Following You

Due to my ‘fresh start’ I’d been fairly busy, sorting things out so I could just get on with it. Oliver had rang me about twenty minutes ago asking if he could ‘pop over’, I gladly accepted, wanting the company. It didn’t take him too long to get here, bringing something from the chippy with him, to cure his hunger, as he said. We didn’t do anything productive, we could have been sorting out the new drop dead range, but Oliver decided he wanted to just laze about and watch ‘The Jeremy Kyle Show‘ instead.

I carried on with what I was doing before he came over, which was finally sorting out my suitcase - clean clothes in one pile, dirty in another - I’d left Oliver to his program. When I’d eventually finished I stood back and looked at the two piles, the dirty pile seemed to be extremely larger but it didn’t really surprise me, being so long on tour, with no washing machine, causes those type of things.

I heard Oliver’s phone ring from the living room, where he was, and then his voice boom out since he’s usually pretty loud on the phone. By the sound of it he was on the phone to Holli, it was only a guess, I doubted it was Lee or anyone because I’ve never heard him refer to any of the guys as ‘babe’ before.

“Tom. Oi, Tom, come ‘ere a minute.” I dropped the dirty washing that I had in my hand and walked back towards the leaving room, “Holli was wondering if you could do her a favour, by being a photographer at some party she’s organising? You’ll get paid.”

“When is it?”

He asked Holli when it was, “Tonight.”

“Yeah, alright then, tell her to meet me here and I’ll give her a lift, ok?”

He nodded and then shooed me away so that he could continue on with his conversation. I went back to where the mountain of dirty clothes were situated, picking them up and putting them in a huge bag. I do my own washing usually but my mom was actually doing it for us this time, after every tour she did, she did Oliver’s too.

A couple of minutes passed and then Oliver came shuffling into the room, looking a bit glum, walked towards my wardrobe and pulled out my only black suit, it was practically the only clothes in my wardrobe since I’d taken most of it with me.

“Why are you getting that out?”

“Because, you’ve got to wear it, Holli said that the place the party’s at, or ball as she were calling it, is pretty fancy and you need to look presentable.”

I never knew that I’d have to wear my suit to this thing, I hate wearing it, it’s uncomfortable and makes me look like an idiot.

“Where’s this ‘ball’ at then?”

“The Naismith estate. You lucky bleeder, I’ve always wanted to go past them gates and have a good nosey but Holli said she wouldn’t even be able to get a plus one for me.”

Even though Oliver wasn't fond of the higher class people because he believes they’re all ‘arrogant arseholes’, he has always wanted to go through the gates that block off anyone from getting near the main house on the Naismith estate, except those who lived or worked there. I was a bit curious myself but I’ve never been as interested in it as Oliver has.

It felt sort of good though, I got something first, even if I didn’t want it that much I still got it first. Good stuff is already happening for me. This is only the beginning. This is going to be good. I wasn't bothered about putting that suit on anymore, I actually got something first.

“What are you laughing at?” I just shook my head and continued laughing, he walked back to the living room but not before mumbling something, “Plonker.”

He obviously wasn't happy, probably because he wasn't going and because I was laughing, he must have thought it was at him. But it wasn't, I guess I was just laughing because I was a bit surprised, I got something first and I couldn’t get over it.

A couple of hours had passed and I was all done up in my suit, camera in my hand. Majority of the guys had came over at some point of the day, welcoming themselves into my apartment, I was used to it by now. I was just waiting for Holli to arrive so that we could get going, I’d been given a lecture off of Oliver, telling me to make sure that Holli was safe and that none of those ‘toffee nosed’ guys try and work their charm on her, I’d doubt I’d be with her the entire night though but I’d at least try. She arrived only minutes later, she seemed a tad bit flustered but tried to keep calm for her own sanity. As soon as we’d said our goodbyes though and we’d left the apartment, her nervous side started to seep through, she was going through a list of rules as we got in the car and I started to drive through the streets of Sheffield.

“Holli, calm down a little love, it’ll be fine, ok?”

She nodded but she still seemed a little anxious, I guess she couldn’t help it really, if I had to plan something for the Naismith family I would be so scared that something would go wrong, it probably would as well. There was a fair bit of traffic actually, most likely due to this ‘ball’, I’ve got a feeling I’m not really going to enjoy tonight. I’ll probably get walked over by so many people because I’m only a photographer to them.

I looked towards Holli again as we had stopped at a red light, she was typing away on her phone, it had been ringing non stop all day apparently, I did feel a bit sorry for her. She’d chosen this job though, mine was a lot easier. We only had to take a couple more turns and we were there, I didn’t go through the front gates, Holli told me it was fine to go through the back because majority of the workers used them.

When we got in there it was a bit hectic, everyone was rushing around and talking over each other but when we actually got into the hall where the main event was it felt a lot calmer, there was obviously some chatter, music and clinking of glasses but it was definitely more mellow.

It was outstanding though, the hall, I’d expected it to look so old fashioned but it weren’t, the roof was made of clear glass, a lot of things were actually. It all felt so clean too, that may sound stupid but it did. I looked around at the people, of course everyone was dressed very formally, like I expected, their clothes were in perfect place, part of me wanted to just run up to someone and mess up their clothes or smudge their make up, it was just too immaculate, for me anyway. I felt so out of place though, this definitely wasn't me, I just needed to get on with it though, it wouldn’t be too hard.

At least I hoped it wouldn’t be too hard.