Trace of Innocence (No Control Book 3)

Chapter 40

(No Control - 40. Truly Madly Deeply)

We finish soundcheck and I'm just about to slip away with the others when Alex shouts my name, and I turn and see him approaching me with Tori and Gillian.

"Can we have a word?" he asks brusquely.

"Um, sure," I reply. I run my hand through my hair nervously and follow him backstage. Niall gives me a smug 'you're in trouble' grin, and I give him the finger behind Alex's back, and he walks off laughing. Lou walks past us and gives me a sympathetic smile.

Alex leads us into a small room and closes the door behind us. Gillian looks annoyed. Tori looks uncomfortable.

"OK, so what the hell was that before?" he asks.

"What?" I ask, playing for time.

He closes his eyes in annoyance.

"Harry, you just held up soundcheck at a stadium where tonight you are going to be playing to thirty two thousand people. We are behind schedule as it is -"

"I know, I'm sorry," I apologise.

"I don't think you get it, Harry. Everyone was waiting for you. The sound engineers, the musicians, the entire production team, the equipment team, your bandmates..."

"I do get it. I'm sorry I made you wait. I just had to finish that call. It was only a few minutes."

"Harry, we can't afford a few minutes when we're playing venues like this!" Gillian intervenes. "It's embarrassing! It looked so unprofessional. This was not a great first impression to the stadium."

"Sorry," I say, humbly.

"I hope you are," Alex begins again. "I really do not want a repeat of this. Ever."

"I won't," I promise, and then zone out as he and Gillian moan at me for a further ten minutes.

When they've finally finished bollocking me I open the door to find Lou waiting outside nervously.

"Are you alright?" she whispers. "Alex was fizzing before."

"Yeah, I know," I say, wryly. "I've heard all about it."

"Why were you so late?" she asks as we walk down the corridor to my dressing room.

I tell her about the video on Twitter, and about Jess's brother answering the phone.

"So I couldn't just cut the guy short, could I?" I finish. "I had to make a good first impression."

Lou is staring at me.

"What?" I ask.

"So let me get this straight. You held up a stadium soundcheck that was already was behind schedule to make a good impression on the brother of a girl you've met twice?"

"Three times," I correct her. "And yeah. He's your typical overprotective big brother. I didn't want to get on the wrong side of him."

"Interesting," Lou winks.

"No, it's not," I say, rolling my eyes and feeling a self-conscious smile spread across my face. "It's far from interesting. It's boring. Not worth commenting on."

"But I'm going to anyway."

"Of course you are," I sigh.

We enter my dressing room and Lou shuts the door behind us.

"Why is it so important to make a good impression on this guy?" she asks.

I shrug. "I like her."