It's the kiss of life - Nathan Sykes

Chapter XXI

Chapter 21

“Hello?” Came a deep voice from down the line. I realised that this was our first phone call. Something warm stirred deep inside me.

“Hi Nath, it’s Gemma.” I smiled down the phone. “I was just wondering if you’ve been on twitter?”

“Aha!” Nathan laughed down the phone. “The hate and confused tweets I’m getting from that photo of us is making me laugh.”

“... I’m scared.” I admitted. The line was silent. “What if someone recognises me? They could attack me.” Nathan stayed silent for a minute. Then I heard some shuffling and finally a click. He’d moved rooms.

“Don’t worry.” His voice was soft, soothing. “It’s my fault, I’m sorry.” He sounded sad. I remembered the countless interviews where he confessed his fear of getting a girlfriend who’d get hated on. I read those interviews with sympathy, feeling sorry that he felt like part of his human rights were being pulled from him. I vowed never to hate on any of the boy’s girlfriends, but look at my position now.

“Don’t, I’m sorry Nathan. It’s not your fault at all, you didn’t ask to be this famous.” The situation pulled at my heartstrings. I suddenly felt more sorry for him than I feared for myself.

“I shouldn’t have got you into this.” He sighed. “If you want to end it-“

“No!” I protested. “No. I’m not ending it. For God’s sake, we should be allowed to go out like normal people! I really like you, Nath! I don’t want to end something that hasn’t begun!”

“Aw, Gemma, I really like you too.” He was smiling, his cheerful tone gave it away. “Me neither. I really want to see where this goes, I don’t know about you.”

“I agree.” I smiled as we fell into comfortable silence.

“Look, the boys minus Siva taking the train to London to see how our new flats look; you know, how far they’ve been decorated.” He took a breath, and I listened close to it, feeling closer than ever to him. “SO... Free house? Come over, we could watch a movie?”

“That sounds great!” I beamed. “Have you got The Hangover?”

“Epic movie!” He praised. “Unfortunately, all DVDs, except Avatar of course, are at the bottom of a box that is in London right now. So... I don’t know if you have anything..?”

“I have The Hangover! It’s one of the three DVDs I own; the other two being Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Paper Heart.” I paused “I’m a Michael Cera fan... Anyway...” I coughed. “Should I come over now?”

A hesitation. My heart panicked at the sound of silence, and not an instant ‘YES!’.

“I can come over in a couple of hours if you’re busy...”

“No, no...” He sighed. “The paparazzi have found us. I’m surprised it took them this long. And by the looks of it, there’s 15 fans waiting outside too.” There was a rustle of material falling back into place. The curtain. “If I get Seev and we go out to the fans now; they’ll go. Come over in 30 minutes?”

I glanced to the clock. It was 5:29pm.

“Yes, perfect.” I needed to change out of my pyjamas anyway. “See you.”

“Bye, babe.” I may have squealed a little as the phone clicked off. He’d asked me over. HE’D CALLED ME BABE! My mind was running in excited circles.

I jumped up and ran upstairs to get changed.

After telling my mum and dad where I was going, getting changed and grabbing The Hangover,I headed out.

I’d thrown on a beanie and some sun glasses because I knew that although the fans might clear, the paparazzi wouldn’t. I didn’t want them selling a photo of me going into the house to some cheesy teen magazine.

Luckily, there were enough people around the house (the fans hadn’t budged) for me to slip though and knock on the door unnoticed.

It swung open and I was pulled in quickly, the door slamming behind me.

I looked up and was face to face with Nathan.

“Hi.” I breathed, smiling at the whole situation.

“Hello.” He beamed cheekily, before leaning in and kissing me softly

We pulled away simultaneously

Nathan led me into the living room, where he’d set up the DVD player (i.e. He’d pressed the ‘open’ button)

“The fans are still out there I see.” I commented, passing the DVD to him to put in the player. I sat down on the sofa as he put it in. (No innuendo intended)

“Yeah. We went out and took photos, but they said they were waiting mainly for Max and Jay, so we said fine.” He rolled his eyes. “Did any of them see you come in?” He sat down next to me, handed me one of the two J2Os that were on the side table and a big bowl of popcorn.

“No, they were fangirling over Terrence Wonder I believe.” He laughed and pressed play.

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Around the part of the movie where Alan is being a boss at gambling, I could feel my eye lids getting heavy. I was curled up under Nathan’s arm, and his breathing was soothing.

I let myself close my eyes for a minute, then opened them.

Once more couldn’t hurt, so I closed them again.