Shadow [The Wanted - Nathan Sykes]

Part 1: You Again

"Hey, I'm taking Shadow for a walk!" I said. 4 years later, and I had moved to London with my best friend, Genevieve, who ignored me. Typical of her, actually. And I could understand, For the past week, she had been working extra shifts at Starbucks because she needed some extra money. 

For some reason, Shadow was going crazy, barking. Just like he had 4 years ago, when he led me to Nathan. I only told Genevieve about my encounter with Nathan that day and she's the only one who knew that I felt a spark between us in that short 2 minutes.

I continued to walk Shadow as he continued to bark like mad dog. 

"Shadow, what's gotten into you?" I said, crouching down beside my loyal friend. I looked to the direction he was barking at, but saw nothing. 

"Leading me to another guy, Shadow?" I chuckled. This better be worth it, Shade. I thought as I unhooked his leash from his collar and he ran off. I jogged behind him as he led me to God knew where. Shadow slowed down and so did I. I waited for him to calm down, and hear who it was he had run to.

"Hey, there," I heard a familiar voice. But the first voice wasn't the one I was expecting; it was Jay McGuiness' voice. I listened closer and heard Shadow's panting, the type of panting he made when he was being pet.

"Where have I seen you before?" There you are. I smiled. I didn't know why I was smiling, but I was.

I jogged on the spot to make it look like I didn't stop running to chase Shadow.

"Hey, you got my do--" I stopped myself when Nathan looked up to me. I was a huge The Wanted fan, so I wasn't so surprised at how his appearance had changed through the years. But he had changed a lot, in means of appearance. He looked more mature, his hair wasn't shaggy anymore, instead he had a side fringe down, covered by a new era cap.

"You again," he said with a smile that could melt any girls' heart with the way his eyes lit up as well. 

"You know each other?" Jay asked.

"Sorta. He was pretty popular around my neighborhood. We've spoken.. once," I explained.

"Is this Shadow?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah. Little fella's all grown up." I said and realized that I was also talking about Nathan.

"So what brings you to London?" Nathan asked me.

"I live here now, with Genevieve." 

"One of Mr Brower's kids?" 

"Yeah," I giggled. I wans't surprised he knew Mr Brower, Genevieve's dad. He was known as the friendliest person in the neighborhood.

"Nath, we've gotta go," Jay said when a black van approached.

"I have an apartment around here. Maybe I'll see you again," Nathan said as Jay walked away.

"Sure," I said. "Trust Shadow to go looking for you." I added with a giggle.

"Took you long enough to get back." Genevieve said. She was already dressed for our day out, sitting on the sofa with her feet on the coffee table.

"I'm sorry!" I said letting Shadow run around the house. "Shadow took me a little off course this morning. He led me to Nathan again."

"No way!" Gen sat up in shock. "Was he with anyone else from The Wanted?"

"Oh yeah! Jay was there as well." I said and Gen gave a little squeak of excitement. 

"Okay, tell me everything," Gen said when we got into her car. I had gotten showered and dressed in my Union Jack tank top, tucked into my high-waist shorts.

"Well, Shadow went berserk like he had the first time. I let him go and he led me to Nathan and Jay. As easy as that."

Gen took one hand off the steering wheel and hit me on the back of the head.

"Oh! What was that for?!" 

"Idiot! You didn't ask for a number or anything?"

"Well... no," I answered looking down at my nails. Gen had a point, I was kind of stupid for not asking for his number.

"You can't rely on that old dog to keep bringing you to Nathan."

"Hey! Must I remind you that dog saved your life?" I said, reminding her of the incident where she lost a flashdrive that she needed for a project and Shadow had sniffed it out. She kept saying that day how he had 'saved her life'.

"Fine. But he's still old. He's gonna die soon and you can't escape that fact."

"Just shut up about it, okay?" I said.

I couldn't stand the thought of Shadow... dying. He was like my best friend and he had led me to Nathan. I didn't know it at the time, but he was going to be more to me than just Nathan Sykes of The Wanted.