Behind the Mic (Liam Payne fanfic)

Chapter Five

     As the boys were warming up with the band onstage, I walked back to the booth and stood by Jace, who was working the sound board. He glared at me when I got close, so I backed up and moved over to Brandon.
     "What's his problem?" I asked Brandon. He shrugged, focused on the light board.
     "He's probably just pissy, as usual," Brandon muttered. I figured it was best to leave it alone and not care about what Jace thought of me. He was doing a shitty job of fixing the boy's sound in their earbuds and in the house, but it wasn't my place to fix his mistakes. I awkwardly stood in the booth, waiting for someone to tell me what to do. Then Brandon sucked in a deep breath and groaned.

     "What's the matter?" I asked him.
     "One of the lights is positioned wrong," he complained. 
     "Which one?" I leaned around him to grab a wrench and some gloves, prepared to go up to the catwalk and fix it.
     "Fourteen--no, Rose, I can't ask you to go up there, that's my job," he said after seeing me get the supplies.

     "I have nothing to do right now, Brandon," I said. "You do. Where do you need it to be positioned?" 
     "Go up there and I'll call you, tell you which direction," I nodded and walked out of the booth, ignoring Jace on the way out. I rushed to the stairs to the booth, nearly running into the drummer on the way.
     "Sorry," he said, but stopped when he saw me. "Rose, right?"

     "What? How do you know my name?"
     "The lads were talking about you," he looked me up and down. "Niall was right. You are a beauty."
     "Thank you," I said, blushing. "But I have a job to do. If Niall wants to flirt with me, tell him to do it himself." At that, I rushed off, leaving him laughing. Two of the five have winked at me, and one thinks I'm pretty? Not a bad day, after all. Maybe Riley and I broke up at the right time. I shook my head, knowing I can't be going after guys this soon after a breakup. I walked up the narrow, dark stairs to the catwalk slowly. About a week or two into this job, I ran up too fast and cut my knee on the bottom of one of the stairs and couldn't go up for a week. After that, I've always gone super slow. When I got up there, I walked down to light number fourteen and sat down, pulling my phone out of my pocket. I dialed Brandon's number and put one glove on, ready to touch the hot light. He picked up right away.
     "Move it to the right a bit," he said. I did. "Back to the left. Down. A little more... That's good. Thank you, Rose."
     "Of course," I said. He hung up and I got back up and walked off the catwalk. Not paying attention, I turned the wrong way and looked up. Suddenly I was on the wings of the stage, close to the band messing around and still warming up.
     "Baby, be mine tonight, mine tonight," Niall sang solo, doing a silly move causing the boys to laugh loudly. "Baby be mine tonight, yeah."
     "And if you," Liam sang like an angel. His voice filled the large arena, sending chills down my spine. "You want me too let's make a move." He spun his mic at the end of the solo as Zayn took over. They all sang the chorus and split into harmonies that sounded much better live than it did recorded. All of their voices blended so well together. Maybe I liked the band more than I thought. As they got to the na's, Louis looked over and spotted me watching them from the side. He shimmied over to me.
     "Yeah! So tell me, girl, if every time we touch," he sang directly at me, his voice hitting the high note and taking over the riff that Zayn normally does. Zayn was confused for a second, but when his eyes fell on Louis singing to a blushing me, he simply laughed and took over Louis' part. Louis was looking directly in my eyes, and it was a bit uncomfortable at first, but I relaxed after a line. He sang the rest of the song until Harry's finishing solo and smiled at me. I chuckled and clapped for him, and he bowed at me, mockingly. The rest of the boys looked over to see where the clapping was coming from and made their way over to me.
     "Hello, Rose," Niall said, smiling brightly. "What are you doing watching us?"
     "I took a wrong turn," I said.

     "Oh, sure," Louis said, rolling his eyes at me. "You work here and you took a wrong turn? I bet you just wanted to hear us because you love us."
     "Okay, fine, you caught me," I joked, raising my hands up in surrender. "What are you gonna do about it?"
     "Serenade you!" Niall shouted.
     "Jesus, Niall," Harry groaned. "Can you ever be calm around girls you like?" Niall turned bright red and I rolled my eyes and turned to leave. Louis grabbed my wrist and gently spun me around and pulled me to the front of the stage.
     "Sit," Louis pointed. I did as he said. He walked back over to the boys and whispered to them. I couldn't here what they were saying, but I'm sure they were deciding on a song. I was proven right when Harry rushed to say something to the instrumentalists and they started playing an intro to a song I couldn't remember the name of. The boys all dramatically walked to me, flipping their hair and making smolder faces at me. Louis stepped forward and held one hand out to me as he started the song.
    "Lights go down and the night is calling to me, yeah," I laughed at how overly dramatic he was being and to hide how surprisingly start struck I was. I knew they were real people and just like everyone else, but all of them looking at me and singing seemed to put them up so much farther than I had already. "I hear voices singing songs in the streets and I know." He stepped back and Niall stepped up.
     "That we won't be going home for so long, for so long, and I know," he sang to me, turning slightly red. Did he actually like me? Was a famous person, someone who could have anyone in the world, actually attracted to average me? "That I won't be on my own. Yeah, I love this feeling and--"
     "Right now," Zayn took over, making overly dramatic faces at me, causing me to giggle again. "I wish you were here with me." The rest of the boys sang the background vocals and I shifted my weight slightly to hide my shiver. Liam's voice stuck out to me so much whenever he sang. "Right now, everything is new to me." I knew I should be paying attention to Zayn and his high notes, but I couldn't break eye contact with Liam. "You know I can't fight the feeling and every night I feel it, right now. I wish you were here with me." Liam stepped forward, closer to me than the other boys have.
      "Late night, spaces, with all our friends, you and me, yeah," I took a deep breath, trying to compose myself. He was so fucking good, and he was singing right to me. "Love these faces, just like how it used to be." He scrunched his eyes, riffing up to a higher note than he usually sings. Harry took over his spot and bent down on one knee to get to be eye level with me as he sang to me.
     "And we won't be going home for so long, for so long, and I know, that I won't be on my own, on my own, I'm feeling like," He started to get up but tripped on his own feet, causing Zayn to laugh in his solo. They got to the chorus and harmonized, sending more chills down my spine. It was absolutely breathtaking. As they finished the song, I looked to Liam and he was smiling at me. I nearly melted in my shoes right there. I stood up and clapped after the last note ended. 
     "That was very good," I said. Understatement of the year.
     "Thank you," Louis said. "But we have a question." I raised my eyebrow, indicating that he should go on. "Who takes care of our balance in our earbuds?"
      "A guy named Jace," I said, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice. 
      "Because it's shit," Louis said bluntly. "Can someone who knows what to do do it?"
      "Yeah, I'll go try to fix it," I said. I walked offstage and up to the booth. When I got up there, Mr. Roberts was yelling at Jace.
      "If you're not going to do your job right, what's the point of you doing it at all?" Mr. Robert's face was bright red. 
      "Are you firing me, sir?" Jace asked.
      "No, but I am dismissing you for today. Go home, Jace." He angrily pointed at he door and Jace sulked out. "God damn it!" He yelled loudly, then he spotted me. "Rose, you can handle this, right?" 
       "Yes, sir," As he walked out, I smiled at how well everything turned out. I sat in the stool Jace was in and pressed earbud pack number 1 that was labeled L.T. Louis. I started to mess with it and he, onstage, realized something was up and turned to the booth. He started to direct me on how to change his earbud's balance. 

(a/n: there's chapter five.)