Crooked

As Simon had messaged me earlier – yep, the Simon Cowell and I had exchanged numbers, although we had to if I was going to be One Direction’s assistant for the month long visa I had applied for – today marked the first day of their 23-date tour held mainly in England but in surrounding countries as well. It was a summer tour, well it was winter at home in Australia but summer here in June, July and August, and being mid-June was a perfect time to tour, I thought. School was out, which meant maximum tickets sold, higher record sales in just about everything of 1D merchandise – basically, One Direction was going to be earning trillions rather than their usual millions. Or billions. They probably earned billions right about now.

The band, crew, Angie and I were currently at the Watford Colosseum in Watford, England, where the boys were casually dressed in their trackies (sweatpants for the non-Australians) and plain coloured t-shirts, with the exception of Louis, who wore stripes. It were times like these that they looked more like a band, and less of the five dorks that formed a band and became a tight-knit group in 2010. The more I hung out with them, the more I got to know their personalities, and it was entertaining, interesting even to see how they interacted in different settings.

Earlier in the day, I had to sit in on a meeting with the boys, Simon, and their management crew to discuss final plans for the tour, interviews and such, as well as outlining my exact jobs required while on tour. Because this was basically a temporary thing, it was decided that I wasn’t going to get the full amount of work given that an assistant would usually get, but I had to work just as hard. The type of ideas required from me consisted of assisting the boys in any way I could (but not in an inappropriate way, as sternly said by Simon), waking them up and making sure they were in certain places for media interaction and such, a bit of fan control, but overall promising that I would make the boys happy with no drama. The last thing the boys needed was any sort of drama to go down, and I was on board with making sure that didn’t happen.

Although, I couldn’t deny there was at least one problem.

Ever since I had overheard the conversation between Niall and Louis, I couldn’t help but feel a slight pang of irritation towards the Irish band-member. I didn’t like that he could stake some sort of claim on me, that I belonged to him and no one else. I had no intentions of being with anyone or even ventured down the path of a possibility of a boyfriend, but if I had, did that mean Niall was going to make him disappear? If some guy talked to me that Niall didn’t know about, was he going to flip his shit and get angry? I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to know the consequences. I wanted to be able to have fun and talk to whoever I wanted to damn well talk to, but I had to keep Niall happy as well. Why was he even interested in me in the first place, anyway? According to Angie, he was more into brunettes so what was it about me that enticed him?

My head had hurt previously from thinking about the situation too much, and I knew it was going to cause me another headache if I thought about Niall more than I should be. Instead, I focused on the task at hand, which was to get the boys to a fitting with their stylist. They were currently mucking about on stage, all doing different things. Liam and Zayn were playing with a hacky-sack; Niall was contentedly munching away on a large sized packet of chips which he made me purchase on the way to the first venue of the tour, the Watford Colosseum in Watford, England, Harry was singing into the microphone and checking with Louis whether he was on pitch or not but Louis was only half-listening to what he was saying, most likely texting his new girl, Eleanor. I had yet to see a picture of her, but apparently she would be heading out on one of their concert dates with Liam’s girlfriend, Danielle. I had seen a photo of her and she was gorgeous, the two made a fantastic couple and I silently hoped I could meet her during this tour. I was sure I would, eventually.

“Hey boys?” I called out to them. I had a feeling they wouldn’t be able to hear me from the side of the stage so I strode out onto it, taking the microphone expertly from an amused Harry.

“It’s time for your final fitting,” I told them with an authoritative voice. I wasn’t going to lie; it was fun bossing people around, especially when it came to these five. They were all so childish in their own ways and to exercise my power on them always yielded entertaining results. “And no, Zayn, you can’t continue playing hacky-sack.” Turning on each boy, I continued on. “Harry, you’re first, followed by your boyfriend, Zayn, Liam and then Niall. Yes Niall, I put you last so you can finish your food. Don’t worry Louis, your trademark outfit is ready for you. You just need to try them on, just in case.”

“Eye-eye chief!” Harry replied with a smirk, and he earned a smack over the head with my clipboard. I always felt like clipboards made you look professional and shit, so it was cool to hold one in my hand.

I had always been a little dorky like that.

“Hey, Niall?” I decided to hold him back, and while he was oblivious, I noticed the wiggling of eyebrows between the rest of the band-members. I resisted the urge to give them the finger.

“What’s up?” He asked me, his mouth full of peri-peri chips.

I sighed, trying to not get frustrated with his constant eating habits. “You have shit all over your face.”

His hands instinctively went to his mouth, and I watched in enjoyment as he attempted to wipe the salt from his face. I watched him struggle for a moment or two before handing him a clean tissue I had swiped earlier, knowing that Niall’s face was going to look like what it did.

“Thanks Cass,” he murmured with a smile, wiping the salt off his fingers also. He didn’t need me to tell him that their stylist team would kill Niall if he got a speck of food on their outfits. “You look really cute today.”

I had to say I wasn’t expecting a compliment from him, and this was proved when I felt my cheeks flush from his comment. All I was wearing were a pair of high waisted shorts and a tucked in white shirt, paired with a short sleeved blazer I found lying around in Angie’s room. I wanted the effect of looking cute yet sophisticated, and hearing from Niall what I wanted to hear had definitely brightened up my mood, despite whatever feelings I had for him.

“Well uh, you should probably be heading off. I’m sure the stylists are half-way through the boys by now.” I was never good at receiving compliments, they made me feel awkward and weird inside. I didn’t like that feeling, so I tended to brush them off. Unless they were from Angie. Then I could smile proudly and reply with a bright “eff yeah!”

I began to walk off the stage, Niall walking calmly next to me as though he hadn’t just embarrassed me moments prior. Before we could reach the boys though, Niall abruptly stood in front of me, causing me to stop suddenly.

“Yes, Niall?”

“I was serious about what I said before Cassie.” Niall placed a hand on my cheek, and I could feel the warmth of his hand radiating onto my skin. His icy-blue eyes were full of genuineness and sincerity, with his piercing stare focused solely on me. “You do look really cute today. And you did yesterday, and the day before that, and every day since I first met you. You’re a beautiful girl, Cassie, and you should know that.”

I struggled not to let my insides melt at his words, but it failed and I found myself wanting to lean in and kiss him. As though he could sense I wanted to act on it, he placed one hand on my waist and slid me closer to him, our bodies almost touching but not quite, though I could feel his warmth.

“Niall,” I breathed gently, and before I could lean in any more forward to place my lips on his, a sudden crash was held from inside the boys’ dressing room. With a jerky movement, I immediately moved away from Niall who seemed confused by the whole situation. The door flew open, revealing Zayn with guilt written all over his face as he looked at Niall and I. I hoped he wasn’t sensing there was something between us.

“What happened in there?” I questioned, shifting right back into my assistant position as though I did hold any sort of power in them, when in reality they hired me, and not the other way around. “Zayn, were you playing with the hacky-sack?”

“It was an accident!” He lifted his hands up in protest, but I wasn’t going to take any of that and proceeded to hit Zayn over the head for the clipboard. “Why must you always be so violent?” I could hear him mutter, rubbing his head.

Ignoring him, I stepped inside of the room and listened to the boys’ preferences for a snack, since I figured they had to be hungry about now, with only an hour before the actual concert began. It was nearly time to open the doors of the venue and let those bloody teenaged girls scream their hearts out.

I couldn’t believe how close it had been to Zayn seeing me with Niall, and how close I had actually let myself towards him. What was I thinking, allowing Niall to be so close to me and how could I have ever thought that I wanted to kiss him, for crying out loud?

I knew what was happening but I didn’t want to admit it to myself just yet, so I ignored the butterflies in my stomach that erupted every time I even glanced towards Niall’s way. It was time to focus on my work wholeheartedly, and not let any distractions come my way.

However, it proved to be a bit hard when I could hear ”You’re a beautiful girl, Cassie” winding around my mind several times, and as far as I knew, it wasn’t going to be stopping any time soon