Love At War - Book 2 of Secrets Within

Sleepsong

The sound of hailstones pounding at the window, as if an army of people were hurling pebbles at them, awoke the 6 boys at 3am, unable to sleep through the pouring rain. Tired, grumpy, and unable to stand the sound of the gail force winds outside, they all dragged themselves to the common room, couple by couple, and they huddled up on the plush leather couches, with the extra loud TV on in the centre of the room in an attempt to drown out the beating rain. As much as they attempted to rest, by the time Paul came down to get them at 8, they were all feeling worse than ever, and the prospect of facing hundreds of screaming fan girls in 2 hours really didn't cheer them up, even though they knew they could never not smile, seeing all their happy faces stood in front of them. When they got back to their rooms, it took all their energy not to go and collapse back into bed, instead running cold showers and drinking ice cold water in order to wake them up enough to face the day at least. Eventually, looking bleary eyed, and honestly still looking and feeling like they had just woken up, they dragged themselves downstairs for breakfast, where an equally tired Paul sat waiting for them, 6 boiling hot strong coffees already on the table, 6 plates, and a selection of foods.

“Rough night boys?” Paul asked when they had managed to at least eat something, and they all groaned loudly, as he chuckled quietly at the sight of the 6 restless boys.

“Well, lucky for you, after the CD signing at 10, which goes on till 12, sound check isn’t till 5 tonight, as it’s a 9 till11 concert, they’ve got another showcase there till 4. Therefore, you’ve got 4 to 5 hours to rest between, and we have the tour bus for comfort. How does that sound?”

All the boys nodded slightly, and Paul is sure he heard a small thank you from them all as their heads hit the table.

“Anyway boys, it’s now 8:30, you’ve got 10 minutes to make yourselves look decent. Makeup and hair, and probably a new set of clothes, will be sorted on the way there. It’s an half an hour drive there, so it’ll all be a bit rushed. Now off with you all, I’ll see you down here in 10”

The boys slid from the table one by one and trudged up to their rooms, slowly completing their routines, grabbing their phones, shoes and coats, before going back downstairs to meet Paul at the tour bus around the back, apart from Josh, who said his goodbyes to Niall, and left to hang with the other band members in their rooms.

The journey there was hectic to say the least. Lou ran around frantically in the back, sorting the boys’ hair, re-dressing them, and doing their makeup, whilst they lounged on the bed or the tables, messing up the hair, causing Lou to get increasingly annoyed with them, even if she sympathised with their tiredness and busy schedule. Finally, once they reached the back entrance to HMV, the boys were all looking prim and proper, and they had all woken up enough to face the hoard of fans waiting for them outside the store.

The procedure was pretty simple for them. They could sit in what order they wanted, the fans went from left to right across the table, and they just had to say hello, maybe pose for a picture, and sign their CD, before they moved along the line. They had estimated in the 2 hours, they would face around 500 fans, which meant about 5 a minute. Outside the store, there were around1000 fans lining the streets of London, all holding CD’s, hoping to get a glimpse of their idols, however it would be impossible for them to meet them all, even if they wanted to. As they were shown to their seats, they filed in a pre-arranged order, in order to conceal the relationships and stop fans from getting suspicious. They sat, left to right, Liam, Louis, Niall, Harry and Zayn. Soon, the doors were opened, and the fans flooded in.

To say it was their first CD signing, they handled the speed and the pressure of it all amazingly. They spoke to all their fans, took pictures without question with quite a number of them, and they never let their smiles dropped, even after 90 minutes, when their ears rang from the noise, their hands hurt from all the signing, and their eyes were blinded by the many camera flashes from reporters, fans and just anyone who could get a glimpse. One could say it went without a hitch!