June 27, 2015
Harry's POV
I honestly didn't think this was going to be such a big deal. Sure, I expected Renee and Alicia to be there and of course Josephine and Paul but, both of our entire management teams and Jack? It just seemed a little too much for a practice to me.
But, if I really thought about it I guess it did make since. If we all didn't sound good singing together then, they would have to come up with a backup plan. It was like a make or break situation but still, not all of these people had to be there.
From what Josephine has told us, we would meet everyone at the venue where both the list of celebrities performing would practice and where the event was being held. Josephine also said that we had until 2:00pm to do whatever until we would have to go to the stadium.
It was only about 12:00pm so we had quite a few hours, well only two, but we still had enough time to go out before we had to get to the TCA practice. Both of our planes were leaving as soon as we finished at the venue then it was back to promotion. I hated this part of being with the girls, the part before we all had to leave. We all tried not to act like we were disappointed or sad by acting goofy and cracking jokes but, we all saw right though each other and knew that we were all very upset.
And for me and Lou this was even harder, since we had to leave our girlfriends. Our relationships weren't just 'oh, I like you we should fool around', but instead serious loving relationships. The longer me and Leigh are together the more and more I can't see myself without her and the harder it is for me to say goodbye when we had to get back to our careers and I'm positive it was the same for Louis and Jade.
Since we were in LA, and had spare time after we packed up we decided that a couple hours at the beach wouldn't hurt us. The boys and I were headed to Switzerland and the girls were headed to France. Needless to say we were all about to be freezing so surely we needed to soak as much sun as we could.
Wow, that sounded really American.
Knowing that today was indeed still a work day, we decided not to wear bathing suits so we could just get up and go to the stadium once we were finished. Since it is a closer drive from here to Inglewood, where the venue was, we just put our stuff in the van, so after we could just hop on our planes and get back to work.
We stepped out of the van at the infamous Venice Beach stretching our tense muscles from the 40 minute drive to get here. Once again we sat cramped in the can this time because of our luggage taking up most of the space. I'm honestly just waiting for the police to pull us over because I'm sure that eight people sitting on top of each other in a moving vehicle was ticket worthy.
"I don't think we've been to this beach." Jesy said from beside me as we walked towards the dark blue ocean. It was packed as it was expected to be and paparazzi and fans all had their cameras catching our every move. You should feel anxious because of this but, after a few years of going through it, you get used to it.
"I've been a couple of times. You like it?" I asked looking down at her. Today the girls went completely natural. No makeup or hair extensions just themselves and it was rare especially when we went out in public. I always liked it when they were like this not because they didn't look good with it but because they looked better without it. They ate and drank and laughed without worrying about smudging there lipstick and that was honestly when we had the most fun. So when I looked down at Jesy I couldn't help but smile as her hair was curly at her shoulders and her freckles were on full display.
She opened her mouth to say something turning to look up at me but then stopped closing her mouth and narrowing her eyes at. I just chuckled and turned foreward again still feeling her glare on me. "What are you smiling at?" she asked, sounding offended but I could tell it was just playful.
I shrugged, "I like looking at your freckles." I looked back at her and she was touching her face where her freckled are and I chuckled again.
"I like them too." Niall spoke from the other side of her poking her nose, "They're just so adorable!" he cooed causing Jesy to slap the back of his hand.
"I do too, if we're just confessing our love for her freckles" Leigh said from beside me. She too was wearing her hair curly but hers was up in a ponytail on the top of her head.
"You are so strange." Jesy said, trying to hide her grin.
"Hey!" Leigh exclaimed, "When they say it you say nothing but when I say it I'm strange?"
Jesy stepped in front of me so she was beside Leigh and hugged her as best she could while we were still walking. "I'm so sorry." I watched in amusement.
"I want a hug!" Perrie whined from behind us. Niall opened his arms and she ran into them squealing like a child.
When we finally reached the sand, Jade spread out two huge beach towels and plopped down on it. She had her arms folded and her bottom lip was jutted out.
"Why are you pouting, babe?" Louis questioned sitting down beside her.
"I didn't get a hug." she said grumpily grinning. I genuinely think that we could have very successful acting career because all we did with each other was act. Pretending to be sad and playing pranks on each other. I mean we each deserve and Oscar.
Perrie came running up to Jade and fell on top of her kissing all over her face. Jade laughter and Perrie's smooching boomed loudly which caused some other people to look over at us frowning obviously not knowing who we were. I'm sure if they did they would've had their phone pointed at us.
"I'm wanna make a sand castle." Liam announced picking up one of the pales he and Jesy brought. Jesy grabbed a shovel and walked towards him, "I'll help." and together they both walked closer to the water and sat down, beginning to build their castle.
Suddenly I felt something hit the back of head. It felt hollow almost like a beach ball...
"Leigh-Anne Pinnock!" I said turning around. There she was bending over to pick up the multicolored beach ball she through at my head. Perrie and Louis were snickering behind me and I held up my hand to flip them both off.
Leigh watched me as I stood from my spot slowly with a smile. The closer I got the more her cocky grin faded, because she knew what was coming.
"I'm not mad." I said softly, "I promise."
She still looked apprehensive as I stepped closer and closer slowly until I jumped at her tackling her to the ground but, putting my hand out to break our fall. Sure I was going to get her back but I wasn't going to hurt her.
"Please I'm sorry don't do it!" she screamed from underneath me. I sat up straddling her hips cracking my knuckles, "You brought this upon yourself."
With one hand I pinned hers above her head and with the other I reached out and attacked her sides. I moved from her sides to her stomach then reaching behind me to attack her thighs.
"Please Harry!" she screamed though her laughter, "I'm sorry!"
An idea popped into my head and I immediately pulled my hand away from her body but didn't let hers go. She must have noticed the evil glint in my eyes because she stated to wriggle underneath me.
"Leigh, calm down." I said trying to get her to think that I wasn't going to do what she knew I was about to do. "I'm going to do anything."
She calmed down a little looking up to meet my eyes narrowing them accusingly, "Yes you are. I know you."
I brought my hand back to her stomach, pointing out two fingers and pretended they were legs walking up towards her neck.
She was shaking her head violently but it wasn't enough for me not to get my hand at her neck and running them across it.
"No!" she screamed. She thrashed beneath me, kicking her legs and trying to free her arms.
I stopped when I noticed she was gasping for air, figuring I had done enough. She had been laughing so hard that a few tears had escaped her eyes and her face and chest were flushed.
"I hate you." she said smiling a little once I stood from on top of her and looked down.
I reached my hand out for her to grab to help her stand. She took them and I yanked her so she crashed into my chest. I wrapped my arms around her waist and smirked down at her shocked face, "You love me."
She laughed, shaking her head as she walked away back towards the rest of the group. I noticed that Jesy and Liam were arguing over there sand castle. Suddenly a wave came up and crashed on top of it and they both burst into laughter.
Jade and Louis were cuddled up into each other, Louis whispering something into her ear which made her giggle. Perrie and Leigh both sat on either side of Niall, their hair blowing in the wind. I guessed that Niall got up and bought some popsicles because all three of them had one, the heat causing them to melt down on their hands.
I smiled as I watched my group of friends together and happy, enjoying our last day together for a whole month. Usually leaving the girls was hard but this just seemed nearly impossible. It was almost funny to think that just a couple years ago we hardly talked when we saw each other, and was more than comfortable to leave them. Now it seems silly to think it would be that easy.
I walked back over and took a seat beside Leigh, snatching her Popsicle out of hand and biting the top of it off. She didn't say anything just waited until I finished and took it back, and watched as Jesy and Liam began to throw sand at each other.
...............
After our time at the beach which was very enjoyable, we hopped back in the van and set off for the Forum. All of us had gained a nice tan form today's outing except for Jesy, who got a slight sunburn because of her sensitive skin. Jade walked barefoot on the hot sand and burnt them resulting in some pretty nasty blisters.
Other than that we all had a nice time at the beach.
I couldn't lie, I was nervous. Knowing that if management didn't like the way we sounded or if we didn't like the way we sounded we would be disappointing all of our fans by cancelling the performance was nerve wracking. We were all quiet in the van, probably all praying that this worked out in our favor.
Perrie whimpered like a sad puppy and leaned back on my shoulder. Since we were all packed in here we were all laying on top of each other. Half of my butt was sitting on Liam but, none of that really mattered at the moment. All that mattered was making sure that this performance went well.
We practically drug ourselves into the building where, everyone that promised to their sat in the empty seats of the venue. They each wore formal outfits with journals in their hands and Bluetooth's in there ear.
Jack was sitting in the front row talking with Renee and Alicia. A few stage hands were running around trying to get things set up and handing us each microphones.
Leigh stood close to me, almost as if she was scared, "I feel like I'm back in the X-Factor." she whispered still looking straight ahead at everyone on the audience.
"I know" I said back. We probably looked stupid just standing there looking at all of them waiting for instruction. I noticed Liam moving towards me and turned to him once he was at my side.
"Do you know what parts we're singing?" he asked. My eyes widened at the realization. We hadn't talked about what we were each going to sing or if we were going to change it at all. The only thing we discussed is what song we were going to sing.
"Don't worry." A voice said from beside us. I turned around and Jack stood wearing a grey suit and a smile. "I've got that covered."
The rest of the group came and stood with us as he began to explain what parts we were going to sing and the reasoning behind it.
"It's a love song," he started, "And since we've got two couples, they will sing the first and second verses, you four can decide which verse you want." he pointed at Leigh and I as well as Jade and Louis before continuing.
"Now for the pre-chorus," he said, "Perrie and Niall will sing lead for the first one but, the rest of you will harmonize quietly with them then the same for the second pre-chorus but Jesy and Liam will take lead." we nodded in understanding
"This is where it gets a little tricky, well not really but anyway," he chuckled at himself before continuing, "For the chorus the boy will sing the first part of the sentence then the girls will come in high to finish it."
I frowned in confusion as I tried to understand his comment. He looked over all of our confused faces before pulling a piece of paper out of his suit jacket. Jack held the paper in the middle of the circle out bodies had formed and we all looked down on it.
So don't act like it's a bad thing (boys sing by themselves) to fall in love with me (girls join singing in higher pitch)
'Cause you might look around to find (Boys sing by themselves) your dreams come true, with me (girls join singing in higher pitch)
Spent all your time and your money just to (Boys sing by themselves) find out that my love was free (girls join singing in higher pitch)
So don't act like it's a bad thing to fall in love(Boys sing by themselves) with me, me (girls join singing in higher pitch)
It's not a bad thing to fall in love (Boys sing by themselves) with me, me (girls join singing in higher pitch)
So after we figured out what parts and how we were going to do with a couple minutes of practice we grabbed our microphones and sat down on the edge of the stage. Jack said that we would figure out placement and such when we meet back up in on the 28th of July, which was four days before the event so there was no need to stand.
The beginning of the song started and I swung my foot to the beat. I looked over at Leigh and she looked up giving me a reassuring smile before we turned away, lifted out microphones, and began to sing our part.
Leigh and I had sung together before but we were just being silly, like singing along to the radio. So when we started I was shocked at how beautiful our voices sounded together. Her voice was softer and higher than mine but it worked.
When we finished we looked at each other with shocked faces before we had to pick the microphone back up to sing the rest of song.
Louis and Jade's part was amazing, sounding completely different than Leigh's and I's but still fitting. When we got to the bridge, since we didn't discuss it I put my microphone down and looked up at Jack questiongly but, Perrie and Liam continued on singing, Jesy and Niall soon joining them towards the end.
Jack quickly wrote something down on his notebook and I looked back over at them smiling, still a little shocked at how good it sounded. When we finished the song we all looked over at each other smiling like idiots but still not getting to excited because it wasn't our decision whether or not we could perform it.
Surprisingly Jack wasn't as cheery as we expected him to be which just caused me even more nerves.
"Good job, we'll be in touch." he said quickly before leaving with the rest of our management teams. It was quiet as we stood up and handed the stage hands our microphones and it stayed like that until we piled back into the van.
"I think we sounded good." Louis said suddenly, almost sounding like he was trying to convince himself, "Whether or not we sounded good to them, we sounded good."
"Lou's right." Liam nodded, "We sounded great actually."
"Okay I was going to say that but, everybody was all quiet like we didn't so, I didn't say anything but, hell yeah we sounded good!" Jade exclaimed before clapping.
We all laughed at her outburst before continuing to talk about how we sounded.
We had been laughing at something Louis said before we got quite once again but this time for a different reason. The driver pulled up onto the runway beside both of our private planes. All eight of us knew what this meant.
It meant good bye.
Jade's POV
I was already getting tear eyed once I saw our plane through the window. As soon as the driver pulled to a stop, Paul was ripping the van door open telling us to hurry and moving to the trunk to grab our bags.
Once I got out of the van I turned around to hug everybody, saving the best for last as I always did when we had to leave.
"Bye, Jadey." Harry said before engulfing me in a hug. When I pulled away I could see how sad he was that he had to leave Leigh...again. "This is the last goodbye for a while, just think about how good it will be to see her again." I said trying to lift his spirits. He gave me a half hearted smile before saying thank you and moving to hug Jesy.
"Lili." I whined pouting playfully holding my arms out for him to hug. "Bye Jade." he said once we pulled away from each other and walking over to hug Niall.
I didn't want to let Niall go because I knew once I did I would have to face the reality that I would be saying goodbye to Louis. But, Paul was rushing our goodbyes and I knew that if I didn't do it know I wouldn't be able to do it at all.
A tear welled in my eye once I pulled away from him. I walked over to Louis and crashed into his chest squeezing him tightly. He squeezed back just as tight, if not tighter then me and kissed the top of my head.
We didn't say anything, we didn't say good bye or anything because as cliché as it sounded it wasn't goodbye for us, we knew we would see each other again.
It had to be five minutes we stood like that before Paul was yelling over the loud engine of the plane that it was time to go.
I pulled back and observed the masterpiece my tears left on his shirt then looked up to meet his eyes. He bent down and gave me a slow kiss on the lips, and once we pulled away I kept my eyes closed savoring the feeling that I wouldn't feel after this for a while.
"I love you Louis." I said looking into his eyes before he said the words I would never get tired of hearing.
"I love you too, Jade."