The Heartbreak Factor - Part One

Chapter Eighteen.

“So if I start like this,” I said to Brian before rushing to the back of the rehearsal room and standing so I was facing the wall. “Then once I get to the ‘let’s go all the way tonight’ line, start walking towards the front of the stage?” 

“Yes, but remember.. sexy walk!” Brian laughed, giving me a high five.

“Sexy strut?” I asked as I strutted towards the front, trying to act as sexy as I possibly could. “Or sexy stroll?” I asked, slowing the strut down, again, trying to act as sexy as I possibly could.

“You work that ass. Shake what yo’ momma gave you,” Brian joked. “But stroll – definitely the stroll. But just go with the beat of the music and whatever you feel comfortable with. It’s your performance at the end of the day so make it be what you want it to be. Alright?”

“Let’s go all the way tonight,” I began to sing as I ‘sexily strolled’ along to the beat like Brian had just said. As I sung “no regrets, just love” I made a dramatic fainting pose which made Brian laugh.

“Do that in the performance! But just remember to focus on your vocals as well,” Brian suggested to me as I continued to rehearse the routine.

“You make me feel like I’m living a teenage dream,” I sung, pointing away from me as I grinned at Brian, who was stood watching me with encouragement.

“The way you turn me on,” a choir of voices joined in from behind me, startling me slightly.

Turning around in shock, I saw JJ, Josh, Jaymi and George stood in the doorway of the rehearsal studio watching me practice the routine for Saturday’s performance. “You’re early,” Brian said to them, looking up at the clock that was fixed to the wall above the door.

“We got bored at the hotel,” JJ smiled.

“No Sammy to annoy?” I asked jokingly.

“Okay, just sit over there and be silent,” Brian laughed, ordering them to sit in the corner of the room.

As the boys sat down in a line formation against the wall, Brian pushed me back to my starting position. “From the beginning?” I groaned, getting a little nervous over the fact that Josh, JJ, Jaymi and George would be watching me rehearse.

“Yes,” Brian laughed. “The boys can be the judges.”

“I’m Louis,” Jaymi grinned instantly, attempting an Irish accent but failing.

“I’m Gary,” Josh smiled. “That was absolutely fantastic.”

“I’m Tulisa,” George joked.

“I’m Nicole, because I’m sh-amazing,” JJ smiled.

“No, baby no,” George laughed, doing his Nicole Scherzinger impression.

“Oh God,” I laughed. “Okay, okay, just don’t laugh.”

All the way through the rehearsal, they watched intensely while joining in with the singing. Usually I would be a little dubious to let them watch me as I always seemed to mess up in the first few days of rehearsals but today I didn’t mind - it was fun having them there with me. 

“I think that’s a wrap, Sammy,” Brian smiled to me as I finished, standing in the middle of the room in my final position. “I’ve got to just go check on a few things but I’ll be back in a bit for your rehearsal,” he added, talking to the boys.

“That’s cool,” Josh smiled.

Within seconds of Brian leaving the room, Jaymi got up from where he was sat on the floor and began flicking through Brian’s huge collection of CDs next to the stereo. “Ah! Sammy, this one is for you baby,” he joked.

After putting a CD in the stereo, he pressed play. “Hottest Girl in the World? Seriously?” I laughed.

“No, this is one for Sammy,” George said, rushing over to the stereo and putting his iPod into the dock.

“What’s that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? Is it a monster?” they all sang.

“Oh guys, you’re actually all so funny that I forgot to laugh,” I said sarcastically, not laughing at all.

“It’s because it’s true,” George joked, sticking his tongue out at me.

“Take that back, Shelley,” I laughed.

“Make me,” he grinned as I tried to wrestle him to the floor.

“Why don’t you two just get married?” Josh laughed as him, JJ and Jaymi stood watching me and George play-fighting on the floor.

“Why would I want to marry him?” I asked. “I have standards.”

“Meow!” Jaymi laughed.

“You hurt my feelings,” George said, pretending to be sad.

“Sorry, but the truth hurts,” I winked.

“A lies worse, how can I give anymore? When I loved you a little less than before,” Josh, JJ and Jaymi all harmonised.

Me and George stopped fighting and turned around to look at them. As soon as we looked at them, Brian walked in through the doors back into the studio. “Are you two okay?” he asked, looking at me and George as George had me pinned down to the floor.

“Oh yeah,” George grinned, getting up off me and helping me up off the floor. 

“Nerd,” I said to George, disguising it as a cough.

“Loser,” George replied with a sly grin on his face as he looked at me.

“Children,” Brian shouted at us as we began to kick each other gently, giggling to one another as we did it. 

I laughed “I’d better be going anyway but thank-you for today, Brian,” I smiled, giving Brian a goodbye hug.

“Sammy, remember,” he paused. “Sexy strut and you’ll be fine.”

“Sexy strut,” I repeated so it stuck in my mind. “Bye boys.”

“Bye Sammy,” they all replied in perfect unison, apart from George who decided to reply with “bye loser”.

Laughing to myself, I made my way out of the rehearsal room and down the corridor towards the changing rooms so I could get out of my sweaty rehearsal gear and begin to get ready for another meeting with Tulisa over Saturday’s show and give her the daily update.