In Other Words (Niall Fanfic)

Chapter Forty-Three

Chapter Forty-Three 

Niall’s POV

“Wake up, mate.” Liam nudged me, sending the plastic arm rest digging into my side. I reached over my shoulder and grabbed the cord to my in-ears, pulled them forward and climbed the six steps to the stage. We lined up our mic stands and looked out over the thousands of empty seats, waiting for the cue.

The first few days away from home had been an absolute blur. It had been decided that we would run rehearsals late at night, since it was “safer”, which left our days free. Free to do press, free to meet with the stylists, free to go to vocal lessons. Basically, not free at all.  Combine all of that with the time change, and I was all out of sorts. 

“One more time, from the bridge.” Zayn called out. He was a perfectionist, yes, but mostly he loved the sound of his own voice.

“It sounds fine, Zayn.” Louis whined. Zayn glared and snapped his mic back into the stand.  “Great.” Louis corrected. “It sounds great. I think we can pack it in boys.”

We looked around to gather a consensus, and it was silently agreed that we would call it a night. The band flipped off their amps and the tech crew filtered in to handle the rest.  My palm braced my body against the stage as I jumped off the edge to grab my stuff, doing the math in my head to figure out what the time was in London, picturing what she might be up to at this exact moment. I hoped she was having lunch, because I could go for a little something right about now.

I felt the tip of a shoe gingerly sneak its way up the inner seam of my trousers before being pressed into the crack of my ass. “Go for a pint?” Josh said. I didn’t want to say it, but I really wanted a burger more than a beer. The bars would be closing up soon, and even the ones that were open probably weren’t serving food.

“Yeah, man.” I said, throwing my bag over my shoulder. “But let’s just grab something and take it back to my room.”

“Slumber party, aww yeah.” He said before I shushed him. We headed up the aisle on out the side door to my rental car, not bothering to invite the others along. The nice thing about hanging with Josh is that he wouldn’t give me any shit if I sent a few quick texts to Rox, since he’d probably end up doing the same with Vanessa.  

Roxy’s POV

I clicked the red x on my window of Solitaire, giving up. “Yes, I can hold.” I said into my headset. The office was pretty quiet today, and I had been getting a lot accomplished until I got stuck on this phone call. My cell buzzed and I snatched it up. Niall sent a photo of a pile of French fries and on top of a plush, white bath towel, flanked on either side by two open bottles of Foster’s.

We exchanged a few texts back and forth as the Kenny G droned on into my earpiece.

Roxy: Double-fisting tonight? Or do you have a hot date?

Niall: Joshy’s here. Says hi. What did you have for lunch?

Roxy: HI JOSH! You always want to know about my food. How about you tell me when I can have the password?

Niall: The morning !  

Roxy: Whose morning?

Niall: Mine !

Roxy: Timezones. So confusing.

Niall: Will call you before I go t sleep. Couple hours, k?

That stupid flash drive had been sitting on my dresser, taunting me for the last four days. I plugged it into my computer, but all of the folders are password protected. Except for one. That one was called “Mature”. The title got me all excited, but inside the folder was only one file, a blurry picture of a piece of paper.  I think my strangeness is rubbing off on him. The rest of the folders had really odd names too, like “snort”, “sneak”,  and “bite”.  I didn’t quite know what he was up to, but I was impressed with his effort.