Chapter 9

So it's been three weeks after Tom and I had that little dramatic episode. What surprised me was that afterward Tom and I just grew closer to each other than we've ever been. Don't get me wrong though, I'm completely in love with Dougie in every way and people have yet to find out about us.

Right now we're in Manchester getting ready for the private gig the boys were giving to the contest winner. It was being filmed for TOTP and the winner would be arriving in an hour. I was busy getting a gift basket full of McFly stuff that had been signed together when the boys came running in and throwing grapes at each other.

"Guys...Guys...GUYS," I yelled getting frustrated because they were messing the room up.

They all looked up at me and smiled innocently.

"Oh, don't even try that with me. Pick up all of these grapes right now and then go clean up. You guys are being so immature!"

"Woah, Abby, calm down girl," Harry said, holding his hands up in surrender.

Dougie came over and sat down in front of me," Abby, are you okay? You seem a little tense."

"Gee, I wonder why! Your lazy, good for nothing manager hasn't been doing anything to help out with this thing. I'm so stressed out over paperwork, contracts, camera positions, gift bags, do this, do that, go here! I'm doing everything I possibly can to make this work but it's too much for one person to handle! Plus, I still have to get you guys up and make sure your instraments are perfect and if they aren't call this person and make hotel reservations..." I was never going to stop this rant so it was a good thing Dougie put his hand over my mouth to shut me up.

"Ok, you need to calm down," Tom said and then he went behind my chair and started to massage my shoulders just the way I liked.

"... That feels good," I said, lazily.

Dougie smiled," Just relax, Abs. Everything's going great, don't worry."

"You know what," Danny said coming over to stand by Tom," I think we should talk to Fletch about loading all this work on her. I mean she's just a beginner and hes's got her doing stuff that he never would have let our other PA's even talk about doing."

"Yea, that is kind of weird, isn't it? I never thought Fletch would let a PA handle this type of stuff. It's like he's doing this on purpose or something," Harry said sitting down next to Douie on the couch.

"Maybe he just hates me," I said in a whisper because I was too relaxed to talk any louder.

Tom sighed," He doesn't hate you Abby, but somethings definantly up with him."

"Alright guys, the girl will be here soon so you need to go get ready."

Speak of the devil and he shall come. Fletch came into the room and started to usher the guys out to get dresed in to "proper clothing", whatever that meant. The guys gave me a look and Dougie mouthed 'Don't worry, we'll talk to him'. I smiled at them and then continued getting the gift basket ready for the girl.

So, the private gig thing went well, although I thought I went deaf at one point when Trish, the winner, gave a blood curdling scream right next to my ear when she saw the bots for the first time. I swear I couldn't hear properly for the next twenty minutes after that. I was smart enought to put cotton in my ears when I handed her the gift basket I put together. It was only three when it ended and the guys had the rest of the day off so we all decided to head into town and do something. We finally decided on playing laser tag at this arcade place and had a blast. I won but the guys said it wasn't fair because I was smaller than them and could hide easier.

"Oh just admit that I'm better than you at laser tag. We all know it wasn't beacuse I'm smaller," I said, trying to get them to admit defeat.

"No way, Abby. You know you only won because of your size," Tom said.

"Tom, just admit that you suck."

"I don't suck! I'm awesome at laser tag," he said grinning proudly.

"Yea?" I asked," then why did you only get ten points?"

He gave me a look and angrily said," My gun didn't work."

"Oh likely excuse. Your gun didn't work. I'm sure that's it," I said playfully.

"Okay, that's it!" he said and then started to chase me around the arcade.

I dodged a couple ten year olds and screamed,"Tom, stop it!"

"Not until you say that I'm the best laser tag player in the freakin world!"

We ran around the arcade for ten minutes until he finally caught me. I fell backwards with him landing on top of me. He quickly stradled me and pinned my arms down so I couldn't move.

"Tom, get off! I can't breath," I screamed, but I was laughing at the same time.

"Say it!" he demanded.

I laughed and said," Okay, okay, you're the best laser tag player in the freaking world! Now get off you fata."

"Oi, I'm not fat anymore!"

He got off of me and helped me off the ground. The others walked over to us while laughing extremely hard.

"Aww, look Harold. Aren't they a cute couple?" I heard an old lady ask her husband while pointing at me and Tom.

I blushed and looked at Tom who was also a deep shade of red. Danny and Harry started laughing even harder but Dougie immediately stopped as soon as he heard that.

"Oh Martha, leave them alone," we heard the guy called Harold say and then the elderly couple walked off.

"You two are like eight year olds," Danny said when his laughter died down.

I looked at Dougie and gave him an apologetic look but he just shook his head and turned away.

"C'mon lets get out of here before these two get us into trouble," Harry said,luckily not noticing anything between me and Dougie.

I sighed and walked out behind the boys. We were halfway to the hotel when Dougie slowed down and started walking beside me, behind the others.

He lowered his voice and said in an angry whisper," You know, that old couple had a point. You two do make a good pair."

"Dougie please," I said with a sigh," He's my best friend. There's nothing going on between us. We just like to goof around sometimes."

"Whatever, Abby. I can see the way you two look at each other," and with that he sped up and started to walk with the other boys.

I felt horrible, but what was I supposed to do? Stop hanging out with Tom? Dougie has got to learn to trust me. Well, ok, so that one little kiss with Tom, but we both agreed that was a mistake. It meant nothing! Soon I found myself in front of the hotel with the others and we when we walked in, I immediately noticed Fletch walking towards us, an angry look on his face.

"Abigale, where have you been," he furiously spat out.

"I went out with the boys. I thought we had the rest of the day off."

"No, the guys had the rest of the day off," Fletch said, jabbing his finger in the direction of Danny and Dougie," You on the other hand had a lot of work to do. I've been here all day trying to get a hold of you and doing your paperwork. I thought you were more responsible then this."

I looked at the guys and gave them a 'is he kidding me' look," Look, Fletch, I'm sorry. I thought I was supposed to go wherever the boys went, my mistake."

"I don't want to hear excuses, Abigale. Just go up to your hotel room and wait for me there so I can get you caught up on what's going on."

Tom stepped forward and said,"Fletch, c'mon man, lighten up. She's been working extremely hard lately. I think she deserved a break."

"Did I ask you your opinion, Tom? I don't think so. Now, go," he said, not taking his eyes off me once.

I was shocked to say the least. I looked at Fletch for a second with my mouth hanging open and then I turned on my heel and stormed towards the elevator. I couldn't believe he had just talked to me like that, not after all the paperwork and crap I did for him while he jabbered on the phone for hours. I make one tiny mistake and he blows up at me and yells at me in the lobby of a hotel with everyone watching! What an ahole. I hate him! When the elevator reached my floor, I went to my room and plopped down on the couch. I saw the paper work layed out everywhere. Oh so he decided he could do this crap in my room, does he not know the meaning of privacy? I looked around my room and realized something wasn't right. Everything was out of place and my things had beeen moved around. Now not only was I extremely pissed off but I was totally confused too. What was going on? Who had been going through my stuff?