Gotta Be You

Chapter 10: New York here we come

Zayn:Jess was overly excited as we sat on the plane. I knew why she was. We were going to be in the US in only a few hours. She had her headphones pulled on while she sat bouncing with excitement. As I watched out her window I heard a ding. Jess pulled her headphones off her ears.

“Hello passengers. This is your  pilot speaking. We are now approaching New York City, United States,” the pilot said over the intercom. I thought for a second Jess was going to explode into excitement.

“Oh my gosh,” Jess whispered. She looked out her window to see the Statue of Liberty and the tall buildings rising up from the ground beyond us. Jess was like a kid in a candy shop the way she looked at the city. “I’ve always dreamed of being lucky enough to come here. When I little I would imagine performing on Broadway or being one of the Radio City Rockettes,” Jess told me.

“Well I can’t say anything for the Rockettes but I can say you’ll be performing here,” I said. She smiled.

“Yeah. I mean Madison Square Gardens isn’t on Broadway but its almost better. And the fact that we sold out the entire thing is crazy,” Jess said. We felt the plane hit the ground.

As we got off we could feel the 80 degree June weather. Not bad. Before we walked out of the airport I could hear the screaming of a ton of fans. My stomach lurched into excitement. Jess smiled.

“I’ll meet you in the car,” as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss me quickly. Then she descended out the door pulling on sunglasses. Then she disappeared.

“Ready boys?” Harry asked.

“Yep,” I said.

“Definitely,” Liam agreed with a smile on his face. We took another step before we were out in the crowd.

Jess was in the car like she had promised. She still had her sunglasses pulled on, covering her eyes. “Quite the crowd out there,” I said.

“Yeah. What else can you expect from a city with over 20 million people?” Jess asked. I shrugged. Then Jess grabbed her phone from her pocket and turned it on.

“Alright so now we go to the hotel, check in, quickly drop off our bags so we can make it to the filming of the Late show,” Jess said. I nodded.

“This is why we have a girl in this group with us,” Louis joked, “We would never remember where to be on time.” Everyone laughed, only because they knew it was true.

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Jess:The boys were taking their places on stage for their performance on the Late Show. I pulled on my headphones and listened as the boys tested their mics. “Alright people let’s start filming in 5, 4, 3, 2,” a man yelled around.

“Ladies and gentleman please welcome, David Letterman!” a voice said over the intercom, “With special guest One Direction!” I took that as my cue to start the music. I began recreating the music on the panel in front of me. I heard Liam’s voice start singing in my headphones. Next came Harry’s voice loud and clear above the rest. The song continued. By now I had no reason to even think about what my fingers were doing. We had performed the song “What Makes You Beautiful” so many times I didn’t need to. I watched as Zayn dove into his part like it was nothing. As always he looked straight into my eyes as he sang (I always stand at almost the same spot in relation to the stage because he has a hard time remembering lyrics otherwise). I could feel my head nodding to the beat of what my fingers were creating. Then Zayn’s part finished and all settled in my stomach again. Finally I felt the song finish itself. I left the booth and walked to where my seat was. The boys took seats to the left of David and David welcomed them.

“Welcome boys. So how are you finding New York so far?” David asked. Knowing this was a comedy show, Louis took his place with a joke, “Well its really hard to miss since its like really big.” Everyone in the audience laughed. I heard a few more jokes and a few answers being tossed around. It was the typical late night interview. Thats when things got serious.

“So Zayn there is a picture that recently surfaced. I want you to tell us if its true,” David said. He held up a picture that showed a picture of me pulling Zayn along through the music store in Bradford. We were both laughing.

Oh no

I thought. It really did look bad. I watched as Niall and Harry dropped their gaze. Liam shot a panicked look in my direction. Zayn glanced out in my direction. I mouthed the words “Crazed fan” and Zayn started the act. He started chuckling to himself.

“Its a really funny story actually. She was a fan who worked at that store and apparently her friends had been visiting her at the store. When she saw me come in she like almost ran to the front of the store and pulled me along to go see her friends and get some pictures. It was just a kinda funny occurrence,” Zayn said. He had a knack for making up stories. I suppose I had actually helped him in some ways.

I watched as the interview progressed without a need for my interference. Thank God for that fact since I didn’t know what story we would use next. I worried a lot about my appearance in different things. I wasn’t about to get caught and ruin this band forever. That wasn’t my want or need. If I could avoid it I would.