, his name is Tristan..." I let Glen ramble on excitedly as I watch him.
I might be the most irresponsible person you'll ever meet, but I do care about Glen. Behind all the sarcastic comments he has a heart of gold. The minute he'd heard Tyler had kicked me out he refused to even think about letting me stay anywhere else. He just desperately wants to be loved, and makes some really shitty decisions in men to get that.
He changes about a million times before settling on his outfit. Once he's finally gone I start to think what I should do with myself today.
I figure I should phone home. I try to do it at least once a week, if only to check that Brian is still alive and being fed. I have this vague fear that my parents will put him on a wheatgrass only diet or some crazy shít like that. Four years ago my Dad decided to survive on 'Prana energy' he refused food and water for 2 months, claiming he was living off the earths energy instead.
When mum found out he was sneaking to McDonald's twice a day she nearly divorced him.
In fact, to this day we're not even allowed to mention it. The marriage only survived because they had counselling sessions with the local weed dealer, who claims to be a Cherokee Indian. Of course, he has no explanation of how a Native American came to live in a tiny freezing village in Northern England, or why he has ginger hair, but my parents aren't really ones for details anyway.
The phone rings for ages before it's breathlessly answered.
"Hello?"
"Hey Brian it's Lennon! How you doing little buddy?"
"Lennon!" He squeals excitedly. He sounds way younger than his ten years. Sometimes I worry that he doesn't get enough contact with kids his own age. He's way younger than the rest of us and at least we had each other.
"I'm rad." He says happily.
I grin at his attempt to sound cool.
"What have you been up too? Why are you so out of breath?"
"Well." He huffs quickly, trying to catch his breath. "Me and Mum were just balancing our core energies by doing Swedish forest yodelling."
He says this casually, as if it's a standard thing for 10 year olds to do with their parents on a Saturday morning. I push away the slightly pathetic image of Brian and my mum yodelling to each other.
"Sooo... Apart from the yodelling, what else have you been up too? Did you like the Xbox Star got you for your birthday?"
"Yes thanks." He pauses. "Mum took it away though. She says that's how serial killers start."
"What by playing on an Xbox?"
"Yes." He sounds slightly wistful.
"That sucks." I sigh. "Try not to get pulled in to everything they tell you, ok? They don't know everything. I mean... What did you think of the Xbox?"
There's a pause before he whispers excitedly into the phone.
"It was awesome!"
I smile sadly to myself at his enthusiastic little voice. My parents really know how to turn people into weirdos.
"So what have you been doing Lennon?"
"Well I got a job..."
"You did?"
"Yeah. Actually its a pretty big deal, I'm working for Harry from One Direction and I met him. Twice."
"Oh that's nice." Brian says politely.
He doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about. What 10 year old hasn't heard of One Direction?
I can hear my mother shouting Brian's name insistently.
"Mums calling, do you want to talk to her?"
"No." I say a bit too quickly. I love my mum but I can't be bothered talking to her right now, she'll be on the phone for ages.
"Ok. Well it was nice talking to you Lennon." He's quiet for a second. "I miss you lots and lots."
I feel an odd pang of guilt. The only people he sees outside of mum and dad are his siblings and we aren't there for him as much as we should be.
"I miss you too Bri. Listen, once I get paid I promise you can come and stay in London with me for a few weeks ok?"
"Cool!" He says enthusiastically.
After a prolonged goodbye he finally hangs up the phone and I flop down on my bed with a weird mix of emotions swirling in my stomach. I shouldn't have promised him that I'd bring him to stay with me. I haven't even worked a day yet. I have nowhere to live. Damn, I can't even afford a loaf of bread at the minute, never mind a few days sightseeing with a little kid.
That's it. I need to find a job. A proper job. Probably not in London. With my non-exsistant skill set there's no way I could get a job with the type of wage that would cover even a room in a house share.
I lie back on the bed covering my arm with my face. Why is adult life so stressful? You just constantly have to do stuff, even when you don't want to. You have to find a job to pay for a house that you barely spend any time in. You do that for 50 years then you retire and then your kids dump you in a nursing home-
My phone starts ringing and I grope round for it not bothering to move my other arm off my face. It'll only be Star or Glen anyway.
"Yeah?" I mumble.
"Hello? Is that Lennon?" I don't recognise the woman's voice.
I glance at the caller ID, it's an unknown number.
"Er... Have I woke you up?"
"Um. No.. Sorry, who is this?"
"It's Suzy!"
Shit. It's Stars friend. Or more importantly, one of Harry's management team.
"Oh! Hello!" I quickly sit up and slip into my posh phone voice.
"Hi, how are you doing? Sorry we haven't been in touch. Actually the reason I'm phoning is we were wondering how you were shaped up for tomorrow? As you probably know One Direction are due to start their tour next month-"
I didn't know this but I make a confirming noise as if this were common knowledge to me.
"- We're starting promo work tomorrow, Harry has a couple of interviews and a photoshoot on the afternoon, I was thinking it'll be a great way for you to start off and meet the rest of the team.."
I nod stupidly before remembering she can't see me.
"Uh, yeah." I clear my throat. "Um... What exactly will I be doing?"
"You'll be helping Harry's new PA."
"So I'm his personal assistants personal assistant?"
Suzy laughs lightly. "You could put it like that. It's just a good way to ease you in before the real chaos of the tour starts. Have you got a pen? I'll give you the address."
I fumble around Glens mess of a flat to find a pen and paper, apologising for an awkwardly long time. Finally I give in and just use my eyeliner to write on my arm.
"So, looking forward to seeing you tomorrow! You don't need to bring anything with you. Dress smart causal, also, I probably don't need to remind you of this, but as we mentioned in the contracts meeting, we do prefer that you don't give anyone the location of the photoshoot. The fans always find out anyway but it's a little easier for us if we don't have half the teenagers in England waiting outside!"
"Ok." I nod trying to process everything that's happening.
"So, we'll see you tomorrow, try not to be nervous sweetie, we all started somewhere. No one expects you to know it all."
"Yeah thanks." There's a pause and I realise I've barely said anything other than 'yeah' and 'ok' for the whole call.
"What's the name of the girl I'm working with?"
"Well you'll be working as part of a team but most closely with Monica. She's only been doing it a month so I'm sure she'll help you out and you'll get on like a house on fire. Actually you may remember her from the interview stage... Tall, red hair?"
My mind flashes back to the interview room and I groan inwardly as I remember the stunning red head girl who looked like a total bitch.
Great.
~~~~~~~~
AN- Dedicated to the lamusique of course... Because I couldn't write a story without a dedication to you XD
Please vote/comment etc and I'll love you forever fam x 😘