What Are You So Afraid Of? [Harry Styles]

Chapter 15

“I can’t believe the UK leg is over,” Jez told Haz and Alex as they landed in the airport. They were on an earlier flight than the boys and were leaving the tour bus straight after the show. The rest of the UK leg went by in a blur, constantly travelling from place to place and performing. Jez tried to stay away from the boys and tried to stay focused on her performances.

“Yeah, it went by pretty quickly, didn’t it?” Alex said, pulling his luggage behind him.

“I can’t believe we’re living on a bus from now on,” Haz said excitedly.

“I don’t understand why you’re so excited,” Jez grumbled.

“Hey, living on the road has always been my dream,” Haz poked Jez in the side.

Jez sighed and said nothing for the rest of the walk. They were being led out of the airport by security to a car and were being followed by a few paparazzi, occasionally taking a few pictures. Once they got outside, they were met with a crowd of screaming girls.

Jez stopped and blinked a few times, “This is new,” she said, confused. “They must’ve thought the boys would be here.”

Haz rolled her eyes, “Well, they’re screaming at you right now.”

Jez cocked her head to the side to listen to what they were screaming, and Haz was right; they were screaming for her. “Hey, can we stop?” she asked security. The man in front nodded quickly and walked protectively next to her as she approached the crowd.

Jez took pictures with as many of them as she could and signed as many things as they wanted her to; she wasn’t used to having fans, and she was having fun talking to all of them. She was busy talking to a girl about songs that she should sing in her next set when the head of security told her it was time to leave.

She got into a large black car, followed by Haz and Alex who were seemingly also talking to the fans.

“How crazy was that?” Jez asked, still feeling excited.

“It was insane,” Haz said and smiled.

“I didn’t know I had fans. They’re probably not mine, I still think they were expecting One Direction to walk out,” Jez said and sighed.

Alex rolled his eyes, “I’m pretty sure they were there for you.”

“So, we have a few hours until we have to be at the stadium, what do you guys wanna do?” Jez changed the subject.

“I don’t know,” Haz said and looked out the window. “We’re in Paris! We should probably see the Eiffel Tower or something.”

After visiting the Eiffel Tower, eating snails at a small café and looking around the city, it was time to go to the arena.

“Ready for your sound check, Jessica?” Lisa asked without looking up from her phone.

“Yeah,” Jez said and got up on stage. She found it hard to take sound checks seriously, so she usually ended up singing the lines to random songs as the band played along. Once the sound check was over, Jez sighed and started walking off the stage when suddenly Haz and Alex climbed up.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Haz asked and raised an eyebrow.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Jez answered blankly.

“Come on, the boys haven’t even arrived yet, so we might as well have fun while we still can,” Haz picked up an electric guitar.

Jez rolled her eyes, “What are you guys doing?”

“Well, Haz and I haven’t exactly been sitting idly by this entire time,” Alex retorted.

“You’ve been practicing something? Without me?” Jez asked, shocked.

“Yeah,” Haz answered calmly. “And we think it’s funny that you’ve been on tour with One Direction for almost three months now and you haven’t heard a single song of theirs.”

Jez felt her mouth drop open in shock, “What?”

“Yeah, what if people ask you questions about them?” Alex answered without looking up from behind the drums.

“Who put you up to this?” Jez asked and folded her arms. “Was it Louis? Or Niall?” She tapped her foot while waiting for an answer.

“No one did, we just think you should hear some of their music,” Haz answered, feigning innocence.

“No, you don’t,” Jez said and waved her arms around frantically. “We may have been forced to listen to this music for the past three months, but even then you guys are not the biggest fans of pop. Especially bubble-gum boy-band pop.”

“Okay,” Haz admitted, “So maybe one of them did put us up to this-“

“Which one?” Jez interrupted.

“But let’s just see how much you actually know,” Haz carried on as if Jez hadn’t spoken.

“So, we’re gonna play the song that everyone knows, whether they want to or not,” Alex explained and looked at Haz and nodded.

“And you have to sing it, or at least as many of the lyrics that you know,” Haz finished off.

“What if I don’t know it like everyone else?” Jez groaned.

“Oh, you know it,” Haz said and shrugged. With that, she started playing the opening chords on guitar and Jez rolled her eyes. Okay, so maybe she had heard it once or twice on the radio, but that didn’t mean she knew the lyrics.

Just to prove a point, Jez decided to add in random lyrics. “You’re insecure, don’t know what for,” Haz nodded at her friend when she got the lyric right and then frowned as she sang the next line, “Do you see that huge bug on the floor-oor-oor?”

“My hair really

Needs to be washed

And damn, that huge bug

Needs to be squa-a-ashed.”

Haz rolled her eyes but continued to play. Once they got to the chorus, Jez was trying to hold in her laughter.

 “Dude, the bug over here is like really close

What If it jumps on me and it goes up my nose

I don’t know what I’ll do then but I’ll have to go

You don’t know, oh oh

Bugs are really terrible-“

Jez was cut off by Haz who had stopped playing to cover her face with her hands and someone in the audience screaming at her. She turned to find the boys sitting in some of the seats farther back and Louis was booing loudly.

“What’s the problem?” Jez asked and raised her arms.

“You massacred the song!” Harry shouted back, but Jez could see the humour in his eyes.

“I did not!” Jez stomped her foot seriously, “I just mixed it up a little.”

“I liked our version better!” Louis shouted from his spot.

Jez smirked, “Well then, you probably shouldn’t force me to sing anymore songs then.”