Nathan gently ran his thumbs underneath my eyes, wiping away the tears I’d been crying. My skin tingled slightly as his thumb touched my cheeks. Nathan and I looked deep into each other’s eye as we sat in the dressing room together. Okay, I admit it; maybe I do have feelings for him. I just didn’t feel ready to move on to someone new as it hadn’t even been 24 hours since I broke up with Matt. Still, I felt an overwhelming urge to kiss Nathan.
Luckily I was able to resist that urge and quickly looked down from his eyes before the urge became any stronger. I swallowed the lump in my throat and managed to prevent myself from crying even more in front of Nathan. I’d cried in front of him enough today already, so he probably thought I was a complete idiot. I’d often pictured myself crying if I met someone famous like The Wanted, but I expected them to be tears of joy, not tears of sadness and regret.
“I’d better go then..” I said, wiping away the last few tears.
“Alright” Nathan smiled, “See you later then.”
“Yeah.” I nodded, “Where are we going anyway?”
“Um..” he thought about it for a few seconds, “Fancy going bowling?” he asked.
“Sure.” I replied. “Meet you at the bowling place at around 7ish?”
“Sounds cool.” he nodded. He took a piece of paper out of his pocket and started writing on it with a pen he took from the dressing table When he’d finished writing, he handed the piece of paper to me. I looked down at the paper and saw that he’d written his phone number on it. I smiled at him with thanks and wrote my number on the back of his hand (because I didn’t have any paper on me).
I waved shyly at Nathan to say goodbye and stood up to leave the room. Okay, when I signed up for work experience here, I never thought that I’d be hanging out with someone like Nathan. Hell, I’d completely given up hope of ever meeting The Wanted; my dad wouldn’t even let me go to their tour. Maybe now I could get to watch one of their gigs here for free. As I walked out of Nathan’s dressing room, I bumped into Siva.
“Oh, hey..” I said as I saw him.
“Hi.” he smiled. “Is Nathan in there?” he gestured towards the dressing room.
“Yeah.” I replied.
“Cool, thanks. See you round.” he went into the dressing room as I walked off to find my dad.
Nathan’s POV
I watched Grace as she walked out of the dressing room. She was so beautiful, even when she’d been crying. That guy who’d cheated on her was a complete idiot for letting go of an amazing girl like Grace. I really liked her, even if I’d only known her for a matter of hours. I looked down at my hand where she’d just written her phone number. I hoped tonight would lead to something more between us, even if it wasn’t being classed as an official date. As I sat there thinking, Siva walked in.
“Hey Nath, what’s up?” he asked.
“Not much.” I shrugged.
“What you been up to with Grace then?” he sat down next to me.
“Just talking really.” I told Siva.
“You like her, don’t you?” he nudged me jokingly.
“Maybe..” I smiled, blushing.
“Ask her out.” he suggested.
“I have sort of, but it isn’t gonna be a proper date tonight because she’s only just come out of a bad relationship and I don’t wanna rush her.” I explained.
“Oh..” Siva said, “Well maybe you can work your magic tonight and win her over.” he smirked.
“Maybe..” I replied.
Graces POV
I waited outside the local bowling alley for Nathan to arrive. Checking the time on my phone, I saw that it was 6:59pm, so Nathan had about a minute to show up. It wouldn’t matter if he was a few minutes late; I wasn’t too fussy about timing. I was really looking forward to spending time with Nathan tonight. It wasn’t a date, just two friends hanging out. Eventually Nathan showed up right on the dot of 7pm.
“Hey.” he smiled and greeted me with a hug.
“Hi, ready to go inside?” I asked.
“Yep, let’s go.” He escorted me inside the bowling alley and we made our way over to the main desk. We gave in our shoes and exchanged them for bowling shoes. We headed down to the bowling lane and typed our names on the screen.
“You go first.” I told Nathan. I was crap at bowling so I let him go before me. He took both of his shots and managed to get a spare. Then it came to my turn. I picked up a ball and walked towards the start of the bowling lane. I aimed my shot and threw the ball down the lane. It got halfway down the lane before rolling into the gutter and completely missing the pins. Told you I was crap.
“Oops.” I muttered.
“Let me help you.” Nathan offered. He stood up and began to walk towards me with a bowling ball. I took the ball from him and started to aim down the lane. Nathan put one arm around me and used his other hand to guide my hand that was holding the ball.
“Swing back and let go when I say so.” he instructed.
I nodded and swung my arm back, in sync with his hand that was guiding me. He gently moved my arm forward as he helped me aim the ball.
“Now.” he whispered, and I let go of the ball as we both watched it roll down the lane
