The weeks flew by. Lucy and I had picked up crazy hours at the club in an effort to keep our minds off of the distance. It did help. I found myself able to think of other things.

I frowned at myself in the mirror then sighed. It would have to do for work tonight. I wasn’t too happy with my appearance, but I knew I would be able to attract enough people to the bar. Lucy knocked on my door.

“Ready?” She poked her head in. I nodded.

“Yeah. I didn’t even hear you walk in,” I said and grabbed my stuff, flicking off the light in my bedroom.

“I’m stealthy, what can I say?” I laughed and we headed downstairs together.

----

“Here you are, sir,” I said and handed the man at the bar a drink. He nodded his thanks and left a tip. I took a deep breath as the last person of the night walked off. I looked at Lucy who looked as tired as I felt.

“Ready to go home?” She nodded in response.

----

I woke to my phone ringing.

“Hello?”

“Did I wake you up?” It was Zayn.

“Yeah, but it’s fine. What’s up?” I asked.

“I just wanted to say ‘hey’. It’s so weird without you guys with us. We all feel kind of lost and extremely bored.” I laughed at that.

“Well then you can only imagine how we feel!” He laughed, too.

“What time is it? It’s not early is it? Did you have work last night?”

“No, it’s 12pm here. I’m glad you called, I needed to get up anyway. Yes I did. It was crazy.”

“Oh good.” He sounded relieved. “I was worried it was like 3 in the morning or something.”

“Zayn, you should know what time it is here. You live here. Where are you guys anyway?” I stretched and sat up while cradling the phone between my ear and shoulder. I got up and began to get dressed as I put my phone on speaker.

“We’re in Chicago.”

“Let me talk to her! She’s my girlfriend!” I heard in the background.

“No! You get to talk to her all the time! It’s my turn!” I heard Zayn yell back. I bit back a laugh.

“Come on! Pleeeeeease?” Harry begged.

“Tell Harry that I’ll talk to him tonight,” I told Zayn.

“She said she’ll talk to you tonight. So there,” he said. There was silence in the background so I assumed that Harry was pouting.

“Tell him to stop pouting.”

“She said to stop pouting.”

“Ugggh. I want to talk to her right now,”

“Well you can’t.”

“Wow Zayn, that was such a great comeback,” I yelled from across my room.

“What? You sound muffled.”

I crossed the room and picked up my phone.

“I said that was a great comeback.”

“Guys! Let’s move it! We’ve got to go!” I heard Paul.

“You can come with us! We’re going to an interview,” Zayn said. “Maybe I’ll leave you on the phone so you can hear it!”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, but I’ll talk to you guys up until you have to go on,” I said. “I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

We continued our conversation until I could hear the producers in the background telling everyone to get ready to go live.

“Alright, well I’m going to let you go. I’ll talk to you guys soon!” I said.

“Bye, Darcy. We miss you!”

“I miss you guys, too,” I said and hung up the phone. I opened my computer to check my email and facebook.

After about 20 minutes of browsing the internet a video request caught my eye. I was puzzled but clicked on “answer” and was shocked when I saw a studio audience. The boys were grinning at me.

“And this is Darcy! She’s one of our very best friends,” said Liam. I smiled at that.

“Hi guys.” I waved.

“So what have you been up to?” asked Louis.

“Well, I actually just woke up, so sorry for the disastrous appearance.” The audience and interviewer laughed. I saw Harry starting to say something, but Louis punched him in the leg.

“Owwww. What was that for?” whined Harry.

“Oh, you know…” Louis said. The audience laughed again.

“So Darcy, what do you do for a living?” the interviewer asked me.

“I work at Opium which is a nightclub for the rich people in London.”

“I see.” I knew she was judging me, but I didn’t care.

“And how old are you?”

“I’m twenty. I’ll be one and twenty on the fifth of January.”

“Oh. That’s exciting. So you only have a few months left. What are you planning on doing to celebrate?” she asked. I could tell she was starting to loosen up which made me feel much more comfortable.

“Well, I’m not quite sure yet. I’m sure I’ll be spending it with the boys and my best friend Lucy, but I don’t have any definite plans yet.” I could see the boys nodding, mischievous grins on their faces. I knew they were planning something already.

“Well thank you for joining us, Darcy.”

“My pleasure. Thank you for having me on!” I said. I waved goodbye as I ended the call. I ran downstairs to my TV and flipped to try to find the American channel they were on. I sat on the edge of my couch when they popped onto my screen.

“Yes, she is lovely,” Niall was saying. I smiled. I loved Niall. We got on really well.

“So Harry, would you care to explain what’s going on between you two?” asked the interviewer. “We have some pictures here of you two.”

I froze in place as a few photos of us popped up onto the screen behind them. The first one was one of us running through the crowd where we were mobbed. I hadn’t realized that the paparazzi were in the crowd, but I should have known. Harry’s hand was in mind and his other was on my back, guiding me through the crowd. Uh-oh. This was not going to be good.

“Since Darcy and her friend Lucy are some of our best friends, they came to an event with us. This was actually one of our signings. We got mobbed outside of the venue. The boys and I did our best to protect the girls from the crowd,” he explained. I kept my eyes glued to the TV but a small sigh escaped me. Great cover.

“Yeah. You can’t actually tell in this picture, but all of us are around Darcy and Lucy. That’ s my hand right there!” exclaimed Liam. He pointed to part of a hand that was in the frame. The crowd laughed.

“Okay, here’s the next one.”

The next one was me sitting on Harry’s lap on the bench outside of the LA shop. Zayn was sitting next to us and we were chatting. I remembered the moment very clearly. The photos were getting more and more compromising as they went.

“Again, we’re just really great friends. We’ve known the girls for ages. The three of us were done shopping so we went outside to chat. As you can see, the bench was very small, so instead of me sitting in Darcy’s lap, I switched her spots!” replied Harry. The crowd laughed at his joke.

“I see. And what about this one?”

The image that flashed onto the screen made me catch my breath. It was one of us on the balcony of a hotel. We were sitting on the edge with our legs dangling between the bars. My head was on his shoulder and one of his arms was wrapped around my waist. The picture was from when I told Harry I loved him. I groaned. How was he going to pull this one off?

“This was from when we were in LA. As I’ve mentioned before, Darcy is one of our really good friends. We get on really well,” he said. I wondered if the interviewer was going to ask him to elaborate more on the picture, and I was relieved when she didn’t.

“What about you guys? Any romance brewing?”

“Well, I have a girlfriend,” said Liam.

“I’m seeing someone as well,” piped up Louis.

“Niall? Zayn? Harry? What about you guys?” she asked. Niall smiled.

“I do have a girlfriend actually. She’s the most amazing person,” he said. I knew that management had told them to keep it quiet, and I was proud of Niall for finally coming out and saying it. The crowd cheered and tears pricked my eyes. The reaction from their fans was incredible. Niall’s smile grew wider and he waved at the crowd, silently thanking them for their support.

“Well what’s her name?”

“Lucy.”

“Lucy as in, Darcy’s best friend?” the interviewer asked. I was surprised that she had made the connection. Niall just nodded, the smile never leaving his face.
“So it’s just you and Harry then, Zayn?” she asked. He nodded.

“I’m okay with it. When the right girl for me comes along, I’ll know.” The crowd awwwe’d.

“Same for me as well. I know that that special person is out there for me,” said Harry. The crowd awwwe’d again.

“Thank you very much for your time boys,” said the interviewer.

“My name’s Linda Goodwin and this is One Direction! Thanks for tuning into Good Day Chicago. Up next we have some great recipes for this upcoming Thanksgiving. Stay tuned!” She waved and smiled at the camera. A commercial came on causing me to turn off my TV. My phone rang a second later.

“Hello?”

“Hey my special person,” said Harry. I laughed.

“You did great with those photos! I had no idea that they were going to show such...compromising photos of us together!” I said. He laughed.

“You caught our interview?” he asked. “And I’ll admit, I was nervous. I wasn’t quite sure what to say.”

“Yeah, but just the part after you guys called me. Thanks for that by the way,” I said.

“I missed the whole first part.”

“Oh. Well I’m glad you got to see part of it at least,” he said. “Hey, I’ve got to go. I love you.”

“I love you, too. Only two more weeks till I get to see you again.”

“I can’t wait,” he said and hung up. I smiled. I couldn’t wait either.