Of course that head of red hair was standing right next to the one with dark curly hair, both moving around in laughter. Harry and Ed were really good friends as well, which calmed me down a bit, believing that it wouldn’t be so hard to get along with him since Harry and I were friends as well.

When the girls and I were only a few feet away from the two of them my frantic thoughts were interrupted when Ed – to my horror – turned towards us, before I was prepared.

“Aida! Nice to see you again!” he exclaimed happily and pulled the girl in front of me in for a hug.

“You were so great up there,” she smiled and my mind was doing nothing but explode over and over again. Had that giant mother fucker met that other giant mother fucker without telling me?! What the actual fuck?!

Harry made me compose my wide eyes and death wishes inside my head when he spoke up:

“Ed, this is Maja and Em, Aida’s friends.”

“Hello girls,” Ed smiled and pulled each of us in for the same gesture that he’d just given Aida. Damn, he was so sweet.

“You sounded amazing tonight,” I gushed before I could compose my shaking voice. For the millionth time that night, I wanted to kill myself. Not even Ed laughing at me could make up for the fact that I was in no condition of pulling of a fabulous image whenever I would meet someone just a tiny bit inspirational for me, I hated myself.

“They are huge fans,” Harry explained to him making all of us blush heavily.

“I caught up on that,” Ed smiled. “So Harry told me that you guys have a band as well?”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Aida answered quickly, while I was still breathing in in order to even speak. I really needed to discuss her apparently very relaxed behavior around someone as big and fantastic as Ed fucking Sheeran.

“So what are you called? I would like to check it out then, Harry keeps praising you,” the fucking red head said and once again I definitely wasn’t the one able to tell him our band name, since I literally felt my knees go weak and my vision go blurry.

“The Rookies,” Em managed to tell him, but I could tell that she was going out of her mind as well.

“The Rookies,” Ed repeated and pulled out his phone to type something in to it. “Great.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered through my teeth, too quiet for anyone to hear, except for Em, whose arm I was grabbing roughly on to and she turned her face towards me with wide eyes and her lips pinched tightly together, probably in order not to scream or something.

Nick and Alexa then joined our group, just to enhance my already critical state.

“I hate your friends!” I hissed in to Harry’s ear making him laugh loudly.

“I think they hate you as well,” he said sarcastically while wrapping an arm around my shoulders in a friendly and comforting gesture.


My hate didn’t get a chance to diminish as Perrie suddenly appeared with three familiar looking girls walking behind her.

“This is my new friends, Aida, Maja and Em,” she smiled as she was still walking towards us and stepped to the side for our two groups to meet each other.

“Wow, it’s hot in here!” Leigh-Ann sighed before pulling all of us in for the same gesture of kisses on the cheeks that we’d quickly learned and gotten used to through the night. “Who came up with those dance routines anyway?” The rest of us laughed lightly at her comment.

“You guys were so incredibly amazing,” Em said.

“Thank you so much,” Jesy responded, sounding utterly proud and happy.

“So Perrie told us that you have a girl band as well?” Jade asked me, since I was the one standing closest to her.

“Yes, we do,” I smiled. It was kind of crazy how much we’d been talking about that tonight, I couldn’t help but secretly hope that all this attention would pay off and help us spread the word about The Rookies.

Those girls had the thickest accents when they spoke to each other, it was quite captivating to listen to actually and they were just as sweet and humble as my first impression of them from interviews and X Factor was.


Despite the rather tense muscles in my body that refused to relax when being near all these awesome people and inspirations of mine, I still found myself having a great time and luckily the endless stream of laughs between us helped me relax and actually believe the fact that I could actually get along with these people, and not having to struggle too much to hide my insanely star struck and foolishly acting girl inside of me.

I have to say that I quite enjoyed the benefits of knowing One Direction. We met so many incredible people backstage and also at the party that was held afterwards, where the girls and I quickly downed several glasses of champagne in order to cope with all this a bit easier.

“Aida, I need to let you know that the fact that you’ve met Ed Sheeran without telling us, hasn’t gone by unnoticed!” Em told her when we were just standing the three of us for a brief moment.

“I’m sorry,” Aida chuckled. “It was just… It hadn’t really seemed like I’d met, you know… a star, or something, but more like a friend like any other else. He was just hanging out at Harry’s place when I was visiting…”

“Doesn’t matter,” Em interrupted her in a harsh tone. “You don’t just fucking forget to tell us about stuff like that.” She somehow managed to express both the humor, but also the seriousness in her voice. “Okay?” she asked when Aida didn’t anything but smile widely.

“Sure,” she answered.

“Thank you very much,” Em nodded while grabbing another glass of champagne. “I have to say, I’m pretty impressed by your lipstick, Maja, it doesn’t seem to move an inch, no matter how much you drink.”

“Lip liner,” I explained proudly. I had been really nervous that it would go everywhere, but apparently it was still sticking to my lips perfectly. Thank God. “And Chanel.”


My bright mood was soon to be turned around 180 degrees when my eye glimpsed the deep fake red colored hair moving around the masses of people in this huge beautiful room. It suddenly wasn’t so pretty anymore and I felt a knot forming in my stomach, both from anger and from anxiousness.

“Girls…” I whispered to them. “Sheila is here.”

“Sheila?” Aida asked at first confused, but then the realization started clearing up on her face. “Sheila Jackson?”

I nodded as I saw her silhouette getting horribly clearer each second. She was talking cheerfully to Rita Ora now. She was wearing a black jumpsuit – not nearly as beautiful as Eleanor’s – swinging her red curls from side to side whenever she would laugh, fake laugh I assumed.

“How could someone ever find that attractive?” I heard myself ask, as the knot now also started consisting of sadness. The familiar feeling of being hurt and lied to enhanced more and more each second, the thought of Niall being with that woman made me feel sick.

“Honestly don’t know,” Aida sighed. “She’s absolutely tasteless.”

The honesty and harsh tone in her voice told me that she was dead serious when saying so, and I couldn’t help but smile at her sincere support. “Thank you girl,” I chuckled pulling her in for a kiss on the cheek that didn’t leave any mark on her smooth skin.


“Well, then this might be a good time to tell you that I’ve met Jamie Scott,” Em suddenly mumbled slightly quietly making Aida and I turn our heads towards her.

“What the actual fuck?!” I exclaimed. “Why the hell haven’t you told us either?! When? Where?”

The questions kept stumbling out of my mouth and she better answer them soon, before I would choke her or do other violent actions on her annoyingly flawless face.

“Sorry,” she smiled. “But him and Liam are good friends, so he just wanted to introduce me to him, only about a week ago or so. He’s really nice, really cool and funny.”

“Fuck you!” I smiled back to her.

“But as Aida said, it didn’t exactly feel like I was meeting an idol, it was just really chilled out.”

“I still hate you guys,” I mumbled. “I would’ve told you in an instant.”

“Well, you must’ve met some of Niall’s friends that we like, without remembering to mention it. I know the 5SOS boys have been in London a few weeks ago…” Aida said.

“Yeah, he’s been hanging out with them a couple of times, I saw his pictures on Instagram,” Em added only making me feel anxious about it. I did see the pictures, but I hadn’t put much thought in to it, I assumed that he simply just wanted to spend some time with them alone. But now that I knew how Em and Aida constantly got introduced to their boyfriends’ friends, the knot kept growing faster and faster.

“I mean, since it’s already hard to find time to see each other as it is, it just seems natural to meet friends of them, you know…” Aida began.

“Girls, let’s just talk about something else,” I cut her off knowing that my mind wouldn’t travel anywhere positive, if I continued to swell around this topic.

Luckily we were interrupted by Harry and Liam, who both came over hugging their girlfriends from behind, wrapping an arm around their waists, placing a kiss on their hair… Where was Niall anyway?


I didn’t pay much attention to the conversation between the four of them, it was something about some kind of insect, which was the grossest one, I think, but since my glance was skimming the room to find my blonde haired guy, which I spotted in a happy conversation with Ellie Goulding, my brain was focusing on the racing thoughts instead. He couldn’t be embarrassed by me… could he? In my mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was, but I had learned from bitter experiences that that was not something I should take out on other people and certainly not my own boyfriend. I would not let it become his job to make me feel good about myself, at least not with him knowing it.

I became slightly annoyed with how our conversation had suddenly brought me in doubt about his feelings for me. I mean, he hadn’t exactly told me face to face that he loved me or anything, but he still showed me how much he cared in every other possible way. I should just walk over and speak to him… and Ellie Goulding. Jesus, she was just also really cool, I don’t know if I could act relaxed around her.

Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it. I was not a child anymore.
I didn’t know whether it was the tipsiness from the champagne that gave me the last push that I needed, but I suddenly found myself brave grab my clutch under my arm and walk towards the two of them, and actually without thinking too much about what would happen when I would reach them.

“Hey you,” Niall instantly smiled to me when I came over there and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Ellie, this is Maja,” he introduced me to the girl in front of him whose hand I politely shook.

“Maja and her two friends over there have a band together, called The Rookies,” Niall then told her with a proud smile. “You should check it out, they’re really great.”

“Really?” she said as my cheeks got redder and redder by the second. “That sounds cool!” The smile on her lips seemed completely honest and true.

“Thanks for the advertising,” I smiled up at him. “You performance tonight was amazing, Ellie.”

“Oh thank you so much! Yeah, it felt quite to be up there as well.”

I emptied my fourth glass of champagne and then heard myself mumble: “I need the toilet.”
Niall kept laughing as I asked them: “Do you know where it is?”

“I’ll show you, I need to check my hair anyway,” Ellie smiled and pulled me away from Niall.


“He’s the greatest guy,” she said to me when we entered the rest room and I nodded in agreement. “I’m so glad that he found someone like you.”

“Yeah, me too,” I replied not quite knowing what to say in return. Instead I just walked in to one of the toilet stalls, but I could still hear what she was saying:

“He talks about you, you sound quite nice according to him,” she laughed through the door as I flushed the toilet.

“Really?” I chuckled as I opened the door and joined her in front of one of the big mirrors where she was standing with some powder in her hand.

“Yes, he likes you, it’s easy to tell,” she smiled. How could I ever doubt his feelings in any way? He didn’t have to introduce me to his friends, apparently they already knew about me. How stupid.

“Is it Niall Horan?” a voice suddenly sounded through one of the other stalls, for some reason I felt the hairs on my arms rise at the sound of it.

I found out the reason later when that fake red hair came through the door. Great. “He’s amazing.” Her smile was even brighter and faker than I remembered it.

“Hi Sheila,” I smiled just as widely back at her, all fake though. “Heard you are doing the PR for the show?” I asked trying to change the subject, in an attempt the kill that god damn knot in my stomach.

“Yes I am,” she said showing no emotion as she washed her hands.

“Well. That’s cool,” I said when I realized that she wasn’t going to say more than just that.

“So how are things between you two?” she asked me and I found myself reluctant to answer her question, afraid of what she might be able to twist it in to.

“They’re good, thank you for asking,” I said politely. Ellie was looking back and forth between the two of us, I sensed that she could feel the slight tension forming in the small room.

“Yeah, it’s easier when there’s only one person making the decisions…” she said coldly and I looked at her with wide eyes, the same did Ellie. Oh God, here we go again.

“Okay, Sheila, have a nice night,” I replied turning around to head towards the door. I needed to get away from that… that bitch. I didn’t want to fight with her, and I especially didn’t want her to destroy my mood, firing back at her was the exact thing she wanted me to do, but I kept quiet.

“That’s what you girls do, right?”

My feet stopped moving.

“What do you mean?” I asked turning back around towards her.

“Make the decisions in all of your relationships,” she smiled at me. Fucking smiled.

But once again I managed to keep quiet except for a small laugh, I couldn’t hold that one back. She really was incredibly stupid.

“Want to hit the buffet?” Ellie asked me as she opened the door, I was glad that she seemed like she also just wanted to get away from Sheila and her rude comments.

“She sure does,” Sheila commented still glancing at her reflection in the mirror as she touched up her eyeliner. I could kill her.

“Yes,” I answered Ellie in the happiest tone ever, just to pretend that I didn’t hear her hurtful comment or at least that I didn’t care.


“She’s a bitch, huh?” Ellie whispered to me as we both piled up a few of the canapés from the buffet. I laughed, it had really been nice not to be alone whenever facing someone as uncomfortable as Sheila Fucking Jackson.

“Totally,” I said making her laugh as well. “Do you know her?”

“No, not really, just that she’s all over the place at events like these,” she told me with her mouth full of food. I loved how laid back and sweet she seemed, she’d been acting so welcoming right from when she met me, just a few minutes ago.


But I couldn’t seem to quite let go of what Sheila had mentioned in the restroom about all of us girls. I glanced over at Aida and Em who were still standing in the middle of a loud discussing with Harry and Liam. And then it dawned on me that they were the next ones to stand in line for an attack from Sheila Jackson’s terrible influence on the medias.

Notes