Dreaming about London

I had the most amazing afternoon and evening with the most amazing person. Niall and I played folk music, he made me do the step thing while he played the guitar and me on the violin and we actually managed to get a proper arrangement out of a couple of the tunes. He kept surprising me with how nice a guy he was, I truly couldn’t get enough of him.



After having eaten dinner in his bed that consisted of some Chinese takeaway I sat up and looked at him, suddenly being a bit serious compared to the hard laughs we’d had all afternoon.

“Niall,” I began and he looked up at me a bit surprised. “I have something to tell you.”

Then it was his turn to sit up looking serious. “What is it?”

I grabbed his guitar. “A while ago I wrote a song… with you in mind,” I said.

He smiled blushing a bit. “Really?”

I nodded. “Do you want to hear it?”

“Hell yeah! But. I didn’t know that you played the guitar?”

“Oh I don’t. Just a few basic chords and so on.” I started playing the chords to Blue Eyes on the guitar, luckily the song only included good notes and good chords that weren’t too tricky for me to handle. The melody was very simple, but very beautiful and light – just like Niall.


How the bright blue eyes reflect the sky
That answers with a raindrop
Makes me so grateful that
Feeling the raindrop brush my skin
Is all I could ever ask for

Brushing a chin kissed by the sun
But yet to be kissed by love
Leaves every man searching
The eternal search in the unknown

How the bright blue eyes reflect the sky
That answers with a touch
Makes me so grateful that
Feeling your touch and my tremble
Is all I could ever ask for

The trembling underneath your touch
Is yet to cease
It leaves every man searching
The eternal search for the unknown

How the bright blue eyes reflect the sky
That answers with a hand
Makes me so grateful that
Even if I might never reach the sky
Then looking in to your eyes’ reflection
Is more than I could ever ask for



As I finished the song I looked up at Niall and felt suddenly incredibly insecure if it was too early to that song for him. He didn’t say anything. Just looked at me. His blue eyes made me sure that it was definitely not too early, as I felt the exact same words as the lyrics popping in to my head the second our glances met.

He took the guitar from me and laid it on the floor next to the bed, never letting go of my eyes. Then he cupped my face in his hands and kissed me. Just as simple and beautiful as the song.


“Thank you,” he whispered as he pulled back. None of us were smiling, which made this a very rare moment for us. “Want to go for a walk?”

I nodded.




I was dark outside and the light from the lampposts lid up the sidewalk. Niall had given me a hoodie to wear as well, we didn’t want to take any chances, since he and the boys lived quite close to the inner city.


He showed me the area that contained a lot of bars and night clubs, and even though it was only Thursday the sound of hundreds of people’s voices filled the streets anyway. When we were almost at one end of the area where it was a bit quieter we suddenly heard a woman’s voice coming from a bar next to the sidewalk.


“Niall!”



I turned around to see a tall slim girl with flaming red hair coming towards us. Walking in her high heels with a cocktail and cigarette in her hand, she seemed slightly drunk.

“Sheila, hi,” Niall said when he saw her and suddenly let go of my hand that he’d been holding the entire walk.

“So funny that I ran in to you! How are you? You’ve haven’t called me back,” she said with a high pitched voice.

“Yeah I know, I’ve been very busy recording,” he said while looking down on his feet.

“I really had a great time last week, maybe we could figure out something soon?” she asked smiling at him.

“Ok, I’ll call you,” he answered and dragged me further down the street away from her. I looked back at her to see her standing looking extremely stunned.

“Who was that?” I asked still not knowing how to react on his behavior.

“Uhm. Just Sheila Woods, she used to do some PR for a charity event we played at during the tour. She joined us for last week when we went out,” he quickly said.

“Was it that night where you got completely wasted?” I asked and he nodded.

“Yeah, unfortunately,” he said.

“Well. Why unfortunately? Just relax, I think everybody has had a couple of nights like that.” I smiled at him but he just kept looking down as we walked towards his apartment again.



“Niall, is there anything you want to tell me?” I kept trying to make eye contact with him still without any luck.

“No, why would there be?” he said and now looking straight in to my eyes.

“Okay then,” I said.



We went to bed when we got home, since we both had to get up early next morning to go to work and recording. It was the first night in what felt forever that I got to sleep with Niall’s arms wrapped around me and it felt amazing. I fell asleep the second we laid down.



Early the next morning we were both feeling incredibly tired and grumpy as we sat eating breakfast in his kitchen that by the way looked so beautiful; white cupboards and big wooden table tops.


I had made us some omelets, since eggs and milk was one of the very things he had in his fridge.

“So Liam said that he and Em are going on a date?” Niall asked.

“Yeah they are. They are so cute together, don’t you think?” I said smiling.

“Very much. So they are not going with the rest of us to the new bar tonight?”

“Yes, they’re just meeting us later.”



I went to work half an hour later after getting my very much needed Niall-kiss on the way out and that was the only thing that day that made me feel just the slightest bit awake. I almost fell asleep sitting down in the tube so I decided to stand up for the rest of the ride.




My day at Aunt Betty was just like they’d been the other times – busy, hectic and filled with nice people.

Eric stopped by again to pick up some lunch and this time he asked me if I wanted to go out with him someday. I just laughed it off not knowing whether he was being serious or not.

Nathalie had begun teasing me constantly about him and his behavior and she’d also told both Nick, the baker and Betty about my so called “suitor”.



At half past three I dragged myself up the stairs to my apartment. Just like Wednesday nobody was home, I remembered that Aida would start at her work at the gallery today and they would both be home in about an hour.


I decided to go for a run since I didn’t have much else to do and because of the crisp air I had felt on my way home that you would only experience during the fall, I couldn’t resist to run among the trees and brown leaves in the parks in a couple of weeks.



But this time my workout didn’t go as well as it did the other night. My left knee had started to hurt a bit lately, not so much that I would notice it, but this time I actually had to stop and walk the rest of the way home looking like fucking Hunchback of Notre Dame, which made me a bit upset.




When I got inside Em was home looking extremely upset as well. She ran around with bunches of different outfits and jewels. “Oh thank God, Maja! I really need your help! What the hell am I going to wear tonight?” she exclaimed when she saw me.


But I wasn’t much of a help since she’d just asked me the most difficult question for any woman to answer and that is, what to wear? The only person I knew who could give a proper answer to that almost every single time was Aida, and unfortunately she wasn’t home yet.


“Uhm…” I began, “what about this one?” I pulled a top from the bunch of clothes that she had laid on the sofa in the living room.

“Oh no, he’s seen me in that before, besides it’s a bit more formal than skinny jeans and tank tops.”




I tried. I really did, but every time I found something different for her to wear – even some of my own clothes – she looked like she was about to kill herself.

“Okay, Em you need some professional help, so I say that we wait for Aida to get home first. And in the mean time I can do your makeup, I’m good at that,” I suggested and she actually looked a bit relieved.



I did a light makeup that mainly just consisted of some cover-up to make her skin look flawless and mascara, since Em had always been prettiest not wearing too much on her face.


Twenty minutes later Aida finally got home so that she could help us out with the outfit.


“What am I going to do?!” Suddenly she was feeling really nervous and frustrated again.

“Is it that important? I mean, Liam and you know each other quite well gradually, he knows your taste in clothes, so you don’t have to impress him that much, do you?” Aida said.


Wrong answer, I thought. And exactly as I predicted Em started pulling her hair. “It’s not Liam I’m worried about for God’s sake, it’s the fucking world! Him and I are going on a date in public and if look like shit I might as well pack my stuff and leave London, feeling humiliated and embarrassed.”

“Alright alright, I see your challenge,” Aida managed to interrupt before Em would start crying.
“Let’s see what we’ve got here…” She went through all the clothes on the couch and ended up pulling out a loose black dress with very short sleeves. “This one.”

“Isn’t that a bit boring? I use that for every day,” Em said with a frown on her forehead.

“Depending on what you wear with it,” Aida answered. “Add your black blazer with grey kaleidoscope pattern, a pair of black stockings and the white stiletto sandals and keep your hair loose, then it should be a completely different outfit.”

I could tell Em was taking a second to picture it in her mind. “Ok, I’ll try that.”


I smiled feeling so relieved, knowing what she was going through. I had to admit I wasn’t exactly looking forward to be with Niall in public for real if I had to think about my looks that much…



Half an hour later Em’s look was complete. And she looked absolutely amazing.

“You look so beautiful!” I exclaimed when I saw her. “I think the world will love you very much.”

“Please don’t say that, you’re just making me even more nervous than I already am,” she said while keeping touching up her hair and makeup.

“I think your prince is here,” Aida teased as she stood and had a cigarette looking out the window. Em and I both ran to her and looked down on the road to see Liam stand out of his black BMW glancing up towards us. Aida and I waved at him as Em went down the stairs.

“See you soon! Good luck!” we both yelled at her. We watched them as they hugged and kissed, it was very clear that Liam was amazed with how beautiful a girl he was taking to dinner that night.

“I better go take a shower so that we can get ready as well – I’m not taking any chances!” I said and went to the bathroom.



The dinner Aida had made in the meantime was a chicken salad with parmesan cheese. We had some white wine and a cigarette along with it. I was starting to feel a bit nervous about being in public with the boys even though I didn’t have any plans of kissing with Niall in front of everybody or something like that.



Just like Em I ended up almost ripping my hair off my head in frustration over my incredibly boring wardrobe.


“Aida!” I yelled. “Can you help me pick some clothes?”

She didn’t answer but I could hear her footsteps coming towards my room. “What’s up?” she asked and I glanced at her.

“God, you look great,” I said feeling even more horrible and anxious. She was wearing some high wasted and very tight black jeans, a white tight tank top that she’d tugged in to them and a black blazer. Her lips were red which matched the red color underneath her beige stilettos that revealed the timeless symbol of Christian Louboutin’s shoes.


I could cry at the look of her and she probably noticed my face expression and said: “Jesus, you girls really need to relax a bit.” She walked towards my clothes and quickly gave me my dark blue dress with an elastic waist. “Here, this one gives you a beautiful figure. And add some curls, red lipstick and your black plateau sandals.”


I didn’t have to think about her suggestion at all, I had learned through all these years that she was always right when it came to clothes and decorating. I put on the outfit and started doing my hair.



Once I’d finished I couldn’t help but think that I looked a bit like a brunette Marilyn Monroe with my curls, black eyeliner and red lips.


“Come on, Maja, Harry’s waiting!” Aida shouted from the door.

“I thought we would take the tube?” I asked when I’d put on my shoes and gone out to her.

“He wanted to pick us up,” she said. I smirked up at her seeing that she was blushing like hell.

“Well, you look rather nice, girls,” Harry’s voice sounded from the stairs as he came walking up.

He was wearing a typical Harry Styles-look; a white t-shirt, some skinny jeans and a black pair of leather boots.

“You don’t look too bad yourself,” I said smiling. “Hi, friend.” I gave him a hug after Aida.

“Let’s go, the boys are waiting,” he said and we followed him down the stairs.



It was almost 11 when we got to the bar near the boys’ home that was called Career Bar. Harry had to take a few pictures with fans on the way in, but other than that we didn’t really get affected by his fans that much.


Inside Zayn, Niall, Louis, El and Perrie were sitting having a beer.


“Hi guys!” I said when I got to their table and gave each of them a hug.

“What do you girls want to drink?” Harry asked me and Aida. What a gentleman!

“Uhm. Cosmopolitan,” I said.

“Ditto,” Aida smiled at him before he went to the bar.

“Well, Liam and Em must be having a very long dinner, since they’re not here yet…” I said sitting down next to Niall.

“Yeah, but I just called him and they’re finally on their way,” Niall said.


Harry came back with our drinks and a beer for himself and from then on it didn’t take very long for us to get the party started. Having had only some salad for dinner I could already feel the effect of the alcohol after only a few cocktails. Em and Liam arrived talking cheerfully to each other about something I couldn’t hear.


“How did it go?” I asked Em curiously when she sat down next to me.

“It was perfect,” she just answered, she didn’t get to say no more since a man suddenly talked in to a microphone across the room. He was standing on a small stage that I hadn’t noticed until now where there were lights all over it. Then I looked around the entire room and immediately noticed how big it was and how many people that were here.


“Karaoke,” Niall explained. “The absolute best thing about this bar, it’s really entertaining.”

“Are you serious?” I asked. “It’s just my experience that it most of the time is slightly annoying.”

“No, not here. They do it pretty implemented so it’s actually just fun to listen to and watch.” He smiled at me and before I got to say anything he’d put his hand on my thigh underneath the table.



After having cheered on a couple of extremely bad – but hilarious – performances the man in charge of it all suddenly said: “And now we have three girls from Denmark singing for us, they just moved to London a week ago so give them a hand!” He made a gesture towards our table and my entire body stiffened. The boys, El and Perrie shouted, whistled and clapped like crazy, while Em I just sat staring around at the table to find out who had signed us up for this. My eyes glued on to a quite drunk Aida that smirked at us.


“Come on girls, it’s just Mama Lied, we’ve sung that a million times at home!” she said and stood up. Niall pushed me off the chair as well and as soon as I started walking towards the stage I noticed – to my relief – that I was pretty drunk as well. Em was also having some trouble walking straight in her stilettos after having been drinking since dinner time.


The man handed each of us a microphone and said: “Here they are, performing Mama Lied by Tower of Power, The Three Danes!”



The music started playing and I couldn’t help but laugh at our situation – it really was just so ridiculous. I looked down at the table to see our seven fans clapping along already.


We performed the song as we always had done it for fun at home. Aida sang the first verse, me on the second and Em on the third, while all of us were singing the chorus. Mama Lied was a very happy, funky and groovy song from the 80’s that always made people sing along, even if they didn’t know it, because it was really easy as well. After the second chorus all eyes in the room were pointing towards us on the stage and I have to admit; we were really rocking it, dancing every time we weren’t singing and making people sing with us at the break, what a party that song always created!



When we finished people were actually standing up applauding us, shouting and whistling. We bowed and smiled like fools as we walked down to our table again.

“Man, you guys were great!” Zayn exclaimed also smiling.

“Yeah, really!” Perrie agreed.

“Thank you guys,” Em said blushing a bit when Liam pecked her cheek.




Suddenly a head of red hair came towards us and I thought I recognized the face and that voice as the girl said cheerfully: “Hello boys!”

“Sheila,” Niall said looking at her, almost without any smiling back at her.

“Niall, you didn’t tell me you would be here tonight?” she asked.

“Yeah, well. It was kind of a spontaneous decision about going out, so…” he said looking down at his hands that were fumbling with the sticker on one of the many beers on the table.

“And who are you guys?” she asked turning towards Em, Aida and I. We all shook her hand and told her our names. “You were rocking it up there.” We all smiled – she seemed like a very nice girl.

“I need to go to the toilet quite desperately now,” I said and left the table to find a toilet. I spent a bit of time in there fixing my hair and touching up my makeup until I went out to wash my hands.

The men’s room was right next to the ladies’ and the door was open so I could hear voices from inside the other toilet.



“She deserves to know the truth, Maja is a truly great girl, and if you don’t tell her then I will!”


That sounded just like Harry and as I walked past the open door I saw that he was standing looking rather pissed at a guy with blond hair.


“Tell me what?” I asked and walked closer to the door opening. They both looked scared up at me, especially Niall who looked like he could die any minute.

“What’s wrong?” I couldn’t help but feel very concerned at their behavior.

“I’ll give you two some privacy,” Harry said and walked past me.


I looked at Niall who was staring firmly down at his shoes. “Uhm… I have to tell you something…” he finally began after several long seconds of hesitation.

Notes

YES I GOT ANOTHER VOTE! And the rating is still going strong! So glad to see that! But keep them coming, it's always nice to get your feedback <3