[3] how did we end up here ;; nh

14 » A Litte Surprise for Her

◊ Niall ◊

Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, 10th September 2022

When the fireworks stop burning, the lights on the stage are turned off, the mics are being rested, the musical instruments stop harmonizing, and finally, the backstage is busy cleaning up the costumes, makeup, and any other stuff that is coherent to the concert – that is the exciting time because the rest of this tour's crew is going to rest, at least in a few more hours and can't wait to go home or somewhere to release the stress coming from the tour.

The backstage is not dark even if it's surrounded mainly by black curtains to separate one room to another room. I take off my purple suit and leaving me in the white shirt and purple trouser, which the suit happens to be purple since I thought it is supposed to be light blue. I have asked the dresser to provide me the light blue suit and at the moment I grab the purple one — well, don't get me wrong, from my eyes there are two blue suits hanging on the clothes hanger and I choose this because I see no different from one suit to another. I mean, hey! I'm colorblind, they should've known, at least someone needs to guide me since I'm having a problem distinguishing between blue and purple, I tend to see blue in purple and blue in blue.

I'm walking along the way backstage, craving food and after doing that, I make my way to meet Harry as I meet several of the crews who greet me. I just smile at them while walking and say, "Hey! Have a good rest!" or simply just say "Excuse me". I can't count how many times I have said that.

"There you are," I say right at the moment I see Harry with Louis at the backstage. Liam, I think, is going somewhere that he doesn't even tell us. He's probably going to the nearest club in Chicago alongside the crew meanwhile here I am, preparing to go to New York City to meet Avril.

How sweet am I? Avril should have fallen in love with me if she knows about this.

I barely do this to my ex-girlfriends, except Anne.

Alright, alright. I need to stop thinking about her. Well, to say the least, not stalking her social media for a few days is such an achievement, right?

"So NYC it is," Louis teases with a hint of smirk painted on his face while he's looking at me. His tone sounds sarcastic. "if you hurt her, I will kill you," however, at this time he tones up his voice and points his pointing finger towards my face.

I laugh at his statement. "Easy man," I say slowly as I put my hands in the air, I can't tell whether Lous is joking or not because sometimes when he's serious he's joking, and when he's joking he's serious. Him being protective of Avril as her best friend is something that I understand, I remember at that time Louis says that he doesn't grant any member of One Direction to date his sisters because he knows that we are assholes – including him.

Well, we're a bunch of assholes then.

"You sure?" Harry asks, the following question to Louis' statement. "Cause you know... Avril is like a little sister for us."

"You guys are talking like this as if I'm going to marry her right now and I'm going to cheat on her the whole marriage."

"Good evening sir, I apologize to interrupt you guys but the car is ready to take you to the hotel," says one of the promotors of this concert. I tilt my head towards him, the one who is standing on my left side with a black dress code, black hair, and an ID card.

Why does the promotor always like to wear black dress code? Is our concert a funeral?

A funeral for the 1D stans, yes. Pretty much so.

Without further ado, the guy leads us the way to the car that is prepared for us to go back to the hotel. It's 9.21 PM and I can't wait to suddenly pop up at Avril's apartment, making her a little bit surprised because I'm coming to her and going to spend my whole day off with her. I'm pretty much okay to sleep at her apartment so that she can easily go walking through the street if she wants to go to class.