Run [Stereo Kicks/ James Graham]

Chapter 11

Casey had easily woken Barclay, who came padding into the room, still waking himself up. "What's wrong?" He mumbled, then saw me. "Hmm. Tea?"
"If you wouldn't mind." Casey smiled at him, so I burrowed my face into his t-shirt that he was wearing, trying to disappear from the world. I didn't understand why it hurt, so much, when I hardly liked him. "What's wrong?"
"Why d-does it hurt?" My voice was hardly a whisper.
"Because he was drunk, and made a mistake. It's going to be okay." He assured me. Soon enough, Barclay appeared with a cup of tea, gently giving it to me. Despite my hands still shaking, I managed to clutch onto the mug, murmuring a thank you underneath my breath.
"Feel better." Barclay said softly, kissing the top of my head before leaving again.
"Try to sleep once you've drunk that, you're probably knackered." Casey told me, so I obediently drank the cup, setting it on the floor. "You want to go back to bed?" I shrugged. He sighed gently, reaching over and grabbing a blanket from the other chair, wrapping it around me. "Go to sleep."
Casey was right - I was exhausted, tired from hurting, partying and crying. As warmth enveloped me, I shut my eyes, falling asleep against his chest, the image of James still burned into my mind.
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"Morning." A soft voice said as my eyes fluttered open. This time, I was in a bed, the covers wrapped around me into a warm cocoon. Reece was sitting on the bed, on his phone. "You feeling better?"
"Yeah." I said, sitting up. "I'm over it."
"Don't give up hope. I'd still want you to date him over any one outside of the band." He murmured.
"I'm going to move on if he doesn't get his act together."
"Point."
We got up, going out into the main room. Tom and Jake were working together, on what looked like words, so I presumed it was a song, Chris, Casey and Barclay were playing on the XBox, and Charlie and James were talking quietly on the sofa, James wincing every time one of the boys yelled at the game they were playing. My heart twinged at the sight of him, but I ignored him and went into the kitchen with Reece to find something to eat.
"Pancakes are in the fridge!" Tom yelled at us, then continued in a quieter tone. "Sorry, James." We found the pancakes, and I heated them up in the microwave as Reece found the Nutella and plates. Reece handed me the Nutella, and I covered my two pancakes in them, and he did the same, eating them quickly.
"Remember much about last night?" Reece laughed as we went back into the lounge, flopping down onto the sofa.
"I distinctly remember dancing with some sleazeball." James scrunched his nose up. "Don't know what got into me." His indirect assurance that he didn't care about Janey made a slight wave of relief cover me, but it still hurt to think about it.
"Anyway, we've got an interview tomorrow, lads, so make sure you're ready to go by ten o'clock." Tom glanced up from the paper. "Amelia, you can either come with or go to your family, or a friend."
"I'll do whatever suits." I shrugged.
"Come with." Reece pleaded me, so I agreed, rolling my eyes as the boys grinned.
"You nearly done with that?" Chris asked them.
"Yeah, just on the last verse. Struggling a bit with the high harmonies." Jake shook his head.
"You sing." Charlie nudged me, so I gave him my best 'bitch, please' face.
"You've never sang, you could be really good." Barclay said quietly.
"If I used to be, I'm not anymore." I shook my head. "Besides, it's your song."
"Girl logic." Jake muttered darkly, scribbling something out on the paper and rewriting a line. They fell back into the song, so I talked with Reece, James and Charlie, relaxing as my pain from last night was forgotten.
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The Next Day
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"Welcome, Stereo Kicks!" I was sitting off stage, watching as they all piled onto the two sofas, the audience applauding politely. They'd allowed me to stay backstage, as I was Reece's twin, on the favour that they could question about me, for publicity. There was the boring questions, which I zoned out of, until they started talking about me.
"Jake, Reece, you've been seen shopping with a mystery girl! Would you mind sharing who she is?" The interviewer smiled, and Reece took the microphone.
"She's my twin." Everyone in the audience gasped, and I snickered in amusement.
"Your twin? How come we haven't heard about her before?" She asked.
"Amelia was a victim to the mass kidnapping a couple of years ago, and I only recently found her again. It was hectic, but I'm glad she's okay." Reece smiled brightly.
"Is she here today?"
"She's actually backstage." Jake cut in, looking over to me, and I glared, the producers smiling amusedly. "Can we bring her out?" Frantically, I shook my head at him, but they all laughed.
"Yes! Come on out, Amelia! Is that her name?" The interviewer said, and the audience started clapping, so I crept towards the stage.
"It's her name." Charlie assured, getting up from the arm of the sofa and running over and grabbing me. "Come on, it'll be fine."
"Do I look okay?" I whispered, and he nodded, tugging me onto stage. Nervously, I sat down next to the boys. "Hi!"
"Hello! How are you?" She smiled at me, and I felt a bit daunted, but kept a smile on my face. All these eyes staring back at me, the lights and cameras on me.
"I'm fine, thank you."
"Can you tell us a bit about yourself?" My throat was dry, so I swallowed, before responding.
"Well, you know, I just grew up in Accrington, went to school, and it was all normal. As Reece has so kindly already informed you, I was a victim of the mass kidnapping back in early 2012, and I spent the past three years in London. Before that, I used to go to a drama class, I took singing lessons, I can play the piano, trumpet, and the violin." I wasn't really sure what to say, but that was their problem, not mine.
"How is it, being Reece's twin?"
"Amazing." A smile took over my face as I glanced over to Reece. "We have a practical telepathic connection, and, of course, I'm the better looking twin."
"Your eyesight's been affected, then." Reece said dryly, and we all laughed. The questions continued, and I answered them with increasing ease, managing to direct the questions towards the boys as well. It was their interview, not mine.
"And finally... Just an extra question." The interviewer said, and we all looked up. "Is Amelia thinking of joining the band?"
"Heaven, no! I can't sing that well, and, besides... It's a boy band. I couldn't interfere with that." I jumped on the question first.
"We have had trouble with some of the harmonies, and nine wouldn't make a difference. I mean, if our management wanted to, we'll try to persuade her." Tom smirked.
"I couldn't."
"Yeah, you could."
"Anyway, it's been lovely to have you here! Thank you." She smiled at us.
"Thank you!" We all chimed, before running off stage.
"Twitter is going bananas." Casey was on his phone. "You should get a twitter account, everyone's asking."
"I don't know how to use twitter."
"We could teach you." James offered as we all left the building, seeing the fans crowded around. "This might take a while."
"I'll wait." I smiled gently.
"No, look." Charlie caught my arm. "They want to meet you, too."
"Me?"
"Yes, you." Barclay grabbed my other arm, and the two of them steered me towards the crowd. Girls were screaming, reaching out to touch the boys, phones ready for pictures. They eyed me with some curiosity, so I offered them a smile.
"How's Reece?"
"Are you dating any of the boys?"
"I love you, Charlie!"
"You'll be fine. See if any of them want pictures or something." Charlie nudged me forwards, so I hesitantly walked over of the girls.
"Hey." I smiled at them brightly, trying to appear confident.
"Can I get a picture?" One of them asked me.
"Sure." Grinning, I moved so she could reach and get a picture of the two of us.
"Thank you!"
It was exhilarating, seeing them prepared and even asking for pictures, autographs, and answering their questions to the best of my ability. "We've got to go soon." James touched my arm gently, and I refrained from jumping, as the girls all started screaming for him. "Hey, girls!" They screamed even louder in response.
"I ship you two!" A girl called to us. "Can I get a picture?"
"Yeah, why not?" James grinned, and phones appeared, so he wrapped his arms around me, smiling for the pictures. I forced a smile onto my face, but it soon turned into a happy grin as I definitely didn't relish in the fact James had his arms around me. Once that was done, we left, jumping in the cars waiting for us.
"Take your time." Jake rolled his eyes.
"Got to leave the lovebirds alone." Chris laughed, and I blushed bright red, the others laughing as well.
"What happened?" Reece asked me curiously.
"Just pictures. Nothing."
"Hug?" He suggested, and I averted my eyes. "Knew it."
"Shut up." I pouted.
"You love me really."
"Sometimes." Rolling my eyes, I leaned my head on his shoulder.
"What do you mean, sometimes?" Reece feigned indignancy, but I just giggled in response.
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Late that night, I was curled up on the sofa, trying to get to grips with my phone properly, to be able to use twitter. "Need some help?" James appeared, and I blushed, but forced my feelings aside.
"I'm not sure."
"Here." He sat down next to me, taking my phone off me. "Have you got an email address?"
"Nope."
"Okay, then." With a gentle smile, he tapped away, before handing me my phone. "Set an account up real quick."
"A google account? How does that help with email?"
"Because you'll be able to use the google account for everything, including YouTube." Patiently, James talked me through setting up the account, then my email, verifying it, then finally returning to twitter. "You just have to choose a username and password, now."
I thought over it, not sure what I should use as my username. "What should I use?" I huffed after a while.
"Just your name or something." James laughed.
Username: @ABibbyTwin. No one would ever know... Was it a twin, or A. Bibby... Hehehehehehe.
"That's good." He hummed. "Go on, then." Once I'd typed my password in, I clicked create. "Cool. We'll promo you so people know who you are."
"Thanks." James went onto his own phone, so I managed to find their individual accounts, following them, and then the band account.
"Mom has twitter?" I asked, scandalised. "She used twitter? Before me?" Several people were laughing, and I looked up to see Jake and Reece had also come into the room. "Oh, wow, I've got followers."
"How many?" Jake smirked.
"About 100."
"1000 times that." He coughed exaggeratedly. Rolling my eyes, I sent a tweet out, taking a sneaky picture of the three of them. To my amusement, Reece looked like he was killing himself laughing, Jake had pulled a stupid face, and James half-had his eyes closed, making him look strange.
'Good night with the oh-so-mature @ReeceBibby @Jake_Sims @itsjamesgraham 😏' Immediately, it was being retweeted and favourited, and I went to look at some of the responses.
'OMG! James's face 😂'.
'I love these boys so much'.
'What is Jake doing??!'.
'Sl.t'. The simple comment made me raise an eyebrow, so I clicked onto the account, and reported them, before deciding to go an a little mission.
"What's the best way to humiliate an internet troll?"
"What? What've they said?" Reece leaned over to look at my phone. "Just tear them down like they were Katie Hopkins." I recognised her name, and scrunched my nose up, before tweeting them.
'Oh, no. I'm so offended. Boo hoo. It's better to spread positivity, you know. It's not needed, not nice, and certainly stupid #StupidInternetTrolls'.
More retweets were piling in, my follower count rising by the second. "Why are people so interested?" I whined dramatically, looking at all the people tweeting me.
"Reply to them or something, they'll love it." Jake glanced up from his phone. After picking out the nice comments, I either favourited them or replied, knowing that getting on the good side of the fans would increase my popularity. I didn't want to be a hated sibling.
Over the next hour, I was typing away for ages, my thumbs becoming cramped as I followed another person, replied to a comment, retweeted some pictures, and generally interacted with fans. "Slow down, you'll go crazy." James snickered as I sighed at more and more notifications.
"Yeah, I might go to bed soon." Putting my phone away after wishing the fans a good night, I got up, finding a clean onesie and jumping in the shower, washing my hair out.
"But what if she doesn't want to?"
"She's old enough now."
I paused as I left the bathroom, glancing towards the lounge, where I could hear the boys talking in whispers. It seemed like they were talking about me, so I crept forwards silently.
"I mean, we are talking about-"
"Ssh! The shower's stopped." Quietly, I ran back to Reece's room, shutting the door behind me, confused. What on earth were they talking about?