It's a Sign of the Times

Chapter Eight: What Could Go Wrong?

Harry pulls me into the building where music is booming and lights are flashing. My senses feel as though they're being overloaded and my head pounds, but in a good way. I never bothered to go to parties in high school - I always thought that they were a waste of time and honestly, I still stand by that. But tonight is for my friends. And maybe a tiny part of me is living out it's wildest fantasies right now of being a crazy teenager. 

Harry lets go of my hand and grins at me. "Good escape."

I make a face at him. "So this is an afterparty worthy of Mr. Styles?"

He gives me a weird look. "I guess the right answer to that is yes, though I have no clue what you're talking about. I'm nineteen, any and all parties are 'worthy' of me," he laughs. 

"That's how old my boyfriend is," I say without thinking. We stand in awkward silence just staring at each other for a solid minute or so.

"Always nice to find things in common with others," he says, rubbing the back of his neck. "I should probably go find my bandmates," Harry suggests before walking off.

Stupid girl. That was a weird thing to say. Harry was just trying to be nice and you made him feel uncomfortable. I pull out my phone to text Caris - Jobeth never answers her phone - only to find out that it's dead. 

"That probably could've gone better," Luke's voice says from behind me. I spin around to face him and have to  tilt my head up to look him in the eyes. He towers over me, biting his lip in a cheeky manner.

"Luke, can you mind your business? My goodness," I say, exasperated. "I just met the guy and he's acting like I should be on my hands and knees worshipping him."

"I mean, that's how everyone else treats him..." he trails off.

I sigh. "I  don't doubt it. Hey, have you seen my friends at all? I got separated from them after we got off the tour bus and my phone's dead."

"They're around here somewhere. I think my boys were going to try to kidnap your friends before One Direction kept them for the entire night. Anyways, this is a party, let's go get a drink."

We weave between the many people dancing in the middle of the room and make our way to the bar. "What'll it be?" The bartender is a very kind looking man and he holds his hand out to me in a way that insinuates that I should go first. 

"Uhhh...do you have any soda?" Luke raises his eyebrow at me. "I don't drink, I explain."

"A soda for the lady and I'll have a beer." The bartender serves us our drinks and we turn back to the enormous crowd of people. 

"Do you know everyone here?" I ask, surveying the mass of the screaming, dancing humans. They look like they're having a lot of fun. 

"Nah. A lot of them are just groupies that were invited to come," he shrugs. "Not you, of course, but a lot of them."

His friends join us at the bar and I take a sip of my soda. One by one, they introduce themselves as Callum, Ashton, and Michael. Ashton seems distracted and on-edge. I want to ask if he's okay, but I know it's not my place. One thing is very clear - that he's looking for someone.

"Loosen up, man," Callum says to Ashton. "Actually, Jeffrey, let's have a round of shots!" The bartender, presumably Jeffrey, pours out five shots and passes them out, but I politely decline. A girl appears out of nowhere at my side. "Mind if I take it then?" she asks, smiling at me. 

"Go for it," I encourage her. She ties back her sleek, blonde her before she and the boys down their shots. Making a face, she extends her hand towards me. "I'm Gemma, Harry's sister."

"I'm Chloe. I came here with my friends tonight, but I'm not sure where they are, otherwise I'd introduce you guys," I shrug. 

"That'd be nice. I don't have very many girl friends since I've been traveling with all boys for months now," she laughs sweetly. We're roughly the same height, so it's easy to talk to her.

"Well, we're here for the night I guess," I grin. 

She squeals and squeezes me in a hug. "Yay! It's so nice to be able to talk to someone instead of relying on these guys," she nods towards the four boys who are engaged in a conversation of their own. "Let's go find your friends," she says, hooking her arm in mine and leading me away from the boys.

"Gemma!" Ashton calls after her. It's evident to me that she was the one that he had been looking for previously. 

"I'll come see you later," she calls to him over her shoulder. 

"How does Harry feel about you and Ashton?" I aks conversationally.

"What?" she asks nervously. "There's nothing going on between Ashton and I," her voice wavers.

"Right. That was convincing."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," she rushes to say and stops walking, facing me. We've stopped in the midst of the crowd and people are walking around us, jostling us on all sides. "Ashton and I started hooking up on tour, but Harry doesn't know and I don't want to make things weird for him since they have to work together for the rest of the Take Me Home Tour." She stops and looks at me directly. "Please don't tell anyone," she pleads.

I squeeze her hand. "I would never! Ashton seems sweet anyways. I mean, I only talked to him for a couple seconds, but he's clearly very comfortable with you."

She smiles, clearly relieved. "The only thing that could let it out at this point is if he wrote a song about it," She laughs. "Harry would have a field day with that."

We begin walking again, making our way through the crowd until I see my friends. They're standing next to Zayn and Niall, laughing at something they're saying. We walk over and join them and Gemma is quick to introduce herself and my friends immediately make her feel welcome. I smile and excuse myself so that I can go to the restroom. Niall points me in the right direction and I make my way over. 

The bathroom is up the stairs and all the way down the hallway on the right, so it gives me a few moments alone to just walk there. I lock the bathroom door behind me and stand in front of the mirror, resting my hands on the sink and closing my eyes. I take a deep breath. What a night. I splash a bit of cold water on my face and hum a tune that I'd heard from the concert. I'd have to ask my friends the name of the song. 

I open the door and pull back in surprise. Harry is leaning against the wall directly across from the bathroom door.

"Enjoying yourself?"