Gathering
up their belongings the three girls walked down the road to the tube station,
chatting happily as they went.
“Can’t wait
to see them,” Steph sighed, “they’ve been away for so long.”
“Yeah
they’ll be happy to see us,” Karen commented confidently, she knew it was true,
the lads were always genuinely happy to see them, especially when they’d been
away for a long time, it was nice to see friendly faces.
Mel grinned
quietly to herself, she couldn’t wait to see Chris again, he always made her
feel so special, the way his face would light up when she went over to speak to
him and the way he always seemed so interested in what she was doing. She couldn’t stop the little butterflies
that fluttered up in her stomach, she knew she was acting like a complete fool
but she couldn’t stop herself.
The air was
suddenly filled with the sound of the “Take On Me” ring tone, Mel could never
stop herself giggling when it sounded, whenever they went following about 60
girls would reach into their pockets at the sound of that ring tone, everyone
had it. Even now Steph and Karen were
both routing through their bags to find the source of the tone.
“Hello?”
Karen found her phone. “You are
joking? Really? How long? OK, thanks.”
“What’s
happened?” Steph asked
“It’s the
boys,” Karen answered, “they have got an earlier flight and will be landing
early.”
“How
early?” Mel asked, knowing full well that they were quite a way from Heathrow
and with the state of the London Underground, it would take a good while to get
anywhere.
“About an
hour.”
They all
fell into silence, they were still at least an hour away from Heathrow now, and
that was if the tubes were all running to time and they hit no delays.
Deciding to
take action Mel broke into a run and started off down the road, shouting behind
at her friends.
“What are
you waiting for? Come on!”
The urgency
of her voice shook them into action and all three girls began to run down the
road, panting as there bodies began to move more than they had done in
years. Mel began to realise exactly how
important PE had been to her school education and wishing that she had taken up
more exercise after leaving school, she made a mental note for herself to start
the minute she had some time.
They
finally reached the tube station, taking the stairs two at a time, ramming
their tickets into the machine and racing down the crowded tunnels. Steph was the first to reach the platform
and she skidded to a halt as her eyes glanced up at the computer screen above
them, the next train to Heathrow was to be another 3 minutes, not a long time,
but an eternity when you wanted to be somewhere.
The other
two girls caught up with her and were almost thankful for the rest as they
realised the situation. Placing her hands
on to her legs Mel leant forward, panting and painfully breathing in some of
the little air that was to be found. It
was always so hot and stuffy on the underground and she felt herself start to
burn up underneath her thick winter coat.
Damn the winter, it was always too cold to be wearing no coat and too
hot to be wearing one down here.
However, there was one good thing about February and that was
valentines, and she had a special present that she’d be giving the boys later,
she grinned as she thought what she had in her bag for the boys.
The tunnels
around them began to rattle as the train finally approached the platform and
creaked to a halt. Waiting for the
heaving throng of passengers to climb off the girls quickly rushed on to find a
seat. The next 45 minutes passed
without event, well excluding the busker who kept them all amused with his
funny made up songs, he was the only one they had ever seen make a packet on a
tube.
When they
finally ground to a halt in terminal 3 the girls sprung out of the opened doors
and ran through the ticket machines and into the main airport. Following the signs to the arrival lounge
they ran up the escalators and round the staircases, trying hard not to bump
into any passing passengers with their nuisance suitcases. Admittedly the whole real reason for being
at an airport was to fly off somewhere complete with your luggage, but the
girls used it more often for meeting bands, and so suitcases were nothing but a
pain.
As they
struggled up the last staircase Mel clutched the side of her stomach in pain, a
stitch was beginning to prick painfully into her side, she squeezed it as she
ran, hoping it might make it go away.
She could already feel that her face was all flushed and flustered, the
last thing she wanted was to meet a1 like this, she must look a complete state.
They ran to
the couches near the arrivals gate and saw a small group of other followers
gathered on the sofas. She threw
herself down on one of the available seats, Steph and Karen following her. They looked up and were met by a row of
angry eyes, if there was one thing worse than cravens it was jealous
followers. Mel and her friends knew
they were unpopular amongst the others, in a way they always had been, she
wasn’t sure exactly why, she guessed it was just because a1 were always to
genuinely pleased to see them and the others were jealous. Glancing behind her shoulder she noticed a
gaggle of cravens standing in a nervous huddle behind her. She rolled her eyes and turned to whisper to
Karen.
“Great, we
got this one wrong didn’t we?”
”Sure did.” Karen responded, glancing first at the followers and then at the
cravens, it was going to be a near impossible task to get near the boys
today.
“What time
is the flight due in?” hissed Steph.
“Any minute
now.” Mel replied, lowering her voice to prevent anyone else from hearing her,
it was easy enough for anyone to look at the arrivals board, but it was always
best not to shout information too loud just in case people didn’t know.
“Do you want
to move up towards the gate so we can see them coming?” Karen asked.
Mel nodded
her head, normally she wouldn’t have agreed to this, if anything they always
stood well back away from the crowds, but today coming forward would be the
only way of ensuring success.
They got up
and moved slowly towards the gate, the
group of craves following them.
“Bloody
sheep,” Karen muttered under her breath, “for once can’t they just stay where
they are and let us get on with it.”
Mel turned
to look at them, they were still stood in their small circle just a few metres
away, engrossed in conversation and pretending that they hadn’t moved at
all. It made her so mad, every move
they made you would be guaranteed that they would follow.
“Do you
think they’d follow us into the toilet if we went?” Steph asked. The girls dissolved into fits of giggles.
“It really
wouldn’t surprise me,” Karen turned round to give them a glare and they
recoiled back a few metres.
“And we are
still getting daggers from over there.” Steph pointed out, nodding her head
towards the other followers who were still sat in their seats.
“Oh let
them play it cool,” Mel dismissed them
with a wave of her hand, “they’ll soon get up when they see us getting all the
action.”
A sudden
wave of excited energy passed through her body once again at the thought of
seeing the boys again, she was never sure why they had this effect on her, but
every time she met them and spoke to them, she got the biggest rush, she
couldn’t explain why, it just seemed to happen.
Her heart
leapt into her throat as she saw a familiar four heads bob into view from the
gateway, they were finally heading this way.
Reaching down she grabbed Steph’s hand and gave it a squeeze.
This was it.