Us Against the World.

As soon as I entered my work place, I felt my phone vibrated in my pocket. I fished it out and slid my finger over the screen to unlock it. There was a text message from an unknown number. Frowning, I opened the message and smiled when realizing that it was a message from Louis. So he managed to get away from the mob of fans after all.

You free tonight? xLouis

Why?

As I waited for his reply, I scanned my worker ID to register my attendance and went to my work station to continue with the repairing that I left half way yesterday. It was an Acer notebook and apparently the owner had dropped it. Luckily, only the LCD screen was damaged and the hard disk and motherboard could still be salvaged. If not, it’s better if the woman buy a new laptop because the cost of repair was definitely not worth it, especially for this old piece of device. It was an old model, probably manufactured at least five years ago. It’s not even on the market anymore.

“Morning,” I said to Sam, one of my co-workers who was vacuuming on a PC. He nodded at my direction in acknowledgment as I sat on my chair and began my work. After a couple of minutes, my phone vibrated again.

We have this party to celebrate the continuation of our tour. It’ll be fun. Wanna come? xLouis

I made a thinking face for a moment, contemplating. Then, I thought of Quinn and she probably needed some distraction. Rory did come to her place today after all. She was always in a bad mood after she met him. Honestly, I really didn’t know why she didn’t just dump him. Well, there’s that ‘L’ word that she kept telling me.

Can I bring a friend?

Sure. The party starts at 8. xLouis

Ok. Gotta go. Work. See you there.

Louis replied with a ‘have a nice day’ wish. I saved his number and resumed my work of replacing the LCD screen of the laptop. I knew I didn’t ask for Quinn’s opinion about the party. But I also knew that she wouldn’t be able to say no, not to me anyway.



When Louis said that he was having a party, I thought it was just a casual party for close friends. That’s why I decided on wearing a simple t-shirt underneath a dark denim jacket and a pair of dark grey wash skinny jeans. And as usual, I slipped on my favorite pair of black Chucks as my footwear. My hair was pulled up into a messy bun. However, when I entered the party, I was surprised to see how underdressed I was. But well, there’s nothing I could do about it now.

There were so many people at the party and it was amazing. I wasn’t really a party person but being in a new scenery was always nice. I could see famous celebrities everywhere and the flashes of cameras were blinding. This definitely wasn’t the kind of life I wanted for myself. I really didn’t want my every single move being scrutinized at. It must be very suffocating. How did Louis stand all this? When Quinn went to get her drink, I turned to talk to Niall.

“I hope the food here is good,” I said.

“Me too,” he replied, his eyes glancing towards the food table. “I think I’ll go check it out now.” I nodded at him and saw Quinn who looked out of place. She was hiding in her shell again. Then, I saw Louis who was chatting animatedly with Harry and Zayn and a little light bulb popped into my head.

I made my way towards my best mate and said, “relax, Quinn. Go talk to Louis. He’s funny, he can help you open up.” She looked uncertain so I just pulled her towards Louis and simply told her to talk before walking away. After pushing Quinn to Louis, I made a beeline towards the food table and noticed that Niall was already there, his plate full. “Gosh, I’m starving,” I stated, smiling at him and grabbing myself a plate. My eyes swept over the table and I had a hard time deciding what to take. There was so many food. “Try the shrimp. It’s delicious,” Niall said, nodding towards the said shrimp. I nodded and took a couple of them and added a little vegetables into my plate.

I took a bite of the shrimp and smiled widely. Yep, he was right. It was definitely delicious. “It’s good,” I commented, and Niall nodded. “So how exactly did you know Lou?” Niall asked, breaking the silence. I swallowed my food before answering.

“We went to school together then I had to move.” Niall was about to say something more when a certain curly-haired boy came, smiling widely. He had two bottles of beers in his hand. Niall went to take one of them but he swatted the blonde boy’s hand away.

“It’s for the lady,” Harry said, handing it to me. I chuckled and shook my head.

“I don’t drink,” I said, shrugging. Harry raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything, just taking a sip of his own beer and gave the other bottle to Niall. “Are you old enough to be drinking anyway?” I asked. Harry frowned. “You’re the youngest, right?”

“I’m nineteen so…” he let the sentence hung in the air. Niall had finished his food and now was off somewhere talking to other people. The boy in front of me ran his fingers through his curls. “What are you doing? For a living, I mean.”

“I’m a technician. I work at this computer store, repairing the computers and stuff,” I replied, thinking he’s probably not interested in my field. However, I didn’t expect to see the look of complete interest coming from him as soon as I finished talking. “What?”

“You’re an industrial woman. Cool,” he commented, smiling wide in amazement and I frowned and waved my hand at him dismissively. Although, deep in my heart, I was actually embarrassed at his compliment. Most of the men I worked with always treated me different just because I’m a girl. They thought that I couldn’t do things that they could do and when I showed them that I could too, they would get intimidated. Why are men so afraid of strong, independent women?

“Trust me, it’s nothing great. I just work with machines all day.” I finished my food and put the empty plate on the table. “Bet your job is more interesting, though. How’s being in a famous boy band?” I tried changing the topic. I really didn’t like talking about myself.

“We’re not really a boy band, you know. Zayn said we’re like men band,” Harry replied with a cheeky smile and I had to laugh. Oh my God, seriously? He laughed along with me, once again combing his hair with his fingers. Why was this boy so fixated with his hair? “We’re doing things that we love. So really, I have no complain,” he said, answering my previous question. Yeah, I knew what he meant. It’s the same for me. Most people, including my family always questioned why I chose to be in the technical field. It’s a male dominated industry. But it’s what I loved although maybe not many people could see why.

“I’d only ever heard one song from your band,” I admitted, smiling sheepishly. “The one about the girl flipping her hair and you lads getting overwhelmed or something,” I continued, taking a glass of water from a passing waiter and said my thanks. I took a sip of the water. Harry snickered at my words and shook his head.

“What Makes You Beautiful,” he replied, finishing his drink. I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Excuse me?”

“The song’s called What Makes You Beautiful. It’s an old song. We’re on our third album now. And that’s the only one you’d ever listened to?” I shook my head to see the look on his face and laughed a little.

“I’m sorry but I don’t like that song so I just didn’t pay attention to any other of your songs. The reason I know of your band’s because Louis’s in it and my mum won’t stop talking about that.” Harry gave his empty bottle to the busboy that was passing by and I handed him my empty plate and glass. “I’ve never been into boy bands. Well, in your case a men band. Or should I say four-men-and-a-boy band.” I gestured wildly towards his direction when I said the word ‘boy’, smirking lightly. He pouted a little and I had to smile endearingly to see how adorable he looked.

“I’m not a boy. I’m a grown man,” he protested but there was a hint of smile in his voice so I knew he wasn’t offended. He bit his lower lip and looked towards another direction before a smile appeared on his face. “Seems like your friend and Lou hit it off pretty well,” he voiced, inclining his head towards the general direction where Quinn and Louis were sitting together. I was glad to see her smiling and conversing comfortably with Louis. She took out her phone and they posed together, making silly faces. I grinned mischievously as a plan was beginning to form in my head. “You look like Grinch when he’s planning on destroying Christmas,” Harry remarked, trying to suppress a smirk. I glared at him and stuck out my tongue.

“I’m a woman with mission,” I replied simply.

“Don’t you want to take pictures of us too, like them?” he asked, his tone hopeful but I simply waved him off and shook my head. “Why?”

“Well, the last thing I need is having my picture with a famous pop star spread all over the internet. Thanks, but no thanks,” I explained, shrugging. “Eh, is that Adele? I should probably go talk to her.” I smiled towards the young boy and tapped his shoulder lightly. “Talk to you later, okay?” And without waiting for his reply, I made my way towards the female singer.

In all honesty, I wasn’t really interested in Adele. It’s just that, out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a man with camera making his way towards us. I really didn’t want my pictures taken. God knows how these reporters were capable of spinning and twisting stories and sometimes people couldn’t really decide what’s real and what’s fake anymore. I definitely didn’t want to be in the middle of it. So I better ran away before anything else. But Harry was definitely an interesting person to talk to. He’s funny and nice. Maybe, when there’s not too many people around, we could hang out and talk again.