Under the stars || James McVey

chapter twenty seven

Katherine’s POV

James’ had asked me if I wanted to come over today and sit in with the boys’ band practice. They were rehearsing a couple of their new songs today and they wanted an opinion. I’m not really sure why he asked me when Joe or Dean could have given their opinion more easily. Connor took the phone off of James halfway through our conversation and practically begged me to come over. So after a little debating, I finally gave in to him.

An hour later, I was getting out the car and walking up the drive to their house when Connor threw the door open with a big grin on his face. “Katie’s here!” He screams to whomever inside and soon enough, everyone greets me at the door and I step up to the frame. “Hi Katie,”

“Hi Connor,” I reply giggling at him. He opens his arms and pulls me in for an unexpected hug which after a moment, I gladly accept because of his constant smile and happy factor. I exchange smiles and hugs with the other boys as Connor leads me into the practice room, James being the last and the longest. I smile up at him, knowing that since I told him my story, we’d been closer than ever.

“So, Katie?” Brad starts, pulling the strap to his guitar over his head. I look over to him expectantly and he grins cheekily at me. I shake my head at, a chuckle escaping my lips. “How’re you doing?”

“I’m doing fine, thank you Bradley, and yourself?” I reply with a grin of my own.

“I’m good cheers” He says before wrapping his arm around me and sticking his tongue out childishly. I mock him by doing the same and it seems that Dean was filming the whole thing.

“Quick question; why do you always call him Bradley?” Connor asks, plugging his bass into the system. I look towards Bradley and smirk. He asked me the same thing a couple of months back and I couldn’t help but trace back to that day. He was so nervous and panicky; it made me smile thinking of it.

“I don’t know; I just like the name.” I shrug whilst replying to him. I kiss Bradley’s cheek with a grin and shove him towards his place on set for their practice. “Don’t screw up,”

He laughs and sticks his tongue out at me again. I fake a gasp and place my hand over my heart as if the gesture hurts and he pouts, trying not to laugh while doing so. Joe suggests the boys start cracking on their rehearsals because the songs needed practicing and they were procrastinating too much with me around. Tristan rolls his eyes at Joe, making a remark about him being grumpy all of the time and that he needs to lighten up a little. Joe responds back with an ‘I’m your manager, you do as I say’, to which all of the boys groan and Dean just smirks as he focuses his camera. “Oh, and Brad? We’re doing a cover first so try not to screw up your introduction this time; we don’t have all day.” Literally everyone bursts out laughing, including Joe who’s supposedly grumpy, and I just stand there, not really getting the joke.

“Brad always messes up the intro, totalling it to about fifty takes before we actually film the video.” James informs me as he directs me to the sofa.

Giggling at the chocolate haired boy, who at this moment in time was pulling faces behind Joe’s back, I turn back to James with a smile. “You guys really have a lot of fun with this, don’t you?” He nods and grins back at me; his eyes so bright and full of life. It was rare I got to see this side of him; we only really spoke about depressing shit that wasn’t normal for teenage kids like us. To see him so happy doing something he loved was amazing; to see them all so happy was amazing. Looking back towards all of the groaning, we see Brad aggressively pulling at his hair because he messed up his line.

“Hey Brad, do you want a Jaffa-cake?” James teases, which just confuses me again because James didn’t have any Jaffa-cakes on him at this present moment in time. The blue eyed boy shakes his head at me, telling me that he’ll show me what he means later. Bradley sticks his tongue out and gives James the finger, resulting in everyone laughing and Joe getting a bit annoyed. He glares at Bradley which stops the giggling boy from laughing further and starts to talk into the camera. A couple of tries later, Brad was finally done and the boys starting their cover of Fall Out Boy’s Young Volcanoes.

I, myself, love Fall Out Boy so when Brad started singing, I was immediately singing along with him. I had to do it quietly though because I didn’t want to be heard on the video. That would be mortifying, if I’m being totally honest. Joe sits next to me after the boys finish filming and start on their actual rehearsal. He asks me about how I like the band and most embarrassingly, he asks about James in the most excruciating way possible. I awkwardly laugh and tell him we were just friends, but it seemed he wasn’t having it. He obviously didn’t believe me; neither did Dean who joined in with the conversation later on as he sat down next to Joe. I breathe a sigh of relief as the boys finish their set, and rehearsal for the day, and ask if we’d like to go out for dinner. Of course, I jump at the chance, not wanting to be humiliated by Joe and Dean any longer. Both of them laugh at me as I walk up to James and stand by his side.

“Looks like you’re her rock too, mate.” Dean snorts as he puts his camera into his bag. James glares at him and I look up at him confused. James shakes his head at me to forget it and nods towards the door. I begin to follow him out when suddenly he just stumbles into the doorframe and collapses to the floor. I shout his name as he hits the floor but he doesn’t answer. Oh god, not again. What is happening?

Joe rushes over and picks James up off of the floor, telling us that he’ll take him to his room. Tristan follows after him and the other boys go into the kitchen to get some things for James that Joe tells them to get, like wet towels and a glass of water. Before Bradley could leave, I grab his arm and pull him back to me. “Bradley, what the hell is going on?” He goes to speak, but I cut him off, not wanting the crap he was about to give me. “No, Bradley, you tell me the truth. This has happened before; I’ve seen it and I’m gathering that it’s happened a lot of times before that judging by all of your actions and how you all so calmly responded to it just. Now, please, tell me, what is happening to James?”

Brad looks at me with pity. I don’t know why because this has nothing to do with me, but he looks at me that way anyway, before he takes a deep breath and speaks cautiously to me. “It started about a year ago,” He starts, taking another deep breath. “James had a girlfriend, a pretty good one too. Her name was Emily. She was smart and pretty and James, well, he loved her.” I gulp, not just because James had someone he loved but because Brad used the past tense.

“You said ‘had a girlfriend’. What happened to her?” I ask, not really sure I want the answer seen as it hurt James badly enough for him to fall unconscious every once in a while.

Brad sighs and slouches against the wall. “She died, Kate.”

“What? How?” This was horrible and I was waiting for the point where Bradley said she died exactly how William died, or similarly. James had been pretty secretive about his past, but he always said that we could relate, you know, about losing someone we love. Yes, I didn’t realise it was a girlfriend, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that, like me with Will, her death affected him more than it should of done; physically as well as emotionally. Losing someone is possibly the hardest thing a person will ever have to go through, and it happened to the both of us. “Bradley, how did she die?”

Then he says the thing I least expected. “She killed herself.”

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DUN DUN DUN.

Bit of a twist for ya… A bit morbid, so if this topic affects any of you, I apologise.

Why do you think she did it though? Any guesses? Let me know.

Love you guys who are reading; it’s a double update tonight!

Thanks a bunch,

Lauren J x