Small talk | Reece Bibby | Jake Sims | Stereo Kicks

iii

l e a h

"Ugh," I moaned. "Ivy," We were in a hotel in Bermuda, for judges' houses. We'd already sang for Louis, who was our 'mentor'. It was our second day here and we were only staying for two more days.

"What?!" she asked. I'd been annoying her for probably the last twenty five minutes or so.

"I'm so bored,"

"Then do something," she said in an obvious tone.

"I don't know what to do, that's why I'm annoying you." I told her.

"Honestly sometimes I wonder who's really the older one." she glanced at me, then continued going on her phone. "Go bond with the other groups,"

"Come with me, I'm shy and you already know some of them."

She looked at me in disbelief. "You're nowhere near shy. Also, I only know Charlie from the New Boy Band."

"You know that other kid, the blond one."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't like him." She simply said. "Don't ask any questions." she told me, as I opened my mouth to speak.

I rolled off the bed, hitting the floor on with a thud. Ivy looked at me. I stood up, making my way out of our apartment. I walked to one of the other apartments and knocked on the door. I was sure this was the 'New Boy Band' apartment. They were an eight piece so obviously they needed a bigger room.

"Come in!" I heard a voice say.

I did as I was told and opened the door slowly. As I entered, eight pairs of eyes fixed on me.

"Hello," I said confidently.

"Hi Leah," Charlie replied, smiling widely. I had talked to the boys once or twice before, but only got to know their names. I didn't have a proper conversation with them.

"So," I plopped down on a bed after closing the door. "Let's play a questions game."

Everyone stayed silent, the boys glanced at each other.

"Fine, I'll go first. Um..." I thought of a question. "Charlie, what's your favourite subject in school?" I said. I could just about notice his cheeks tinge a light shade of pink.

"Maths," he answered quickly. I smiled. He was adorable.

"Who'll go next?" I asked.

"Um, where are you from?" Casey asked me.

"Accrington, in Lancashire," I smiled.

"So am I!" Reece cheered, holding his hand up for a high five. "How come I've never ran into you?" he said.

"I don't know, how come we haven't?"

He smiled at me, his smile was so perfect.. But then I remembered, Ivy said she didn't like him. She told me not to talk to him.. Well, that didn't make much sense. I'd have to talk to him as long as we were on the X-Factor together.

Me and the boys asked each other questions for about another hour. Thank god they weren't weird and didn't ask extremely personal questions. I obviously didn't either.

"Can we go to the beach or something?" I suggested. Most of the boys were on their phones, except for Jake and James, who were having a conversation about Nutella very casually. I could've been on my phone, but I wanted to spend as much time taking advantage of this short holiday. I barely went on holiday, if I was honest. My family wasn't the richest. Plus we rarely had time on our hands, with my two older sisters in college. I also had a younger sister who was ten.

"You guys up for it?" Jake asked.

They all nodded in agreement. "Cool," I hopped off the bed. "I'm gonna go change, back in a few," I smiled and skipped out of the room towards Ivy and I's.

"Hey-" I burst in through the door, as Ivy screamed.

"You gave me a heart attack!" she said, over exaggerating.

"Sorry, mate. We're going to the beach, are you coming?" I asked her, as I walked towards my bed where my suitcase was.

She had still been on her bed on her phone when I came in. "Who do you mean by 'we'?" she asked, looking at me with a strange face.

"Me and the New Boy Band." I fumbled through my suitcase, things flying everywhere, as I searched for my bikini. Finally I found it. It was my favourite bikini ever, I was in love with it. It was hot pink and the top was strapless, with a bow in the middle.

"I'm okay," she said. I knew she wanted to go. I could tell she didn't want to go just because Reece was going.

"Ivy, I know you don't want to go because of Reece-"

"It's not that, I don't want to get burned." she lied.

"We've got lots of suncream. Listen. You're going to have to put up with him for however long we're in the competition at the same time as him. There's seven other members you can become friends with. Just don't talk to Reece. Why don't you like Reece, anyway? He's so lovely!"

She made this disappointed face at me. She sighed and said, "He broke my heart."

"What?! Tell me, what happened, before I get any more curious and do something crazy."

I sat down on the bed beside her. She began telling me what happened. How they met in school, how they became close, etcetera, etcetera. Then she began explaining how she was showed up in front of her school, the way he humiliated her, by kissing another girl, and then telling poor Ivy he never even liked her. When she finished, I could tell she was holding back tears. "Oh, Ivy," I said, my voice full of sorrow, as I embraced her in a hug. "I'm telling you, just ignore him, okay?"

She nodded. I have her another squeeze, then got off the bed and told her, "Now get changed, we're going to have some fun and get your mind off it."