No time to think of consequences.
Start Destination: Zurich, Switzerland
End Destination: Zurich, Switzerland
Via: The Old City, Hallenstadion
07:46AM (GMT) / 8:46AM (Local Time)
After going to bed at a relatively reasonable time last night, we are up and ready to go surprisingly early the next morning.
Levi holds the whole process of us leaving the hostel up by declaring – and insisting – that he has to call Gemma, and so the rest of us wait in the reception – sort of – patiently and wait for him to decide to grace us with his presence.
When he eventually does so we make our way out of the building and Levi leads us away. He has already decided where we are heading, and I have to say I am glad that he has taken some sort of control of the situation. Rosie, El and I do not know what to do, other than wandering aimlessly, whereas Levi – with his love exploring and interesting places – seems to be a good choice for the person to organise our day, so long as the rest of us get some sort of input at well.
He has set his heart on us visiting the old city, and when his suggestion was greeted by no friction – mainly because none of us are entirely sure what a visit to the old city entails – we all decided to go along with it.
I always forget how long Levi’s strides are, it is obviously something that runs in the family, and so I find myself having to walk double time just to keep up with him. El manages fine of course, with legs as long as hers I would be surprised if she didn’t, she still manages to look graceful though, even when power walking.
That is El though. The picture of grace, elegance and composure. All sharp angles and long limbs, her hair is cropped to fall in just the right way across her face and her gangly legs and arms make her look beautiful rather than serving to make her look lanky. And I would kill for her figure; she is thin, to the stage where her elbows are pointy. Everything about El is sharp, her humour, her intelligence and – if she hits you with them, accidently of course – her elbows. El can always be relied on to stay calm, an expression of indifference often masquerading on her face.
Rosie, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. All curves and passion. The mop of curls on her head as fiery as her temper. If El has the perfect skinny figure, Rosie takes it to another extreme, curves as far as the eye can see, she often describes herself as fat – and in truth she perhaps eats a few too many chocolate bars than she should – but her figure is one that I am sure many a boy lusts after.
Where El is quiet, Rosie is bubbly and loud. Where Rosie gets easily angered, El always has a calm, structured argument. The two couldn’t be more different and that is why the group dynamic works.
I am shocked out of my thoughts by Rosie trying to get my attention, waving a hand in front of my face.
“You blanked out again,” she tells me chuckling, “it seems like ages since you’ve done that. So what was it this time, dystopia?”
Rosie is referring to the times when I become so absorbed in a new idea for a novel that I ignore everything she tells me. Levi is looking puzzled, I must have stopped walking as I was thinking – I never was good at multitasking – because the whole group has pulled to a halt and Levi does not seem to be happy about that fact.
“It wasn’t that,” I reply, “I was just thinking.”
“About what?” Rosie presses.
“Nothing much.”
“Well can we carry on walking then,” Levi says, “some of us actually want to get there by lunch time.”
Rosie, El and I exchange glances of disbelief, the mocking tone evident even just from a few shared looks. But we carry on none the less, although we do suggest to Levi that we slow the pace down a bit this time, reminding him that are legs are nowhere near as long as his. He huffs slightly but agrees.
The journey so far seems to be constantly surprising me and Zurich does not disappoint in the department. I had thought about it as something quaint and old, but instead my wandering gaze is met by skyscrapers and glass walls, nothing at all like I expected.
The city still has a strange air to it though; it is like every city we have visited so far, each and every one has a different feel to it. It is helping me to see why Levi had such a strong desire to travel and why he likes learning about the history of places so much, he falls in love with every place he visits – it is clear in his eyes – and as I travel I am starting to understand why.
Previously to this trip I had only visited France with my family for a week one rainy summer and there is no way that that can compare to this. That trip was planned, much of the same old but so far this trip I have woken up every morning wondering what could happen today, there is a sense of adventure that being with your parents does not bring.
8:39AM (GMT) / 9:39AM (Local Time)
After meandering out way to the old city, we arrive to discover that a small street market has been set up in the area.
Levi is instantly sent into overdrive, a process that is quite interesting to watch. He begins to chirp away about this and that, little nuggets of information that he assumes must interest us, rushing about as if it is all going to disappear in five minutes, a desperate desire to take it all in before then.
And so as he buzzes about the place Rosie, El and I browse the stores at a much more leisurely pace. Surveying what is for sale and hoping that we can find something for a bit of a bargain.
“See anything you like?” an old woman asks me as I stare at a table of jewellery.
“No thank you,” I reply as politely as I can, “I’m just browsing. It is all very beautiful.”
She responds to that with a smile that reveals a few missing teeth, her wrinkled forehead creasing even further with the effort she puts into the smile, genuinely happy to receive a compliment.
“Thank you,” she replies.
Feeling slightly bad that I am not buying anything – it was truly beautiful after all – I carry on my way, pausing momentarily to glance at some paintings.
Levi is still babbling on about how amazing it is that we found this street market, that we actually managed to turn up on the right day without realising it, - what are the chances after all? – and when we all regroup ten minutes later he stands in front of us all and begins a mini speech.
“This is so cool,” he starts, “do you even know how something like this probably would have started?”
Rosie rolls her eyes, El lets out a deep sigh, we all know where this is going.
“It was probably just a gathering of traders at first, a farmer with milk from his cow, somebody from another village, some untrustworthy traveller offering something from a ‘foreign land’, and it grew into this,” at this point Levi stops to gesture around at the array of stalls, “can you imagine? I bet those people never thought it would still be going on today, let alone it growing into something such as this.”
Levi pauses to take a breath and Rosie interrupts him before he can continue.
“That’s very interesting Levi,” she begins kindly, “just not to me, so if you’d like to shut up now you’re more than welcome to do so.”
Levi’s face falls as soon as she says this and I feel bad for him. This is clearly something he is passionate about and you cannot blame him for wanting to share his enthusiasm, plus, it was kind of interesting, if you could be bothered to actually listen that it.
“I thought it was quite interesting,” I tell Rosie, “you don’t usually learn about this stuff.”
“There’s a reason for that,” I hear Rosie mumble under her breath.
But Levi is quick to try to use my support to help him win the argument and to convince Rosie that it is normal to talk about this stuff.
“There you go,” he says proudly, “Jess finds it interesting, so I should be allowed to talk about this stuff.”
Rosie continues to stare at him with an annoyed expression, but then she turns to me with a teasing smile.
“You do realise that you’re not dating him anymore Jess, you don’t have to pretend to be interested anymore,” she tells me in a deadpan tone.
Although I know that my cheeks are not flushing red, it certainly feels like they are and as my face begins to feel like it is burning, I hide slightly towards my brown waves, there is some advantages to having long hair after all.
Rosie chuckles when she realises my embarrassment, whereas El shoots me a sympathetic smile.
“You are only pretending to be interested after all,” Rosie says, “that is the only reason isn’t it?”
I am used to Rosie being a bubbly ball of energy, a positive spirit who always manages to lift me up out of a bad mood. But as Levi’s face drops once again, I realise that this is not a nice Rosie. She doesn’t seem to realise that her words are hurting his feelings.
It has always been this way between Rosie and Levi, the two of them can be the closest siblings on the planet but they both seem to feel an unnecessary need to put the other down. As if it personally wounds them to see their sibling excited about something, Levi always says Rosie’s cooking is shit and Rosie always tells him that what he is talking about is boring. Neither is willing to admit that they might actually find it interesting too.
“Actually,” I reply scathingly, “I do find it interesting.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Well then I suppose you and Levi can go off and talk about that together,” she tells me, sounding hurt for some reason I cannot understand.
“Fine,” I say, “come on Levi.”
I tug him by the arm and lead him over towards the stalls on the opposite side of the street, trying to distance the two of us from Rosie and El, I know everything will work out fine between us once we’ve spent half an hour away from each other, it always seems to work like that.
“Thanks,” Levi tells me shyly once we are a suitable distance away from them, “you really didn’t have to do that for me though.”
“Do what?”
“Lie.”
“I wasn’t lying,” I assure him, “I actually do find that stuff interesting. I mean sure, maybe you go on about it a little bit too much but I’m sick of seeing you and Rosie tear each other’s hobbies apart.”
“We don’t do that,” Levi says.
“Yeah you do, I mean you always try her food and then proceed to tell her how shit it is.”
"That’s because it usually is.”
“It’s not and you know it.”
“Okay so maybe it is kind of nice,” Levi concedes.
“Kind of nice?” I repeat disbelievingly, “I swear to god Rosie must have sold her soul to Satan for that cupcake recipe.”
“I think saying she sold her soul to Satan might be a bit extreme,” Levi tells me.
“Have you not tried them or something?”
“I have tried them.”
“And?”
“And they’re pretty damn delicious,” Levi admits, “but I still don’t think we’re that bad to each other.”
“When Rosie told you she wanted to open her own restaurant what did you say?” I ask.
“I can remember,” Levi replies sheepishly.
“I seem to remember that you told her she’d have a better chance of flying a pig to the moon.”
“Well she told me that the devil would go to work on ice-skates before I passed uni.”
“Exactly,” I said, “you both have extremely weird insults and you both take insulting each other way too far.”
“I’m sorry mum,” Levi says teasingly.
“Fuck off.”
“Sorry,” he replies, seriously this time.
“Apology not accepted.”
“Honestly, you say Rosie and I are mean to each other well you’re meaner.”
“Fuck off Levi,” is my simple reply.
7:49PM (GMT) / 8:49PM (Local Time)
For the first time all night the arena is totally silent, as they stare at Xavier expectantly.
Then suddenly someone starts chanting and the room interrupts into a call of ‘put it on’ shouted rhythmically.
“It’s what the people want,” James tells him, swinging the neon pink bra around.
It was thrown onto the stage by a crazed fan a few minutes ago and since then James has been repeatedly daring Xavier to put it on and wear it for the rest of the concert, so far Xavier has been resistant. I don’t entirely blame him.
El turns to me with excitement in her eyes.
“Do you think he’ll actually do it,” she asks quickly.
Her words blur together but somewhere out of the gibberish I actually manage to piece together what she says.
“I don’t know,” I reply honestly.
Whilst James is known for being daring and up for anything, Xavier is clearly much more reserved, to the point where I often wonder whether he actually likes being in the band at all. The band wouldn’t be complete without him though, not only is he the baby of the group but he also keeps them on task during interviews and awards shows, without him the other boys would be uncontrollable, they sometimes still are.
Xavier continues to stare at the bra with a dubious expression, as if he is weighing up the advantages and disadvantages.
Eventually a loud sigh can be heard through the microphone and he reaches out a hand to take the bra.
“Fine,” he sighs.
The crowd of course interrupts into cheers and whoops, just the idea of Xavier in a bra is enough to start me giggling and when he eventually puts it on, the sight is met by many wolf whistles and cat calls. Xavier turns to the audience, his expression already regretful and speaks softly into the microphone.
“I hate you guys,” he says jokingly, “I bet normal seventeen year old guys don’t have to do this.”
His statement is – to some extent – true. After all, even Levi who has been known to wear mismatching socks on his arms and a Santa hat in the middle of July has never been caught wearing a bra – not to say that it has never happened privately. And so as Xavier starts to play his guitar, I can’t help but wonder what his life would be like if it wasn’t for the band.
It is not the first time I have had these thoughts, after the official autobiography was released I thought about nothing else for a few days. All of the boys’ teenage years have been the band and it is indeed difficult to imagine them worrying about prom dates and test results. In fact it is hard to imagine them as anything other than band members, in an environment different than concerts and red carpets, it seems as if you are taking them out of their natural habitat if you do so, it as if they have always belonged, even when they were gawky twelve year olds with pimples and horrible wire-rimmed glasses (yes, I am talking about Tom). It’s just weird to think about.
I shake my head out of my thoughts and refocus my attention onto the stage where the boys are launching into a song I am yet to hear them play on the tour, and indeed as Tom introduces it he mentions this fact.
“So this is a song we haven’t played on the tour so far as we’ve been trying to figure out a couple of things,” he says, “so Xav wrote this, and this one of the songs off the deluxe version of our new album and it’s called ‘The Road Back Home’.”
The scream in my ear from the side Rosie is stood on is enough to warn me of her excitement and indeed she turns to me with a massive grin.
“They’re finally playing it,” she says, “they’re finally getting round to playing my favourite song. It’s about time.”
She does not give me a chance to reply and instead whips around, excited about the song and the concert and the trip and just everything in general it would seem. I feel a twist in my stomach – a good twist that is – when I think of the trip we are on, it already seems to be better than anything I imagined. Right now, the only way I can see it getting better is if we actually met them.
But for now I am content – more than content actually – with the concerts and so I sing along at the top of my lungs and dance when they ask me too.
Because sure they’re not singing about me, and they probably don’t really know I exist, but it’s nice to pretend – at least for a few moments – that they do, and that they care and that if they met me they’d want to marry me instantly.
Because who doesn’t like to dream, and with them all up on that stage it’s hard not to.
xxx
Authors Note: Woohoo! New chapter! Hopefully there will be double updates every week from now on but I can't promise anything. So what did you all think of this chapter, any guesses for where this story is progressing?
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