The Nanny Diaries

The inevitable happened. A couple of days after Lux was all healthy, I came down with the flu. And we didn’t have the luxury of staying at a hotel since the next few dates were right after each other, so I had to stay shacked up in a bus.

Lou thought it would be better if I stayed in a different bus than Lux, as to not expose her to the virus again. I agreed, but I had no idea where to go. Lux was staying with Lou and Lou thought the extra bus that would drive me around was silly, so she put me on the only other bus there was.

One Direction.

I hardly knew the lads and I definitely did not want them to see me all sick, pale, and gross. It didn’t even make sense-I could possibly get one of them sick! But I didn’t see any reason to fight with Lou on such a petty thing and just tried to get through the next few days so I could get better.

Currently I was in the front of the bus wrapped up in about six blankets and watching some cartoons. It was about six in the morning and my stuffy nose was keeping me from sleeping properly.

My stomach was growling but the thought of eating anything made me want to dry heave, not to mention I didn’t want to steal any of their food.

For about two hours I was in and out of sleep, but each time I would almost fall asleep, I would be rudely reminded that I couldn’t breathe through my nose and would make a gross noise. Like a cross between a snore and a sneeze. But the cycle would always continue.

It was about 8:30 before I saw signs of life come from the back of the bus. I heard some rustling and the shutting of the bathroom door, which confirmed that One Direction was up for the day.

A shirtless Niall made his way up to the front where the food was stocked but stopped short when he realized that I was there. I had hopped onto their bus late last night and I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t remember me. I offered him a small smile but shifted my eyes back towards the cartoons. SpongeBob was on and even though it was a quite stupid show, it did put a smile on my face.

I felt the couch sink in and I looked over to see Niall with a bowl of cereal in his hands as he sat across from me.

“Feelin’ any better?” He asked. His voice was laced with sleep and he looked like he was just starting to wake up. I nodded my head, trying to find the words to tell him that I actually really felt like shit.

“Actually, not really. I feel like proper shit. You better stay away, yeah?” I cracked a smile at him and his eyes got wide before he shifted away from me. My smile drooped but then he started to laugh, shifting back to where he was sitting before.

“You know-” Niall was cut off by another member of the band emerging from the mysterious back of the bus. It was Louis and he smiled at us before grabbing a granola bar and sitting on the couch across from us. We both watched as he fiddled with his phone and every once in a while a smile would light up his face.

I looked over at Niall and he mouth Eleanor to me. That brought a smile to my face, that even though they were kilometers apart, they still loved each other and didn’t let their busy schedules get in the way.

More and more of the band trickled out. It was mostly silent up front, except for the occasional laugh from Niall from watching the cartoons. Niall was such a sweet person-actually they all were, aside from Harry.

It still irked me that he couldn’t stand my presence. Like the mere thought of being in the same room with me was too much for him. I was a people pleaser and it makes me so uneasy to find out that certain people don’t like me, just because. I was jostled from my thoughts when I heard my name being called.

“Tate!” Only two people that call me that and one of them were currently on another bus. I looked over at Louis and he shot me a cheeky smile.

“Love, I think we’re going to stop for breakfast. Do you have any objections?”

“Actually, I think I’ll pass on food. Still not feeling too well,” the boys nodded at my words and shortly after that the bus halted outside of a restaurant. I waved to all the boys as they left, but I noticed that only four had left.

I vaguely recalled that this morning was peaceful, with no taunts or teasing, so I assumed that Harry was still sleeping. I knew that if my friends didn’t wake me up for breakfast, I would be right pissed, so I hauled my ass up and wandered down the long aisle way towards the boy’s bunks. The floor was littered with odd items of clothing. Pair of boxers, several jeans, and many, many, many shoes was just some of the things I saw before I approached the bunk portion of the bus.

I heard quiet snoring coming from one of them and I assumed that it was Harry. I felt really uncomfortable about just whipping his curtain open so I tried knocking on his bunk from the outside.

“Harry…Harry, the boys all went to breakfast. Are you awake? Harry?” I tried several more times to wake him up, but the kid was out like a light.

I resorted to the only option that I had left. I slowly inched open the curtain and was met with Harry’s face up close and personal. He mouth was hanging open and his hair was a mess. Not to mention that he wasn’t wearing anything. I mean, nothing.

I adverted my eyes away and tried to focus on his pimply face while my face went red. I was about to jostle his shoulder and at that same time his eyes opened and scared the living shit out of me.

I screamed and jumped back, my foot catching on a pair of jeans and I tumbled to the ground.

“Fucking hell! Tatum, what the fuck!” I heard Harry yelling from above me. I was still disheveled from being scared half to death and twisting my ankle. I looked up and he was trying to cover himself up and glare at me at the same time.

“I’m sorry, okay? But you weren’t waking up! How was I supposed to know that you were stark naked behind there?” Honestly, who sleeps naked on a bus? At least slip from trainers on or something.

“You weren’t supposed to know! Bloody hell… Why were you tryin’ to wake me up anyways?” He had finally found something to cover up with and was staring down at me while I still had a pair of jeans tangled in my ankles.

“I was trying to be nice! The boys all left for breakfast and I just thought that you would want to know!” That caught his attention. He looked outside to see if I was right and saw that we were parked outside of a gross restaurant. While he was having a revelation, or whatever, I tried to get up from the floor while trying to maintain my dignity, but that was short lived because I toppled right in to Harry.

Since he was off in his whole world, this caught him off guard and we both landed on the floor, hard. We both let out simultaneous moans and I rolled off his body so that we were lying beside each other. I was so embarrassed and I could feel my face heating up with every second that passed.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re the most annoying person on the planet?”

“If they have, they’ve never met you. You’re such a prat, god I can’t stand you.” I finally stood up and regained my posture. I made my way back towards the front of the bus without seeing if Harry was following me.

I got to the front and turned around to see if Harry had gone to the bathroom to get ready. To my surprise, he was right behind me. I let out a little squeak and felt my feet get tumbled up again. I closed my eyes and braced myself because I knew that I was headed towards the floor. After I few seconds, I still wasn’t on the floor and I opened my eyes to see Harry holding my shoulders straight.

He was giving me the most deadly glare and I moved to the side so he could get past. I settled myself on the couch so I couldn’t injure any surrounding people or myself anymore. I noticed Harry wasn’t getting ready to go meet the other lads, but instead, making his own breakfast.

He heated up some instant oatmeal and was rustled around the cupboards and such looking for something to add to it to not make it so bland. I always liked honey and raspberries in my oatmeal.

“You know, I think there’s some fruit in the fridge, I’ve always liked that in my oatmeal.” Harry looked up at me like I just told him to put nails in his oatmeal. I shrugged my shoulders and he continued with whatever he was doing.

He wordlessly found the honey and promptly dumped almost the whole bottle in his oatmeal. I made a face and he saw it out of the corner his eye and gave me a look that said fuck off.

He sat at the table that was very far away from where I was sitting and I didn’t blame him. I was sick and not his favorite person at the moment. Well, probably ever, but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt.

“So, why didn’t you join the other lads?” Harry responded by clanking his spoon very loudly against the bowl and looked up with an exasperated sigh.

“Will you stop talking to me? We don’t like each other so ya can just stop the small talk, yeah?” He didn’t even give me time to respond, just kept on eating his gross oatmeal.

I rolled my eyes and turned up the volume on whatever show was on so I couldn’t even hear him chew. We sat in silence for about ten minutes until the other lads came back and they had enough excitement for the both of us. They had brought me back some chicken noodle soup in case I wanted some for later. Even if I didn’t spend anytime with them, they were still the sweetest boys I’ve ever been around.

“Harry! You’re up! Sorry we didn’t wake you, I figured you needed your beauty sleep. You’re lookin’ a lil rough lately.” All the boys burst out laughing at Zayn’s comment and I had a little grin on my face too.

“Don’t worry, she woke me up.” All the boys looked over at me and Louis had a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

“Well, did you like what you saw?” He questioned. The rest of the boys burst into laughter again and I assumed that they knew Harry slept in very little.

“Eh, nothing much to see.” I smirked over at Harry and he glared at me while the boys had another laugh. The bus started to move then and the boys got situated with things that would keep them busy.

We were on our way to the dates that were in Italy, and then we were heading over to Spain and Portugal. A week later the boys are going to Mexico and I’m meeting them in Florida. Lou didn’t want Lux going to Mexico cause she says it’s unsafe for a toddler and I figured she knew best. I was excited to finally travel over to the States. My sisters raved about California and I know I had to visit them when we were in town. They always urged me to visit when I was still in Sixth Form but I never had enough money to afford a plane ticket.

The boys dispersed around the bus, most of them I could hear playing video games in the back, or taking a short nap before we got to the venue. Harry stayed right where he was, finishing his oatmeal, shirtless and scrolling on his phone. He was really nice to look at but then I remembered how annoying he was when he opened his mouth.

I flipped the tele off and curled up in my mountain of blankets. I wanted to catch up on sleep before the concert so I could be energized enough to keep an eye on Lux. I had a feeling that this virus was on its last legs and I couldn’t wait to feel better.

Before I fell asleep I vaguely remembered someone covering me up with another blanket it and tucking it around my body.