Chapter 1-
"Louis, wake the fuck up!" yells Geoff as he hurls a pillow straight at Louis's face.
"We have to be at sound check in like 10 minutes, brov, you need to get your shit together." said Stan, the soft-spoken drummer.
A muffled groan comes from a large lump lying on the tour bus's couch. "Fine, fine. I'm getting up." murmurs Louis as he appears from under the covers.
Running his hands through his messy, light brown hair, Louis Tomlinson rolls over and slowly gets to his feet. He looks down at his crumpled Black Sabbath t-shirt and tight black jeans and shrugs.
"Brov, didn't you wear that yesterday? Aren't you gonna change before we go?" asks Stan.
"So? I look good, that's all that matters." replies Louis cheekily as he slips on his black plimsolls and grabs his favorite blue beanie.
Louis, Geoff, Stan, Joe and Jona all pile off of the tour bus and walk towards the backstage entrance to a club in Cheshire. Inside the club, there is an acoustic guitar playing softly on stage and the boys are immediately surrounded by backstage personnel.
An extremely large man wearing an equally large smile approaches the boys and introduces himself. "Hello lads, my name is Christoph and I'm the backstage manager here. We're ecstatic to have you here as we're all big fans of The Rogue. I hope you lads are ready to have a great time, and just let me know if there's anything you need." With that, Christoph turned and ran to yell at a sound engineer as a mic squealed on stage.
After the screeching sound ended, a young blonde boy stuck his head around the curtain and yelled "Oi! We're trying to practice here. It's kinda hard for our singer to sing if he can't hear himself!"
Louis sighed and rolled his head at the display, knowing that they must be the amateurs opening for them. Being on the last leg of their 50 town tour, Louis had encountered more than enough local bands to last him a lifetime. He plopped himself down in a chair backstage and grabbed a bottle of water while trying get himself into the zone before the performance. Louis didn't really like just sitting in the chaos of everything backstage, so he grabbed his earplugs out of his pocket and put them in. For a while, he just sat there sipping his water and humming to himself until his drummer Joe tapped him on the arm.
"What?" yelled Louis, not realizing how loud he was being. Joe motioned for Louis to take out his earplugs as the rest of the band got up and started walking towards the stage.
"Are we doing sound check? I'm trying to get focused, you know!" Joe shook his head and motioned for Louis to take out his earplugs again.
"What? What do you want?" yelled Louis again as Joe reached over and yanked one of Louis's earplugs out. As Louis's ear adjusted to the sound, he pulled out his other earplug and heard the same acoustic riff that he had heard coming in.
He turned to Joe and said, "Well? What is it?"
"Would you just hold on for a second? Jesus, you're impatient." replied Joe, as the sound of someone clearing their throat over the microphone.
"Oh great, he just wants me to hear how horrid our opener is." thought Louis, as he recognized the tune of Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams.
However, when Louis heard the first line of the chorus being sung, he too got up and joined his 3 other mates at the curtain line. Looking out on to the stage, Louis could see the same blonde guy from earlier playing guitar along with two dark haired guys playing bass and drums. But the person they were all focused on was a skinny guy with really curly hair standing in the spotlight in front of the mic, singing his heart out. His raspy but beautiful voice rang out over the entire club, and it seemed that everyone in the club had stopped what they were doing and were simply watching him.
Louis's mouth dropped open just a bit and he stood frozen until the very last note of the song. When everyone started clapping, the boy opened his eyes and began to blush, not realizing that everyone had been listening so intently.
Stan turned around and saw Louis in his state and leaned close to him and whispered, "Brov, you can close your mouth now. Anyways, he's not really your usual type, now is he?" With that, Stan turned on his heel laughing and walked towards his guitar.
Louis dropped his head and began to blush, hating that he was caught gawking over someone. Anyways, Stan was right. This boy was not his usual type and Louis knew that he did not want to get into anything right now. His music was his life and he needed to remember that. He grabbed the same water bottle took a long drink, readying himself to go onstage for sound check.
While trying to get pumped up, Louis saw that his shoe was untied and bent down to tie it. He realized that his heart was beating faster than usual, so he took a few deep breaths to try to calm himself down, deciding that he was just nervous to go onstage.
As he was crouched down, he heard a voice say "No, I mean- I'm just worried that no one will like me! What if I screw everything up? Will, it's The Rogue! They're incredible and I'm just me. I mean, have you heard their lead singer? I just don't want to embarrass myself."
As Louis stood up, he saw the blonde guy and his lead singer walk through the door to the dressing rooms.
"He thinks I'm good?" thought Louis, "God, he thinks he's bad and he thinks I'm good?"
"Wow," said Louis out loud as he shook his head.
"What is it, Louis?" asked Geoff as he grabbed his guitar.
"Nothing," said Louis, "Nothing at all. You ready to go kick some fucking ass tonight?"
"Hell yeah!" replied Geoff as he slung his arm around Louis's shoulder and they walked on stage.
After the successful sound check, the rest of the band went back to the dressing rooms to hang out before the show. For a while Louis sat with them and thought about the show for tonight. But something was making him much more nervous than usual.
"Hey Louis, you okay over there?" asked his bassist, Jona, while giving Louis a playful shove on the arm.
Louis automatically flashed his goofy smile and said, "Yeah, yeah. You know, just jitters. I'm fine, don't worry! I think I'm just gonna grab a bit of fresh air. Be back in a minute."
"Okay, don't go too far. We kinda need you! You're our fearless lead singer!" yelled Stan as Louis walked himself out of the dressing room.
When he got backstage, he heard that the opening band was finishing their first song to a wave of applause.
"Hey guys, we're White Eskimo. Thanks for having us tonight." said the same voice from before, shaking from obvious nervousness.
The tremor in the boy's voice made Louis make a split-second decision. He walked out from backstage and followed the signs to the inside of the club. Louis had never gone out to listen to an opening band before, because he usually liked to get into the zone and get ready.
"Also, they usually suck." thought Louis with a scoff as he opened the door to the inside of the club.
He pushed through the tight throng of bodies and found himself a place in the back of club under the shadow of the upper level of seating. He wanted to make sure the band couldn't see him and that his mates couldn't see him if they walked in. While watching the band begin their next song, Louis realized he didn't need to worry about being seen by the lead singer because he kept his eyes closed throughout the entire intro. When he opened his mouth to sing, Louis was expecting him to finally open his eyes, but he kept them tightly shut.
"I guess it's a nerve thing," thought Louis, "He's gonna have to learn how to open his eyes if wants to get anywhere though."
After a few minutes, Louis decided he was wrong and that this boy could get anywhere just with his voice. He had an incredible range and his voice gave Louis goosebumps a number of times just during one song. Sometimes his voice would crack or shake, but Louis decided that the boy was just really nervous. Looking down at his watch, Louis realized that he had been watching the band for a half an hour and that his band was probably freaking out because they went on in 5 minutes. He waited for the boy to finish singing and made his way out of the club during the roaring applause that followed the song.
As he entered the backstage, his band jumped up and started yelling out expletives.
"Fuck brov, where the fuck were you?" yelled Stan, "We thought we were gonna have to make Jona sing!"
"Seriously, I about shit my pants thinking I was gonna have to try to be you." said Jonah, smiling.
"Chill out, chill out! I knew I had to be here!" said Louis, "And don't worry, Jona. I wouldn't deprive the audience the privilege of seeing me."
As Jona clapped Louis on the shoulder, they all moved together towards the stage.
It was the end of the performance and Louis was having a hard time on stage.
He could not look down in fear of staring at the boy who was standing in the middle of the crowd staring down at his feet.
The lead singer had made his way into the club during The Rogue's second song and Louis watched him make his way into the dead center of the club. The boy might have looked up once but his long curly hair covered his eyes as he quickly looked down at his feet. He had been that way ever since, just bobbing his head along with the music. Louis was trying his hardest to focus on the music, but he had even forgotten the lyrics during one of his songs when the boy had run his hands through his long hair. Louis never forgot his lyrics.
"God, I need to calm down. It's just a guy. He's just a person." thought Louis, as he caught himself looking down towards the boy again.
Louis decided he just needed to finish the gig, so he closed his eyes tightly, just like the boy, and tried to block out everyone in the club.
At the end of the song, he realized that the concert was over, opened his eyes and took his bows with the rest of his mates. He finally opened his eyes and his automatically shot to the spot where the boy had been standing, where he found a blonde girl jumping up and down and screaming his name.
Disappointed, Louis turned around and walked off stage with his mates to see Christoph waiting for them.
"Hello again lads. Great show, great show! Everyone loved you. Anyways, your manager just called and told me that the local band booked for your last show in Bristol just called to cancel. Their lead singer had to get his appendix taken out. Shame, shame. But, I had the brilliant idea to suggest that the opening band from tonight accompany you to Bristol, since the crowd here loved them. Your manager thought that was a great idea, and the band said they'd be happy to play for you guys again. Sound okay to you lads?"
"Yeah, that sounds great! The crowd was really excited by the time we got on stage." said Geoff with a smile.
"I can think of a few people who really loved them." said Stan with a chuckle, sending a wink Louis's way.
"Sound good to you, Louis?" asked Joe.
"Yeah, that sounds good." replied Louis, trying to keep his cool.
"Wonderful! Well, since you haven't officially met," said Christoph as he moved aside, "these are the lads of White Eskimo."
The four boys of White Eskimo stood there nervously, so the rest of The Rogue automatically went forward to introduce themselves.
Louis stayed back and waited until Stan was done shaking the boy's hand. Stan turned to Louis and motioned him forward.
Louis took a few tentative steps forward as he stared straight ahead at the boy, whose eyes were glued to floor again. When Louis was finally standing right in front of him, the boy slowly looked up at him. Louis saw his bright green eyes for the first time and he had to close his mouth in fear of gasping out loud.
The boy stretched out his hand and said quietly, "Hi, I'm Harry."