19th of September 2017
'My God this reminds me, of when we were young.'
"Harry Edward Styles, get over here right now!" I called out to the curly-haired boy who was avoiding getting into his suit for the first night of his first tour as a solo artist. He was running around the dressing room with Mitch, which was very unlike the guitarist but I assumed he was just as excited as Harry was to get out and perform for the first time on tour.
"Fine okay, I'm coming," he huffed and walked over to where I had finished pressing his floral suit and white shirt, something he had chosen out himself when were planning looks for this tour.
"Here is your shirt," I said with a smile, carefully handing him the white shirt which he thanked me for, slipping it over his tattoo clad body with a grin on his face. "Your suit is ready for when you are. You may want to put in on sooner rather than later because you have to be on stage in about ten minutes."
"Help me?" Harry asked with a pout and I rolled my eyes at him as I handed him the floral suit pants before making sure that his jacket was perfectly steamed, as I knew he wanted everything to go smoothly tonight, which was understandable. It is his first tour as a solo artist and although he is Harry Styles, he wants to be able to show the world he can make it as a solo artist, which he already showed with the success of his first album.
"Good choice," I mumbled as I helped him with the suit jacket, making sure everything fitted perfectly, smoothing down the jacket arms and fixing all the small imperfections on his shirt, like the fact that his buttons were in the wrong holes.
"This reminds me of when you first came on tour with us," he said out of nowhere after I finished fixing him up, as he only had about five minutes until he needed to be on stage.
"Pardon?" I asked with a stifled laugh. Harry and I were close, we have been from the minute we met four and a half years ago, but he rarely talks about his One Direction days with me, despite the fact that I was around all of them for two and a half years as their assistant stylist.
I was bought onto the Take Me Home world tour in 2013, by their main stylist Caroline Watson, after meeting her at the London College of Fashion at the end of 2012 when she was doing a lecture for one of my courses. I approached her about internships and she took my email and portfolio and two months later I was her intern on the Take Me Home tour. It was only supposed to be for one month, but she needed the help and I finished the rest of my degree online and stayed with the boys until they went on the hiatus at the end of 2015.
"You know, when the boys and I would refuse to get dressed because we were just mucking around and making your life an absolute living hell?" Harry questioned and I just smiled at him as I tried to think of a response, as I was taken off guard about how open he was being with me for a task which should have been simple with minimal conversation.
"You guys never made my life a living hell," I said softly and Harry just smiled at me. "Anyways you should probably get on stage, you don't want to be late for your first show of the tour!" I exclaimed.
"Thank's Anna, you're the best," he grinned quickly pulling me into a warm hug and I was engulfed by the familiar smell of tobacco and vanilla, something I had grown accustomed to over the last eight months or so.
"I know. Good luck Harry," I said and he shot me one last smile with a thumbs up before running out of his dressing room, leaving me and a few others in the room to clean up the mess that was made in here.
When One Direction announced they were going on a hiatus, I was devastated. The boys had grown to be like an extremely weird but happy family and I was heartbroken by the fact that I would no longer be working for them. I distinctly remember calling my mum, who is like my best friend, in absolute tears asking her what the hell was I going to do now. She then reminded me that I had just worked for One Direction for almost three years and I would be able to get a job almost anywhere, which calmed me down slightly until there was a knock on my hotel room door, as we were in Toronto for the On The Road Again Tour.
Harry straight up asked me to be his stylist as soon as he opened the door, saying he had spoken to the other boys and they agreed that I work best with Harry and they did not mind me coming with him, so I did. Then he asked me why I was crying, which made me cry even more and he ended up consoling me for fifteen minutes when resulted in me saying I don't deal well with change and I liked working for the boys, as a group. However, I obviously said yes because two years later, I am still styling the international sensation that is Harry Styles.
As I was cleaning I heard the opening sequence to 'Ever Since New York,' begin to play and my heart swelled with pride for how much Harry and his band had achieved in the last year and a half. He had stepped out of his comfort zone immensely, not only fashion-wise but musically too and there was no looking back for him, which was the best part of it all. He could truly start to become who he wanted to and I have never seen him happier.
"What are you doing in here Anna? Come and watch side stage with us," Jeffery said, poking his head into the dressing room that I was currently cleaning. Jeffery was like a second dad to me, since I had lost my father in a car accident when I was fifteen, which was extremely hard for my mum, sister and me, but we are healing every day, even though there is a giant hole where he should be.
"Sorry, I was just cleaning up the mess, I am coming now," I said with a smile, quickly folding Harry's clothes that he was wearing and following Jeff to the wing where we were watching with the rest of the crew, everyone with proud and beaming smiles on their faces.
"God, he really is having the time of his life isn't he," his make-up artist, Ruby said. Ruby joined the team around the Dunkirk premiere and has slotted in like she was always meant to be here. She is originally from Seattle and did Harry's makeup on the set of Dunkirk and just before the premiere, he asked if she wanted to join him on tour and here we are.
"Yeah, he is," I said simply with a smile, ignoring the look that Ruby was giving me, which said 'why are you looking at him like that?'
We all continued to watch the show from side stage, taking the occasional video or photo to reflect on afterwards, as it was one of our favourite past times to have a look at the videos and photos when we are sitting around, and let's face it, Harry loves looking at himself from time to time.
"Hey, we are going out for drinks now, do you want to come?" James asked, who is Harry's hairstylist, and also Ruby's best friend, which is how he ended up here.
"Nah I think I am going to stay in tonight," I said honestly and James gave me a pout as we walked back to Harry's dressing room, making sure that everything was loaded into the truck before we left the venue. The show tomorrow is in Los Angeles, so we have a late morning flight which means we are able to party tonight if we would like. "We had a big night last night James, I will come out tomorrow night," I laughed, causing James to roll his eyes at me, even though I was right.
We went out last night to celebrate the commencement of the tour, without Harry as he was resting up in his hotel room but ended up with Ruby borderline passed out in my hotel room and myself taking one too many vodka shots with James, which resulted in my head in the toilet of the bar that we were at.
"Alright, you better come out tomorrow night though Anna," James said and I nodded, knowing that I would be out regardless if I wanted to or not.
I said my farewells to everybody while I waited for my Uber to arrive to take me back to the hotel so I could settle in for the night, which meant a facemask, potentially a bath and another episode of 'Orange Is the New Black,' as that is what I am currently watching and I am slightly addicted.
I eventually arrived back at the hotel and headed straight up to my room, pulling on my silk pyjamas before searching through my suitcase for a sheet mask as I know I had multiple in them, pulling one out of a side pocket when I heard a knock at my door.
"Coming!" I called out, not sure who would be knocking on my door this late, as I thought everybody would be out at the bar by now.
I opened the door to see Harry standing there in his original clothes for the day, I smile on his face as he leant against the door frame.
"Hey, Anna, can I come in please?" he asked and I nodded as he walked into my room, shutting the door behind him as I sat down on my bed, Harry heading straight to the small kitchen to make himself a cup of tea.
"What are you doing here?"
"Didn't really feel like going out tonight and I knew you were here so I wanted to come and see you," he said as he opened the fridge for some milk. "One sugar and milk yes?"
"Yes, thank you," I said smiling to myself, feeling oddly special that he remembered how I take my tea. "Do you want a face mask?"
"That would be lovely thank you," he said as he continued to make our tea as I found another facemask, remembering when we were nineteen and twenty, touring through America and unable to go out with most of the boys, which usually resulted in Niall, Liam, Harry and me hanging out in hotel rooms or their tour bus while Zayn and Louis partied the night away.
"Here is your facemask," I said handing him the mask as we sat against the pillows on the queen-sized bed, our cups of tea on the bedside table as we carefully applied the facemasks to our face, Harry severely messing up his sheet mask, which resulted in me helping him fix it, making him giggle and me rolling my eyes at him.
"Do you remember when we used to hang out in mine and Niall's hotel rooms after shows when we couldn't go out?" Harry asked and I nodded.
"How could I forget, you guys were my best friends when I was nineteen and twenty. I spent so much time with you three," I said, turning to face him with my cup of tea in hand. He looked pretty, he always does, but I will never tell him that.
"Were your best friends?" Harry asked, sounding slightly hurt. "We have literally been inseparable for four years Anna, are we still not best friends?"
"Oh, right, yeah, of course, we are still best friends," I said, my lips forming into a tight smile, because I really wished he wanted to be more than best friends, but not once in the four years I had known him, had he ever indicated that he wanted anything more than friendship from me, which sucked but I expected it to be honest because he has models and actresses throwing themselves at him all the time.
"We were so young, it seems like a lifetime ago," he said and I just grinned, memories flooding my mind of when we were young and so naive, but still having the best times of our lives.
"It felt like a movie, to be honest," I laughed before taking a sip from my cup of tea.
"You were definitely the main character then," Harry said seriously, making my heart stop as he ran his hand through his tussled hair, James having styled it to perfection.
"Oh yeah, how so?" I asked.
"A teenage girl getting to come on tour with One Direction, that would probably make anybody the main character of a movie," Harry laughed and I suppressed my sigh, hoping he was taking his words in a different direction.
"You're right."
"I always am."
"Shove off it Harry, you're ridiculous," I laughed.
"You love me Anna," he said poking his tongue out at me, the face mask clinging to his skin like its life depended on it.
"Of course I do," I said. More than he will ever know, that's for sure.
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Can't believe I am doing this but here I am another one !
Now that I am on holidays I have ample time for updating stories so I thought it would be good to write another one (spoiler alert, it isn't)
Anna is going to be played by Elise Cook and here is a photo of her:
I hope you guys enjoy this one because I have some great ideas for this one hehe
Thank you for reading, stay safe xx