Under the stars || James McVey

chapter seven

James' POV

It had been a few hours since Katherine had left, with a smile on her face. It had been a spur of the moment thing when I asked if she'd come to watch us practice, I wasn't sure if she'd like it, seen as she hadn't known who we were. But instead, she surprised me. She seemed to really enjoy herself, making contributions to what songs we should cover next for YouTube, and after last night, I was filled with relief when her smile never faltered.

I was a little confused about last night, when she couldn't stop crying, and even more so when I saw she'd come to thank me. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but I didn't want to pry. If she wanted to tell me, she would've done, and I wasn't going to coax it out of her. We all have our secrets, no matter who we are.

"Oi, McVey! Are you listening?" I was snapped out my thoughts when a pillow come flying at my head. I groaned and swatted the pillow away, looking back at the culprit. Tris stood a couple metres away from me, his arms crossed at his chest and a frown on his face.

"What?" I shrugged, sitting up.

"I told you he wasn't listening." Tris threw his arms up in the air with defeat and sighed.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "What did you say, Tris?"

"I said, are we going to Nando's or are we just going starve to death?"

As soon as he mentioned food, my stomach began to crumble. I didn't realise how hungry I was, and from looking at the clock, I understood why. It was near enough 7o'clock, and I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. I grinned up at him, "Nando's." 

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We hadn't managed to get a table in Nando's, considering it was overflowing with customers, so we decided on taking a detour and found a nice little restaurant on the side of town. We asked for a table of four as the door and a young lady, with blonde hair scraped into a tight bun and a painful smile plastered on her face, directed us to a table nearer the back.

"A server will be over in a minute to take your order" She said, before walking back to her post. We took that time to have a look through the menu. It all looked so delicious, and I couldn't decide on what to have. 

"So, James," I let out a 'hmm' in response and let whoever it was continue. "How do you know Katherine?"

My head jerked up to see Connor staring at me with raised eyebrows. "I don't, really," I started, "I mean, our parents know each other or something. Apparantly we met as younger kids, but I can't remember." I shrugged and returned back to the menu.

"Oh right, so how come you don't know her then, if your parents are close?" 

"I don't know, I never asked"

"You were with her last night." It more like a statement than a question. I looked at him again and this time, he had a silly smirk on his face. Tris started laughing and Brad looked really uncomfortable. He squirmed in his seat and remained focused on his menu.

"What's up, Brad?" I asked, putting my menu down, having decided on a chicken burger. His eyes bore so hard into the menu, it looked ready to burst into flame. "Brad?"

"I asked Katherine out." He spluttered at once. After realising what he'd said, he sank further into his seat as if to block out our stares and open mouths.

"What?!" Connor exclaimed. "When?" He neglected to ask 'why', which I was intrigued to know, but I left it alone. Instead, I laughed. 

He looked horrified. "It was when we were in her kitchen, and you all left, it just come out. I mean.. she's like... really pretty, and I just.. you know.. asked her" By this point, myself, Tris and Connor were crying, just to be cut short when I heard someone clearing their throat behind me.

I turned around just as Connor managed to say, "Oh shit."