London Times

It was somewhere around ten, and Katie and I were at the park a few blocks from the hotel. Mom had gone to bed after having spent the day with that little kid. We were sitting on the swing set, watching cars zip past in a hurry to get somewhere. My phone was sitting in my hands, resting on my lap. I was suppose to call Danny about the news paper, but I wasn't exactly sure what to say. Katie must not have had any good thoughts about it either, because she hadn't spoken a word since we'd left the hotel.

I looked down at my cell, went to contacts, scrolled down to the 'D's, and clicked the hang up button. I let out a sigh.

"What if, you call him?" Katie looked up from the rock she'd been kicking around.

"Why would I call him? It wasn't me on the cover of the 'London Times' Ellie." I frowned, looking back down at my phone. I'd just have to... wing it. I found Danny in my contacts, pressed the call button, and waited.

With every ring, my heart seemed to stop.

"Hey, you've reached Jones. Leave a message!" He had began to laugh, and so his voice had risen during 'message'. Not to mention, I could hear others laughing in the background. There was a beep, and words came tumbling out of my mouth.

"Hey Danny, it's me... Ellie, well obviously because caller ID and all. Well, anyway I was just calling to um... Yeah. Call me back whenever you get this-unless it's too late, i-in which case please don't be-" My phone began beeping, and I looked at the screen to find Danny was trying to call me back already. Without thinking, I clicked over. "Danny?"

"Yeah, sorry I didn't answer I was-"

"We need to talk about this." His end of the line got very silent.

"About..."

"McFly. Danny, why didn't you tell me? My face is all over the London Times!" I wasn't angry, but my voice was rising so I must have sounded a little mad.

"Most girls are happy when they find out I'm in a band, Ellie." My jaw dropped. He didn't even sound like he cared, he sounded like I should be happy about it! I looked over to Katie, who was clearly interested in the conversation, but couldn't understand what was happening.

"Well, I'm not like most girls. You said it yourself." I was calm. I was calm.

"I still don't get why you'd be mad about it." I couldn't believe this, he wasn't even acting like Danny.

"I'm not mad, well I am mad. But only because you could have warned me a little."

"Right, so you could pretend you liked me just because I'm famous?" I bit my bottom lip. "How differently would you had acted if I'd told you from the start about McFly?" I couldn't even find an answer. How differently would things have been? There was silence until, "Hold on, I think I just got a voice mail." Before I could stop him, he'd clicked over.

I moaned, smacking my forehead with the back of my phone, until Katie stopped me.

"What?" I frowned, looking up at her.

"How could we be mad at them for not telling us? Things would have been so different if we'd known from the start, Katie!" Her face fell.

"Ellie, you there?" I pressed my cell back to my ear.

"Yeah." I mumbled into the mouthpiece.

"I wish I could have seen your face when you left that." He laughed, obviously about my awkward voicemail.

"Yeah..." I blushed, "I never was really good at leaving voice mails..." I wasn't exactly sure what to say next, so again there was an awkward silence.

"El, I'm sorry." Danny spoke up. "I didn't mean for them to put you in the paper. Do you forgive me?" I cracked a smile.

"Always." What? I didn't know Danny well enough to be saying 'yeah, sure I'll always forgive you', oh blast. I was smitten.

"Hey! Well, now that you know about McFly and all we're kind of in the middle of a meeting, but me and the guys were gonna go to this club later on. You and Katie wanna come?"

"Would Katie and I like to go to another club with you guys?" I had to repeat it so Katie would understand what was going on. Immediately her face fell and she began shaking her head.

"No, Ellie."

"We'd love to! Pick us up at the hotel?" I had expected Katie to smack me, which she did.

"Ellie!" She almost shouted.

"Great! We'll be there around eleven... ish. Cool?"

"Yep, we'll be ready." I could see Katie still freaking out from the corner of my eyes.

"Alright, darling. Bye-bye." His accent mad the 'r' sound like an 'h' and a weird squeak came from the back of my throat. I blushed three shades of red.

"Bye." I choked, quickly hanging up before I could hear him laugh.

"Are you insane or just really stupid?" Katie shouted, smacking me again. My eyes widened at her wild expression and I pushed my swing away from hers.

"I won't drink anything, geez! Chill." She didn't seem to 'chill' much...

"The paparazzi already know about you and Danny! Don't you think they're gonna follow him to the club? Where they'll get even more pics of you two, and probably me and Dougie!" Alright, she had a point. Unfortunately, I was a freshly single girl that was seeing a very attractive, British, rock star.

"Yeah well," I stood up, placing my hands on my hips and leaning down to the level she was at on the swing. "I don't care." I stated matter-of-factly before turning on my heel and heading back towards the hotel.

---

"So, you're going to sneak out again." Katie stood in the doorway of the bathroom as I slid into a pair of black skinny jeans. Her arms were crossed and she hadn't even began to change yet.

"Yes, Katie." I sighed, checking my face in the mirror. I was never big on makeup, just a little eye liner and a bit of gloss was enough for me. "Are you coming?"

She hesitated for a moment, but I already knew what her answer was going to be.

"Yes, but only so that I can keep an eye on you." And with that she turned to find some clothes.

"Yeah, uh-huh, whoo." I made a motion with my hands to indicate my nose growing, though Katie luckily didn't see. Mom was still sleeping, of course, so I decided to step outside while Katie got ready.

The lobby was almost completely empty except for two people working behind the desk. I'd grabbed my jacket and my handbag so that when Katie was ready, I wouldn't have to go back up to the hotel to grab them. It was only a little chilly outside, but my top was nearly sleeveless so I was thankful for the jacket. I decided to sit at one of the outside dining tables. I couldn't lie, I was a bit nervous. I liked Danny, and the last time we'd gone out I had a blast, but this time I would be meeting his other friends, the rest of the band, and I wasn't sure if the paparazzi would follow us or not.

I took a deep breath, catching the hint of cigarette smoke coming from some guy leaning against the wall of the building, probably waiting for a cab. I hated cigarettes. They smelled foul and they made your teeth and lungs rot.

My phone began to go off in my bag, thankfully giving me an excuse to walk further away from the man with the cigarette. My stomach gave a lurch as I read Aaron's name across the screen. I'd already had seven missed calls and twenty unread, well deleted, text messages. I took a deep breath before answering.

"What do you want?" I hadn't realized how much I did not want to hear his voice until he spoke.

"Baby, will you just let me explain?" His voice was soft and slightly cracked... as if he'd been crying, or trying not to. Did I care? Not in the slightest.

"There's nothing to explain. You're a liar and a cheater, and I really wish you'd stop calling me. It's pathetic." I made sure there was venom in my words.

"Nothing happened! That's what I'm trying to tell you-"

"Whatever Aaron! It's not like this is a first for you." And it wasn't, though he'd never cheated on me, well until now. There had always been rumors that he was a player and what not, and up until now I'd tried my best to ignore them.

"I would never cheat on you Ellie! I can't believe you don't trust me, baby please." I took a deep breath. I can't remember ever being so mad in my life. Not to mention, he was actually beginning to embarrass me a bit.

"I gotta go." He went to say something but I hung up mid-sentence. I couldn't do this anymore. What was I doing? I came to London to spend time with my best friend for our birthdays, and here I was hanging out with some guy I barely knew because he was cute and had a British accent! I turned to face the wall of the building and whacked my head against it a few times.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" I let out a sigh, looking back down at my phone. Aron was trying to call me back. I turned my phone off and placed it back into my purse.

I got back up to the room just as Katie was putting on her shoes.

"Change of plans." I said, taking off mine and tossing my purse in the corner of the room. She paused.

"Seriously? Seriously!" I rolled my eyes, pulling off my pants and grabbing my pajamas.

"Yes. We didn't come here to... whatever the heck we're doing." After changing I flopped down onto the bed. I could see Katie still though, standing with her arms crossed at the foot of the bed.

"What are you talking about?" I rolled over, burying my face in my pillow.

"We came here to celebrate our birthdays." I groaned into the cotton. I hated admitting when I'd made a mistake. I felt Katie sit down beside me. "We didn't come here to go clubbing with guys and act like 'easy Americans'. I mean, what were we thinking?" I looked up at her and she raised an eyebrow. "What was I thinking." I frowned.

Katie placed a hand on my back and sighed.

"So, what do you wanna do?" They were coming to get us, but I just couldn't. I was acting ridiculous, running off with some guy that I barely knew. Even worse, I'd drug my best friend into this mess.

"I guess I should just..." I took a breath, I had to. "tell them the truth." Katie bit her lip, folding her hands in her lap. "It's gone far enough, I mean it'll be the right thing to do." It wasn't really a question, and even Katie didn't respond. It was silent for a moment until I stood up to get my phone.

Katie didn't move from her place on the bed as I dialed Danny's number. It rang twice before he answered.

"You got Jones." I rolled my eyes but couldn't help but crack and smile.

"Hey, Danny, it's me." I stood close to the door, and kept my voice somewhat low.

"No kidding yeah? We're actually just now walking into the lobby!" My face fell.

"What? Y-You guys are here already?" I heard him and Dougie laughing. Great.

"Yeah! You two almost ready? We're taking you out to this amazing club." I frowned, pinching my chin with my free hand. I couldn't tell him like this, and over the phone? My conscience got the better of me. I squeezed my eyes closed, regretting the words about to come out of my mouth.

"We'll be down in a bit." I frowned, lightly stamping my foot.

"Alright, see you in a bit then." I hung up, tossing my phone to Katie and diving for my pants.

"Okay..." Katie said after catching my phone as though it were a hot potato, "What was that all about?" I fell on the floor as I attempted to put one leg in, and the other caught on the waist line of the jeans.

"They're here!" I panted, fastening my pants and going for my shirt. "And I couldn't tell him over the phone, we gotta move!" I grabbed my bag and bolted towards the door.

"Ellie..." I turned around sharply to face Katie. "You didn't take off your pajama pants." I grimaced, looking down to see the top of my pajama pants sticking out of my lumpy skinny jeans.

"Aww dang."