Renegade (a One Direction fanfiction)

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

“Erin, wake up. We have reservations.”

I jerked awake, and mom was leaning over me. I’d fallen asleep without meaning to.

“Aah-what?” I mumbled, hopping out of the bed.

“Reservations. 20 minutes. Go.”

I nodded, grabbing everything I needed for the shower. I hopped in and out as fast as possible. My stomach grumbled-I’d missed dinner. I must’ve been even more tired than I thought I was. I just barely blow-dried my hair, throwing it into a sloppy bun. Then, as if I were trying to be unattractive, I put on a too-big sweatshirt and a pair of gym shorts. But hey, I didn’t have anyone to impress.

We got on the tour bus, and I noticed that we were the only two on there.

“Where are the guys?” I asked as I reluctantly sat down.

“They had to get up early for sound check. I just thought we could go and get breakfast, just us two.” She gave me a warm smile. This seemed…unlike her.

I raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you needed over there?”

She shrugged. “They can get through 2 hours without me. I’m really only there to supervise.”

We arrived at a cute bistro, one that I’d noticed as we were driving to the hotel. “Reservation for Scalding,” mom told the waiter, and we were led to a small table in the corner. A few silent minutes later, we were served.

“Don’t you want to say anything?” mom asked me quietly.

“What am I supposed to say? ‘Yeah, mom, thanks for stuffing me into a bus with five complete strangers, I really appreciate it,’” I replied, stuffing a piece of pancake into my mouth.

“No, not exactly, I just want to know how you’re doing,” she said, louder this time.

“Oh, I’m doing dandy, thanks for asking,” I retorted, dripping sarcasm.

“Seriously.” She didn’t sound like a mom sometimes.

I let my fork clatter down to my plate, and I met her eyes. “Honestly, I’m not doing so great. I have no friends, no boyfriend, basically-I have nothing. And the best part is that I’ve been completely pulled away from having any possible kind of social life!” I slammed my hand down on the table for emphasis.

She stared at me for a second. “I didn’t know you felt that way.”

I rolled my eyes. We were quiet until we got back to the hotel.

“Do you want to come to sound check with me, or stay here?” mom asked as I was straightening my hair in the bathroom.

“Do I have any other choice? It’s not like there’s anything to do here,” I responded, glancing at her through the mirror as she typed away on her phone.

“Be ready in ten.” How simplistic she was.

I replaced my sweatshirt and gym shorts with a tank top, loose cardigan, and a pair of denim shorts. I stuck to my usual range of darker toned-clothing.

We arrived at the arena, and this time there was a small crowd (of teenage girls?) gathered at the floor seats. “What’s this?” I asked, hovering near the side of the stage.

“A bunch of girls won the chance to come to sound check. They won’t be here for the whole time,” mom answered. My eyes hovered over them, some of them about my age and some not. They all looked like nice people, I guess. I had no reason to judge them.

“Why don’t you go talk to them?” she encouraged, nudging me towards them. I knew this was an attempt to get me more socialized.

“YOLO,” I mumbled under my breath, walking towards the closed off area. A few of the girls noticed me, and either gasped or looked really, really confused.

“Who’s she?” somebody said loud enough for me to hear. I smirked.

“So you guys are here to watch these losers?” I shouted over the commotion, motioning to one girl’s shirt that had the boy’s faces on it. Generic.

A few complaints came from the group, which soon turned into chorus of, “Who are you?”

I ignored that. “What’s the big deal with them, anyway?”

“They’re One freaking Direction!” somebody in the back shouted. I laughed.

“Yeah, well-“

Suddenly, I felt an arm wrap around my shoulder. Girls started shrieking and making other inhuman noises.

“Hey ladies,” Harry said slowly. I think somebody started crying.

“Ew,” I mumbled, nudging his arm off my shoulder. I saw him frown in the corner of my eye.

“Harry, can I have a hug?” a girl closer to me asked.

“Sure,” he agreed, enveloping her in a quick hug, awkwardly leaning over the railing. She glared at me over his shoulder. I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that, so I just looked around as if I thought she was shooting daggers at somebody else. Soon enough a bunch of other girls were asking for hugs and taking pictures with him, so I decided that this attempt at socializing was a fail. I pivoted on my heel and spun around, planning on finding mom, but I bumped into Niall instead.

“Sorry,” I half-laughed, half-mumbled.

“No problem, babe,” he replied with a hint of a smile, pushing past me.

Wait a minute. Did he just call me babe?

No, he was Irish-he probably called every girl that. I mean, I didn’t know anything about Ireland, but I assume…

I wandered over to the hall that I’d seen mom walk into earlier. I peeked through the small window, only seeing a long hallway with a bunch of doors. I chickened out-I was too afraid of getting lost. I started to text my mom-

“Hey, Erin?” Liam.

I looked up from my phone.

“Do you want to come hang out with the rest of us? The fans are nice, I promise.” Oh yeah, ok. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

“Um…sure,” I replied. My face heated up a little bit-I’d almost left a bunch of people I could have been talking to. And gone back to my mom.

I was becoming freaking antisocial, for pete’s sake.