“I feel
like such a complete noggin,” Karen moaned, turning around and pretending that
the girls across the road had nothing to do with her. “Why are we here again?”
“To see the
boys.” Mel reasoned.
“And how
are we going to do that, if we can’t get anywhere near them?” Steph asked in
exasperation, glancing at the hoard of girls standing outside the door. “I hate
hanging around places like this, I feel like such a fan.”
“That’s
because you are one!” Karen replied, failing to keep the sarcasm out of her
voice.
“Yeah but
not one like that lot.” Steph retorted, glaring at the other girls.
“Anyone
else fancy any sandwiches?” Mel asked, desperate to break the slight tension
between the girls, stop her stomach grumbling and escape the rain clouds that
were threatening to burst.
The others
all nodded in agreement and they headed into Marks and Spencers. It had to be said that one of the best
things about following a1 was the fact that the record company was right next
door to the shop, it always made the hours of waiting far more interesting when
they had something to munch on.
Moving
through the doors and down the steps they made their way into the supermarket
section, and straight to the sandwich freezer.
They always tried to choose their preferred sandwich as quickly as
possible in fear that a1 may leave before they had the chance to get out. Snatching up their normal selections they
made their way to the till.
“Shit!”
Steph whispered, as she reached the checkout.
“What?”
hissed Mel.
“It’s Del.”
She replied, pointing discreetly at the man standing in front of them. The girls had a bit of strange relationship
with a1’s PA, for some reason he seemed to distance himself from them, and
always looked rather suspicious when they turned up. Even now he seemed to be glaring at them. Personally, Mel had never understood his
problem, he was lovely to all the other fans, laughing and joking with them,
but he had always been odd with them, acted like they shouldn’t be there or
something.
“Ignore
him.” Karen muttered, glaring at him slightly while he paid for his sandwiches
and left.
The girls
rushed their purchases through and ran through the rain to return to their
chosen location. Whenever they came
down to the record company to meet the boys they always sat across the road, on
some steps leading up to the backdoor of some office. Here they had perfect eye line of the door but didn’t have to
stand with the cravens.
“You think
they’re going to get the car from round here?” Steph asked thoughtfully as she
munched on her tuna sandwich, “I mean if it’s going to be this mad they make
take them out the back.”
“Not
likely,” Karen commented, “there’s no car round there at the moment, and we’d
notice if they tried to move the prev down there.”
Sometimes
it seemed that working out where the band were going to spring from was
somewhat of a military operation.
“Who you
waiting for girls?” a male voice piped up from the bottom of the steps. The girls turned towards the voice and
noticed a man looking up at them and then over to the door in interest. They often got this question while they were
waiting for a1, it always seemed to get directly up Mel’s nose, she got bored
of answering the question, and even more fed up with the reaction they always
got from the answer. For some reason
not many people seemed to favour a1, and more often that not they’d turn their
nose up and walk off.
“Is there
someone in the building?” The man was still waiting for an answer.
“It’s Elvis
alright?” Mel snapped back, “he’s not dead after all.”
The man
looked shocked by her tone of voice and quickly scurried off down the
pavement. Mel looked after him, a
slight feeling of guilt welling up, she hadn’t meant to be so rude, but she
always felt so defensive of the boys, if anyone slagged them off she just
couldn’t bear it, it was almost like someone was slandering her own
family. Her thoughts were interrupted
by a high-pitched scream.
“They’re
coming out!” a girl squealed from across the road, and the entire group began
to jump up and down and bustle each other out of the way in an attempt to get
near the door.
“Look at
poor Paul,” Karen laughed, as the door opened and the boys stepped out to ear
splitting screams, “he’s completely drowned in the crowd.”
It was
true, he was so short, he was completely lost in the sea of fans, signing
autographs desperately as if it would somehow lead him out of the maze of
hands.
He was
shortly followed by Chris, Mel ached to go over and see him, but couldn’t, she
knew that it was always best to stay well out of the way when the crave
happened. Her eyes fixed on him as she
watched him calmly making his way through the fans and towards the prev that
was now parked on the pavement. She
could see him chatting to a few of them and posing for photos when the hands
managed to catch on to him. Finally he
looked up, saw Mel and gave her a little wave, she loved the way that he always
looked out for her, he knew they always sat over here and he always put in the
effort to wave, she waved back at him, pulling faces at him before his face
disappeared into the car.
“Uh oh,
watch out for the earthquake.” Steph commented as the fans started to jump up
and down even more wildly than before.
This could mean only one thing, Ben was coming. Sure enough a couple of seconds later a mass
of dark hair appeared, he walked out confidentiality to start with, getting a
little way down the pavement before he was completely covered in fans, every
single girl had left her spot on the door and was now surrounding him. Not that he seemed to mind, in fact he was
loving it, even from there they could see his face was fixed in a grin, as he
chatted non stop and pulled various girls into hugs and kisses.
“We going
down?” Mel asked. The girls nodded in
agreement, the door was now free from fans and was far more follower friendly.
Just as
they reached the door it opened and Mark popped his head out, spying the girls
he gave them a grin.
“Where’s
everyone gone?” he asked, stopping to give each girl a kiss in turn.
“Two words
for you,” Karen replied, “Benjamin Adams.”
Turning his
head down the pavement he saw the crowd and grinned, “sometimes I’m so glad I’m
not the cute one.” He commented.
“Awwww
bless.” Steph teased him, pulling little baby faces at him.
Mark
laughed and turned towards Mel who was standing there quietly holding her
umbrella with her bag tucked tightly against her to prevent it from getting
wet.
“Ooooooooh
can I come under that?” he asked her.
“No,” she
retorted, “you’re only gong to the car which is parked over there, you’re
hardly going to get wet are you?”
He pouted,
“my hair will get wet.”
All three
looked at him with mock horror, he had obviously been spending far too much of
his time with Ben if he was worrying about things like that.
“Can’t
popstars walk short distances in the rain?” Mel teased, twizzling her umbrella
slightly above her head.
“Yeah,” he
argued back, “I’ll have you know that I walk to places quite often by myself.”
“No you
don’t you always hop in the prev” Karen argued back.
”Do not, here I’ll prove it to you.” He linked his arm through Mels and ducked
under her umbrella leading her off up the road.
“Where you
going?” the other two called after them.
“I am
walking to our next promo.” He called back behind his shoulder.
“Where we
going anyway?” he whispered to Mel.
She laughed
at him, “what you have no idea where you are supposed to be going?”
“No,” he
admitted.
“Well then
how do you know that it isn’t miles away, we could end up walking across to the
other side of London.”
His eyes
widened in panic, he didn’t some how think that him going for a treck round the
city would impress Del too much.
“Don’t
worry,” she continued, “we’re only going to Sound.”
“Oh right,”
he replied confidentially, recognising the name of the club in Leicester
Square, “and what are we doing there?”
“Recording
the Pepsi Chart show for channel 5 you idiot.”
“Ooooh
cool, I like that one.”
“You sure
Del doesn’t mind you walking rather than getting the prev?” she asked in worry,
as she turned back to look at the fans still gathered round Ben, they hadn’t
even noticed that they had left, however Del had, and was now watching them as
they trotted off up the road.
“Nah, he’ll
be fine,” Mark replied, “its all good.”
Mel grinned
to herself, it felt quite good strolling down the road arm in arm with Mark, it
was the most time she had got to spend with him in months.
“So how’s
Uni going?” he asked, out of all of the boys he was always the one that seemed
the most interested in how she was and what she was doing.
“It’s fine
thanks, hard work but I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the end.”
“Sure
will.”
At that
moment the prev whizzed past them, and Mark leapt up and down on the pavement
waving enthusiastically at his band mates.
Mel noticed several people across the road stop to watch him.
“You’re
always so bloody jumpy, you know that?” she asked.
“Well you
are always so bloody blunt.” His tone was light, but she could hear the slight
annoyance behind his voice. She felt
her insides sink, from the truth of the words and that fact that it was him
that had said them. She had always
really respected Mark as a person, he was kind and caring, and she was rather
ashamed that that was his opinion of her.
“You’re
right,” she admitted, “I’ve always been like that, sometimes I worry that
people think I don’t give a shit about them, when I do.”
I know you
do Mel,” he responded quickly, “we all have our weaknesses.”
“I guess,”
she agreed. It seemed strange having
such a serious conversation with a member of a1, normally their conversations
were really light hearted and jokey, may be the difference was that they
weren’t with any of the others and so they could get away with being open each
other.
As quickly
as it had started, the moment was broken.
“We nearly
there yet?” Mark asked.
“Don’t you
know London that well then?” Mel asked in surprise, considering how much time
they spent here she would have thought they all knew it better than anyone.
“Well, its
kind of hard to see where you are going when you are in the back of a car the
whole time.”
“Ah ha,”
she announced, “so you admit it!”
“What?”
“You do go
everywhere in the car, you never walk at all you liar.”
He laughed,
“yep you’ve got me, I was just being stubborn and trying to prove a point.”
They
rounded the next corner and she saw the familiar building with the bustles of
fans waiting outside.
“Well we
are here now.”
“Great!”
“And the
others aren’t?” he asked in confusion, looking at the girls still armed with
their cameras.
“You can
actually walk to Pepsi quicker than driving it,” Mel commented, “we always get
here before you guys.”
“Will have
to try walking more often.” He commented.
They
crossed over the road and headed for the back door, Mel was very conscious of
all the eyes that were jealously looking at her as the fans noticed that she
was strolling casually up the road with Mark from a1. She couldn’t help but grin slightly to herself.
“Ok this is
where I get off.” He commented, as he reached the lady on the door, “thanks for
walking me.”
“Not a
problem.”
“You got
tickets for tonight?”
“Yep we are
sorted,” Mel replied, “we’ll see you in there.”
“Sure
will,” he replied, giving her a wink and disappearing in the door.