Start Over Again

XVIII

            It was 100% him. He'd followed us all the way to our hotel. I was watching him pace backwards and forwards out of the front of the building. As quick as lightning, he was gone. In the space of about one hundredth of a second as I blinked... he was gone. I felt shivers run down my spine knowing that he could be on his way to find me. The boys had gone out for a pint but I said I would stay in the room as I didn't really feel like going drinking. Pushing what was obviously delusions to the back of my mind, I slid into mine and Blake's bed, pulling the quilt up and getting comfy. Minutes felt like hours, yet hours felt like seconds. It got to about 2am and I was still lying awake... alone. They still hadn't returned. 3am... 4am... 4:30am... I heard a faint mumble from outside the room. Finally they were back. Suddenly, the corridor erupted with laughter as I heard the key beep indicating that they were about to enter. Sitting up in the bed, I stared at the door awaiting them walking through, obviously in a state at the time of day. "Shh we can't wake her it's a surprise!" I heard Reece say, who was trying to sneak into the room. "Oh Guys we woke her! Hi Deanna!" George announced walking past the partition wall. They all giggled and joined me on the bed. "Well come on then don't be shy!" Blake laughed, face palming himself. It was like all my worse nightmares coming together. "Hi lovely! Missed me?"

              Jumping up, I smacked my head off the backboard. A mixture of terror and pain stricken tears flooded down my face. Blake, clearly shook from my sudden awakening, sat up and grabbed me. Cradling me in his arms, he rocked back and forth; wiping away the hair stuck to my face. "What was that all about D? Is it because of Max? I'm so sorry you had to see him again. I tried to keep you away from him. This is all my fault." He said, pulling my in close to his chest. I openly welcomed his warm embrace, wrapping myself within his arms. "I'm ok! Let's just go back to sleep we have a busy day tomorrow." I responded, lying back down. I could tell he was tired. He would happily lose hundreds of hours if I needed him. He lay down besides me and kept his hand in mine, almost like a sign that he was there for me.
   We were all ready and walking down to the restaurant for breakfast. Our slot wasn't booked until 12:30 so we still had quite a bit of time left until we needed to leave. Once at our table, we went in pairs up to the buffet and continental tables. Blake and George offered for themselves to go first as "they are the biggest and needed more food". Reece was highly disappointed with his mutual agreement as he defended the fact he was the oldest out of us all. As they returned, finally, Reece and I got up to get ours. I decided I was going to have scrambled eggs on toast and a yogurt, where as Reece decided on a full English breakfast. We waited by the side of the kitchen as our food needed to be cooked fresh. "You know I'm here for you when you need me yeah? I might not know exactly what went down yesterday but I can tell it's deep and I just need you to know. You can talk to me remember." Reece said, out of the blue, turning towards me. I wasn't that shocked at his comment as G had, had the same conversation with me whilst we were brushing our teeth. "Yeah I know! I promise I'll tell you someday. You guys mean so much to me I don't want to keep things from you." I replied. His soft cheeks glowed a rosy red at my previous statement but I'm not sure if he noticed immediately, when he did he turned away again and rested his back against the wall.
                The black cab we took to the eye dropped us on the opposite side of the Thames so that we could enjoy the scenic walk a little bit more, despite how cold it was. We strolled along the river side and up to the bridge. Laughing and carrying on, taking pictures of each other as we walked on. When we arrived at the eye, the queue wasn't that long, so we joined it straight away. About 15 minutes later, we were at the front and a booth came to our feet. We entered and the worker closed the door instantly. I had a little giggle to myself at the sight of the boys confused faces. "I kinda might have booked us a private one. Whoops? Merry Christmas?" I said, shrugging at the end.  The shot huge grins back at me and the pod began to move. "Can we take really cool family photos at the top and every thing aw!" George said, getting himself all excited. Within 20 minutes we were at the peak of the wheel and the phones were flying back out of pockets for "George's family photos". We took one together then I took one of the lads for their instagram. "Can I-um take one with you to-um sent to Lexi she kinda misses you?" Reece asked shyly, as if I was going to shut him down. I nodded and grabbed his phone, shoving it in the direction of my brother, indicating what was needed to be done. Standing next to each other, he wrapped his arm around my waist and I lay my head lightly on his shoulder. Blake smiled as he captured the so called master piece that he was incredibly proud of. The rest of the way around we just joked around and then talked about the rest of the short period of the year we had left.
             To miss out the traffic, we decided to get the tube to oxford street. A couple of fans noticed the boys at the station which didn't bother me now but I knew once the news got out that they were in the city that there would be girls running around everywhere looking for them. Once the girls had left, our train pulled up and we got on. It was quite packed so we just stood near the door. Just as they were about to close, I heard someone one shout. "Hey! Hold the door for me please." The voice asked. Responding to the request, I pushed my arm in between the two that were closing and allowed her to approach. "Thank you so much!" She added as she got near. "Josie?" I asked, confused. "Hi guys!"