It's Just Not That Simple

When I opened the door to my new flat, with Harry’s eyes’ burning holes into the back of my head, I was hit by the sound of Jacqui’s silky laugh. A muffled Irish voice replied to her laugh, but I couldn’t make out what was said.

“Well Niall’s certainly here.” Harry smiled behind me. I assumed this Niall fella to be one of Harry’s mysterious friends. I led the way down the hall, and through to the lounge, there we found Jacqui in the same spot I’d left her, with four guys spread across two of our three second hand sofas. Jacqui pulled her gaze away from a brunette with a quiff to smile at us over his head.

“Roxy! We’ve got neighbours! This is Niall, Zayn, Liam and Louis!” As she said the final name, her eyes dropped back down to the brunette, her smile widening slightly. I nodded to each of the guys, and stepped aside slightly nodding in Harry’s direction.

“And this is Harry, he lives downstairs and is looking for his friends.” I explained.

“And it looks like I’ve found them.” He chuckled.

“That’s my roommate Jacqui.” I told him, turning to face him, but keeping my eyes on his forehead, not wishing to lose my voice to his eyes again.

I left Harry in the living room, headed back past the hall, and round to my new bedroom, plopping my folder on the writing desk. I pulled open the sheets, spread them across the desk and the bed, before starting to put them back in order.

“Wow, this is amazing!” I felt a flash of anger tighten my chest. I turned from my desk to find Harry sat on my bed, a piece of paper in his hand.

“You should consider publishing this, if the rest is just as good.” He smiled up at me. His face fell into a look of confusion as he saw the look on my face. I carefully pulled the piece of paper out of his hand, placed it on my writing desk before turning back to him, slowly counting to ten the entire time. I opened my eyes and found him frozen on the bed, a look of bewilderment still in his eyes.

“Get. Out.” I breathed through clenched teeth, forcing myself not to punch him. Harry stared at me for a moment longer, his eyes sweeping over me, trying to figure out just where everything had gone wrong, before standing up and leaving, carefully closing the door. I let out the breath I was unaware I’d been holding and continued to sort through my writing.

When I returned back to the lounge I’d managed to calm myself down. Harry didn’t know he wasn’t allowed to touch my writing, and I’d over re-acted the tiredness of moving and the lack of food having gotten the better of me. As I walked into the lounge, I saw a cushion sat on the top of a box, I grabbed it and wacked Jacqui round the back of the head.

“Come on you, I could do with food.” I informed her, as I pulled my jacket off the hook in the hall. I grabbed Jacqui’s too and threw it at her as she stretched. Louis jumped up and grinned at us both.

“We know a great little Chinese buffet about 5 minutes away from here, and we need to eat too don’t we lads?” Louis looked round expectantly at the four other lads, who had made themselves very comfortable in our lounge. There were mutterings of agreements from the others as they pulled themselves up. I pulled open the front door, and waited for the others to troop out so I could lock the door. As Louis reached the door he turned back to Jacqui, bowing deeply.

“After you m’lady.” He grinned, winking up at her. I spotted a slight colouring come to her usually pale cheeks as she giggled, heading out the door, Louis stood, eyeing her up, I just rolled my eyes.

Once everyone was out, I closed and locked the door, it didn’t surprise me when I turned round and found pretty much everyone had legged it downstairs. Harry was the only one who was still stood on our landing.

“Ladies first.” He smiled.

“Harry, I’m sorry.” I stared at the ground for a moment. His converse appeared in my line of vision.

“For what?”

“For turning on you earlier when you were reading my writing.” I risked glancing up at him, regretting it instantly as his eyes locked into mine. A blush crept up my cheeks and my brain turned to mush, as he smiled back.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. Jacqui explained, nobody touches your writing. I shouldn’t have been nosy.” He started down the stairs with me in tow.

“You weren’t to know.”

By the time we’d caught up with others, they were already sat around a table in the restaurant. There were cheers as we joined them, which didn’t do a lot for my blush. As menu’s were handed to us, Liam told the waiter there was no need, as Louis and Niall had just ordered everything on the menu so there was no need for Harry or I to bother.

Bowl after bowl after bowl of food poured out from the kitchen and onto our table. Several children stared open mouthed from other tables as the food kept coming. The boys’ eyes’ lit up as the table filled, while Jacqui and I shared shocked looks. We both could eat and we knew it, but this was extreme even by our standards. As we filled our stomachs, we filled each other in on our stories.

“So how’d you guys meet?” Jacqui asked curiously.

“Have you been living under a rock or something?” Zayn asked incredibly.

“No! I’ve been in America for the past 20 years!” She replied frowning. Louis lent over and muttered something into Jacqui’s ear, her blush returning brighter than ever. I felt several pairs of eyes on me. I shrugged.

“Yeah. I have. Problem?” I raised my eyebrows as I took a bite out of another spring roll. They laughed, astounded looks on their faces.

“OK, so you’ve been on the other side of the Atlantic and you’ve lived under a rock, but I’m assuming you’ve both heard of the X Factor right? We all auditioned as soloists then they threw us together into a big group and Bob’s your uncle, here we are preparing to sign a record deal tomorrow.” Liam explained. Jacqui lit up, her eyes wide as she glanced round each of the guys. It turned out we had just moved in above what would be the UK’s biggest boyband to come off of the X Factor. Jacqui had spotted what a fantastic opportunity this was to kick start her own singing career and she wasn’t going to let it slip through her fingers. She turned her charm up as high as it went and by the end of the meal the guys had invited her to join them on their first video shoot, whenever that would be. At this rate, she would be a star in no time.