What are the chances?

Beneath your Beautiful

Apart from Damian, Chad, and Tyler having to run off, the rest of the group managed to stay together for the duration of the day. Jack had decided in their absence that it would be better to skip a sit-down lunch and take the opportunity to sample as much of the local cuisine as they could, so they stopped at various points to pick up samples and bites whilst continuing to trawl the bustling streets of Florence.

By the time they made it to Basilica of Santa Croce, Damian, Chad, and Tyler were sitting on the steps outside waiting for them. Kat felt the warm feeling resurface in her stomach as she spotted Damian stretched out on the steps. His unkempt hair was ruffled by the gentle breeze and his wide smile grew as he spotted the group approaching them. Everyone ungraciously slumped onto the steps filling the little space around Damian, Chad and Tyler and welcomingly took a few minutes to rest their aching legs.

"All ok?" Debbie looked to Damian whilst taking a large bite of her meatball sandwich before he could answer.

"Yeah, no sweat." He laughed a little nervously as his hand batted the air around him.

"Does that happen often?" Kat softly enquired as she fiddled with the wrapper on her sandwich.

Damian shook his head and twisted his mouth to the side. "Not really, it's not like I can't leave my house without security, I'm not on a Beyoncé level... yet." He cheekily smiled causing Kat to follow suit. "I probably get the occasional one or two who know who I am and will stop to ask for a photo or something, but the majority of the time it's people just staring at me." His shoulders shrugged as if it was no big deal.

"You can see it on their faces." Tyler rested back onto his elbows as he chipped into their conversation.

"Yeah, It's like they're trying to work out why you look so familiar." Chad now spoke over his brother.

"Yeah, like they're not sure if they know you or not," Tyler added, finishing off the sentence.

"We get that when we bump into students or parents down the cold meat aisle in Sainsbury's," Debbie mumbled through a mouthful of her dripping sub causing them all to laugh.

It was a little crazier in the states when the show we were in had taken off, but it's a lot quieter now." Damian rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke.

"The show still has a pretty big following in Europe though. Even nearly 10 years later." Tyler took a sip from his bottle as Chad added. "Yeah, that's why we do most of the conventions in Europe, they're still really hyped about it."

"I think like social media has a lot to do with it. If you're in the public eye on any level people have 24 hour access to you through the internet so it's not as hyped anymore to see a 'famous' person." Damian continued to muse.

"Yeah," Tyler nodded in agreement. "And there are that many celebrities these days, unless you're specifically into something or someone then you're probably passing more famous people than you realise." The lads laughed in agreement.

"Like Westy said the access people have these days has just kinda desensitised them to celebrities. Long gone are the days of beetle mania." Chad added.

They debated for a while over when celebrity status would have faded out on that level and how One Direction in their early days could have been the final boy band to experience that level of hysteria, then moved on to specific followings and the rise of conventions and access to people's favourite celebrities.

Kat slowly nodded as she felt the corners of her mouth tilt upwards whilst she tried to picture what these conventions were like, and if they were full of screaming girls like what she had seen at the many Backstreet Boys concerts she had attended in her youth.