Matchmaker

Matchmaker: Chapter Four

We hit the ground running, as soon as our plane landed in New York City, the first of June, and so summer started officially. The cheering of the crowd was overwhelming, it echoed down the halls of the airport as the boys strolled down, surrounded by their team of security, and us ‘staff’ members, who trailed behind and observed the madness.

I hung towards the back of our team, next to a woman who had introduced herself as Claire. Claire was twenty and one of the boys’ newest assistants who’d had to crawl up the corporate ladder to get the highly coveted job.

All I’d had to do was get a bit too drunk.

“This is mental!” Claire yelled, over the crowd and I turned and laughed, raising a brow in agreement. The boys were shuffled into an awaiting black van, outside the airport, where girls were still crowded and cameras were still flashing. My heart pounded in my chest, as the commotion began to catch up to me and I watched my cousin disappear into the black van, leaving me behind.

Luckily Claire clutched at my arm, pulling me along with her into another awaiting van, where we joined more staff members, the majority on their phones as they called up the families they’d just left behind for the summer, informing them that they’d arrived safely in the country.

I turned to Claire, whose phone remained off in her pocket, “Not going to call home?” I asked casually, my own phone heavy in my pocket, weighing me down as I avoided picking it up to ring my father.

“Don’t have one,” she replied, smiling softly and my face paled.

“I-uh-I’m s-so sorry,” I stuttered out nervously, tripping over the words in my mouth, but Claire just shrugged shaking her head slightly.

“It’s fine,” she assured, reaching out and placing a hand on my wrist to quiet me, “I was raised by my grandparents. I had a great childhood, but Grandparents aren’t like parents, they don’t always make it long enough to see you grow up.”

My phone weighed even heavier in my pocket.

“Don’t you have a call to make?” Claire asked, almost knowingly, “I know Liam can’t be your only relative.”

With a long sigh I nodded, and smiled politely, reaching for the phone in my pocket and dialing for home. It dumped straight to voicemail, and I pretended not to feel guilty as a sigh of relief escaped me.

“Hey Dad,” I said, leaving a voicemail, “Just calling to let you know that we got here okay. I’ll call you in a couple of days. Love you lots. Later.”

The phone fell back into my pocket, noticeably lighter, and Claire smiled at me, bringing me into a conversation with a young man, named Victor, who was also on PR. He went over the schedule for the day, which involved us unloading at our hotel until noon, when we were to then travel to a radio station so the boys’ could have their first interview of their new tour.

Victor began handing out room keys, before we even arrived at the hotel, and I alone secured myself a single room without a roommate. The older assistants in the front didn’t take care to hide their snide comments, and Claire laid another calming hand on my wrist, catching my eye and shaking her head slightly, silencing me before I said anything.

It had been made quite evident that the little ‘special cousin’ of Liam Payne wasn’t the most welcomed member of the new tour. The term ‘babysitting’ had come up more than a few times in the short trip to the hotel, muttered under the breaths of the senior assistants.

“Ignore them,” Claire whispered, as we jumped out of the van, grabbing our suitcases from the back, and hurrying inside. “It’s not your fault they hate their life.”