- billboards {h.s.}

1

There were just as many billboards as there were trees it seemed. I started counting them at one point. 256. I counted 256 so far, but who knows how many we'd passed before l even started counting. It'd also been 256 billboards since anyone spoke to me. Not that I'd expected anything other than that anyway. I barely knew these guys and I was the only female on the bus, other than the driver. But she was a 50-something rocker, past her prime. She wore glittery makeup and styled her hair like they did in the 80's. She was definitely on the wrong bus but, I'm guessing this gig wasn't her first job-choice anyway.

257.

"Hey," I turned around from the window and the drummer, I think his name was Kyle, stuck his hand out. "We haven't met yet. I'm Kasey, I play bass."

I shook his hand, thankful I hadn't called him Kyle yet or started rambling about drums. "I'm Summer, the song writer."

"The song writer, huh?" He asked raising a well groomed brow at me. "Ever wrote any hits?"

I nodded, not ashamed to admit my accomplishments. "I have actually, bet you expected me to say no."

He chuckled and ran a hand through his dirty blond hair, slyly flexing while he did it. "Actually no, I've heard all about you from Derek... And I won't lie, I've googled your name once or twice."

I shook my head as I laughed. "Well, I'm flattered."

He looked down at the table I was sitting at. "What's this?" He asked tapping the sheet of paper. "Is that how you make your hits?"

"No definitely not." I giggled. "Uh, I was counting billboards actually. I got bored I guess," I began to crumple the paper up, but he stopped me.

"Don't," he took the paper and sat down in the booth beside me, scooting me over as he pushed himself in. "How many is this?"

"257, but I've been missing some since you came around."

He smiled, flashing his teeth, which were surprisingly white. "Sorry for distracting you. Maybe we could count them together. I'll keep track, you count 'em."

"Okay," I said knowingly. This was just a ploy to come sit with me. I've known from prior experience, being the only girl on a bus means all the guys try to get with you, even the ones with girlfriends and wives.

258. 259. 260.

We passed one with two signs on it, one on top of the other. "Does that count as two?" Kasey asked, smirking.

"I guess so." I said. He marked two tallies on the paper and looked over at me.

"You must've been so bored over here. This isn't entertaining at all." He chuckled. "Have you met everyone else yet?"

I shook my head.

"Do you want to?"

I shook my head again. "I don't like the attention."

"You're not used to it?" He raised a brow at me.

"Why would I be?" I asked, my job never has and never will require me to be in the spotlight.

"Because you're so beautiful, Summer."

I couldn't roll my eyes hard enough. "Look Kasey, you're nice and cute but this is work to me. I'm not looking for anything like that right now."

Boisterous laughter broke our attention. "Rejected!" Another guy from the band said as he walked past towards the bunks. The rest of the guys were behind him. Two of them stopped at the table and sat with us. I recognized one of them as the tour photographer and the other as the reason we were all here, Harry Styles.

"You guys look close." Harry smirked and tapped his fingers on the table.

"We were just... counting billboards." I said.

Kasey still hadn't taken his eyes off of me. "Summer, do you wanna finish talking somewhere else?"

"I don't think we need to," I said speaking low. "I said all I had to say."

The photographer laughed. "Kase give it up, she's out of your league."

"What, you think she's in yours, Ryan?" Kasey rolled his eyes. "She'll change her mind."

"She's right here and you two are making things awkward." I said as I began fiddling with my nails.

"She is right," Harry put in. "What's her name, by the way?" He smiled over at me.

"Summer," I repeated. "We were supposed to meet last Wednesday but I had a thing to be at. Sorry about that," I said.

I remembered waking up that morning. I sat up and knew already I wasn't gonna be making it to that meeting. My hands were shaking and I was getting a migraine, so I just stayed inside and packed. I was just too nervous.

"Well we're here now. You got any songs for me?" He asked, expectantly.

"I always have songs," I said pulling my sparkly pink notebook from between me and the window. He took the notebook, chuckling at the cover a little as he took a good look at it. "Don't laugh, just open it."

He flipped the cover and began flicking through the pages. "Wow, there's like two on every page." He looked up at me. "I get to choose any song?"

"You get up to sixteen I think I recall hearing Derek say that's how many tracks were gonna be on the second record."

"We'll probably record about 50. I don't know how I'm ever gonna pick just 16." He flicked the page and stopped. "Isn't this a John Mayer song?"

"It was a Summer Winston song first," I shrugged.

Harry looked up at Kasey. "They sent us the Picasso of song writing." He flipped another page. "And that's Megan Trainor, and is that Rihanna?"

"Megan was my least favorite to work with, she's a snob and if I wouldn't have wrote that lame ass song, she'd a one hit wonder too." I shook my head.

Harry laughed. "You're the brutally honest type, I see. What's Rihanna like?" He asked.

"Oh she's perfect. She's so sweet and talented and she's so much fun to be around. She's always got weed on deck, just a pleasure to work with in general."

"I'm so jealous. I'd love to do a duet with her." He said flipping through my book.

She owed me a favor and singing a few verses on a track with Harry definitely counted. I just didn't know if I was willing to cash out that favor for Harry.

a.n.
if someone could find it in their heart to make me a cover that'd be amazing, pls and thank you