Pearl's P.O.V.
After one more week in Uganda, Audrey and I headed home to the States, equipped with all of the boys' phone numbers, of course. And the best part was in a couple of weeks we were going to go on tour with them! While talking with them we had explained how we were taking a gap year before starting college. We had all been sitting in the main room, the boys all in a row on a pile of pillows, with Louis at one end and Niall at the other, and me and Audrey across from them on some kind of woven rug. They asked if we were looking for any specific kinds of internships. I said I had been looking for some kind of counseling or nursing opportunity and Audrey mentioned she wanted some kind of beauty job.
"Guys! I just had a brilliant idea! The girls could intern with us!" Niall had exclaimed.
"Last time I checked we weren't nurses, counselors, or stylists," Zayn had said.
"Don't be such a wet blanket, Zayn. And what I meant was they could come on tour with us and Audrey could intern with Lou, Lydia, and Caroline and help style us and Pearl could be our counselor!" Niall had fairly shouted.
"I'm not qualified though! And since when did you guys need counseling?" I'd returned.
"Remember when Harry kept getting nervous before performances when we were on the X-Factor? Maybe his nerves have come back!" Liam had said triumphantly.
"No they haven't! That was 7 years ago!" Harry had defended himself.
"Only management and the people on tour with us need to know. None of the fans have to," Liam had said, putting on his puppy dog eyes for Harry.
"Fine," Harry had said with a fake pout on his face but I could tell he was glad we were coming.
"Pearl could kind of mother us too! We always need looking after! Liam can't do it all by himself!" Louis had said.
"We need a Daddy and a Mommy Direction," Harry had said.
"Aren't Daddies and Mommies usually married?" Zayn had asked.
"Ours could get married," Louis had said with a wink at me, making Liam and I blush.
"But it's settled, right? Pearl and Audrey will intern with us on our tour?" Zayn had asked.
Everybody nodded.
"That was probably your best idea ever, Niall!" Liam had said with a fatherly pat on the back to him. But Niall hadn't respond. He was too busy gazing into Audrey's eyes. Anyone could tell just by looking at them that they had fallen for each other. Hard.
"Has Niall found his princess? Pass it on," Louis had whispered to Harry, who had whispered to Zayn, who had whispered to Liam, who had whispered it to Niall.
Niall had just blushed before saying, "I think I have."
~One month later~
But anyways, now we were on tour with them! The boys had convinced Paul to let us sleep on the tour bus so Audrey and I had a bunk we shared with a curtain around it to give us privacy. Audrey and I felt right away like we fit in with the stylists, bodyguards, the boys, everybody was so welcoming.
Each of the boys and I had a slightly different relationship. Liam was obviously my crush, Niall was my sweet younger brother that I mothered, Harry was like an older brother, super protective over me, Zayn was like a best friend who I could tell anything to, and Louis was one of those fun people you can just go crazy with.
As the tour went on though, I found myself falling more and more for Liam. I mean, before I even met them he had been my favorite, but I'd always wondered who he really was. Was he the sweet, mature, caring, protective guy that he and management portrayed him as, or was he someone completely different? Surprisingly enough, in person, he was exactly that. But a part of me couldn't believe it. He seemed almost too good to be true. Sometimes I caught him staring shyly at me or he'd give me a special smile that would make my heart race. But he never went out of his way to talk to me, making me wonder if I it was all in my head.
Besides getting to hang out with the boys 24/7, we also got front row tickets at all of their concerts. Between songs at one of them, Harry asked the crowd to quiet down for a minute.
"Tonight we're going to play a couple of songs from our Up All Night and Take Me Home albums," Harry said.
"Liam and Niall each have a special girl out there tonight that they'd like to dedicate a song to," Louis said.
"But these girls are pretty shy so we need your help to get them up here," Zayn said. The three of them began to chant, "Yes, yes, yes," and the audience joined in as Liam and Niall walked towards where Audrey and I were sitting. At first I shook my head. There were tens of thousands of people watching, but Liam pulled me up on stage and Niall did the same to Audrey. They placed us right in the center.
"Pearl, you've got that one thing that I need. Actually, you've got everything. You're sweet, smart, compassionate, witty, funny, crazy, and beautiful. You don't just have everything; you are my everything. This one's for you," Liam said.
With that, Harry came up with stools for Audrey and I and the boys jumped into "One Thing." Liam looked at me the whole time. When the song ended, Niall stepped up into the spotlights and began to speak.
"I'm not as good with words as Liam, so I don't have a fancy speech planned out. We'll be singing Little Things now, but I stayed up all last night tweaking the lyrics for Audrey. To my princess," Niall said, grinning at Audrey.
The new version of Little Things was beautiful. Ten times better than the first one. Niall sang with his arm around Audrey, looking down into her face the entire song. The new lyrics fit her perfectly. Niall had only known her for about a month, but anyone could see they were deeply in love. I couldn't have been happier for either of them. I loved Audrey like a sister, and in my mind no one was worthy of her, but Niall made her happy, the happiest I'd ever seen her. I wished I would find my dream guy. I wondered if Liam was mine?
The concert ended and Audrey and I headed back to the bus. The boys stayed a while longer for autographs. I knew I needed to talk to Liam though. I had to find out if he really cared about me or if management had put him up to it. I waited outside the bus door and when the boys came back, I asked Liam if I could talk to him privately. Paul wouldn't let us stay outside though so we had to cram ourselves into the tiny bathroo mon the bus.
"What was it you wanted to talk to me about, Pearl?" Liam asked once we were inside. I knew I just had to come right out and say it.
"Did you really mean what you said? About me being your 'everything' and all that? Did management put you up to it?" I asked, with what was almost a tone of anger in my voice.
"No, management didn't make me do it! It was completely my idea! The boys and the band were the only ones I told. No one else knew we were playing One Thing or that I was dedicating it to you. Why are you asking, anyway? Don't you believe me?"
"I just, well, I've never had a boyfriend or anything and no guy's ever called me beautiful. I really like you, but you just seemed too good to be true. I felt myself falling for you and I didn't want to only to be hurt later. And what about Danielle? You said in an interview that you would've settled down and married her if you could've."
"First of all, what I felt for Danielle was completely different than what I feel for you. With her it was fireworks, but those burn out eventually, right? With you it's just as strong as fireworks, but more of a flame, and flames can burn forever. Second, you're going to have to get used to being called beautiful and all those other things I said about you because, I mean, will you, or, um, do you want to. . .?"
"You're so cute when you stutter."
He smiled. "What I was trying to say was, will you be my girlfriend?"
"Yes."
We could hear a bunch of cheers and whistles coming from outside the door. Obviously the boys and Audrey had been listening in on our "private" conversation. Liam sat on the toilet and pulled me onto his lap. He held me as we talked through the night. Who knew a tiny bathroom could be such a romantic place?
