Twisted Life

I was asleep for what seemed like 10 minutes before I was awoken by someone’s inconsiderate snoring. I took a mental note to find out who that was, and shove a pillow in their face the next night I was on the bus. After a couple failed attempts to fall back asleep, I decided it was no use at all. I sat quietly on my makeshift bed playing with my phone and sending Kristyn multiple texts to wake her up. Finally, my phone started vibrating the familiar vibration that I customized as hers. I smiled and quickly swiped across the screen to accept the call.

“It’s 2am, I work in 3 hours. What in God’s name possessed you to text me 50 times? I’m pretty sure my entire neighbourhood was awoken by my precious Afro Circus ringtone.” Kristyn clearly wasn’t the most chipper person upon being woken up. “Did you not read the texts I sent you?” Knowing the answer, I asked anyways. “No I totally read them, that’s why I’m asking. I wanted to hear it over again. This is like the time when I asked for toilet paper and you proceeded to ask me if I needed it. Obvious answers Crissie.” Sarcasm was something Kristyn spoke fluently in. I decided since she was already irritated, I’d just explain the situation. “Someone’s snoring and I can’t get to sleep.” “That’s why you decided to make a neighbourhood disturbance via my phone?” She questioned my actions, as I knew she would. “That’s not the only thing. I’m thirsty too.” I could almost feel her glaring at me through the phone as I began to snicker. Suddenly I saw the door to my current room creep open. “I have to go.” I quickly told her and without letting her speak, ended the call. I assumed the person coming in was Paul, scolding me for being on the phone this late at night. Though, when I looked up, a messy haired Louis Tomlinson was standing in the doorway. I could barely see him due to the darkness of the room, but a little light from the window lit up his face.

“Can’t sleep?” He questioned, still standing by the doorway. “No, whoever’s snoring woke me up, and that’s the one thing that can keep me up. Remind me to bring duct tape for their mouth the next time I’m on the bus” Louis laughed at my remark and made his way over to the couch and sat beside me. “Yeah, that’s Harry. He doesn’t always snore, but I guess his allergies are getting to him right now. It can get quite annoying.” “Is that why you’re awake?” I questioned, positioning myself to be able to see him. “No, I’m still not used to the time zone changes. I heard you talking in here and I wanted to see if you were alright.” I smiled at Louis’ caring words. He seemed like the kind of guy you could open up to and be yourself around. I felt an automatic connection to him, like I could trust him. I nodded to him, indicating that I was alright. “Yeah, I was just talking to my best friend. I was bored and had nothing to do. This will actually be the longest we’ve been away from each other. It’s a little weird. She’s always by my side.” Louis gave me a sympathetic look and took my hand in his.

“I know you just met us today, and we’re 5 strange boys, but we will be here if you need anything. I will definitely be here if you need to talk or you just need someone to sit with. I know you’re going through a though and weird time, and it sucks not to have your best friend there, but I will do my best to help you through this. Don’t feel like I’m forcing this on you, though. That’s completely up to you. I just want you to feel comfortable being here. Your dad is like family to us, so that makes you family as well. Don’t ever hesitate to come to us about anything, alright?” Knowing that someone actually cared about how I felt and wanted to be there for me send warm feelings through my body. This was new to me, seeing as I wasn’t shown the love I desired at home. Without thinking, I leaned forward and pulled Louis into a hug. To my surprise, he hugged back. His grip was tighter on me than mine was on him, and he stroked my hair a little.

“Thank you.” I mumbled into his shoulder that my face was nicely squished into. We pulled away and sat in a comfortable silence for a couple minutes. “So, I want to get to know the real Crissie. Tell me about yourself!” Louis crossed his legs and got comfortable, signalling me to proceed with the details about myself. “Well,” I began. “My real name is Cristine Marie Nichols. I prefer to be called Crissie, though. Cristine seems too formal and grown up. My birthday is June 10th, 1994, making me 17years old. I live in a small town in Canada. There’s not much to my life, really. It’s pretty boring. I’m not one to participate in school functions, teams or clubs. Actually, the less time I spend at school the better. Don’t get me wrong, I like learning and all that, but I’d rather not be around the people. I’d say the things that keep me sane are my job and Kristyn, but those are probably the things that keep me the most insane.” I laughed at my own joke. Louis would laugh too if he knew how boring working at Subway was, and how crazy Kristyn can get. Sometimes I feel like a single mother having to take care of 3 kids when I’m with her. You could say she’s a handful.

“There isn’t really much else to say I guess. That’s basically it. I’m just a normal small town girl!”
Louis gave a nod of approval before he began to speak. “Don’t say your life is boring, love! What’s boring to you could be completely fascinating to someone else!” Louis and I kept our conversation going for what seemed like forever. We talked about our favourite music, food, books; everything. I felt myself growing closer to Louis in such a short amount of time. Usually I’d be scared to open up to people, but I felt safe talking to him. It was a really nice feeling. After a while, I started to drift off to sleep. The last thing I remembered was my head falling to something warm and soft.

The morning sun beamed through the window of the bus, burning through my eye lids. I heard a faint clearing of a throat and groggily lifted my eyelids. Through blurry vision I could see Harry leaning against the door frame, clad in track pants and his infamous black Ramones t-shirt. For some reason, he was giving me a suspicious look. I raised my eyebrow at him, silently questioning him until I realized that the warm and soft thing my head landed on was indeed not a pillow, but Louis’ pajama clad lap. I shot up, eyes wide and began to stutter, attempting to find words to explain the situation. If almost on cue, Louis woke up with a yawn and took in his surroundings.

“Oh hey Harry, what are you doing back here?” “I could ask you the same thing.” Harry cocked his brow at Louis, having a silent conversation with his eyes to his band mate. Louis let out a scoff at the interaction. “Lad, get your mind out of the gutter. I couldn’t sleep and heard her talking so I came back to see if she was alright. We started talking and we fell asleep.” “Her head was on your lap.” Harry retorted. “My lap is comfy. You should know. You’ve used it as a pillow once or twice.” I laughed at Louis’ remark, earning a sharp look from Harry, which only caused me to laugh harder. “Yeah, okay, just keep your paws off her.” Harry sent me a wink before exiting the back room.” I felt my face flush to a shade of red. Louis must have noticed because he began to laugh. I let out a little giggle at situation and we made our way to the front. I said good morning to everyone and quickly slipped into the bathroom to do my morning routine. When I was finished, I made my way over to the couch and sat down between Harry and Liam.

“So, what’s going on today?” My question was directed towards Paul, who was sitting across from me at the table, focused on his laptop. “It’s actually a fun filled day of driving to our next destination. We should be there between 8 and 9 tonight. The boys have the night off and almost the entire day off tomorrow; only one interview before the show.” I nodded in approval, thinking about how I could make up for the sleep I lost last night thanks to Harry’s sleep. Speaking of which, I should probably bring that up to him at some point. And by bring that up, I mean threaten him so he learns how to breathe properly in his sleep.

Niall and Zayn were playing Fifa on the ps3 at the front of the bus, yelling and swearing at each other. It was really nice to be able to sit back and watch how the boys interacted with each other when there weren’t fans, paparazzi and reporters around. They really were just normal teenage boys. It was refreshing to see. Paul made his way over to me and sat in the vacant spot beside me.
“I’m going to be going back on the other bus until we get to the hotel, if that’s alright. I have some work to do and all my stuff is back there. If you need me or anything, just call me. I’m sure the boys will also help you with anything you need.” His voice rose and got stern at the last sentence, and a wave of nods appeared, signalling they were listening and understood. I said it was alright with me and I’d be fine alone for a couple of hours.

With that, the bus pulled over and Paul left. I sat on the couch watching the boys, unsure of what to do for the next 6 hours.