Even Angels Die (One Direction)

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Ella’s POV

I couldn’t believe what had happened to me. Just days ago I’d been admiring Niall and the rest of One Direction from afar, and now I was plucking up my courage to knock on his door. He’d given me his number and invited me to his place today and I wasn’t planning on turning him down. I think he planned for us to watch a movie together and order a pizza and that sounded perfect to me. I was a bit of a romantic and love the whole ‘candle-lit dinner’ but I wasn’t quite ready to be seen with Niall. I knew how harsh some Directioners could be, and I didn’t want to be their next victim.

“Ella? Is that you?” a male voice asked and I spun around to see Liam walking towards me, mobile glued to his ear.

“Oh hi Liam, yeah. Is this Niall’s apartment?” I smiled nervously.

“Yeah, just ring the doorbell.” He returned my smile, “I’m going to meet up with some of my old friends, have a good day.”

“Thanks, Liam, you too.” I replied, quickly turning back to the door and pressing the bell before I could chicken out. I was only waiting for a second before the door swung open and Niall pulled me in.

“Ahh Ella I’m glad you turned up!” Niall said with a huge smile as he took my hand and led me through his large apartment to the living room.

“Of course I would,” I smiled, “This is so weird being here, I’ve imagined meeting you in some many different ways but this is too good to be true.”

Niall grinned at me, “You’re so cute. I’ve always imagined bringing a normal fan back home just to see what they’d do.”

I laughed, “Thanks…I think?”

“What do you wanna watch?” he asked, opening one of the drawers next to the huge TV which was completed filled with DVDs.

“Oh, I have no idea. You choose,” I hedged.

I laughed slightly as Niall put on John Tucker Must Die. “A chick-flick?” I questioned.

“Sure,” Niall grinned at me. “It’s hilarious, have you seen it?”

“Some of it, yeah, I haven’t seen the end though.” I replied.

I sat down on the sofa in front of the TV and Niall sat down next to me, his arm casually draping over my shoulder to pull me closer to him. The movie was really good and funny just as Niall had said it would be. My eyes kept on flicking back to Niall every time I heard his adorable laugh. I still couldn’t believe this was happening to me. I was sitting next to Niall Horan on the sofa and watching a movie with him. It was too good to be true.

“What pizza do you want?” Niall asked in a tone that suggested it was a very important question.

“Margherita?” I smiled as he rolled his eyes at me.

“Boring, Ella!” he said with a laugh.

“Well I’m sorry, it’s my favourite.” I giggled, as he walked back to sit on the sofa with me. We both jumped when the phone rang and Niall groaned, turning around to pick it up.

“Hello?” Niall answered, his voice sounding a little irritated. “What do you mean Paul?” he demanded, his voice sounding even more annoyed as the conversation continued. “And you didn’t think to tell any of us?”

“What’s going on?” I asked, suddenly worried that something was badly wrong.  

“Tell you in a second,” Niall mouthed to me. “Do you want us there now, then?” he spoke into the phone again.

I pouted slightly, realising that something needed Niall’s immediate attention and that our ‘date’ (if you could call it that) was going to come to an abrupt end. “Okay,” Niall sighed, “See you in a few.” And hung up the phone.

“What’s going on?” I repeated.

“Paul forgot to tell us we have a sound check scheduled for an hour’s time.”  Niall grumbled.

“Oh, do you want me to go?” I asked sadly.

“No!” he said quickly, “We can just have a pizza out instead? Come with me?”

“Sure!” I smiled, anything which meant I spent longer with Niall was okay with me.

“I’ll drive and we can come back for your car?” Niall asked, “Here,” he gave my bag and jacket to me.

“Thanks!” I smiled, brushing my hair out of my eyes and following him out of the door. I didn’t know where we were going, but I wasn’t particularly disappointed at leaving Niall’s apartment so soon. It was exciting to be out and about with him. To think that there could be other One Direction fans who would see us together and that it was me that spent a couple of hours at his apartment. Hell, it was exciting to be with him full stop.

I couldn’t help the smile as Niall opened the car door for me like a true gentleman.  “Hmm, nice car.” I noted lightly as I sat down in the front seat of his Ferrari.

 “Thanks babe,” he laughed, turning the keys in the ignition. I had only recently passed my test, as I was seventeen and a few months, I still wasn’t overly confident driving my own car. That wasn’t the case for Niall, although I know he’d been driving a lot longer than I had.

“Where are we actually going?” I questioned as we travelled down some unfamiliar roads in the outskirts of London.

 “Wembley Arena,” he told me. “We’re part of Capital’s Summertime Ball 2014 and there’s so many of us performing this year they’re not sure if they’ll be able to do a sound check tomorrow, so today is apparently the day.”

“Oh yeah, of course. I didn’t realise that was this week.” I commented. “Are you nervous?”

“More excited really, we’ve performed at the O2 arena loads, but not Wembley. I know I’ll be nervous on the night, but being on stage is the best feeling in the word for me.” He smiled, and I could quite clearly see his enthusiasm. He really loved performing, and his career was obviously very important to him.

“Here we are!” he said a while later as we pulled up in a space which was reserved for performers. “Have you ever been in an empty stadium before?” he asked me.

I laughed, “I’ve never been in a stadium before, let alone an empty one.”

“Really?” Niall asked, “I think you’ll like this then. Lets’ go!” he took my hand and together we ran through the security and through all the backstage doors.

“Niall!” I giggled as we dodged through the pretty scary security guards. My laughter turned into a gasp as we ran onto the empty stage.

“Amazing, huh?” he smiled.

I blinked and looked out on the thousands and thousands of empty seats in front of me. It was amazing, but also strangely eerie. I felt a shiver run up my spine as I imagined the ninety thousand people, all with their eyes focused on me on the stage.

“Wow,” I whispered, walking on the stage and looking around the whole arena.

“I know,” Niall grinned. “And later this week it’ll be full of people coming to see us!”

“It’s incredible.” I smiled, but my happiness was cut short as a couple of security guards ran onto the stage after us.

“You can’t be…” one of them started, “Oh, Niall, it’s just you.” He rolled his eyes. “You need to get your microphone and earpiece fitted with the rest of the guys.”

“Yeah, I know. This is Ella, she’s my friend and she can stay here.” Niall ordered as he was escorted off the stage to his wardrobe. The security guards eyed me suspiciously before helping me off the stage to sit in the middle of the front row.

It wasn’t long before the five of them walked onto the stage and when they started singing…oh my god they sounded so good.  It was beyond anything I had ever heard before. Listening to them singing live itself was amazing, but listening to them live without a backing track in the middle of an empty arena was indescribable.

All I wanted to do was sit there and listen to them for hours and hours...which was exactly what I did.