Adolescent

3.

The next day, I woke up in the late morning and immediately pulled my laptop on my lap and started writing where I'd left off the previous night. There I stayed, until Nat came and dragged me out of my room to shower and go pick up the boys from the airport. We dropped their luggage off at Jess's place. They all adamantly insisted that they had to come and help us set up for the rehearsal that was going to be later that day.

I'd found a good place to hang upside down and tie and hang up all of the white, red and pink bows on the scaffolding of the main room, and was currently trying to untangle a knot in the ribbon that was also being pinned up, my glasses pretty much hanging off of my face; very precariously and close to falling. I pried at the knot with my nails, which were short, out of my cheerleader's habit - keeping my nails short so they wouldn't break and I wouldn't risk stabbing out the eye of a fallen flyer when I caught them. With a quick look around the room to make sure no one was watching me - I was alone - I started to pry at the knot with my brace-ified teeth and finally got it undone and the ribbon pinned appropriately. I then hung the final group of bows and, satisfied with my work, I shifted so I was upright and jumped from my perch, pain shooting through my right leg as I landed.

"Shit." I said under my breath, my mind going to my knee, previously injured at a varsity basketball game that I'd been asked to fill in for. At the game, which was right before I'd left for tour the first time, I'd been caught in the middle of a skirmish for the ball and had been taken down by one of the bigger girls from the opposing team and twisted my right knee severely. I'd had to be carried out of the gym and taken to the emergency room. There were x-rays taken and tests run. I hadn't had to have surgery to repair the things in my knee, but it still got sore at times and I'd been told - repeatedly - to take it easy on my knee for at least seven months. I'd be screwed if I messed it up.

But I pushed that back and went to where Sam, Nat, Niall and Liam were working, setting up the stage and all the tables, decorating, and marking where all the tech stuff was going to be set the following day. It was where the reception - a big party, really - was going to be held, ergo it leading to outside, a tent being set up to protect everything outside. It was a big setup.

"What'd you do?" Nat asked me as I entered.

"I didn't do anything!" I said defensively.

"Liar. You're limping." she said accusingly.

I shrugged.

"You know what the ER doctor told you!"

"And have I ever actually been known to listen to someone?" I helped her spread a tablecloth on one of the bigger tables.

"Touché. Now did you actually come in here to talk about something?"

"Uh. Yeah. I came to let you guys know that I was making a run to the bakery and I wanted to see if you wanted anything. I'm buying."

"No slacking on the job!" Sam yelled to me.

"I'm done decorating! What's your excuse?" He just laughed.

I took everyone's orders, went to see if Harry, Louis and Zayn wanted anything, took their orders and walked down to the bakery and bought everything. But trouble lurked when I was on the way back.

"Hey, Roxanna! Wait up!"

Nick.

"You clearly do not know the meaning of the words, 'get the hell away from me,'" I told him as he fell into step beside me. "so I'll rephrase. Please, get the fuck away from me, and stay that way."

He chuckled, not leaving my side. I could've throttled him.

We walked back to the wedding venue in silence.