Loved you First (Niall Horan Fanfic)

Chapter 22

The annoying sound of marimba drifts through my dreams and rudely pulls me from sleep. I don't remember putting an alarm on last night when I finally finished some internet shopping.
Why won't it just stop already? Using all the strength I have on a morning, I push my head off my pillow and reach over to my bedside table, I flip my phone over to reveal Ashton's caller ID. I guess he would the bravest person to call me this early. And by early I mean 9:34am.

'The fuck do you want?" I groan into the device. My inner polite person thinks about answering more kindly but he knows better than to call me when I'm sleeping.

'Wow, morning sleepy bones" Ashton chirped, I could practically see him doing that cheesy smile from down the phone.

But it's too early and I'm not in the mood for his cheeriness till around 10." I'll ask again, what do you want, I'm trying to sleep you know." I was sitting up now, coming to the realisation that I wouldn't be going back to sleep.

"Hey, you should be thanking me for waking you up before midday on a weekend, this could be the new weekend you" I sigh, not amused. "Well, can you come down to the studio in an hour or so cause the lads and I need you to film some things and can you pick up some food for us, thanks Em we knew you could help" and then he hung up so that I couldn't even object. How rude.

I guess I would have to get out of bed sometime, so I push myself up and check the camera that I had next to my window, I'd set it so that it'd take a time lapse of the sky and make up some artsy vlog footage. My fingers move across the button and speed up the frames and watch it complete the desired effect. Perfect

Without wanting to be too late for the lads I rush into the shower, quickly cleaning myself while trying to keep my hair out of the firing line of the jets of water. It only took me a few minutes before I was in my wardrobe, a towel wrapped around my body, sliding through my railings till I pulled on some black skinny jeans, a white cropped top and a brown suede jacket.

Oscar greets me at the foot of the stairs and we walk along to kitchen, I grab a bottle of water and clip on his lead. I'll pick some breakfast up for myself when I'm getting the lads food from Mc Donald's , I could really do with a coffee.

First, I angle my vlogging camera to the ground, taking some shots of my white converse and Oscar hurrying along, I then take some of the sea lapping up against the sand. The small beach was empty as usual so I flip the camera toward my face and begin talking to it.

"Heyy guys, so as you can tell from the title of this video, I'll be vlogging today " I smile into the lens "I'm going off see the 5sos lads at the studio, gunna pick up some food on the way, and then we'll see what happens"

I sit down on the warm sand and let Oscar off his lead, I film him as he bounds around in the sand and runs into the sea, he nearly gets washed away due to his small size, silly billy.
I check my phone, "Oscar, come here" I call, not expecting him to come first time but he did and sits by my knee. Clipping back on his lead, we walk back up to my house.

After filling up my little dog's bowls, I pack my black backpack; my big camera and it's stand, I throw my notebook in it too, you never know when you need a notebook. Then the essentials, hand sanitiser, purse and a packet of tissues. Well you can never be too prepared.

Tapping my thumbs on my phone screen, I send a quick text to the lads letting them know that I'm on my way.

To anyone else the walk into the city is long and tiring, taking the bus or the tube would be a lot quicker and easier. But I prefer to walk, it may take me around half an hour but I couldn't help but still feel like a stranger here.
In Mullingar, I knew the place like the back of my hand, every shop, alley and park, but this place was huge and unfamiliar, and it annoyed me that despite having lived here for two years I still didn't know where I was half the time. So I made it my mission to walk wherever I went, recognising more and more streets as I made more journeys into the city.

The route to nearest McDonalds to the studio was easily picked up due to the uncanny obsession the lads had with getting food instead of rehearsing, to a point where the lady behind the counter knew my name and knew exactly what I was ordering. She passed me the takeout bag and I continued to the studio down the street.

I push through the double doors and smile at the young girl at the front desk, instinctively following the corridor to the lads usual rehearsal room.
"Y'all better thank me" I say, my version of greeting the lads as I walk in; holding the bag up and watch as they all turn away from their conversation.
"Yessss, Em you're our saviour" Ashton springs up from his stool behind the drum joining Michael as they rummage through the paper bag finding their typical order.

I remove my own coffee from the bag and wrap my hands around the cup taking a sip, the liquid relaxing me. While Ashton is taking a bite from his Big Mac, I take out the $2.95 from my pocket and slip it in his jacket that was slung over the chair.

The same coins had been exchanged between us multiple times throughout the past years ever since Ashton tried to pay for my milkshake that first time we hung out and I swear I will outlive God if I have to, just to make sure he has it.

"So," I lean back on the wall "on a scale of 1 to 10, how much rehearsal have you actually done?"

They pull away from their food for a second, putting effort into their thinking.

"We've got two songs down to a T" Ashton stammered "but then we found some old videos on YouTube"
Michael took a bite of his burger "And that lead us to find some funny animal videos"
"But then there was a bit where we googled all the food places we wanted to go" Calum added to the list
"Oh and we made a mind map of all the costumes and stuff we wanted to maybe wear on stage, look" Luke shoved a crumpled and slightly torn piece of paper into my face. The scrawny writing listing from gorillas to super heroes.

"That's quite impressive" I smile and nod. It's hard not to compare them to a bunch of over excited children and it's even harder to believe that they are about to set off on a tour, travelling around the world, playing shows every night, supporting another band.
They also find it hilarious to reframe from telling me who they're touring with. Even though I've been invited to come along for the entire tour, except the week of Vidcon which I'm also attending, I don't know who I'm going to be spending the majority of my time with, it's super annoying and slightly stressing me out. What if I don't know any of their songs, it'll be super embarrassing.  
But it'll be fine, I reassure myself.