We will meet again

Chapter 9

What. A. Day.

I got back to the hotel after midnight. The only thing I needed now was a hot bath and my bed. After everyone (including Zayn) did their routine for the judges they took a moment to finalize their decision. I was so nervous, my palms were sweating. I couldn’t wait to hear who made it and who didn’t. When Simon called the boys of One Direction to the front of the stage I swear I stopped breathing for a moment.

His words echoed in my ear.

“Boys you know you are incredible singers. I don’t need to tell you that. Now dancing, that’s a different story.” Brian interrupted him. “Simon I don’t think that you can tell if someone can dance or not after only one day.” “You’re right, Brian. But more of that later. Now back to you boys. I’d love to keep you around, but you need to show me you earned your spot in the top 15.” He finished his speech, smiling.

I smiled thinking back at that exact moment. The boys were relieved. I was relieved. I did a good job. But what followed was absolutely crazy.

“Now about the dancing.” He continued. “I want all of you boys and girls to improve what you have learned today, so I asked Brian to stay in London for another two months.” There was cheering. Simon shushed them. 

“Unfortunately, Brian won’t be able to do that, considering he has a pretty tight schedule in LA.” 15 heads dropped in unison.

“But,” he continued, “We worked something out. Aly will be replacing him and be your dance coach for the next 8 weeks.” All heads shot up again, and I caught him smiling. 

I was still smiling.

The next morning I accompanied Brian to the airport. Throughout the whole cab ride nobody said a word. I was scared and terrified, I didn’t want him to leave. How could he just leave me alone in this? But I had to act like an adult, I was in charge now. I had to make him proud. This was me being tested. 

“Are you really sure I can do this?” I asked, and quickly added, “Just as good as you?”

“Yes, Aly. I’m positive you’ll do great.”

“I will.” My stubbornness showed through. He smiled. 

“I know.” He replied and hugged me. “I’ll call you as soon as I land in LA. And you, you will call me every day for the next two months. It’s not that I don’t trust you. I just need to know everything’s going well.”

“Will do boss!” I squeezed him tight, thanking him again for the millionth time. I waved goodbye until he disappeared. I decided to call Kat. Practice didn’t start until Monday, today was Friday. I had the whole weekend to myself.

“Hello?” the familiar voice answered.

“Kat, it’s me.” I totally forgot I hadn’t given her my UK number since I arrived yesterday.

“Aly? OMG, Aly!!! Where have you been? Wait, this is a UK number you’re calling me from…” I suspected she took a quick peek at her display.

“I’m in London. At the airport. Waiting.” That’s all I had to say. She hung up without saying a word. I giggled. Kat was definitely the spontaneous one.

I went outside to wait. Half an hour later I saw her walking up to me. I held my arms wide open. She hugged me and I almost fell over.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” She screamed in my ear. “Let me put your stuff in the car and we can go. Where are you staying? Are you going to stay at you parents?” She looked around. “Where’s your luggage?”

“Relax, Kat. My stuff is in the hotel. I arrived here yesterday. Just had to take Brian back to the airport. You know Brian, my dance coach, I told you of him. He left earlier and I thought, since I start work on Monday, I’d call you and we could hang out!” I concluded.

“Oh I can’t wait to hear the whole story…” Kat just knew me way too well. We decided to head to the next Starbucks so I could tell her everything.

“Shut the front door.” She said after I finished the monologue I maintained for the past and a half hour. I could tell she was taken aback. In awe. And, I couldn’t lie to myself, a little bit jealous too.

“Aly, this is…I don’t even have words to describe how awesome all this is.” She finally said and hugged me again.

“It’s mainly hard work.” I had to remind myself of that every day. “I just hope I don’t mess things up.”

“You won’t. Now, what do we do? We could head to your parents for lunch? I bet you missed your mom’s cooking.” She said with a smile.

“Oh shit. I totally forgot to call my parents and let them know I’m in London." I'm going straight to hell for this.

“Let’s just head over and surprise her.” Kat suggested.

“She’s gonna have a heart-attack. No. Let’s just go to the city for a little shopping. I’m in dire need of warm clothes.” I said and got up. “I’ll call her on the way.”

After three hours of excessive shopping (what can I say LB and Soph got me infected) we stopped for another coffee. As we entered the Starbucks I saw a familiar face sitting there alone in the corner. In my mind I congratulated myself for picking out cute clothes to wear today.

Kat saw him too because she sighed. “Ew, what does he want in here?” That’s when the boy looked up, saw Kat and waved. He looked over to me as if he knew me but couldn’t remember who I was. Then it hit him,  his face brightened and he got up, walking towards us.

“Hey Kat.” He said, nonchalantly. “Aly? Aly is that you?”

“Jess.” I made a face.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were in LA?” Wait, how did he know?

He continued his monologue. “I asked Kat about you because you vanished and she told me you left. This was 4 months ago.”

Kat shot me an apologetic look.

“Ummm…listen Jess. We’re really busy actually. I’m not staying much. It was nice seeing you.” I said, rushing out the coffee shop and dragging Kat along. 

“Whoa! Slow down. Don’t get mad.” Kat said.

“I’m not mad. Just wasn’t prepared to meet him. Being away from here helped me forget about Jess. I don’t wanna deal with him anymore.”

“I know.” She replied and smiled at me. “Let’s go somewhere else.”

Later tonight we went to my parents for dinner. Needless to say my mum was over the moon When I called her to let her know I was in town. We had lovely dinner, I told them all about LA, LB and Soph, Brian, the classes I’ve been taking. I was proud of myself because they were proud of me. Mum insisted I should stay overnight, but I had something to take care of and needed to head out early in the morning.

I hugged and kissed my parents goodnight, promising to come back soon. Kat thanked them for the dinner invitation and we headed out into the chilly London night. If this was LA I would be walking around in a sleeveless top right now. I had to chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” Kat asked.

“I just thought about how much I miss the warm LA night already.”

“You've become a Cali girl.” She replied, a sad tone hanging in her voice.

“Oh, you have no idea, Kat.” I said, barely above a whisper, shaking my head. “If you knew how Cali girls dress every day, you would think that they’re doing their very own runway show on the streets.” We both giggled. God, I missed this girl more than I thought.