———
March, 2011
French is probably one of the most beautiful languages out there. Sometimes I even think in French, solely because I love it more than English. It's definitely my favourite language to speak so whenever I get the opportunity to speak it, I take it.
Emma is waiting in the driveway of my aunt's property in her white Toyota Corolla to take me out for lunch. We have our first French mock exam on Monday so we decided that today we'll hang out together except, we're only allowed to speak French. Whoever speaks English first has to pay for dinner tonight.
I'm so glad that we both speak it as a second language because now I get to actually talk in French more often. Back home, nobody except my dad could speak French so I never really got to do things like this.
"Bonjour, Emma." I greet her as I enter her car.
Emma is one of the only friends I've really made from school, or at least the only one I made that I'm actually willing to do stuff with outside of school. She's a year older than me but because I'm doing all my exams this year instead of splitting it into two years like most people, we ended up being in the same classes.
"Bonjour Hayley. Où devrions-nous aller déjeuner?" she asks me. ["Where should we go for lunch?"]
I hate when people ask me where we should eat. I can never decide what I want because there's way too many options to choose from, especially with living so close to the city.
"Surprends-moi." I smile at her as she backs out the driveway. ["Surprise me."]
I've known Emma for about six months now and it's safe to say we're basically two peas in a pod. Asking her to surprise me is telling her that I completely trust her judgement, which of course I do.
After twenty minutes of singing along to The Beatles, we park and Emma leads the way to a small diner. I've never been to this place before but I already love it. The diner is very secluded, which I like. It reminds me a lot of The Frosty Palace from Grease, the chairs and tables that look identical to the ones in the film. Maybe one day I'll bring Louis here, I know how much he loves that movie.
"Waouh, comment as-tu trouvé cet endroit?" I ask in amazement as we get seated. ["Woah, where did you find this place?"]
"Le gars dont je t'ai parlé, celui avec qui je viens de rompre travaillait ici. Tu aimes ça?" ["That guy I told you about, the one I just broke up with, used to work here. You like it?"]
"Je l'aime. Est-ce juste moi ou est-ce que ça te rappelle le-" I start to ask but she cuts me off to finish my sentence. ["I love it. Is it just me or does it remind you of the-"]
"Frosty Palace de la Grease. Oui, j'ai dit exactement la même chose quand je suis arrivé ici pour la première fois." she laughs at us both making the same connection. ["Frosty Palace from Grease. Yes, I said the same exact thing when I first came here."]
A waitress comes over to take our orders, smiling politely at us while Emma and I decide what we want. She looks confused as we speak in French to each other but once I speak to her in English, relief visibly washes over her face. Poor woman probably thought we were actually about to order in French too.
As the waitress walks away, Emma starts laughing and I look at her in confusion.
"Qu'est ce qu'il y a de si drôle?" ["What's so funny?"]
"Tu avais un accent quand tu es revenu à l'anglais." She answers me and I start laughing along with her. ["You had an accent when you switched back to English."]
When I was little my grandparents, on my dad's side, would invite us up to France and spoke French to my dad. I think that's when I decided I wanted to learn French too so I would always make my dad speak it to me so I could learn. I guess that's where I picked up the accent because whenever I do speak in French, people think I actually grew up in France.
Our food arrived within ten minutes due to the diner being pretty empty. I must say that the service in here is the best I've gotten since moving to London and the food actually tastes amazing. It's kind of hard to find good food close to home but this place is officially on my list of places I'll be coming to more often.
"Alors tu retournes à la domicile quand tu as fini tes examens?" Emma asks me as we eat. ["So are you moving back home when you're done exams?"]
"Je rentre chez moi pour l'été mais je ne recule pas." I tell her my new plan. ["I'm going home for the summer but I'm not moving back."]
"Vous séjournez à Londres?" ["You're staying in London?"]
"Ouais, j'y ai pensé et je pense que je veux rester." ["Yeah, I thought about it and I think I wanna stay."] That's the first time I've told someone that. I haven't talked to my parents yet, or Aunt Heather or anyone because it's only been a thought, I never made a final choice.
"Yay, ça veut dire que tu seras plus proche de moi quand j'irai à Paris l'année prochaine!" Emma says excitedly and now that she mentions that, it makes me want to stay even more. ["Yay, that means you'll be closer to me when I move to Paris next year."]
We finish eating and split the cheque for what we ate. Afterwards, Emma decides she wants to go driving, so we do just that. We drive for half an hour until we end up at this park. It's big but only a few people are here currently.
"We're going for a walk, c'mon." Emma speaks to me quickly.
I step out of the car, following behind Emma silently when it hits me. She just told me we're going for a walk in English.
Immediately a smile spreads across my face because- "Ha! I win. You spoke English first."
Her eyes widen in realisation. "Shit." she curses.
"Looks like you're paying for pizza tonight."
She groans as I hum in satisfaction at her defeat. We walk side by side now, only silent for a moment before Emma brings up a new topic.
"You're still into that show with the people who sing and Simon Cowell is a judge, right?"
"You mean X-Factor? Yeah, why?" I laugh at her description of the show.
Emma stops walking and pulls out two tickets from her purse.
"Okay good because I know someone who knows someone and ended up with two tickets for a show next Tuesday. Wanna come with?" she grins as she already knows my answer.
She's talking about going to a show for the tour that happens after every season where the finalists perform. Immediately I start thinking about the boys and how I've never seen them perform all together live.
"Of course I want to." I respond gratefully.
We continue walking for a while around the park, talking about our upcoming exams. Then I notice a group of boys a couple feet from us. There's one in particular who is definitely staring at Emma.
"Em, don't look now but one of those boys is totally checking you out." I tell her while discretely glancing over to the group.
Emma turns around to look, doing the complete opposite of what I told her. "Where?"
I hit her on the arm to get her to stop staring in the direction of the group. "I told you not to look, idiot."
"I wanted to see for my-"
"He's coming over here." I quickly cut her off when I see the boy walking behind Emma.
"Wait, what? What am I-"
"Hi." A boy with blonde hair and hazel eyes comes up to us and speaks.
I take a step back and shoot Emma a wink when she turns to look at me. I pretend to go on my phone to keep myself busy, so I don't eavesdrop on their conversation completely. However, I'm not far enough away so I end up hearing everything.
The boy's name is Oliver and the only thing I can think of is Oliver Twist.
"I couldn't help but notice you when you walked by me earlier. You're really pretty." the boy, Oliver, says boldly.
Emma is really pretty, he's not wrong. With her dark hair and striking blue eyes; I'm jealous of her eyes. Not only are her facial features beautiful, but she has a stunning figure that I'm sure every guy she walks by notices.
"If you aren't busy tonight, would you maybe want to go get dinner with me?" Oliver seems confident, simply by the way he stands he radiates it, but he keeps running a hand through his wavy hair and shoving it back in his pocket, showing he's still the slightest bit nervous.
This bitch better say yes or I swear I'll slap her across the head. Oliver is cute and he seems really sweet, perfect for Emma. She looks back at me, looking for confirmation and I nod my head in encouragement.
"Okay, sure. I'd like that."
Yes, yes, yes.
I watch as they exchange numbers and Oliver walks away. Emma and I stay silent on our walk back to the car, however the minute we're in the vehicle, she squeals and lets out all of her excitement.
"I can't believe that just happened. Holy shit." she looks at me excitedly but then halts all her movements. "Wait, what am I going to wear? How am I going to do my hair? And my makeup, oh my god I don't even know where we're going."
"Relax, let's drive back to your place, I'll help you pick an outfit and I'll do your hair and makeup."
Once I've assured Emma that there's no reason to panic, she drives us back to her apartment. We only had about three hours to get her ready, but we managed. As promised, I did her hair and her makeup, thoroughly enjoying every second of it.
"Holy, you should do this as a career." Emma looks at herself in the mirror, admiring my work I've done on her head and face.
It's funny she says that because that's part of the reason I want to stay in London. I'm happiest when I get to style people's hair. Though it started as just a hobby, I'm starting to think it could be more.
~
Emma and I exit my car so we can make our way to the entrance of the hotel Harry told me to meet them at. We just left The O2, the show was amazing. The boys sound amazing together, I definitely get why everyone raves about them online and now I cannot wait to hear their album, the one Liam told me they're working on.
I haven't told Emma yet that I know the boys of One Direction. I do plan on telling her later, I need to tell one of my friends about my crush problem and I'd prefer it to be her. Unlike my other friends who are already huge fans of the boys, Emma doesn't really know who they are so she won't freak out when meeting them.
"You know that band, um, with those boys. What's it called again?" Emma asks as she stands up from tying her boots again.
"One Direction?"
"Yeah, them. That blonde one was cute, don't you think?"
I laugh at Emma, she clearly has a type.
"Sure, sure." I agree.
"Do you know his name?" She follows me through the front door. "I want to internet stalk him when we get back home. Speaking of, when will that be?"
"Oh, just after we're done here."
"And what are we doing here again?" she questions.
I was waiting for her to ask what we're doing here since I obviously didn't tell her I'm bringing her to meet One Direction. Since Simon knows who I am because of my parents, he has no problem with me coming to pay my friends a visit tonight.
"Trust me." I don't give her an answer, only gesturing for her to follow me into the elevator.
"Can you at least tell me who we're here to see?" Emma asks after a moment of silence and we've exited the confinement of the elevator.
"Remember that band, with those boys? One Direction?" I walk towards the room I was told to meet them in.
"Yeah?"
"Them." I smile at her confused expression as I knock on room 304's door.
"What do you mean?" is the last thing she asks before the door opens, revealing Louis.
"Georgia Rose!" He pulls me into a hug.
I hear more footsteps and soon enough, Liam, Zayn, Niall, and Harry are also crowding around the door. Each of them greet me before Harry lifts me up and takes me inside, practically throwing me onto the bed.
"And who is this pretty lady?" Liam asks, looking at Emma.
"I'm Emma." she says politely and stretches her hand out to shake his.
"I'm Liam, it's nice to meet you." he responds. "This is Louis, Niall, and Zayn." He also introduces the others, well everyone except Harry.
"Excuse me Liam, what about me?" Harry gets offended that Liam 'forgot' him.
"Right, that's Harry." Liam points to the boy next to me. I laugh but stop immediately when Harry gives me a very unimpressed look.
"Nice to meet you all." Emma wears a bright smile and then makes eye contact with me. I can tell she has many questions, however those will have to be answered later.
The seven of us sit around the room. Louis, Niall and Emma sit on the floor for some reason. Liam is on the couch while Harry, Zayn, and I are on the bed. My head rests on Harry's shoulder the entire time we've been here because I feel comfortable being close to him all the time.
"So Liam and Hayley have known each other since 2008?" Emma asks for clarification after all of us have helped in explaining how we all came to be friends.
"Yep." Niall answers her. I notice he's been doing most of the talking when it comes to her.
"Hails, can I talk to you for a sec?" Emma gets up and pulls my arm before I can even respond. She drags me like a ragdoll to the bathroom, the sleeve of the hoodie I stole from Liam earlier being stretched over my hand.
I slap her hand off of me when she doesn't let go of me yet. "What's the problem?"
"Niall." she says his name only, no elaboration to follow.
"What?" I ask. "Meaning?"
"I'm conflicted." she, once again, doesn't elaborate on her point.
"Please start explaining what you mean because I'm so lost."
"I just started going out with Oliver, but Niall. God he's so cute in person. And why is he so sweet? I'm really into Oliver, why would you do this to me?" She hits me like I did to her a minute ago and my reflexes cause me to withdraw my hand quickly.
"Do what exactly?" I question what it is that I'm being blamed for.
"Introduce me to Niall." she states as though what she meant was obvious. "Anyways, what's going on with you and Harry? You never told me you had your eye on someone." She nudges me now and my eyes widen.
"No, no. Let me stop you right there." I open the bathroom door again and begin to walk out.
"Tu me dis qu'il n'y a rien entre vous deux?" She speaks in French now that I've opened the door. ["So you're telling me there's nothing between you two?"]
"No, there isn't. Now shush." I dismiss her and drag her back outside, sitting her next to Niall again. She eyes me as I take my previous seat next to Harry.
"Arrête de me regarder." I speak in French hoping that none of them understand the language. ["Stop looking at me."]
"Pourquoi ne vas-tu pas dehors avec ton ami, Hayley." she moves her eyes to quickly look at Harry. ["Why don't you go outside with your friend, Hayley."]
"You speak French?" Harry looks at me, shocked.
"I thought you knew that." I say seriously but he shakes his head.
"Am I allowed to know what you guys just said?" Louis asks.
"It doesn't matter." I quickly shoot down the idea.
"Okay then." he accepts my answer. "Can we please find me a girlfriend? I'm lonely." Louis talks to the whole group now.
"Ou, I'll help you." I turn to look at Louis excitedly.
"For someone who's never had a boyfriend you sure do love playing little miss matchmaker." Liam looks at me amusingly.
"Coaches don't always play the game." I shrug.
"You've really never had a boyfriend?" Harry asks, the way he phrases it and the expression on his face telling me that he doesn't believe that.
"Yeah? Why do you seem so shocked?" I look over to him.
"Well I'd think that a girl as pretty as you surely would've had boys chasing after her." he says casually with a shrug.
I actually feel my cheeks start to heat up at his comment. What the fuck is wrong with me?
"Boys chase. I just remove myself from the track before they can catch up. Can we go to Matt's room? I have something really important to discuss with him." I change the subject faster than Harry pulls me back down from getting up to leave.
Emma gives me a look and I'd rather not have her staring me down like that all night.
"D'accord, je n'apprécie pas ce regard alors je vais y aller." I say to her and stand up to follow through with my new plan. ["Okay, I don't appreciate that look so I'm going to go."]
As I stand up, the others look at me in confusion, obviously none of them understanding what I just said to Emma. I decide that I don't want to go outside alone so I grab Harry's hand and pull him up as well. Telling the others that I'll be back, I lead Harry out of the room and then into the hallway, shutting the door behind us.
"What are we doing?" Harry asks and looks at me confused.
"Walk the halls with me?" I suggest because I don't actually want to go outside, I just wanted to get out of that room and away from Emma's stares.
"Sure." he agrees, then surprisingly slings an arm around my shoulder as we walk the long hallway.
"So what's up Harold?" I'm genuinely interested to hear how this tour has been.
"Tour is so fun, I can't wait until we get to go on our own tour after we release this album we're working on." he speaks with excitement, bringing a smile to my face.
"Oh yeah, Liam mentioned that. How's that going?"
"So well, I think you're going to like it." He seems sure of what he's saying and I trust that he'll be right.
"I'm sure I will. When are you guys supposed to release it?"
"Sometime in November I think. Also, we're recording our first music video in July for our lead single on the album. You didn't hear that from me." he adds the last part and smiles.
"Really? That's so cool, am I allowed to know what the song is called?" I ask curiously.
"What Makes You Beautiful, but we haven't recorded it yet. We're supposed to go to Sweden soon to record it."
"Okay, that's cool."
Harry continues telling me about the music they're working on, seemingly over the moon about it all. The way he talks about music just shows how much he loves it. I know he's going to make it big in this industry. At some point during our conversation we sat down on the floor. Harry's leaning against the wall and I'm against the opposite one.
"Guess what." I suddenly request of him.
"You're pregnant! Who's the father?" I hit him across the head to wipe that amused expression off of his face and he winces. "Ouch! You hit really hard you know. And those rings don't help."
"No, idiot, I'm not pregnant." I shake my head at him.
"Yeah, I got that." He drops the hand that was rubbing the spot I hit. "Then what am I guessing?"
"I'm telling you this because I need to tell someone so don't tell the others yet, I want to surprise them." I lay down the ground rules and then finally tell him what I've been dying to share with someone else. "I'm not moving back after I graduate, I'm staying in London."
"Really?! That's great! I wasn't going to be ready to say bye to you yet."
"Aw, how sweet of you Harold." I place my hand over my heart dramatically. "Aren't you going to ask me why I've decided to stay?"
"Oh no, I just assumed it was because you secretly fell in love with me and needed more time to figure out how to tell me." he says seriously with a shrug and I give him a very disapproving look. "I sense that's not why so please enlighten me."
"Okay so, I haven't really told anyone this, not even Emma, but basically I'm staying because I want to go to cosmetology school." I tell him, finally glad I'm telling someone other than Aunt Heather about my actual dream in life.
"Cosmetology is like beauty stuff, right?" he asks for clarification.
"Yeah, like hair, skin, nails. All that fun stuff." I briefly explain.
"So you're not going to uni anymore?"
"Nope." I say proudly. "I didn't really want to go to college to begin with, that was more my parents dream than mine. I've always thought it'd be cool to be a hair stylist or something but my mum always said that wouldn't make me any money and that I need to get a proper education. But, now that I'm here in London and have more freedom, I'm going to do what I want to do." I give him a small insight into my thought process that went into making this decision and he sits there and listens.
"I'm happy for you then." he says genuinely. "Have you told your parents yet?"
"No, not yet. Heather is helping me figure out how to do it. I'm also kind of scared to tell them so I'm waiting."
"Why are you scared?" he asks.
"My parents aren't the best at accepting I have my own outlook on life." I tell him truthfully and then realise that this is the first time I'm truly opening up to someone about something.
"I hope it goes well then." he smiles. "So when you're a famous hairstylist are you still going to give me your services for free?"
"You're funny. You'll get a discount on 'my services' at most."
"Wow, so I still have to pay you to do my hair even though I do you a favour and pretend to not know you're in love with me?" he picks up that joke again and I groan as he smiles.
"If you keep playing this game I'll make you pay double the original price." I respond and we both start laughing.
Harry and I actually stay out in the hallway for a while. It's only when I get a call from Emma that I realise it's just about time for us to head back home.
"Come on." Harry pulls me up by my hand and then surprises me by keeping his hand in mine.
Our laughter bounces off the walls as Harry begins to run down the hall, keeping a tight grip on my hand and making sure I keep up with him. And I realise it then how much I seem to laugh whenever I'm around Harry, how happy our friendship has made me.