How To Be a McBusted 'Girl' Friend
By: Riley
Summary – These are just a few rules that you need to live by to be a 'girl' friend to McBusted. *Those who have read my old Just My Luck stories will recognize the characters in it*
The first thing that you have to know and always be aware about is that the boys of McBusted could be very, very stupid.
The easiest way to explain it was that they could get on your nerves a lot quicker with their mere presence, only because it was only a few minutes away from something happening that made you question their sanity.
In fact, Riley and Rhuben Jackson had been around the McBusted boys long enough, when they were simply known as McFly and Busted, that they could practically sense whenever the boys were bound to do something stupid. There was one instance in particular that wouldn't ever be forgotten. Rhuben had been minding her own business, reading a book in the room that she and her sister shared in the house they had all rented to work on their music, when she realized it was quiet.
Wayyy too quiet for the guys that she considered her best friends and some of her biggest pests.
She folded down the corner of the page she had been reading and swung her legs to the floor, trying to pinpoint what it was about the silence that was unnerving to her. The house was normally so loud, not because of her own family, which doubled as their band, but Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter, and Harry Judd hardly knew the meaning of the word. Even if they got put in proverbial time-out, they always found some way to start giggling about something idiotic which caused her to roll her eyes and question for the millionth time why she was friends with them.
This time wasn't any different.
Rhuben got off her bed and walked to the door of her room. Pulling it open, she listened as hard as she could. Still nothing. Oh god, they're definitely up to something. Pushing her glasses up her nose, Rhuben left her room and ventured downstairs to see if there was any mess that she was more than likely going to need to clean up. And yet, she found nothing out of place. No food anywhere, no dishes left in the sink, nothing left on the counters. In fact, it was as if the boys didn't live there and that was not the case.
Especially considering what had happened the night before when the boys had thought it was a good idea to throw pillows around like Frisbees and ended up smacking Fletch in the face as he had arrived to see how the music writing was going. He dropped his phone and the screen had immediately imploded. And yet, despite him telling them that they had to grow up at some point, as soon as they left they were back in the game.
Of course Matt Willis and James Bourne, the Busted part of McBusted, didn't help matters much either as they were the ones that threw the first pillows as Frisbees.
Now Rhuben wondered what it could be that the boys had gotten into that day. It didn't take long for her to find out, going into the studio area of the basement, the other half being used as the game area; Rhuben found the boys trying to conceal their laughter with hands clapped over their mouths, tiny giggles escaping here and there. As she stood in the doorway, eyebrows hiking higher and higher by the second, she watched as Harry pulled the side of his tank top over to reveal his nipples and Danny bring a lighter close to it.
A second passed and then a high-pitched yelp escaped the McFly dummer's lips and he jumped up and down, waving a hand in front of his nipple. The boys laughed hysterically around him, slapping their knees and holding their sides, as their laughter mixed together and echoed throughout the basement.
It was all Rhuben could take. "What the hell are you doing?" She demanded, walking further into the studio. The boys, still laughing, tried to shut each other up as they watched the Australian girl strolled towards them, crossing her arms over her chest. "Better question, what is your fascination with your nipples?"
"We're seeing how much hair we can burn off," James said with an impish smile.
"Yeah, c'mere look." Matt lifted up the bottom of his shirt and pointed to his own nipple, where the hair around it had been burnt off in a perfect circle, his light brown nipple not a bright pink. "I got about a quarter's size."
"Yeah, and Tom nearly caught the end of his hair on fire," Danny agreed with a laugh. His bright blue eyes sparkled with amusement as Tom scowled, bringing his hands up to check the front of his hair as it stood on end. "You should've heard his screams, love."
Rhuben narrowed her eyes over at him, silently warning him that his attempts at flirting with her wouldn't get him off the hook with this stunt.
"Yeah, it was hysterical." Tom lowered his hands from his head and gently rubbed his chest, brown eyes shifting as a horrified look came over his face.
"Give me that!" Rhuben walked over to Danny and grabbed the lighter form his hand, making sure the top was flipped down. Her blue-purple eyes moved across the six boys that stood in front of her, all giving small smiles. When she spoke next, her voice had turned low, cold, "My only bloody question is…why did you think this was a good idea?"
"Dunno." Dougie scratched the back of his head. "It's funny."
Rhuben's heart slowly sank, making her, one again, question why she was even friends with guys that were stupid enough to willingly hold a lighter to their nipple. Though she could admit that on the scale of the dumbest things they had ever done it wasn't the highest.
Of course she had no choice but to take it in stride, or else her life wouldn't be nearly as interesting.
The second thing that had to be remembered was that in many ways, you were going to be the boys' mother more than being a friend.
That was the role Riley found herself falling into more and more as each day passed. Not only was she the one that cooked for everybody—which was something that she enjoyed nevertheless—but it usually ended up with her being the one that had to yell at the boys when they would start some sort of a food fight over the silliest thing possible. And that was when she wasn't trying to keep them from cooking in case they were stuck at home with food poisoning as that had befallen upon them before.
Then there was the fact that none of the boys seemed to understand how to do their own laundry. Then again, Tom, Dougie, Danny, and Harry had managed to completely destroy the first house they had lived in. They rarely cleaned after themselves, lived off of pizza, and somehow managed to shrink most of their clothes before having gone out and just buying more each time they got dirty. That's not to mention the house keeper that they had was more than likely underpaid for all of the hard work she had done to keep their house clean and their refrigerator full.
"Guys, I need all of your dark wash clothes," Riley called as she knocked on the door to the room that Tom and James shared. Pushing open the door with her foot she was surprised to find that they were sitting on the floor, separating their piles of clothes. "You got a jump start on it this time?"
"We did it already, actually," James said. He gave her a bright smile which was much like a child that was trying to show his mother the 'A' he had gotten on his test. "We're just folding everything up now."
"Really?" Eyes narrowing in skepticism, Riley walked further into the room, balancing the basket on her hip.
"Yes, really," James said.
"Does that surprise you?" Tom replied, twisting around to look at her. He flapped out the Star Wars t-shirt that was in his hands and folded it into a square, placing them on top of the stack of shirts resting beside him.
"Yes, frankly," Riley admitted. She dropped the basket onto the ground and sat down on the end of Tom's bed, crossing her leg at the knee. "I mean, the last time that you guys did laundry you boofheads somehow managed to turn every fucking thing pink."
"Hey, that red sock was a little bugger that got stuck to the side of the washing machine," Tom defended himself. "Anyone could've made that mistake."
"Four times?"
"I said it was a mistake," Tom defended himself. "Lighten up, Riles, we're just trying to help you out, since you're usually doing so much for all of us. We thought it'd be a good way to say thanks. So James and I are doing laundry, Dougie and Harry are cleaning the bathrooms, Danny and Matt are making lunch—"
He was suddenly cut off by the sound of the smoke alarm going off. Riley let out a curse under her breath and vaulted over Tom's bed, hurrying out of the bedroom as fast as she could. Behind her she could hear James's innocent question, "what's gotten into her? I think everyone's managed to make the smoke alarm go off at least once."
Hurrying down into the kitchen, Riley skidded to a stop in the doorway, pressing her hands against the doorframe. Her eyes widened when she spotted Matt and Danny frantically waving dishtowels at the pan that sat on the stove, smoke pouring out of the top.
"What are you doing?" She shrieked in a voice so loud it caused the boys to jump in fear. (Whether it was fear of getting caught of fear of having to face her inevitable wrath was debatable).
"Trying to make lunch," Matt replied with a cough. He turned from the stove, his upper lip curling in a way that fans recognize as his 'stage face'. "Who knew that making grilled cheese was so hard?"
"I know," Danny agreed. He blinked rapidly, tears falling down his cheeks. "I mean, it's just two pieces of bread with cheese in the middle of it. He let out a cry of surprise as Riley pushed against his chest, knocking him backwards out of the way. She picked up the oven mitt and slid it onto her hand before grabbing the handle of the pan that sat on the stove and whisked it over to the sink. She tossed it inside, turning on the water.
A plume of smoke cascaded out of the sink and into Riley's face, causing her to back away, waving her hands in front of her. Once the smoke dissipated, she leaned into the sink to see what had caused the grilled cheese to commit suicide. When she found the culprit, she picked it up by the corner and turned back to the boys, holding it in front of her face.
"You're supposed to take the plastic off the cheese," she said to the two of them.
Matt scratched his jaw. "You know, I was thinking we were forgetting something."
"Yeah, same here." Danny reached for the pan. "Well, now that we know what we did wrong, we can just—"
"No you don't!" Riley held her arms out so her body resembled the letter 'T'. "You boofheads will probably burn the entire house down. I can't take my eyes off of any of your for a minute. GET OUT. GET OUT!" Raising her voice, she placed her hands on their chests and pushed them out of the kitchen. "I'll do it myself."
Once the two guitarists were out of the room Riley turned to survey the kitchen and heaved a heavy sigh before going in to fix their mess.
The third thing is that if you have brothers, there's a very good chance that they will be influenced by the lads.
Patrick, Noah, and Sydney Jackson were about as rambunctious as young adult boys could be. Patrick and Noah being twenty years old, compared to their sisters' twenty-two and Sydney's fifteen years old made it so that they were able to fall in with each of the other band members in the house.
Being the youngest, since the DarkElements had first met McFly, Sydney had instantly created a sort of older brother-little brother relationship with Tom. While Tom was the most mature of the McFly boys, though that could easily be held up to debate, Sydney had found that he had more in common with him. Their interest in science—Sydney's being a part of Mensa and following in his father's scientific footsteps and Tom having an obsession with space and NASA— caused the two of them to have many long conversations about the possibilities of there being life on mars, and what the next space venture would be.
Patrick and Noah had a means of having more in common with Harry, and, in some ways, embodied both parts of the drummer's personality. Harry was athletic, outgoing, competitive, and seemed that he couldn't sit still for more than a few minutes which matched the DarkElements' bass player almost to a 'T'. However the Australian boy was loud, liked the attention of girls, and participated in every sport imaginable because he liked being active as all costs.
Noah took on attributes of Harry's other side. Harry was also known to be a good listening, caring, and willing to give up anything to help his friends. He had been the one that gave up his valentine's day with his girlfriend, Jacqui, so that the two of them could go and help Dougie when he was afraid that he would do something stupid or commit suicide. In fact Harry had been the first one to really notice that there was something wrong with Dougie as he had fallen into his depression.
Noah was the quietest of the DarkElements, preferring to observe things and usually only spoke up when there was something important that needed to be heard. He cared a lot about his friends and would give them the best advice to help them through their problems as they could. Even having had a bit of a crush on Jacqui at some point, he had put his feelings aside so that she and Harry could get together.
The three Australian boys were fine all on their own, however as soon as they were with McBusted it was as if their brain cells went out the window and they were soon ensnared in the sort of antics they usually found themselves in. The last time Riley and Rhuben had stumbled upon it was when they had walked into their brothers' room to get some work done on a song and found that they had been waged in a stink bomb war with the six British boys.
Of course they didn't need to ask where the stink was coming form, just being in the doorway for a few moments—and remember that they had all eaten a healthy amount of baked beans at the cookout that afternoon—answered that question and let them know it was time for them to get out of the house for a while.
Which brings you to the fourth thing to remember.
Make sure you spend some time with your girlfriends.
Not only are they more than likely dating part of McFly as well, but they were the ones you go to to make sure that you didn't shoot yourself in the forehead. And Riley and Rhuben had some great ones in Genevieve 'Gen' Charlier and Jacqueline 'Jacqui' Guhl, who were dating Tom and Harry.
More often than not the four girls would gather and their shared apartment under Riley and Rhuben practically begging for some time away from the boys to make sure they would keep their sanity.
"Wow, they must've really done a number on you guys this time," Gen commented as she watched the twin sisters walk through the front door of the apartment. She had barely glanced at their faces to know that they were far from being content. "I don't think I've ever seen the vein on your forehead throb this much, Rhu."
"It's not the only thing that's pounding," Rhuben murmured, dropping down onto the two-seater couch.
"That's what she said!" Jacquie shouted from the kitchen where the sound of clinking glasses could be heard.
"You're not funny, Jacqui!" Riley shouted back, flopping down into the leather chair that faced the TV. She slouched down, crossing her legs at the knee and gave a nod of thanks to Gen, who sat down next to her, giving a gentle smile, which lived up to the nickname that the Jacksons had given her. "Though I'm sure you've been waiting a loooong time to say that one, yeah?"
"You're right." Jacqui smiled as she walked out of the kitchen, holding onto four champagne glasses and a bottle of wine. "Now, I know you two don't like wine, but I'm telling you I'm going to find one that you do like." She settled down on the floor between the coffee table and the couch. Crossing her legs underneath her she hummed as she placed the glasses down before starting in on the cork of the wine bottle.
"Do you want us to get drunk?" Rhuben flicked her purple strand of hair out of her eyes.
The American girl's eyes widened innocently as she placed a hand against her chest. "Moi?" She batted her eyelashes innocently. "Why would I ever want to do that?"
"Ignore her," Gen said with a light laugh. The Canadian girl pulled her long, brown hair behind her shoulders and nudged her friend and roommate on the arm with her foot. "She's looking for anything that could entertain her right now."
"Would having the guys try to burn hair off of their nipples, almost burn down the kitchen, and make their own fart smelling stink bombs be of more entertainment to you?" Riley practically growled. "If so, I'd be chuffed if you could trade lives with me. Or, y'know, stop me from wanting to shoot each and every one of those bloody boofheads in the head."
Jacqui looked up from the wine bottle and peered at her. "Oh come on, they can't be that bad."
"They weren't that bad when Mattie and James weren't around," Rhuben protested. "I love the guys, but they're seriously driving me to commit murder."
Gen laughed her tinkling laugh and patted Rhuben on the arm before giving Riley a sweet smile. "Just be glad that you're able to spend all of this time being able to hang out with your friends." She leaned back against the pillow that sat in the corner of the couch. "If we weren't so busy studying at Oxford we'd be glad to take all of the time that we could to be with the lads."
Jacqui nodded in agreement, not using her teeth to try and saw the cork out of the top of the wine bottle. She let out a grunt before making a choking sound, bits of the cork falling into her mouth. She sputtered, spitting out tiny pieces along the ground. "Yeah," she agreed. "I haven't had a good make out session with Harry in a week."
"Thanks, I really needed to get that lovely image in my head, yeah?" Riley teased. She picked up the pillow that she had been leaning on and tossed it at Jacqui. She caught it and threw it back to Riley, punching the air with her fists, then went back to sawing off the top of the cork. Riley grinned and snuggled into the chair, swinging her legs over the arm of the couch.
"Ok, Ok." Ever being the peace maker, Gen held up her hands, looking at her three best friends. "Why don't we talk about something other than the boys?"
Jacqui, Riley, and Rhuben exchanged glances of disbelief before turning back to the Canadian girl. "Why would we want to do that?" Gen rolled her eyes but fell into their laughter as well. Then there was a loud popping sound accompanied with a thud and a sound of glass breaking, causing the four girls to let out screams of surprise.
Turning to look at the wine bottle in her hand, Jacqui's dropped jaw turned into an excited smile and she started to bounce up and down. "Ha! I knew I could get it open! Success!" She poured the wine into the four glasses before standing up, eyes bright with excitement. "D'you know what else will make this night better? Pixie stix! I'll go get them."
The three remaining girls groaned before they collapsed into laughter once more.
The fifth thing to remember about being around the McBusted boys was the really tricky part. Being around the six boys for so long, through album releases, tours, appearances, and every rise and fall a band could make, you were bound to start having feelings for one of them.
Let's face it, they're all attractive boys and the older they got, the more attractive they became. It was hard not to feel something for the boys that were constantly in your life. The part that became the hardest was when you dated a lot of the members of McBusted.
Rhuben, for example, had dated Danny and then Charlie, who, currently, wasn't a member of McBusted but had the potential to come back. The relationships with both boys were different and she had enjoyed being in both of them. Of course, both of the relationships had ended in ways they didn't see coming, but they had been fine while they lasted. Danny made her feel wanted, start from when he first laid eyes on her he did nothing but flirt with her and try to get her attention, hoping to prove to her that he could be in a loving relationship with one person. When that had fizzled out, Rhuben started going out with Charlie, who had treated her the way she had always wanted to be treated.
With respect, love, and caring, the things that her foster father, Robert, could have never brought to her or her siblings. And he had done them in different ways than Danny had. Then that had fizzled out, but only for the reasons that Rhuben and Charlie knew. Now that she was spending so much time with Danny, and Charlie being back around because he was only a few negotiations away from being in McBusted with the others, she was starting to have conflicting feelings over the boys that she had dated before.
And they say that problems always come in twos because Riley was having nearly the exact same problem; however there was one other guy added into the mix. Since having met each other when they were fifteen, Dougie and Riley had a lot in common from their music tastes, interests, and having similar backgrounds. Dougie always paid her a certain kind of attention because he liked to annoy her, which appeared easy to do as it didn't take long for her to scream at him in rage and chase him away from whatever room she had been in while Dougie laughed hysterically as he ran.
Still, the two of them managed to start going out with each other and their relationship had been really good if not a little goofy. No one could really understand how Riley was able to put up with his antics but nevertheless they were together for a while. Up until Dougie started to turn more in on himself, things form his past starting to get in the way of his happiness and he fell into a downward spiral. It alienated Riley so much that the two had broken up and then she had started to date James. His passion for life and the music he was working on was a sharp contrast to the darkness that Dougie was wallowing in and it was a breath of fresh air.
Then Busted had fallen apart and James fell into a sense of bitterness of Charlie leaving the band. The two had fought a lot and James brought those fights into his relationship with Riley and that relationship had crashed and burned in a ball of flames that kept them angry at each other for months until they talked again. And now that she was living with her two exes, she found that things were only a bit awkward when they were around each other and their relationships with the one girl had been brought up. But, no, that was the least of it, considering Riley had started to have feelings to Matt recently.
The two had been friends for a long time and she never expected it to happen. Of course she was keeping it a secret. No one else, except her brothers and sister she was sure, even had inkling about it. She acted as normal as possible, downplaying it whenever there was an even tiny bit of a chance of it being brought up. (Especially considering she didn't know if Matt felt the same). But it was bound to come out eventually, especially considering Dougie seemed to want to relive his past antics and constantly bugged her as much as he could.
But that was the breaks of being some of the few girls around so many boys. Things were bound to get messy and while it was fun at the time, it's one of the few things you have be prepared for.
'Cause let's face it, the guys are hot.
The sixth thing to remember is that despite the fact that the boys could get on your nerves, make you feel like their mother, influence your brothers, make you value your time with your girlfriends, and make you fall for them...the McBusted boys are your best friends, your family, and the guys that you found yourself being as silly with as you could ever imagine.
Plus…you may be the one that eggs them on some of the dumb ideas they have. Because they always managed to make you have some of the most fun you've ever had in your entire life.
"Fire! Fire!"
Rhuben jerked in surprise as she came up from the basement and was struck in the forehead with something. Turning her gaze to the floor, she found a Nerf dart lying at her feet then looked up to see James running away from her as fast as he could, laughing at the top of his lungs. It was then she could hear the sound of thundering feet all over the house accompanied by the sounds of people faking their death and cries of triumph along with the sound of things falling and slamming doors.
"Rhu-Rhu, help me!" She could hear Sydney shouting from somewhere upstairs. "Matt has me captured."
"And he'll stay captured, too!" Charlie shouted back.
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Harry's cry came seconds before there was a loud thud and his and Charlie's laughter mixing together.
"Rhu, hurry!" Tom came sprinting into the kitchen, holding onto a large machine-gun looking Nerf gun and as much arsenal that he could fit in his pockets. "It's you, me, Riley, Harry, Sydney, and Noah against Danny, Dougie, Matt, James, Patrick, and Charlie. Winner gets out of chores for a week."
Rhuben grinned and grabbed a gun from Tom and as much ammunition as she could fit into her pocket. "Let's add they have to be the ones to drive and I'm in."
Tom made a show of placing his feet together and bringing his gun up against his shoulder. He brought his right hand to his forehead and gave a salute to her. She gave one back and the two charged upstairs where the screams were emanating. Rhuben made it up to the landing and shot out a few darts, just in time to strike Patrick on the leg.
"Noooo!" He cried dramatically, falling to his knees. "I've been shot!"
He was suddenly hit in the back of the head with another dart and, with a battle cry, Riley leapt out from a doorway, landing on top of her younger brother. With the determination of the soldier she was roleplaying, Riley pressed the tip of the gun against the back of her brother's head. "Now that I have you, where are the hostages?" She asked aggressively.
"You'll never get me to tell," Patrick promised. Riley grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and turned his head around so that the gun was now pointed directly in his face. She pressed the tip against his nose. "Never!"
"You can't talk," Tom protested. "You're supposed to be dead."
"We're using rubber bullets Tommy," Riley pointed out, giving him a strange look. "I think the last thing we need to worry about is the semantics of the game." She blew her red strand of hair out of her face, eyes lighting up when she noticed that her twin was standing at the stairs with her teammate. "Oh good, you're playing. Now we can start the game over and things'll be fair."
"Nah." Rhuben grinned evilly. "I think the element of surprise is in store."
"I like the way you think, Sis," Riley replied. She reached out her hand and fist bumped her sister before standing up, keeping her foot against Patrick's back.
There was the sound of Dougie's wild battle cry, Danny's laughter, and thudding feet going down the back staircase. "Let's go shoot down some criminals, yeah?" She led the charge back down the stairs and she, Tom, and Rhuben met up with their friends and band mates, shooting out an arsenal of darts as they darted around corners, hid behind doors, dove behind furniture, and ran amuck around the house. When Gen and Jacqui had arrived later that night, they found that the two teams had created forts and were making plans on attacking the other team, which brought the two of them into the game as well, making it last until the odd hours of the night.
But that was the best thing about being a McBusted 'girl'friend, you always had a blast.
THE END
A/N: I got this idea after having watching one of Giovanna's 'Coffee with Gi' vlogs as well as talking to my sister about wondering if the boys ever thought about the things they did before they did it. For example, the lighter and nipple video we had seen earlier today.
I know the story tenses switched back and forth all the time, but it was the best way I could think of this one-shot going.
I hope you guys liked it.
Cheers,
-Riles
*Bonus: Danny Jones WILL try to sneak a peek of you in the shower. So you will have to do one of three things:
Got the Gen route: Scream in surprise, cover yourself, and yell at him to get out of the bathroom
The Jacqui route: Let him see!
The Riley and Rhuben route: Anticipate it, wear your bathing suit in the shower, and get the upper hand so that you can chase him out and murder him.