“Lacey, Ed’s sick and won’t be able to perform,” Harry came up beside me with a sad expression on his face.

“WHAT?” I screamed, my eyes widening in fear. He can’t not perform, I didn’t have anyone to fill his spot. Before I could scream more I heard Louis’ laugh from behind me and Harry’s face changed into a smile before he burst out laughing.

“You should have seen your face,” Harry choked out between his laugh. My face instantly turned sour as I glared at him before smacking the back of his head.

“That was not funny Styles!” I hissed at him. He merely smirked.

“I’m telling Skye,” I threatened. His face instantly dropped the smirk, I smiled gleefully before walking away quickly.

“Shit,” He cursed from behind me as Louis laughed even harder and made whipping noises.

“Wait, I’m sorry. Please I’ll do anything just don’t tell her,” He whined after me as I searched for Skye.

“Tell who what?” Skye asked appearing in front of us with Danielle. Harry instantly groaned making her eye him suspiciously. I hesitated for a moment.

“Oh nothing,” I said waving it off. Skye looked at me for a moment before shrugging and walking over to side stage with Danielle to listen to Rita Ora. Harry looked at me in relief.

“You owe me Styles,” I winked at him. His face paled slightly.

“Lacey,” I spun around to the sound of my name and froze. Standing in front of me was Edmund and his parents. I nervously shifted on the spot before quickly plastering a large smile on my face and walking over to them.

“You made it,” I said as happily as I could and greeted both Edmund’s parents with a kiss on the cheek before reaching up and pecking Edmund’s lips softly.

“We wouldn’t miss it,” Mr Nightly said smiling at me, I smiled back genuinely.

“Introduce us to your friends love,” Mrs Nightly said glancing behind me. I widened my eyes and looked behind to see Louis, Harry, Skye and Dani watching us curiously. Holding in my sigh, I quickly nodded and turned around smiling softly at everyone.

I quickly introduced them all to each other as Harry and Louis fell into conversation with Edmund easily. I watched them cautiously before focusing back on Edmund’s parents. Thankfully my parents showed up and started a conversation with them.

“Are you okay?” Skye asked appearing beside me. I turned to her and shrugged.

“When everyone who places heaps of pressure on you is together in one room, it kind of makes it hard to feel okay.” I told her honestly. I felt her arm wrap around my waist and squeeze comfortingly, I smiled softly.

“LACEY!” I looked around in surprise as my little sister came barrelling over to me and grabbing onto my legs. Laughing I bent down and picked her up, placing her on my hips. She stared at Skye curiously.

“Say hi to Skye Luce,” I said softly to her. She watched her for a bit longer before smiling at her.

“Hi, I’m Lucy Williams,” she said formally, holding out her hand. Skye smiled largely and grabbed onto her hand. Harry came up behind Skye at this point and wrapped his arms around her waist, hands resting on her stomach. I watched curiously as Skye’s smiled widened even further.

“This is Harry,” Skye told Luce. Luce smiled at Harry.

“I wike your songs,” Luce said softly to Harry, suddenly turning shy and hiding behind my hair. I laughed.

“Aw, thank you cutey.” Harry said leaning forward and pressing a kiss to her cheek. I watched her as she giggled.

She suddenly leaned up and whispered in my ear that she needed to pee. Holding in my laughter after noticing her serious face, I quickly excused myself from Harry and Skye and headed down a hallway towards the toilets. After Luce was finished I walked out of the toilets and stopped in surprise when I saw Zayn standing in the hallway leaning against the wall, looking absolutely perfect.

He glanced up the moment we appeared and smiled softly. He glanced down at Luce who eyes him shyly. He crouched down in front of her.

“Hello, I’m Zayn.”

“Lucy,” Luce responded grinning at him, showing her missing front tooth.

“Nice to meet you Lucy. I’m friends with your sister.” Zayn said looking up and winking at me. I blushed lightly and smiled as I watched him interact with Luce.

“You’re in Won Direction.” Zayn nodded and she allowed him to pick her up. I smiled at her as she sat in his arms resting on his hip.

“How is everything going?” Zayn asked glancing over at me.

“Okay, I guess. I mean we’re what halfway through the show and nothing bad has happened yet. Except for all the imagined scenarios that Louis and Harry keep making up.” Zayn chuckled.

“Lacey,” my head snapped to the side to see Edmund walking around the corner. He stopped when he saw us before he made his way over. The whole time he eyed Zayn.

“Edmund,” he said holding his hand out to Zayn. I watched Zayn’s eyes flash with recognition before he adjusted Luce and stretched his hand out taking Edmunds.

“Zayn.”

“You’re parents want to talk to you.” Edmund said turning to me and dropping Zayn’s hand like he was nothing. I saw the way he angled his back, slightly blocking out Zayn showing that he didn’t care less who he was. I saw Zayn’s eyes narrow at Edmund before Luce called his attention back to her.

“Oh sure, I’ll just take Luce.” I said stepping forward; Luce shook her head though and clung onto Zayn.

“It’s okay. I can look after her until we go on,” Zayn said smiling down at the little girl.

“That’s probably not appropriate. I will take her.” Edmund said reaching for Luce. Luce clung to Zayn harder and began to cry loudly.

“I think it’s best if I keep her,” Zayn said slowly swaying Luce trying to get her to calm down.

“Its fine Edmund, Zayn’s a friend. She can stay.” I said quickly trying to calm Luce’s tears. Her crying instantly stopped and she sniffled softly into Zayn’s shoulder. She was normally a good girl with me but she also knew that if she cried she would get her way. She knew that if she cried and made a scene our parents would give her anything she wanted so they wouldn’t be embarrassed.

“Come on Luce. Let’s go meet the other boys.” Zayn whispered down to her, quickly winking at me and ignored Edmund before walking away. I watched as Edmund frowned at his retreating form.

“I don’t like him.” He said instantly. I rolled my eyes but stayed silent.

“And why did Luce want to stay with him and not me. It would be more appropriate if she was seen with me, as a show to state the strength of our relationship.” I rolled my eyes once again.

“Maybe if you wanted to be her friend just for the sake of it and not to gain positive attention from the media, then she might like you,” I told him before walking away in search of my parents. I shook my head not believing that he could turn something as simple as getting a five year old to like you into something that sounded like a business deal.

“There you are honey. You shouldn’t go off like that. You’re and adult now you are supposed to be controlling things. You can’t expect us to handle any messes for you.” My mother said as soon as I walked over to them. I stared at her unbelieving. I was gone for ten minutes, not the whole show.

“Where is your sister? You should be looking after her.” She added on.

“She’s your daughter in case you’ve forgotten.” I mumbled.

“What was that?” My mother asked her glare hardening towards me.

“Not here. The media are watching.” My father quickly muttered. I watched with distaste as my mother instantly smiled and wrapped me up in a hug. I stayed still until she was done with me before quickly walking away side stage checking to make sure everything was okay.

I spent the rest of the day not daring to move from side stage not even for food or toilet breaks, not wanting to give my parents any more reason to pick at what I was doing. Everything ran smoothly by the sounds of what my administrators were saying. I had made nearly 10 million dollars for charity. I was ecstatic but of course my parents believed this wasn’t good enough.

My father told him we could have a meeting later discussing what I could have done better seeing as I could have made much more money. My mother also believed that I didn’t do my best.

I miserably watched them leave before storming down the hallway into a spare room as I let out an annoyed scream. Once, just once I wanted them to tell me they were proud of me. I wanted them to smile and say that I had done a great job. That they loved me and whatever I wanted to do they would support. But I never got that from my parents. Never.

The door opened to the spare room and I spun around in shock. My eyes went wide as I saw Zayn standing there awkwardly. He quickly stepped in and shut the door behind him as soon as he saw the state I was in. I could just imagine the anger in my eyes and the wildness of my hair.

I watched Zayn as he moved forward and hesitantly placed a hand against my arm. Not knowing what came over me nor being able to stop it. I flung myself against his body and cried. I let the tears fall freely as I felt Zayn’s body stiffen under me before he wrapped his arms around me rubbing my back comfortingly.

He whispered softly in my ear, things that I could barely make out but it was comforting none the less. I continued to let the tears and sobs rake through my body as I bared myself in front of Zayn more naked than I had ever been before. We weren’t having sex or sending annoyed jabs at each other. Instead he was holding me and seeing me at my worse.

And I knew that this moment should scare me and I was scared. I was so scared in this moment because this would change everything between us. But I couldn’t help but override the feeling of being scared with the feeling that in this moment everything felt right. I was comfortable being with him, this naked.

Notes

Didn't really mean to scare you all with my last note.. Sorry!! xx