Ch. 23 The Signing
I woke up buried in the blanks, my head resting against Harry’s bare chest. I rubbed his thigh indicating that I was awake.
“Good morning,” I heard him whisper in my hair.
“Good morning,” I stretched.
“That was fun,” Harry commented, joking about last night. “You wouldn’t expect it, but you’re a feisty one.”
“Sh,” I nudged him embarrassingly.
“Just stating the facts.”
“What on the agenda for today?” I changed the subject.
“A CD signing.”
“Fun.”
“No, that’s one you really, really don’t want to go to.”
“Why?”
“It would be boring. All us boys do is sign the CD’s. What are you going to do for three hours?”
“Watch.”
“Watch? Watch me write my name a billion times? Not fun.”
“I guess, I could always call Lucas and Kendra. We could walk around the mall that you are doing your signing in,” I shrugged. Harry sent a groan.
“Lucas?” He whined.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“I don’t like Lucas.”
“Harry, you’ve barely said two words to him. You can’t not like him.”
“He’s a guy. I have every right not to like him.”
“So are you saying that every girl that you meet a day, I shouldn’t like? That’s a lot of girls, Harry.”
"But that's apart of my job!"
"Yeah, and in that job, you meet tons of new girls. Everyday. I don't hate them. So you shouldn't hate Lucas. He's a friend."
“…fine. Go spend the day with Lucas.”
“Kendra and Piper will be there too. So no worries, okay? You’re only allowed to worry if I don’t come back to the hotel until early morning. Then that’s when you can assume that Lucas and I were making mad love.” I smiled. Harry’s eyes got extremely wide. “I’m kidding!” I shouted and got up from the bed to find my phone but according to Harry’s face, he was not amused.
Piper and I rode to the mall with the boys where the CD signing was being held. Eleanor and Lottie had decided to go see a movie to pass time. I kissed Harry goodbye as he and the boys were sent away to start their signing, leaving Piper and I alone to wait for Lucas and Kendra.
“Where are they?” An impatient Piper bounced around. Lucas and Kendra was like her other two older siblings. Lucas was even two years older than I was, at nineteen and Kendra was twenty. We always treated each other like family.
When we saw them coming towards us, Piper went full on running into Lucas’ arms before he could reach us. He lifted her and twirled her around.
“Lucas!” She screeched.
“Piper, I’m so glad to see you buddy!” They continued to hug.
“Shana-boo!” Kendra squeezed me.
“Kenny!” I squeezed her back. She had dyed her hair a blondish color. It looked great on her. Last time I seen her was when she was my age, seventeen. Now she was a twenty year old woman.
“I can’t believe your in LA!” She grinned her pearly whites
“I know and to see you! Crazy.”
“And you have a boyfriend. A hot boyfriend. A hot famous boyfriend! That was suppose to be me!”
“It just sort of happened.”
“Well we are definitely going to discussing this, just sort of happened situation!”
“Okay, okay, over lunch.” I assured her. The four of us went to a restaurant in the mall not far from the area the boys were doing their CD signing. I had to take a few photos with fans as we walked through the Directioner infested mall, Piper ignoring it but Kendra and Lucas in shock by the attention I was getting.
“That’s was insane,” Lucas said once we were seated inside.
“That was a little more photos then usual considering how many fans are in the mall,” I explained.
“Are they normally that sweet?” Kendra asked.
“Yeah. They are lovely. You run across a bad seed every once in awhile but the majority of the fans are incredibly sweet but that’s just in person. I haven’t even looked at my Twitter since Harry and I started dating. I don’t think I want to.”
“You don’t,” Piper shook her head, like she has read the tweets sent to me. I’m going to take her advice.
“You’re like a little celebrity,” Lucas nudged me and I glared.
“No. No, I’m simply just dating somebody I like. He just happens to be in a really huge boy band.”
“How did you meet him?” Kendra leaned over the table, her full attention on me. I explained the whole story about how I was One Direction’s waitress and then Harry invited me to the concert and the rest is history. It seemed like forever ago.
“So you’re working again?” Lucas asked me, realizing that the waitress job was a new one.
“Yeah. That ice cream shop I used to work in wasn’t for me,” I shrugged. The ice cream shop was the job I quit to take the waitress one. Little did Lucas know was that that the ice cream shop wasn’t for me because I didn’t get a high enough paycheck to pay off rent and other bills.
“Do you like your new job?”
“Yeah. I met Harry through it. I have to like it, right?” I giggled.
“Yeah, that’s enough to like a job, for sure,” Kendra agreed.
“How’s your mom doing? Haven’t talked to Mrs. Miller in ages,” Lucas said. Piper’s face turned to a frown. Lucas and Kendra left just a little before my dad’s death. They and their parents came back up to Seattle for the funeral when they heard the news about him dying. I had yet to tell them that my Mom left us and it was just Piper and I.
“Good. She’s doing good,” I lied.
“Excuse me. I need to go to the bathroom,” Piper got up quickly and left the table, the talk of mom sending her uneasy.
“Is she still working that one job?” Lucas continued the conversation.
“Yeah.” Lie.
“My mom is always trying to call your mom. She can’t get a hold of her. Did you change your number?”
“No. She should still be able to call us. Maybe your has the wrong number.” I lied again. I got rid of that phone line so it was one less bill to pay.
“Oh. Well when you get back to Seattle tell her to call my mom. She was getting worried.”
“No need to worry. Everything is fine in the Miller household,” One. Big. Fat. Lie.
“Yesterday!” Kendra shouted as she remembered something, “Yesterday, dad pulled out his high school year book!”
“Oh yeah!” Lucas laughed.
“Your dad and our dad’s hair back then! Wow!” Kendra pointed at me and I grinned.
“Yeah, Mr. Miller’s had an afro. It was great.”
“He told me that was his worst perm,” I smiled, remembering him.
“Man, I miss your dad,” Kendra grinned. Little tears started to form from her eyes.
“He was great. Just great,” Lucas agreed.
“Yeah. Miss him everyday,” I nodded, Kendra causing me to tear up as well. We both patted our eyes with our napkins.
“Hey, no sad faces, alright! He wouldn’t want to see us sad,” Lucas tried to cheer us up.
“You’re right,” Kendra nodded vigorously.
“Okay?” Lucas whispered at me. His hand slid under the table and found mine.
“Okay,” I said. When Piper came back from the bathroom the rest of the lunch date was all fun and laughs. We joked about memories we had as kids and made fun of each other. When we finished, we waltzed out of the restaurant our bellies full. The restaurant happened to be on the second floor and down below the signing took place. The four of us relaxed, looking over the railing and at the first floor where the boys sent high-fives and signed CD’s, the line still forever long.
“Can you imagine having a life like that?” Lucas asked beside me while we watched.
“It’s pretty hectic, but the boys love what they do.”
“I’m glad you met Harry, he seems like a nice guy.”
“He’s wonderful.”
“He treats you right, correct?” Lucas eyes narrowed.
“Of course he treats me right.”
“He better treat you right. You’re my Shana-boo,” Lucas wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me close to him.
“He does. He is amazing. I can assure you.”
“Okay. Because if he doesn’t, you know I’m going to have to kick his ass.”
“No ass kicking needed, okay? Harry has been nothing but a sweetheart. Truly lovely.”
“Alright,” Lucas’ eyes rolled. His arm stayed around me while we looked down below. Paul saw me and sent me a wave and Zayn gave me a cute head nod, nudging Harry beside him to look up at me. Harry did, sending me a nice big smile. I waved simply, not wanting to gain much attention from the girls below but luckily they were too focused on the boys to notices our exchange. We watched the line go by for a few minutes, watching fans scream into Harry’s face and him trying to make them smile. It wasn’t until a girl with long silky black hair got up to Harry, I cringed. It was Marissa.
“Oh god,” I whined.
“What?” Lucas asked. I ignored him, watching Marissa and Harry attentively. They were talking a good amount, causing me to scowl. Just when it couldn’t get worse, Marissa and Harry both leaned towards each other, Marissa whispering into his ear. I heard the jealous cries from fans watching, me being one of them. It seemed like she read him a novel they talked so long but eventually they then pulled away from each other but before Marissa could scoot herself to Zayn, Marissa dangled her hand in front of Harry. He took it and planted a kiss on top of it, me going into a frenzy. Marissa and Harry just met. This was the start to my ultimate nightmare.