I've worked it out! I'll attempt drawing him though admittedly, that's hard. I shall resort to Google images which should, by all means, have something from XFactor that I could use, and if I' really short on time, I'll trace the main features and then add in shading and stuff free-hand. And I'll definitely do the eyes free-hand, I just have to. Whenever I have free time, I find myself in my room with the door shut, working on it. I've got all of this afternoon to start things off, and if I really spend time on it I'll get the outline of his head and hair done. Then tomorrow morning I've got work, come home with dinner, scoff it down and back to business. If I say I get about 3 hours that second night, that should be plenty enough. Can't tell Louis I'm drawing or he'll blab, and the other 3 don't know that I draw yet. They'll know about it in 2 days. In 4 days I'll be legal to drink. And join the armed forces as well as do a million other things I would not usually be able to do, and if I were still in Doncaster, still not have the freedom to do. But first, for the picture.
I bolt over to Louis', he's got a video and digital combined camera that he won't mind lending me. "Hey, I need your cam for a moment, and then I need to print. You have a printer around here?"
"Nup." Screw that. I actually need one now for a birthday present. I barge into Liam's. It's not like him to leave it unlocked.
"Liam, do you have access to a printer?"
"Not here, but certainly at Dani's. Why do you need it?"
"I just wanted to print something. If we seriously don't have one around here and need to do it at Dani's then I won't bother. I'll think of another way."
"Alright then. But if you need to print something, Dani's only about 15 minutes' drive away."
"I'm fine." Back in my room I selected an image of all their eyes. It shouldn't take me very long to get them all done, I'm sticking to lead pencil, just one of those can work wonders.
Work breezed by, we have a new worker in the afternoon, in the form of a young high schooler only 14, Dilir. He reminds me of my young ones back in Doncaster. "Hi, my name's Dilir. I'm gonna be working here Monday afternoons from now."
"Awesome, man! 'Nother boy hanging around here!"
"Aren't there other guys?"
"It's just you, me, and Maddy."
"Where are you from? I can tell you aren't from around here."
"Doncaster, South Yorkshire."
"You watch XFactor?"
"Nope. Didn't have time to."
"Oh. Because… there's this guy in a band my girlfriend's pretty into and he's from Doncaster."
"There was a guy 2 grades above me, he went on. Might be that guy, because next thing we knew, he came back with a bunch of them."
"Well there's another Asian, think Mek said was half -Pakistani, he was in that band too. One Direction, or something of the sort."
"Yeah, that'll be him. Louis Tomlinson. He was in the school musical last year." The lead role, too.
"Soft voice?"
"Can't quite hear 'im but better than me."
"Yes, we're talking about the same person."
"No one else in the world sings quite like him."
"Get to work, boys! Less chit-chat." We rolled our eyes like the teacher was yelling at us.
"How was work today?"
"New kid comin' in and we need to train him up." I set out our dinner- takeaway, once again. "What do you want for your birthday?"
"I don't care. To meet Justin Bieber, I suppose. To grow taller, if I could. Be better looking, that sort of thing. Trivial," he dismissed.
"Can't help you. The new kid's girlfriend's a fan, by the way. Said she liked all of them and he was confused. How could you like 6 guys at once, he'd asked. I didn't know how to answer that one," I recounted as I shovelled barbequed pork into my mouth. This particular portion was brilliant, not very fatty, not dry from lack of fat. The other box was soft-shelled crab. But by the time we got to it and I'd divided the box between us, it was quite… soft, the oil was coming out with each time you bit into it. Not crunchy like it usually would be. But still, quite nice. It was entirely new to Niall. "So you just eat the whole thing?"
"Yeah, with the shell."
"With the… with the shell?!"
"Yeah. It's soft."
"I've got a birthday present, but I don't know if you'll like it." We were all seated in our flat. All 6 of us. I whip out the piece of paper I'd been clutching. "Here. That's it. See if you like it." I watched his eyes widen.
"That's pretty good. Except Zayn you've been stripped of your eyelashes," Niall stated frankly. Zayn recoiled in mock horror.
"All of you have lost your eyelashes because I'm that bad," I correct.
"Annie, you aren't bad at all. Like, you can tell whose eyes they are and that's enough. Even if they're wonky."
"You can only tell which ones are Lou by deduction. Random bit of hair's you, Harry, Liam's Liam because he's Liam, Zayn's got the darkest eyes, Niall's look retarded, nothing on his part, just the way I draw. And then, there's Louis. It was quite rushed. Maybe if I had more time I'd-"
"I'm happy with this, I don't want to know what might have happened if you had more time, I'm extremely happy with it. Thanks, Annie."
"Well, I suppose if you're happy…"
"One last request?"
"What is it?" I asked. Niall took a deep breath and spoke.
"Will you be my girlfriend?"