The Nanny Diaries

The boys flew into Chicago the morning of the Saturday show and checked into the same hotel that Lux and I had been staying at for a week. After the first couple of days we were in the city, Lux and I had run out of things to do so I just kept taking her to the beach and playing there. I was more than happy to see Lou so I would have a couple hours free to be alone.

It was just nearing noon when I heard a knock come from my hotel room door. I was expecting Lou to text me when they arrived but I guess she didn’t have time. I was giving Lux her lessons, but stopped when I heard the knock. I pick her up in my arms and went to go see whom our visitor is.

I opened the door to see Lou’s shiny smile and silvery hair. Happiness flooded my body, like I was being reunited with my own mother.

“Love! It’s been so long! How are ya two?” She made grabby hands at Lux who was already squirming in my arms to get to her mum. I grinned and gladly handed her over.

“We were just finishing up her lesson! How was the Midwest?” Lou motioned her head to follow her to her room so we started walking as she babbled about the tour dates I missed.

Of course she only had good things to say about the cities they visited. I was almost certain that Lou didn’t have a mean bone in her body. She also talked about how the boys started recording their new CD during the tour and I was shocked. To be honest, if I was them, I wouldn’t be able to record a CD and tour all of North America at the same time. I guess I didn’t give them that much credit.

By the time Lou and I finished our conversation, it was close to the time that we would have to get to the arena and set up. I made sure to pack some cheerios and juice for Lux cause I knew she would get fussy half way through the concert. Lou watched over Lux for me while I went and got ready and I met up with the two at the buses.

I decided on wearing some high-waisted shorts and a simple tee since a heat wave was going through Chicago. I was really missing the mild summers that England usually has. The States summers were very unpredictable and almost always very hot.

I was rummaged through my bag, while walking in the parking lot, looking for my phone charger cause Lux always drains my battery playing games on it. What I wasn’t expecting was to be crushed by two arms coming from behind me.

“Tatum!” The stranger screamed in my ear. I winced and turned around in their grasp. I was met with Niall’s pearly whites and striking eyes.

“I haven’t seen ya in over a week! It’s been too long!” He announced and then hugged me proper. I weakly patted his back because I didn’t understand why he missed me that much. It wasn’t like we were great mates or anything.

When he finally released me from his actually surprisingly good hug, I saw the other four standing just beyond him with smiles on their faces. They all gave me a wave except Harry and he just lifted an eyebrow in my direction. I paid him no attention and waved back to the other three.

“Alright? How were the dates I missed?” I asked Niall.

“Loads of fun! We were at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania and the whole town smelled of chocolate!” I laughed at Niall’s excitement and parted ways with him while following Lou on the bus.

The ride over to the stadium wasn’t short, but also wasn’t that bad. Lou wanted to braid my hair since she has had her eye on it ever since I joined them on tour. She used to love my hair when I was little, saying that it was the color of straw.

We arrived and I split ways with Lou and the rest of the boys and made my way over to my usual dressing room. It was about two hours before the boys would actually go on, so I set up the iPad to play Tangled and settled Lux on my lap with the lap of cheerios so we could both see the screen.

I was very thankful that Lux liked movies as much as I did, cause after the first month on tour, I ran out of new things to preoccupy Lux’s attention.

We were about halfway through the movie when a soft knock came from the door. It was the part where Rapunzel and Flynn had just arrived in the town and the little girls had braided Rapunzel’s hair and stuck flowers all in it. Lou stuck her head through, looking frantic.

“Hi, what’s wrong?” I questioned.

“Love, I really need your help. Charlotte became sick and I need an extra body to help me with the boys’ hair. Bring Lux with you, she can sit on one of the couches in there, but we need to hurry.” She jerked her head towards the hallway and was gone.

I turned off the iPad, much to Lux’s dismay, and hauled her down the hall towards the hair and makeup room. I met up with Lou and she gave me a grateful smile while she pointed to the chair that Charlotte usually worked out of.

“Lou, are you sure about this? I don’t know the first thing about hair and makeup.” I set Lux on the couch and she looked like she was about to fall asleep, which was good. I didn’t need her hyped up on energy while I couldn’t even watch her properly.

“Lux, just stay here while I work on the boys’ hair ok? You can sleep if you want.” She nodded her head and curled up so she was comfortable, and promptly fell asleep.

“You’ll be okay, Tatum. The boys usually know what products go on their hair, it’s just a matter of getting it done faster with three people.” I nodded my head and waited for the boys to come in.

I was calm when the boys all came piling in, I just started to panic when Lou assigned Harry to me.

I shot her a look but she just gave me a helpless shrug.

“His hair is the easiest, love.”

But what about his attitude?

Harry dropped into the chair and immediately slumped down.

“If you ruin my hair, consider going into hiding.” He glared at me through the mirror in front of us and I rolled my eyes at him.

“Just tell me what product goes in your hair and what makeup you use, and we’ll get this done as quick as possible.”

He pointed to the bottles in front of him and listed what order they were to be used. I didn’t realize how much shit actually went into making them look ‘good’. I squeezed a dollop of gel/anti frizzing serum onto my palm and Harry let out a squeak. I looked up at him through my eyelashes and he pointed to my hand.

“That’s too much.”

“You have a crazy amount of hair, Harry. It’s not too much,”

It was too much.

By the time I actually worked it all into his hair – which was very soft, his head looked very greasy and like he hadn’t showered in a few days. The product was also starting to harden which just made Harry awful.

“Tatum-”

“Um, I’m just gonna stick your head under the sink really quick. Don’t be mad, I can fix this.” I managed to wrestle him to the bathroom and had him rinse his hair out so we could start over. They went on soon so I had to hurry up and finish his prep so he could, I don’t know, do some rituals he might do beforehand.

“Ok, let’s try this again,” I put a much smaller size of the serum on my palm and everything after that ran smoothly. I felt uncomfortable being this close to someone and not speaking, so I decided to fill the void between us.

“So, how were the shows I missed?”

“Good,”

“That’s it? Nothing exciting happened?”

“Well, at the Detroit show, some bird flashed me her tits in the audience. They were pretty nice too.”

It was pure instinct to hit him upside the head for that comment. He yelped and I smirked in triumph.

“You’re a crude boy.” I stated. He just shrugged his shoulders and I had to restrain myself from hitting him again.

“Alright, so just powder on your face? No mascara? Your lashes would look wonderful with mascara.”

“Just powder, thanks for your input though.” Harry replied sarcastically. I grabbed the spot concealer to get his little blemishes before I put the foundation on. I swiped the powder brush over his cheeks and forehead, making sure everything was smoothed out.

“Suck your lips in.” I glided the brush under his nose and deemed him suitable.

“Well, there ya go. I guess you don’t look that bad. A step up from before, that’s for sure.”

The other stylists seemed to be finishing with the other boys and then they were hustled to get dressed for the show that was in about fifteen minutes. I wasn’t expecting them to get changed right then and there and I sure as hell wasn’t expecting to see a large moth gracing Harry’s stomach.

I burst out laughing and everyone looked over at me like I was mental. I pointed at Harry and tried to control myself.

“What the bloody hell is that on your stomach?” I asked between laughs. His hands immediately flew up to touch the outlines of the moth.

“A moth.” He said defensively. That made me laugh even harder, the thought that he’s proud of basically getting a larger than life butterfly tattooed on his stomach. I saw the boys smiling at my reaction and that made me feel like I wasn’t the other one who thought it was a mental tattoo idea.

“I swear, there’s actually a six year old girl stuck inside your body.” Harry’s face flushed and muttered a “fuck off” in my direction before being ushered out of the rooms and to get ready to perform.

Someone slung an arm over my shoulder and I looked to my right to see Lou standing there.

“Thanks a bunch, love. You were actually a big help and I’m proud of you for not fighting with Harry much.” She grinned at me and hip checked me to the side. She walked over to where Lux was conked out on the couch and sat down next to her and started to play with her hair.

I noticed that most of the hair stylists were leaving, so I asked Lou if I was off the hook and she waved her hand at me, telling me to leave. She also said she would look after Lux so that I could have “fun”. I guess our definitions of fun are different, though, because I went back to the dressing room I was in before, curled up on the couch, and took a nap.