Secrets Are Hard To Keep

I let out a yawn as Nick looked for a song on my iPod. We sat next to each other on the plane ride to Mexico, we weren’t on a private jet but we were in business class at the back of the plane. It was beginning to annoy me the amount of people who were coming from regular class to see the boys, like they were some kind of painting.

Kaiser Chief’s song ‘Never miss a beat’ came on and I started singing along with it. “I like this.” Nick whispered, I smiled but kept singing along to my self.

“Hey kids, when we land you and your brothers have three interviews, then you're going to the record store, a photo shoot and then sound check. Here’s the schedule.” Denise handed Nick a piece of paper. “Julia, you can come to the venue with Frankie and I and help get things sorted.”

“Good times.” I smiled and she sat back down in her seat, I glanced over Nick’s schedule and then back to my iPod. “Nick, are you doing a meet and greet?”

“I don’t think so.” He answered, “Why?”

“Just working out when I’ll get to see you.” I said truthfully, he kissed my forehead gently and then kissed my lips. “Thanks.” I said in a cheery voice.

“You’re welcome.” He replied in the same tone. I smiled and changed the song to Elliot Minor- So here we are. “You’re not alone. There are other people like you.” I sung and rested my head on Nick’s shoulder as he drew patterns on his schedule.

“You know… you and me could make the whole world jealous.” Nick smirked. I chuckled and nuzzled into his shoulder. He lifted his arm up and put it around my shoulder making me more comfortable.

I pulled the pen out of his grasp and began to think about doodling on his hand. “What can I draw?” I tapped the pen against my lips and then it came to me.

I wrote out ‘When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life a thousand reasons to smile’ and then I drew a sun flower with a smiling face.



“Who came up with that saying?” Nick asked after he had read it off his hand.

“My Dad.”

“Can I write something on you?” I nodded and he gently took his hand in his left hand. I stared out of the plane window as the pen tickled my skin. “Done.” He announced.

I pulled my wrist. He had cutely written; ‘And I believe we secretly love eachother’ and then had drawn two hearts, one smaller than the other.



I smiled and stretched my neck to kiss his cheek.

I closed my eyes, hoping to get some sleep before we landed. Nick’s presence, especially his body and smell sent me off to sleep. It was a comforting feeling to fall asleep on your boyfriend, knowing he wouldn’t move even if he needed too.

Nick’s POV

“Hey Julia do you—” I glanced down and saw her asleep on my shoulder, drooling a little bit on my shirt. She looked so striking even asleep, probably even more beautiful.

She didn’t know how much she really meant to me, no one did apart from I. Every little thing about her fascinated me and I didn’t know why. Her facial expressions, the way when she smiled a fake smile you couldn’t see the top of her incisors which were very sharp. The way when she blushed, it was only the skin across the cheek bone which changed colour and how whenever I’d do anything sweet she’d hide behind her hair.

She had me wrapped around her finger. Everything about her kept me close to her. I never wanted to leave her alone or be away from her. Whenever I was I was constantly nervous or edgy. But having her at the side of the stage was such a comfort, it made me better on stage and made me want to push my self further.

I’d forgotten about her drunken escapade. So what if she got drunk? She wasn’t the first and definitely won’t be the last. I’d always worried I was holding her back from doing things she wanted to do and knowing I really wasn’t made me happy and made her happy.

I can’t express how happy it makes me to see her wearing my watch everyday, without fail she always wears it. It could wreck her outfit and she wouldn’t care, I didn’t care. Anything looked amazing on her. A silly watch couldn’t diminish her.

“Nick we’re landing now, you should wake her up.” Kevin said from across the ailse.

I looked down to her sleeping figure. “Is there anyway we can get her into the helicopter without waking her up?” I asked. I didn’t want to wake her because she hadn’t been sleeping well lately.

“You can try.” My dad said from in front of me. I began moving her stuff about and putting it back into her bag. I handed it to Dean to carry for me.

“I can get her Nick.” Dean’s deep voice boomed from behind me.

“It’s fine.”

“There’s cameras.” He added.

Crap. Cameras were a problem. I wish they just didn’t exist because that way I could be a proper boy friend to her. It seemed to be harder for me than it was for her. She deserved more than this, she deserved to have someone who wasn’t afraid to flaunt her off. That’s what it was, I was afraid to show her off because when people know something is taken they want it more.

Lots of people were attracted to her, man even Joe has told me how beautiful she is! That annoyed me. So many people would jump at the chance to have her on their side, as a trophy. How disgusting? To think of any woman as a trophy was stupid and obnoxious.

Julia mumbled and licked her lips, still leaning against me. “Dad, is their any way we can get rid of the cameras?”

“I don’t know Nick… we’d have to stay on the plane longer.” My Dad obviously didn’t want to have to go to the fuss of getting rid of them all.

“Please Dad,” I begged and glanced around at everyone in the cabin. The only people left were us, the engines had been shut off and all the hostesses had came off the plane after checking all the compartments.

“Nicholas, I’ll wake her up.” My Mom announced.

“No, no, no!” I said instinctively throwing my hands out.

Julia’s POV.

I woke up as my head fell from Nick’s shoulder and hit off the Blackberry in his pocket. “Ow.” I mumbled and rubbed my forehead.

“Sorry!” Nick said taking my face in his hands and kissing the spot on my forehead that was throbbing slightly. “I was going to carry you—”

“You should have just woken me up.” I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Crap.” I whispered as I saw my black eye liner on my fingers.

Nick stared to wipe it off for me then stood up and grabbed his back from the over head compartment, the put on his shoulder bag then handed me mine. I pulled out of my bag a pair of Ray Bans Wayfarers which had a black rim but a blue rim for the top frame.

I was wearing a blue cardigan with small black polka dots on it, the buttons were brass and the cardigan had a unique black double pockets and black strips along the edges of it. A cream coloured skirt with black strips on to indicate the different layers put a nice twist on my quirky outfit. And to make it even more unique I wore a pair of black tap dancing shoes all laced up with a neat bow. And of course Nick’s watch was attached to my wrist.

Dean carried my bag as I followed behind Paul down the stairs of the plane. Nick kept one hand on the band of my skirt as he knew I was still half asleep basically and knowing my luck I’d fly down the stairs. I walked in between Nick and Dean over to the two waiting helicopters, one would take Denise, Frankie and I to the venue and the other would fly the band and Paul to the radio station.

“I’ll see you in a few hours.” He smiled down at me and gave me a hug, the most we could do with shutterbugs around. I gave Kevin and Joe a hug and then climbed into the helicopter.

I waved out the window to everyone until we turned to face a different way and I could no longer see him but my phone beeped in my pocket. I pulled it out and opened the text message from Nick.

Lucky I’m in love with my best friend…

My heart fluttered and a smile spread across my face, I read the text over and over again before putting my phone back into my pocket. My eyes caught the writing on my wrist, I traced it with my finger and then lifted my head back up. I locked eyes with Denise who smiled at me as if she was in on the secret.

“Julia, would you like to go for a late lunch?” Denise asked watching Frankie for a second then back up to me.

“Sure, I’d like that.” I smiled back at her.

The ride to the venue was short. We landed a mile away and were taken in a large SUV all the way there. When we arrived and we stopped for around fifteen minutes to make sure the stage was set up for as soon as the boys got there for sound check. I was going to join the boys on stage to the largest crowd I’d ever played, an outside venue for a showcase on the beach that held 40,000 people and was sold out.

Denise and I got Dean to drive us to a restaurant called Azul y Oro where we sat down opposite each other. I ordered a salad and she ordered the same as me, I sipped on a glass of water as Denise watched me.

“So, how’s the Christmas shopping going?” She asked pushing the hair from her eyes.

“Good, I think I might actually be done.” I chuckled and she laughed too.

“Well, the boys are getting harder to shop for. Everything they want they get before giving me the chance.” She sighed and smiled as she shook her head. “But, I did finally get Joe the bull dog he wanted. First it was a pug, then a bull dog so I’m sure he’ll be happy with either.”

“I have a Rhodesian Ridge back called Hope.” I told her, “And I’ve asked for a Staffordshire bull terrier for Christmas.”

“I’ve never heard of them. How long have you and Nick been together now?”

“Four months on the twenty second.” I smiled.

She grinned, “That’s on Monday. I’ll have to check he hasn’t forgotten.”

“It doesn’t really matter if he does, he has a lot to worry about he doesn’t need our four-monther on his shoulders too.”

“He worries about you more than anything.” I grimaced, “What’s wrong with that?”

I shrugged, “Well, he’s running about for Christmas, he’s doing so many interviews, he’s doing the TV show and I just want him to focus on that. I don’t nessecarily want him to forget about me but he just needs to know I won’t die if he doesn’t call.”

“But he doesn’t know that. He’s just so, and it scares me to say this, in love with you that you’re all the thinks about. You’ve changed him.”

The way she said it made me wonder if that was for good or for bad. Denise thanked the waitress when she placed the salads in front of us then she looked back to me. We chatted about random things from my clothes to her parenting but mainly about the boys. It was nice to spend some time with Denise, she was like an Aunt to me.

When we arrived at the venue the boys were sound checking in the beaming sun. I took off my cardigan leaving my in my skirt and black vest top. I put on a pair of Kanye West shutter shades which were bright orange and shaped like a heart and I headed onto the stage.

I sat on the drum riser and swung my legs back and forth as they played ‘Shelf.’ Nick had changed into a grey long sleeved polo neck. I couldn’t imagine how hot he was. Frankie ran across the stage with a plane held up in the air and then ran back.

Once the song had finished I skipped over to Nick and stood behind him. I stretched my hands under his arms and placed them on his guitar, I did a mini solo then gave him a tight hug from behind. He turned around and smiled at me, moved the guitar behind him and gave me a proper hug. I tilted my head up to smile at him.

“I want my heels back.” I chuckled, noticing the height difference which seemed more apparent because I was wearing flat shoes.

He just pushed my hair back behind my ears and kissed my nose. “Smallness is good.” He chuckled. Nick spun me around so I faced away from him and then pushed me forward, I stumbled and then skipped over to John.

“Hello young one.”

“Hello master.” I put my hands together against my chest and bowed like someone would to their kung fu master. I laughed and gave him a hug.

I noticed Garbo had one of the crews flip video cameras out. “We’re doing a documentary.” John announced as he spotted me looking at Garbo. “Garbo!” He shouted and he came over with the camera. “Tell Julia about the youtube documentary.”

“Oh, we’re doing ‘A day in Mexico with JB and JB’.”

It took me a while to work out it was my own initials. “Oh!” I exclaimed, “I get it.” I clapped to my self and jumped down from the drum riser.

I watched as Joe and Nick rehearsed their flips for ‘Goodnight and Goodbye’ they looked impressive but when you have done gymnastics for over two years it looked simple to me. I walked over to them and they smiled at me.

“Can I have a go?” I asked, they exchanged a glance. “I have shorts on under this skirt.” Joe smiled and nodded.

“Wait!” Nick stepped between Joe and I as he grabbed onto my foot to flip me forward.

“What?” I asked then turned to Joe. “Flip me.”

“You’ll get hurt.” Nick warned and I glared at him.

“Flip me.” I demanded of Joe. “Watch.” I sighed and took my foot from his grasp. I walked to one side of the stage and took a breath. I ran three strides forward and did a cartwheel then went straight into a round off, after that I did a back walk over and then finished with a back flip twist. “Ta-da.” I sung and jogged back over to Joe. “Flip me.”

He didn’t even hesitate that time and I landed it fine. “I didn’t know you were that good.” Kevin said taking off his guitar and handing it to the guitar tech.

“It’s a gift.” I smirked and skipped off the stage towards catering.