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Prologue -

A few years in the future 

“Happy Birthday!” the boys shouted running into my bedroom. Great! All I wanted was a lie in and a PJ’s and movie day. I was hoping the boys would forget or at least not make a fuss.

“ Wake up! You’re 25 today and later we’re gonna get leatehredz!” Tom said jumping on the bed making me sit up. I swear he has been obsessed with that word ever since he accidentally tweeted it once when he was drunk.

“Here, open this present, it’s from me and the boys!” Siva smiled, thrusting a parcel wrapped in blue wrapping paper at me. I carefully untied the red ribbon and placed it on the side. I liked to collect the ribbons from the presents that people had given me as it meant that I would always remember who had been thoughtful enough to give me something.

“You might want to open that present before your next birthday, Sophie “ Max smiled at me. I ripped the wrapping paper off and let it fall to the floor, revealing a photo album. I opened the album and slowly looked at the photos inside. I carefully looked at the first picture, taking in every detail. It was of the boys and me at the 2012 Capital fm summertime ball. I hadn’t seen the boys in months so they had given me VIP tickets with backstage access as a special treat. They had been doing lots of promo around the world and I had been busy working on my new movie. We spoke on skype a few times but it wasn’t the same as seeing the boys in person. Plus I had been cast as one of the main characters in a film I was working on so when we did skype it wasn’t for long.

“Do you like it?” Siva asked. I must have been looking at the picture for a long time as when I looked up the boys were all looking at me nervously. “Just say if you don’t like it or don’t want it, we would understand…”

“N… no, I love it!” I smiled. I got out of bed and hugged them all.

“Are you sure? You haven’t even seen the other photos” Tom said. He looked more relaxed than he had a minute ago but I could sense that he was still worried.

“Tom, I love it, it is best present I have ever had!” I said pulling him into a hug. “Now lets look at the other photos” We spent the next hour looking at the rest of the photo album, I memorized every smile, every frown and every embarrassing photo that was in the album, until I came to the last page. There were 2 photos; both were of me and…him. I quickly shut the album and ran out of the room. I ran down the hall and into the bathroom. I shut the door. Just as I locked the door the tears began to fall. It hadn’t been the same since he had died. I missed him terribly and even though the boys tried to hide it I could tell that they missed him too. He had been part of their band, sure they had all had their ups and downs but at the end of the day he was like a brother to them, family. We had all loved him and nothing had been the same since he had died. Everybody was devastated when he passed away and it seemed like I was the only one who had never quite gotten over it. I couldn’t even say his name. Sometimes when I was feeling down or needed someone to talk to I would visit his grave. I would sit there and talk to him and it felt like he was there, like he was alive again.

“Why the hell did you stick those photos in?!” I heard Max shout. “You know that she has never gotten over his death!”

“And you think I have!” Tom yelled back. “I thought it would do her good to see a picture of her with him where they are both happy and smiling. How was I supposed to know she was going to react like that!”

“Calm down” Siva said. “You two fighting isn’t going to help anyone. I’m going to see if Sophie is alright” I could hear his footsteps getting closer and he knocked on the door. “Can I come in?”

“One minute” I said grabbing a piece of tissue and drying my eyes, luckily my mascara hadn’t smudged. I unlocked the door and he walked in.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine” I said smiling weakly.

“Come here” Siva said pulling me into a hug. His hugs always managed to comfort me.

“I’m really sorry Sophie” Tom said walking in to the bathroom.

“That’s okay, I know you didn’t except me to act like this. What time are the girls coming round?” I asked pulling away from Seev.

“Kelsey said that she would be round soon and I think the others are coming other later.”

A few minutes later Kelsey arrived.

Part 1

Autumn/ Fall 2011

“Where are we going today, girls and boys?” Martin said sitting down in a seat.

 

“America!” The boys all shouted at the flip cam that Big Kev was holding. We were on a flight to America as the boys were going to film the music video for Lightning out in the desert. There was a whole bunch of us going; the boys (obviously), Jayne, the girlfriends, Martin, Big Kev and me.

 

“Who is excited?”

 

“I am!” Tom said in his good boy voice making us all laugh. “We’re going to America! We’re going to America!”

 

“I call dibs on the window seat!” Jay called out.

 

“Naaaahhh, mate! That’s not fair, you always sit by the window!” Nathan moaned.

 

“Are you guys seriously arguing about who sits by the window?” I asked raising my eyebrows. They both looked at me, then at each other and then back to me before saying “yeah”.

 

“I swear you boys are 5 year olds trapped in grown mens bodies” Jayne laughed. “Why doesn’t Sophie sit by the window? That would stop you two from arguing”

 

“Ya see Jayne that is great idea except for the fact that we both want to sit next to her so we can annoy the crap out of her” Nath smiled.

 

“Fine, I’ll sit in the middle of you two” I said putting my bag into the luggage compartment above the seats. “But can one of you please pull the lid down on the luggage compartment because I can’t reach.”

 

“I’ll help you!” Nathan said pulling down the lid.

 

“Shotgun!” Jay yelled rushing to sit down in the seat next to the window.

 

“I thought shotgun only worked in cars and buses?” I asked as I sat in the middle seat next to Jay.

 

“Yeah but Nathan doesn’t need to know that” he whispered.

 

“Nathan doesn’t need to know what?” Nathan said sitting in the seat on the other side of me.

 

“Nothing!” Jay and I said together.

 

“Okay… well anyway you two had better not start talking about Avatar, I don’t think I can stand another flight listening to you two go on about Pandora and Neytiri. I might just have to lock myself in the toilet for the whole flight”

 

“Nathan, I swear you are one of the biggest drama queens I have ever met” I laughed.

 

“Says the queen of the drama queens!” he joked back.

 

“Hey! You are only jealous of the fact that our teachers always said I was better at acting then you” I smiled.

 

“Okay, you got me, but don’t act like you aren’t jealous of that fact that I can sing you can’t!”

 

“And here we have two very annoying creatures called teenagers. They can usually be found arguing, talking, eating and sleeping. We are fortunate enough to be able to witness these two weird creatures arguing at their finest!” Max interrupted, using his best David Attenborough voice. He had gotten the flip cam and was now filming us.

 

“Hey! You are just jealous because you’ve forgotten what it is like to be young and feel the wind through your hair” Nathan grinned.

 

“What on earth are you talking about? I feel the wind through my hair all the time!” Max joked. Suddenly we heard a beeping noise and the camera turned itself off. “Damn it! It must have run out of battery” Max said giving the camera back to Martin and returning to his seat.

 

“Come on mate! I’m getting bored here, when are we gonna take off?” Tom shouted.

 

As soon as Tom had finished speaking the tannoy made a noise signalling that the captain was about to speak. “ Ladies and Gentlemen thank you for your patience. As soon as the safety talk has finished and we are given clearance to start down the runway we will begin our flight.” A few minutes later the captain had finished the safety talk. At last he said, “ Please make sure that you have your seatbelt on as in a few moments we will begin our flight”

“At last!” Tom said as the plane began to ascend into the air and everyone else started cheering.

Part 2

“I’m starting to feel sick” Jay said after we had been in the air for 2 hours.

“What? But you travel all the time, surely you aren’t travel sick?” I asked confused.

 

“I think it might be that milk I had in my coffee earlier”

“Well it did have bits in and I’m pretty sure that when milk has unidentifiable floating objects in you’re not supposed to drink it…”

“Yeah but I paid for that milk with my own money so I didn’t want to waste a single drop of it”

 

“Okay but it is your own fault if you are sick. Remember that we tried to tell you not to drink it, well all of us except Tom who wanted to see what your reaction would be like… Anyway please try not to be sick”

“I’ll try and hey, it was an experience that I will make sure will never happen again” he smiled. By now Jay had turned completely pale and look like he was about throw up.

“Hello, would you charming young men like anything?” An air hostess said coming over to our seats completely ignoring me. She smiled coyly at Jay and Nathan, fluttering her long (obviously false) eyelashes.

 

“No thanks, I’m fine at the moment but I might change my mind later” Nathan smiled cheekily at her and winked.

 

“Okay and what about you? She asked turning her attention back to Jay.

“I feel a bit sick so could I just have some water please?” he asked.

“Oh you poor thing! Of course you can” she said flicking her long blonde hair over her shoulder. If I had seen her in out in town I would have thought she was a supermodel. She picked up a plastic cup from her refreshments trolley and poured some water into it. “You two are in that boyband, The Wanted, aren’t you?” she said handing the cup to Jay. “ I absolutely love your songs, especially Glad You Came.”

“Sorry to interrupt this lovely conversation but could I please have some water?” I asked butting in.

 

“Of course” She said giving me a fake smile. She poured me a drink of water.

“Here you go!” she said before handing it to me and giving me a dirty look. “So are you one of the girlfriends?”

 

I almost choked on the sip of water I had just taken. “Um no, I’m a best friend” I said quickly.

 

“So, you guys must have a lot of fun being in a boyband?” She asked turning back to Nathan.

“I guess you could say that” he smirked.

 

“Here you go.” Jay interrupted handing his cup back. I quickly finished my drink and gave my cup back too.

When the airhostess was out of hearing range Nathan said, “ did you see the way she looked at me? I think she was trying to flirt with me.”

 

“Aww mate, isn’t it obvious it was me she was interested in” Jay joked.

 

I rolled my eyes at them and said jokingly, “ Oh no, don’t tell me Jaythan are going to break up over an air hostess.”

“Aww is Sophie getting jealous that she won’t have us all to herself?” Nathan grinned.

“Don’t worry Soph, there is plenty of us to go around” Jay joined in.

 

“Okay you got me” I laughed. “Now if you’ll excuse I need the toilet” I said getting up out of my seat.

 

“Well hurry back, I want to use you as a pillow” Nathan yawned.

 

When I got to the toilets there was a long queue. 

“This had better not take very long.” I said to myself.

 

“we could be here a while” the man in front of me said, turning around to face me. “I’ve been here for 10 minutes and the person in there still hasn’t come out.”

 

“What is taking them so long?” I asked.

 

“No idea.”

 

Finally after another 5 minutes someone finally came out of the toilet and the line started to decrease quickly as everyone was so desperate to get back to their seat and go to sleep. Finally I was at the front of the line.

 

When I finally returned to my sear I found Jay and Nathan and almost everyone around us had gone to sleep. I sat down, put my headphones on, closed my eyes and waited for sleep to come.

Part 3

 

“Hey, Sophie are you still asleep?” I heard jay whisper to me.

“No, I learnt to talk in people in my sleep” I yawned. I opened my eyes and stretched my arms out in front of me to wake myself up.

“Everyone else is awake, well everyone apart from Martin” Nathan whispered.

“Watch this” Tom whisper from behind us. He got up and walked to Martin, Big Kev and Jayne’s seats, then he got his hand out and twisted Martins nipple.

“Oww” Martin yelled waking up, making everyone laugh. “You’re a bastard Tom, did you know that?” he said half in pain and half laughing.

“So I’ve been told” Tom laughed as he walked back to his seat.

A few seconds later the tannoy went off and the captain made an announcement. “Please can all passengers return to their seats and put their seatbelts on as we will be descending down to the runway in a few minutes.”

We all put our seatbelts back on and the boys got out their phones to tweet the fans.

“Hey Sophie, do you want to tweet anyone?” Nath asked me.

“No, I’m good thanks”

“Okay”

A few minutes later we had landed and were getting off the plane.

“Right, does everyone have everything?” Big Kev asked.

“Yes” we all replied.

We all picked up our bags and got our things out of the luggage compartment. Then we all followed Martin and Big Kev through the gangway and down the steps.

“Thank you for flying with us, we hope you enjoyed your flight and we would love it if you could fly with us again” the blond airhostess said to us as we stepped off the plane.

“This way” Martin said walking towards the airport entrance.

When we were inside we were surprised to see that there were a few fans waiting for the boys as none of their music had been released in America yet. While the boys signed things and took pictures with the fans me, Martin, Big Kev, Jayne, Nareesha and Kelsey picked up the rest of the luggage from the luggage conveyor belt.

“Has anyone seen Jay’s bag?” Jayne asked when we had almost all the luggage.

 

“Nope, I bet he’s lost it” Nareesha said.

 

“Wasn’t his luggage the first to be put on the luggage belt on the way here?” Kelsey asked.

 

“Yeah” Martin answered. “He’s lost his things again, hasn’t he?”

 

“I swear that boy loses everything” I said.

 

“Oh well, let’s get this luggage into the van before we lose anything else. I think the boys have finished with the fans now.” Jayne said.

 

We found the boys who had been given various gifts from the fans and made our way to the exit of the airport.

 

“Hey, where is my stuff?” Jay asked, noticing that nobody had his bag.

“Yeah about that, your luggage kind of got lost and is in a completely different country now but look on the bright side, it is a fantastic excuse to go shopping.” I smiled.

“I didn’t like any of the clothes in there anyway” Jay grinned as we got into the van.

Part 4 

 

A few hours later we arrived at the hotel and were parking in the hotel car park. It was one of those really big 5 star ones that you see in the movies that has a swimming pool and hundreds of rooms..

 

“What do you lot think of the hotel?” Jayne asked the boys.

 

“Well I don’t think we will be complaining” Jay smiled.

 

“Nice!” Tom, Nathan and Max said in sync.

 

“It looks wonderful” Siva grinned.

 

“How did we afford this?” Max asked.

 

“You see, to be able to afford it some of you will have to share rooms.” Jayne explained. “Obviously Kelsey and Tom will be sharing and so will Seev and Nareesha but the rest of you will have to pick room mates. Sophie, unfortunately you will have to share with one of the boys”

 

“That’s fine” I said happy that I even got to stay in the hotel and got a free holiday.

 

“You can share with me, it’ll be like when we were kids and used to have sleep-over’s” Nathan smiled. “Well, I mean as long as that’s okay with you. I’d understand if you didn’t want to seeing as we’re older now” He added quickly.

 

“Oh no, that’s fine. Really, it’ll be fun” I replied.

 

“I guess that means you’re stuck with me, mate” Max said to Jay.

“Oh no! How will I survive sharing a room with you and your stinky feet?” Jay said in mock horror, placing a hand over his mouth. “Nah, it’ll be great mate, but your getting the beers in”

“Cheeky bastard!” Max laughed. “ You can pay for your own beers, the last time I paid for your beers you ordered the most expensive brand and cost me a fortune” Max said jumping out the van with Jay, Siva and Tom.

“Right so I guess that leaves me, you and Martin sharing a room” Jayne said turning to Kev.

“At least we won’t have to babysit the boys and girls” Kev replied getting out. The rest of us got out and grabbed our bags that Max and Jay had already gotten out of the boot.

“I’ll race ya inside” Max said to Tom.

“It’s on!” Tom shouted already running towards the hotel entrance.

“And there I was thinking they were the oldest members of the band” Martin said getting out the flip cam to record what was going on.

The hotel doors were made of glass, which meant we could see who won the race. Surprisingly Max and Tom both got to the front desk in the hotel lobby at the same time. By the time the rest of us had walked to the front desk Max and Tom already had our door keys.

“Here you go” Max said handing Nathan and I our key cards. “You two are in room 126 and lucky for you, me and Jay are room 128 which means we are right next door.”

Nathan and I walked to one of the elevators on the other side of the lobby.

“Are you alright going up in this? We can take the stairs if you want?” Nathan said knowing that I had a fear of elevators.

“No, its fine, I’ve got to face my fears at some point, right?” I said, sounding a lot braver than I felt. Nathan pressed the button and a few seconds later the elevator door opened.

“I’ll hold your hand the entire time, okay?” Nathan asked as he pressed number 1 button to select our floor. I nodded and he grabbed my spare hand. A minute later the door opened and we stepped out.

“I actually managed to ride in an elevator” I smiled; a sense of achievement filled my body.

“I’m proud of you” Nathan said pulling me into a hug. If it was anyone else but him I would have thought that they were mocking me but Nathan and I told each other everything. I knew all of his fears and he knew all of mine so I knew that he was genuinely proud of me.

We walked down the hallway and found the room numbered 126. I got the key card out and opened the door. We both walked in and found ourselves in a enormous bedroom.  On the left was a gigantic four poster king size bed with feather pillows on. On the right was a 62” HD television with a black leather 3 seater sofa. In front of us was a wall made out of glass, I suppose you could all it a window wall. The room looked out onto the swimming pool and beyond that was the resturant.

“Wow” Nathan exclaimed as he opened a door that led into an ensuite bathroom. There was a shower, a bath, a toilet, a sink and a door that looked like it led into a wet room. “Somehow I think everyone will enjoy staying at this hotel” he said.