The Chance

The Signing

After pushing Natasha all the way across the cluttered room into Jordan's waiting arms and Ashley's smiling and slightly concerned face, Perri and me returned to his end of the table. He sat down onto the seat quickly and pulled a programme in front of him, the owner of which was standing awkwardly in front of him, obviously a little bit star struck. I edged around her and stood equally awkwardly next to her, trying not to meet her eye. Why wasn't Perri saying anything? Usually he'd start up a conversation to make the fans feel less awkward...it was like something was on his mind...

Suddenly Perri seemed to jerk back to life and his head shot up like he'd just received an electric shock.

"Sorry" He said, looking confused at first then, as his thoughts began to return to him, he smiled. "I forgot to ask, what's your name?" He asked the girl standing next to me.

"Oh" She said surprised; "Its er...Ste-Stephanie, its Stephanie" She said quickly, blushing slightly.

He smiled at her then continued signing; "Nice name" He said while he was signing.

"Thanks" She replied.

"Are you looking forward to the show?" He asked, glancing up. He stopped for a moment and looked at me, his mind seemed to make a quick decision.

"You know you can sit down if you want" He said, talking to me. He gestured for me to sit on the floor beside him "Here sit here next to me" He smiled warmly then quickly said; "You know if you want, you can go and see someone else if you want to" He seemed to falter a bit at the end and was it me...or was he blushing?

"Yeah, sure sounds great" I said.

He beamed with pleasure then put his head down and continued signing.

As the girl answered Perris question, gushing about how long she'd been a fan (beat seven years sister), I made my way round that table and collapsed in a heap next to him. I could feel the girls jealous stare from across the table. I squirmed uncomfortably, I hated being looked at. Instead of fussing about the girl I told myself to focus on Perri. His head was bent over and his mouth was slightly open. His eyebrows were furried together in concentration and I could just make out a small strand of hair from his Afro gently resting on his black square glasses. He was more perfect than I could have ever imagined.

It was just my luck that at the exact point he had to glance back at me and catch me staring at him.

"What?" He said, smiling cheekily.

"Oh err nothing" I said and put my head down in embarrassment, pretending to have a sudden interest with the carpet. I blushed furiously, I really hope Perri couldn't see. I looked up just as he was turning back to the signature. He was still smiling.

"Eugh!" I said, trying to catch his attention and prove to him that I wasn't just there to stare at him.  "That was exhausting! I never knew getting crazed fans to see their idols was so hard"

He laughed, a small tinkling sound with his eyes closed, which caused him to lose focus and his hand to slide down the page a little. He noticed. "Dam" He muttered.

"Hey, what's the matter?" I said and propped my elbows up onto the table so I could see what he was so annoyed about. My head was now only a few centimetres away from his; I could feel a wisp of his Afro tickling my ear. I tried to slow down my breathing while I peered over to the programme and glanced at his worried face. What was the problem? I wondered. He had only made a line near the end of his signature where his hand had slipped, I'm sure the girl wouldn't mind.

Perri turned to me then quickly put his head down again "No, its nothing" He mumbled and started to hand the programme back to Stephanie. She reached out eagerly for it.