“Mel!” a
voice squealed as a shape thundered towards her, taking her in a huge bear hug
and squeezing so she found it hard to breathe.
“Air would
be good Ben.” She commented cheekily, Ben was the member that you could always
say things to and he’d never take offence.
“How you
been?” he asked.
“Same old,
same old.” She replied casually, moving slightly back to reveal an excited
looking Steph stood behind her. Ben’s
face lit up into a grin, he was always pleased to see Steph and Steph was of
course always pleased to see him.
“How’s my
favourite girl?” he asked her, leaning forward to peck her on the cheek.
“Bet you
say that to all the fans don’t you?” she asked
“Yep he
does.” A voice piped up from behind them.
“Hey Paul”
the girls chorused.
“And Mark,”
another voice replied indignantly, “why does everyone ignore me?”
“Cos your
not as gorgeous as Ben” all three girls replied giggling, it had always been a
joke between them and the guys that Ben generally got mobbed while the other
three were left standing.
“Where’s
Chris gone?” Mel asked.
“Could have
known she’d ask that.” Paul retorted, bringing a slight rosy embarrassment to
Mel’s cheeks.
“He’s over
there.” Mark replied, bobbing his head towards the group of girls who were all
bustled round Christian waving bits of paper wildly.
Mel swooped
through the crowds to reach Christian, as usual he was engrossed in the task
ahead, head bent down and signing quietly.
He hardly ever spoke to fans, preferring to shy away from the attention,
Mel could tell from his face that he was feeling slightly awkward at the
situation. She reached out and gently
placed a hand on his arm.
He looked
up.
“Mel.”
“Alright?” She asked.
“Yeah
great,” he replied.
They stood
in an unawkward silence as he continued to sign, they often did this, her
friends often laughed at them, wondering how they could both manage to stand
there saying absolutely nothing yet still enjoy each others company.
“So how was
the States?” Mel asked as the bunch of fans moved away leaving them alone.
“It was
good,” he replied grinning, “was nice to escape from all this.”
“Yeah I
bet.” She replied
“It was
more like a break than work.”
“And did
the music go down alright?”
“I think we
did pretty good,” he replied nodding his head, “it’s a bit different from your
N-Syncs and Britneys though so we’ll see how it goes.”
“Ooooooh,”
Mel squealed, remembering what it was she had to ask Christian, “did you meet
her?”
“Sure did.”
“And?”
“Wow, she
was gorgeous.”
They both
giggled, it really didn’t bother Mel that Christian was always talking about
girls, she always enjoyed hearing about his latest crush, if anything she liked
to have a slight tease at his expense, as if he was going to be able to pull Ms
Spears!
“What you
guys giggling at?” Ben asked as he moved across towards them, dragging a little
procession of fans behind him.
“Nothing,”
they both replied mysteriously.
“You need
help with all those?” Karen asked Ben giggling at the large pile of presents he
had clasped in his arms.
“You can
really tell its Valentines can’t you?” Mark commented.
“Talking of
which,” Paul started, “where are our presents?”
“Yeah
girls, cough up,” Ben teased, “look all the others managed.” He nodded towards
the girls, who grinned adoringly up at him.
“OK, OK,
you have presents.” Mel admitted, giving into their glares.
Reaching
into her bag she pulled out 4 red objects and passed them to each of the
boys. Blushing with embarrassment as
she did. It hadn’t been her idea to
purchase these silly gifts that were now lying incriminatingly in her
hand. To an innocent passer by they did
just look like red roses, but a closer inspection revealed that the roses were
in fact red pants, screwed up to look like roses.
Paul
chuckled to himself as he accepted his gift and moved off to talk to the other
followers, followed closely behind by Mark and Chris.
“Looks like
your stuck with me guys.” Ben grinned, pulling the pants off his rose and
attempting to put them on Steph’s head.
She struggled against him, sending her arm out to knock him away,
causing his collection of things to clutter to the floor.
“Ooops.”
She giggled, rushing across to help him pick them up. Her eye fell on something red and square laying on the floor.
“Oooh!” she
exclaimed, “Can we see your passport photo?”
Ben
shrugged and opened up the passport to reveal a slightly younger version of
himself grinning back at them.
He glanced
down at it and frowned slightly. “I was
having a bit of a bad hair day, you see I was trying to get my parting onto the
side but it just kept ending up back in the middle.”
Mel rolled
her eyes, there was nothing more boring than hearing about Ben and his hair
troubles, anyway she was much more interested in the new show us your passport
game and she knew who she was going to target first.
“Chris?”
she sidled up towards him.
“Yep?”
“Can I see
your passport photo?”
He looked
back at her in slight confusion, sometimes it took a few goes to get him to
understand what you were trying to ask.
“You want
to see my photo?” he asked, his brows furrowing further in confusion. Mel loved it when he looked confused, it
made him look so cute.
“Yeah”, she
confirmed, “we just saw Ben’s and I was wondering what yours looked like.”
He passed
it to her and she examined a Christian looking rather different to how he did
now, for starters his hair wasn’t this naturally blonde.
“How old
were you here?” she asked.
“About 16.”
“Awww, how
cute are you?”
“Not
another one!” a voice behind them commented and they both turned to see Paul
walking towards them, “I dunno, first its Steph and Ben now its you and Chris,
when am I going to see some action?”
Mel just
laughed at him, she never got embarrassed by Paul and his ways anymore, she
always knew he was going to come out with something daft so it didn’t really
bother her what it was.
“Lets see
yours then?” she asked.
“I never
show my bits to girls I hardly know”, he commented cheekily.
“I meant
your passport photo.” She retorted.
“Nope,” he
replied simply, placing his hand over his pocket to secure his dignity.
“Awwwww but
Paul I gave you a rose.”
“That was
not a rose,” Paul said matter of factly, “it was a pair of red pants on a
stick. And with that he walked off towards
Del who was shouting at the lads to assemble.
“You got to
go now?” Mel turned to ask Chris, disappointment evident in her voice.
“Yeah,
sorry.”
Del’s voice
had now begun to raise a bit louder as his hands frantically gestured them
over.
The boys
started to move quickly towards the lifts, signing the last few autographs as
they went. Mel, Karen and Steph walked
along with them, chatting happily until they came to the lift doors.
“You coming
down?” Mark asked, giving them a smile.
All three
girls grinned back and nodded, stepping into the lift with the boys and quickly
pressing the buttons so that no more fans could squeeze in with them. They travelled down in the lift to the car
parks with the boys before the other fans could catch them up giving them their
own private farewell.
“We going
to see you girls tomorrow?” Ben asked.
“Yep” Mel
replied.
Hugs and
kisses were distributed all round before the boys piled into the prev, waving
their goodbyes out of the back window as the car moved off and the girls were
once again on their own.