History [One Direction - English Translation]

[1]

The complete silence in the room is broken only by the sobs of the blondie next to me, leaving his mouth once in a while.

Memories bubble up in everyone's head, and yet, to me, they all seem so blurry.

From the very first moment at X-Factor, to the concert at San Siro, to the last performance made where it all began.

Everything was running through my mind like one of those "timeline videos" that you can find on YouTube.

“This is not the end„.

The world around disappears for a moment, it seems like it's just me, me and the damn memories that continue unstoppably to flash before my eyes.

I'm awakened by another sob and a hand on my shoulder.
«Go to him, we know he needs one of your hugs more than a hundred of ours..»
Liam,,well at least his ʼdaddy mannerʼ hasn't changed much yet.

I walk over to Niall sitting on my left and open my arms letting him throw himself on me and letting him vent.
He was the only one crying, but we all needed it.

With the corner of my eye I see a tear run down the face of the boy next to me.
«Lou...»
What was supposed to be a word came out as a broken whisper, and that's when I realized that, finally, I was crying too.

«Let's do this one more time, just one more time please».
Niall's words, said right to my neck, left me breathless.

«We can't, we already did it for 'the last time', Niall, and you know it. We can't...»

Yeah, Liam's right. I remember like it was yesterday that damn March 25, the last time when, drowning in tears, we said “Hello, we are One Direction” , well, “we were”...

«Hazza...»
And after that whisper, Niall decided to break the hug.
«Go Harry, go».

«Boo.»
I said as I sat down next to him. Next to my Boo...
«Hazza, promise me something, please...»
«Ok, ok tell me...».
«No, actually all of you need to promise me.»

It amazes me how he manages to have a steady voice even if he isundeniably crying.
In the end, the only one who isn't crying is Liam. «I'm already out of tears.» He said.

«Promise me that this is the end of One Direction as a band, not as friends, okay?».

And after this sentence, another sob from the blondie comes to my ears. He was devastated, maybe more than any of us....

«You said this wasn't the end. We said...»

Liam, Louis, and I couldn't help but look at each other. Then it was Liam himself who spoke.

«Niall, we are not One Direction, not anymore. We haven't been since March 25, 2015. We're just Liam, Niall, Harry and Louis, who tried so hard to imitate One Direction, but realized they couldn't do it.
We wrote History, we all did it together, and we shouted that “this is not the end„ . It won't be just eighteen months, and we know it as well as all our fans do. But it could also be years, decades. Liam, Niall, Harry and Louis have come to the end, but at One Direction, a period has not been put in place yet.»

***

«It's been a good eleven years now that the world seems to stop on July 23rd. Once again this year the fandom of the still-famous band "One Direction" went wild, as if they were still together. On Twitter, on Instagram, on YouTube, on every social the directio-».

«Yes yez, I know haw the story goes».

I run a hand through my hair after turning off the television, but I don't hold back an inevitable smile.

«Eleven years huh? Man, it seemed like just yesterday we hugged on the X-Factor stage for the first time. Wow.»

I take out a pen and as usual I approach the poster hanging in front of my bed.
The poster depicts One Direction's first and last hug.
I add a cross in the bottom, the sixth one.

"Well, six years. It was still the one that said 36+6=38 that chose the 18 months, heh."

I get these thoughts out of my head and decide to get up to go to the kitchen, after making the (wise) decision to not check social for a while.

But then, before I get up, a text vibrates my phone.

'Let's do it.'
the message said.
Sent by a group-chat I know too well.
From a person I know too well, the only one who had, next to their name, a yellow heart.

'Let's do it.'
I replied. And right after, three other boys responded with the same, simple, words.

We stopped the world, and now, we were going to make it spin again.