I was woken by Cara at 6.30am, and I noted she was dressed, with a little more makeup than yesterday. Assuming she was trying to impress a certain band, I grinned, getting up straight away.
Once I was in the bathroom, I turned on the shower. The bruises along my arms and back were still bright purples and blues, but no longer as prominent as the first night I stayed here.
I'd left home five days ago, and my mind wandered home - I created a scary scene in my mind as I stood under the shower, taking care in washing over my cuts and injuries, feeling lost.
Tears dripped down my nose, but luckily the sound of the shower masked my hideous, heavy sobs.
I dried myself systematically, face, arms, legs, humming a tune in my head.
My shower was brief, and I was dressed after ten minutes.
The hotel uniform was a white blouse, black trousers or a knee-length pencil skirt, and a maroon blazer with the logo embroidered on the left lapel.
Checking my appearance in the mirror, I was glad I hadn't washed my hair, with only fifteen minutes till work started.
Mr Paisley was easing me into work slowly - I started at 7am for now, but as the weeks went on, I'd gradually begin earlier - at 6am. I realised a lot of the clients still went to early morning meetings, and didn't share in the relaxed lifestyle I was used to.
I ensured my new foundation was blended evenly, applied the faintest layer of black mascara and then slid on my blazer.
I did scrub up well in this tidy uniform, but it felt far more formal than comfortable.
My injuries still smarted, but the reminder of who inflicted these injuries more than spurred me on to be better than him.
Work began with room service, and my nerves slowly crept in as I ran down to the kitchen a few hours later and grabbed a silver tray with cookies.
Wondering which of the twenty something guests had ordered chocolate chip cookies and flapjacks, I distracted my watering mouth by singing Little Things.
"Room service!" I called, knocking on the door with my spare hand.
The tray, filled with cookies and flapjacks, was still warm and reminded me I hadn't had breakfast in my haste to get to work. I ought to wake up earlier, I thought.
I heard the latch being turned and soon, it swung open in front of me.
"Cookies!" Exclaimed Liam Payne.
I felt myself gape at him a surely unnattractive sight, whereas I was blessed with the sight of a brown haired boy with eyes like chocolate.
"I'll just put this on the table and be on my way." I assured him as he allowed me in.
"No, no, come in! I'm sure you can spare a few minutes, right?" He asked softly.
I contemplated saying no but, who was I kidding, Liam Payne was inviting him into his shared hotel deluxe suite.
I realised it would be breaching the rule to respect the privacy of all guests, but on the other hand, I couldn't ignore a guest.
It was 12:37pm and already a family of four had left the room in a tip - I wondered if I'd stepped into a pig sty rather than a high end hotel.
"Are you sure? I can go," I murmured hesitantly, shuffling my feet.
He smiled warmly at me, "Of course! I'm sure we'll see you a lot more these next few weeks, come in!"
Butterflies began to tickle my stomach as Liam talked; fame radiated off him like a warm glow, and I felt like I was Icarus flying far too close to the sun.
I stepped inside the deluxe suite and looked around; Harry and Louis were curled up on the sofa on their phones, Zayn was standing around on the phone to someone, and Niall was perched on the edge of the sofa.
They all looked like models, even in their sweats and each with a terrible case of bed head. I'd never envied boys before.
I spotted the large, mahogany table and placed the silver tray on it. I lifted the lid with unnecessary flourish and Liam immediately picked a cookie up, chewing happily.
When I dared to look up, I had everyone's full attention. I blushed and was sure I matched my blazer.
"Boys, this is...what's your name?" Liam introduced after he'd eaten blushing slightly.
"I'm Olivia."
They all smiled and greeted me.
I cleared my throat; "I've brought you your cookies." Stating the obvious, I worried that I'd embarrassed myself.
Surprising me, they cheered and in turn grabbed some biscuits. I beamed at them, my courage restored as the attention was off me.
"Sit down, Olivia." Niall said, patting the space beside him.
I gingerly sat down and watched as the boys devoured the biscuits.
"Hungry?"
They nodded and soon Harry spoke up. "So how long have you worked here, Olivia?"
"Only four days, actually." I responded.
They took this as an opportunity to ask me questions.
"So, Olivia, where are you from?" Louis asked me, leaning forward as he spoke. He settled his hands on his knees and gave me a big smile.
"Milton Keynes, I moved here because I-" I paused. I blushed and looked down at my hands.
"Why did you move?" Zayn prompted, his mellow voice comforting to hear.
"I'm 18, I wanted to move to a big city and ended up here." I replied, surprising myself.
The boys nodded in agreement and I breathed a short sigh of relief.
"Ahhhh!" Harry screamed, keeling over the sofa.
I snapped my head towards the sound, to find Harry planking on the floor, Liam, Niall and Zayn all stifling laughter, and Louis biting back a laugh, his eyes gleaming with mischief.
"I'm gonna kill you, Louis!" Harry said, once he'd stood up.
I watched in amusement as Louis crawled across the top of the sofa, dodging pillows Harry was throwing at him.
Liam shouted something from behind me and Zayn laughed. I imagined this was a regular occurrence when the boys were together.
Louis reached over for a cookie and Harry grabbed him, pulling him to the ground and putting his knee over his chest to prevent him from moving.
He grabbed Louis' phone from his pocket and tweeted 'I'm Louis Tomlinson and I love poo'.
I rolled my eyes, laughing, as I watched Louis cry out in defeat at the tweet which would definitely ruin his career and reputation.
I stood up and smiled at them all, "As much as I'd like to stay, I've got work to do. Catch you later?"
They all said their farewells, but all I could hear was the pounding of my heart. One. Direction. Spoke. To. Me. My mind said in monosyllables.
Niall walked me to the door, "Thanks for the cookies, Olivia. See you soon, then?" Niall asked, smiling warmly at me.
"I'm sure I will, bye." I grinned, shutting the door behind me.
I sighed as I thought of the fun I had in there.
Making my way to the reception, I found myself wishing I hadn't left so early.
[A/N, 22.11.13 - Over 1,000 reads?! THAT is the best early b'day present ever!
