Not Alone

Chapter 1

MAY 2006

**TOMS POV**

I woke up panting, my head was fuzzy and I was dripping in sweat. Where was I? What happened to me? As my vision started to become clearer I saw four people sat in chairs around my bed. It took me a few moments to realise who they were. It was my three best friends in the whole world, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd. Sat inbetween Danny and Dougie was my beautiful girlfriend, Lauren. All four of them looked as if they had been crying and all their eyes were red and puffy. Dougie was sat with his head down scrolling through something on his phone, Harry was resting his head against the wall behind him with his hands on his head, he was breathing really heavily and he looked very frustrated, Danny was twiddling his thumbs and shaking his knees, I could tell he was nervous and Lauren was picking away at the skin on the side of her finger nails so much that she was bleeding, this was a terrible habit she had of doing when she was worried.

When I woke up panting Lauren looked up quickly and her face lit up with a massive grin, Danny burst out laughing and had tears streaming down his face, Dougie dropped his phone onto his lap and Harry's chair slid, almost causing him to fall because he had jumped. Almost instantly Lauren was at my bedside. She took my hand in hers and kissed it.

"I can't believe this. You gave us all a good scare Thomas. You need to promise never to leave us again!" She said as tears started to roll down her cheeks. I was extremely confused.

"What do you mean leave? I never went anywhere. Infact where am I? I asked, screwing up my forehead in frustration. Lauren looked at me in amazement.

"You really don't know what has happened, do you?" She said.

"I honestly don't have a clue. Could someone please tell me?" I moaned.

"You're in hospital, you were minutes away from dying."

DECEMBER 2004

**LAURENS POV**

I woke up at seven A.M. like I did any other day. I got up and got myself ready the same as I would every other day and then I left my house at quarter to eight to go to my cafe like I have always done. It just felt like it was going to be an ordinary day, like days at the cafe always were. How wrong could I have been.

My little cafe was in Central London, which was a twenty minute drive from my house. It also happened to be right next door to Island record label recording studio which meant every so often famous music artists would pop in to have their lunch or just to get a coffee or cake. Being so close to the recording studio also meant I had a very busy cafe at weekends and schools holidays with fans of these artists trying to meet their idols. Today would probably be a quiet day though as it is a Thursday and all the schoolchildren would be in school.

I opened the cafe at half past eight like I did every morning and then got to work baking cakes for the day. At around nine o'clock I heard the bell ring meaning someone had come into my care, so I went out to the front of the shop. My heart almost stopped when I saw who it was. Stood in front of me was a blonde man with big brown eyes and round glasses. His name was Tom Fletcher, from my favourite band McFly.

"Sorry to bother you, you are open aren't you?" Tom said.

"Yeah I am, it just doesn't tend to be busy at this time in the morning..." I said back, trying my hardest not to fangirl.

"Oh that's great. Would it be okay if I sat in here for a while until I head over to the studio? My band changed the time and I didn't know about it."

"Oh that's no problem at all! Can I get you anything like a coffee or tea?"

"A coffee would be great thanks!"

"Just sit down somewhere and I'll bring it over to you."

"My names Tom by the way." He said with a little smile.

"I'm Lauren." I said.

I went into the back of the shop and started making a coffee.

'Keep your shit together Lauren. He's just like any other person who comes into the caf- shit no he's not. He's Tom Fletcher.' I thought to myself.

'I need to stay cool, I don't want to scare him away.' I thought again. I made his coffee and took it out to him.

"Thank you so much! How much is that?" he asked.

"It's on the house, don't worry about it." I said.

"No honestly. How much am I due you?" he said again, reaching into his pocket to get out money.

"Honestly forget about it." I smiled.

"Thank you! I will pay you back one day." he smirked.

"You honestly don't need-" I started to say before Tom put his arm out to stop me speaking and he said, "I meant, well hopefully, I just wondered if I could take you out for a coffee one day?" He said with a bashful look on his face, like he was scared to ask me out.

"Me?" I asked, completely astonished at what he had just asked.

"Yeah, you.."

"I'd really like that." I smiled.

"Here's my number. Why don't you text me tonight and tell me when you're free and we can arrange something." He said as he wrote his number on a napkin that I had give him with his coffee. I took the napkin and smiled as I put it in the back pocket of the jeans I was wearing.

For the next three hours Tom sat in the cafe on his laptop, he looked like he was editing a vlog to upload on to his youtube channel. I got busy with my work serving the other customers who came in and out of the shop and speaking to people over the phone to be potential employees. At around twelve I took my apron off and made myself a sandwich for lunch. I asked Tom if he'd like any food but he turned down the offer. I took my sandwich, a muffin I had made earlier and a can of cola over to a table near Tom to eat it.

"Come and sit with me Lauren. Don't sit yourself." He said so I picked up lunch and carried it over to his table. I went to put my food on the table and caught a glimpse of my top. I was wearing a tour top from McFly's Room on the Third Floor tour. Shit this was going to be awkard.

"Ahhh, so you're a fan." Tom said.

"Erm, yeah I am." I said looking down trying to hide my bright red cheeks.

"Why are you embarrassed? I think its awesome."

"Really? You don't find it weird that you've asked a fan out for coffee and given her your number?"

"No because I done that before I knew you were a fan. If you'd not taken your apron off I'd never have guessed you were a fan because you treated my like i was a normal person rather than freaking out, and I really appreciate that."

"You do? Well I guess its just an instinct not to freak out, working next door to a recording studio I tend to see at least one famous face a day." I shrugged.

I ate my lunch whilst Tom continued to edit his vlog. We also spoke for a bit as well asking general questions about each other until half twelve when Tom had to go to the recording studio.

"I'd better go, the guys will be arriving soon. Thank you for your hospitality." Tom said as he got up to leave.

"It was no problem at all." I shrugged.

"Don't forget to text me tonight, probably around around seven?"

"Yeah sure, good bye."

"Bye." he said and left the shop.