I know it sounds crazy, but I love days that are painfully busy. Days that are just go, go, go, no time to rest. I guess it's because I've spent so much time being sad and doing nothing, I love having days that are just insane. And that's how the last 4 days had been. The boys had promo after promo, interview after interview, and concert after concert, and, except for my shopping day with Eleanor, I'd been doing it all with them. We were in a different state everyday, and everything happened so fast. It was all nonstop. Is this what the boys do all month for the whole tour? It's exhausting. But, we all had so much fun with it that we were never cranky. I was impressed with the boys, they worked so hard. I was worn out from doing three days of their schedule, they had to do it all the time.
I was backstage at one of the shows in Missouri. The boys were all in the middle of a soundcheck, and I was in the room where they're supposed to relax before the show. What most people don't realize, though, is that there is no relaxing for them. Ever.
Olly had just finished going over his set list, and he, Eleanor, Andy, and I were all hanging out, sprawled out over couches and doing absolutely nothing.
"I'm so tired," Eleanor, who by the way, had become one of my dearest friends, groaned.
"I am too," Andy agreed with closed eyes, hands folded across his chest.
"Me too," I added on, "I love it, though."
Eleanor had shut her eyes, but she smiled, "Me too."
"I don't know about you guys, but I need to get pumped up for the show." Olly joined in the conversation with a chipper tone in his voice. One thing I learned about Olly Murs? He's always, always happy.
"How?" I asked.
"I don't know." He admitted while getting up from the couch and straightening his black V-neck shirt. "Let's dance."
"Uhm, you guys can dance. I'll go to sleep." Andy chuckled, rolling over on his side and burying his face in the yellow couch pillows.
Olly strides over to a speaker resting on a wooden table in the corner, pulls an iPhone out of his pocket, and plugged it in. I got off of the couch, as did Eleanor, and Olly turned on some music.
It didn't take long to recognize the song. The familiar beat of We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together blared through the speakers, and we all bursted out in fits of laughter when we saw Olly start to dance. He was spinning, twerking, and doing every single dance move known to man. Pretty soon, the rest of us gave in and we were jumping around, laughing, spinning, making up new moves and trying out each other's. Andy was the only one on the couch, and he pulled out a phone and started to video tape us. We didn't care, though, we were caught up in the music and being silly. We took turns getting up in Andy's camera, flipping our hair around and sticking our tongues out.
When the song ended, we just turned on another one. And then another one, and another one. We probably spent 45 minutes just purely dancing and having the time of our lives. When the song One More Night by Maroon 5 went off, we all collapsed on the couch, laughing and breathing heavily.
"Now I'm not going to have enough energy to perform," Olly chuckled in-between breaths.
The rest of us laughed, "Ah, you'll do great." Andy encouraged.
"You're pumped now, right?" Eleanor giggled, to which he laughed, "Yeah, I am."
We all sprawled out on the couch once again, not saying anything. A few minutes later, the boys rushed in through the doors, all of them laughing and talking about fans they'd met or something like that.
"Why didn't you guys come watch us?" Niall pouted, coming to sit on the couch next to me.
I sat up to give him room, "We're tired."
"You're tired?" He asked in fake disbelief as he sat and rested his head on my shoulder, "Imagine how we feel!"
I laughed at my Irish bestfriend as my British boyfriend came to take a seat on my other side, "Olly, you look sweaty."
El, Andy, Olly, and I all laughed when he said that. "We've been...dancing." Olly said with wild eyes, "It was something."
"Yeah, and it's about to go on youtube." Andy cut in. All of our heads spun around to look at him, and my mouth subconciously opened up in to the shape of an O.
"Not it's not." Eleanor spoke up.
"Why not?" Olly laughed. "YOLO."
"You did not just say YOLO..." I looked at him, to which he shrugged.
"Live While We're Young." He corrected himself. We all laughed.
Andy was hunched over his phone, and within minutes he said, "Done."
Louis chuckled and shook his head. "You know that'll be all over the internet tomorrow."
"Or tonight." Zayn corrected.
"Eh, who cares?" Niall laughed good heatedly, "It'll make 'em look fun."
"We are fun!" Eleanor chuckled, throwing a pillow at the Irish boy's head.
He dodged it, "Yeah I guess," he teased, "Charlotte is. I don't know about you." He stuck his tongue out playfully at El, to which she mirrored him.
"He's just joking. You're like Louis... but a girl." Zayn sat down on the couch next to Eleanor.
"Yeah," Louis agreed, taking a seat on the other side of his girlfriend, "just like Charlotte is the female version of Harry."
My jaw dropped open, "Am not!"
Harry looked over at me with a look of mock hurt on his face, "Hey! Is that really a bad thing?" He scrunched his eyebrows together.
"Well..." I said slowly for effect, but Harry interrupted me by ramming me in the side, wrapping his arms around me, and burrying his face deeper and deeper in to my neck to the point that it tickled like heck.
"Stop! Stop!" I laughed as he pulled me in tighter and kept tickling me.
"Young love," Louis commented with a flicker of amusement crossing his face.
As I giggled hopelessly with Harry's face in my neck, Amanda burst through the door, followed by five people. One was holding a clipboard, one was carrying a video camera on his shoulder, another was holding microphones, one had bags of make-up, and the last woman carried nothing.
"Ok boys, Gossip Teen is here. Ready for the interview?" Amanda strutted over to a metal chair in the corner and pulled it beside the couch, sitting down in it.
"I forgot about that," Liam said to no one in-particular.
"Yeah, we're ready." Louis answered for the group. Andy and Eleanor got off of the couch and stood out of the way of all the people. Harry hastily kissed my cheek and then left my side to join his five best friends on the couch. I'd never been to a pre-show interview, so I didn't really know what to do. I tried to just follow El and Andy's lead, which basically consisted of standing out of the way.
The woman who wasn't carrying anything positioned herself on the love seat by the couch. "Hey boys! I'm Lacey. How are you?" She said in an overly excited tone while the woman carrying the make up bags applied powder to her face.
"Good, how are you?" Niall replied with a grin.
The woman looked like she was in her mid-twenties, but something about her mannerisms made her seem much older. I'd be lying if I said she wasn't beautiful, but again, she seemed much older. Not in the way she looked, but in the way she acted.
"Good. You guys ready to start this interview?"
"Yeah, let's get started!" Liam smiled. It's amazing how well the boys handled all of the attention.
One of the workers handed the woman-Lacey- a microphone, then he handed one to each of the boys. Everyone backed out of the way, and the man with the camera took his place a few feet in front of the couch. "Ready?" He asked. Everyone nodded. "Alright, rolling in 5...4...3...2..."
"Hello everyone! I'm Lacey Johnston, and today, Gossip Girl is sitting down with the most famous boy-band in the world! You know them, you love them, here's One Direction!" And I thought she sounded too preppy earlier...
"Hi!" The boys chorused in unison, waving into the camera.
"So boys, can you explain how tour's been? Is everything hectic all the time?" She gestured to the boys with a perfectly manicured hand.
"Yeah, it's been really crazy," Niall started, "But it's so much fun-"
"The fans are incredible wherever we go. They make it all worth it." Liam chimed in.
"Glad to hear that! So you're liking America?"
"Loving it. It's great." Harry answered with a grin, "Everything's great."
Lacey laughed, and even her laugh seemed exaggerated. "Glad it's great! So boys, let's get down to the gossip everybody's talking about... Girls. How's that department?"
I looked over to Eleanor who gave me a crooked smile, "Are they going to talk about us?" I whispered in her ear.
She raised her shoulders, "I don't know. I never know-"
We tuned in to the boys when we heard Eleanor's name come out of Lacey's mouth. "Is Eleanor visiting you?" She pronounced it wrong.
"El-ea-nor." Louis said, correcting the woman. "And yes, she is. It's really nice to have her here."
Lacey awww'd. "That's so sweet; she's beautiful."
When I looked over to Eleanor, her cheeks were taking the shade of crimson. I nudged her with my hip, and she let out a giggle. She covered her mouth, but no one seemed to notice.
"Now Harry. Everyone, I mean everyone is commenting on our website wanting and flooding Twitter with questions about this blonde, Charlotte? Is that her name?"
I felt the color drain from my face. He looked over at me with an amused look, complimented by a cheeky smile. I almost died.
"Yeah, that's her name," He smiled, still making eye-contact with me. I was trying to mouth the words 'Shut up, don't tell her about me or I'll kill you', but he didn't get it. Or atleast, he pretended that he didn't.
"I heard rumors that she's visiting as well? Can you confirm those? And just for the record boys, we can cutt anything out of the interview. It doesn't all have to go on air." She hinted.
"Yeah, she is visiting," Niall answered, although the question was obviously for Harry, "She's great. We all really like her. She's become one of our really good friends."
"Yeah, she has." Zayn agreed, smiling.
"Well, I've seen pictures and I must say she's absolutely ravishing. Well done, Harry." Lacey gushed, and I felt my ears getting hot.
"She's right over there..." Harry pointed to me in case Lacey didn't see me earlier.
She did a double take when she saw me, "Oh, Charlotte, Hi! I don't know how I missed you! And hi, Eleanor!" She waved, the same overly-excited tone present in her voice. I guess she really didn't see us.
El and I both waved over to her, and her smile grew broader when we did. When she turned back to the boys to continue asking them questions, I leaned in to Eleanor. "That'll be taken out of the interview, right?"
Eleanor nodded reassuringly, "Yeah, if it's not the boy's management will freak out," She laughed, before adding, "That lady is a character, isn't she?"
We both laughed in agreement.
_____________________________________________________________________________
"Do you like being on tour? Honestly." A man asked the boys. Another interviewer before the show.
"Yeah, we love it. The fans are amazing." Niall answered the same question he'd already answered a thousand times before. Even I was bored of interviews, and I didn't have to do them everyday.
Eleanor and I gave up on our manners, and we were leaned up against a wall in the same room as all of the commotion. We didn't care, though. We were bent over our phones like nothing was even happening. I was texting Jessica and reading through tweets at the same time.
From: Jessicaaa
You're still Twitter famous? Did you know that? Your name is clogging up my newsfeed.
To: Jessicaaa
Yeah I knew that. I'm on Twitter right now.
I sent a reply and got back on Twitter. She wasn't lying or exaggerating, I was still Twitter famous. I was basically as talked-about as Eleanor, Danielle, and Perrie were. I'd be lying if I said that the hate didn't bother me, because sometimes it would really hit me in the face. In the back of my mind, a voice would remind me, "Hey Charlotte, hundreds of thousands of people hate you. They want you to die. They wish you'd just disappear..." But I never cried over hate. Well, at least not in front of anyone. However, as bad as it got, the hate was all worth it. And I had to remind myself of that daily. It was worth being with Harry. I'd come to the realization that I loved him more than anything. With every ounce of my being, I loved him. I loved what he was, and I loved what he wasn't. I loved his flaws, mistakes, everything. As a matter of fact, in my eyes, he had no flaws or mistakes. He was perfectly imperfect. He's like home to me. And that makes everything worth it.
I scrolled through my mentions and tried to focus on the positive tweets. I'm not going to lie, most of them were positive. A lot of the fans loved me. Almost everyday I stumbled across Tumblr accounts dedicated to me and my style, which was strange because I didn't think people had even seen me that much. But apparently, they had. I saw picture of me at concerts, walking around with the boys, basically any pictures fans had taken. Which was a lot, surprisingly.
"@Loving1Dforever: @CharlotteAustin: You are AMAZING! SUCH AN INSPIRATION!! xx"
Someone had replied to the girl, recieving lots of retweets:
"@Larryforlife116: HOW IS SHE AN INSPIRATION?! She does nothing! She's about as special as @EleanorJCalder, if that tells you anything. #Ishipbullshit #LarryStylinson"
I normally didn't reply to fans, just because I knew they were fans of the boys and not me. It didn't feel right, for some reason. Sometimes I answered questions, but that was about it. But I felt compelled to say something to this girl.
"@CharlotteAustin: @Larryforlife116 @EleanorJCalder is lovely. If you knew her, I promise she'd inspire you to be classy. :) x"
I pressed send and turned my phone off. The boys always got on to me for being sassy, telling me Louis was rubbing off on me. But I didn't care. I'd always been stubborn and sassy.
Eleanor smiled at her phone screen, and I assumed she saw my tweet. I pretended not to notice. She typed something in, and I checked my own Twitter.
"EleanorJCalder: @CharlotteAustin You're lovelier by far, babe! xx"
I laughed, "Thanks," I said.
She giggled, "You're welcome, you really are lovely. I'm so glad I got to know you," She added with a smile.
"You too!" I smiled warmly, "You've become a really good friend," I admit, "I know that sounds corny but-"
"No, it doesn't, I totally agree!" She laughed, pulling me over for a hug.
New friends, new stories to tell, new favorite moments. That's what I gained in just a few days. Where could my story go wrong?
_____________________________________________________________________________
"I want to dedicate this song to my lovely girlfriend, Eleanor," Louis smiled into the crowd before the familiar tune of More Than This started to ring out through the entire arena.
The crowd screeched around us, and Eleanor laughed.
Right before the first verse of the song, Harry quickly threw in, "And I want to dedicate it to Charlotte."
More screams. Not to mention, I almost fainted. He never directly mentioned me in a concert before, so I was completely caught off guard.
"Gah, Harry, be more original!" Louis teased, giving his best friend a punch in the arm, earning more screams and laughs from the crowd.
I'm broken; do you hear me?
I'm blinded, 'cause you are everything I see.
I'm dancing alone; I'm praying that your heart will just turn around.
The first-verse man started singing and the crowd grew as silent as they'd ever been that night. People put their phones, lighters, and glow-sticks up and swayed to the music. Zayn made a remark about how beautiful the arena looked, and I turned around to see the scene behind us. It was dazzling. Thousands and thousands of lights swayed together as the boys sang, and I realized something beautiful:
Time isn't measured by minutes, but by moments.