A Beautiful Nightmare

An hour later the van was unpacked and my new home was littered with boxes. The only room unpacked fully was what had become 'The Music Room'. The boys had gotten curious when they'd found an amp and a drum kit at the back of the van.

“Do you have a music room?” Tom asked me, admiring the amp.

“Um nope, not currently, but there's enough rooms to have one. I just haven't decided which one yet.” Danny looked up at me and smiled. 

“Lets go choose one then!” He grabbed my hand, pulled me off the van & ran into the house. He didn't slow his pace as he took the stairs, two at a time, while I tripped and stumbled up each of them behind him. We reached the top floor. It was split into two large cream rooms. One of which I'd assigned to my bedroom, the other was just empty. Or so I thought. In the corner was a grand black piano. It had been my Grandfather's. Last time I checked that had been in the lounge on the ground floor. Clearly the room choosing had already been done without me.

“Here you go.” Danny smiled at me, his eyes studying my face for my reaction. I smiled.

“Sure why not.” He pulled me into a hug, his long, muscular arms holding me close to him. Oh gosh, he smelt good too. This wasn't fair. Had we really reached this point? We were at the hugging point already? Wow. That was fast. But good. Definitely good. I wrapped my arms around his waist. He held me closer. Automatically my head rested against his chest, my eyes closed, a small smile on my lips. Yes. We were there. We had reached that point. I could've stayed there forever.

A small bang broke us out of whatever trance we'd been in. I shot a glance over at Sam. His face was screwed up as he listened closely for footsteps. Turning slightly, he saw me watching him, my eyes wide, fear etched all over my face. I felt his fingers wrap around my hand in an attempt to comfort me. We stayed sat there for 10 minutes, him listening, me frozen stiff with fear.
This time it could be me.
Eventually Sam found his voice, his eyes bore into mine, he could see I was only half in this world again.
“Toodles.”
“Toodles!” When I didn't respond he shook me, hard.

“Toodles!” I focused my eyes on Danny, and suddenly realised I was being shaken, rather violently. I pulled away from him, however he kept contact, moving his left hand down from my shoulder to my hip.
“Hey!”
“Sorry you just seemed to space out on me for a moment, just after Tom banged an amp down on the ground, you went as white as a ghost.” Danny informed me, worry thick in his voice and clear in his eyes.
“Oh, right, sorry.” I apologised. Danny waited for further explanation but I wasn't giving one. I hardly knew the guy, I was not about to unload my baggage onto him.

“Do you play?” He indicated towards the piano with his thumb, his eyes not leaving me, giving up on waiting for an explanation. I nodded.

“A little not very well though.”

“We'll see about that. Do you know She Loves You by The Beatles?” I nodded again, as Danny led me towards the piano. I sat on the stool placing my hands on the ivory keys, closing my eyes to recall it from the back of my memory then started to play. When I opened my eyes again Danny had gone. I frowned confused and stopped halfway through the song, turning round to see what had become of him.

“Don't stop.” Tom was stood in the doorway, two guitar cases in his hands. He gently placed them on the floor and came over to the piano. I turned back around and continued from where I'd left off, this time he sang along. My brain turned to mush. How I was still playing at all, let alone the right notes was beyond me. His voice was even more amazing in this small, quiet, room as he softly sang than it was when he sang to an arena full of people. I wouldn't have been surprised if I'd melted into a puddle on the seat just then. The song drew to a close and someone started clapping from behind me. I jumped a mile, Danny chuckled, placing a hand on my shoulder, it sent electric shocks straight through my body. It seemed strange, having Danny Jones’ hand on my shoulder, we were touching each other like friends. A hug, a hand on the shoulder, how long till we reached other 'benefits'? I mentally shook that thought out my mind. That was something I didn't want, 'other benefits'. Not after the last time...

“Knew it. You are awesome on that thing!” Danny grinned down at me. I blushed brightly.

“He's right. You are incredible.” Tom smiled. He sat down on the edge of the stool and budged me up a bit.

“Do you know All About You by McFLY?” Tom asked curiously. Suddenly there were footsteps downstairs. The guys frowned, Danny made his way towards the door as Tom and I spun round on the stool, our knees bashing together as we finished our 180degree spins. Great. More electric sparks ran through my body. This just wasn't fair.

“TOODLES!”

“Maybe later.” I told Tom

“Anybody home Lulu?!” I smiled at the familiar voices, footsteps were on the stairs now. Danny stopped by the door and chuckled.

“Up here!” He called down, and came back over to Tom and I, placing his hand back on my shoulder.

“Hey Cat! Toodles has a guy in her room!” OK. Now I was definitely going to combust. There were thunderous footsteps on the stairs as they raced up to the top floor. My two darling best friends burst through the open doorway before stopping dead, jaws dropping.

“TOODLES!” Natz stared at me as she shouted the only word that could come to mind.

“MCFLY!!!!!!!!!!!!” Squealed Cat finding her voice. Danny chuckled, squeezing my shoulder, while Tom lent back on the piano, the tips of his fingers brushing against my back. These boys were playing a very cruel game.

I stood up, pulled out of Danny's hold and away from Tom's fingers, which I had felt skim down my back and onto my bum as I stood up, and ran over to my two best friends pulling them into a group hug.

“Hey girlies.” They returned the hug, but I could tell their eyes were still on the boys. I let go rolling my eyes.

“Yes. McFLY. Tom and Danny have been very kind in helping me unpack the van. Which is lucky for you two, cause otherwise you'd be helping me!” I laughed as their mouths dropped further open, this time their eyes on me.

“They live next door.” I answered the question they struggled to make with their lips before turning back to the guys.

“Do you think it'd be OK if these two numpties came to the BBQ too? I promise, they won't fangirl, and they will act like human beings.” I glanced back at the two girls immediately regretting my promise. Danny chuckled and nodded, causing the jaws to drop further, it was incredible just how far their jaws could drop. I wondered how much further they'd go until they got locked.

“Keys?” I turned to Cat, who handed them over, then dodged round them and out of the room, leaving the guys to deal with them alone.

I unpacked the rest of my stuff and some of the food shopping the girls had kindly done for me from Cat's car in a few short trips. These were the smaller boxes so I could carry several at a time. I popped the last two boxes on my bed, beside another four boxes and eagerly tore them open admiring my precious CD collection, before pulling my stereo and it's speakers out of two of the six boxes, quickly setting them up. An impressed whistle came from my right. I jumped a mile, once again, when I saw Danny stood leaning against the large doorway through to the music room. I had been convinced that those doors just led to an inbuilt cupboard.

“Sweet CD collection.” He moved the boxes around the bed, placing the empty stereo boxes on the floor, kicked of his shoes, then lay down on his side, resting his head on one hand while the other flipped through my CD collection. He was going to see just how many McFLY CDs I had. He was gonna get freaked and I'd never see him again. I fought the urge to snatch the CDs from under his fingers and instead busied myself with my stereo again, resigning myself to the fact I would spend the rest of my life bright red while I lived next to these boys.

“Hey Tom, we've got ourselves a bit of a fan here.” Danny chuckled. I saw Tom's reflection in my mirror, which had been leant against the wall beside where I was knelt, sit down on the edge of the bed looking through the CDs with Danny, a small smile on his lips.

“A bit?!” Cat burst out incredulously. I shot her a glare. The guys laughed.

“Well there are certainly creepier fans. Toodles won't ever climb through your kitchen window! She's not a stalker.” Natz quickly jumped in saving Cat's out burst.

“Not a stalker eh? But still moves in next door to us so she can perv on us in the pool?” Danny grinned cheekily, I could feel his eyes on me. I kept my gaze on what I was doing shaking my head despairingly. As lovely as this house was, it was a sore spot. But I couldn't live at home any longer. Not after... I shook the thoughts from my head and finished sorting out the stereo, hoping that I had no tell tale signs of the raw emotion that had just shot through me.

“How long till the BBQ?” I asked, not looking at anyone, occupying myself with unpacking a box of hangers. I could feel both their eyes on me, it put me on edge, I had become very emotional very suddenly and didn't want to cry infront of them. I saw Tom glance down at his phone out as I turned away from the wardrobe and back to the box of hangers, hanging up the last of them.

“About an hour. I guess we should get going, finish off getting ready. Make sure Harry and Dougie actually do something rather than just make out with each other.” Tom sighed chuckling. Giggles immediately erupted from Cat and Natz at the thought of the Pudd makeout session. I smiled rolling my eyes as I tore open a box of clothes. Tom and Danny didn't move from the bed. Their reflection in the wardrobe mirror informed me of their watchful eyes as I started to put away clothes. 

When I was halfway through the second box of clothes Cat suddenly leaped into action, shooing the unwilling boys out of the room.

“Out, we need to get Lulu out of her grotty moving clothes and into something half decent if she's meeting the locals!” Cat ordered the boys. I frowned looking down at the clothes I was wearing.

“Hey these are grotty! I like this outfit!” I pouted. Cat sighed and turned to me.

“There's nothing wrong with the outfit, it’s just you've spent the day moving! You're grotty from moving and need to freshen up before the BBQ!” She explained a little patronisingly. I was about to retort when Danny interjected.

“I happen to think she looks very sexy in that outfit.” How? How was I not on fire right now? My whole body felt like it was alight but there were no flames. I risked glancing over at Danny who was grinning at me, I tried to get my mushed up brain to come up with some response.

“Wait till you see her later.” Cat smirked and shut the door on them before turning to face me. She sent me to the shower while she and Natz rifled through my clothes...