After The X Factor (One Direction)

Chapter 1

Sequel to During The X Factor, one of my earlier stories.

I know the titles are poor but there's nothing else I could think of, really! :)

Comments would be lovely!

Enjoy!

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Recently there hasn’t been a single thing that annoyed me. Not even when my mum deducted my pay at the bakery, or when I went shopping and New Look didn’t have my size in a gorgeous pair of tan boots.

Or even this morning, when Bill (my Sociology teacher) set us a mountain load of work to do, despite it being our second day back from the holidays.

Nope, not one thing has bothered me since December 12th. That was the day Harry and I finally confessed how we felt about each other, and we continued to laugh about how long we had waited for weeks after then.

I’d known Harry since my second day at High School and we’d been best friends for five years, planning to start college together. Then he auditioned for The X Factor and…it was a bit like a roller coaster. One minute Harry and I were happy and talking, the next he would ignore me, then we were friends again, and after that we had our biggest argument to date.

Luckily though, everything worked out well and we’re still together now – a little bit more than friends.

I’m still not used to the looks people give me. Gaggles of girls pass by me either giggling or scowling, and all I can do is smile back at them. I realised it was worse yesterday, the first day back at college, because I’m in my second year so the One Direction fans in the first year realised who I am and took to gawping at me.

Rushing into the dining hall, now, I have to avoid a couple of girls who I’m pretty sure have been following me around. I hurry towards my friends grouped in a corner.

“Hey,” I sigh, dropping onto the empty seat at our usual arrangement of tables.

“Chaz! What kept you?” asks my friend Lola beside me. She’s leaning away from me at our rectangular table and into the neck of her boyfriend, Gregg, where her head is resting sweetly.

“Oh, you know me, I just had to get my drawings finished in art,” I smile. I look around the tables for another of my best friends. “Where’s Elvie? She left art before me. I thought she’d be here...”

“The library, probably,” Lizzy, one of my oldest friends whom I’ve known since the start of High School, answers. I look up at her to laugh (Elvie is such a bookworm I’m sure she’d live in the library if she could, only ever leaving to visit the art department), but my eyes swerve to behind her where I see some more of my other friends, and a complete stranger.

Lizzy follows my gaze, “Oh! You two haven’t met yet, have you?” Lizzy’s voice seems to carry over to the next table where the sandy-haired stranger is sat, and his eyes lock with mine.

I may not have many friends, but I am always up for making new ones, though that’s a recent thing for me. Last year I was practically friendless and I forced myself to make new friends for the first time in five years! It had a great outcome though, the three new friends I made turning out to be the best.

However, something is telling me I don’t want to befriend this guy.

“He’s a friend of Jason’s, just started here,” Lizzy continues. The boy turns in his chair so he’s facing me properly, and leans forward.

“Hi, I’m Ken,” he tells me, grinning. Fitting, I think, seeing as he looks like a living, life-size model of Barbie’s boyfriend. Except without an ascot.

I nod, not really wanting to know. “I’m Chaz.”

He smiles again, “Chaz…is that short for something?”

“Yep, but you don’t need to know that.”

“Ooh…mysterious, eh?” Ken winks at me, throwing me into shock.

Getting to my feet and grabbing a handful of crumpled up sandwich wrappers I head towards the bin just behind Ken. As I pass I whisper, “I’m not interested,” into his ear. I shove the sandwich wrappers into the bin with such force that I almost knock it over before returning to my seat, my arms folded stubbornly.

“OK, OK, I can take a hint,” he murmurs back across the table. Though he says it with a smile; a smile that clearly says he wouldn't know a hint if it smacked him across the face and screamed crossword clues at him.

Lizzy, who looks like she enjoyed watching our conversation, continues it for us. “Yeah, Ken, Chaz has a boyfriend,” she teases, winking at me and making me smile shyly.

“You do?” Ken asks, still not dropping his flirtatious manner, “Is he…at college?”

“No, he’s got a job, actually,” I reply. Catching sight of Lizzy and Lola giggling makes me smile some more and I have to look away from Ken’s questionable expression.

“You know, Ken, you might have heard of him,” laughs Gregg, and I have to hiss to tell him to shut up, also laughing a little.

“Really? What’s his name then?” Ken asks me directly.

“Harry. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go find my friend,” I announce, getting to my feet and throwing my bag onto my shoulder. I shoot a glance at my friends that clearly says not another word about me or Harry before bidding them all goodbye and leaving the dining hall.

I make my way to the college library, where no doubt I’ll find Elvie already finishing the homework she received today. Not surprisingly, I spot her dark hair between two bookcases, and see she’s sat alone at a table in a corner.

“Elvie!” I whisper to her as she scrawls across some paper, three books neatly lain out before her. She snaps her head up and smiles as I take a seat in the chair opposite her.

“Shouldn’t you be having dinner?” she ponders, looking back over a textbook.

“Nah, wasn’t hungry,” I lie. As if on cue my stomach growls loudly at that exact moment.

Elvie raises and eyebrow, “What happened?”

I sigh, “Have you met that new guy yet?”

“Ken Beale? Yeah he was in my Law class this morning. Originally from somewhere down south – the accent – but he’s lived all over the country. He befriended Jason pretty quickly, too.”

I stare at her. It’s as if she had been following him around since birth. “How on Earth do you know everything?”

She smiles cunningly, “I can be quiet and nosey, you know.” I laugh as she continues, “The quiet people have excellent hearing. Anyway, what’s the problem?”

“Well I think he was trying to flirt with me,” I admit with a look of disgust on my face.

“Oh, don’t worry about him,” she replies calmly, “He’s just a classic Ken looking for his Barbie.”

“Well I’m not her,” I retort sulkily.

Elvie grins playfully, still heavily into her work, “No you’re Harry’s…”

I gasp in shock, “I am not a Barbie, thank you very much!” I almost yell, though I laugh along with Elvie.

She stands and shoves her belongings into her already bulging bag, “C’mon then, you need to eat. Back to the dining hall?”

I hesitate, “Er…sure.” The look Elvie gave me told me I was thinking too much about this Ken thing, so I decide I won’t talk about it to her again…unless that annoying toe rag tries anything else.