an: thank you for your reviews! :) they continue to make me smile just as much as ever.

disclaimer: no ownership over those amazing and talented blokes.

ELEVEN - QUESTIONS, HUGS, AND WHATNOT

I know that she barely knows me
And I'm fake in love with her
It's like I'm singing karaoke
And I forgot the second verse

I was just sitting back down on the table – Dougie had decided it wasn't worth setting Danny off any longer by making me sit on his lap – ready – but not quite so willing – to answer more of the questions they had declared I answer for them. I assumed they were torturing me like this because I had already kind of met Tom and had talked with him for quite a few hours a few days earlier, but for all I knew, they did this with everyone who interviewed them for an article.

"It's my turn! It's my turn!" Danny chanted from where he was now sitting on the floor between the sofa and the table, sounding quite excited.

"Go for it, goofy," I replied, a smile creeping across my face in reaction to his excitement.

"Would you rather chose truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"Would you always pick dare?" asked Harry.

"Most likely…." I had a bad feeling about where this was headed.

"I dare you to tell us," Tom began as it was now his turn, "what the full story behind our meeting is – you diverted the question quite quickly when asked earlier."

That had just proven my feeling to be correct. If there was anything I didn't like having to do, it was being honest with the people I had been put into a dare-situation with. The whole thing made me jumping and nervous, and it just felt downright awkward.

I sighed before I went into explained the day that I had interviewed Sidney and Hugh of Sasha Starr and had been dared by the siblings.

"So." It was Dougie's 'turn' now. "You guys met through a dare?"

I nodded. "Not a very good one, might I add," I commented, laughing, mostly at their reaction to my story.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, because I've had dares saying 'go kiss that wet dog – who just happened to take a dump moments before – on the bum,' and 'stand in the window of the store, like a mannequin, acting like a porn star'. By the way, the store was a sporting goods store – no mannequins required."

They just stared at me wide-eyed in shock – at the last one most likely.

"Did you say… 'porn star'?" Harry asked slowly, clarifying it for all of them, I'm betting.

I nodded. "Yes. It was really quite funny. Though, thank goodness we were in a more private area, where there were no elderly or children running around," I laughed, thinking back to the afternoon.

"Why wasn't I there?!" Dougie blurted, taking my laughing from just a snigger to a full-blown eruption.

Other than laughing, I ignored the question while I turned to look at Tom, as he was up.

However, he simply pointed at Dougie, looking as though he was having a hard time working out his question.

"What Dougie said?" I checked.

Clearing his throat, he replied with, "Yeah."

"Well," I began, "it was rather spur-of-the-moment, and the manager of the store did stop it after about five minutes. And then there's the fact that I didn't know any of you eight years ago!"

I looked to Dougie as he had an outburst: "Wait a minute! Eight years ago, I was in a sporting goods store when there was a big commotion!"

"What were you doing in a sporting goods store?" Danny asked, sounding curious and startled.

"My mate dragged me in," Dougie replied as though it was perfectly obvious, and then turned back to the original topic. "I remember I wanted to know what was going on, but there were too many people around…."

I laughed. "Your loss, I guess."

"Talk to me." I had just placed my mobile to my ear without taking a moment to find out who was calling.

"Hey," Lauren greeted. "What happened to you?"

"Oh! I guess I lost track of the time." I took Danny's wrist, whose stomach my head was on as we laid on the floor, turning it so I could check the time. "My gosh! It's almost two-AM!" I practically shriek in shocked. In a softer voice, I added, "I'll be home within the next hour, babes."

Yawning, she said, "Don't expect me to wake you up if you sleep through your alarm in the morning. 'Bye," before hanging up.

As I put my phone away, I was met with four quizzical stares. "My roomie…or flatmate…or, actually, best mate," I explained. "I should be going now. I hadn't realised the time until just now."

After picking myself up off the floor, I headed to where I put my purse and bag – which I had received from the guys with band memorabilia inside, "Just 'cause," according to Dougie as he tossed it to me – and picked it up, turning then for the door.

"Hey, wait!" Harry called after me as I was about to open the dressing-room door.

"What?" I asked, turning back to face the four of them.

"We cannot let you ride the train home by yourself at two-in-the-morning. It would not be very… gentlemen – what the hell am I saying? – like."

I started laughing at the way he reacted to his own comment.

"We must accompany to your flat!" Dougie chirped, a huge smile on his face.

"What?!"

"He's not being serious," Tom mentioned.

I sighed a breath of relief before Dougie said, "Yes, I am," in a whiny tone.

"That's not what I meant, Doug, when I said that she can't go home on the train by herself."

"Then she'll come to ours? No, no, that wouldn't work – there's no where she could sleep. Plus, she told her mate that she'd be home soon…."

Dougie continued to ramble on before I loudly cleared my throat. "What did you mean, then, Harry?"

"Umm…I guess that we'd have to have our driver drive you home?" His answer sounded more like a question than anything.

I pondered about the options I was given, not the one about going back to the guys' places, because, frankly, that was just weird, but Dougie's original suggestion, as well as the one Harry just gave me for a moment before saying, "Out of the two options I was given, I prefer Doug's, considering I've had a chance to know you lot. I mean, not the part about accompanying me to my flat, but to my building would be fine, I guess."

"Yes!" Dougie cheered, drawing out the 's' sound. "I win!" Again, he drew out a letter, this time it being the 'n'.

"Sure, Hon, you win," I replied, patting him on the head, messing his hair up even more than it already was, as I laughed at his reaction.

A few minutes later, we all piled into their van. It started moving and we joked around the entire drive. About twenty minutes later, the driver pulled onto the road on which the building my flat was on, and another five after that, he pulled to a stop near the front entrance to the building.

"Thanks for the ride. I'll talk to you again after I have the interview all written up, I guess," I said, reaching for the handle to get out.

"Wait!" Dougie cried, climbing between the seats, only stopping when he'd practically sat on my lap.

"What, Doug?" I asked, kind of scared.

"You didn't get your goodbye hug," he informed me.

"Oh," I replied just as he threw his arms around my midsection and held me tight.

"Doug," I breathed a few moments later.

"Yeah?" he asked, still holding me tight.

"Too. Tight. Can't. Breathe." I could feel my face turning blue from the red that I knew it was at that moment from lack of oxygen.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" He dropped his arms from around me.

I took a few deep breaths, catching my breath again, before turning my attention back to the door and opening it, grabbing my things, and stepping out onto the pavement there.

"Well," I started, still trying to catch my breath, "Goodbye, now." I smiled at them before turning and walking into the building. Careful to be quiet, I walked up the noisy stairs and down the corridor to the flat I shared with Lauren.

Before slipping through the door, I glanced to my mobile, checking the time. 2.30, it read.

"Hey," I smiled at Lauren, who was sat on the sofa, looking sleepy. "What are you still doing up?"

"I wanted to"—she paused to yawn—"ask you how"—another yawn—"it was," she explained.

"Oh, it was fun. The lads are awesome. But, Lauren, you look so beyond exhausted; you need to get your sleep. We'll talk about it tomorrow at lunch—we're still going out, right?" I checked while kicking my shoes off and sitting down next to her on the sofa.

But I never heard her reply, as the moment after I spoke, we were both asleep on each other right where we remained.

song: dakota by a rocket to the moon.

an: this used to be two crap chapters, so I hope it was alright! :)