Tuesday, May 29 2012
Toronto, ON

After a series of short trips, the drive from Camden to Toronto felt significantly longer. They had left right away after the show the night before, but sleeping on a bumpy bus is never easy. As such, the guys were elated to arrive at the hotel they’d be staying at over the next few days.

They filed off the bus, waiting in the lobby with security as they got checked into their rooms.

“Two hours to relax,” Paul said, handing out the room keys. “Then we’re off to MuchMusic.”

Tired and generally cranky, the boys all grumbled, took their keys and broke off to their own separate rooms.

Niall walked down the hall and looked behind him. He noticed that Brittany’s bus was parked outside. It made sense – after all she was always right behind them. For a moment he considered waiting around for her, but then he figured there really was no point. Harry was already hanging around the lobby. She didn’t need an entire greeting committee.

Besides, he could do without witnessing the two of them kissing again.

***

As planned, the boys were sitting in the dressing room at MuchMusic a two hours later. While they got carefully polished for the TV screen, they fooled around on twitter, joked with each other and generally made the lives of the stylists difficult.

Liam yawned as he leaned back in his chair. “I hate sleeping on the bus,” he muttered. “A nap in the hotel room just wasn’t good enough.”

The others nodded in agreement.

“I should’ve had a nap in the hotel room,” Harry muttered, resting his head in his hand.

The others exchanged a glance. “Occupied doing other things in there, were you?” Zayn laughed.

Suddenly Niall found himself very interested in what Harry had to say, even though he was sure he didn’t want to know the answer.

But, instead of looking pleased with himself, Harry just rolled his eyes. “I wish,” he said with a sigh. “She wouldn’t even go up to my room with me. She had some radio thing, so we just went out for a coffee first.”

“Poor Harry,” Louis laughed. “Not able to get into the little blonde popstar’s pants.”

“It’s only been three days,” Harry retorted, shooting Louis a look as the others continued to laugh at his expense. “I’ll get it. Don’t you lot worry.”

They weren’t worried. Well, none of them except for Niall anyway. Of course, he knew that was bound to happen eventually. He just didn’t want to hear about it. But since this was Harry, he also knew that was impossible.

“Showtime in five, guys,” a stagehand called out to them, and they were quickly ushered from their individual make up chairs to the staging area.

Niall pulled out his phone quickly before it was time go to in front of the fans and cameras. He opened the twitter application and posted quickly, without bothering to look through his timeline.

NiallOfficial: about 2 go out on much in toronto! canada i love u. will u be at the show later?

As soon as he slipped his phone back in his pocket, he felt a buzz, indicating he had a new reply from one of the people he followed. He figured it was one of the others, as they had their phones out too, but still he took a peek.

BrittCooperMusic: @NiallOfficial you know i will be! haha. Good luck on tv, wish i could be watching you guys!

Niall smiled a little at Brittany’s tweet, until he noticed something was a bit off. Her usual signature of ‘xoxo Britt’ was missing. He tried not to let a silly thing like that bother him though. After all he knew better – that message was meant for her fans. It would have been awkward if she’d added it to her tweet to him.

So, rather than letting the fact that Brittany had neglected to give him twitter kisses get to him, he focused on the fans that were waiting for them to appear. He smiled in anticipation, eager to see everyone who was waiting for them.

“Phones away guys, let’s head out,” the stagehand called to them. The five of them stood up, gave each other nervous smiles and followed her out.

An eruption of screams could be heard as the group entered the MuchMusic HQ. They were led on to a small couch and greeted by Lauren, the VJ.

“Welcome back, guys,” she said warmly as they were seated. “It’s been a few months since you’ve been here, and let me tell you, you’ve been missed. Canada loves you guys.”

Louis smiled and nodded. “Well, we love Canada, it’s great to be back.”

More screaming from the crowd.

“So, you’re here for a few days, you’re doing a couple shows, some interviews, anything else you’ve got planned? Anything really Canadian you want to do well you’re here?” Lauren asked, leaning into the guys so she could hear them talk over the cries of the girls that surrounded them.

“Uh, yeah, you know, we don’t really get a lot of time to see a lot of the places we go to on tour since we’re so busy all the time. I think we might have some time off tomorrow, but I don’t know,” Niall said, looking around at the others for confirmation.

“Yeah, we’re going to be very, very busy while we’re here,” Liam nodded. “But I still want to have a poutine!” he laughed.

“Right, right,” Lauren said. “So tell me about your last day off? What did you guys do?”

Zayn took the opportunity to answer that question. “Well, we had a day off in New York City a couple days ago. It was really nice and it gave us an opportunity to really see the city. The last couple times we were there we were on such tight schedules that we didn’t get to see much of it, so to actually get to look around and be tourists was really fun.”

“Oh, that’s so cool,” Lauren gushed. “And when you go out sightseeing, do you all go together? Or do you take that opportunity to spend some time apart?”

“Well,” Harry jumped in. “These lot went around the city with management, but I had my own special tour guide that day,” he grinned, glancing around at the fans. They obviously already knew who he was talking about – it had been all over twitter that they’d spent the day together. They started clapping and shouting out Brittany’s name.

Harry continued to grin and blushed a little.

Niall did everything he could to keep his smile plastered on his face for the camera.

“So you’re the ladies man of the group,” Lauren laughed. “Do you have any advice for the others then?”

Harry looked back at his bandmates. “Advice? Well guys, I’d say just be yourself. The right girl will come along,” he laughed. The others rolled their eyes and Zayn playfully slapped him on the back.

Niall was uncharacteristically silent during this entire ordeal and couldn’t wait for Lauren to change the topic. Was Brittany suddenly the sixth member of the group now? Would she be joining them on stage for her rendition of What Makes You Beautiful?

“Okay, so let’s talk about the tour. What cities are you most looking forward to visiting?”

Niall sat up a little, feeling as though his prayers had been answered. “Well, we’re here, aren’t we? Toronto, of course.”

The crowd screamed loudly.

Lauren laughed. “That’s sweet, thank you. I think we’re going to turn it around though and let the fans ask some questions. Do you guys want to do that?” she asked, turning around to face the amass of girls in the building.

No doubt they did.

The boys spent the next hour fielding questions from their fans. And just like that, things felt back to normal for a little while. They joked around, acted goofy and generally enjoyed their fame and success. Niall nearly forgot about his Brittany problem for the time being, and luckily, no fans had anything to ask about her. They’d already gotten the information they’d wanted earlier in the interview.

“That was a good one, yeah?” Louis asked once the five of them were back on the bus and on their way back to the hotel to do their VIP and soundcheck with the fans.

Niall nodded with a grin. “Yeah, it was great.” The fans always made him feel better. Despite the fact he didn’t have the girl he wanted, he certainly had the career.