Only Bones

“If you’re looking for sex, I’m not interested,” Estée stated flatly, looking the man straight in his sweet brown eyes. His face was somehow familiar to her, like she’d seen it before a few times. But the name didn’t match with it – she couldn’t ever place having met a Liam Payne before. Maybe she’d seen him in a bar before, the dusty spotlights lighting the peaks of his face. But then again, she felt like if she had seen him before, she would remember much more than the vague sketch she had in her mind.

“That is certainly not what I’m after,” he insisted. “Do you really think so lowly of me?”

“I suppose I don’t really think of you at all, Liam Payne,” she responded flatly, raising her eyebrow in his direction. “After all, we’ve only just met. I’m only basing my assumptions off previous experience, no need to take it so personally.”

“Sorry,” he muttered awkwardly, leaning up against the wall next to her. “All I really want to do is talk. I think I have a once in a lifetime opportunity for you.”

Pulling a cigarette she had stashed in the belt of her dress and sticking it between her lips, she rubbed her arms to build some heat. “Do you have a light? I left mine inside.”

Liam looked taken aback, his eyes a bit wide and concerned. “You really shouldn’t smoke, love,” he chided, running a hand through his thick, caramel hair. “It’ll ruin your voice.”

Estée rolled her eyes, unimpressed with his efforts. She owed this random, beautiful man absolutely nothing. If he thought he could belittle her so ostensibly, he was sadly mistaken.

“If you run back inside and grab my coat from my dressing room, I’ll give you a chance,” she offered a bit bitterly. “It’s damn cold out and I’m not about to walk to the tube without it.”

“Stay right there,” he responded, immediately going back through the door and disappearing into the dark bar.

Estée took a deep breath, the warm exhale forming a cloud of condensation in the night air. She’d seen boys like this Liam Payne before. Following her out of the bar after her set, chasing her down with false promises in an attempt to take her home. She learned very quickly to never trust a man, especially one you met in a dive bar outside of town. But there was something about Liam that seemed different, right off the bat. The sober quality of his voice, the hopeful tone, his sincerely inviting eyes. Something made her want to stay and listen. So stay she did.

“Jesus,” Liam gasped breathlessly as he re-entered the cold night. “It really is freezing out. Here, I got it for you.”

“Do you mind if we walk and talk? You are going to the tube, aren’t you?” she questioned, pulling it on and buttoning it around her waist. Liam shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets and nodding for her to continue. As she started down the sidewalk, she pulled a lighter from her pocket and finally ignited the tip of her cigarette.

Inhaling the milky white air, she felt her nerves calm almost instantly. She could feel Liam’s disapproval coming off of him like steam, but she decided she didn’t much care. It was only a matter of time before he tried to pull something on her and she’d end up wishing she never gave him a chance. But when he cleared his throat next to her, like he was preparing himself to say something, she suddenly felt the need to explain herself.

“I don’t smoke all the time, you know,” she muttered into the silence. “It just helps settle me down after a night like tonight.”

Liam didn’t say anything for a moment; the only sound between them the quiet tapping of their feet on concrete. “I’m sorry they treat you so poorly,” he finally said. “You deserve better than that.”

Estée cringed, taking another long drag from her cigarette. It wasn’t exactly a topic she wanted to dwell on. The anger and embarrassment still boiled in her veins like eighty proof liquor, making her drunk with frustration. She needed none of pretty boy’s pity, perfectly capable of fending for herself. Fending for herself was what she did, it was all she knew how to do anymore. In her mind, her industry was survival of the fittest – stick up for yourself or crumble under the thumb of drunken strangers.

“What’s this proposition you’ve got for me then?” she questioned shortly. They were nearing the tube station and she wasn’t expecting this conversation to last much past that. She planned on getting off a couple stops early so he wouldn’t be able to follow her home so easily. She’d made that mistake once before.

“You have a beautiful voice,” he started, those bright brown eyes gaining a little twinkle in the corner.

Her heart gave a little start at his words. “Thank you,” she acknowledged in the calmest voice she could manage, trying to mask her flicker of excitement. Rarely was she recognized by men as seemingly high quality as Liam. Normally she dealt with men who were essentially pond scum, not even worth a gasp of her breath. But she didn’t want to let him off too easily – she’d made that mistake before, too. It was simple enough to assume someone was great and then be turned on at moment’s notice.

“I have some connections in the music industry,” he continued in a calm manner. “And I’d really like to give someone your CD, if you have one. I think you have a real talent that deserves to be heard.”
Estée contained a bitter laugh. She’d heard this bit before.

“Don’t fuck with me, sir.”

“I’m not fucking with you, no fucking what so ever,” he averred as she darted down the steps into the tube station. She left him standing at the top of the stairs, watching her get settled against a pole, still puffing on her cigarette. She had no patience for being lead on.

“Don’t you know who I am?” he called down to her in a dumbfounded tone before chasing down after her.

“Quite frankly, no,” she responded as he came to her side, dropping her cigarette on the ground and squashing it with the bottom of her pointy, heeled shoe. “I must be out of the loop.”

He glanced around a second before gesturing to a poster on the entrance of the tube station. Estée humored him and followed his line of vision, only to be completely caught off guard. It was him, along with four other dashing young men – smiling together under the words “One Direction.” The breath caught in Estée’s chest, absolutely mortified.

“Holy shit.”

“I was worried that might be your response,” he sighed, rubbing his hands together. His knuckles were red and chapped from windburn.

“I’m so sorry for being such a bitch to you, had I have known…” She truly felt bad for her sour mood, knowing that if Liam had caught her on a better night she might be a little more sociable. The fact that she’d been so rude to an international superstar was enough to make her want to jump onto the train tracks. It would be easy enough for him to permanently axe her from the music business entirely, her dreams of Codogan Hall completely dashed.

“Honestly Estée, it’s refreshing to not be treated so differently from everyone else,” he responded softly. “Please don’t change just because I’m well... because I’m me.”

She took a deep, sighing breath, unsure of what to say next. Liam Payne, a member of the most popular boy band in the country – if not the world – had chased her down outside of a bar and wanted to give her an audition. So many questions were running through her mind at about a million miles an hour; she had no means to sort them out, it was all happening so fast. What was he doing at that bar? What did he see in her? Was he still just messing with her? Could she truly trust him?

“But I suppose now that you know, you might take me a bit more seriously,” he continued. “And I am being quite serious.”

Her mouth went completely dry, her vocal chords simply shriveling up at the thought. She could never sing in front of anyone important, she just knew that the nerves would bring her to her deathbed. Even the thought of Liam hearing her voice at the bar, when she had stumbled so badly in the middle of her song, made her want to crawl all the way home.

“It’s a very kind offer Liam,” she mumbled, buttoning the top button on her coat around the collar of her neck. “A very, very kind offer.”

“So you’ll take me up on it, then?” he replied hopefully, his smile revealing two rows of perfectly straight, white teeth. She couldn’t help but think that no one in Britain had as good of teeth as Liam Payne.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” she answered, her voice so small it was barely audible. “I really just can’t. It’s very kind of you to offer, but…. I just can’t.”

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the train pulled up onto the tracks in front of them, opening the doors to release some straggling townies. They were getting an awfully late start to a night on the town, but judging by the comments the made in Estée’s direction, they were already quite drunk. She sighed before turning to Liam, nodding for him to get on with her. He shook his head.

“You’re not taking the tube home?” she questioned.

“I reckon I don’t need to,” he responded with a weak half-smile. “I’m not exactly from around this part of town, you know. Unless you need me to.”

A feeling of embarrassment permeated Estée’s core. He walked her all the way to the station just to be sure she got there okay. “No, it’s okay. I think I can take it from here. Thank you.”

She stepped through the doors to the train and turned back to see him standing with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. “Thank you for your offer, Liam. It really was very sweet. Maybe I’ll see you around someday.”

Before he could respond, the doors closed in front of her. She watched him out the window until his figure disappeared behind the wall, gone as quickly as he appeared. And as she took her seat, she couldn’t help but feel like she’d made a terrible mistake – a fight against her fate.