It's You [H.S.]

4.7 | You with me

31st October 2015

The atmosphere is charged backstage. Proud and celebratory and bittersweet.

Management and the touring crew smoothly wrap up the last of their pre-show checks. For their eightieth and final time in the last nine months, it's certainly a well-oiled machine.

Once everything is set up and ready, they gravitate closer to the boys than they normally would. The full wider team is also in attendance, including their songwriters and the army of support staff from the management and label offices too.

Paul, Lou and Lottie are feeling conflicted. Eager to get home and back to a sense of normality, but very conscious it's the end of a formative era in their careers and an amazing time in their lives. They know it will be an adjustment to get used to everyday life without them again.

The mums are teary as they work their way around the green room, effusively thanking everyone for supporting and looking out for their boys over the last five years.

Their gathered families, relatives and close friends are all watching keenly, soaking up the atmosphere and toasting their incredible success.

The boys are all pumped. Anxious, excited and starting to feel the adrenaline flow.

After Liam and Sophia's shock break up just a couple of weeks ago, they are relieved to see that he seems to be back in better spirits. The horror of the state he was in at the Belfast gig - which they'd had to cancel, just before going on - is, reassuringly, already a distant memory.

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In the crowded room, with far more hangers-on than usual, Eloise is being cautious. Mindful of the endless camera flashes, and also sensitive of Liam's heartbreak, she is making a conscious effort not to flaunt her relationship with Harry. But he's not making it easy.

He's positively on one; full of energy and whizzing around, charming everyone and working the room like the pro he is. He's playful and flirtatious and tactile. And that's just with the other boys' mums and relatives.

He's been out of control with her. Fending him off and swatting him away all afternoon, at one point they'd physically wrestled as he tried to coerce her into a storage cupboard. She can still picture the look on Liam's mum's face when she rounded the corner and saw the aftermath - him sprawled above her on the floor, laughing hysterically, playfully rutting into her.

So the reason for her watchful eye now is twofold. Pre-emptively thwarting any more attempted quickies. And knowing he'll inevitably have a wobble at some point, and certainly crash later, given the weight of the occasion.

Her anxiousness isn't helped by still eagerly awaiting Charles' phone call to confirm Reese and Stevie's final decision. She has already triple-checked that her ringer is on vibrate in her back pocket; she'd never hear it over the noise of this crowd.

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Eloise is chatting with Harry's dad, Des, and various cousins, when she jumps at feeling her phone vibrate.  After momentarily freezing in panic, she politely excuses herself.

Checking the caller ID, she jumps into action and tries to avoid catching Harry's eye as she slips through the crowd to leave the room.

"Finally! I thought I'd have heard from you by now", she says hurriedly, straining to hear over the noise and poor phone signal.

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Harry must have seen her leave as he's loitering near the doorway, stepping away from Niall and his brother to pounce as soon as she returns. "Was that him? What did he say?".