Carrots With Ketchup

Part 5

Several months passed. The boys continued their tour. I texted Harry, Louis, and Eleanor all the time. Eventually I got the other boys’ numbers and I texted them too, though not nearly as often as I talked to Harry, El, and Lou. A few days after the boys left New York, there was an interview aired all over the news. It was Eleanor, telling readers that even though she’d never met the girl who was dubbed “1D’s Mystery Girl” but that she knew the girl had no intention of splitting up her and Louis. She based this knowledge on what Louis told her the girl had said and the telephone conversation they’d had. She believed me, The Mystery Girl, and she wanted the rest of the world to believe as well. Of course, soon after that stories emerged that El had been fooled, but they didn’t bother me anymore. The less time I was able to spend with the boys, the fewer stories there were, and the less worried I was.

            The only problem was fitting each other’s schedules. We were in different time zones, so we were rarely awake at the same time, and when we were, I had class or work or they had a concert. The nice thing about texting was that I could text them when I was free and they could text me back whenever they were free.

            Today I was texting Lou. We had discussed how our days were and when they were coming back to the U.S. Texting had been choppy obviously, starting at 6 AM and not getting a response until 10, being unable to respond until noon, that sort of thing. Finally, at around 11 PM I texted him and said, “I know you’re not awake, but I’m gonna go watch Grease. Text me when you wake up. Miss you :)”

            I made some popcorn and curled up on the sofa, watching the previews in my pajamas. Melissa was already in bed since she had class early tomorrow. My laptop was on the counter behind me, on sleep mode. Suddenly it chimed saying someone was requesting a video chat. I got up and wiggled the mouse, bringing the screen to life. After entering my password, the request appeared on the desktop. It was Louis. I accepted the request.

            “Louis? What are you doing up?” I asked, grinning from ear to ear.

            “Hey Josée.” He was grinning too. “I thought we had a movie to watch.”

            I laughed. “You wanna watch too?”

            “That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?”

            “Alright.” I picked up my laptop and carried it to the couch, plugging it in. The menu was on and I hit play.

            We watched the whole movie, singing along to all the songs together. He sang like an angel, of course. I sounded like a dying whale.

            “You have a nice voice,” he said in the middle of the movie.

            I blushed, but the webcam wasn’t facing me so he couldn’t see it. “Don’t lie,” I said, “I can’t sing worth a darn.”

            “Well,” he said, “You may think that, but I like it.”

            “Then you have horrible taste,” I giggled.

            When the movie was ending, we sand “You’re the One That I Want” as a duet. My face hurt so much from smiling but I couldn’t stop. As the credits started, I turned the laptop towards me.

            “You should probably get some sleep, Lou,” I said.

            “Awe but I want to stay up and chat with you,” he said, smiling, unable to hold his fake whine.

            “But then you’ll be tired when you have to get up in a couple hours. Is that the sun I see coming up behind you?” I joked.

            He sighed. “Alright, love, I see your point.’

            “Have a good sleep Lou.”

            “You too, love. Sweet dreams.”

            He went offline and I whispered, “I think I love you.”

            I was shocked with myself. What was I saying? He was one of my best friends. I thought I’d gotten past this fangirl-love. That was what this was after all. Sighing, I turned off the TV, about to leave for bed. Suddenly my computer chimed that I had another video chat.

            Opening my laptop, I saw Harry’s username appear. I laughed at how alike they were for what seemed like the billionth time. I hit accept.

            “Hey Harry! You’re up too?” I smiled.

            “Hey, babe! What do you mean, I’m up too?”

            “Oh, I was just talking to Louis.”

            “Oh. Well. I was just calling to tell you that I just heard we’re coming to Philadelphia to perform!”

            I gasped. “That’s only a couple hours away!”

            “Yeah! I was hoping you’d drive down to come visit us. Oh, and Niall wants Melissa to come too. You should hear him. He won’t stop talking about her.”

            “Oh I know! She’s the same way about him! And of course we’ll come! I can’t wait to see you! When is it?”

            “We’ll be there in a week. I can’t wait to see you either.”

            “Harry! Now I’m going to be too excited to sleep!”

            He laughed. “Well then I’ve done my job. Goodnight!”

            “Harry!”

            The last thing I heard as he went offline was his laugh. I crawled into bed and couldn’t fall asleep for hours until I calmed down. I couldn’t believe I was going to see Harry and Lou in a week!