Chapter 3 ― Havi 

I didn’t hate them, I just couldn’t stand them; but I couldn’t tell them that, right? Joy, why would you put me in such a terrible position? But I managed that quite well, plus my friend was right, once I met them I didn’t dislike them that much, they were funny and I quite enjoyed their interview. I knew Joy was the one enjoying it the most, from all the looks I got from her when talking to the boys.

Now we were heading to a conference room in the radio station to talk about this contest thing. I couldn’t believe that she had planned all this without telling me a thing and I could bet that she kept it a secret just to piss me off. She did, so I had to give her that, but I was getting over that pretty fast. After meeting the faces you wanted to rip off from every magazine, things changed, your perspective had to change. Plus, it wasn’t exactly their fault that people were obsessive.

“You’re not mad, right?” Joy asked next to me grabbing my hand and entwining our fingers together. We weren’t a couple and we weren’t lesbians. We just had this very close relationship and we didn’t care what people might think of us, plus it was really funny to flirt with each other like we really wanted something else. In front of random people it was priceless, I always loved to see their reactions. How One Direction reacted was incredible. They just burst out laughing, Louis the most, and my belly hurt at the end. I noticed that they did the same between all of them. They even had names for their bromances.

We got to the conference room and everyone took a seat. Joy was next to me, and George next to her; across us there were the boys, Louis right in front of me and I could feel his stare on me. I started to feel pretty anxious immediately. He had something that put me at unease, I didn’t know what it was yet.

“Okay, Joy, explain your idea and if the boys agree, we can start planning everything,” George talked before anyone else could say a word.

“Oh, it’s easy and I really hope you like the idea, lads. It would be lovely,” Joy spoke looking at the boys with her puppy eyes. I could see how Niall was already in just to make her happy. “The idea is to come here twice a week to pick five girls who are going to be answering some question. Then, after four weeks and twenty girls, you can make a little gig here at the station,” she explained without going into details.

I just looked at them wondering if they would like to come to the station so many times during a whole month, after all, they were kind of on a break, maybe they didn’t want to do something like this. I thought the idea was nice and very lovely. Thinking of the fans, they would love something as special and private as that, but I wasn’t sure if they would accept. It was, probably, too much.

We all looked at the lads. George was impassive, Joy hopefully looking at them with her puppy eyes, and I was trying to read their faces. A contest like that one would take us to the next level, it would put us in the stratosphere right away! I wished they would say yes, but it seemed really hard. Harry and Zayn looked unsure, like they didn’t buy the whole idea. Niall seemed okay and I wanted to hug him for that. Liam looked like he wanted to say no but couldn’t because he didn’t want to break our hearts. Louis… I couldn’t read Louis, he kept looking at me, like I was the key holding the answer.

“How would we pick the girls?” Liam asked, still uncertain about the idea.

“You will hear a selection of the best answers, according to us. No more than fifty, and from then you will pick five. This each week. We’ll help you all the time,” Joy answered.

“The two of you?” Louis asked focusing on Joy for a change.

“Mostly Havi,” she said and looked at me with a smile that said sorry, but I just shrugged. I kind of knew that already, after all I was her assistant, that was my job. “She will be with you all the time during the contest and will help you in everything she can. I will be there too, obviously, but not as much ‘cos I have the show.”

“And how many songs should we have to sing?” Zayn inquired.

“About five songs. It’s something really small,” Joy answered and I saw how they were thinking through it. I started to get really nervous. Yes, I wasn’t a fan of them, I was quite close to be considered a hater, but I was thinking of the radio station, of the show and Joy’s career. This contest probably was just annoying shit for them, but for us was massive and really, really important.

“This would mean the world to us and the radio station. We don’t want to bother you and we know you’re so busy, but–” I stated catching Joy’s attention plus the lads’. “But the station needs this, we need something like this to get us noticed.”

I saw how their expression changed and for the first time since we got to the conference room, I could read something on Louis’ face, and that was determination. Niall was smiling and Harry and Zayn looked at each other and shrugged. The only one remaining uncertain was Liam, so I looked at him, begging with my eyes.

“We need to think about this more thoroughly. We’ll call you with an answer soon. Is that okay for you two?” Liam offered and I sighed. That was his sweet way of telling us that they weren’t going to accept. It was a good and beautiful idea, but we couldn’t get it.

It was surreal that I didn’t know about the whole thing but I immediately was in when I realised what it meant for the station and for us. It could have been a contest with my favourite artist, Lea Michele, or with a group that I didn’t know, the reaction would have been the same. I put the radio station and the show first. Always.

“That’s okay. We’ll wait,” Joy answered with a smile, but I could see that she also knew the lads weren’t going to say yes. Probably they weren’t even going to call us and George would have to tell us that they have refused. That was life.

“Then we should get going. As I said earlier, my wife is waiting for me,” George interrupted as he stood up and stared at the boys.

I felt someone staring at me and when I looked up, I met Louis’ eyes, those blue eyes that sent shivers down my spine in a matter of seconds. I felt my heart leap in my ribcage and, without noticing, I squeezed my fists and held my breath. I didn’t breathe normally till someone grabbed Louis’s shoulder and that made us break eye contact, just then I felt like my heart was free to beat normally again.

In the name of God, what had just happened?

Joy took my hand and made me stand up as well to say goodbye to the boys. I shook my head just to finish coming back from where the hell I went when Louis looked at me that way. The boys hugged us one by one and we told them our thanks. Niall was the first to hug me goodbye and I held him tight, grateful that he seemed so okay with the idea. Then it came Harry, Zayn, Liam and finally Louis. I was dreading to hug him because I was still confused and a bit scared of what happened, but I couldn’t be rude to him so I just did, I hugged him back though I felt like that embrace lasted longer than the others.

His arms wrapped around me tightly and I felt so small and feminine against his chest and just for a couple of seconds I let myself enjoy that hug, of the strength of those arms and the warmth of that body.

“Thanks,” I told him as I stepped back. He nodded with a smile, a very cute one. I liked his features, they were pixie-like and when he smiled, his whole face lit up.

“Welcome. And we’re gonna need your numbers to call you later,” he said and for a moment I wanted to say that they could spare us the show pretending like they were going to call, but that would have been mean, so I just didn’t.

“Yeah, sure,” I replied as he took his phone out. I gave him my number and then Joy did the same.

Soon, they were gone and we were left there standing next to each other, still holding hands. “They are not going to call, you know?” Joy commented and I nodded. We both knew the truth, though it had been… interesting to meet One Direction. Probably it was a great idea that they didn’t want to make the contest. If they had said yes, I would have had to be with them too much, listening to annoying girls screaming for them. That would have been so stressful.

“They are not,” I confirmed with a resigned smile. There was a part of me, at the back of my mind, who was really sorry about that.

.

“Hurry up! Glee is about to start!” I called Joy who was in the kitchen preparing popcorn. It was the brand new episode of Glee, my favourite show, and I couldn’t miss a second.

Joy was staying at my small flat that night, a Glee Sleep Over. I lived alone in a very modest and small flat, but I loved it. It was discrete, it was nicely located in London, not too far away from everything nor too close, and the neighbourhood was pretty cool. I loved my home. It had just one room, a kitchen, one bathroom and the living/dining room. All my furniture was old, bought in antiques stores and garage sales, but I loved it.

Joy came running with a massive bowl filled with popcorn and I held my hands to grab it quickly.

“So here’s what you missed on Glee…” I heard that and screamed so loud that Joy winced. I couldn’t help myself, I freaking loved that show.

We were at the middle of the episode when my phone started ringing. I groaned and let it ring. I was available only after Glee was finished.

By the time the show ended, I was screaming against a pillow and Joy was comforting me. So many emotions, I couldn’t even talk! Then my phone went on again and I screamed louder because that was the only thing I could do at the moment. Therefore, Joy took my phone and picked up.

“Yes, this is her number but she’s… um, unavailable right now. Who is calling?” Joy asked nicely whilst I was still screaming/crying against the pillow. “Louis?” I froze as I heard that and sat up, seeing Joy concentrated and waiting for an answer. Suddenly she looked at me, her eyes wide open and an expression of sheer disbelief on her face.

“Put the speaker on!” I told her and she quickly did like I told.

“Louis?” I asked holding the phone close to me, Joy was practically on my lap.

“Hi there!” I heard his voice, his accent and I didn’t know why I recognised it so easily. “How are you? You okay?”

“Yes, yes… just watched Glee and I was feeling a bit, well, overwhelmed,” I explained feeling a tad bit silly. I heard him chuckle and my cheeks burned.

“Oh, that’s okay. Well, I just... um… I called you just to let you know that we talked with the lads about the contest,” he said and I smiled. I wasn’t expecting that they were going to call at all. It was nice of them to call us to say no. “And we agreed that it would be great. So, we’re in.”

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Dedication for @CharlotteStaplehurst because she's such a lovely reader and I love her and her comments <3

Bel, xx