Exposed In Lights

Miley and I drove back to try and find the boys whilst avoiding cameras too. We eventually found them at the fifteenth hole which was good, they only had three more to go. We halt the cart and jumped out.

“That’s it!” Nick growled and ran towards me and swiped out my legs, throwing me over his shoulder. He spun me around before planting me on the floor, “You took off with our cart!”

I smirked, “It doesn’t have your name on it.”

He pouted and kissed my forehead then went to a different golf cart to change his club. I sat on the grass and watched them as they all took turns driving their balls as close to the hole as possible. I pushed my sunglasses up my nose and sighed happily.

Miley walked over to me with a digital camera, “You’ll sing with me wont you?” She said sitting down and placing the camera on the seat of the golf cart so it was on level with us. “Let’s sing, the best damn thing.”

“Lets go!” I shouted, she found the song on her iPhone and we sung along to the camera. “I hate it when a guy, doesn’t get the door even though I told him yesterday and the day before. I hate it when a guy doesn't get the tab and I have to pull my money out and that looks bad.”

We carried on singing and dancing until the end of the song then we both said bye to the camera. It still was weird of me to be hanging out with her and it annoyed me how much we clicked because of the fact we could have been best friends all this time. But life works in mysterious ways.

TIME LAPSE

“Julia, Nick over here!” Paparazzi shouted as we walked into the restaurant.

I was wearing a black vest top tucked into a yellow skirt with a black belt wrapped around my waist. A long white cardigan with black and yellow stripes around the hems kept my body warm and a pair of multi-strap black shoes that wrapped around the bottom of my legs. For jewellery I wore a pair of pearl earrings with diamonds around it so it resembled a flower and a necklace that had three small vintage pictures in circular frames, I carried a yellow satin clutch in my hand too.

Nick wore a white button up shirt with a red tie and a grey scarf dangling around his neck. His legs hugged a pair of blue jeans and his feet filled a pair of black dress shoes, always the fashionable gentlemen look.

Once we all got seated around the large table we ordered food before getting talking, I didn’t sat much but I was involved in the conversation, “When do you start promo for your album?” Kevin asked.

“Two weeks, I’m doing the promo for that and for the Chanel at the same time so I’m going to be everywhere at once.” I chuckled and ran my fingers through my straight hair, Nick picked a stand of my hair from one side of my parton and put it back on the other. “Thanks.” I smiled and kissed his cheek.

After an hour of talking we had to leave, we left Denise and Paul with Frankie and left for the SUV out the front. I had been alerted that Danielle would be in the SUV after being picked up from the airport, I was excited about that. I hadn’t seen her for months.

We passed through the paparazzi easily with Big Rob’s help and Kevin immediately dived on Danielle in the back seat, attacking her with kisses as we drove off. “Julia!” She exclaimed hugging me from behind, “Nice to see you.” She kissed my cheek then Kevin pulled her back down into the seat.

“I know, I’ve missed you.” I smiled turning my head to look at her. “Ready for this show?” I asked Big Rob.

“Yeah, it’s only a small club so we can stand on the upper level seating, they didn’t open that.” Big Rob announced.

I sighed, I wanted to go and stand in the crowd but I knew safety came first. When we arrived paparazzi snapped pictures but we got in quickly and walked through the backstage and then were led up a set of stairs. I could hear them playing so I sped up, I was first through the door.

It was completely dark except for the light coming from the stage, I ran down the steps and rested my arms over the banister. I began singing along and smiled when I felt Nick come up behind me, he pressed his back against mine and laced his fingers over mine. His thumb rubbed mine as he watched the show from behind me.

Danielle and Kevin stood side by side and Joe stood with Big Rob beside Kevin. I smiled at Danielle and she smiled back, “I need you guys to sing every word of this song with me, this one is called ‘Gives you hell’!”

I let out a ‘woo’ and sung along, Nick even sang with me. “When you see my face hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell!” I sung loudly. Nick chuckled and kissed my cheek, obviously amused by my cheery attitude.

Near the end of the song Nick stuck a camera out in front of us, I gritted my teeth and tilted my head like an angry dog bearing it's teeth. The flash went off, blinding me for a moment. I heard his laugh as he looked at the picture.

We left early so we could get away quickly so basically I only got to see half an hour of the show, I was trying my hardest not to sulk about it though. Nick had apologised quietly to me but I just shrugged it off telling him there’d be other shows.

“I’ll call you tomorrow.” Nick said stopping at my porch. He leaned in to kiss me but retreated when my door swung open, I gasped in shock then glared at my Dad. I pushed him back inside forcefully and shut the door again. I went up on my tip toes and pressed my lips to Nick’s. He chuckled when we pulled away then kissed my cheek.

“Toodles.” I smiled and pushed the door open, I watched Nick walk away and then waved to them all as they drove off.

I kicked off my shoes and carried them up to my room where my Mum and Dad sat on my bed looking through old photo albums. They looked up at me, I ran forward and jumped onto my bed landing on my feet. I walked in between them and my Dad hugged me against his side.

We spent an hour together giggling and embarrassing each other as we looked at old photos. My Dad teased me about how I never liked to wear clothes and would run around naked and I teased him about his curtains that he insisted were ‘stylish’.

As I lay in bed later on I stared at the ceiling. I was elated about the past two day’s events. Spending time with Nick and his family again made me feel whole again, I rarely thought sad thoughts about Corrin anymore. Any thought I had of her made me smile instead of cry. She didn’t come to me in my dreams anymore, instead they were back to being completely random.

When I woke up the next morning I checked the gossip websites, pictures of Nick and I cuddling on the golf course and pictures of him kissing my cheek at the AAR show came out too. People were basically saying that Miley and I were putting it on but that didn’t bother me, everyone was confused about where Nick and I stood too.

I wanted to scream to the world about how much I loved him but I don’t think he was ready for me to do that. Sometimes the fact Nick was such a private person was annoying, I knew he wasn’t ashamed of me but still… not even holding my hand in public is a bit of a downer on the confidence.

Today was a big day for me. My horse, Majic, was finally arriving here and I was taking her to her new stable. I’d found an amazing private stables called ‘Zelston stables’. It was all newly built with acres to hack in and paddocks to jump and do dressage in. They also had a cross country jumping course which I loved.

They were also really respectful of my privacy and all the staff and people who kept horses there, which wasn’t many because of the fees, had signed a privacy clause not to let out any pictures or leak anything like that. So I was totally set on staying there.

I changed into a pair of black jodhpurs with a belt around them and then a long tank top that was patterned with white and blue horizontal stripes. I pulled on my riding boots and clipped Nick’s watch back around my wrist. I tied my hair back into a messy bun at the nape of my neck and slipped my black and white retro sunglasses on.

I grabbed my bag and hurried down the stairs where my parents were stood, I could hear my brothers out on the drive way. I rushed past them and gathered the boys into the SUV. The drive way I talked endlessly about how excited I was, I jumped out the car when we arrived at the animal handling centre.

I stood bouncing my foot on the floor as my Dad signed all the paper work, my Mum kept the boys busy with a football in the car park. We were led out to a large trailer where I could hear her neighing. I ran forward, “Drop the back!” I shouted and they did just that.

I could see her now, her tail was shining and stopped five inches from the floor. Her mane flowed down her neck but stopped there then her forelock fell over here eyes, covering the star between them. She was led out of the trailer and she neighed when she saw me, I swear I teared up.

My little pure bred Friesian Majic, I wrapped my arms around her neck and she nudged my shoulder with her nuzzle. “Looks like she missed you.” My Dad chuckled and patted her neck, “Come on, we’re already late.”

I led them walk her around as I collected all the tack with my Dad and put it into the boot of our car, the trailer was brought around to the front, I climbed into the front of the horse box with my Dad.

When we arrived at the new stables I had a shit eating grin on my face. The grass was so green it looked fake then and the floors were concrete so that it couldn’t get boggy like if it were mud. There were numerous barns with signs on the doors with whoever’s stable it was though I didn’t recognise any of the names. My stable was three down on the right hand side.

Out the front, half of the front was where the door closed and the other half was half brick and vertical wooden planks where her stable would be. On the brick out the front were three hooks to tie her up and inside was another three on the left hand wall. Along the back wall were cupboards and bins. There were two bins and one had oats in which gave her energy and in the other was Mollichop which has a mixture of foods in to make it more appetizing but good for her at the same time. In the cupboards were treats like carrots, apples and garlic to sprinkle on the food. It had shelves for me to put my tack box on and hooks on the wall to hang the bridal, head collar, lead rope and saddle. All had labels above them.

“Wow.” I whispered and peered over the wooden door into her large stable, it was filled with straw and a net filled with haylage for her to eat.

“Bloody hell, this is massive.” My Dad grinned. “She’s out now if you want to walk her around.

I ran out of the stables into the sun and back over to the horse box. Majic was stood getting fed carrots by a girl called Chelsea who would feed her and clean her out for me. “Hey!” I smiled taking the lead rope from her. I tied it to the other side of the head collar to make it look like reins. “Dad, leg me up.” I demanded holding onto her mane.

My Dad grabbed my leg, “One, two, three.” He counted along with my jumps before pushing me up onto her.

I walked her around the courtyard and then into the paddock where I took off into a trot getting glares from the professionals who watched me ride a horse with no hat and with a make shift bridle. Just to piss them off I cleared a jump and cantered back to the gate.

TIME LAPSE

I stayed at the stable until it turned dark and my Dad stayed with me and even helped me groom her to perfection though I only let him use a body brush. I didn’t trust him with a comb though he insisted he did well enough with me when I was a baby then went off into memories of when I was little.

On the way home he let out an ‘oh’ as if he just remembered something. He reached in his pocket as we stopped at a red light and handed me my iPhone, “Your Mum gave it to me before she left, I forgot. She said it was ringing so much she turned it off.”

I turned it back on and waited for it to recall all the texts and messages. He was right. I had tons of missed calls and texts from Nick, I didn’t bother reading them I called him back straight away.

“Hello?” He answered sounding tired.

“Who died?” I joked, chuckling as I spoke.

His voice was suddenly urgent, “Why weren’t you answering your phone?” He demanded sounding angry.

“I texted you yesterday telling you I was spending the day at my new stable.” I told him, my forehead creasing into a V shape at his anger.

“Oh, I forgot. Sorry.” He sighed in annoyance at himself.

I smiled, “It’s fine, what were you so desperate to talk to me about?” I was very curious now.

“Nothing, we’re going to this party tonight. It starts in an hour, we can pick you up if you’d like?”

I was very excited about that party idea, “One second I’ll ask my Dad.” I covered the microphone and battered my eye lids at my Dad. “Can I go to a party with Nick and his brothers tonight?”

“Will you stay at their house or come home?”

I lifted the phone to my ear but Nick seemed to have heard the question, “Which ever.”

“Whatever you want.” I repeated to my Dad.

“See how you feel but if you need me to pick you up or if it gets out of hand you phone me straight away?”

I nodded and kissed his cheek as we pulled up onto the drive, “Pick me up in an hour.”

“Marvellous. Love you.” He cut off the phone before I could answer.

I rushed inside and began getting showered and prepared for the party. I was so excited I listened to Miley Cyrus and danced.

I actually laughed at my self.