Just One Step

We didn’t talk on the way back to the studio. We walked in silence. It was completely quiet until we got in sight distance of the doors. Once again the rest of the boys came flying out of the doors, but this time instead of congratulating Niall on finding me, they were interrogating me on a certain boy named James Stevenson. The one and only James Stevenson that had cheated on me for a whole year with my old best friend, Jenna. The James Stevenson I had no intention of telling them about. It was my business, and it was business I preferred buried deep in the ground so no could find it.

“So,” said Harry. “Who’s James?”

“Oh, him. He’s just none of your business,” I told him, quickly walking through the doors of the studio, pushing past the boys to get to Mark.

“Speaker phone?” I asked him. “Really? And you just had to bring up James didn’t you.” I said sarcastically.

“I’m sorry Dani,” he said apologetically. “It just slipped out.”

“No.” I told him with tears starting to form in my eyes. “Saying I had cat named Bubbles just slips out. James Stevenson doesn’t just slip out.”

“You had a cat named Bubbles?” asked Louis, and I turned around to see all five of the boys standing in the doorway. I looked at Niall and he looked back at me, his expression changed from the anger of earlier to concern when he saw the water welling in my eyes. He walked over to me and wrapped me in a hug. I put head on his shoulder and started to cry for real. He put his hand on my back and rubbed in a circular motion.

“I don’t know what happened,” he whispered. “But I’m sorry.”

Louis made a coughing noise behind us. I picked myself off of Niall and wiped my eyes.

“You ready?” Mark asked

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m ready.” And this time I knew I was, because not only was I doing this for me and Uncle Mark, and the boys. I was doing this to prove James wrong. When he broke up with me he said I was too safe. I never did anything that made a guy want to stay.

“Alright,” he said. “Boys you better get going,” directing his speech toward the boys and they began to walk out the door. All of them, except Niall. I walked into the recording booth and donned the large headphones that were attached to the microphone. I looked out of the glass that was in front of me to see Uncle Mark and Niall sitting looking back at me both of them wearing the same big headphones as me. Niall smiled at me, the same way he had back at s’mac. I smiled back.

“All right kiddo,” Mark’s voice came through the headphones. “We’ll start with the chorus,”

“Okay,” I said quietly.

“Knock ‘em dead,” he said before starting that track. I could hear the other boy’s vocals and the background track. I had time. Calm down and get ready. Just a little bit more. Now.

“Don’t worry, if we fall
We can fall into love
It’s just one step
One step that might change it all
So take my hand
We can make it trough
It’s just one step
One step to me and you”

”That,” Niall said through the headphones. “Was brilliant.” I blushed.

“Okay,” Uncle Mark said. “Can you do the verse now?”

“Sure, “ I said. Then my phone rang, I saw that it was Tay. “Can you just give me one sec?”

“Go ahead,” he said. I opened my phone.

“Hey Tay,” I said.

“OMG DANI!,” she screeched through the phone making me hold it a few inches from my head so she was no longer blasting my ears out.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Accident Drive is,” That was her boyfriend Devin’s band, “Opening for Paradise Fears tonight, and I know how much you love them, and Dev has like 6 tickets left from the ten he got from the venue, so I thought maybe you could come and bring your boy posse!”

“Boy posse?” I asked.

“You know,” she said. “The four other boys Irish said you had back at Uncle Marky’s!”

“Oh, well I’ll ask them, but I’m in,”

“Eeeep!” she squeaked.

“What time and what venue, I’ll meet you there,”

“Oh no sweetie, if you want to get into this concert you are coming over to my place first and I am going to make you look hot,”

“Great,” I said sarcastically. Tay trying to make me look hot was how I ended up with blonde hair a few summer’s ago. The things we do for friends.

“Yay! See you at my place at 4, and bring the boys if they’re coming!” then she hung up. I put the phone back in my pocket and then spoke into the microphone.

“Hey Niall,” I said.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“How would you and the others like to come to a concert with me and Tay tonight?”

“Sounds fun,”

“Well then we better record this quick,” I said looking at the clock. “We need to be at Tay’s at four, and it’s 2:30 now. I’d give us 45 minutes to get down to her place, maybe more, seeing as we’d be taking all of the boys…” my speech got quieter as I talked myself through the timing. I was snapped back to reality by Niall’s laugh.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re cute when you ramble,” he told me.

“Oh,” I said.

“Well if you need to hurry, you better get the second verse done,” Mark said.

“Alright,” I said. The track came on and I started to sing.

“Waking up in the morning
Don’t know what to do
Knowing today I’ll still just be friends with you
That girl over there
Yeah I can see how you stare
And she has a lot of nerve
‘cause she’s the only one in your eyes
and she can’t see that you’re an amazing guy”

Mark clapped and said, “Good job Dani. I’m proud of you, but you better get going,”

“Yeah,” I said.

I walked out of the booth and out to the lobby with Niall where Zayn, Liam and Harry were sitting.

“Where’s Louis?” Niall asked.

“Snack room,” Liam said.

“Well somebody better get him,” I said with a smile.

“Why?” Zayn asked.

“Well,” I said. “We’re going to a concert,”

“Awesome,” Harry said. “I’ll go get the crazy boy,”

* * *
I led the boys up to the 10th floor. I took out the key that Tay had given me as soon as she had gotten her apartment. I opened the door and led the boys inside. As soon as we got in I knew we should have knocked. Tay and Devin were making out on the couch and I had just led five guys into the room. I made a coughing sound and Tay looked up.

“Oh hey guys!” she said, apparently not phased by the fact that we had just walked in on her.

“Umm hey,” I said.

“So Irish, are you going to introduce me the others?” she asked Niall.

“Uhh, yeah,” he said turning to the guys standing next to him. “Guys this is Tay. Tay this is Zayn,” he nodded. “Liam,” he gave an awkward half wave. “Harry,” he winked. “And Louis,”

“HELLO!” Louis interrupted and Tay giggled.

“Okay now that I’ve met your boy posse,” she said and I groaned. “Time to make you hot,” she said grabbing my wrist and dragged me to her bedroom.

“So, which one do you like?” she asked.

“Why do you think I like any of them?” I said.

“It’s Irish, isn’t it?”

“His name is Niall,”

“Ohhh! You so like Irish,” she said and started pulling out outfits. “So she asked, rocker or preppy,”

“You know how I feel about polo shirts,” I said. “Plus preppy for a concert?”

“Good point,” she said, tossing a pink polo shirt to the ground. “Rocker chic it is,”

I sat on the bed as Tay pretended I was her personal Barbie doll. She pulled out so many vintage concert shirts, until she remembered the earrings she had that would match the Guns & Roses shirt. Then she picked out some lace leggings that she paired with short jean shorts. She pulled out a red version of the knit cap she had me wearing earlier. I thought I was done. I was wrong. After finally picking the outfit, she painted my nails bright red and put black eyeliner on my eyes.

“Please don’t make me look like a slut,” I said and she giggled.

“Have I ever steered you wrong?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said and she laughed again.

“Can I go now?” I asked.

“No way! I still have to find you the perfect shoes,”

“I’ll just wear my sneakers,” I told her starting to get off the bed.

“Oh hell no Dani!” she shouted so loud I was sure the boys could hear her. She continued to shout. “If you wear those freakin’ sneakers you’ll ruin the whole thing!”

“What whole thing?” I asked in a very quiet voice hoping to show her she was being unreasonably loud. She didn’t take the hint

“The whole thing where a cute foreign boy likes you!” she said at the top of her lungs.

“We don’t know that any of them like me,”

“Well,” she was still yelling. “I sure as hell know that Irish likes you, so you are wearing heels,”

“No heels,” I said. “They hurt my feet,”

“Yes heels,” she said. “They make you look cute,”

A few minutes later I walked out of her room wearing high-heeled ankle boots much to my chagrin.