Love and Fame (Harry Styles)

Chapter 4

Suddenly everything was happening so fast. I was instructed to open a Twitter account as well as Instagram, I was getting media training and all kinds of preparations for the public world, and I worked on the single whenever the boys had time to spare.

"When we first kind of got together to practice we spent, like, a week saying we were singing," Harry said when we had our first writing session, a few days after getting together in the bar. "But we weren't. We were playing football."

"I think we should do that as well," Louis said. "Just spend some time getting to know each other properly and forget about the things we're really supposed to do."

"Sure, I wanna play soccer," I said with a shrug and the boys raised their eyebrows in unison. "What? Wasn't that what you were suggesting?"

"I don't know, I just didn't know you were into football."

"Please, I grew up with two brothers and a soccer fanatic of a dad. I wasn't allowed not to like the game. So naturally I've played since I was, like, ten," I said and earned a few impressed looks from the boys.

"Fantastic!" Liam exclaimed and I laughed at his enthusiasm. "Let's play some football."

"But where?" Niall offered and the boys looked to me because I was the one who was in my hometown and knew my way around the place.

"I usually play in Central Park," I said with a shrug. "But I assume that that's kind of impossible because you'll probably get mobbed when people recognize you."

"It's happened before," Niall said and shuddered at some horrible memory.

"The only thing that sucks is that we have to go all the way uptown to find other soccer fields," I said and searched my head for a place to go. "I think Starlight Park is the closest. It'll be, like, forty minutes by subway and twenty minutes by car."

"Maybe we'll just wait with the football until we have a place nearby to play?" Zayn said and I laughed. 

"A little lazy, are we?"

"A little."

"We can do the next best thing," Liam said and everyone looked to him.

"Which is?" I said and the boys laughed before they all answered in unison.

"FIFA, of course!"

"Oh, of course. If we can't play the real game, let's play the virtual one," I said dryly.

The boys didn't have a video game console in their hotel suite, so we had to go to their tour bus to play the game. I had seen the huge thing parked in a parking lot a block away from the hotel, and I was looking forward to see the inside of it. Especially since I were to live in it sometime in the future.

We managed to get to the bus without being spotted and I was grateful. I had yet to experience the wild frenzy around the boys when their fans gathered around them in big packs, and I preferred it that way. I had to admit that the boys' enormous fan base scared me a little. Okay, a lot.

Once inside the bus, I excitedly gave myself a tour without asking permission. The boys didn't mind me snooping around in their home and let me be.

It was fascinating how everything a person might need could fit into a mobile home. The boys had bunk beds, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room area all stuffed into a limited amount of space. And despite the limited space, everything was so luxurious and didn't seem crowded at all.

The boys gathered in the rear end of the bus and I sat down on the couch next to Niall. I slipped off my boots and pulled my knees to my chest while Liam hooked up the X-Box. The boys' idea of getting to know each other better was obviously playing video games, and FIFA 2014 was quickly being inserted into the game console.

It wasn't my favorite game, but I did grow up with two older brothers so I had played it before. And I was surprisingly good at it too. The boys didn't know that though, so I decided to have a little fun with it.

"Do you want to try?" Louis asked and I shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" I said and leaned over to receive the wireless controller he was handing me.

My first contestant was Niall. We picked our teams and fired up the game. It had been a while since had played, but I still remembered the basics.

Niall started with the ball, but when I was within reach of his player, I pushed the X button at the exact right moment to do a perfectly timed sliding tackle. I got the ball from him and he looked at me with his mouth open as I pushed the RT button with my index finger to sprint in the opposite direction.

"What?" I said when I noticed that the boys couldn't stop staring at me.

"Do you know how to play this game or was that just beginner's luck?" Liam wondered.

"I do have two brothers..." I just said as I double tapped the X button to shoot a well-aimed low cross.

"True," Louis said and glanced at Zayn. "I guess that's why Zayn's no good at this game. He's only got sisters."

"You've only got sisters too," Zayn pointed out and Louis huffed.

"That's different."

"How is that different?" Liam chuckled, but Louis didn't know how to answer that so he just stared intensely on the flat screen and pretended to concentrate really hard on the virtual soccer game.

Unfortunately I didn't beat Niall. He was just a better player than I was. And he had probably practiced a hell of a lot more than me. But at least I had given him a run for the money and the boys seemed impressed. They even commented that it was a bonus that I was the kind of girl they could play FIFA with, and that that would come in handy when we went on tour together.

Which made me think about my upcoming tour. The boys would leave New York in a couple of days to resume their tour, and I would have to go with them to finish - or rather start - writing our song and to record it, as well as eventually performing it live.

It would be tough leaving my friends and family behind, but I was expecting a hell of a ride. It would all be worth it if I made good friends with the boys and if my music got recognized.

"What are you doing tonight?" Harry said and brought me back to reality.

"I don't know yet, why?"

"If you don't have plans, you should come to our show."

"Sure," I said and the boys laughed because of my unexcited tone. They probably weren't used to girls being so laid-back and carefree around them. I hoped it was a breath of fresh air and that it didn't weird them out or anything. "Can I bring a friend?"

"Of course."

"Thanks. But... you'll have to try not to be embarrassed by her, okay?"

"What do you mean?" Liam said and I made a face.

"She's a big Directioner and she'll probably fangirl and be all loud," I said and the boys laughed.

"We're pretty used to loud girls," Louis commented dryly and I laughed.

"True. I keep forgetting that that's your everyday lives."

I still wasn't sure if the boys would be able to handle Ashley Turner though. When I had told her that I had met the boy band and that I were to work with them, she'd let go of such a high-pitched scream that I was sure I had gone deaf.