Just One Step

It was a week after the night Niall slept over. I had hung out with the boys and it wasn’t as awkward as I thought it was going to be. The song came out in two days, and I was nervous. I mean, it had always been my dream to sing but my stage fright transferred to just the fact that in two days the entire world would be able to pay ninety nine cents to hear me sing. Wow.

Not only that but my face was going to be on the single cover along with the boys. Uncle Mark had texted me last night telling me that the photo shoot was today. Photo shoot? I had asked him incredulously. Somehow he and Tay were able to talk me into it, and that’s why today Tay and me sat in NYC traffic in her car on the way out of the city to where the shoot was going to be.

“Eeeep!” Tay screeched. “This is so cool,”

“Sure,” I said, trying to pay attention to the road.

“Hurry up,” she scolded me. “We’re going to be late.”

“I’m going to be late,” I corrected. “And does it look like I can?”

“Good point,” she said. “Let’s listen to some music, then.”

“Sure,” I said. She plugged her iPod into her car and selected a song. We drove for what seemed like forever. When we were close to where we were supposed to be ‘My Heroine’ by The Maine came on and Tay cranked the volume so people outside of the car could hear it. She began to sing:

“I’m feeling pretty dirty baby,” she sang looking at me and I laughed. “Forgive my sins,”

“I got the feeling you can save me honey,” I sang at the top of my lungs. She joined me for the next part. “My heroine,”

“Your hips,” she sang.

“My hands,” we were both laughing as we went back and forth

“You swing,”

“You dance,”

“I’m feeling pretty lonely, baby,”

“Just let me in,”

“Just let me in.” we came together again for the chorus, singing as loud as we could.

“You’re me heroine, just suicide it,
If I let you in, you’ll crawl inside it,
Oh you saved my skin,
She can’t wait to sing
Ooooooooo
My heroine,”

We pulled into the parking lot of a park. I pulled the car into a spot, but we continued to sing.

“I feel a little withdraw, baby,” Tay sang.

“Come pick me up,” I replied.

“Took a hit from your level, now I just can’t get enough!” we harmonized and then laughed. We went back to each of us sing a part.

“Your taste,” she sang.

“My touch,”

“A little bit of love,”

“Whole lota lust,” I sang doing my best to mimic the way it was in the song, which made Tay giggle. We went back to singing together.

“I’m feeling pretty lonely, baby.” I watched as Tay turned up the volume even more. “So just let me in. Just let me in!”

We were both dancing like idiots, but we didn’t care.

“You’re me heroine, just suicide it,
If I let you in, you’ll crawl inside it,
Oh you saved my skin,
She can’t wait to sing
Ooooooooo
My heroine,”

“Da da da da da da da da,
Da da da da da da da da,
Da da da da da da da da
Da da da da da da da da”

“Your hips,” she sang.

“My hands,” I sang back, trying not to laugh.

“You swing,”

“You dance,”

“I’m feeling pretty lonely, baby,”

“So, Just let me in,”

“Just let me in,” Tay sang as I banged on the dashboard mimicking the drums

“You’re me heroine, just suicide it,
If I let you in, you’ll crawl inside it,
Oh you saved my skin,
She can’t wait to sing
Ooooooooo
My heroine,”

“You’re me heroine, just suicide it,
If I let you in, you’ll crawl inside it,
Oh you saved my skin,
She can’t wait to sing
Ooooooooo
My heroine,”

We both laughed as the song finished.

“We should probably get going,” Tay said, picking up her bag and putting her iPod back in it. “You might be late,”

“Yeah,” I said. I jumped out of the car, only to see five boys clapping, whooping and laughing.

“Wait,” I said, with a look on my face that portrayed my horror. “You saw that,” I gestured in the vague area of Tay’s car, as Tay came walking around the side of the car. When she saw the boy her expression changed to about what I guessed mine looked like. Shocked.

“Saw it?” Louis asked sarcastically. “We could hear it from over there,” he pointed to a bench on the edge of the parking lot, before jumping into his own version of what we had been doing. He sung the chorus while jumping up and down, and banging his head. Everybody laughed as he finished belting ‘my heroine,’ with a Mariah Carey hand.

“It’s a good song though,” he said suddenly, which made us all laugh more.

The photo shoot went well. The boy’s manager ended up picking the picture where we were all sitting on a picnic table for the cover. Tay and me were walking back to the car when we heard Niall and Harry shouting.

“Hey! Wait for us!”

“Don’t you boys have your own car to be getting to?” Tay asked the pair of boys running toward us.

“Well we wanted to experience the show from the inside,” Harry said with a wink.

“Fine,” Tay said. “Hop in the back.”

“You driving this time?” I asked her.

“Sure.” We both got in the car and I turned around to ask the boys what song they’d like to hear.

“Just put your iPod on shuffle,” Niall said.

“Yes,” said Harry. “But no skipping, if it comes on you two have to sing.”

“Then we’re not using Tay’s,” I said, knowing for a fact that Deuce’s “Let’s Get It Crackin’” and a) I hated that song and b) I really didn’t feel like singing about meeting people in the bathroom to have sex. “Worth It,” by Luke Conrad came on first then “Keep Bringin’ Me Down,” by Forever The Sickest Kids, those were all fine. As it turns out, using my iPod didn’t completely save us, seeing as both me and Tay have a strange obsession with nerdy music. When ‘This Isn’t Hogwarts,” by Hank Green came on I looked at Tay. She knew what song it was when she heard the first few notes, and gave me a face that told me to change it. When I skipped it, Harry caught us.

“Nope,” he said. “Put whatever song that was back on.”

“It’s too low, there’s no way either of us could sing it,” I said laughing trying as best I could to get out of it. Even if I wasn’t ready for a relationship that didn’t mean I wanted to embarrass myself in front of Niall.

“Sing it up the octave then,”

“Just play it Dani,” Tay said. So I did. We sang at the top of our lungs forgetting that the boys were even there and laughing as we did.

“Well you two are total nerds,” Harry said.

“Cute nerds,” Niall said.

“Hot nerds!” Tay corrected.

We all laughed and sang the rest of the way back to Tay’s apartment where we watched a movie together before the boys had to head back.

***

The next day, I was working at the music shop when I got a call from Uncle Mark. It was the shift that I had alone, so I almost didn’t pick up.

“Hey,” I said, as I wiped down the counter where specialty items where displayed.

“Guess what?” he said.

“Umm, what?” I said.

“So I showed the boy’s manager the song and,”

“I thought she already heard it?”

“No, their producer did,” he said.

“Okay,”

“So I showed her the song and she loved it so much, and when she saw you yesterday she said that you should go on tour with the boys, because right now it’s almost all girls going to the concerts but if there is a hot girl there then maybe some boys would come too,” He said. “Isn’t that great!”

“No,” I said. “Have you forgotten about my stage fright? And in what world am I hot?”

“Ok you are, and I thought you got over that?”

“Sort of, but that doesn’t mean I want to go sing in front of a crowd.”

“Well Niall will be up there with you,” he said.

“That doesn’t help,” I said.

“It seamed to help,”

“I think you should,” he said.

“I don’t know,”

“Are you at work?” he asked randomly.

“Yes,” I said. “Why?”

“I’m sending the boys over there to convince you or drag you back here, which ever proves easier,”

“No,” I said. “They are not coming here,”

“Why not?” he whined.

“Because, no one besides Dev comes here, and that every blue moon. No, this is work not a social gathering, so no boys,”

“Too late,” he said and hung up on me.

Fifteen minutes later the bell on the door rang and five boys walked in.

“Woah, this is a cool music shop,” Liam said.

“Yeah,” agreed Zayn. Oh good plan boys, act like I’m not why you’re here, then catch me off guard. I’m prepared now, so good luck with that.

“Hey check out this guitar,” I heard Harry say.

“Awesome,” I heard Louis say. “Wish I knew how to play,” I then heard one of them taking it down.

“Uhh, hey guys,” I said. “Please don’t take that down,”

“You work here?” Niall asked.

“Yeah,” I said sarcastically. Like they didn’t know I worked there! “That’s why Uncle Mark sent you all down here to convince me to go on tour with you but…”

“You’re going on tour with us?” Liam asked. I saw Zayn glance at Niall raising his eyebrow.

“Oh don’t act like that’s not why you’re down here,” I said. “I just talked to Mark and he said he sent you over here to convince me to go on tour with you, but it’s not happening.”

“Well he actually just said we should check this place out ‘cause it’s cool,” said Harry. “But you should totally come on tour with us, I know Niall would enjoy it,” I looked at Niall and he smiled sheepishly.

“Well, I’m not going.”

“Aww, come on,” Louis said giving me a puppy dog face.

“Nope,” I said. I turned to walk toward the door, but then remembered that I worked here for another hour, and they didn’t. “Okay, so I’m not going, can you all leave now,”

“Nope,” Niall said, jumping up into the counter I had just whipped down.

“Why?” I said.

“We’re not leaving till you say yes,”

Twenty minutes later and I had already stopped Louis from breaking more than 12 things. I had to go to the bathroom, but didn’t want to leave Louis alone, but they wouldn’t leave until I said yes.

“I’m hungry,” Louis announced a few seconds after almost breaking yet another thing that I didn’t own, or had the money to replace. YES! Leave now to I can pee! Please!

“There’s a vending machine at the back, I saw it when we came in,” Liam said to Louis.

“Damn it,” I said.

“What?” Harry asked. Shit! Did I say that out loud? Now they would know they were getting to me.

“Nothing,” I said quickly.

“No…” He said slowly. “You said damn it. We’re starting to get to you.” He gave Niall a high five.

“Not really,” I said. “It’s mainly Louis, he keeps almost breaking things.”