15 Years // harry styles

chapter twenty one

B

I don't know why I'm nervous, but I am. I clutch onto Harry's hand a little tighter as he leads me through the doorway.

"Harry!! I thought you were never gonna show!" A thick Irish accent calls from across the room, poking up from behind the couch. I look around; not what I expected a dressing room to look like. There's massive couches scattered throughout the room, which is about as big as my entire apartment.

"Hi Niall," Harry beams, opening his arm as the boy runs over and clasps him in a tight hug.

"I missed yah buddy. And you must be Bailey! Hi, I'm Niall." He grins, sticking out a hand. I shake it with a smile, feeling myself beginning to relax.

"Bailey's here?" Another boy pops around the corner, one I recognize as Liam. I wave at him but he comes over, hugging Harry and then turning to me. He opens up his arms and gives me a questioning look, but I smile reassuringly and he hugs me, my feet lifting off the ground. Harry's forced to let go of my hand as Liam spins me a round a few times, making us both laugh.

"Alright alright, feet on the ground," I hear Harry murmur and I blush when he pulls me against his side after Liam puts me down.

"Hiya Bailey, long time no see!" Louis winks from across the room and I nod at him with a laugh.

"Welcome to the family," Harry whispers, pressing a kiss to my temple just as the door opens behind us.

"Alright boys, to the stage. Harry, Lou wants to see you so she can test a new detangler she bought on your hair, but everyone else can head straight to stage!" The man is quick to speak and close the door.

"Well I was planning on walking you out but apparently I'm being summoned. Do you think you can find your way out to the seats?" Harry brushes a stray piece of hair out of my eye. I nod at him. "Alright. Tell security you're with me and you can stand right by the stage." He kisses me softly before heading out the door, going right.

I go left and begin to wander through the hallways. They're crowded with carts and all sorts of equipment, but I weave through them, looking for any signs on the walls that will point me in the right direction.

Ten minutes later, I can hear the instruments being sound checked and I begin to panic.

"Hey! You okay?" I look down the hallway to see a small girl. She looks younger than me, but not by much. Her long brown hair is up in a pony tail, her brown eyes bright behind her thick-framed glasses.

"Actually, I'm trying to find my way out to the seats to watch the run through," I admit, biting my lip.

"That's where I'm going too! I'm Rose, what's your name?" She begins to walk down the hallways and I follow her, catching up quickly to her short strides.

"Bailey. Are you part of the crew?"

"Kind of. I'm related to Lou Teasedale, and I told my parents that I need to travel more if I'm ever going to be a writer, so Lou said I could tag along for this tour if I helped her with some stuff along the way. Are you on crew?"

"No, no I'm here with Harry." The words sound odd coming off my tongue, but my stomach flutters.

"OH! You're that Bailey! Louis told me about you, said you were really cool!" A loud note from the speakers rattles the floor and I hear the click as all the lights go off. Rose gasps. "Oh shit, c'mon were gonna miss the intro!"

We take a sharp right and suddenly were in a dark hallway that leads out to the floor seats of the arena. It's massive, and I can see the intro video being played on the gargantuan screens that frame the stage as we use the light of them to find the aisle way, along with the blue lights that scatter the stage. I see Harry's face pop up on the big screen and my heart leaps a little when he smiles.

"Have you ever seen them perform?" Rose calls over the beats that have begun ringing through the arena. I shake my head. She's grabs my hand with a grin and we run towards the stage, the sparsely dispersed security guards not even questioning us as we hop the barricade and walk to the edge of the catwalk.

A deafening silence fills the empty seats and it makes the hair on the back  of my neck stand up.

"This is usually when everyone loses their shit," Rose whispers, giving me a wink right before the familiar first chords of temporary fix begin to sound. Rose and I yell and cheer as the boys emerge from behind some platforms on the stage. Fireworks erupt as they run down the catwalk, Harry throwing me a sly wink, and I recognize the colors and the pops as the ones from our date here just a few days ago.

Niall launches into the first verse and before I know it I'm dancing along with Rose, singing our hearts out so loud I'm sure the boys can hear us, but we don't care.

My eyes are trained on Harry as he moves about the stage during the set with so much passion and energy it's hard to fathom that the sleepy smile he wore this morning was more than a dream. I watch as he punches the air at all the right times, having the time of his life and I know that this is where he belongs. On that stage, with those boys.

He hangs out on the catwalk quite a bit, eventually sitting down in the middle of it right in front of me and waving, blowing me a kiss as Louis starts to sing perfect.

I clasp my hand around the "kiss", pretending to exam it before tossing it back towards him with a smirk.

His mouth gapes in mock hurt as he raises his mic and begins to sing, staring down at me with a smile.

"But if you like causin' trouble up in hotel rooms, and if you like havin' secret little rendezvous, if you like to do the things you know that we shouldn't do, Bailey I'm perfect, Bailey I'm perfect for you." He spins around so he's on his stomach, scooting himself to the edge of the catwalk, his face level with mine. My heart flutters as he grins down at me.

"Does this constitute a good enough time to ask you to officially be my girlfriend?" He asks quirking an eyebrow.

I think I hear Rose say "goals" from beside me but I don't care enough to check. I simply nod and smile, cupping his face in my hands and pulling his lips to mine.