Let's Live While We're Young

Brooklyn POV

Again I was standing in the airport. This time though, I was standing at the arrivals gate with a paper sign that read ‘Nialler’ the nick name that I’ve given Niall when we had first met in second grade.

Boot camp was over and Niall was going to be home for the next two weeks before heading off to the judge’s houses. Even though he’d auditioned as a solo act, he’s been put through with four other guys as a group. They’d been put together because the judges didn’t think they were ready as individuals but didn’t want to send them home so they made them a group.

I’d seen the other guys on the TV and I could probably recognise their faces but I couldn’t really remember names. I was terrible like that, I could remember a face but never a name and I could rarely put that face to a name either.

I heard my name and looked up to see a familiar head of blonde hair bobbing through the crowd towards me, suit case trailing behind him.

A large smile split my best friends face as he pushed past people, getting some dirty looks from the people being pushed, while trying to get to me.

When he finally reached me he dropped the handle of his suit case and wrapped his arms around my torso. He quickly picked me up and spun me around earning us a few ‘awws’ from people, before setting me down on my feet once more. Sometimes I forgot how strong he was and most people would never guess because of his height.

“Brooklyn.” Niall shouted.

“Niall.” I yelled right back at him.

“I missed you so much.” I squeezed him tighter to show that the feeling was mutual.

“You seem to have made a few new friends if I’m correct.” I said referring to his new band mates.

“About that…” I pulled back to look at him, not liking his tone of voice. “The boys have decided that it would be good to spend the time leading up to the judge’s houses performances getting to know each other better. So tomorrow afternoon we’re flying out to Holmes Chapel to spend the next two weeks at Harry’s step-dad’s bungalow.”

I think Harry was the small curly haired one, but that wasn’t what was important right now.

“You’re leaving me again? For two weeks?” I began to have a panic attack of sorts. We’d never been apart that long in the whole time we’d been friends. The healing cuts under my sleeves stung, almost as if to remind me what had happened when he was only gone for a week. “I haven’t seen you in a week and you’re going again and after that I may not be able to see you for a year. How could you do this to me Niall?”

When I eventually calmed down a bit and stopped blubbering I looked up at Niall who was grinning at me. Why was he grinning? I thought back to what he’d said and repeated it in my head. “Wait, you said we’re flying out. Meaning both of us?”

Niall nodded and I launched myself into his arms once again.

“But what about my parents? I have to ask them and I have to get a ticket – ”

Niall smiled at me again and cut me off. “It’s all been sorted love. I called your parents as soon as I found out and they said you could go and they brought your ticket as an early birthday present. I’ve got it all worked out.” He let out a small chuckle at my expense.

“Don’t laugh at me.” I punched him lightly on the arm. “You didn’t tell me, how was I supposed to know?” I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted childishly.

“It was a surprise.”

“It still could have been a surprise before.”

Niall leaned in and pressed his lips to my forehead and mumbled: “I really did miss you.” And with that the two of us left the airport and made our way home.

Niall spent the first half of the next day with his family, wanting to spend as much time with them as he could before he had to leave again. The second half of the day he spent helping me finish packing.

Mum drove us both to the airport and stayed with us until it was time to leave.

“Brooklyn; behave, stay safe, call every second night and most of all have fun.” Mum told me before pulling me into a bone crushing embrace. Still hugging me, she looked over my shoulder at Niall. “You take good care of my baby, you hear?”

“I promise I will Mrs Gallagher.” He replied seriously, still refusing to call my mother Laurel like she insisted.

With another million kisses my mother finally let me go and waved us off. Niall put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me along with him.

“You excited?” He asked glancing side-ways at me, the hint of a smile playing on his lips.

“How could I not be?” At my reply his smile grew to easily twice its original size as we boarded the plane.

I slept the whole taxi ride from the airport to the bungalow. Niall shook me awake as we were pulling into the driveway. I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed that I had lines on my face from Niall’s shirt where I’d been leaning on his shoulder.

“What happened to my glasses?” I mumbled my voice thick with sleep. I rubbed my eyes trying to get rid of the sleep that had accumulated there.

“I took them off when you started to fall asleep.” He chuckled holding my glasses out to me. “I didn’t want them to get broken.”

I took my glasses and looked at them with distaste as I put them on. I could see without my glasses so I didn’t have to wear them all the time but generally when I didn’t wear them I got really bad migraines. I’d tried contacts but they made the migraines even worse, so I was stuck with my glasses.

We both handed some money over to the driver and got our suitcases out of the boot before heading towards the door.

I was a little nervous. I’d never gotten along with people well, Niall was the exception. Hence the reason he was one of my only friends. What if they thought I was weird? What if they didn’t like me?

With thoughts like those I pulled the sleeves of my jumper down again to be sure that everything was covered.

Niall knocked and I could hear footsteps, followed by the door unlocking and swinging open to expose one of the most attractive guys I’d ever seen in my life.

“Niall.” He shouted wrapping his arms around my best friend.

“You must be Brooklyn.” He said as he turned to me and pulled me in for a hug as well. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what he smelt of but he smelt good, really good.

“Tomlinson you are so dead.” I heard a girl yell moments before she came into view.

She had long black hair with blue streaks in it, tanned skin and stellar aim. She threw a pillow that hit the other boy square in the face.

She looked up at me and Niall, waved and then tackled the other boy. She was then joined by the boy with the curly hair, who I was fairly sure was Harry. I turned to Niall for confirmation.

“Louis answered the door, Harry has the curly hair and I’ve got no idea who the girl is.” He clarified while watching the scene with amusement.

While Louis was being tackled I decided that it was as a good a time as any to have a proper look at him. He had brown hair, tanned skin and gorgeous blue eyes. He was fairly tall; well taller than me, which I guess really wasn’t a hard thing to achieve. He was muscled but not overly so. I was pulled from my thoughts by a high pitched scream which appeared to have come from the boy under my scrutiny.

I guess I didn’t really have to worry about any of them thinking that I was weird.

“Well this lot has shocking manners.” Another boy appeared in the doorway gesturing towards Louis,
Harry and the girl who were all still wrestling. He had light brown hair styled like Justin Bieber’s and a kind face. “Come on in.”

“Brooklyn this is Liam.” Niall told me. Liam waved and I smiled in return. “Liam this is Brooklyn, my best friend.”

“It’s nice to meet you. Niall spoke about you loads at boot camp so I feel like I sort of already know you.” I smiled and Niall went a little pink.

Liam led us to a bedroom where we left our things before heading outside to where a small camp/bon fire had been set up.

Harry, Louis and the other girl had obviously resolved whatever it was that had happened before because they were all seated around the fire now with another boy and another girl.

“Hi, sorry I didn’t really introduce myself before. Someone had to be put in their place.” The girl with the black hair said to me, directing the last part of her statement to Louis. “I’m Beth, and I’m lucky enough to have this guy as my friend.” She ruffled Harry’s hair.

“I’m Brooklyn.” I stated, feeling a bit nervous again.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. You too Niall.” He smiled at her. “That little blondie over there is Addison. She moved here from Australia the same day boot camp started. She doesn’t completely understand some of the slang yet.” I waved at Addison.

“Seeing as no one is going to introduce me, I’m Zayn.” The last boy told me, offering his hand which I shook.

“Well I got introduced, but not properly.” Louis put in, walking towards me. “I’m Louis Tomlinson and you’re well fit.” He winked.

“Don’t worry about him. He’s like that with pretty much everyone.” Harry piped up.

I sat down on one of the chairs with Niall. Everyone was pretty evenly spread out around the fire.

“To get to know one another I propose a game of twenty questions. You ask a question, the person answers and then they ask a question and so on. There will probably be more than twenty but that’s unavoidable with a group this big.” Beth explained before asking the first question. “Niall, what’s your natural hair colour?”

“Brunette.” He smiled, it was a question he got asked often enough. “Liam, do you actually like Justin Bieber or just his hair style?” I rolled my eyes at Niall and his obsession with Justin Bieber.

“Well I have nothing against the kid. I respect that he’s doing what he loves and that he’s doing it for the right reasons but I’m not too fussed over his music.” Liam shrugged.

“Right, let’s get this cleared up right now. Natural hair colours go.” Louis shouted and pointed to each of us in turn.

Liam: “Same colour as it is now.”
Zayn: “It’s all natural for me too.”
Niall: “Brunette obviously.”
Me: “Blonde.”
Harry: “Same as now.”
Beth: “Dark brown.”
Louis: “Mine’s natural.”
Addison: “Mine’s natural too.”

We all looked at Addison in disbelief. Her hair was bleach blonde.

“There is no way your hair is naturally that light.” Harry said.

“I swear I’m not lying. It’s been this colour since I was born.” She defended herself.

“That’s amazing, completely unbelievable, but still amazing.” Zayn put in.

“I want to know the story behind your hair.” Niall pointed to Beth who was about to start speaking when Harry cut her off.

“Well she dyed it black from dark brown when she was about fourteen and last year she lost a bet with her brother. It was supposed to be completely blue but her parents wouldn’t let her so she just got streaks instead.” Beth glared at him but Harry continued to smile innocently.

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted.” She looked pointedly at Harry. “Pretty much what he said.”

“Liam, I do believe that it is still your turn to ask a question.” Addison spoke up.

“Yeah, alright. Brooklyn, do you have to wear your glasses all the time or only for certain things?”

“I’m supposed to wear them when doing most things but I usually don’t. The only reason I wear them at all is because I get pretty bad headaches when I don’t.” I shrugged and looked around, trying to think of a question. “Zayn, have you got any weird habits we should all know about?”

“Not really, unless you count screaming ‘vas happenin’ at random and somewhat inappropriate times as a bad habit.” We all laughed because of his accent when he said ‘vas happenin’ it was just too funny. “Louis do you have any embarrassing nick names?”

“I do.” We waited for him to continue but he didn’t. Beth had to poke him a few times before he said,
“When I was little my mum used to call me ‘boo bear.’” The sheer cuteness of the nick name and the look on Louis face when he as to admit it has us all in stitches again.

“That one is definitely sticking.” Harry managed through fits of laughter.

“Alright everyone calm down. I have a very serious question for Addison.” We all turned to look at him, he was grinning like a fool. “Could you pretty please with cherries on top say ‘G’day Mate’ in your strongest Australian accent?”

“Only because there are cherries.” She laughed. “G’day Mate.” Everyone was in hysterics because she was just so Australian. “Do you have any siblings Harry?”

“Yeah, I’ve got one older sister. Her name is Gemma. Beth may as well be my sister as well because of the sheer amount of time we spend together.”

The game continued on in much the same fashion and the later it got the crazier the questions became.

“If aliens were attacking and all you could use to defend yourself was one office supply, what office supply would it be?” Harry asked Addison wriggling his eyebrows.

“Easy, a stapler.” She smiled, proud of her answer.

“What about scissors?” Beth questioned.

She looked dumbfounded for a minute before she smiled sheepishly. “I didn’t think of that one.” She admitted.

“I would have said a ruler.” Harry shrugged and threw Addison a smile.

“Alright; five weapons you would use in a zombie apocalypse…Zayn.”

“Guns, knives, an axe, a sword or two and tomato sauce.” He grinned and laughed.

“Knives and swords are essentially the same thing.” I pointed out.

“He just said that he’d use tomato sauce as a weapon against zombies and you’re worried about the fact that two of his other weapons are ‘essentially the same things’?” Louis looked at me bemusedly.

“Hey, don’t diss the tomato sauce. Maybe zombies don’t like it.” Zayn defended himself. “Niall if you could be any fast food resturaunt which one would you be?”

“Nandos.” Both Niall and I answered at the same time.

Niall then asked Beth an extremely typical Niall question: “If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what food would it be?” I laughed, Niall and his food.

“Two minute noodles, because they are a food and a drink and they don’t take long to cook.” She smiled evilly at Harry. “Haz, darling, if you could date anyone in the band which boy would it be?”

“That is a hard question to answer.” He looked thoughtful for a minute. “I think I’d have to say Louis. Sorry boys.”

“Can I just cut in quick and ask why?” Louis shifted to look at Harry who was sitting next to him.

“Well there are two reasons.” Harry said and counted both of them off on his fingers. “Firstly I reckon you’d be fun to go on dates with and second it would annoy Beth to no end.” He smiled cheekily.

“Fair enough.” Lou replied with a shrug turning back to face the rest of us.

“Well I’m passing to…Brooklyn.” Harry announced winking at me. “Cause I’m all out of questions.

“Alright.” I scanned the group before my eyes landed on Louis for probably the millionth time that night. “Louis, what is your best dance move?”

“Yes!” He cried jumping up. “I was hoping someone would ask that.” We all marvelled at his enthusiasm.

“Well go on, show us then.” Liam told him.

“Alright lads…and ladies.” He added as an afterthought. “This is how you do the ‘pat-the-dog-screw-the-light-bulb.’” He stood up and looked around at us all, a wide, somewhat beautiful, smile on his face. “You pat the dog, screw the light bulb and then you go crazy.”

We all laughed hysterically as he did what almost looked like Bollywood dancing with the most hilarious facials. Niall actually fell off his chair because he was laughing so hard.

When we had all calmed down and composed ourselves a bit Louis looked around trying to think of a question and someone to ask it to.

“Liam.” He yelled suddenly. “You are going to have your face eaten off, there is no getting out of it, it is going to definitely happen. Would you prefer for it to be done by a giant sea turtle or a polar bear?”
He sat back in his chair looking satisfied with himself.

“Alright then.” Liam laughed before answering. “I’d go with the sea turtle. Yeah, I like turtles.”

We all laughed at the fact that he was fine with something eating his face off as long as he liked the type of animal that was doing it.

“Alright, alright, calm down now. Brooklyn, you’re going to be stranded on a desert island. What’s the one thing you’d take with you?” Liam asked me.

“I’d take a boat.” I replied simply with a shrug.

“That’s cheating.” Addison laughed.

“No one said I couldn’t take a boat so I’m taking a boat.” I stuck out my tongue.

“You really are too smart for your own good.” Niall nudged me.

“I feel this needs to be cleared up right now…so, Beth and Harry and Niall and Brooklyn, has there ever been anything romantic there?” Zayn questioned the four of us with a suspicious look.

“No.” Harry snorted.

“God no.” Beth answered at the same time.

I looked at Niall and chuckled. “Nah, I love him but not like that.”

“Yeah. Besides I’ve got a girlfriend.” Niall added.

“You forgot to mention that vital piece of information.” Beth yelled at him.

“It didn’t seem important.” He shrugged.

After that we all decided that it was time for bed. We were all sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor in the lounge room so that it was fair for everyone.

“Night everyone.” Louis shouted when we were all comfortable.

“Night.” We all chorused.

As soon as my head hit the pillow I was fast asleep.