The Kind of Hoax That Leaves a Lump in Your Throat

“Nice to see you’ve dressed for the occasion” josh said to me as I entered their dressing room. Sure I was only wearing a baggy jumper, jeans and vans but I didn’t see the need to dress up. I mean it was a gig for heaves sake, not London fashion week.

“Well hello to you too” I said and went to walk around him. He grabbed my wrist though and pulled me back to him.

“I’m joshing love, you could wear a bin bag and I’d still only have eyes for you”

“Better” I said tapping his cheek and sitting on the sofa next to Holly. I didn’t bring any of the girls tonight, mostly because they were busy. Liana, Charlie and Zahra were having ‘quiet nights in’ with their man friends whilst coral and Sonnie had pushed the wedding forward so it was only a few weeks away and needed the time to get things sorted. But I hadn’t been able to catch up with just Holly and Georgina in ages and it was nice for it to be just the three of us sometimes.

“Vi can you come with me for a sec?” josh called from the door and I followed him out to the hallway. He took my hand once it was in reach and we walked down the corridors getting closer to the stage.

“Why are we here?” I asked as we got to the side of the stage and he didn’t say anything until he’d led me over to a specific spot.

“We’re on soon and I wanted to be the first one here” he said simply and the looked right out to the stage before nodding to himself and turning back to me. “I want you to stay here the whole time yeah?”

“Why?”

“Cause I’ll have a good view of you here”

“You never usually care”

“Well today I am. Just stay here, please?”

“And what if I don’t” I asked teasingly. He smiled slightly and kissed me before murmuring against my lips.

“You move from this spot and I will come off stage and drag you back myself in my sweaty high adrenalin state”

“Can the two love birds please move away from each other so the single ones don’t feel so bad” dan said as he got closer.

“Sorry dan, you jealous I’m all over your man?” I said with a wink and he just laughed before hitting an amp with his sticks. Everyone else filled in soon after and the boys got ready to go on stage.

I saw a slightly familiar blonde mass of hair come back stage then followed by tom. It was only then I put two and two together and realise it was Melenie.

He put his hand on the small of her back and guided her over to me. I hugged them both and tom smiled sheepishly at me when I pulled away.

“It’s really good to see you again Melenie, I had no idea you we’re gonna be here”

“Yeah I didn’t either, but tom thought it would be a good idea. You know to like get to know each other before his shoot on Monday”

“Ahh, so that all worked out then?”

“Yeah I’m really excited about it” she said, flashing a smile at the boy and he blushed furiously in return.

A loud bang then radiated through the small space and oli, in a fit of giggles, followed by a guy I’d never seen before came over to us.

“Violet love” Oli smiled and hugged me. “Here meet Matty; he plays drums in my band”

“Oh so it’s your band now is it?” matty asked him with a raised eyebrow before turning to me with a smile. “It’s nice to meet you Violet, I’m matty” he stuck his hand out and I shook it.

“Nice to meet you too” I replied. His smile was contagious and I couldn’t help but smile back. We all chatted a bit before the boys went on stage and I went and stood where josh had pretty much ordered me too.

Because it was a charity gig there were loads of other acts so they only did about a five song set. The crowd seemed lovely though and the boys were feeding off every bit of energy they were being given.

“Okay so this is our second to last song” josh announced and the crowd booed which made josh smile in response. “I’m sorry but it’s out of my hands. anyway the next song we’re gonna play is one we wrote about our fans, but tonight I wanna dedicate it to our biggest fan of all” he said stealing a glance of me. “Though last time I did this she hat the lyrics tattooed on her” he said with a slight smile. “Anyway, this is little bit of truth”

“I think I need to have a word with matt” holly said from beside me, “I never get songs done for me and you’ve had two” she added in a mock sulk.

I was just trying to calm the pounding in my ears so I could hear what josh was singing.

I just lost control
I just wanted you to know
When I'm on my own
I feel invisible
I just lost control
I just needed you to know
When in front of you
I feel invincible

So the butterflies erupted in my stomach as usual whenever josh did anything like this. I swear he was a much better boyfriend than I was a girlfriend. He seemed to always being doing little things for me like this. Well this was pretty massive actually. I made a mental note to remember to make everything up to him somehow.

I know I've said and done some things
That made you feel a little empty
I've got a whole lot to learn
Every bridge I see, I seem to burn…

That’s when the tears started but thankfully no one noticed and I was able to brush them away quietly. Well I thought no one had noticed but then Georgina put her arm around me and smiled sympathetically at me.

When they eventually got off stage I jumped on josh, not caring that he was covered in sweat. He lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist whilst he gently ran his fingers through my hair and nestled his face in my neck.

When we eventually pulled back, everyone was gone and the next act was on stage. He sat on an amp and stood between my legs as he brushed some hair from my eyes plus a few tears that had escaped.

“Thank you” I sniffed and he smiled ever so slightly.

God he was so beautiful.

“What for?” he asked.

“Just being you” I sighed before leaning forward and out lips met in the middle.

It was nice to be alone with him even just for a little while.

We went back to their dressing room where now there were significantly more people. As soon as we walked in a girl with coppery auburn hair, almost the same colour as maxes used to be ran over to josh and they hugged tightly.

“Libby it’s so good to see you, what you doing here?”

“Dan said you guys were doing a gig so I thought I’d show my face”

“You spoken to max?” he asked with a hopeful smile but she shook her head causing him to sigh. “I swear I’m gonna lock you two in a room. Wait you didn’t bring you know who, did you?”

She shook her head again, her face now slightly sad. “Working” was all she said.

“Oh ok. Well Libby this is my girl violet” he said placing and arm around my waist and smiling with what I couldn’t only describe as pride that made me melt.

“Ah so I finally get to meet the famous violet?” she said and we shook hands. “I’m Libby; I’ve worked with the guys when they’ve been in America for a few years”

“Yeah she’s like out sister”

“Well it’s nice to meet you” I smiled and she smiled back and was on the edge of saying something when she looked past me and shook her head. I’m really sorry but I’ve got to save Dan from my friend” she said and hurried past us.

We turned and saw dan cornered by some girl, but by the looks of things he wasn’t objecting to it, if anything he looked pleased.

“What was all that about her and max?” I asked quietly and he just kissed my forehead.

“I’ll tell you all about it later.”