Flatmates

15

'Where the fuck are we?' Jess asks as we pull up in an industrial state, outside the address JJ had given.

'Just follow us' Will laughed, opening the door and climbing out of his car. 'Come on!' He shouts.

We walk through a back door, down a maze of corridors. How Will knew where we needed to go I will never know as I am sure he has never been here before.

Suddenly we walk through a final set of doors and we are in the midst of the sidemen warehouse, boxes and shelving surrounding us.

'I will ask again. Where the fuck are we?'

'Welcome to the sidemen warehouse' suddenly Harry's voice appears from no where startling us all. 'You must be Jess?' he asks.

'Wroetoshaw! No way, I am trying not to fangirl' she screams, failing and jumping on him. Oh boy. 'I am a massive sidemen fan, don't tell those two' she whisper yells, pointing in our direction.

'Haha your secret is safe with me' Harry winks at Jess. 'Now, we where all dying to meet you, so we made Alex and Will drag you down here to our warehouse.' Boy, he is a smooth liar.

Harry shows us around the warehouse, explaining their storage and packing systems, introducing us to members of staff. Eventually we end up in a large empty space - nothing but six lads. JJ, Simon, Vikk, Ethan, Tobi and Josh.

'Go ahead Alex' Harry winks.

'Uhhh.. welcome to your new warehouse?' I say to Jess, unsure how she would react.

'What?'

'You are moving out of Will's spare room and into here' I laugh, watching her jaw drop as I speak. 'It is all sorted, and they are giving you two members of their staff.'

'What?'

'You heard' Will chuckles, nudging her gently.

'Like for real thought?'

'For real' Ethan laughs.

***

After Jess' big surprise, we all head over to he sidemen house to hang out. I had never been before, but I knew Will did on a semi-regular basis. We ordered domino's and played beer pong till the early hours.

Once Jess was asleep and most of the other lads had gone off to bed, I pulled Will outside. I needed to speak to him. I waited until we were far enough away from the house before speaking.

'I think I have made a massive mistake' I whisper to Will, looking him dead in the eye.

'Why, what have you done?'

'Jess. It isn't going to work. I shouldn't have rushed things. I mistook love-love for friend-love. What do I do?'

'Mate, you need to speak to her.'

***

'Thank god' Jess laughs the next morning. We are sat in the sidemen living room alone, and I had just told her what I had told Will. 'I did the same, honestly I had no idea how to talk to you about it' Jess added.

'For fuck sake, I thought you were going to hate me Jess!'

'No no. No hate here, just amazing friendship. Well, friendship where you occasionally crawl into my bed in the middle of the night' she winks at me. 'For real though, we need to find you a girlfriend.'

'No no. I don't need a girlfriend' I laugh nervously. I can't have this discussion now. Maybe not ever. 'But we should hook you up, we have some hot.. uhh I mean good looking friends.'

'Something you need to tell me?' Jess looks at me questioningly.

I decide to pretend I didn't hear her. 'George.. Will. Even Harry and Ethan? They seem like good suitors.'

'Mr Elmslie. I think we need a proper chat soon. Alone.'

That conversation will never happen, I will make sure of it. I have managed years avoiding it, I am not about to give in now.

How are you supposed to tell someone that 'oh by the way - I like men as well as girls.' Nope. Not going to happen. I would rather live a miserable existence and take it to my grave than have that discussion.