The Piano Player

Chapter Fourteen: Aftermath

-Chapter 14-

Lights up on the house.

The stage darkened after One Direction exited and went backstage.

I stood up, feeling ditzy. Grinning like a maniac.

Samantha was dying over here.

"Make sure you get Liam's autograph for me! Take millions of pictures! Oh my gosh, I CAN'T believe you ACTUALLY won! They're gonna follow you on twitter, I bet! Omigod, I can't my best friend is meeting One Direction!"

"I will! Of course! Me either! Hopefully! Are you sure I'm not dreaming??" I responded in turn.

Samantha grabbed my shoulders and looked at me with a suddenly serious expression. Her beautiful chocolate brown eyes looked straight back at mine.

"Calm down. Deep breaths. The last thing you want is to start fangirling right in front of them. Bad first impression. Just talk to them like... Like they're someone you just met. That you happen to know everything about. Right?"

"Right."

"Promise you won't make a fool of yourself?"

"Promise."

"Promise you'll get Liam to ask me out?"

"Well.." I smirked at her.

"Promise!!" she shook me by the shoulders.

"Alright! Alright, I promise!" I grinned, peeling her hands off my shoulders and worming out of her grasp.

"RAFFLE WINNERS: PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE STAGE ONCE THE AUDITORIUM HAS MOSTLY CLEARED OUT," a voice boomed from above.

I looked at Samantha.

"How'm I gonna get home? You're my ride," I said.

"I'll go down with you and ask how long it's going to take. If it's more than an hour, I'll leave and come back. If it's less than that, I'll wait. I'm sure they won't care, as long as I'm not trying to sneak back there with you or something,"

She smiled at me. I smiled back. I could sense she was hiding her envy with it, but I knew she was happy for me, too.

"I really wish you could come back with me," I told her honestly.

"Me too," she said, not meeting my eye.

Wait.

Maybe there was something I could do for her...

Better than just an autograph from Liam...

*~*~*

Two bodyguards waited by the door.

The one on the left seemed more intimidating than the one on the right. He was more muscular, for one. Tall, too. He had an obvious scar on his wrinkled forehead. He had a large head, round and almost completely bald.

The one on the right was taller, but had long, thick hair that fell to his shoulders in a 60's hippie-type hairstyle. His cold, black eyes were awfully creepy, though.

There were about 30 people crowded by the door that lead backstage. Only four of which were really winners.

"No, but look!" a girl of about 15 or 16 was insisting to one of the hefty guards, shoving her ticket in his face. "7272701! Louis read that one!"

"Miss," a very deep voice emitted from the left bodyguard. "You obviously put white-out over a 4 there," he pointed at the ticket, "and put a 2 in pen over it. Leave."

She reluctantly obeyed, looking hateful.

Multiple girls, apparently, had attempted the same stunt. One of them tried to imitate MY number, even.

After about another ten minutes, three girls had been allowed through the door to the next room, wherever it led. I could tell Samantha was losing her nerve about asking about the length of time it would take, the closer we got to the guards.

As we approached them, I handed the one on the left my ticket. He compared it to one of the slips of paper that had been drawn, then held the ticket close to his face as if looking for fraud. After a few lengthy seconds of contemplation, he nodded.

"Walk through the metal detector, then wait with the other three for further instructions." he directed.

"Right. Ok," I agreed, nodding. Whatever I must do to find them.

Samantha cleared her throat. "Um, excuse me, but how long will she be in there?"

The guard raised a bushy eyebrow at her.

"No no no.. I mean, I'm her ride, so I wasn't sure if I should wait for her to come back out, or maybe leave then come pick her up, since-"

"How long will this take?" I butted in, seeing Samantha turn a ripe shade of scarlet. She's got this thing for babbling, doesn't she?

"About an hour and a half," an unnaturally high voice came from the security guard on the right.

Samantha and I met each other's eyes. We weren't expecting that voice out of a guy like him.

I bit my lip to keep from laughing. "S-so will you be leaving and coming back then?"

She hesitated. "Ah, who am I kidding? I'm not waiting a second more than I have to to hear all about it! I'll be outside,"

I smiled at her gratefully, then walked through the doorway to whatever lay beyond.