The amount of people working backstage with all kinds of things before, during and after the concerts was really big. There were people everywhere! Almost all of them was going to follow One Direction during the whole tour, some of them were only there for one show, and some were only going to be in the UK.
I had become friends with some of the people working backstage, like Jared. He was working with many things behind the scene, like helping to fix the sound and the light or chasing the lads to make them come to their sound checks and concerts on time. He was also standing between the fans and the stage during the concerts, making sure nothing happened. Jared was pretty similar to Paul and Preston. A huge man with a dark voice who seemed extremely creepy at first, but was actually one of the nicest people I had ever met. He came into the room where Lou kept us when she styled our hair.
"Jared!" I screamed, louder than necessarily, and he went up to me.
"Hello, you." He said and gave me a fistbump.
"You're all going on sound check in twenty minutes! Will you be done until then?" He asked Lou, who nodded.
"Twenty minutes will be perfect!" She said and Jared went out again. I liked Jared. Jared was hilarious.
"Belle, let's get your hair done now." Lou said and started fixing and wash my hair. Niall was done by now, so he went out to do some voice exercises together with the others before the sound check.
Lou was so excited about my new change, she had been covering all mirrors so that it would be a total surprise later. She blow-dried my hair and let it fall to it's normal curls behind my back. She had been very careful not to let me see a single stray of hair that fell in front of my shoulders. I was starting to get pretty anxious now.
"Lou, let me see it now! And please tell me it's not blue." I added and crossed my fingers.
"It's not blue, and it fits you perfectly! I knew it!" She said proudly. I hope so, Lou. I hope so, I thought.
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I was almost going to miss the sound check, so I had to run out to the stage and stand along with Dan, Sandy and Josh behind my keyboards. Josh called it "Issy's keyboard world".
"You look great, Issy!" Dan complimented me and the others agreed with him. I thanked them and pulled all of my now extremely red, almost pink hair over my left shoulder. Fifty shades of red, all from real ginger-orange to almost pink to neon red. I loved it! The guys came out just as they were going to at the concert, singing.
It was hard for them to see us playing behind them, but in the intro of "She's not afraid", Liam looked up at us and stared at me and smiled. He did a thumbs up and nudged Louis in the side. Louis even changed his solo a bit.
"She walks in and the room just lights up, but she don't want anyone to know, that her red ha-air is not nat-ur-al. Natural." He sang and I laughed at him. Both Harry and Zayn almost missed their solos and Josh said it was because of me, but I didn't believe him. I mean, they were professionals, and why would I make them come out of focus?
I was getting really excited for the show. I jumped down from the platform we had been standing on and played after the sound check.
"That was great, guys! Best sound check this long!" I told them and high fived them all as I ran around on the stage, totally hyped all suddenly.
"Thanks, Issy. Your hair turned out great, by the way. I got a little suspicious when I saw the red bottles, but it suits you." Harry told me and I smiled at him.
"I've never had it red, actually. But I like it." I said and twirled a stray around my finger. I heard someone coming up from behind me and then I felt a pair of hands fixing with my hair softly. I knew it was Zayn without turning around, and I felt my cheeks turning warm. Why did I blush? Stop it, stupid cheeks!
Zayn tried to make my hair into a braid, but it didn't go too well. Harry left us and the rest of them fixed the last before the show.
"What are you doing? I asked Zayn who still tried to style my hair. He chuckled. It echoed through the arena, from where we were standing in the middle of the stage.
"My sisters tried to teach me how to braid hair when I was younger, and I thought I would see if I could still do it." He said.
"How does it look?" I asked him. I had a feeling that it didn't look good. I couldn't see Zayn being able to braid. He tried for a couple of seconds more, before he laughed and ruined the braid with his long fingers so I couldn't find out.
"Horrible."
We were silent for a few minutes, and I sat down on the floor of the stage. Zayn layed down beside me and looked up in the ceiling with his hands beneath his head. I was enjoying the silence. There were always so many people running around us and I didn't want to go back again.
I was still feeling a bit bad for my stupidity with trying to avoid Zayn, but I was being afraid. The last time I fell in love with someone it turned out horrible, and that guy was still sending me threat-mails that would make me terrified for weeks. The reason? I left him when he cheated on me the third time. That crossed my limit, and I couldn't take it anymore. I went to live with my parents again. We were very young when we moved in together, but I really did believe he was the one! When he finally got a restraining order, he moved to Birmingham and I thought it would be the last time I would have to see or hear from him. I wasn't that lucky.
Now, I didn't mean I was in love with Zayn. I was only scared of what the feelings that grew towards him might be, and I didn't want to find out. Yet sitting all alone with Zayn at the stage was different than it would be if I sat there with Niall, for example. I just ignored what ever I was feeling and thought of nothing at all.
After a while he broke the silence.
"You seem a bit blurry." He said.
"Blurry?"
"Yeah, you are zoning out and like... Staring right in front if you every now and then. And a few times I'd have to repeat what I was saying because you was thinking of something else." He explained. I had no idea he could notice all that. He must have been inspecting me, and been thinking about that for a while. That, or I actually were zoning out more often than I thought. I tried not to think about if Ryan would show up in Birmingham or not, and I managed to think of something else many times, but the thought always came back and I was really scared. Blurry. I had never thought of that word like that. Maybe I was a bit blurry. Not being completely clear, not in my mind nor in my eyes. I was staring out in space.
"Sorry. I'm a bit scared of going to Birmingham." I admitted.
"Why?"
"My ex-boyfriend lives there, and he has been threatening me and sending a few messages every now and then. I was never in any real danger, but now we will be in the same city and knowing Ryan, he will take advantage of that."
"Right, I knew that." He mumbled. I furrowed my eyebrows. Had Louis told him? It wasn't that big of a deal if he had, but still.
"Who told you?" I asked. He hesitated at first but I would notice if he lied and he knew that. He sighed.
"Actually, Chelsea told me before we left. You know after that last London concert, when you didn't talk to me? She went up to me and told me, but not with that many details. She said she trusted me and that she thought I would be able to help you if something happened, like calm you down or something." He explained, blushing a little, probably because he wasn't sure about if he was going to tell me that. I nodded.
"She's right, I could use some help. I would stop breathing if I saw him, and not in a good, happy, kind of way." I tried joking a little, but it turned out even worse, a bit awkward.
I took up my phone and sent a text to Chelsea.
Zayn told me, thank you. I'll tell you if something happens, but I start to doubt it. I miss u! xx
She would understand what I meant with the 'Zayn told me-part.' We always knew what the others meant, Chelsea, Sam and I.
"Come on, we'll have to get ready." I told Zayn and got up. I reached my hand out for him and he got up, to.
Ryan was able to do horrible things. The first time he cheated on me and I tried to talk about it, he hit me and after that he beat me up multiple times. He made every bad thing he did look like it was my wrong. Then he would be the guy I fell in love with the day after, and he promised he would never do it again. I didn't know why he would keep threatening me. Many times, he had called me while he was drunk and told me that I ruined his life and he would ruin mine (I wasn't sure of what he said, he was mostly too drunk to speak right). I didn't even know what I had done to him! If he had a bad day while I was in Birmingham and if he knew that I was there, he would most certainly try to find me. I did not know what he would do if he did and I didn't want to find out. It would be much alike him to find me just because he thought it was funny to see me scared. Maybe, maybe he didn't know I was coming.
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Dan, Sandy, Josh and I was waiting backstage to run in on stage before the rest of them. Jared came up to us, telling us when we were going on.
"Five minutes, you guys." Jared told us and went to tell the others the same information. The crowd was massive that day, and I brought my phone in my pocket on stage. I was planning on taking a picture in a break, maybe during the twitter questions, to send to my friends.
I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket just before we were going on. I thought it was Chelsea who answered me, but it was a hidden number. I read the text and almost dropped my phone. Shit, shit, shit.
Heard u were coming 2 birmingham tomorrow. Let's meet up and remember old memories, shall we? Don't worry, I'll make sure to find you babe.
I didn't need a number or a caller-ID for that. The only hope I had, that he wouldn't hear that I was playing with One Direction in Birmingham the next day. Now that was ruined and my hope was lost. Ryan knew I was going to Birmingham. This was really not good.
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A/N: Hi! I updated twice within a week! Wooho!
My huge idol, Bel Watson, both wrote to me and followed my twitter this week! I freaked out and if you haven't read her stories yet, go do it NOW.
I'm going on vacation for a week now and chapter 16 is not completely finished yet, so you may have to wait a little longer for the next chapter. Thank you all for reading my story. It means a lot to me!
You are all beautiful, no matter what they say! xxElin