I'm On a Trip

Chapter 7:

John's P.O.V:

I bounded off of the stage with excitement. I had been an amazing time and staring into her eyes while singing to her was perfect. She gave me the chills, her glistening brown eyes that went red and puffy as soon as we started playing 'Into Your Arms'. It made my heart drop seeing her upset, there was seriously something wrong with me, I was never like this. I'm confused.

I congratulated all the boys on their amazing performance as per usual, they're great lads. But now my main reason for my excitement was seeing that girl before me. I felt the need to make an impression, so I quickly changed out of my sweaty t-shirt and replaced it with a shirt and suspenders, I thought they were fairly smart.

"Very smart," Kennedy shoved my arm lightly. Well looks like he agrees.

I told all the lads about my plan tonight, seeing as this was our last tour date for a while it means that we'll be home for a while working on a new record.

I was unsure of what to say to her, like do I just invite them back stage or what? I'm freaking out, I'm hopeless. I let my legs take me out to the heart of the venue, noticing that all the fans had cleared out except these two girls, that I could hear raising their voices at each other.

"Look I know this is weird but I just have a feeling you know," the girl I saw the other night, with the red hair that I never caught on to what her name was said plainly.

"Well we aren't going to meet them now," the brunette sighed, making my heart swell. I was approaching behind her quietly, giving a slight nod to the other girl.

"Whatever you say," the red haired girl smirked back.

I took that as my opportunity to tap the beautiful girl on the shoulder causing her to fly forward in shock. I mumbled a quick "sorry" before she turned around, I noticed that her eyes lit up and a infectious smile curled on her lips. I couldn't helo but return a crooked smile back at her, she was truely stunning.

"Hi," she shyly mumbled, averting her gaze to her converse.

"Hey, um, you wanna come back stage to meet the rest of the guys?" I smiled in return, trying to get some sort of response from her.

"Yeah!" she giggled, oh wow that was beautiful. "Erm, sure... my name's Charlotte by the way," she smiled slightly embarrassed, offering her right hand in front of me. Which I immediately shook and nodded back in return "John."

"I am still here," the red head said popping out from behind her. "I'm Sophie, well Soph," she waved.

"Hey Sophie," I replied with a smile, leading them backstage out to where I knew the boys would be. I so desperately hoped they tidied themselves up a bit but if they were fans hopefully they would know what to expect.

I took them straight around to meet the rest of the guys, hoping they had remembered me telling them my plan.

"Hey guys, this is Charlotte and Sophie," I pointed towards them both as they waved and smiled at the guys, "this is Pat, Kennedy, Jared and Garrett, as you probably already know," I said gesturing towards each band member. They all gave a nod at the girls before individually saying hello. We all started having our own conversations with them afterwards, both Charlotte and Sophie had asked for pictures and autographs, as though it was a normal meet and greet, however it wasn't because I wanted to see them more often as I felt they could be good friends to us...but we'll see.

We invited them to go out with us for a couple of drinks, seeing as we weren't going anywhere, but back to our miserable flats now that the tour had ended, and we needed to celebrate, big time! So that's when we found ourselves in a fairly local club knocking a few drinks back and enjoying ourselves. I was surprisingly enjoying myself, normally I would be bored to death just sitting at a table drinking, I'd rather be on the dance floor, trying to grab a girl for the night but it was different tonight, we had guests. Guests that I wanted to make an impression on.

The hours flew past like a breeze and it was beginning to get quite late and very hot in the club, I needed air. I walked out into the what I would call cool Arizona air, to cool off, leaving everyone else outside. However, after a few minutes I was joined by a small figure beside me. It was Charlotte. She had been entertaining me all evening with her sweet smile, cheeky laugh and bright eyes, she was a real character, but she hide something which worried me.

"Hi," she smiled at me sweetly, taking in a deep breath.

"Hi," I replied, not really knowing what else to say.

"Why is it still so warm out here?" she laughed, clearly not used to the Arizona heat yet.

"And there I was thinking it was quite cold out here," I chuckled turning my head to lock eyes with hers once more.

She smiled back at me innocently before adding, "Your set was amazing tonight, it was weird seeing you perform at your home state gig. Well I-I mean...I've only seen you in London, so um yeah it's weird," she responded, trying to put what she was thinking into words carefully.

"Thank you, that means a lot. Glad you like our music," I replied before thinking about how I was going to say it. "Er...I noticed you in the crowd immediately, then I noticed you crying along to 'Into Your Arms' you okay?" I asked a little unsure if that sounded ok...

"Oh yeah," she giggled, I just about died inside at her cuteness, "That's kind of a regular thing for me, I can't help it when you play it live," she said sadly but her lips twitching into a curve at the end of her sentence.

"Any particular reason?" I wondered looking straight into her eyes looking for an answer.

"Ye- no" she quickly stopped herself. She was about to say 'yes' but she changed her mind and diverted her eyes away from mine and I immediately knew she was lying, the look on her face had changed from a happy one to a emotionless face. She looked as though she was in pain somewhere but I didn't press it, seeing as I didn't want to upset her anymore. I think I'll give that topic a little more time.

"So do you want to hang out with us tomorrow? I am sure we're probably having some kind of party at home," I asked avoiding facing her while I waited for an answer.

"Really, that's cool. What time?" she laughed in response.

"About 2 o'clock? We'll probably have a Barbecue going, some drinks and a swimming pool if you're up for that," I added.

"That's fine, I can bring Soph can't I?" she stated curiously, facing me, tilting her head slightly.

"Of course, I was aiming it at both of you," I responded. But now I sounded like an idiot as if I didn't want just her to come along, oh shit well I've fucked this one up already haven't I?

"Great," she chuckled, "you coming back in now?"

"Yeah sure," I followed her lead back to the table we were previously at, however when we got back there only Jared and Kennedy were sitting down. They pointed over to the dance floor where we saw Sophie, Garrett and Pat having a wild time dancing around, clearly not being able to manage their alcohol. I sat down next to Kennedy about to join in their conversation when I realised Sophie had now dragged Charlotte up to have a dance too. She was a natural dancer but you could tell she wasn't exactly comfortable with drunk Sophie dancing with her, that only made me laugh quietly under my breath, when I noticed Jared and Kenny were staring at me with smirks on their faces and raised eyebrows. They knew I never felt like this, I was always the first one drunk but tonight the alcohol couldn't get me drunk, because she kept me sober.