Sair:
“Where are you?!”, Dawn shouted at me through the phone. She wasn’t shouting because she was mad, but if she hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have heard her. Only now it was hard enough. I could picture her standing at the front row, turning from left to right trying to spot me. Everyone was screaming at the top of their lungs, the boys were about to go on stage, and I was trying to tell my best friend I wouldn’t be sitting with her.
“I’m sitting somewhere else!”, I shouted back, trying to shield my mouth from Eleanor, Danielle and Perrie who stood and looked up at the stage, their hands ready to applaude.
“What?!”, Dawn couldn’t hear me.
“I said I’m sitting with someone else!”.
“Are you sitting somewhere else?!”.
“Yes! I’m sorry!”.
“I’m sorry! I can’t hear you!”, Dawn sounded even more sorry than me. I think I could recognize my sisters voice shouting in the background.
“I have to sit with the other girlfriends!”. I tried to shout the word ‘girlfriends’ quietly, although that was quite impossible. All the attention was turned to the stage though, so they didn’t even look my way.
“Girlfriends?!”.
“Yes!”.
“You mean their girlfriends?!”, Dawn shouted, and now she was hysterical. “You know them too?!”.
“I’m sorry Dawn!”, I shouted in apology.
“Oh my God!”. That’s all I heard from her before the lights went on and out jumped the boys, making the noise level blast. I had to plug my earplugs in, and the conversation was ended.
“I’m sorry Dawn”, I mumbled, and put my phone back in my pocket. Eleanor turned towards me, and mouthed if I was ok. I nodded, and she gave me the thumbs up, waving me over to the rest of them. It was hard to pretend, and I wished I didn’t have to, but I did feel like I was stabbing my best friend in the back.
**
“That was great”, Danielle smiled, packing her stuff up after the show was done.
“I couldn’t even notice Louis had sore throat”, Perrie said to Eleanor.
“He’s a lot better”, Eleanor said. “Although I keep telling him to shut up so he won’t exhaust himself”, she added with a smile. “He talks too much”. The three of them laughed, and I joined in, a little more nervous, and a little less sure. But I guess that’s what girlfriends do, tease their boyfriends behind their back. Even when they're celebrity boyfriends.
“Are you staying for the weekend?”, Danielle asked Perrie. I saw my chance to take my bag, and dug up my phone as soon as possible. One unread text from Dawn:
I’m sorry I hung up on you :( I couldn’t hear what you were saying
My fingers were typing so quick, and I bit my lip hard as I concentrated on answering her before she could get away, hoping she was still inside the building. Without knowing I too started to head out with the crowd, in the hope of finding her. Eleanor grabbed my arm before I got so far though.
“Where do you think you’re going?”, she chuckled, pulling me back in.
“I was...”, I pointed to the exit with one hand, the phone in my other.
“You’re not coming backstage with us?”, Perrie asked. “We’re riding with the boys back to the studio”. Three pairs of eyes looked at me, and they all expected a ‘yes, of course’. Dawn was probably standing outside with Cassidy, expecting an explanation. Think Sair, think. Make a good decision for once, and do it quick!
