Under The Willow Tree • Louis Tomlinson

xvii.

xvii. welcome to the tour

— • —

"I'm really sorry Miss Rivers but I'm leaving today. I can't take any new orders." I was packing my suitcase in my apartment and Miss Rivers was standing at my bedroom door. She wasn't happy about the tour.

"But Rose! I need your style for all my events that are coming up." She didn't look happy at all, "And anyway, why are you going on a musician's tour?"

"You'll survive. If you really want my design style you could drive up to Doncaster. Gabriel Channing makes similar designs. He was my mentor." I then zipped up my suitcase, "He's a friend who asked me to go on tour. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity."

"But Gabriel isn't you Rose." She crossed her arms, "I don't like your friend. He's too nice."

"He only helped you once when your bag tore and you lost your stuff. I don't know how that classes as too nice." I chucked.

"Hmmm." Ms Rivers was not going to be satisfied.

"Look. In six weeks I'll be back in London for the last eight shows. I'll make sure I'll stop by. If you urgently need a dress call me and I'll have it to you by then."

"What If I need one before then?"

"Well if I'm in driving distance I'm sure I'll get a dress to you. I'll have time to make some when they are at sound checks or if I have nothing else to do"

"If you say so Rose." She sighed.

"Look. It's great you came to wish me goodbye but I need to finish packing and make sure my shop is fine." I smiled at her as I chucked my makeup into a small bag.

"Ok. I better let you finish packing." Miss Rivers then walked towards me and gently hugged me, "Have fun Rose."

"Thank you Miss Rivers." I smiled

She laughed softly, "I think you know me well enough to call me by my first name. I'm Emily."

"Well thank you Emily." It felt weird to call her by her first name, "Now I better hurry or Louis will get impatient." Emily then left my apartment. I felt rushed because I always did when I had to pack. I made sure all my essentials were in my suitcase along with a few novelty items. I had a large hard pink suitcase with a rose pattern on it. All my family members thought it was cute if I had rose pattered items or clothes. Even my mum had crumbled in and brought me the suitcase when I moved to London. I roamed around my apartment a few times to make sure I had turned all the power points off and closed all the windows. I then headed down to the store to make sure I had put all valuables in safe keeping and anything that was waiting to be picked up was put into Miss River's responsibility. She knew all my customers and a few of them hadn't picked up their dresses and new swimwear. I just hopped they all went to Emily instead of hunting me down.

I went upstairs to grab my suitcase when my black violin case caught my attention. I wasn't going to have much time to practice but it wouldn't hurt to take it with me. Anyway, it was safer in my care than sitting in my bedroom gathering dust.

I dragged my suitcase and violin down the stairs and through the shop. I was careful not to knock anything over since if that happened my whole shop would collapse like dominoes. The weather had been so diverse over the last couple of days that it had gone from being freezing cold to boiling hot. Today was in the boiling hot category and as soon as I stepped out into the street I felt heat prickle my skin. I put both my suitcase and violin on the sidewalk and locked the front door.

"I'll be back soon." I whispered as my keys turned in the door's deadlock. I placed my keys in my handbag and sat in the store doorway. Waiting to start the next chapter of my interesting life.

— • —

Fifteen minutes later Louis pulled up in front of my shop. I jumped up excitedly when I saw him and dragged my suitcase to the car. "Nice rose suitcase Rose." Louis chuckled.

"Shut up Louis." I muttered as I shoved my suitcase into the back seat.

"Nice to see you to." He sighed, "I see you have your violin."

"Well I wasn't going to leave it in my bedroom for the whole tour was I?" I then put my violin next to my suitcase and closed the door, walking to the other side to hop into the passenger's seat.

"I guess not." He shrugged before turning back onto the road, "Are you excited?"

"No. I'm dreading it." I replied sarcastically.

"Ha Ha Rose. But really, are you excited?"

"Well of course I am! It's not every day that you get to go on tour with One Direction!"

"You're going to have the time of your life."

— • —

We stopped at the back of the building where the meeting was held last month. In the large car park there were four large red double decker tour busses. All of them had 'One Direction' written on them.

"Cool!" I was in awe of them.

"One's for the band, one's for the backstage and musicians, one is for production team and the last is like a large storage unit for any equipment that we need." Louis pointed to each of the busses as he parked in a gated and sheltered part of the car park.

"What one will I be in?" I asked him.

"You'll be lodging with us." Louis winked

"Great." I replied sarcastically before hoping out of the car.

"Well I could always put you in with the equipment." Louis joked

"No, no its fine Lou! It will be fun spending two months with five annoying people."

Louis poked his tongue out at me. "Well let's get our stuff onto the bus and start this tour!"

— • —

"Your bunk in next to Louis' and above mine." Harry winked at me. I rolled my eyes and placed my handbag on my bunk so I could find it again. There were eight bunks in total on the bus. Six of them were occupied. The bunks all had curtains surrounding them so everyone could have some sort of privacy. The sleeping area was on the top level and it was what I would call luxurious. On the same level was a large lounge area with a TV and a surround sound system. Downstairs there was the bathroom, kitchenette, dining area and another living area. It was all spotless now but I could only imagine what it would look like in a week's time.

"This is a working pass to each show." Liam handed me a lanyard, "It basically means that you can go anywhere. You can roam around backstage or watch the show side stage or even hang with the paparazzi and security at the very front."

"Do I have to go to your shows every night?"

"Nope!" Louis chirped, "The dressing rooms and greenroom are a great place to hang out if you get bored of our music."

"Sound pretty good to me." I smiled before being jolted back by the bus. "Crap!" I muttered as I landed harshly on the floor.

"Are you alright Rose?" Louis asked, reaching down to pick me up of the ground.

"I'm fine. The bus caught me by surprise." I stood up and scowled at the boys. All five of them were laughing.

"Don't worry Rose." Niall said between bouts of laughter, "You'll get used to travelling."

I smiled at them before heading to the stairs. On the wall next to the stairs was a poster of all the tour dates. "Where are we heading first?"

"Wales!" All of the shouted together.