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Four - What Makes You Beautiful

Putting on my wireless headphones, I hit shuffle on my phone and smile internally when the opening guitar riff of the song "What Makes You Beautiful" began playing in my ears. After shoving my phone in my pocket, I began to walk around the empty stage, quietly singing the familiar lyrics to myself.

"You're insecure, don't know what for,
You're turning heads when you walk through the do-o-or"

The stage had yet to be set up with the various platforms and pyrotechnic equipment. It was like a blank canvas in front of the arena full of empty seats. Even with the lights off, it was mesmerizing to see it from this angle. In just a few days I would be singing my own songs to thousands of people.

"Don't need makeup, to cover up,
Being the way that you are is eno-o-ough,"

As I sang, I made my way absentmindedly toward a basket on the stage that was full of microphones. I picked up one of the microphones and held it up, noticing a blue band around it, before walking around the stage, continuing to sing with the microphone in my hand down by my side.

"Everyone else in the room can see it,
Everyone else but you,"

I looked around the arena and let myself become lost in thought about everything that had brought me here. A year ago I was just like any other college sophomore, just trying to make it through the semester with a decent-enough GPA. My whole life changed the moment I decided to sing at that charity talent show. Some of my friends and classmates had pressured me into doing it, and it was raising money for the local children's hospital, so how could I say no?

"Baby, you light up my world like nobody else,
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,
But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,
You don't know, oh oh, you don't know you're beautiful,"

I was suddenly pulled out of my deep thoughts by clapping coming from behind me. My face flushed as I spun on my heal to see Louis Tomlinson clapping as he walked toward me. I was speechless. How long had he been watching me?

Louis chuckled as he closed the gap between us. "Sorry to scare you, love. I originally came in to check on you, but I didn't want to disturb you." His smile seemed genuine enough before he quirked an eyebrow and pointed to my right hand. "Is that my microphone?"

"Oh! Is it? Im so sorry- I didn't know-" I could barely think straight with the embarrassment filling my head. I should have known it was Louis' the moment I picked it up. Louis' microphone, just like all the boys', had a specific color band to identify them. Louis' was of course blue, Harry's was green, Liam's was red. Niall, on account of his colorblindness, had the Irish flag to distinguish his out of the bunch. Once upon a time, there was a fifth microphone with a yellow band. I placed the microphone back down in the basket and caught the glimpse of a fifth microphone, only this one wasn't yellow.

Slowly and carefully lifting it up, I saw a pink band around the microphone. "Is this for me?" It came out as more like a whisper.

"It was my idea." Louis chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Once we found out you were a fan, I figured you might appreciate having your own."

Tears pricked at my eyes but I took a deep breath to banish them, instead grabbing Louis in a tight, enthusiastic. "Thank you!"

He stood still for a moment, surprised by my embrace, but quickly wrapped his arms around my waist and gave a light squeeze. Even as I pulled away, his hands lingered at my waist for a moment before putting them back by his side. A pink blush started to form in his cheeks just as it did on mine.

We were so close that I could feel his breath on my face as he looked down at me in the dark arena. For a moment, I swear I saw a twinkle in his eye before he began to lean down as if to kiss me. The world slowed down as if we were moving in slow motion, but before his lips reached mine, all the lights in the arena suddenly turned on. I was nearly blinded by the bright stage lights as I jumped back from Louis in unpleasant surprise.