London Calling (A One Direction Fanfic)

Dedicated to ChelseaMaree for her birthday.

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Prologue :)

Chelsea's POV.

The airport was cold, I swear they must have had the air-con on full ball. No wait, I thought, maybe it's just cold everywhere here. But I was finally here! London! Oh my God, this was going to be the best gap year ever! 

I grabbed my suitcase off the luggage carousel and dragged it to the international flights counter, I could not wipe the smile from my face. Yeah, so it was cold and raining but this was England! I wasn't expecting some kind of summer getaway.  

When I reached the front of the line I was told by a very stout, older lady that the rest of my belongings would be posted to my new apartment within the next few days. I could deal with that. So I headed off in search of somewhere where I might catch a taxi.  

When I reached the automatic doors I was almost knocked back by the icy-cold air that hit me like a slap in the face. Adjusting my suitcase in my left hand and pulling the collar of my jacket closer to my face, I made my way to the closest taxi rank to wait. 

As I stood there looking around I thought to myself that almost every person in London must own the same black car. That is until I noticed the orange, illuminated signs that sat on top of almost all of them. Taxi. God, i'm such an idiot, I thought to myself, I've been standing here the last 7 or so minutes waiting for a taxi that's been parked beside me the whole time. 

"This is really one of those face-palm moments," I said to myself, making a mental note never to tell Rayne about this. I could see it now, my best-friend's face red from laughing, telling me exactly what she thought of my stupidity. 

I think the driver inside the cab noticed that I had finally put two and two together and jumped out. His accent was thick and so very British when he said, " You looking for a ride?" 

I nodded my head, my nose bumping against my coat. My face must have been really red, I hoped like hell he thought that it was just from the cold, hey, some of it was.  

He waved his hand, beckoning me to come forward, and made his way towards the trunk of the car. He opened it up with one hand and, when I was close enough, grabbed my case and lifted it in.  

When we were both safely inside the cabin, him in the drivers seat (obviously) and me in the back, he turned to face me.  

"Where to?" he announced. I gave him the address and he smiled at me, "Aussie?"  

"Yeah," I croaked back, the long flight had made my throat uncomfortably dry. 

He continued talking as we pulled out into traffic. "Yeah, me cousin just moved down under, is pretty warm down there 'e says. Be might different to here, I'd expect."  

I nodded along as he talked, occasionally putting in a word myself, telling him about life in small-town Australia and the amazing gap year I was going to have. I asked him about the best short-term jobs I should look at and the prices of just about everything. He told me his daughter had just started high school and was already dux of her year and I told him how my friend had finished our year 12 in dux position.  

When we finally arrived in front of the shabby, bland, grey-brick building I would say John and I were pretty good mates.  

"'ere," he said, after he had unloaded my case, " if you ever need a ride love, ring me on this number. I'll give you the mates rates." He finished with a friendly wink before sliding back into his cab and driving away.

The inside of the building was as bland as the exterior, with bubbling grey wall paper and faded blue carpet. After climbing two lots of rickety stairs I finally reached the peeling blue door that belonged to apartment 23 and made a promise to myself that no matter what I found on the other side I would look on the bright side.  

I found the key on top of the wall lamp beside my door just as the landlord had told me it would be over email.  

The smell alone nearly choked me. My right hand immediately shot to my face in a desperate attempt to block the smell from my nostrils, "Oh God!" 

The apartment was, in hindsight, a tiny room. The living-room consisted of a tiny two seater couch and a seriously old fashion tv, the kitchen was a tiny oven, bar fridge, shallow counter and metal sink with exposed plumbing. When the internet said that the apartment came fully furnished... well I guess I thought that it would be more... furnished. But seriously you couldn't expect much of an apartment that I, unemployed high school graduate, was able to afford.  

I looked around. There was one other door in the room, the paint was in pretty much the same state as the front door only this time it was in green.  

I left my suitcase at the front door and crossed the room towards it, I was almost scared to open it, with what the rest of the room looked like but I turned the handle anyway. Or tried to turn it because as soon as the rotation hit 90 degrees the handle came right off in my hand.  

I managed to get the door open and discovered that it led to a bathroom, actually it was more like a shower head protruding from the far wall on the lefthand side with hot and cold taps underneath and a drain on the floor below and a toilet squished up on the right.  

The grout was moldy and the toilet was pretty gross, I made another mental note that I needed to find the closest super market and buy cleaning supplies tomorrow before I found myself a job. 

Despite the pretty feral living conditions and my slowly dampening spirit, I couldn't help feeling that this would still be a great year, and even better still, I was officially living in the same city as One Direction.  

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Ok guys be nice :D first ever fanfic, first story up here. This is only the prologue, (the first chapter will contain a little Styles attaction ;) ) So stick with it maybe? love.love.love