I’m in a state of shock as I walk down the stage steps. I can vaguely make out my mum standing by the wall and once she sees me she hurries to hug me tightly. That’s when the tears start. And to top it off, the camera crew’s here too, but fortunately they’re focusing on one of the others.
“Shhh... it’s going to be okay” my mom calms me while rubbing my back. The camera crew approach me and I ignore my mum offering me a tissue and take off my beanie to wipe my tears.
“How do you feel?” the stupid middle aged man asks me.
“I just don’t want to go home” I simply answer. It’s true. I don’t want to go home and to school, back to the people who believed in me and to see their disappointed faces.
A few of the other boys are crying too and I recognize Liam from the first day of boot camp, and Niall. I feel bad for Liam though because I heard that it’s his second try in the x factor.
“Can I have your attention, please?” a crew member approaches us.
“Harry styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, and Liam Payne” she says “we want to film some interviews with you”
I look at the other four boys and I’m sure that we share the same confused look on our faces. I hear the camera crew discussing how they’re going to film the section. What’s going on?
“It’s just normal interviews where we say that we’ll work harder and keep singing and all that same shit.” Liam says while wiping his eyes.
I start getting mad at his words. Isn’t it enough that we’re not through, now they want to film us crying too? I try to wipe away the angry tears but they keep coming. “Yeah of course they want to film us. It would be golden for their precious TV show” I say with venom leaking through the words. Louis turns at my words and puts his hand on my shoulder but I shake him off and try to ignore his hurt face. I know what I’m going to do now. They want good TV? I’ll show them good—
“The judges are ready to make their announcement”
Announcement? What announcement? When we walk up on stage I see a group of girls standing at the side of the stage, confusion clear on their faces. What is going on?
“Hi guys” Nicole softly speaks.
“Hi” we all speak in unison. You can hear the confusion in our tones.
“So, we think that you’re all too talented to be let go, so you’re going to get the chance to see what it’s like to be a group”
My head starts spinning. A group? I’m going to be sick.
“We’ve decided to put you through to the judge’s houses in the form of groups” Simon says, looking at us. “We’ve given you a lifeline so don’t waste it”
He probably says something else but I don’t hear him because all of a sudden I find myself jumping and then getting on my knees. I turn to Louis to hug him and he jumps and wraps his legs around my waist while I twirl us around. I’m through to the judges houses. In a band. With Louis. Oh my God.
When he releases me from the embrace we stand back in our places and turn to the judges who are now smiling at us. I notice the other girls are also squealing in delight.
“I know that this feels amazing now, but you should each take five minutes to think about it. This could change your lives.” Simon says.
“Yes, absolutely” I speak to the boys and turn to them.
“Yes” Louis echoes and smiles at me.
“Same” niall says. He’s in the band too, thank God we’ve met.
“Me too” Zayn says. And I sigh in relief, at least I’ve met all of the others before. But there’s still a missing vote, I realize. We all turn to Liam who looks torn.
“Okay” he breathes after a moment and we share a hug.
As we walk off stage the boys start a discussion about what we’re going to wear for our next performance.
“We should all dress like Louis” niall says. He has a slight accent, so he’s from Ireland. Interesting.
“Yeah, his shoes are cool” Zayn chimes in.
We all look at Louis and laugh at his embarrassed expression.
“So we have about two weeks until we have to be back” Liam says. I guess he’s going to be the responsible one, then. “Where should we meet up to rehearse?”
Then it occurs to me that we don’t really know each other.
“I think I have a solution, boys” robin, my stepdad steps in and puts his hand on my shoulder. “Harry, how about you and the lads spend some time at the bungalow?”
“That’s actually a good idea” I smile. “What do you think? It’s near my house in Cheshire” I turn to look at them, but they don’t need to speak since their smiles are enough of an agreement.
