Look for the Girl With the Broken Smile

For the next two days, every furtive glance, brief touch, and secret smile exchanged between her and Dougie made SJ’s heart pound ten times faster than it normally did. But she had to control herself. No one could know about her and Dougie.

But of course, that meant that Danny had found out right away. When SJ had returned to her bunk to catch her breath after being with Dougie, Danny—the only other person in the room, luckily—had noticed her still-flushed cheeks and her tangled hair and gave her a knowing smirk and said, “So, did my little talk with you the other night help at all?” SJ had pretended she had no idea what he was talking about, but she hadn’t denied it. So he knew.

Now, they were all sitting together in the TV room—SJ sitting as far away from Dougie, of course—playing Truth or Dare. They were killing time before they got to Manchester in ten minutes, where SJ was going to go off to a nearby post office and finally mail her portfolio while McFly set up.

“SJ! Truth or dare?” Danny asked her.

SJ replied, “Dare,” without hesitation. Truths were always totally boring, dares were so much more fun.

“Hmm…” Danny scratched his head, thinking. Then he turned to Tom and Harry and asked them, “What’s the maximum time do you think SJ can spend alone with Dougie? An hour?”

SJ shot him a what-the-hell-are-you-doing-idiot look. He winked back at her. “Play along,” he barely mouthed as Tom and Harry laughed.

“Ten minutes, and that’s only if she doesn’t kill him first,” Harry answered, chuckling.

“Well, I dare SJ to spend an hour today with Dougie,” Danny announced. He smirked. “Let’s see what happens.”

“What?! No way in hell!” SJ pretended to object.

“Mate, that’s probably not a good idea,” Harry warned.

“I dared her, she has to do it.” Danny grinned.

“Yeah, but do you want SJ to put you on her death list, too?” Tom argued.

“Wait—don’t I get a say in this?” Dougie demanded, also faking outrage.

“Nope, you gotta go.” Danny laughed. “Can’t wait to see you lose, SJ!”

SJ stood up. “Poynter, be ready,” she ordered. “I’ll take you with me when I go post my portfolio. And Danny…we’ll see who’s the loser.” She shot daggers at him as she left, and Dougie smiled a little to himself.

“I cannot believe Danny actually pulled this off!” Dougie exclaimed. He and SJ were walking together, completely alone, down the street in Manchester, heading to a post office.

“I know,” SJ agreed. “I’ll have to remember to thank him later.”

“I think he’s secretly a genius,” Dougie commented.

“Okay, that may be going a little too far.” SJ laughed.

Dougie shrugged. “Well, you never know.” They reached to doors of the post office and Dougie opened them for her, letting her go through first.

“What a gentleman,” SJ joked.

Dougie smirked. “I try.”

They were standing in the front hall of the post office, which was empty except for a worker organizing stamps and envelopes in a corner. Through another set of glass doors was a massive queue of people waiting to ship packages. “I think that’s if you’re sending a bigger package,” SJ said, scoping out the scene. She turned her attention instead to two big mail drop-offs that had a sign above them saying: POST—Within & Outside the U.K. SJ moved toward them. "Which one is for inside the country?” She frowned. There was no sign to distinguish the two. And she didn’t want to put her portfolio in the wrong bin and have it sent to Venezuela or something. She bit her lip in concentration, looking between the two.

Suddenly, Dougie’s arms had wrapped around her from behind, pulling her close to him. “You know, you look really cute when you’re confused,” he whispered to her, his lips just brushing against her ear.

SJ spun around to look him in the eyes. “Oh yeah? How cute?”

Dougie unexpectedly pushed her against the wall. “Very cute,” he mumbled before his lips were on hers and SJ lost temporary function of her brain as she let him kiss her. He nibbled slightly on her lip—which might sound totally unattractive to some people but completely turned SJ on—before she opened a little and let his tongue slip in.

Before it could go any further, they heard a loud and obvious cough. They pulled apart immediately to see the worker glaring at them disapprovingly. “Despite what you may think, this is a post office, not your personal bedrooms,” he said in a clipped tone.

“I’m sorry, sir,” SJ apologized. She picked her portfolio, which she had accidentally dropped when Dougie kissed her, up off the ground. “Can you just tell me which bin is for mail going inside the country?”

The worker grunted and pointed to the right one, and SJ placed her portfolio in it. “Thank you,” she said, and grabbed Dougie quickly to leave.

As soon as they were outside, they burst out laughing. “Thanks a lot, Poynter!” she exclaimed. “Almost getting us kicked out!”

“Sorry, my bad,” Dougie said with that smirk of his. He checked his watch. “We’ve got like 40 minutes, do you wanna just walk?”

“Sure.” They began heading down the street in no particular direction. SJ looked at Dougie and noticed, “You’ve got a little bit of stubble going on there, Poynter. I think you should shave.”

“I’m just, you know, showing off my manhood,” Dougie responded, pretending to flex his muscles.

“What manhood?” SJ scoffed.

Dougie put on a hurt expression. “I am highly offended by that, SJ,” he told her. “Take it back.”

SJ just smiled and rolled her eyes. “God, I’m hungry!” she announced.

“Must you always feed, spermy? It’s like, never-ending, pretty much,” Dougie muttered, quoting Juno.

“Hey!” SJ shoved Dougie. He came back grinning. “I’m just kidding. Here you go.” He handed her a Reese’s peanut butter cup that he seemingly produced from nowhere.

“Thanks.” SJ accepted it. “Why do you always have, like, a full supply of these?”

“I get them from my dealer,” Dougie joked.

“Nice.” SJ giggled and took a bite. When she had swallowed, she grumbled, “Ugh, these remind me of how I got fired. Definitely not a high point in my life.”

“I dunno, I think it’s good that you got fired,” Dougie said thoughtfully.

“Why?!” SJ demanded, pausing before taking another bite.

“You’re too good to work as someone’s assistant,” Dougie told her sincerely. “You deserve something so much better.”

SJ’s heart almost melted at those words. That was the sweetest thing Dougie Poynter had ever said to her. “Thanks,” she replied, after a second of being taken aback.

Dougie almost blushed and looked away. “Hey, there’s a café. Wanna sit down and get something to drink or something?” he suggested.

SJ smiled at him. “Sure,” she agreed. “But we can’t spend too much time there, Harry might get suspicious.”

So far the next half hour, Dougie and SJ sat in the café, drinking cappuccinos and talking. SJ was just realizing how little she actually knew about him. She knew it was a bad thing to say, especially after already having sex with him the other day, but during the five years she'd known him, she really had never gotten to know him at all. And the more they talked, the more SJ could feel herself kinda falling for him. Fling, she kept reminding herself. It’s just a fling. But she couldn’t help it. He was just so cute and sweet and he made her laugh…

“Hey, I think it’s time we start heading back,” Dougie finally said, checking his watch.

“Yeah, I guess so.” SJ sighed. She didn’t really want to leave.

“I’m just gonna use the loo quickly and then we can leave, alright?” Dougie flashed her a grin as he stood up.

“Sure.” SJ watched him saunter off until her mobile rang, distracting her. “Hey Kelsey!” she exclaimed, answering right away. She hadn’t talked to her best friend in a couple of days.

“Hey, SJ! How’s it going?” Kelsey said.

“Pretty good,” SJ gushed. “Oh my God, Kel, I have so much to tell you.” When she and Dougie had decided to keep their relationship a secret, that of course meant that Kelsey, having special best friends privileges, automatically got to know.

“I do, too,” Kelsey cut in, now sounding serious. “It’s about James.”

SJ’s heart sank at the mere mention of his name. “I don’t want to talk about him,” she said flatly.

“SJ, please, just hear me out,” Kelsey pleaded. When SJ kept silent, she continued. “Okay, look…James and I have been talking a lot lately; he came round my house the other day—”

“What?! You actually let that arse into your house?” SJ said angrily.

“SJ, please, just listen,” Kelsey said patiently. “He just really needed someone to talk to, and I listened to him. He’s really upset about what happened.”

“He should be,” SJ muttered.

“He’s really sorry about everything he did and said to you, and he’s been dying to talk to you and tell you this, but, ahem, you haven’t been answering his calls.”

“Maybe that’s because I don’t want to talk to him,” SJ spat. “I’m not going to forgive him, Kelsey!”

Kelsey sighed. “SJ, James came to me and he was crying about it!”

“He was crying?” SJ couldn’t believe it. In the three years she had dated him, she had never seen James cry.

“Yes, SJ,” Kelsey said gently. “I know I’m your best mate and I’m supposed to be on your side and everything, but I really do think you should give him another chance. He really regrets everything he did.”

SJ stared across the café, thinking. Dougie was now making his way back to the table, and she said quickly, “Kel, I have to go now.”

“Alright. But, promise me you’ll call him?” Kelsey insisted.

SJ hesitated. “I’ll think about it,” she finally agreed. “But, I really have to go now. I’ll call you later, Kelsey.” She hung up, and Dougie smiled down at her. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here.” SJ grabbed her purse and stood up.

Dougie gave her an odd look. “Everything okay?”

“Yes, fabulous,” SJ snapped. “Let’s just go.”

Dougie shrugged and made his way out of the café. SJ followed him, her thoughts preoccupied by James.