The Official Boyband Handbook

[20] The Videos

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Something's missing

And I don't know how to fix it

Something's missing

And I don't know what it is

At all

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Chapter Twenty - The Videos

The last person whom Frankie had expected to see at her door today was Louis. Her morning and a substantial part of her afternoon had been spent reworking next week’s live show designs. Genevieve was in charge of Harry and Louis Walsh’s wardrobe while she had been given the task of assembling two striking American themed dresses for Nicole and Tulisa. She, admittedly, was not as excited about the designs as she should have been. For her to be completely honest, all she had wanted to do for the past two days was sleep. She was so beyond the valley of knackered yet the work never seemed to diminish. To say the last, seeing another face after so long, especially Louis’ kind and smiling one, lightened her racing mind. She ushered him in with the eagerness vacant from her earlier job, following his slow-paced trail as he ventured inside.

Frankie’s cozy home was no different from the last time he had visited three months ago. A comfortable, clothed red sofa lay in one end of the room. A bookcase situated close behind was littered with history and culturally depicted cook books with the exception of a few sappy romance novels that neither girls would ever admit they actually fancied reading at strange hours of the night. Louis noticed the thin laptop on the table sitting opposite the sofa, the screen slightly agape and the eye-squinting glow shining through. Coloured pencils and scraps of paper were scattered nearby. It was obvious, she had been awfully busy. A sense of regret zipped through him when he realized he must be disturbing whatever it was that she was up to. He turned to apologize, but she only grinned at him and said it was fine.

“How is studying for mid-terms going?” Frankie asked as they simultaneously took a seat on the sofa. She tucked her feet underneath, leaning her head within the palm of her hand and looking at him with a tilt of the head.

Louis leaned forward slightly, “it’s good. I, um, wanted to ask you something.”

“Sure.”

Curling his fist, he coughed lightly before he said, “do you still have the videos?”

“What videos?”

“The ones I told you…” he paused, “I didn’t want to see. But I think…I think I’m ready to watch them now.”

Frankie’s eyes widened with realization. “Honestly?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re going to be hard to watch, Lou,” she told him in the utmost truth as she stood up to fetch them from the bookcase. The videos were tucked between two thick novels and it took all of one short tug to pull them out. “You’re not going to believe half the things you see.”

“I know,” he returned with a nod of the head, “but I’m willing to try. A lot of things…don’t make sense; mostly band-related things. I’ve been trying to remember, I have. I wish I could understand half the things that bother me at night, but I can’t. Maybe these videos can change that.”

“I hope they do,” she smiled, popping the first video in the DVD player.

• X •

Frankie didn’t know how many seconds, minutes or hours had passed since he had come and the television was turned on. All time had rushed past her thoughts while she was sat next to her friend, watching him with parted lips that slowly twisted into a shape resembling the Earth’s circumference. The air was laced with faded memories, veiling the friends and finding solace in each of their minds. The room was becoming too small and the walls felt as if they were closing in too fast. The memories were good for Louis, but for Frankie, they brought her one step closer to choking. He muttered words like, “I remember that” or “I remember her – Madison, right? She was with Harry in the video for What Makes You Beautiful,” but nothing anywhere close to “I remember our friendship, Frankie.”