Loving the Band (8 page)

Relief was temporary, however, as Logan walked out of his room dressed only in a pair of grey boxers. It was the wrong time to walk in; I’d just taken a sip of milk and, faced with his half-naked body, I spluttered it out all over myself. Riley did not look impressed.

I started laughing as shouts of ‘Lo! Lady in the house!’ and ‘Get some clothes on, mate!’ filled the room.

‘My place. I’ll dress how I want,’ was the response, and he strutted into the kitchen to grab himself some toast. Thankfully, he did pull on a spare pair of trackies lying around after he’d finished his breakfast.

I began to wonder where Shaq was – maybe he was hiding in his room – when his door opened and he trudged in wearing a pair of oversized sweats and white T-shirt
that hung from his limp body. From the dark circles under his eyes, I could guess that he’d got about as much sleep as I had. He stopped briefly when he saw me sitting next to Riley, but turned away, walking into the kitchen. He came out seconds later with a bowl of cereal and parked himself on the other sofa, avoiding eye contact.

Riley gave my leg a squeeze and without thinking, I leaned in closer.

‘Jess, I was thinking, how about you come to watch us in rehearsal today? That is, only if you wanted to.’ His uncertainty was so cute that, to my surprise, I felt my heart flutter a little.

I collected myself and responded, ‘You want me to watch you all singing?’

‘Do you think you’d like to? I don’t want you to be too bored.’

‘Are you sure that would be OK with everyone?’ I looked round the room at the boys.

‘Yeah, definitely! I’d love there to be a pretty face in the room for once instead of having to stare at these ugly mugs,’ Logan joked.

‘Er, check yourself in the mirror,’ Callum retorted. ‘But, yeah, we’d all love you to be there, Jess.’

The others nodded, but Shaq didn’t join in. I seemed to be the only one to notice him ignore me.

Well, damn him. Riley had asked me so I was going to go.

I brushed an imaginary speck off Riley’s shoulder and he looked at me fondly. ‘I’d love to.’

I went back into Riley’s room to get ready. I walked into his bathroom on a mission to find a hairbrush. I opened the first drawer, not finding what I was looking for, but something much more interesting! There, filling the space, were more grooming products than I had ever seen before. I quickly clasped my hand round my mouth, but fits of giggles escaped. By the looks of it, he used more products than I did. I quickly closed the drawer before he heard my laughter.

I finally found a brush next to the basin and I took my hair out from its messy braid – it was wild, blonde hair sticking up everywhere. I soon tamed it by splashing a little bit of water on it, combing it gently. I decided that I would leave it down today. I walked back through to the living room, grabbing my phone on the way. The boys were all there, waiting.

‘Finally!’ Logan joked, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically. ‘You sure you’re ready, then?’

I narrowed my eyes at him. ‘Y’know, fifteen minutes for a girl to get ready is pretty fast, but, yes, I’m ready.’

He smirked and headed out of the hotel room. One after the other, the boys piled out of the room towards the lift. Only Riley waited for me.

I smiled. ‘What a gentleman.’

He winked, leading me by the hand to the lift. ‘I can be a lot more than that.’

I’m sure I was already blushing when Logan loudly declared, ‘Finally, the love birds are here!’

As Riley guided me with one hand into the lift with
him, I looked up and caught Shaq’s eye, which I thought I saw flash with hurt at Logan’s comment.

It was a tight squeeze with the six of us crammed into the small lift and I found myself crushed against Shaq’s broad chest. I swore I felt him edge as far away from me as he could.

Riley looked down at me reassuringly and looped his fingers through mine. I decided I liked how that felt and I kept mine there, giving his hand a small squeeze.

The glass doors opened to reveal a packed lobby. Riley wrapped his arm round my waist, pulling me towards a tall man standing to the right of the busy crowd of people. The man pulled Tyler aside and began talking to him, a serious expression on his face.

‘Who’s that?’ I murmured to Riley.

He bent his head down towards my ear, sending unexpected shivers down my spine at his closeness. ‘That’s Paul – he’s our manager.’

‘Has something bad happened?’

Callum, who overheard me, laughed. ‘No, I think we must just have fans outside.’

I felt Riley let his hand fall from my waist and he pulled them into his varsity jacket. I was surprised, but didn’t say anything.

‘Here we go, boys – and girl,’ said Paul, not looking too surprised to see me there with Riley. ‘Everyone ready?’

As we walked through the door, Riley and Logan broke off to talk to the fans and pose for photos. They were obviously good at their job, but I felt a bit deserted and
unsure of what to do next. Just then I felt a reassuring hand placed on my upper back, guiding me to the black SUV car parked on the other side of the path. I turned to see which of the boys it was and saw Shaq walking next to Callum, his head hanging low. It couldn’t have been him, could it? It must have been Callum. He was very caring, after all.

I rushed straight for the black car and flung open the heavy door, chucking myself down on the seat. I sighed and rubbed my temples with my two pointer fingers. Not long after, Logan and Riley jumped in.

‘You OK, Jess?’ Riley asked, squeezing in next to me and looking into my eyes with concern. ‘Sorry I had to leave you for a moment.’

‘That’s OK,’ I smiled. ‘Here safe and sound.’

Shaq stared out of the window.

I sat in a corner of the room behind the soundproof glass listening to the boys singing their hearts out. Callum had led me there and made sure I was completely comfortable and been introduced to the sound technicians – all really nice guys. He paused before joining the rest of the boys. ‘If you speak to Tegan this morning, tell her I say hi. It would be good to see her again.’

‘I’ll definitely do that,’ I smiled, watching him blush ever so slightly. I grinned to myself as he scampered out of the room. Interesting … I made a note to call Tegan as soon as I had signal.

When the boys started singing, I sat back in awe at the way they worked together. The harmony of all their voices sent shivers down my spine, but it wasn’t just that – the chemistry they emanated was amazing to see as they intuitively adjusted to each other’s pitch, tried new off-the-cuff melodies and encouraged each other.

In between songs, I saw Shaq struggle with his tiredness,
rubbing his eyes and looking like he was just trying to concentrate on the words and nothing else. Riley stared intently through the window to where I sat, every now and then giving me the most charming and intimate of smiles.

At one point, when the others took a water and snack break, Riley came through to the side of the glass where I sat and placed his head softly in my lap.

‘You OK, Riley?’ I asked him, looking down fondly.

He simply nodded, snuggling closer into my lap. I found myself playing with his curls, twisting them round my fingers. He let out a quiet sigh and turned to look at me, holding my gaze. His ocean-blue eyes were very striking and I had trouble breaking their gaze. Logan came to my rescue as he poked his head round the door to call Riley over for the next song. I remembered Tegan’s words about looking after myself and having fun and I decided that I definitely did when Riley was around. I pretended I hadn’t seen the pained look Shaq gave Riley as he came back into the rehearsal room to join the boys. When the next song began, Shaq started it off with a haunting and melancholy solo. His voice sounded full of agony.

The boys drove me back to Dad’s house after the session. Riley had asked me to stay and, looking into his handsome face and twinkling blue eyes, it would have been really easy to say yes, but I needed to go home, take a shower and talk over everything that had happened with Tegan. I had so much going on in my head that I needed someone
to share it with.

The journey back was pretty quiet and I think the tension between me, Shaq and Riley had been picked up somewhat by the other boys. I spent the uncomfortable time texting Tegan about Callum’s comment about her. When we finally pulled up to my father’s house, Riley leaned over to kiss me goodbye on the cheek and the others gave me hugs. Shaq just nodded as I left.

Walking up the drive, I sighed and unlocked the door. All of a sudden, I felt incredibly exhausted. I took my shoes off and threw them in the corner of the room, heading straight for bed.

Checking in on Tegan, I found her fast asleep so I went into my room, threw my clothes off, not caring where they landed, and gratefully crawled under my duvet.

I was just dropping off to sleep when I heard my phone ping. I groaned and reached over to grab it from the bedside table. I squinted at the bright light now filling my room. It was a text from Riley:

Hey, I just wanted to check if you were ok. You were pretty quiet in the car. X

I smiled at how he had thought about me again. I texted him back straight away.

Hey Riley, yeah I’m fine. I was just tired. Thank you for making sure – it means a lot.
Night x

I lied about why I was being so quiet – I think Riley actually suspected that it had a lot to do with Shaq, but he didn’t seem to want to address it any more than I did. I reminded myself that this was all meant to be about having fun with someone new. And Riley was fun. And pretty sexy too.

Sweet dreams, Jessica. xx

I turned over to go to sleep, determined that that’s exactly what I would do, but for some reason the bed just felt empty and uncomfortable.

Music filled the room, making me wake up almost instantly. I turned over in bed and covered my ears, hoping it would go away. But it persisted. I groaned in frustration.

‘TEGAN! Turn your music down!’ I shouted, knowing she probably couldn’t hear me. When it carried on, I grumpily shot up in bed, before guiltily realizing it was my phone, which was ringing. I quickly reached for it, nearly falling off my bed on the way down. I steadied myself and squinted down at the screen. It was Riley.

‘Hello?’ I croaked. My morning voice was not good.

I heard a chuckle down the phone and an equally husky but far more sexy voice replied. ‘Morning, Jessica.’

I grinned. ‘Hey, Riley.’

‘Are you OK today?’

‘Yes, I’m fine, thank you. Are you?’

‘Yes, I’m good,’ he mumbled.

‘Good,’ I giggled. This was a very odd and formal conversation. Riley actually sounded a little nervous. ‘Tell me you’re calling this early in the morning for a good
reason!’ I said cheekily.

‘Well, actually, I was wondering … me and the boys are all off to Brighton beach today if you and Tegan would like to come.’ He paused and, before I had a chance to reply, quickly added, ‘Only if you fancy it. No pressure.’

‘The beach?’

‘Yeah!’ he said with excitement, and I could feel a smile playing on my lips. ‘It’s, like, twenty-eight degrees outside!’

I opened the curtains and sunlight poured into my room, lighting it up instantly. I closed my eyes and let my skin soak up the warmth. I was always at my happiest when it was warm.

I heard him fake cough down the phone, grabbing my attention. ‘Er, Jess, are you still there?’

‘Yeah,’ I laughed. ‘That sounds great fun, Riley. Count us in’

‘It’s about eight now, so if we come pick you guys up at nine is that OK? Because it will take, like, an hour or so to get –’ He got cut off by someone shouting in the background.

I heard him cover the phone up and shout something back, but it was too muffled for me to hear. I grabbed my bottle of water and took a swig while waiting for him.

He uncovered the phone. ‘Sorry about that. Um, remember your bikini.’

I nearly choked on my water. ‘
Excuse me?
’ I spluttered.

‘Oh! I mean in case you want to go in the water you know …’ He trailed off.

I giggled. ‘See you in an hour, Riley.’

I went and knocked on Tegan’s bedroom door and then peeked in – she was already up.

I was so glad to see her smiling, sleepy face. ‘Tegan, I’ve missed you! I’m so sorry we haven’t had a chance to catch up, but I think today I will be able to make up for it. Is there any chance you could be ready in half an hour?’

She looked surprised. ‘I think so. Why?’

‘We’re off to Brighton with the The Only Truth boys,’ I grinned.

‘What?’ Her eyes lit up with excitement. ‘Will, erm … Callum be there?’ she asked hopefully.

Now this was interesting. I smiled. ‘Yes … They will all be there. So I’m guessing you read my text, then!’

She blushed hotly. ‘Well … Yes … Oh! Is that the time? I better get ready!’ and she shut the bedroom door in my face.

‘How rude!’ I said to the closed door, laughing as I headed back to my room. It looked like I wasn’t the only one intent on having lots of fun this holiday.

I rummaged through my suitcase, finally coming across my floral-print bikini. The only reason I’d packed it was because Tegan had declared that ‘you never know what will happen’. At the time I’d laughed at her, but now I was eternally grateful.

I slipped on the strapless top and the bottoms, now I just needed something to wear over it. Since it was warm outside I decided on a pair of cut-off ‘rock star’ shorts, with cool flag pockets and then I just threw on a grey shirt. I left my hair down for now, but slipped a few
colourful bobbles along with some bracelets on my wrist. Pocketing my phone and some money, I made my way downstairs. I walked into the kitchen and took a bowl from the shelf and made myself some breakfast. I had just settled on the sofa as Tegan came down the stairs. She was dressed in a pair of denim shorts and a white top. You could see her bikini straps tied round the back of her neck.

‘Morning,’ she mumbled, still not quite meeting my eye after our bedroom chat. She sat on the other sofa.