Compatible

“Thank you so much London! We love you!” I ran up beside Kylie to the platform, and waved to the crowd. The lights dimmed, the pyrotechnics changed themes and moments later the intro of Best Song Ever started. The audience went wild, and as we’re being brought down under the stage, another platform shots up five boys.

Victoria, and our voice coach Tanya, was waiting for us by the left wing of the stage, water bottles, inhalers and two towels in hand. Victoria might be a total control freak, but she’s really the most thoughtful manager, she always watches our shows and waits for us to get off stage. She’s only ten years older than us, and she could’ve been our sister, but underneath all that wrath of hers is a caring, motherly, woman. We would’ve been a wreck without her.

“Great show, girls!” She said, handing us water bottles.

“Thanks, London fans have always been pretty loud.” I said between gulps.

“Don’t you feel weird only performing ten songs? It went by so quick.” Kylie asked as we make our way to wardrobe.

“Yeah, right? But mother of god, my feet still hurt like fuck.” I had to stop and take off the five inch Louboutin heels. Beautiful shoes, but such a pain performing in. We’ve been doing concerts in heels for the last five years, but there’s just some things you never get used to.

“Such a baby, Ral.” Kylie scoffed at me.

I put up my middle finger to her, and she stuck her tongue out to me as she makes her way in to wardrobe. When I entered, there was a little girl, about two or three years old, on the floor, beside the couch, playing with her dolls. Now, Kylie might be the better looking one, but for consolation, babies hate her. She can make them cry by simply being in the same room. There was no one else in the room but me, Kylie, Vic, and Tanya, and since it seemed like I was the only one who noticed her, I bend down to her to introduce myself.

“Hi there, what’s your name?” She looked up from her dolls, and giggled. She crawled up to my legs and started touching my boobs. Well, more so the gems on my bodysuit. The gems reflect light, so on stage I looked like I was glowing, it must’ve attracted her to it. She kept giggling, tapping my boobs with her little hands, she’s just so into it that I couldn’t help myself from giggling either.

“My name’s Ral.” I said to her. I finally got her attention and looked up to me with the biggest smile on her face.

“Har!” She blurted out between her giggles.

“No, it’s Rrrr-aaa-l.” I tried again, enunciating the letters, but she just kept laughing, clapping her hands, and calling me ‘Har’. She’s such a happy baby, and she’s probably still having trouble pronouncing her R’s, but it just made her more adorable, so until then she can call me ‘Har’.

“What’s your name?” I asked her again.

“Lux!” A tall ginger haired man with tattoos on his sleeve called out. “I am so sorry, I’ve been looking for her.”

“Oh no, it’s okay.” I said, carrying Lux as I stood up. “She’s adorable. She must be your daughter?”

“Yeah, Tom Atkin, I’m Lou’s beau.” He held out his hand, for a shake.

“I’m Raleigh, from Double Trouble.”

“Har!” Lux pipped in.

“No Lux, that’s not Harry.” He reprimanded his daughter. “She must’ve mistaken you for Harry, because of the curly hair, I think.” He said, his hand gesturing my curled hair.

Lux doesn’t have trouble pronouncing her R’s, she thought I was Harry Styles. Of all the people she can compare me to, it has to be him, really? Do I really remind her of Harry? A two year old, wouldn’t lie, right? I just decided to shove it off. It’s probably just really because of my hair. Harry and I have different shades of brown, but brown is brown for a toddler, and for the show’s sake, it was curled more than my natural waves.

Jesse, our stylist, and Lou finally came. Apparently the boys needed assistance after their first set. I have no clue what they needed them for, they get to wear casual clothes on stage, and they barely wear any makeup.

Our hair and makeup lady is on her maternity leave, so we’re sharing Lou with the boys. She was really excited to do our hair, she said she was extremely bored just doing the boys’. There isn’t much you can do to a boy’s hair really, either put it up or down. She also couldn’t hide her excitement when she finally got to use her eyeshadow palettes.

Lou was working on Kylie’s face, she’s taking off all the makeup and putting a fresh coat for tonight’s party. While Jesse, helped me take off my costume.

“Jesse, I swear, I thought I was going to collapse on stage. I could barely breath, I was literally huffing.” I complained to him as I try to shimmy the suit off me.

“Hey hey girl, careful! The gems! Oh my goodness, Raleigh! This is designer!” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him. How is a piece of clothing more important than if I could breath or not? Typical Jesse.

“This was your measurement last November. We even had a fitting before the holidays.” Jesse reminded me. It’s true, we had fittings at the beginning of December for this tour, and this is also an expensive bodysuit, so there’s no way they’ll mess up my measurements, but I wouldn’t lie about not being able to exhale air either.

“Told ya to lay off the takeaways.” Kylie sing songed.

“Hey, who do you think introduced me to Pad Thai, huh.” She did. She bought me my first Pad Thai from that Thai restaurant a few blocks away from my place.

Jesse had outfits ready for us to choose from, he said they’re ‘just in case’ dresses if there was any costume malfunctions during the tour. Only Jesse can make a Chanel dress as a back up. He’s been dressing us for years, he’s our top secret why we looked so good on red carpets, and he’s our personal confident booster from time to time we felt like we wouldn’t be able to pull of an outfit.

Kylie is wearing a white lacy cropped corset and a white pencil skirt that’s doing her butt a favor. While I’m sporting a plain black dress with a heart shape neck line, and a little cut outs on both sides of my ribs. Lou did my make up very au naturel, and left my concert bombshell hair; she said it complimented the whole look. Kylie, as usual, rocked the red lipstick, and smokey eyes makeup, but tied her hair up in a ponytail.

After getting ready, Kylie and I just hanged out at our hotel room. The concert wasn’t finished when we left the venue. It was just smoother and a lot less hassle for everyone if we leave early. The boys also rode a different car to Malone’s, and we haven’t seen them since we got on stage.

Tonight’s going to be an A-List event, we’re only good friends with a handful of people from London, but according to Lou, many of the boys’ friends from the industry are coming. Kylie got a text from Nick Grimshaw that he’s coming out tonight, and take it to twitter to blast out tonight’s events.

The car ride to Malone’s was taking some time due to traffic, and I was getting sleepy. The first few shows always takes the energy out of you, it’s like your body is still trying to process the sudden burst of energy; specially I’ve been hibernating in my room over the holidays.

I laid my head on Kylie’s shoulders, I wanted to take a quick nap, but for a brief second I unintentionally glanced on her phone screen. She’s texting Jordan, really long text messages, and before I can dwell into their conversation, she smacked my head.

"Ow! What was that for?" Lifting my head off her shoulder, and massaging the spot she hit me.

"Its rude to read other people's text message." Kyles said calmly, her eyes still focused on the screen.

“You're not other people!” I complained to her. “C’mon, what else can you hide from me, huh?”

I didn’t give her time to answer me, I spoke as it popped up in my mind, getting excited. Maybe, a bit too excited over it.

“Oh my god, you're sexting, aren’t you?!” I said a little too loud that our driver had to check up on us through the rear view mirror.

Katrina gave me a death glare then scoffed at me. "You need a life.” She said firmly, and turned back her attention to the phone.

“Ugh, but there’s no one to fuck around with!” I cried out.

Kylie laughed and turned to me with a knowing look. “Raleigh, not everything is about fucking around. Get a hobby, or actually let a person in your life, you’re not getting any younger, and honestly, it isn’t so bad having someone-“

“I get it Kyles, please go back to sexting now.” I rolled my eyes at her. I don’t know what made her think I have time for a hobby, when I barely have time to sleep. And same goes to being seriously involved with a guy, I don’t have time for it.

“No, no you don’t get it. It’s not healthy to just fuck around with people, Ral.” She sounded like she was lecturing me. And of all the things she can lecture me about, she decided on this topic.

“Kylie, there’s no harm with what I do. You used to do it too, remember? When Jordan didn’t exist, and when you were still fun.” I mocked her.

“Okay, but don’t come crying to me when your games turn on you.”

“Yes, mom.” I rolled my eyes at her one more time.



“Excuse me, but we are almost at the venue.” The driver told us, probably worried about the paparazzi’s swarming us in.

There was more than fifty paparazzi’s around Malone’s door, it was a struggle making them clear out of the way for the car. A tall man in suit opened the car door for us, and as soon as I stepped one foot down on the concrete floor, cameras started clicking. Four bouncers were holding back the crowd, two on each side. I linked my arms around Kylie’s as we make our way to the main door, following the man in suit.

The party was already in full swing, the DJ was playing great tunes, drinks were overflowing, and people were busy dancing the night away. I don’t think they even noticed us come in. The man who opened the door for us earlier instructed us to go to the second floor, the VIP area, he told us the boys will be there. We chit chat with some acquaintances from previous gigs, they were asking about our holidays, Kylie did most of the talking since it was her who actually did more than movie marathons and fast food deliveries.

When we finally got to the boys, we were sat in a huge booth. Liam and Louis introduced their girlfriends, but the other ladies remained nameless. Drinking after drinks were poured, and all thanks to Kylie’s love for taking three shots in a row, I was smashed in no time. It felt like catching up with old friends. Kylie was busy questioning some girl about her tanning routine, and Liam’s girlfriend was telling me how they met, while the boys where fully immersed in their football conversation. I almost forgot Harry was with us too, there were three people in between us. If I didn’t crane my neck to the left once in a while, pretending to be laughing at Niall’s joke, who was sitting on Harry’s right, I would’ve saved myself from seeing his contagious laugh.

It wasn’t until a little bit later, and a few more drinks in, when Kylie suddenly bursted that she wanted to dance. Louis, obviously wanting to score some bump and grind action, asked his girlfriend to the dance floor too, and Liam’s girlfriend getting excited over the music, dragged Liam to join the other three. Zayn was already halfway through the bathroom with a Brazilian model, and Niall decided he wants to try his Irish luck on getting the blondes’ number across the table, as if they would say no to one-fifth of One Direction. Actually, there were girls eyeing the boys from every way, some weren’t shy at all, coming to our table, while others we’re subtly dropping hints. All of the boys were busy with a certain lady friend of their choice, so I found it a bit amusing when a tall, leggy blonde, two inches from a nip slip, came to our table and asked Harry to go with her to the back room, but Harry firmly declining the offer.

“Why didn’t you go with her?” I said, thinking out loud.

“I didn’t catch what you said.” Harry replied, sliding closer to me in the middle of the booth.

“I said, why didn’t you go with Ms. Leg for Days?” I shift my body to face Harry, left arm resting on the backrest of the seat, holding up my heavy head from falling. We were only centimetres apart, I can smell his cologne, and alcohol, or maybe that’s from my breath, but those were the only two things I can smell. Harry Styles and alcohol.

“I’ve seen better legs.” He said cooly, grabbing his drink from the table and moving it up to his mouth. He stopped midway, when he saw me intently watching him. He offered me his drink, and I gladly took it. Whiskey and coke.

They say you can tell a lot about a person from their drinks, but honestly, I could never tell what kind of a person I’m with from their beverage choices. For example, I know Kylie likes her fruity cocktails, but that doesn’t make her sweet at all, if Kylie was a drink, she’d be a Fireball.

“What are you thinking?” Harry asked, meeting my eyes.

“Kylie is a Fireball.” I replied nonchalantly. In my mind, he would understand what I’m talking about.

“What are you on?” He shook his head, making me a bit dizzy. He had an amused look in his face, and I wanted to rip his face off.

“Look Styles, I don’t need a babysitter. If you want to fuck that blonde, by all means, go fuck her brains out.” Just like that, I want him out of my sight. I put down his glass, and grabbed mine for the last gulp. As if on reflex, I ordered another glass from a waiter who just walked by.

Harry Styles didn’t moved an inch. Instead, he leaned in closer to me, and whispered. “Why would I want to do that when I’m with the most stunning girl in the world?” He said it so slow, so passionate, so honest. I almost choked on my drink.

“You do not want to play that game with me, Styles.” I warned him.

“Will you ever call me ‘Harry’?” He shot back.

I downed my newly refilled glass, and slammed it on the table. For a second I thought it was going to go back up my throat, but I swallowed hard. I stood up, and moved out of the booth, fixing my dress, waiting for Harry to follow my lead, but instead he just looked at me.

“Well Harry, are you going to show me London or not?” I hold out my hand for him to grab.



“Favorite colour?” I asked, genuinely interested. I brought up the idea of playing 21 Questions to Harry. He was reluctant leaving the club with me, said it was a bad idea, and will get us into so much trouble if we get caught. He got me at ‘trouble’, so I called him a 'pussy', and told him to put on his big boy pants. I thought asking him silly questions will stop him from worrying so much about his Golden Boy ass.

Thing is, Harry’s a flirt, he’s confident when there’s no risk, he can rile me up and whisper sweet nothings all he wants, but that’s all child’s play in my book. I want real fun, and spontaneous adventures, I haven’t had that in a long time. I was tired from the last tour, I lost my persona and turned into a somewhat boring creature. I can’t believe I stayed home on New Year’s Eve, that was a sad move. But thanks to Jägermeister, Gibson, and countless of colourful shots, we’re on our way to getting the old Ral back, at least for tonight.

“Green.” The same colour of his eyes, I smiled at that thought. “What’s your favourite city?” Harry’s been asking me thought provoking questions, and all I’ve asked him was his favourite superhero, TV show, and colour.

“I don’t know yet.” I turned around to face him, walking backwards. “I’ve been to a lot of places, and I’ve liked some more than the others, but I don’t have a favourite, yet.”

“Okay, favourite sex position?” I asked because I saw a couple from the corner of my eyes making out by the trees. It just came out of my mouth, I didn’t mean it to be sexual. But thank the gods that I did, the shock on Harry’s face was priceless.

“How can you go from asking my favourite colour to sex positions?” He asked, trying to recompose himself. It didn’t matter that he didn’t answer my question though, my ribs are already hurting from laughing at his deer-in-headlights face and his sudden panic.

“You should’ve seen your face!” I said between laughs.

“Really?” He asked sarcastically, holding in his laughter.

“Yeah! Your eyes got so big and, oh my God, you were a statue for a hot 30 seconds.”

“How about you tell me your favourite position?” He thought he was so clever throwing back the question at me.

“Can’t tell. You didn’t tell me yours.” I winked at him and started running, dragging him with me.



“Where are we going, Raleigh?” Harry asked for the thousand time.

“I don’t know.” I replied for the umpteenth time since we started running, a smile forming in my face. I’ve been tugging Harry around for the past twenty minutes, turning on streets I’ve never heard of, and stopping in front of buildings I thought was interesting, but not stalling long enough for Harry to catch a breath and realize that I was, sort of, site seeing London.

“Okay, okay, stop.” He said, pulling on my hand he’s been holding since we got out of Malone’s. “You have to tell me where we’re going.” He sighed, as he tightens his grip on my hand, as if I’ll run off again, but this time leaving him behind.

“I don’t know. I wanna see… Places.” I said, walking closer to him so I can see his face.

“What places?” He was only a head taller than me with my heels on, but when he’s looking at my face intently, like he’s searching for something, I couldn’t help but feel a lot more smaller. It felt like I was the only thing he was seeing, and as I looked up, he was the only one I’m seeing too.

“Museums.” I replied with a smile, swinging his hand that I’ve been holding on too. I just wanted to drag Harry out of the club, I didn’t plan on clasping my hand in his for the entire night, but his hand was so warm and soft, comforting even, that I didn’t mind holding it.

“Museums are already closed, love.” He said quietly, as if he didn’t want to tell me, because it would just rain on my happy parade.

“Oh.” I looked around to check if it was really night time, and to my dismay, it was. Almost dawn actually. I suddenly remembered where I was, who I’m with, what was I doing hours ago, and most importantly, who I am. Sobriety is hitting me slowly, and I would really like a shot right now to keep me in my haze, but there’s no alcohol around.

“Hey, hey.” Harry coos, gently lifting my chin so he can see my face. I guess, my dejection was written all over. “We can go see the London Eye.” He suggests.

“Is that the big Ferris wheel?” I knew it was the ‘big Ferris wheel’, I knew what I was doing. I’ve seen it the first time I was in London, I even got on it with my Dad. Alcohol was wearing off my system, but that doesn’t mean I should stop playing this game with Harry. Aside from that, I actually wanted to see it again with him.

“Yeah, it is.” He said chuckling.

“Okay, let’s go.” I said, smiling at him. I turned my heel to start our walk, but his hand tugged on mine. He nudged his head to the other direction, and I rolled my eyes one more time.

“Raleigh, this way.”