#best recording studios uk

[tyxstudios]

Discover State- of- the- Art Recording Studios in the UK at TYX Studios

A world- class recording studio in London at TYX Studios. Our state- of- the- art installations are equipped with slice- edge technology and professional- grade outfit to meet the requirements of musicians, directors, and audio generators. Whether you are recording music, podcasts, or audio for film and TV, TYX Studios provides a creative and inspiring terrain to bring your systems to life.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Aha - Take On Me 1985

"Take On Me" is a song by the Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha. The original version from 1984 was produced by Tony Mansfield and remixed by John Ratcliff. The 1985 international hit version was produced by Alan Tarney for the group's debut studio album, Hunting High and Low.

In 1984, Andrew Wickham was the international vice-president for Warner Bros Records America, and their A&R man in London. He immediately signed A-ha to Warner Brothers America, after learning several previous attempts had failed to make "Take On Me" a commercial success. The next release was not successful either and featured a very ordinary performance video. He authorised considerable investment in the band: on Slater's recommendation, renowned producer Alan Tarney was commissioned to refine the song. The new recording achieved a cleaner and more soaring sound. It was re-released in the UK, but the record label's office in London gave them little support, and the single flopped for the second time.

Wickham placed the band on high priority and applied a lateral strategy with further investment. Steve Barron directed a revolutionary rotoscoping animation music video which took six months to create, using professional artists. Approximately 3,000 frames were rotoscoped, which took 16 weeks to complete. The single was released in the US one month after the music video, and immediately appeared in the Billboard Hot 100 and was a worldwide smash, reaching No. 1 in numerous countries.

At the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, the video won six awards: Best New Artist in a Video, Best Concept Video, Most Experimental Video, Best Direction in a Video, Best Special Effects in a Video, and Viewer's Choice, and was nominated for two others, Best Group Video and Video of the Year. It was also nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Video at the 13th American Music Awards in 1986.

"Take On Me" received a total of 95% yes votes, and is currently the most liked song on this poll blog! 🥳

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

SFX Magazine Issue 368, August 2023

THEY’RE BACK – AND THIS TIME THEY’RE IN ALL-NEW TERRITORY. NEIL GAIMAN TALKS RETURNING FOR SEASON TWO OF GOOD OMENS

THE RASCALLY DEMON Crowley (David Tennant) and the neurotic angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) put aside their differences to pull off one doozy of a Hail Mary and prevent an impending Apocalypse in Good Omens’ first season. The task cemented the pair’s unconventional friendship. So what are divine beings, who have fallen out of grace with both Heaven and Hell, to do for an encore?

The answer lies with archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm), who shows up unannounced on the doorstep of Aziraphale’s London bookshop. Suddenly, Aziraphale and Crowley are caught up in a caper of biblical proportions – but also a more intimate tale.

“It’s a mystery,” showrunner Neil Gaiman tells SFX. “It kicks off a story that doesn’t have giant consequences for the universe, even if it does have consequences for Aziraphale and Crowley. We have a lot of the marvellous Jon Hamm, who is the angel Gabriel and turns up at the beginning stark naked, carrying a cardboard box with no memory of who he is. In the same way, it is about Aziraphale and Crowley having to get involved with humanity in a way that they haven’t before.

“They get dragged in slightly against their will to try to sort out the love life of Aziraphale’s tenant,” he continues. “Her name is Maggie [Maggie Service] and she runs the record shop next to the bookshop. You’ll see the coffee shop over the road, which is Nina’s [Nina Sosanya]. The relationship between Maggie and Nina is one that Crowley and Aziraphale try to fix, and mess up, because they are not good at human relationships, even if they can do miracles.”

Truth be told, Gaiman never originally intended this arc to serve as Good Omens’ second instalment. The TV series was based on Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s 1990 novel. The two collaborators had partially hashed out the details for a sequel to the fantasy comedy, late one night in a hotel room. This, however, is not it. Gaiman instead plotted a new narrative that could provide the connective tissue between the first season and a theoretical season three, if it happens.

“Because the hypothetical season three exists, there is a story that is there, and I didn’t feel that we could drive straight from season one into that,” Gaiman explains. “I knew what the stakes were. I knew what the parameters were. I also knew that I had David and Michael. I had the angels from plot number one.

I had demons from plot number one. And with anybody that I wanted to bring back, but didn’t have room for right now, I did not have to bring them back as themselves. “I had absolutely nothing for Madame Tracy to do in this plot, but I would be damned if Miranda Richardson wasn’t going to be in this. She is one of my favourite people in the world. She is hilarious and is so good. And I knew I was going to have a new demon replacing Crowley as Hell’s representative in London/ the UK. Miranda’s demon Shax is the best demon you could want.”

It’s late February 2022 and SFX is in Edinburgh for a set visit. A soundstage in Pyramids Studios has been transformed into a street in Soho. The visible local stores include the aforementioned book, coffee and record shops, as well as a magic establishment. In the middle of them all stand Aziraphale and Crowley, the latter in close proximity to his classic Bentley. It’s close to the end of the six-episode season, so exactly what the duo is discussing constitutes a spoiler. We can say, however, that Aziraphale has picked up the pace. Time is of the essence as Shax marshals her forces to descend on Aziraphale’s store and retrieve Gabriel.

“This is really Shax’s first time out on Earth,” Gaiman explains. “She is working very diligently and very hard in Hell for a long time. Now she is on Earth, trying to figure it all out. She’s just discovering what Crowley has known for 6,000 years, which is that if you’re a demon and come up with a brilliant plan to screw up the lives of humanity, people will get there first and do worse than anything you could have imagined! She’s coming to terms with that.

“She is having to deal with the first crisis on her watch, as well, which is the disappearance of the archangel Gabriel from Heaven. It would be fair to say that by the end of the story, she is leading as much as she can get from Hell’s requisition department – a legion of Hell – in an attack on a Soho bookshop.”

When audiences catch up with Aziraphale again, he’s enjoying his time among humans. He owns most of the block in a Soho neighbourhood, and he’s meddling in Nina’s love life. Meanwhile, Crowley has been living in his car, with his plants sitting on the back seat. He’s grumpy about his current status quo, but frequently hangs out at Aziraphale’s. The duo began as antagonists, but their history and blossoming relationship will be fleshed out in flashbacks.

“One of the enormously fun things I came up with is the idea of minisodes,” Gaiman explains. “They are 25-minute-long episodes within the episode. We have three of them over our six episodes. Each of them is like one of those chunks of episode three [in season one]. Whereas the longest one of those was four or five minutes, if that, these are full stories.

“You get to have the story of [put-upon Biblical figure] Job, and you learn Aziraphale and Crowley’s part in the story. Then writer Cat Clarke takes us to Edinburgh in the 1820s for a tale of body-snatching and attempted murder that the boys get involved in,” he adds.

“Finally, Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman reunite the League Of Gentlemen in a Nazi-period story that takes place very shortly after the episode in the church. That one was the only one I said had to be there, because I fell in love with our Nazi spies in the church. I kept thinking, ‘What would happen if they essentially came back as zombies, with a mission from Hell to try and investigate whether or not Crowley and Aziraphale were actually fraternising?’”

Gaiman admits that one of the greatest challenges has been filming Good Omens simultaneously with his upcoming show Anansi Boys. The two shoot within throwing distance of each other, but are both timeconsuming endeavours.

“If I could go back in time, I would go back to 16 September 2020, when Douglas Mackinnon [co-producer] and I got the phone call from the Amazon bigwigs to say, ‘We have good news for you and interesting news for you,’” Gaiman recalls. “‘The good news is we are greenlighting both Good Omens and Anansi Boys. The interesting news is you are going to have to do them both at the same time.’

“I would go back to then and I would throw myself on the call and say, ‘Neil, don’t! This is unwise.’ That we are doing them both together is great. The amount of sleep I am not getting is monumental and monstrous.

“It’s a little bit like childbirth, in that I managed to forget all the things that drove me nuts about the first one. Having said that, I managed to fix all the things that really drove me nuts making season one, which is great. We just have a whole new set of problems making season two…”

The Odd Couple - David Tennant and Michael Sheen talk character and sets for season two

Crowley and Aziraphale come off as the best of frenemies at times. Where do they stand with one other now?

DT: They are indeed. What’s different in season two is because of what happened at the end of season one, they no longer have head offices that they have to report to. They are in a very different position. Whereas before they were trying to get away with things, now they are kind of free agents.

MS: Although sort of fugitives as well. They are sort of in-between. But this amazing life they have created over a millennia, they are now able to enjoy in a slightly different way. They are not having to put on a front for their respective teams. There is a different kind of freedom.

DT: While at the same time being cut off, so they are also strangers in a strange land.

MS: That kind of connects them in a slightly different way. They have always been the only two beings who could understand each other’s position. Now they are pushed even closer together.

Now that they have the run of the place with no obligations, does that bring its own set of problems, being cut off?

DT: They have this sort of uneasy relationship. They are not entirely cut off from their head offices. Indeed, their head offices are quite keen to exploit that sort of adjacent connection, as we will see as the story unfolds. They exist in this grey area, neither the supernatural nor of the Earth.

MS: By the time we pick up their story in this series, they have appeared in time where they were kind of let alone a bit more. When we pick the story up, they are being bothered again.

The depth and the richness and the detail of what we are seeing on set here in Edinburgh is mind-blowing. How is it for you having it all in one place now, rather than having filming scattered around the UK?

MS: It’s completely changed the experience of doing it. Just being indoors… The Soho set on the first season was freezing cold.

DT: I was in a car park. Even inside the bookshop I was exposed to the elements! There’s a greater percentage of the show set here. There was a practical imperative to making it a manageable environment. If we had been in a car park, the elements might have impinged our ability to film.

Hellraiser - David Tennant is Crowley

You and Michael know these characters inside out. Do you have a shorthand?

It’s a hard thing to be objective about. Although I didn’t know Michael that well before we shot season one, it was always easy and exciting working together. It’s well-oiled now, for sure. It’s certainly fun to come to work. We enjoy bouncing off each other.

How comfortable are they about becoming involved with Gabriel?

I suppose Aziraphale is a much more enthusiastic detective. We are very much voting for the spin-off called The Azirafiles, which will follow this! As with most things, Crowley is reluctant to get involved or to exhibit any kind of energy or enthusiasm about very much. He is dragged kicking and screaming into this. Necessity forces him to get involved, whereas Aziraphale rather likes it.

Where does Crowley hang out these days?

He spends a lot of time in the book shop. He only has one friend. He can only have one friend. That is the great liberation, and also the great prison, that they find themselves in. They have no one else. They have come to rely on each other more than they ever did. And more than they care to admit.

Crowley is a rock star, in a way. Were there any particular musicians that inspired you?

Not consciously, no. The look was assembled accidentally during the first costume sessions. The Crowley of the book is of the mode when the book was written. He is more kind of Wall Street, the way he is described. We just decided that Crowley should always be of the moment he’s in. We were just trying to find a look that we felt fitted.

Divine Being - Michael Sheen is Aziraphale

How has knowing your characters better informed this series?

The first series was the first time we really properly worked together. It feels like we haven’t stopped working together since. Everything that has happened in-between plays into coming back to these characters. I am sure it is all feeding into it. It’s very difficult for us to know how that is informing the characters and their relationships.

With the flashbacks to various points in Earth’s history, is there a period of time Aziraphale enjoys the most?

One of the most enjoyable things for the audience and us is moving through different historical periods. It’s a great source of joy, and people thoroughly enjoyed that episode in the first series, so that has been expanded on in season two. But in terms of which Aziraphale enjoys the most, I think it’s not actually a period of time that we’ve seen him in on this series.

He would have been happiest at the end of the 19th century, in the Victorian era, which is considered the golden age of magic. He would have loved being with the greats like Harry Houdini. He loved the Victorian period. It was a great period of time for philanthropy and doing good works in a municipal way.

How has it been going from something dark like The Prodigal Son to a more whimsical show?

That’s the nature of an actor’s job. You go from one thing to another. In some ways, it’s even more useful to have big differences between the characters. What tends to happen, and I think most actors feel this way, is if you are playing one character for a long time, part of you yearns to play the bits the character doesn’t have. There’s a naivety and an innocence about Aziraphale. But at the same time, underneath that, there is eons of knowledge and experience.

[themuse-if]

DEMO (TBA) | Cast Profiles | Cast Interviews-Round 1 | Cast Interviews-Round 2 | The Muse: Spotify

The Muse is a 18+ slice of life interactive fiction novel set at NYU focusing mostly on the art departments in the Steinhardt and Tisch schools. Inspired by my love for shows and movies like Felicity, Fame (the show), Skins UK, and Center Stage. This will not be an accurate depiction of school life at NYU, I'll be taking lots of creative liberties.

Content Warnings: explicit language, sexual themes, substance use, violence, mention of SA

You come from a family of artists and art lovers. Your mother is a passionate curator for a small gallery in the city and your father is a sculptor and painter with a very dedicated cult following. They met when they were just starting out and have built a lovely life for themselves and their two children, you and your older brother Cameron.

Your parents have always been super supportive of you and your brother’s dreams and ambitions. They were a great source of encouragement and guidance for your brother on his path to discovering his goal to become a game designer and you on your path to become whatever you choose.

Growing up surrounded by such creativity just so happened to inspired you to want to create something of your own.

Now that you’ve graduated high school it’s time for you to head off to university! You’ve decided to leave the mid sized city that you call your hometown, and go to the big city NYC! You’ll be attending NYU more specifically, but you won’t be making this move alone you’ll be attending with your best friend Maxine!

What will you discover in your university life?

Will you solely focus on schoolwork or wind up in the raging party scene?

Will you explore new creative endeavors or solely focus on honing your craft?

With so much going on will you even have the time to possibly find your muse, or maybe even become someone else’s?

Design your mc from clothing style to physical appearance to pronouns, gender identity, name, looks, and more.

Choose 1 of 9 majors that grant you different classes with new students and professors: (Studio Arts, Dance, Drama, Photography and Imaging, Jazz Studies, Songwriting, Recorded Music, Collaborative Arts, Dramatic Writing )

Curate your MCs personality and how they react to all the drama and excitement university life has to offer. Style your MC’s dorm room and their aesthetic style.

Navigate the cliques and scenes to figure out where your MC fits in. Maybe you're a social butterfly and you just float from one social group to another!

Engage in a romance with 1 of 10 characters. 5 female/male gender selectable and 5 gender set characters. And 2 poly routes one with The Rebel Rejects and one with The Exes (Faye and Karla).

Choose one of three part time jobs to give you a little extra spending money for things like spring break and birthday gifts for your new friends.

Follow The Muse through your MC’s freshman and sophomore years. Junior and senior year will come much later in Book Two of The Muse. The third and final book in The Muse series will cover the start of MC's new life after graduation.

Roxanne/Robbie Sawyer: (f/m) The lead singer and guitarist of The Rebel Rejects. Ro is everything you would want in a lead singer cool, charismatic, and super talented. Don’t let their dazzling aura intimidate you though because though they may have a raging wild side they can also be extremely down to earth.

Joleen/Johnny Nielsen: (f/m) The drummer of The Rebel Rejects. Jo is the oddball of the band with a sunny exterior and twisted flower child past. They may be a sweet boho bimbo with a heart of gold, but there’s a lot more that lies behind those blue green eyes.

Delphine/Desmond Hartley: (f/m) The bassist for The Rebel Rejects. De is the super glue propelling the group forward. With high expectations from their parents, and dreams that soar even higher, success is the only option.

Rina/Ren Fukushi: (f/m) R is the best ballet dancer in this incoming freshman class, and no one would ever think to say otherwise. They’re cold and closed off, if it isn’t about ballet then they don’t want to hear it.

Everly/Everett Thompson: (f/m) Eve is a triple threat. Singing, dancing, acting they can do it all. They hope to complete their EGOT before they turn 40.

Karla Reyes: (she/her) Karla is a sophomore at NYU studying Studio Arts. Her favorite medium is watercolor on canvas. She dabbled with sculpting and ceramics...until she broke up with her ex, Faye, and can’t stand to be in the same studio with them.

Faye Winters: (she/they) Fae is every bit the ethereal being they seem to be, and just as flighty. She is a sophomore majoring in dance with a minor in studio arts. She has this effortless charm and beauty that extends to her art whether its her dancing or her sculptures.

Sebastien Auclair: (he/him) Sebastien is in his third year of university, he’s an exchange student from the Paris College of Art. He is studying photography and imaging. Sebastian loves Paris, but he is excited for this change of scenery.

Maxine Matthews: (she/her)Max is your best friend in the world! Your parents are friends so you were destined to best pals since birth, thank god you actually like each other or all those shared family functions would have been really awkward. Max is funny and always has great commentary for every show or movie that you watch together. Which is why you weren’t surprised when they decided to major in dramatic writing. Some people think that you’re too close. They wonder how is it possible that you could be just friends.

Silas Walker: (he/him) Silas is your RA. As your Resident Advisor he's super helpful and friendly. You have question about the best study spots, bad professors, how to use the subway, well he's got answers. He keeps all his advisees at arms length because everyone knows RAs can't canoodle with their advisees. And that just makes it all the more enticing.

[louisupdates]

WORLDMUSICAWARD: Happy 32nd birthday to the gorgeous, hugely talented chart-topping, record-breaking singer, songwriter, producer & Global Icon #LouisTomlinson, who rose to fame as a member of #OneDirection, which went on to become one of the best-selling boy bands of all time! Tomlinson contributed more in songwriting to One D than any other band member, with credits on most of the tracks of 'Midnight Memories', 'Four', and 'Made in the A.M.' and on 38 songs across the band's discography, and was the main guy in shifting 1D's music towards a more mature sound...

Louis is a chart-topping Superstar in his own right, and has released 2 studio albums, 10 singles, 10 music videos and 1 promotional single as a solo act, debuting at #1 in the UK with his 2nd studio album 'Faith In The Future' '2022). Louis' early influences are #RobbieWilliams, #TheFray, #GreenDay, and #EdSheeran although his debut album was inspired by #ArcticMonkeys & #Oasis. His solo accolades include an MTV Europe Award for Best UK Act (2017), an iHeartRadio Music Award for Best Solo Breakout (2028) + 3 Teen choice Awards for Choice Music Collaboration for "Just Hold On" (2017), Choice Male Artist (2018) & Choice single Male Artist (2020)! In 2021, Louis founded and curated the indie music festival 'Away From Home' and in 2023, he officially launched his 28 streetwear-inspired unisex clothing line!👏🎂🥳🎁🎉��🌟👑🐐🖤

#HappyBirthdayLouis

#LT32

[Twitter 24.12.2023]

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

"We miss you, Freddie!" ❤️

Today May 13th, 1991 - Queen Story!

Queen released 'Headlong' in the UK

🔸"Despite his personal anguish, Freddie somehow found the strength to muster some truly breathtaking vocal performances for Innuendo, digging deep within himself and finding a depth and spirit like never before. He seemed to find a new dimension to his voice and poured his heart and soul into every note. This is all the more remarkable when one considers his physical condition during this time, as is so evident in the aforementioned last videos he filmed. As Brian would later recall, Freddie could barely stand up during the final sessions, every hour he was present at Mountain studios required superhuman effort, and yet none of this is evident on the final album.

It is impossible to believe that the extraordinary voice behind songs such as Headlong, All God's People, Don't Try So Hard, The Show Must Go On and the album's title track, could have been recorded by someone as physically weak as Freddie was. Many people agree that these performances (and those to emerge later on Made In Heaven) are not only great, but among the best and most moving of his entire career"

Source ➡queenonline.com

➡ Queen released 'Headlong' bw 'Mad The Swine' in the UK (12” has in addition 'All God’s People') - Taken from 'Innuendo', fourteenth studio album

👉Headlong written by Brian May

🔸"'Headlong' came from me, at our studio in Montreux, a home recording studio for us that's very state-of-the-art, lovely for creating. The ideas came in a couple of days. At first I thought about it as a song for my solo album, 'Back To The Light', but, as always, the band is the best vehicle. As soon as I heard Freddie sing it, I said, 'That's it!' Sometimes it's painful to give the baby away, but what you gain is much more.

It became a Queen song."

- Brian May, interview 1991

📸 Screenshot from Making 'Headlong'

[alovesreading]

Constant Repeat | Part 9

Summary: Having worked at Focus Creeps for a year, Ella knows that as a production assistant and part of the crew, there’s one important rule: don’t interact with the talent unless it’s needed. But once she meets Arctic Monkeys, and the recording of the music videos for their upcoming fourth studio album starts, the band seem to become her exception. Not only because they treat her more like a friend than just someone else they’re working with but when Alex continuously makes her blush with his flirting, so enthralled by her that he forgets he’s got a girlfriend, Ella finds herself growing closer to him. As videos are filmed, wrapped and edited, the friendship lines become blurry. Situations unfold, secrets are told and others are kept under lock and key, but how long can Alex and Ella endure being stuck in each other’s minds on constant repeat.  

Word Count: 20.4k

Story Warnings: Throughout this series there will be suggestive talk, jealousy, cheating, alcohol and drug use, angst, smut.  

A/N: This is gonna be a rather lengthy author's note but it's needed. Y'all must definitely know the wonderful @imagine-that-100​ and her masterpiece of a fic Nothing Revealed In A Common Crisis. I'm not exaggerating when I say that fic changed my life in many amazing ways: it introduced me to the 1975, I made friends with N and she's now my best mate and such a special person to me, and through becoming friends with her i gained the courage to start writing again and finally post my fics. I hold @nriacc so close to my heart, so it's a massive honor that N allowed me to borrow Wheels and Curly to use in this story, giving them an alternate universe story line that melts my heart. I'm so beyond excited for you to read this chapter and the rest of this UK trip because it's so fucking fun and eventful. I'm looking forward eagerly to see all of your reactions! I'll shut up now, but I hope you enjoy this chapter!!!!!

Masterlist

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |

✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧

It was cruel how slow time had been going. A month had never felt longer, and days were specially slow as she was back at the Focus Creeps office everyday.

Organizing all the clips she had gotten from the recording had only kept her busy for the first week back, and after that it had just been torture to get back into routine.

The one good thing was that, since Aaron had a new PA, Ella was properly getting more into the videography aspect of it all and being mentored directly by Ben.

She had studied for that type of job, all she had ever wanted was to be behind the camera in any type of production and finally being able to do it, no matter how small the production was, was a dream come true.

However, it was a lot of work and, whilst she loved it, managing the crew and instructing a whole team for a production could get really stressful. She still had her PA brain in her so regardless of not needing to, she would take on more responsibilities just to ensure everything would end up perfect on shoot day.

Needless to say, just the thought of the holiday approaching made her incredibly giddy.

The day she had gotten to drop Breana off at LAX had been the day she had started getting nervous. The model had been able to get off work and fly over a week earlier than Ella, and even though she had offered to wait another week so they could fly together, Ella had encouraged her to go ahead.

Bre was already dying to see her boyfriend, so why would Ella want to keep her another week away from him?

The silver lining of the situation was that she'd get to be with everyone in only a week. Just seven more days to wait were nothing in comparison to the three endless weeks she had already waited so it'd be fine.

When she got home that afternoon, she went straight to get her suitcase which was hidden away in a corner of her closet. Ella laughed to herself as she packed away, the whole scene being soundtracked by Bowie. That was probably the first time since she moved out to college that she had packed her things with that much time in advance.

She had just rolled up a pair of black pants when 'Modern Love' was interrupted by a call. A call from the one and only, Alex Turner.

Beaming at the contact name, she swiped on her screen to answer and it wasn't even a fraction of a second later that she heard "Hello my darling!" being shouted by a very obviously drunk Alex.

Ella could hear chatter and music in the background, but his loud slurred greeting had been heard without difficulty. "Hi Al! Having fun?"

"Erm," The singer hesitated dramatically, "A bit, yeah."

"Sure sounds like a bit of fun." She replied sarcastically, making him giggle.

"Far less than it would be if you were here."

Ella tried hard not to laugh again, "Oh wow, I'm worried now I might not remember this trip."

"Oh it'll be memorable alright." Ella couldn't hold her laughter in any longer, giggling loudly at the slurred statement and he smiled to himself hearing that sound, "Remind me why aren't you already on your way with Bre now?"

She sighed, "Because I have a big shoot this week and I couldn't miss it because I'll be filling Aaron's place and working directly with Ben."

"You're so fucking amazing, darling." Alex started, completely amazed at her stories now that she was hands on working on the directing aspect of their productions, "I want you directing our music videos from now on." He demanded as seriously as a drunk man can.

"I think drunk you might not be making the best decisions." She quipped with an immense smile on her face.

"Yeah, no." He was quick to disagree, shaking his head profusely like Ella was there to see him. "That'd be the best decision actually. I'll give Ben a quick call."

"Alex, stop it you idiot." Her cheeks were already heating up so she took her phone away from her ear and put it on speaker to place it on her bed as she continued packing. "It's only one more week. Six days if you count this day as over."

He groaned loudly, "Six more days is too long. I can't wait to see you."

Ella was fully melting. It had been so excruciating to be away from the lads, especially from Alex that she kept thinking about what it would be to hug him again. To lean on him for support as she doubled over in laughter, to cuddle him again. She missed him loads, and she'd realized just how important he had become to her when he had left.

She tried to play it cool though, "Okay but you should be more excited about Glastonbury rather than me coming, Al."

"Well you are coming to see us at Glastonbury so it's basically the same thing." Alex defended himself, when in reality he really wasn't able to point out which of those two he was most excited for.

Ella could only shake her head and smile to herself, "You're funny."

"'Course I am." Alex chatted back with an almost offended tone.

She wanted to taunt him a bit more, he was always hilarious when drunk. "That wasn't necessarily literal."

"Yeah, yeah sure–" Alex started but was interrupted by Matt yelling, "Ellie!" out loud as he had come out looking for Alex and heard her through the speakers of the singer's phone.

"Jesus Christ, my eardrums just burst." Ella exaggerated as she folded a black top and rolled it to fit into her case.

Matt scoffed, "Why are you such a bitch, I was about to tell you how much I missed you."

Feeling accomplished by getting that reaction, she giggled but admitted, "I miss you too Helders."

"Did you drop Bre off today?" The drummer asked first and foremost. He was eager to see his girl, a month had been way too long already.

Ella was proud to announce, "Yes. Got back a few hours ago. She texted me she was boarding about twenty minutes ago so your girl is on her way."

"Thank fuck. That plane better speed here." The hours the flight took were always the worst wait for him, they had been every time.

"I'm sure Bre is making the pilot go as fast as they can to get to you as soon as possible." Ella joked, being able to picture the scenario so clearly. But as she picked up her favorite pair of high heeled boots, the leather slipped between her fingers and landed with a loud thud on the floor. "Oh shit!"

The silence from the lads' side was loud, but Ella's was louder so Alex inquired very quickly, "What are you breaking Eleanor?"

Whenever he used her full name, her insides twisted in a knot. Ella rolled her eyes at the feeling and sassily replied, "Nothing Alexander, just dropped a pair of shoes I was about to pack." She hoped he felt the same way when she called him by his full name.

If Ella had gotten an answer to that, it would've been yes but it was overcome by the giddiness Alex then felt over the fact that she was already packing for the trip. "You're packing already?"

"Yes. Apparently I can't stay still now thinking about this trip." And it was true, she probably took a look at her tickets at least twice a day just to check if they were still real.

"Well it is quite eventful, innit? Glasto, Nick's wedding, the music video..." Alex listed with a loopy smile on his face. It would be the perfect first stay in the UK for her, and he couldn't wait to make it even better.

But Ella was suffering through the wait so it just made her whine for him to stop. "Stop because I will cry from having to wait another week."

Alex flustered at the noise but he was reminded he wasn't alone when Matt laughed beside him. The singer sighed, really putting his drunk mind to work out a solution to the problem, "Why isn't teleporting a thing yet?"

Ella snorted in laughter, "It would make it all so much easier, wouldn't it?"

He really started going deep in thought, thinking about how if they were just grasping the logical ways of the concept then the government or whoever would already have something developed. Or they should, at least. "I'm sure there has to be something that–"

Alex's heavy rant was prematurely interrupted by the usual troublemaker in the friend group. "Ellie?"

"Yes, Matthew?"

"Don't forget to pack your skimpy underwear, you'll be going out on the pull here. We need to get you a rebound!" Matt was so drunk, he missed the amount of people walking past them and turning to see him after being so loud about his plans for the American girl.

Ella cackled, deciding between a few skirts she had laid out on the bed. "It will be noted."

But at the same time Alex cussed out his best mate, "Oh fuck off Helders."

Matt frowned at him, "What? I'm just looking out for her! She needs to get every faint memory of that dickhead fucked out of her brain."

Alex hated thinking about that being the situation, he wouldn't have it. "Jesus– Just, fucking shut up."

"I do actually," Ella agreed on Matt's logic, "But let's not talk about it." She sighed in slight melancholy.

"See?!" Matt fought Alex loudly, making Ella laugh loud at him.

Alex turned to the drummer about to threaten him, "Helders I will fucking–"

Ella stopped them before they could do anything, "Okay don't fight now. I'm not there to record."

"Don't worry, I'll ask Jamie to record as I kick his arse." Matt said confidently, almost ready to run back in and ask for Jamie's help.

But she was quick to kick the drummer's ego down a few notches, "I doubt that'll happen."

"Bitch!" Matt gasped out loud, completely offended.

"Thanks for the support, darling." Alex replied with a smirk, raising his eyebrows at his friend.

"Yeah, you just say that 'cause you want his–" Matt tried to say but it was all muffled what she heard next. Ella held her breath to try and listen but nothing could be heard other than shuffling.

About a minute later the line went clear again and someone cleared their throats, "Sorry 'bout that darling, he gets on my nerves."

Ella shook her head, only imagining what it was that they had just done. "He has that effect."

"Well I can't wait for you to get here, darling. It's gonna be fucking amazing I promise you." Alex would make sure of it like his life depended on it.

Her excitement bubbled up inside her once more, "I know it will, I'm so excited. Finally started watching Game of Thrones to practice my accent."

He remembered getting a picture of the three seasons on DVD she had gotten not long after they had gone back to London and how she said she'd watch it soon to prepare for her trip. "Oh darling, I cannot wait to see you miserably fail at that."

"Hey!" Ella warned him before switching to her very fake and forced british accent, "It's quite good actually." Alex couldn't not let out the loudest laugh at it though, which made her laugh back as she tried to say, "Don't laugh!"

He tried to stop but he couldn't so it was about half a minute later that he could properly say, "Sorry, that was just bad."

"You're mean." She pouted to herself, rolling a pair of jeans.

He hummed and sarcastically said, "Sure I am." Ella was about to call him out for it when they heard, "Alex!" being yelled out by Nick. "Okay, I gotta go now but, erm, I'll call you tomorrow alright?" He stumbled in his words, his tongue tangling because of being drunk and excited.

Ella smiled at that, "That's perfect. Enjoy the rest of your night, Al. Love you." She just couldn't help but add.

Alex swore he would never get over her saying that, even if she didn't mean it like he wanted her to. "Love you too, darling. Bye."

"Bye." She said almost breathless as his words hit her like she hadn't heard him say that before.

The line went dead and they both sighed before going back to their activities. The week needed to pass faster.

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Ella had been walking around LAX with a skip on her step. Her flight was due to leave California at seven in the afternoon and she'd be landing in Montreal at around three in the morning. She had a connecting flight, of course, but she had made sure to make her calculations well and she knew she'd get there in time.

She had made sure to leave her house and order herself a taxi with enough time to spare, taking LA's traffic very into consideration. The counter of the airline she was traveling with had been packed but she got her boarding pass about forty minutes later, with two hours left to go through TSA and then rush to her gate.

Being mindful of how long it would take, she had already taken everything that could beep off her body and placed it inside the big bag she was carrying with her. Though she shouldn't have needed to worry because being the time it was and the fact that it was LAX, the line for TSA moved specially slow, taking her about thirty minutes to get through.

And, of course, her gate was the one furthest away so she was power walking through the airport, not without making a quick stop at McDonald's first. When she finally found her gate, she'd sat in the waiting area with her laptop open in her lap to edit some pictures.

She'd had to do some shoots on digital for a brand that was working with Focus Creeps and despite it not being her favorite medium, they had turned out amazing. She had studied quite intently everything about photo editing in university, so really she was just putting old skills to use when editing them.

When she was almost done with the first batch of pictures, and eating the last of her chips now that her burger was gone, she noticed that the time in the top right corner of her laptop said 7:16PM and they hadn't been called yet, so she started to fidget in her seat.

There was just one person at the counter but they didn't have the airline's uniform. She could see a plane parked right at the gate though, and people driving the boarding bridge in place. Her legs bounced up and down as she watched her surroundings for any signs of them boarding soon.

Just when Ella was about to panic because the person who was at the counter left, her phone buzzed in her pocket, startling her. She pulled it out, grateful for a small distraction from her building anxiety and her face relaxed at the notification of Alex's text.

(27/06/2013 19:17) Hope the airport isn't too crazy at the minute, darling. How's everything going? Have you boarded yet? x

She bit on her thumb, looking around for anyone from the airline getting the counter ready for boarding but no one was there yet so she fully focused on texting the singer.

(27/06/2013 19:18) We were supposed to board twenty minutes ago, so I'm slowly getting nervous. Every minute counts, you know? I can't miss y'all at Glastonbury Al :(

(27/06/2013 19:19) Don't you worry darling, you'll make it just in time. And I'm sure you'll be boarding in no time, just listen to some music, yeah? Maybe some Beatles to set the mood x

(27/06/2013 19:20) I think it'd be better if I blast some Arctic Monkeys, wouldn't it?

(27/06/2013 19:20) I suppose that works too, they're overrated though x

(27/06/2013 19:21) Okay now, don't talk shit about them when I'm only traveling this long to see them.

(27/06/2013 19:21) Hahaha sorry darling x I cannot wait to see you, the lads can't wait either and Bre has been screeching about your first time over here since she got here.

(27/06/2013 19:22) You always know what to say, Al. I feel like I'm gonna puke from excitement now and not anxiety. Can't wait to see y'all.

(27/06/2013 19:23) Everyone's already planning so much shit for when you get here. Just a little heads up for you x

(27/06/2013 19:23) Jesus Christ... I'm scared of the hangovers to come already.

(27/06/2013 19:24) It'll be fun, that's all that matters. What Bre and Matt are planning though, I have no idea about.

(27/06/2013 19:25) Oh no, they're in charge of the parties before the wedding right?

(27/06/2013 19:26) Exactly, so we must be in for a wild night. Gutted we can't be together for those x

(27/06/2013 19:27) Who's gonna save me from Bre then?! She's gonna have me black out, I can't handle alcohol as well as she does.

(27/06/2013 19:27) You can't handle alcohol at all, darling xx

(27/06/2013 19:27) Thanks for the faith, Al. So sweet of you x

(27/06/2013 19:28) Won't apologize for the truth x But Katie and my best friend will be there, they'll take care of you x

(27/06/2013 19:29) Rude! :(( I'm so excited to meet everyone properly!!! x

(27/06/2013 19:29) Just stay away from tequila and you'll be fine darling x And everyone is excited to finally meet you too xx

(27/06/2013 19:30) Such good advice xx P.S. someone's just set things up for boarding! I'll text you when I get to Montreal xxx

(27/06/2013 19:30) Have a great flight, darling. Love you lots xxxx

(27/06/2013 19:30) Thank you Alex, love you too xxxx

Ella stood up from her place with a bright grin on her face. She'd never not react like that to his sweet words.

Once she got her thoughts together, she hung her bag on her shoulder, after stuffing her laptop back inside it, and walked to throw away her McDonald's bag.

As soon as she was able to, Ella boarded her flight. Feeling so elated as she walked to the plane's door and through the hallway up to her seat. She loved being in planes, even though going out of the country had never happened for her before.

She found herself unable to stay still when she got to her seat. There were so many things making her insides feel like jelly, she had a little silent cry in the plane as it took off. Ella was grateful nobody beside her could really see her as she had a window seat, her eyes glued to how everything was looking more minuscule by the minute outside until it was just clouds.

Eventually, she pulled out her laptop again and continued editing, she had a little bit over five hours to kill and since she had no other way to distract herself, she was going through the pictures faster than anticipated.

How she was going to brace the seven hour flight from Montreal to London, she had no idea. She probably would have to come up with concepts for future shoots, work with words rather than with reference pictures since she had no wifi.

Ella had been amazed, watching Montreal under the plane when they were about to land. The lights of the city lighting up everything for her to see, she felt like a child being amazed at such a simple thing, but it looked so beautiful she had to take a picture. She used her phone first but it did little to no justice to it so she pulled out her camera and took a few pictures just to see if it would show on film as beautiful as her eyes could see.

Even walking around the Canadian airport was fascinating to her, because all the signs were in French too, which made her think about just how amazing it would be to visit France.

Thankfully, walking through the airport and finding her gate had been a breeze so she could sit down calmly and just sort through some stuff that she had been procrastinating for long. Before starting to organize her scans though, she sent Alex a quick text.

(28/06/2013 04:20) Landed in Montreal a few minutes ago, and at the gate waiting for the next flight! Only an hour left to wait and then I'll be on my way. I cannot stay still!!! xx Also Canada is beautiful, I love it! xx

Due to the lack of wifi connection, she sent it as a regular SMS, not really caring about being charged. She just hoped it went through as she went back to her laptop screen to work the next hour away.

But her bubble of giddiness had burst when she and all the others who were waiting for their connecting flight, were surprised by someone from the airline crew going up to the gate's waiting area microphone and informing them all that their flight had been delayed six hours because of some issues with the plane that was supposed to take them to London.

Ella scoffed in disbelief. Of course this would happen to me, was all that came to her mind.

When they told them their luggage would have to be picked up from baggage claim and they'd have to check in once again, it hit her just how much time she'd be losing.

She started panicking as she walked out to baggage claim, spotting her flight number in the furthest conveyor belt.

She had debated texting Alex again to tell him about the whole situation, just to let him know, but when she properly made her calculations and realized how much later she'd get there, her whole attention was drawn to fixing the issue.

People saw her rolling her big suitcase around the airport in a haste, her bag continuously falling off her shoulder but it was the least of her concerns as she approached the counters of the airline. She saw the big line of people and was about to cry, but thankfully she spotted some people assisting at the very end of the queue that could help her.

Ella told them about her situation and they apologized profusely. They told her to wait as they saw what they could do and after twenty minutes in which she just watched them type away, call and speak with different people behind the counter, she was told she could get a ticket for another plane they had which was leaving in two hours.

When the time was very scarily going closer to six in the morning, she had been able to check in her suitcase and run to go through security once again. She was grateful everyone had been lovely in every checkpoint, because if she had been faced with another obstacle, she was sure she would've broken down in the middle of the airport.

Never in her life had she walked so fast, and it was only when she got to her gate did she allow herself to fully sit in the panic. On her way, she had been doing the math and she realized she'd be landing in London cutting it very close to their set. It was when she remembered she still needed to get driven to the place the festival was at, that she found she'd get there after the lads had gone on stage, probably in the middle of their set.

Without letting another minute go to waste, she called Alex and tried her hardest to keep herself composed. At least she had a ticket and it would be a minor setback, not six hours.

"Hello, darling!" He exclaimed and she could feel his smile through the phone, her shoulders slowly loosening up at the thought of being beside her best friend soon.

"Hiya, Alex." Ella greeted, trying to copy his enthusiasm but she failed incredibly and Alex knew her so well now that he immediately knew something was wrong.

He walked away from the noise around him, they'd gotten to the festival early and they were all drinking and watching the final touches to the stage setup. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

Ella bit her lip, trying not to get too worked up and push herself to tears. "I am, I am. Just— My original flight got delayed six hours..."

Alex's heart dropped, "Oh darling." He muttered, filled with sadness.

"Okay but listen," She continued, trying to switch the situation around—more to try and calm herself than anything else—, "I managed to get a new ticket, but it leaves in about an hour. So, if my calculations aren't wrong, then I might be landing around eight in the evening."

He hummed, "The drive is about two hours and a half, it's okay darling. You're getting picked up by the driver we hired, you'll make it."

She sighed, "I hope I make it on time..." She knew she wouldn't be there from the start but just the knowledge of being a few minutes late to their set wouldn't make her weep at that very moment.

Alex just had to reassure her though, because anything could happen and it was out of everyone's hands so the last thing he wanted was for her to blame herself. "Even if you get here a little late, we just want you here. It's okay Ellie. I promise you, darling."

If Ella hadn't been in public, she would've let herself sob, but she had to inhale deeply to keep herself at bay and focus on the fact that she was on her way to them and that was all that mattered.

"Okay, Al. I'm just gonna distract myself as I wait and, uhm, yeah. I hope this one doesn't get delayed." She tried to joke but her heart sank at just the thought of it.

"Touching wood as we speak, Ellie." He truly was, knocking softly on the wooden table that was set beside him.

She laughed quietly, "I guess I'll see you soon then Al, but just in case I don't get there in time," her voice went a little quiet as she was getting sad at the thought, "Good luck okay? You're all gonna do so amazing, I have no doubt."

"Why don't you just wait until you're here to tell me?" Alex just wanted her to stop thinking like that, she was gonna make it regardless and that's what mattered to him.

"Alright." Ella agreed softly, trying to feed off his positivity.

"Have a great flight darling. Love you. It'll be alright okay?" That sweet conviction of his that he always showed when it came to her laced around his words had her melting and calming down in her seat.

She nodded, smiling tightly at his words. "Yeah, it will. Love you too Alex, see you soon."

They exchanged quiet goodbyes and just like that the call ended.

The panic had gone away and its place had been taken by excitement again. She just wished time would go faster because she had little patience left inside her and it had only been fifteen minutes she had been waiting at the gate.

Working on organizing her scans had been wonderful for her, not only because she had so many that she had forgotten about, but she had been able to see her growth as a photographer and it had made her a little bit proud of herself.

It had been a burden to see the ones with Julian in them, or the ones that she clearly remembered had been taken by him but they were good shots of her where she felt and looked beautiful so she would focus on that rather than give that man any more of her thoughts.

She'd known ever since that day at the beach that she was done with him, over the whole situation and, since she wrapped her mind around that realization, she'd only felt peace. He thankfully hadn't made any more appearances or tried to contact her—of course that also was because she'd made sure to block all contacts that could tie them together any longer.

That all had worked like a charm and surrounding herself with work and keeping in touch with her friends and family had helped her heal.

When she was sorting through the pictures she'd taken in March, that were mostly frames of her birthday party as Bre had been drunkenly taking many pictures of everyone, the crew had started to board.

Ella was glad to see they had started boarding earlier than anticipated and she was on her plane seat in almost no time. And to her luck, she had been seated beside a very lovely woman who had the most beautiful ginger hair Ella had ever seen. That had been the start of the conversation and the girl, who's name was Gabby, had thanked her and started conversation with her right then.

It seemed like the friendship had been sent from above as the two spent most of the flight talking about everything and anything: their jobs, their hobbies, why they were on that plane, the things they were most excited for when they landed.

"Rockstars..." Gabby has started after Ella told her she was on her way to visit her rockstar best friends, "Be careful, you never really know about them." She warned, based on past experiences that made a melancholic smile tug at the corner of her lips.

When the plane landed, they had gone through all of the checkpoints together up until the baggage claim area.

Ella and Gabby exchanged Instagram accounts and they promised each other to keep in touch and maybe plan something while Ella was in London.

It seemed like luck was on Gabby's side because her suitcase was one of the first ones to come out only 20 minutes later, leaving Ella with a long hug and a "Take care sweetheart."

Without the ginger beside her, Ella had been well aware of every minute that was passing and how if everything was going according to schedule then it would be less than two hours that the lads would go on stage.

Maybe if the driver just floored it, she'd be able to make it just in time. She prayed that was the case.

But time kept running and she watched people getting their baggage and leaving, everyone but her. It was a group of twenty people maybe that was waiting with her, and suddenly the conveyor belt stopped carrying cases which made Ella even more fidgety.

When she watched the clock go from nine o'clock to quarter past, she'd had enough. She sighed, fixing her bag on her shoulder to turn around and leave—after all, if her case was found, it had her information attached to it and they'd contact her so she couldn't care less about it—, but then cases started rolling in again and the third one was hers.

Ella practically ran towards it and pulled it up with a strength she didn't know she had in her. As soon as she had a hold on it, she walked fast towards the exit in search of the driver the lads had gotten her.

It took her a few glances around the crowd of people waiting for her to find her name on a small sign. 'Eleanor Hayes' read the sign in the man's hands and she approached him with a relieved smile on her face.

They exchanged pleasantries and he took the suitcase from her as they walked out to the car. It was outside that it hit her where she was. Seeing cars driving on the other side of the road and everyone talking in thick accents around her was enough for her to smile hard.

Even if she was two hours away from the guys, they were standing in the same soil and that was enough for her to breathe calmly for a while.

Ella got in the back seat of the car, and once again she felt like she couldn't sit still. The worst part was that she wasn't even able to call Alex or text him because her phone was basically useless.

So she put her earphones in and connected them to her phone to play some music. Something inside her knew exactly what she needed to hear then and so she scrolled all the way down until she found that song she hadn't been able to stop listening to since that day.

Her eyes watched out of the window, how they were driving on the left side of the road, how different it all was but something felt constant and growing inside her. But then 'Feels Like We Only Go Backwards' started and her thoughts drowned before she could even allow herself to point out what it was.

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Ella had made light conversation with the driver when they were walking up to the car and he had taken her petition to go as fast as he could to heart. He knew she needed to be there by ten in the evening so he had done the best he could.

Yet that hadn't been enough, because they got there at a little bit over eleven.

The driver had lent Ella his phone so she could call an assistant to the band's manager who was waiting for her to arrive.

The girl had been lovely and told Ella she'd be coming to get her and about thirty minutes later, with her heart leaping on her chest, Ella was walking up to the balcony at the side of the stage.

She was almost in tears seeing and hearing the massive crowd go incredibly insane at the sight of the lads coming back for the encore.

Ella had barely registered the manager's assistant telling Breana that Ella had arrived until Bre had jumped on her to hug her, and that was when the tears had started falling. Ella was so overwhelmed that she was just now processing the long day she'd had and it was hitting her like a ton of bricks.

She was so entranced by the guys getting their instruments and about to perform again that she had only been able to smile and wave at the girls around her. She recognized Kelly of course but she didn't know who out of the two other girls that were there was Katie and who was Alex's best friend.

Alex started strumming his guitar and teasing the crowd with the lyrics to 'Soul Love' by David Bowie, everyone at the balcony laughed as they sang it back to him but he was quick to cut them off when he said, "I'm only messing, I'm only kidding."

He walked backwards for a few seconds before going back to the mic and this time teasing them with 'Yellow' by Coldplay, which made the crowd sing it back to him even louder.

"I'm only messing, I'm only messing." He tried saying but the thousands of people ignored it so he laughed looking at Jamie and shaking his head, "I'm only kidding. Pipe down now, pipe down." And since they still didn't listen, he went ahead and started singing the next song which was 'Cornerstone'.

Ella hadn't even known that they had a string section playing with them until she heard them join the guys during the second verse and she swore she had ascended.

Nothing would ever compare to hearing Alex's stunning voice, accompanied by the violins and cellos, and the crowd so wholeheartedly singing along.

Alex was enthralling standing there just talking to the masses of people and getting them to cheer loudly at him when he suggested an old monkeys song that they didn't perform often. Ella was trying to guess which one it would be when the violins started the gorgeous melody of 'Mardy Bum' and it all sounded even better when the crowd sang along.

It was mesmerizing to say the least. Ella had thought seeing them perform Outside Lands in 2011 had been insane enough, but nothing compared to this. She had never witnessed something like it before and it was leaving her breathless.

A few tears fell down her cheeks and since Bre was holding her close, resting her face against hers, she noticed. The model turned to her best friend, cooing and gave her a loud kiss on the cheek.

Ella was sad she had only caught the end of their performance but so glad to at least have caught a bit of it. She wouldn't have forgiven herself if she had missed it completely.

She watched as Alex changed her acoustic guitar for his Fender jazzmaster when the song was done, and in no time he started playing the chords to 'When The Sun Goes Down'. The crowd was so loud almost completely drowning his voice, making everyone at the balcony sing along.

Just before the song fully kicked in after the first verse, Alex stopped and encouraged the crowd to get louder and louder. It was mental to see how much control he had over them, making them scream as loud as they could with a small movement of his hand.

Finally when they continued, Ella just fully let go of any inhibitions and started dancing with Bre, jumping on her spot and singing along loudly. The girls had done the same, all of them faking playing a guitar and headbanging.

One of the girls she didn't know had wolf whistled and yelled "That's my best friend!" which had Ella instantly knowing who she was. She was glad she had just spent most of the song with her arm swung over the girl's shoulder and both had danced together like they'd known each other their whole lives.

It all got even cuter when Alex asked the crowd if they could help him sing happy birthday to his mum. Ella had melted as she and everyone sang along, Alex had a permanent grin on his face loving the energy and how perfect the night was going.

Ella watched intently as Alex welcomed Miles on stage, whooping and clapping for her friend. She had only been able to see Miles playing 505 with them on video and caught glimpses of it in the studio when the guys were playing around and strummed along for a few seconds, but she was sure this one time would be life changing.

When Alex sang "I'd probably still adore you with your hands around my neck", she felt Bre teasingly choke her which made her laugh. That made her almost miss Alex doing it to himself softly in front of the whole crowd. She had to keep herself from letting her eyes roll at that, not only because she was in public, surrounded by people but she had to not think about Alex like that.

She couldn't. They were just friends and no matter how attractive she could find him, she couldn't let herself and her thoughts wander beyond that point.

The song reached its climax and she was taken aback by the crowd's volume once again. It was nothing compared to how loud they got by the end of the song, when the lights grew intensely and lit the whole stage as the band waved them goodbye, blew them kisses and left.

Once the guys were out, that's when Ella properly turned and gave Bre the biggest hug to say hello.

"I missed you so much!" Ella had said hidden away in her neck, "Today was awful."

Bre let go to check if she was crying or not, she only found Ella's eyes pooling with tears, "I knew I should've gone with you." The model cooed and hugged her back again, "Let's go back down to their trailer and I'll introduce you to everyone."

Ella sniffled and followed Breana, who was keeping her fingers intertwined with hers as everyone walked out and back to the band's trailer.

She expected the lads to be out there already, but they told them that they had gone to be quickly interviewed at the BBC Radio area. So she took the brief moment of tranquility to properly take a moment and meet the girls officially.

Kelly was the one walking towards them so Ella was quick to meet her in the middle and give her a quick hug.

"Hi! It's so nice to finally meet you!" Ella said enthusiastically, and the bride-to-be hugged her back tightly.

They swayed a bit in their place before letting go of each other, Kelly was a little bit tipsy by then and the lads and Bre had been talking about how excited they were for Ella to get there that she was ecstatic to meet her.

"You too Ella!" Kelly agreed and then turned to see the other two ladies coming to them. Kelly waved them over for them to hurry and both of them started giggling as they quickened their pace.

When they caught up to where they stood, Ella smiled brightly at them, "Hi! I'm Ella, so nice to meet you."

She hadn't known exactly if she should hug them or shake their hands but the answer was given to her when the brunette one crushed her in a tight hug which surprised her.

"I'm so glad we can finally meet!" Ella had reciprocated the hug because she truly needed it and it's only when the girl let go that she said, "I'm Flo. Welcome to England, love."

"Oh! Alex's best friend, the artist! I've heard so much about you." Ella replied, looking at the pretty girl smiling even harder in front of her.

"I sure hope so. I've heard loads about you too, it was about time you came so I could properly meet you." Flo winked and it made her blush, she was intrigued by the amount of times Alex would mention her if his best friend had been so eager to have her here.

Ella giggled and then turned to give the blonde girl who, by process of elimination, would be Cookie's girlfriend. "You must be Katie then?"

"That's me. Hi Ella, so nice to meet you." Katie said with a sweet smile and a tender brief hug.

Ella reciprocated and held her with the same tenderness. "You too. Congratulations on the engagement, by the way. Lucky guy Cookie is."

Katie laughed and waved her off but before she could disagree on that, Flo jumped in saying, "Isn't he?"

Ella nodded, already feeling that Alex's best friend would be one she'd grow the closest with. Katie felt the need to say something about her then so he pointed at the things that they knew from the lads.

"We've seen your pictures Ella and, bloody hell, we might need to hire you for some shoots because you leave me astounded."

Ella smiled brightly at that, her cheeks tinting red as she watched them all throwing compliments around. Bre threw one of her arms around Ella's shoulders and said, "Think maybe we should just take a day away from the guys and play with the camera."

All the girls agreed on it and Ella was totally willing to do it. "I'm down if you guys are down, that'd be amazing. I came up with a few concepts on my way here, actually."

"It's settled then. Girls day will be a photoshoot day with Ella." Flo settled raising her cup in the air.

"You tell us Kelly if you want it before or after the wedding just so we don't interrupt with any plans." Ella was quick to say, remembering the big day coming up.

"Let's do it after. We have loads of time before we leave for our honeymoon."

Flo smirked at her, "Oooooo the honeymoon. Big anticipation for that Boss, make sure you're well rested beforehand. I speak from experience."

"Wait, you're married?" Ella asked in slight shock. Alex had failed to mention that big little detail.

Flo showed off her ring wiggling her eyebrows, "Very happily so." And then she turned to look around for her husband, "Where is he? Curly?!"

And as if it was magic, the lanky man with the long hair Ella had seen earlier at the balcony had popped out of nowhere with a cigarette in hand by the trailer.

"Sweetheart?" He asked and if it wasn't for the way they had kept quiet, they wouldn't have been able to hear him.

"Come here a second, say hi to Ella."

And like every one of her wishes was a command, he appeared right behind her with a smile on his face. He dropped the cigarette to the ground and stomped on it as he offered a hand out to Ella and introduced himself, "Nice to meet you, I'm Matty."

Ella gave him a kind smile, holding herself from cooing at the way he held Flo close to him. "Hi Matty, I'm Ella."

The man smirked, "Oh we know, famous Ella. You're quite the talk around here."

Breana laughed, knowing how much of Ella they had all heard and seen through the band, especially in the past week and earlier that very day.

Ella blushed at the information, "Jesus... Good talk, I hope."

Flo smirked looking at her, "Oh very good talk, especially from Alex. He's been like a broken record since he got back."

She had no idea what to say so she just blushed quietly for a few seconds until Breana pinched her waist and she jumped, "That's... good, I guess."

"Indeed it is." Katie added with a subtle smirk and a raise of eyebrows which only had Ella blushing even harder.

"Okay, yous stop it." Kelly said, finding it adorable how she reacted to everyone's teasing. "You're getting her all red, bless her."

"You know what you need?" Matty asked playfully and Ella shook her head as she lacked a response, "A drink."

"Oh yes. You're far behind." Informed Breana who had been drinking almost all day with the girls.

"What would you like?" Flo asked nicely, wanting to get her new friend going as the night had only just started.

Ella had a think about it but just shrugged when she couldn't decide on anything she particularly wanted at the moment, "Surprise me."

Flo smiled hard, "I love you already."

So Flo and Matty left to make her a drink and the other four girls stayed outside whilst they talked. It had been mostly about the wedding, Ella had managed to convince Kelly that it wasn't gonna be an issue for her to take pictures all day so Kelly allowed her to be another one of their photographers but only at the reception. Because "I don't want you feeling like you're at work during the ceremony, you're our friend.", was the reasoning she'd given her and Ella smiled at her and promised she'd only pull her camera out during the reception.

Miles had appeared then, interrupting the wedding chat to crush Ella in a tight hug, "Fucking finally! We've been waiting for you!" The scouse had made her giggle with the scoff he'd let out after that.

"Sorry, had to get a new flight and it was shit." Ella replied with a struggle from how tight he was holding her.

Miles left a wet kiss on her cheek and pulled back, "Don't apologize. You're here now."

Ella nodded with a sweet smile, letting herself indulge in Miles' side hug and starting up a conversation with him and the rest of the group.

About five minutes later, when they were trying to get information out of Breana about Kelly's bachelorette party or hen do—as the british girls called it—Matty and Flo finally came out of the band's trailer with multiple drinks in hand.

They were carefully coming down the stairs managing to grip onto two cups on each hand when behind them someone yelled, "Oi! What were those two doing alone in our trailer?" It was when they continued saying, "You nasty bastards!" that Ella recognized it was Matt walking back with the rest of the band following behind.

"Oh my god!" Ella yelled, letting go of Miles and completely missing whatever Matty had yelled back at them because she was too busy running towards them.

She had her guestlist wristband on so security didn't stop her when she jetted off to hug the first person she saw, which was the drummer.

Matt had barely even seen her when she threw herself at him, "Ellie! You're here!"

"I missed you so much, I'm so sorry I was late." She truly was sorry but he wasn't having it.

Matt held her tighter and shook his head, "No need to apologize Ellie, it's all fine. You're here!"

Before she could apologize once more, the rest of the band joined them in the hug. They all crushed Ella in between their bodies and said her name in unison which had her laughing.

By the time they'd all let go and given her space, she had shed a few tears. She turned around with a pout and hugged them one by one, apologizing again and again for being late, for which Alex had gone and hugged her again when she was done hugging everyone.

Alex held her tight and rubbed up and down her back, "I told you that all that mattered is that you'd be here darling, and you are."

"I caught the encore." She mumbled in his ear, sniffling.

He loosened his grip on her and made her look up at him, "Did you like it?"

"It was insane Al. The crowd was so loud! And the strings!" Ella fanned her face to gather herself, "I will cry just picturing how it was from the very start."

"Don't cry darling." Alex cooed, brushing some of her hair behind her ear and wiping a tear that had fallen down her cheek. "We'll catch a rerun of it on TV next week, it's okay."

She didn't have time to keep protesting because Alex started leaving kisses all over her face until she giggled. It was only when she couldn't breathe from laughter that he stopped, getting a hold of her hand and followed the lads walking back to where everyone was gathered.

When they got there though, Ella was met with someone she didn't know. Thankfully, Alex was quick to introduce them to her.

"Ella, this is Penny, my mum. Penny, this is Ella." He let go of her to let her freely hug his mum.

And that Ella did, holding Penny tighter when she'd said "Oh it's so lovely to meet you, sweetie."

"You too. Happy birthday, by the way. That was a lovely serenade you got just then."

Penny cooed, "Oh thank you. And it was, wasn't it?" She turned to her son to steal a hug from him, "Thanks to this one."

Alex relished in his mum's embrace, leaving a kiss on top of her head. "Love you mum." She saw as she was all ready to walk out, her friend waiting for her beside his manager by the entrance of the backstage area. "Are you leaving?"

"Yeah, so sorry to leave you lot but I can't be camping out anymore. I'm not fit for this lifestyle now." Penny joked, looking at everyone who was watching the interaction intently.

Ella scoffed, acting like Penny was saying just pure lies, "What are you on about? I was gonna take you out dancing to celebrate!"

Alex's mum laughed at that, gently grabbing her hand and giving it a squeeze. "Oh sweetie, that's a tempting offer, that."

Flo joined in Ella's antics, "We'll bring the party up north next week then Penny, get yourself ready."

"That better be a promise." She pointed at the girl she had seen grow up, and Flo blew her a kiss in response.

Alex left Ella with their friends to walk his mom back to her friend, making sure they were all set to leave. And as he went back, he couldn't believe his eyes.

He had been anxiously waiting all day for her to arrive, his heart beating a bit faster the closer it got to their set. He tried blaming it on headlining Glastonbury for a second time but he knew deep inside that really wasn't it. Yes it was making him nervous, but most of all it was because of Ella.

When he had walked on stage, he had anticipated that his thoughts would be fully taken over by the crowd and the place they were at, but he had been wrong—the thought of where Ella was, held a place in the back of his head throughout the whole set.

And when they had been taken to BBC Radio's lounge to get interviewed and saw the mirrorballs hanging from the ceiling, along with the cow print on the floor, he was taken back to Ella.

Ella, Ella, Ella.

He'd been so fucking glad to see her there as they came back. And now, walking back and seeing her laugh with his childhood best friend, it was a sight that had him grinning brightly to himself.

The group seemed to be talking very eagerly about something, and he was just beyond happy that Ella fit perfectly with them all. His smile only faltered when he was getting closer to them and Ella snapped her head in his direction with a deep frown and a gasp.

"Alex Turner, how could you keep this information from me?!" Ella asked loudly, as she had just been embarrassed for not knowing something that seemed like everyone knew.

Alex giggled, frowning back at her, "What?"

"You've never told me that your best friend's husband is in a band as well?" Matty had just said he was excited for the next day and Ella had asked what was happening, which Flo had laughed hard about when she realized Alex had failed to mention it to her.

"Oh," he cringed, "Sorry darling." He apologized to Ella first and then turned to Matty to make sure he hadn't taken offense by it, which he hadn't but just in case Alex said, "Sorry mate."

"S'alright." Matty waved off with an amused smile at Ella's bright red cheeks.

But Ella didn't agree, "Yeah, it's not for me but whatever."

Alex laughed, noting that she had a drink in hand and he guessed that would have to do a little bit with her current mood. "What are you drinking Eleanor?"

"It's called 'none of your business', isn't it Flo?" Ella asked the brunette seriously.

Flo tried to match her seriousness but her smile couldn't be held back, "That's right."

Alex took the drink from her, only to take a sip and when he did he realized what it was. "Angel, you gave her a jagerbomb? She can't handle alcohol, she's gonna be plastered by half past."

"Well, I'll blame this beautiful angel right here." Ella nodded towards his best friend, playing with the word he had just called her, and Flo did a small curtsy back at her.

Alex hadn't expected this duo to be such trouble. He feared them and Bre together would be even worse and he didn't know what to expect.

"Of course you will." Alex shook his head with a smile, and Flo winked at him. She knew him like the back of her hand, and she could just see it all written on Alex's face. He was whipped.

It had been a lovely night, slowly and with the help of the drinks, the buzz the lads had gotten from the night had gone down and by three in the morning, they were all ready to go to sleep. Especially Ella, who despite having multiple jagerbombs with Flo, had succumbed to her exhaustion from her long day traveling.

The lads had their tour bus parked somewhere in the fields, so after the group said bye to Matty and Flo who were staying with the rest of their group, they took on a long drunk walk back to the bus. It had been filled with giggles at the clumsy steps they'd take, especially Ella and Bre's who were holding onto Miles' arms and subsequently making him trip with them.

The walk back had been exhaustingly long to them all in their drunken states, so when they finally reached the massive vehicle, they jetted off up the stairs by the door and chose the first bunk they saw.

Thankfully no one had chosen their bunks yet so there wasn't any bickering about someone stealing someone else's bed but it was hilarious to Alex, who had been the last to go up, to see everyone lazily slump into the beds and groan in relief when they could finally rest their bodies.

Due to how drunk everyone was, they had passed out almost immediately and slept deep and uninterrupted all throughout the night, even through the choir of snores coming from Nick and Matt.

That was until the noise outside woke them up at around eleven and they all realized that if they didn't properly wake up soon and get ready for the day, they'd miss Matty's band.

So, like they had been shocked back alive, the girls started getting ready quickly. Ella was so thankful for the bathroom in the bus being a decent size and it hadn't been much of a burden getting ready in the enclosed space.

She was also grateful for the girls around her, who were going on and on about all that Ella was going to see and what she couldn't miss, warning her about different things around the field but making her more excited about it all by the second.

They all had a bite of food on their way to the stage The 1975 would perform on, and they got there just in time. Matty's band was due on stage in ten minutes, when the group walked up to where Matty and Flo were standing by the steps that would take them up the stage.

Ella was well aware she stood up like a sore thumb from how she was dressed, not that her black shorts and her The Doors shirt were strange but her black and silver cowboy boots were. She had earned herself quite a lot of glances as they paraded around the place, but she couldn't care less.

Matty pointed them out right away but with a compliment because he truly loved them, "Fucking love your boots Ella."

"Awh thanks Matty." She looked down at them, already muddy and dusty but she loved it, it reminded her of home.

His wife had taken the chance to tease him then, "Be careful, he might try to steal them. He's taken half my wardrobe."

Matty bit back saying, "We're married so what's yours is mine. Technically not stealing."

A very tall guy with a man bun walked behind Flo and clicked his tongue as he threw an arm around her shoulders, "He got you there baby."

"George, you're supposed to be on my side always." Flo complained, but leaned into George's touch.

"For that you've got your cousin." The tall guy argued with a smirk, which made Flo elbow him on the ribs.

Matty cackled watching George doubled over in pain and Flo took that moment to turn around and call over the two other members of the band to meet Ella.

Another very tall guy with a buzzcut came their way, along with a slightly shorter brunette, and when they stood beside her with soft smiles, Flo introduced them to Ella.

"Ella, this is George," She pointed to the tallest one who had just been hurt in the ribs, "This is Ross." She then signaled to the one with the buzzcut and finished by pointing at the brunette, "And this is my cousin, Adam."

Ella smiled at them, "Nice to meet y'all."

They all reciprocated the pleasantry with smiles of their own and they started small talk until they were called on stage.

The big Monkeys group stood on the side of the stage, watching The 1975 get cheered on as they grabbed their instruments.

As they played their first three songs, Ella made a mental note to listen to their music when she had the time because they were amazing live and they had this sound that she wasn't really used to listening but she'd just loved. They all had great stage presence, just by enjoying performing and dancing around, and it was funny to hear all the things Matty would just say in between lines.

Their little group had all cheered along with the crowd by the end of 'You' when Matty jumped on George's drumset and played the end of the song headbanging as he looked down towards George.

They all looked amazing on stage, and when the next song started and the crowd got even louder, they fed more off of their energy and somehow got even more hyper.

Ella was particularly entranced by George, seeing every single one of his facial expressions as he hit the drums had her just gawking at him.

She had leaned back a bit knowing that was the only way Flo and Bre would hear her say, "He's fucking hot." as she pointed at the drummer.

Alex's best friend laughed loudly at that, making Matt and Alex turn around to see what had happened and when she informed them of what Ella had just said, Matt joined the laughter while Alex only rolled his eyes in amusement.

"You fancy George then?" Matt asked loudly over the speakers.

"I mean look at him!" Ella had said, he truly looked amazing, "Oh, and Ross! Flo, even your cousin looks hot right now!"

"I'm glad we share opinions when it comes to George." Flo winked at her, "I'll make sure to relay the message."

Ella blushed just thinking about it and shook her head, mortified, "Oh god, no, don't."

"But you need a rebound!" Matt fought and Bre nodded intently.

"No, that'd be so messy!" Ella shook her head just thinking about how she wouldn't be able to act normal if she actually made a move on one of Flo's friends.

"That'd be messy alright. The nice kind of messy." Flo said and that just made Ella double over in laughter.

They kept listening to the rest of the song after that, and Ella was sure she'd have the chorus stuck in her head forever. 'Chocolate' was a hit, no wonder it had been their breakthrough.

She pouted when Matty said the next one will be their last, leaving her to wish to see a longer set of theirs in the future.

The strong riff of the guitar had her already hooked but it was the lyrics to it that made her slowly become obsessed with it.

When Matty turned around to point at Flo as he sang "She's got a boyfriend anyway", Ella gasped realizing this was about her. She screeched then when Matty turned back around to face the crowd and the lyrics got more interesting.

She couldn't help but become entranced by how proud Flo looked of Matty, it was so sweet to see the way she wholeheartedly sang along, her smile never leaving her face.

The end of the song was just heavy and perfect, made it erratic and Ella was absolutely loving it. Especially when the last line Matty sang was changed to "You've got a husband anyway" as he pointed at himself while looking straight at his wife.

Flo blew him a kiss and Matty turned around to play the outro of the song with all the energy he had, it was captivating. Ella was taken aback when it hit her that she was now friends with all these incredible musicians, it was truly a dream that had her pinching herself.

When the guys came off stage, it was pure adrenaline they were running on. Matty didn't take a second to kiss his wife earnestly, and Ella could almost cry from how adorable they were.

The rest of the day had been spent with them all running around the festival, sharing drinks as they tried to catch up to artists in different stages, bumping into friends like Zackery who had taken a few pictures of them—and introduced the band to a group of artists who had designed and hand painted a leather jacket for them at their request for a song in the upcoming album.

Ella had been loving how different yet similar the festival was when comparing it to Bonnaroo. The messy muddy fields, the loud chatter and laughter, the smell of good food in the air mixed with the good weed. She was on cloud nine and she didn't want to leave.

That night they watched The Rolling Stones and it had been absolutely insane seeing Mick Jagger on stage. She was sure she'd lose her voice from how loud she screamed when Mick Taylor was invited on stage and when they performed '2000 Light Years From Home'. She was sure she'd never be able to listen to The Rolling Stones the same ever again.

Sunday hadn't been any different. They had enjoyed every bit of the festival like it was the last they'd ever attend.

Ella had been so grateful to have experienced all of it, and she had made sure to tell Alex that multiple times. The group was so glad they had the massive bus to drive them back home and they needn't worry about a thing through the whole drive but be completely comfortable and enjoy the peace after the bustling weekend. It had ended up being almost three hours due to the traffic, but that had allowed them to rest longer so they didn't complain.

She'd asked to be dropped off at the hotel she was staying at and Alex had offered to go with her and then walk home as she wasn't staying too far away from his flat, but she declined because she knew he was exhausted and so was she so she walked in alone at four in the morning to check in.

It was amazing that it hadn't been a struggle to get checked in, she had been expecting something going wrong with that too after all that had happened at the airports when she was on her way there but it hadn't been, so with her keys in hand she made her merry way up to the fifth floor and to her room.

The little energy Ella had left in her was put into taking a shower, brushing her teeth and just plopping onto bed. The weekend had felt longer than just three days, it felt like it had already been a week since she'd had to run around Montreal's airport like a madwoman looking for a new ticket.

She sighed happily as she snuggled into the plush pillows in the dark, her eyes closed but behind her eyelids was the whole weekend playing like a film and she found herself filling up with warmth. She couldn't wait to see what else this trip would have in store for her, she only hoped it was all good.

✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧

The greatness of the London Eye had Ella trying to gather herself in search of words. She had been struggling to truly believe where she was since she woke up to a view she wasn't used to, gloomy and no sun out, the sky teasing a rainfall later, a little chilly when she went out the balcony for a smoke and the bustling of a city she was yet to get to know.

Alex had called her—thankfully they had figured out the whole cell roaming situation during the weekend so she wasn't uncommunicated and alone—, telling her to get ready as he was coming to get her and they'd be walking around London so she could get her proper touristy stroll around the city.

She had personally asked him for one at Glastonbury, when they were eating as they walked between stages, and he had gladly agreed to it. He wanted to be the one to witness her reactions to one of the cities he held so close to his heart.

Ella's steps slowed as they got closer to the attraction, people already in a long line at eleven in the morning.

"Holy fuck, it's huge." She gasped, staring all around the giant metal structure.

Alex just watched her mesmerized expression with a smile, "D'you wanna get on it?"

"Erm, not really. But I might as well have to, right?" She was looking at the very top of it which was barely in her line of sight but she would have to bear it because why would she come all the way there to not get on it.

"Flying all the way here to not get on it would be regrettable." He said honestly, it looked scary but it was a great experience, one that he didn't want her to miss.

Ella sighed, her brows a little furrowed as she gathered some courage, "Alright let's go."

They quietly walked to the end of the line, which had resumed moving slowly, and Ella felt her heart racing in her chest. Not only because of how she was shitting it thinking about how high she'd be once inside but from the memories coming aggressively to the forefront of her mind.

Valentine's day, Belmont Park. With Alex beside her, just like at that very moment.

She smiled to herself, the thought of that day no longer bitter by any grudges she was holding. So she thought mentioning it might distract her and keep her from shaking. "At least it's a shorter wait than the one we did at Belmont Park, remember?"

Alex gave her a sweet smile, really enjoying the opportunity to think back to that day but he also wanted to take the moment to tease her as she was fidgeting in her place. "Still afraid of heights, darling?"

"Yes but don't remind me, or I'll make you take me to the next place to not get on." Ella smiled slightly embarrassed, her cheeks tinting a faint pink.

"You silly thing." Alex laughed breathlessly, reaching out to grab her wrist and pull her into his side to hug her, "Just think about all the stunning pictures you're gonna be able to take."

She melted into him, looking up and grinned brightly at him, "You just always know how to get me on your side, don't you?" It really did seem like it to her, how fast he could make her twist her arm into stepping out of her comfort zone so she'd enjoy herself.

He just stared down at her adoringly, counting every freckle on her cheeks and admiring how the makeup she had on just accentuated every little thing on her face. So he said sincerely, "I'm glad I do." because he was truly grateful he could.

About ten minutes passed, silence between them was comfortable but sometimes broken by small talk about random things they'd remember or things she was hoping to see and the possibilities of places they could visit.

They had stayed holding each other the whole time: Alex's arm around her shoulders, his fingers clutching her tightly, and Ella's arm around his waist, her thumb rubbing little circles over the fabric of his shirt.

That was until she had remembered about Alex and who he was and she had started overthinking and noticing more and more the glances the people in line were giving them, so she gently pushed herself away from him and he had to slowly let his arm drop from its place around her.

Alex gave her a questioning look and Ella recoiled into herself as she gave him an answer, "I just keep thinking people are looking at us– well, you. And I don't wanna get you in trouble."

"What do you mean?" The singer frowned, not really understanding in which way she'd do that.

"Well, I just feel like they keep glancing over here and I don't want you to get swarmed for being recognized." Her voice was small as she explained, scared of sounding stupid but in her head, it made sense.

He chuckled softly, brushing off his status. "Darling, I'm not that big of a deal."

But Ella wouldn't let him try to downplay it, "Sure you aren't Mr. Rockstar." She rolled her eyes with amusement, "This is your home country, and you're massive here."

Alex just shook his head to have her let go of her worries, "Not gonna get swarmed, darling." And then he further explained, "You know most—if not all—known people that do, is because they get their agents to put out their locations for paparazzi and media's attention right?"

"Oh?" Ella blushed, feeling oh so stupid, "Do they really?"

"Yeah, and it's bullshit. You'll never find me doing that so don't worry. We're safe." He assured, tucking her into his side once more and he smiled when he felt her arm snaking around his middle once again.

"It's just because you love the mysterious act, though, isn't it? Maintains the appeal." She pinched his waist to accentuate the teasing, making him laugh.

"Dickhead."

They laughed together then, falling back into a comfortable silence, just relishing in the warmth they got from each other. It wasn't awfully cold but it was chilly and it was how used she'd gotten to Californian weather that had her performing worse in weather that she used to be able to bear when she lived in Tennessee.

Alex kept her warm and cozy so Ella found herself really snuggling into him and he accepted it with a smirk on his face. Moments like this was all he wanted.

The minutes passed and Ella couldn't help but be hypnotized by the whole scene, especially when they moved further and further up the line until they ended up in a corner where they had the perfect backdrop of the Thames and the city of London.

He felt her get away from his hold again but when she saw her reaching down to grab the camera hanging from around her neck, he breathed calmly.

"Stay there, I wanna take a picture." She instructed, seeing that his position was perfect for a picture.

"Here?" Alex asked, not sure if she really wanted a picture of him right there and then.

But Ella showed him the prettiest smile and said, "Yep, just like that." and Alex couldn't say no, not that he'd really ever tell her no. "Smile for me, sweets." The pet name rolled off her tongue so easily when seeing him standing like that in front of her.

"Sweets?" A massive grin broke out on his face hearing her call him that, his insides melting at the simple word.

Ella pressed the shutter instantly, exhaling in relief at having caught that face in time. "Perfect."

"Sweets?" Alex asked again just to check he hadn't imagined that.

"Yeah..." She timidly confirmed, rolling the film and tucking the lever back in its place to turn off the camera and let it softly drop back over her chest.

He watched her take small steps towards him again and accepted her back in his arms with a "M'kay darling."

Ella poked his ribs making him jump before asking "You don't like it?"

Alex was quick to retort, "Who said that?"

"I don't know–" She tried to start but he was quick to dismiss the whole thing.

"I love it." He backtracked quickly and firmly with an honest smile on his face that had her biting her tongue and fighting back a smile just as big as his.

In no time, the line moved sporadically and it was sooner than expected that they were boarded into a capsule with a family of five.

Ella stepped inside with wobbly steps and Alex followed closely behind. "Oh my god..." Her words were breathless as she was taken aback by the view around her.

"That line was quicker than I expected." The singer thought out loud as he got beside her, both of them standing close to the windows.

But when she heard the glass doors closing and felt the capsule moving to the right, she took a big step back and reached back to hold his hand. "Al, you're gonna have to stay near me because this is freaking me out."

He squeezed her hand in his and giggled, "I'll stay right here."

"Okay..." Ella mumbled unsure but soon her whole attention was taken by how perfectly she could see it all in front of her. "This is so beautiful."

Alex could feel her hands growing sweaty and starting to shake so he took it upon himself to distract her. "You can see it all from here. Look," He pointed to their left, "That's Westminster bridge, the Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Parliament." He listed as his finger pointed at each of the landmarks, making sure she was correctly watching each as he talked, "We can see it a bit better now that it's going up, oh and there's Buckingham Palace as well."

It looked so small from there but it was still breathtaking, "Oh wow..." Her heart was swelling in her chest now, just from being able to experience this, "We can see the whole city, Al!" She whispered with such excitement that made Alex want to coo at her.

"It's quite the view, isn't it." He took the smallest step towards her until he was pressed softly against her back and he leaned in to watch her face.

She turned to him completely mesmerized, "I think New York has got some big competition in my book now."

"A tough one between them two." He agreed, resting his chin on her shoulder for a second before standing back up straight again and pointing to their right now, "Oh look, over there is St. Paul's Cathedral. We're going there later 'cause I know you'll love it. And way back over there is the Tower of London and Tower Bridge."

Her eyes swam around the panoramic view and it was all well until she made the mistake of looking down to her feet and her heart sank. With her eyes closed, her panicked words came out incredibly fast, "I'm loving this view but I just accidentally looked down and I feel like I'm gonna have a panic attack."

"You're okay darling, I'm here." Alex promised, taking his hand that was still intertwined with hers and wrapping that arm around her waist, "Just take your pictures, I won't move an inch."

She gulped and let her eyes open up again, feeling slightly better in his hold and slowly untangled her fingers from his to lift her camera, "Okay."

It certainly worked like magic. The second she started looking at the city through that viewfinder, it was like she had completely forgotten she was hundreds of feet above the ground in a spinning wheel, completely focused on capturing the panorama as best as she could.

Alex watched intently as she worked, noticing the little things she did like biting her lip as her finger hovered and seemed to hesitate for a few seconds over the shutter until she caught the perfect moment and it was just a triumphant smile as she turned the lever and then the cycle began again.

Ella counted the shots in her head and only stopped when she had only twelve frames left in the roll.

Letting her head fall on Alex's shoulder, she had to ask, "How long does this take again?" Only because she had felt like she'd lost track of time.

"Half an hour but it's already been fifteen minutes so we're halfway there." His fingers rubbed circles on her waist, sometimes the pads of his fingertips managing to get under her shirt and erupting goosebumps on her skin.

She felt like she was burning up so she let her camera drop back down on her chest and turned around to face him. "I'm just gonna stare at you now because if I look out I'm definitely gonna freak out." She giggled a bit, trying to trick herself into thinking that looking at Alex wouldn't have her chest tighten just as much.

"That's fine by me." He replied with a smirk.

But she didn't entertain his teasing, only giving him a sincere, "Thank you." in return.

His face fell into a sweet smile, "Nothing to thank me for, darling. I'm buzzing to have you here right now." He wasn't afraid to admit it at all, because he truly was beyond happy about the whole situation.

"See? Sweetness!" She softly exclaimed, bringing one of her hands up to cup his cheek but before Alex could get his hopes up on anything happening, she squished his cheeks with her hand, "You're just pure sweetness."

Ella felt his face go warm under her touch so with a giggle she let her hand fall back down. "Your hair looks great today." He looked great. In a pair of blue jeans, a white shirt and his brown leather jacket—he had changed the Chelsea boots for white high top converse and a pair of sunglasses had been tucked into one of the pockets of his jacket.

"You like it?" Alex asked innocently like the simple compliment hadn't made his heart rate stutter.

She nodded, "You know I do. It always looks amazing but whenever it's just like this, without gel..." Her fingers combed through the freshly cut greaser looking hairstyle, "It's so soft."

He nudged her hand with his nose softly and joked, "Are you messing it up?"

She chuckled, combing through it again and again to give it its perfect shape, "I'm fixing a few strands here." She used both her hands then to bring a few of the strands to fall on his forehead like she loved. "There you go."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Look good?"

Ella's answer was quick, "Beautiful." And she didn't waste a beat to ask, "Can I have another picture?"

"Of me?" Alex asked naively and she just hummed, so he shrugged and nodded, "I suppose."

"I wanna have one of this very moment. With you, my favorite tourist guide." She joked in the end to make it seem less like she was baring her heart out to him.

"Right." He chuckled, his eyes crinkling around the edges slightly.

But she wanted more, she wanted to see his grin fully reach his eyes. "C'mon sweets, show me that gorgeous smile."

Her teasing worked because he felt his cheeks warming again and he had to keep himself from averting his gaze from hers, "Stop." He only said, half a warning but mostly a plea for mercy on his heart.

"What?" Ella inquired like she had nothing to do with it, if she only knew all that she did to him. "Amazing, t'was perfect." She complimented once more.

Alex had to change the topic then because he felt like he could combust any second, "Are you taking them in black and white?"

She had mentioned it earlier when he'd called her, as she was debating whether or not it'd look better. "Decided against it last minute. I don't know, there's something about the atmosphere today that I just wanted to capture the closest to reality I could."

He hummed, understanding what she meant, "You can always take the black and white ones later, you're staying three weeks after all."

Ella smiled brightly at the reminder, that many days just sounded so promising and she couldn't ignore how this was one of the very few times she felt ecstatic thinking about the uncertainty of what the future had to hold.

"So glad I am. It's barely been three days and I already know this is one of the best trips of my life."

"It's only just getting started darling." Alex winked, making a giggle bubble up her throat again and what a lovely sound that was.

Just like that, they had done the full ride and they hadn't realized it was done until they heard the doors open back up, way too entranced in their own little bubble. It was lucky that the rest of the people inside their capsule were on holiday and no one from the family had interest in finding out who they were or interrupting what they were doing.

When they walked out, Alex let out a loud laugh when Ella thanked God for firm soil multiple times, said so devotedly like she wasn't a determined atheist.

From there, they walked through Westminster Bridge to get to Big Ben. Ella had gasped as their feet took them across the bridge and asked Alex to pinch her because she felt like she was dreaming.

She couldn't believe her eyes were actually seeing all of that for themselves in real life and not through stock pictures on Google.

Seeing her glowing from her excitement had Alex's heart breaking as he had to give her some bad news. "This actually has me fuming now because this is just one of those things everyone wants to see once in their life but, a few years back they closed all Big Ben and Parliament tours to people who aren't UK citizens or residents so unfortunately I won't be able to take you inside for a tour."

Ella clearly deflated but it was in an instant that she really turned the situation around in her head. She shook her head standing in her place, making Alex stop beside her on the sidewalk, and she pointed at the landmark right in front of them, "But I'm seeing it right now and that's what counts, Al. It's okay."

Alex hummed reluctantly, still disappointed at not being able to give her the best experience. "We can walk around it, I'm half sure there's some places you can manage to take a peek inside."

She giggled and grabbed his hand, fingers intertwining as she went ahead and dragged him behind her to finish their walk through the bridge. Alex didn't say a word, his smile permanently stuck on his face as he watched her walk enthusiastically in front of him.

She had changed her roll of film right when they got to the street across the monumental place. Alex chuckled as she made him help her by covering her device with his jacket so that her first roll didn't mess up as she put it away, and the new one didn't either as she locked it and rolled it inside before placing the lid back in its place.

They resumed their walk, Alex closely walking next to her with a hand hovering on her lower back as she kept her hands engulfed around her camera but he felt the need to keep his touch on her.

Ella had taken so many pictures already, and about fifteen minutes later she had grown worried she hadn't stuffed enough rolls in her bag before leaving her hotel room. Half the frames she had captured had been of him, either smiling at the camera or unaware as he walked beside her with a burning cigarette resting between his lips.

There was a particular one in which she had stopped without saying a word and he had kept walking a few paces before noticing she wasn't beside him anymore, and when he turned around to search for her, the shutter went off.

Her heart kicked in her chest at the memory of that one picture she had taken of him, back at the start of 2012 when the lads had just come back over to Los Angeles and she had taken them around the city, the one where he was looking back at her with the rest of the band walking in front of him.

Her throat ran a little dry as she placed her camera back down to rest on her chest and watched Alex walk back towards her.

"You've been taking so many pictures of me already, let me take yours." His voice sounded almost like a beg and her knees went a little weak.

Only because of the way he'd said that had made her feel, Ella sighed with a smile and pulled her camera back up, "Alright, I'll show you how to."

She showed him the basics around her in a simple manner and he seemed to catch it all quite quickly. After all, he had seen Matt taking pictures and had gotten ahold of the drummer's cameras throughout the years so it all came back to him when Ella had done her brief run down.

Alex listened to her instructions of having him take a few pictures of their surroundings just so he could get comfortable, and it only took two to have him nodding and reassuring he was ready to take her picture. Ella nodded with a shy smile and took two steps back to stand in front of the camera.

Truth be told, Ella had always preferred being behind the camera and not in front of the lens but it was just because she never thought she was interesting enough to be the constant subject of pictures.

Alex couldn't think of her more differently. Seeing her with a bright smile that had her eyes closing, her hands intertwined in front of her as she softly leaned her head to the side and her hair so perfectly falling over her shoulders had him thinking about how if she looked this breathtaking in front of the camera in such a normal setting, then she needed to be in front of it at all times.

That's why right after the shutter sound went off and she relaxed again, he rolled the film and took another picture without warning her.

That made her shriek and hide behind her hands, "Alex no! It's gonna look so bad!" Ella's words were muffled as her hands covered her face.

"I'm looking through the viewfinder and you look stunning, darling." He was quick to reassure her, "Now could you please drop your hands? I want to take another one." His skilled fingers rolled the film once more as he tried his best to convince her with his eyes.

That unfair look in his eyes made it so impossible to resist anything he could ever suggest. "Last one?" She made sure to ask him before giving in.

"Fine, last one." He agreed with a sigh, his stomach doing somersaults at having gotten away with it.

She slowly let her hands fall back by her sides and it wasn't until he said, "That's it. Beautiful, darling." that he took the picture as her face broke in another massive grin that made his heart skip a beat.

Ella ignored the way her tummy was fluttering as she reached out for her camera, "Alright sweets, that's enough." She wasted no time to push the lever back in its place and hook the camera strap around her neck again, the camera falling to rest on top of her chest.

"Only for now." He countered smoothly, making her scoff out a laugh.

After that they continued walking, leaving Big Ben and Parliament behind to make way to Westminster Abbey.

The massive church was breathtaking. Its structure was gothic architecture perfection inside and out, which accompanied by the stunning gardens and sculptures just made Ella be more in awe.

The gray sky tied everything together, the birds flying around and resting in the old walls and peaks, the tinted windows looking straight out of a painting.

Ella spent a full roll there, small gasps leaving her mouth every corner they turned. She had even been so entranced by the devotees kneeling on the seats and offering their prayers, unbothered by the rest of the people walking around them. Religion was a concept that fascinated her because of how much she just didn't get it like those people praying did.

Once out of that place, they walked to Buckingham Palace and it was a funny stroll since Ella couldn't stop bouncing on her feet like a little girl, asking loads of questions she could come up with about the Royal Family.

"You know," She started with a small smirk on her face, "Prince Harry is fit."

Alex cackled at the way she said it, listening to her try and incorporate British slang in her vocabulary had been endearing all weekend and he was glad she wasn't stopping it. "Oh really?"

Ella hummed eagerly, "I wonder if he'd give an American a chance."

"So you're aiming for the Royals now?" The singer inquired rhetorically with a cheeky smile.

She shrugged, smirking back at him, "Why not?"

Alex chuckled, "That's ambitious."

"Well I like to think of myself as an ambitious person."

With a nudge to her hip, he grabbed a hold of her hand so they could walk a little faster, "Alright Miss Ambitious, we're almost at your lover's place."

From afar Ella could see the palace behind the trees and she thought about the different instances a person could be allowed into the place. "I'm sure we could get in if you just said you're from the biggest British band in history."

"The Beatles are way older than me and half of them are dead so I don't think they'll believe me."

Ella snorted at how nonchalantly he'd just said that and turned her head to look at him as they kept on walking, "Oh you're being humble now."

Alex scoffed playfully, like her words had offended him, "When am I not?"

"I can list some instances." She shrugged again with a teasing smirk on her face.

His eyes narrowed at her as if challenging her to start talking, "Enlighten me then."

But all Alex was met with was silence as they finally got to the big black and gold arches and crossing the road from there was the monumental place standing there in all its glory. The Victoria Memorial was even bigger and more spectacular than she'd seen in pictures, the gold against the gloomy sky and the greenery around was leaving her breathless.

So Ella dropped Alex's hand and started snapping away, frame after frame until they walked closer to the gates of Buckingham Palace and she caught a glimpse of the beefeaters standing there like they were frozen in time and just that got her even more excited about it all.

"They look like little dolls! Oh my god, look at them!" She waved them hello so enthusiastically making Alex hold giggles back and when the guards just stood there without moving a single inch, she turned back to pout at Alex.

The shaking of his head and the "You're so painfully American," he gave her contrasted immensely against his growing smile.

"Hey!" Ella gasped and poked him in the ribs, "Don't call me out like that, I was blending in perfectly well." She joked but she was well aware she hadn't been.

"Yeah, sorry. You were, darling." Alex corrected, faking agreeing with her, "Everyone's a tourist here, so yes you were blending in perfectly well." He changed his words to tease her further and the way her jaw dropped a bit and she frowned at him made him laugh.

They were there for about twenty minutes, walking slowly and taking their time so Ella could capture the moment the best she could. She had taken a few of Alex when he wasn't noticing but at the third one she'd gotten caught, meaning she got pictures taken of her by Alex.

As they waited for some people to move around so they could get a better view from a different angle, they were playing a game that had started with Ella making funny guesses about members of the Royal Family and their hobbies, which had earned her multiple laughs from Alex as she really had no clue about anything to do with the Royals.

Eventually, when the place started getting more crowded, they decided to move onto the next place which Alex had said would be Piccadilly Circus so they could get some lunch and then continue on.

Trafalgar Square had been captured in multiple of her frames and she had finished her film roll as they walked up to the restaurant they were going to eat at. Once again Alex had helped her change her roll covering her camera with his jacket, giggling as she struggled to properly roll it as she couldn't see well what she was doing in the darkness they were making for the film to not get fucked.

Once Ella had managed to set everything up, Alex had asked her if he could have the camera for a bit and of course she said yes. The prospect of getting Alex into one of her passions had her smiling as he took pictures of a place he already knew so well and since she knew he was capturing the views for her, she took her own time to take everything in: the streets, the people, the chatter going on around her, the restlessness of the city, the smell of smoke and coffee every time they walked past a coffee shop, the memories in the making around her that she'd never get to know.

She loved it all.

Ella was so entranced by the scene and completely caught up by her thoughts that she'd missed the multiple times Alex had managed to sneak a picture of her. Only really catching him smiling proudly at her as he lowered the camera from his eyes when she had turned to point at a girl who was wearing an Arctic Monkeys shirt as she smoked outside a restaurant.

Alex chuckled, letting the camera hang around his neck and getting a hold of Ella's hand to then keep walking to the place that was not very far away from where they were then.

When they got there, Ella had been surprised by the fact that Alex had gotten a reservation for them and he had almost perfectly timed it all. They only showed up ten minutes early to their table and it wasn't a fuzz for them to wait.

He offered her a cigarette and, between chatter, they waited for their turn to come up. It had been relatively easy as they finally talked about the adventure it had been for Ella to fly over and it had ended with them hugging as Ella got a bit upset again over not being able to see their full set.

With a promise to find out when they'd be replaying their set on BBC, they went back to get seated as it finally had turned into the time they had the reservation for.

They didn't rush through their meal, enjoying every minute they could get in the lovely restaurant and talking about absolutely anything that came to their minds. And after a pouty Ella—since he hadn't let her pay for the meal—had let Alex take a picture of her with the English streets in the background, they had left the place to resume their stroll.

Their pace was slower then, Alex had suggested taking a cab to get to the next place so she didn't have to walk that much but Ella declined it saying it was alright plus she loved how they could just simply walk places around the city unlike in Los Angeles. It was only when they got to Covent Garden and walked past the underground station that she asked why they hadn't used it yet.

"This one has 193 steps to go up and down it. I was being kind not taking you through it to get here but we can take it to get to St. Paul's if you'd like."

Ella had gasped at the information, because who the fuck in their right minds would make a station have that many stairs. "193?!" She asked again and Alex nodded amused at her disbelief, "Why?"

He chuckled and shrugged, "Been asking the same question for far too many years."

"That's insane." She said under her breath as they continued walking, then remembering his suggestion, "And no, let's not do that. Can we take the bus? I've yet to get on one and I really want to be the cliché American being amazed on every type of your public transportation."

Alex's laughter reached her ears, making her grin brightly at him. "Of course we can." He assured her and Ella scrunched her nose at him for being adorable, but then he continued, "And you're being the best cliché American. Really off the charts performance, darling." making her roll her eyes in amusement.

Between teasing comments, giggles and playful nudges, it didn't take them long to get to the Apple Market and there Ella was instantly blown away by the amount of shops and market-type kiosks of trinkets, hand-made jewelry, souvenirs and art.

They took their time walking around, really ignoring the retail shops because Ella was far more interested in taking her time to look around the little stands in the middle of the place, and it was all so beautiful.

The variety of goods that were offered out for everyone was amazing, and she gasped when they made it to a stand that was offering analog cameras, leather and handmade camera straps, camera cases and lenses.

She had thought about getting one of the few medium format cameras that were there but decided against it after a good few minutes of internal debate. Alex had watched her amused the whole time and giggled when she went from staring between a Halina, a Rolleiflex and a Pentax to getting one of the leather camera cases along with a strap and bought it.

It was bad how indecisive she was because she had spent so much time in the first few shops that she felt the need to rush through her indecision which ended in her buying at least one thing from every shop she had purposely stopped by.

There was a little red bus in her bag, along with a few magnets, her new camera case and strap, a locket, a few pins, a set of coasters and the last kiosk they were looking at was full of rings, necklaces and more handmade jewelry.

Ella easily fell into conversation with the lovely old man who was the owner of the little store. She had complimented him after he told her it was him who made every piece by hand, and she took her time to look intently through it all.

A few minutes passed of her taking a closer look at the different accessories but since she couldn't make a proper choice, she turned to Alex for help.

With her lips pressed she grabbed his wrist to pull him closer and in a bit of panic, she looked up to him and asked, "Could you choose for me please?"

Alex bit his bottom lip not to chuckle at the soft frown on her face and nodded, "Anything in particular, darling?"

Ella looked back at the table, giving it a quick sweep and she found her attention mostly on the hand jewelry. "Maybe a ring?" She tried saying but it sounded more like a question, "They're all stunning." She added then in a quiet whine like it hurt her that everything was too pretty and she couldn't choose.

The singer hummed and stepped closer to the table under the gaze of the old man who had a small smile on his face seeing them two together. Alex took less than a minute, his decision being made when he found one which had a pretty green stone in the middle of the gold band of the ring. "This one." He grabbed it and it seemed to be just the right size, so grabbing her right hand in his, he slipped it on her ring finger. The sight of her Pure Desire tattoo sparking too many thoughts in his mind that he had to push aside.

Ella was breathless seeing him putting the ring on her but she fully felt like she had forgotten how to breathe when he added, "Matches your eyes." with the sweetest smile.

Her eyes didn't move from his for a few seconds that felt eternal to them, dropping to the ring and then back up at Alex to ask, "Does it?"

"Yes," He nodded, completely satisfied with his choice, "Stunning." He complimented, but he wasn't speaking about the piece of jewelry because his gaze was firm on Ella's gorgeous eyes.

She scrunched her nose at him, he was just too cute for her to handle so with rosy cheeks she turned back to the man in charge of the kiosk and deemed that being the last purchase of the day. The lovely man was smiling brightly at them and agreed with Alex when he noticed Ella's hazel green eyes.

Alex had puffed his chest out in pride of it, saying a smug "I know" to the old man and making Ella laugh as she paid. He practically had the color of her eyes permanently imprinted in his mind, he didn't ever have to think hard to remember them and how it felt to get lost in her eyes.

She left the old man with a long hug and Alex gave him a hand shake before the two moved onto the next stop which would be St. Paul's Cathedral. And just like Alex had promised her they would do, they took a bus to the church.

It had been hilarious capturing her smile with her camera as one of the red busses approached them and he had been hearing and seeing her little giddy noises and how she just couldn't really stay still in her seat.

The cathedral had been breathtaking and, again, Ella had snapped away multiple pictures as they walked around. She had been fairly wary of the lots of people worshiping their religious figures then so she tried not to take too many so the shutter going off wouldn't interrupt them.

When they left to go to the next place, they ticked off another thing off Ella's list as they rode the underground to go over to the Tower of London. The only thing she had been overly excited about was the way the stations looked because then being in the tube felt just like taking the train in New York, only cleaner.

Alex had managed to get a picture of her standing there waiting for their train to arrive, and he hoped the frame had captured the big grin that tugged at the corner of her lips making her eyes crinkle at the edges before she had hid her face behind her hands.

The Tower of London had been quite informative, at first she had walked in completely amazed by the structure and architecture of the castle so she was taking picture after picture of the inside and the greenery of the courtyards but then they started walking into the exhibitions and she had forgotten about her camera to read the signs around the rooms.

Going to see the crown jewels had been hilarious to Alex since Ella had been trying so hard to keep her cool as there were beefeaters guarding the exhibition. The White Tower had been rather concerning because of the torture chamber that was located there, and the Green Tower had been as well as it was where the execution memorial was held. And the last bit of the place they had visited was the Bloody Tower which had left Ella gasping as they found it was named that because of the murders of two princes which had been suspected to be done by their own uncle.

They talked about everything they had seen as they slowly walked out of the place and under the Tower Bridge, it was getting late and the sun seemed to be getting ready to set already. She yawned and hid it under her right hand, Alex getting a hold of her left hand and intertwining their fingers so she would walk with him at his pace.

"Where are we going?" Ella asked intrigued, they weren't going very fast but it was like he had the intent of getting somewhere on time.

"Just a bit further down here." He pointed forward with a tilt of his chin and continued walking.

Ella had no other option than to walk along him, and it had been the best day strolling around the city with him so there wasn't a bit in her that wanted to complain about a single thing.

They walked past a Starbucks and to her right she saw a little stand that sold boat tickets. They were walking right by the Thames after all so it wasn't rare to see all the people that were walking ahead of her and stopping by the railing along the short brick column.

As they walked closer to the people gathering for the view of the bridge, Ella finally saw the sculpture that stood there in a fountain and she let out a little gasp of awe.

"That's so cute! I'm gonna take a picture." She squeezed Alex's hand before slowly letting go of it and quickly turning on her camera and getting as close as she could between the people gathered there to get a good frame of the sculpture with the view of the bridge and the city behind it.

She snapped a pair and went back to Alex, excusing herself as she made her way through the people in the way.

"Are we not staying here?" She inquired when Alex grabbed her hand again and pulled her along with him, seeing as everyone seemed to stand next to the fountain to watch the sun go down.

Alex shook his head, "There's a few benches over there and way less people, so we can sit and watch the sunset quietly and alone."

Ella intertwined their fingers properly again with a grin and let him guide her to where he was referring to. It wasn't longer than another minute when they saw a lonely bench by a tree which had the perfect view of the bridge without it being spoiled by the people standing at the railing.

They sat down and sighed in relief, their backs and their feet aching after the long day, yet their smiles were stuck on their faces as they moved closer to each other and Ella let her head fall on his shoulder.

Alex left a kiss on her head before resting his head over hers, making Ella snuggle closer to him and inhaling deep in comfort.

"Thank you." Her voice was low and soft, with the echoes of the people chattering around them, he almost missed it.

His head turned slightly to be able to glance down at her, "What for?"

Ella kept her gaze on the city, being slowly bathed in orange and pink hues as the sun fell to bed down the horizon. "For today. It was lovely and you're the best tourist guide ever."

The last bit held such playfulness that earned her a snort from him, "I'm glad you liked it, darling." And Alex truly meant it, closing his eyes and relishing in the feeling of having her close to him.

"Absolutely loved it, sweetness." Her hand went to grab his—they had let go when they got comfortable on the bench—, intertwining their fingers and rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb. "You know if the rockstar gig doesn't work you can just take people around the city and make them pay you for your charm." He felt her move her head a bit and when he looked down at her, she had her eyes set on his face with a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Alex lifted his head to match her smirk and played along, "Charming am I?"

"You know you are." Ella rolled her eyes as if it annoyed her telling him the truth so she added, "Don't let it get to your head, it's already too big as it is."

The singer scoffed, straightening his back so he put a small distance between them, "Oh wow, thanks."

The American girl let out a small "Nooo," and hooked her arm through his to bring him back into her side. "I'm joking, I'm joking."

He hummed doubtfully but let her pull him closer. "You better be because you've got a bigger head than mine." He quipped back at her, making her gasp.

It was her turn to put some distance between them as she pulled herself off him with an offended frown, "Excuse me?"

But Alex looked at her completely disregarding her expression and teased her by saying, "Mhm, you're excused."

Ella gasped, "You're such a little shit." and poked him in the ribs, cackling when he jumped and let out a little yelp. She was so glad she got him back beside her after a whole month, "I missed you so much."

"Missed you more darling." He reciprocated, snaking his arm around her waist to pull her into his side. "We should go watch a film soon, I know it won't be the same but we haven't gone to the cinema together in far too long and I miss going to Los Feliz with you."

A bright grin broke out on her face, thinking back to the times they had been able to go to Los Feliz together. "Isn't it amazing? I'm so glad I got you obsessed with it too."

And without really thinking it through, Alex admitted something that had been making rounds in his mind for a while, "Making me consider moving to LA, you."

She rolled her eyes playfully, shaking her head looking at the view in front of them, "Yeah sure."

But, staring right at her and pinching her side so she'd look at him, he promised, "Swear down."

Narrowing her eyes at him, she chatted back, "Don't believe you, Turner."

His right hand came to clutch his chest like her lack of trust hurt his heart, "Rude. I thought you loved me and I was your best friend."

Her gaze stayed on his, unwavering and trying to gather her thoughts so she could answer but the only thing she came down to say was, "Touché."

She scooted back close to his side and rested her head on his shoulder, his fingers that were holding her waist had started rubbing circles on it over the fabric of her shirt. Ella was glad she had been able to control the shivers his touch gave her and took a deep breath as they watched the gorgeous sights in front of them.

The sky was turning lilac then and the dying sun was painting the cloud a beautiful pink and orange. It was breathtaking seeing the city coated by the colors, it was truly out of a painting and it somehow got even more beautiful as the minutes went by, the shades growing more intense and the urge of capturing it bubbled in her chest.

"This is stunning." Her words were breathless as she turned on her camera, trying to remember if it was four or five frames she had left in her current roll but only shooting three just to not mess up any of her previous pictures on the roll.

Alex watched her focusing as she watched the landscape through the viewfinder, her eye squinted and her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

"Can I get a picture of you?" He asked as soon as she brought her device back down to rest on her chest.

Ella hesitated for a second but before she could agree, she remembered the lack of proper lighting, "The flash is gonna ruin the sunset and if I don't use it, it will look too dark."

He thought of it only for a second, knowing she knew more about it than him but came to a different solution, "With my phone then."

She hummed like she was considering it, but her decision was taking longer than what he wanted so he bumped his head against hers softly and said, "C'mon darling."

When Ella turned to see him, Alex was grinning at her like he knew she was going to fold and she rolled her eyes when she finally agreed, "Okay just a quick one." She turned off her camera before she could move, purposely taking longer to do that.

Switching seats so he could take the picture properly, and taking her camera from her, Alex pulled up his camera on his phone and turned the flash on. "How does Bre get you to let her take your picture?" He wondered out loud as Ella shied behind her hands and took a few deep breaths.

Letting her hands drop, she shrugged and smiled, "Because it's Bre."

But before he could snap the moment away, Alex rolled his eyes and said, "Right, I forgot you're secretly in love with her still."

"Oh shut up." She hit his knee with hers, truly meaning it when she replied, "She's my best friend."

With that he smugly raised his phone back up, and with a, "And so am I, so smile for me darling." he waited for her to give him a big smile to take the picture.

He lowered his phone as he went to his camera roll to see how it had turned out, "That look alright?" Ella asked shyly, trying to see the product as he was grinning like an idiot at his screen.

Alex nodded intently, "Yes, I love it." And he wasn't lying, her eyes had closed from how big she had smiled, her cheeks rosy almost as much as the pink in the sky and once again he was brought back to that day they spent together in the west coast when he couldn't even begin to appreciate the sunset behind her as he drove because she looked so beautiful.

She demanded softly with a tug of his wrist, "Show it to me." And when she saw herself on his screen, she felt her cheeks heat up, "I look so..."

"Pretty?" He quickly finished the sentence for her.

But she shook her head, putting that to the side for the moment for her own good, "Blushy. My cheeks match the damn sky."

"You always are darling." He confirmed to her, "Don't think there's been many instances since 2011 when I've seen you and you've not been blushing."

She was properly embarrassed then, thinking about how dumb it was for her to always be blushing and for him to have noticed every time for the past two years, "Okay don't call me out now."

"Anyway, you look beautiful." The singer came back to see the picture once more and smiled to himself, "I'll send it to you now."

Her phone pinged with a notification of his text then and unlocking it to see it now on her screen, she sat comfortably again, shoulder to shoulder with him. "Thanks sweets."

His arm came around her shoulder and brought her into him, "You're welcome darling."

The minutes kept passing by and with it the sun lowered even more until it was completely gone and the sky went from orange, pink and lilac to a deep blue pierced by many stars which glistened as much as the lights of the city did.

Exhaustion was catching up to them, her eyes were closing and she was struggling to keep them open. Alex noticed when her hand started falling slowly from the top of her thigh where it was resting to the space between their legs.

So, softly getting a hold of her hand, he played with her fingers and asked in a low voice, "Should we head back to the hotel darling?"

Ella groaned but nodded, really wanting to get in bed and rest now. "Please?"

He pouted at her tired expression and slowly stood up after giving her a little squeeze, "'Course. Let's go."

Alex extended his hand out to her and she accepted it, letting him pull her up. "Thank you." She stumbled a bit, bumping into his chest where she rested her hand so she could stabilize herself.

He took advantage of how close he had her so he left a kiss on her temple and mumbled, "You're welcome." against it.

Turning around to leave, Alex grabbed her hand but she only moved an inch before she called out a "Wait." that he had barely managed to hear with the rumble of the city in the background.

"What's wrong?" He turned back to her with a small frown, he had her camera hanging from his neck and she had her bag hanging off her shoulder so he wasn't sure if there was anything she'd forgotten.

The bench was empty which confirmed she wasn't forgetting a thing but her frown softened up when she continued with a "Nothing just– c'mere," And she dropped his hand to open her arms up for him to walk into.

He of course obliged, taking a big stride her way and clutching her tight, her arms wrapped over his shoulders and his around her waist. She giggled when she felt her camera in the way of their chests pressing together, making for a rather awkward position but it was a hug from him so it was everything but. They swayed a bit in the embrace and he heard her say, "Love you Al, thank you for today." in his ear.

Filling up with warmth, the biggest smile showed on his face and he didn't waste another second to reciprocate, "Love you too Ellie." Kissing her cheek first, he pulled back to look into her eyes and make her understand that, "There's no need to thank me, darling. It was my absolute pleasure."

✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧

A/N: Personally, my heart burst writing this, and rereading it made me tear up. Wheels and Curly being here along with the rest of t1975, Alex and Ella reuniting, and then being absolutely adorable makes me wanna cry. Once again, a million thank yous to @imagine-that-100​ for being wonderful and allowing me to have them here and expanding the multiverse a bit more, and I hope y'all enjoyed catching a glimpse of them in an alternate timeline because I certainly did fucking adore writing them in. If you haven’t read @nriacc​ yet, what are you waiting for? Anyway, I'm wondering now if you have any predictions about what's gonna happen in this trip, I would love to see what those predictions are and if there's anything you want to happen hehehe. Thank you so much for reading! See you in two weeks with the next!! xx

Taglist: @imagine-that-100​ @red---moon​ @kennedy-brooke​ @faveficz​ @indierockgirrl​ @ladydraculasthings @moonvr​ @unwantedlovergirl​ @eaglestar31 @nikisfwn​ @funniestpersoninnyc​ @andrearroe​ @justacaliforniandreamer @alexturnersgf69 @yourorganiccigarette

[waugh-bao]

what’s the lore about voodoo 👀

@agentidiot 1993-5 was…wild.

The origin of the album, according to Charlie:

“We spent three months there [in Barbados]. Mick and Keith were there first and then I joined them and we just played. So by the time we got into the recording studio, we could play something and you'd go, ‘Oh, I remember that... I did this and that on it.’ You're already a third of a way to getting it together by doing that."

Which all sounds pretty benign, they’ve done albums in a particular place away from the UK pretty much since Exile. But the outtakes from those sessions are downright insane (so much so that I can only mention a handful here, there are many more I didn’t even have room for).

Probably best example of this is a song called “Alteration Boogie.” It’s 5 straight minutes of Keith singing about Charlie’s clothes and his body, which starts out with him making fun of how old fashioned his taste in tailoring is (in a very detailed way) and ends with two comments about Charlie’s ass and a comment about how “cute” he looks in blue.

Then there’s “Sparks Will Fly.” That song actually did make it to the album, but in a radically different form than it started out. So Keith wrote it:

“We had a big bonfire going one night out in Ronnie’s garden. I was throwing all these logs on it, and these sparks started flying. I started running backto the studio – ‘I’ve got one! Incoming!’ Charlie was the only guy there, and he and I played the thing. “

And he and Charlie were the only two who worked on it until it was completed:

"Sparks Will Fly was actually eyeball-to-eyeball with Charlie Watts more than anybody to start with, because we would not let anybody else play on it until we'd honed down that rhythm track thing dead right. You know, it was like, three's a crowd for a minute, until we'd worked it out. And then we let everybody else in. It all has to do with the rhythm and the guitar, and after that the rest of it fell into place. Charlie's laying down the law on that one. You've got to know a guy so well to play that tight together. It's unspoken, because it's all going by in front of you in 3 seconds."

The lyrics of that song, especially when you consider the context in which it was written, are somehow maybe even more crazy (and suspicious) than “Alteration Boogie.”

Mick ended up completely overhauling the lyrics, but his weren’t any better. Of particular note at the time was his decision to include the line “I’m gonna fuck your sweet ass”, which he claimed after the fact he didn’t even remember doing.

Oh yeah, and Keith’s thing about Charlie “laying down the law” was pretty literal. Charlie was playing him every night during album recording and rehearsals to the point of actually being on his knees, which Keith bragged to the press about.

“According to Don Was [their producer], Charlie was the driving force behind these rehearsals. They started each night around 10 p.m. and finished 10 or 12 hours later, whenever Keith collapsed, but Charlie was still going strong.”

“To me, it was all tied in with Charlie. If Charlie Watts is willing to experiment in the studio, then I’m the happiest man in the world.”

Coincidentally, Keith was also very eager to tell everyone about Mick’s private practice sessions with Charlie (who also bragged himself about his closeness to the drummer in this period and some of the songs they collaborated on):

“The more that Mick plays [the harmonica], the more differently he sings. Suddenly he starts to sing the way he's playing the harp, phrasing differently, instead of thinking of it as two separate entities, you know...And he played all year. He would do 2 hours a day with Charlie just playing harp, before we'd even come into rehearsal or whatever. And I can hear it paying off a lot in his singing too.”

And another one of the songs which made it onto the album, “Suck on The Jugular”, which Keith was dying to credit to Charlie (he literally credits Charlie with the success of every song on this album):

“Mr Watts again. I mean, it's all drums. The arrangement is all to do with the drums. Charlie laid down that beat and I said, 'Well, if you can keep that up for several minutes, we've got a track! 'Hey, no problem? And he always makes it look like it isn't.”

Has these lyrics:

The fun didn’t stop when they finished the album, though.

They made a music video for the song “I Go Wild” which can only be described as steampunk Marie Antoinette meets geriatric gay BDSM. (Mick is literally in some kind of chain link sex swing for part of it, Keith seems to have a gag in his mouth at point, and they’re both dancing around Charlie. He even goes so far as to bend down in front of the kit and mimic giving oral s*x).

The band has since disowned the video, it appears on none of their official sites or YouTube channel, but you can find it here.

In the interviews which surrounded the actual Voodoo Tour, Keith was very adamant about how close the “trio” were and how much they were enjoying each other’s company:

“Even when we’re not touring or recording we stay in touch. We’re all so close - like a family. In fact, we’re probably closer than a lot of families are.”

There was a video game released on CD-ROM to support the tour, which includes a section where the player enters a bathroom where Keith makes a variety of sexual comments, screams, and then comments on Charlie “peaking”: here.

A documentary about the album and tour made by MTV has also since been memory holed and only promos for it can be found any longer.

Other than that, I suppose I should mention that this was also the era of Keith kissing Charlie on stage and both of them giving him flowers:

As well as the return of the “nipple pincher” bit:

But, more than anything, it was truly a period, despite occasional disagreements, of real closeness and sweetness between those three:

[stephensmithuk]

The Red Circle

Published in 1911 as a two-parter, this is the penultimate story we'll be covering His Last Bow, leaving just the titular story there.

This does sound rather like "The Veiled Lodger", doesn't it?

These days, you'd have to check the immigration status of your tenants. In 1902, really not an issue. Although anti-immigrant sentiment was definitely there and growing.

Those strange coded personal messages - some even encrypted - very much existed in newspapers back then. Once radio had become a thing, the British would use them on radio broadcasts to Occupied Europe in the Second World to get messages to the resistance movements. Including the "get ready" and "go" codes for the mass sabotage operations that preceded Operation Overlord in 1944.

"Timekeepers" were used for recording arrivals and departures at a site, including that of staff for the purposes of paying wages, determining lateness etc.

Great Orme Street is more properly called Great Ormond Street, located in Bloomsbury. It is best known for the world-famous children's hospital called Great Ormond Street Hospital. They have a permanent UK copyright to Peter Pan which gives them a right to royalties for publications, adaptations, performances etc. The US copyright on the original version expires next year. If anyone wants to do a LfW retelling of the original book, it would be nice to contact them and arrange a donation. They're a very good organisation.

"Art for Art’s sake" was a French slogan from the latter half of the 19th century. You may know its Latin version - ars gratia artis - as the motto of film studio MGM.

The light flashing message gets a whole chapter covering it in Klinger's annotated version, as it's been heavily discussed by scholars. Basically, it would take multiple minutes to send that message.

The Pinkerton detective agency did a lot of investigative work in its early days, both criminal investigation and more nefarious stuff to aid strike-breaking. The latter got the US government banned from hiring them as such in the 1893 Anti-Pinkerton Act. They are still involved in anti-union stuff today.

Much of Notting Hill had become increasingly slum-like by this time as an influx of people led to houses built for one family being split to hold far more; the idea when the area was built was for the middle classes to live there, but they didn't buy the properties. It later attract large numbers of Afro-Caribbean immigrants in the post-war era, partly as the notorious slum landlord Peter Rachman was prepared to rent to them while others weren't. This growing ethnic tension culiminated race riots in 1958, with white "Teddy Boys" attacking West Indian homes. Since then, the slums have been cleared and the area has gentrified quite a bit.

It is also home to the annual Notting Hall carnival every August since 1965 (bar 2020 and 2021), which around 2 million people attend. The Metropolitan Police have moved from active hostility to active cooperation in its running and there will be photos of officers dancing with those in the parade at any given carnival. The reputation for violence is unjustified and arguably fuelled by racism - while there were frequently arrests for violence, drugs and weapons offences, on a pro-rata basis, the arrest rate is about the same as the Glastonbury Festival.

The Carbonari ("charcoal makers") were secret revolutionary societies active in what would become Italy in the early 19th century. After failed uprisings in 1831, the various Italian governments cracked down hard on them and they were effectively eliminated. They were not really engaged in protection rackets.

Dynamite was patented by Alfred Nobel in 1867. Being a good deal more stable than nitrogyclerine - although storage is important as old dynamite is a good deal less stable - it became popular for terrorists and criminals, with a series of bombings by Irish republicans between 1881 and 1885 leading to the formation of Special Branch.

Covent Garden is home to the Royal Opera House.

[tyxstudios]

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[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Oasis - Wonderwall 1995

"Wonderwall" is a song by English rockband Oasis, written by lead guitarist and chief songwriter Noel Gallagher. The song was produced by Gallagher and Owen Morris for the band's second studio album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, released in 1995.

The song was released as the fourth single from the album on 30 October 1995. "Wonderwall" topped the charts in Australia and New Zealand and reached the top 10 in 13 other countries, including Canada and the US at number 5 and number 8, respectively, as well as number 2 on both the UK Singles Chart and the Irish Singles Chart. The single was certified septuple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and 11-times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Its music video was directed by Nigel Dick and won British Video of the Year at the 1996 Brit Awards.

In Australia, it was voted number 1 on the alternative music radio station Triple J's Hottest 100 of 1995 and "20 Years of the Hottest 100" in 2013. In May 2005, "Wonderwall" was voted the best British song of all time, in a poll of over 8,500 listeners conducted by Virgin Radio. In October 2020, it became the first song from the 1990s to reach one billion streams on Spotify.

"Wonderwall" received a total of 80,2% yes votes!

[rickie-the-storyteller]

Steph's Crew - Book 3 Summary

I was meant to post this last year to sort of close the Steph-related content and focus more on other projects. Actually, I was meant to post a lot of things last year...

Bretanie analysis (on here)

Season 1 of AU (on my second blog)

Jekyll and Hyde, but in the modern world (I've been working on that for fun on the side, and I've decided to post the full story on Wattpad)

Revealing the identity of the secret blogger (I'll probably do it in this post, since it is relevant to this part of the story as well)

I've been so busy, y'all. Sorry for the delays.

I just want to make sure I have time to do everything as best as I possibly can, so you can enjoy it. I think it was less pressure posting the Steph's Crew dialogues and snippets because they were old pieces of work, and since the time I first wrote them, I've neatened it up and made it considerably better than it was... I know that the stuff I've shared isn't the final product, so I don't feel the urge to make it perfect. At least not to the extent that I do with all these other projects lol.

Hopefully this can help make up for lost time. I'll get to the other posts mentioned on that list as soon as possible, but until then... here's a summary of the third and final instalment of Steph's Crew!

Enjoy!

Keep in mind that I'm still working on this one. It isn't finished yet, but I wanted to give you guys a rough idea of how it goes. And prepare for this, because it's pretty unhinged lol. I collaborated with my sister on some of the wackier ideas...

Book 3 is titled "Story of a Broken Thing." It picks up where Book 2 ends off, more or less (or at least, it fills us in on what went down since the end of Book 2). If you can't remember how UVC ended, then here's a link to that summary:

But to put it briefly, the crew have successfully solved the mystery, Brelise have split up again, Bret's gone on tour with his band, Dalice are together, Bephanie is over, and Stephanie got arrested... but then escaped from holding. Nobody knows where she could have gone.

Which leads us to Book 3. It is set a couple of years later (I think about 5 years after Book 2 ended), and a lot of stuff has happened in all that time...

Dylan and Alice have broken up. Wasn't meant to be, I guess. But don't worry - they're still friends, and there's no bad blood between them or anything.

Victor and Jen have unfortunately split up as well, leading to Jen moving back to Texas. Alice decides to go with her. She's doing alright - currently taking some classes at a local college, and helping out at her old dance studio in her spare time. She's also still making YouTube videos.

Bret's band is still doing well. They're not touring anymore at the moment, but they are super busy recording a new album, and filming music videos. Plus, they have been asked to perform at the Jingle Bell Ball towards the end of the year, which is very exciting. Even though he has moved back to the UK, because of the nature of Bret's job, he can't just stay in London with his aunt anymore like how he used to... but he still comes to visit her as often as possible. And he and Elise are still close friends, so that's cool. He's been seeing other people over the past couple of years, though.

Elise and Charlie are together. She decided to give him a chance. They're really happy together and they seem to have a pretty healthy, solid relationship for the most part (they've been together for two years straight by the time Book 3 has started). Charlie still harbours some degree of jealousy/wariness towards Bret, though, since she's still really good friends with him. He's never once brought it up to her, though. But it becomes a big deal in this part of the story... more on that later.

Ben isn't really in this part of the story... at least not until towards the end, when Stephanie randomly decides to call him for some reason. But he's doing fine. Moved back to his cooking job from Book 1 lol. It was good money, and now he doesn't have another person to share it with! Wait, that sad-

And by now, Dylan, Connor (who has finally moved on from Daisy! Thank God), Elise and Charlie have all finished their university courses. Yay!

In fact, this is what kickstarts the plot. Dylan's family (we get to see them again in this one! Specifically his mother, her new husband and his younger brother Sam. I feel like we didn't get enough of them last time) is very proud of him for finishing such a long, tough course (3 years, + 1 foundation year + 1 year of masters), and they decide to reward him with an epic summer trip to Australia. And it is during this holiday that he sees Steph again (she's not in Australia btw - he sees her when he goes with a family friend to the Samoan islands).

She fills him in on how she got there. I haven't neatly worked this part out... but basically, Reggie helped her leave the country (idk whether to make him a villain or some kind of loose cannon/antihero type of guy. Like, he's awful most of the time, but he's also one of Stephanie's oldest friends, and he can be genuinely nice when he wants to be. Especially to her. He needs to be in trouble tho lol. I think the thing about him is that he gets away with his awful behaviour easily, whereas Stephanie is kind of forced to be held accountable, even if she actively runs away from the consequences of her actions sometimes...)

After that, she was stuck on her own again for a while and needed a job. So she applied for a job at a local Natia hotel (Natia is a famous line of hotels... kind of like Hilton, to give a known real-life example). She didn't have enough money for a cab or bus, so she had to walk the whole way there through heavy rain. By the time she got there, she looked terrible lol. But when she arrived, she bumped into a handsome young man who kindly helped her out. He got her a room and some clothes to change into, which helped in making a good first impression and whatnot. She got the job!

Later, she found out that the guy's name was Jordan Natia. The son of the hotel line founder (he also owns the hotel she got a job at). She thanks him for her help, and he invites her for dinner... and the rest is history.

And by history, I mean she ends up marrying him lol. Dylan finds out that she now lives at the resort that he and his family friend are currently staying at. She also has a baby daughter named Mia (short for Miranda. Not suspicious at all). She loves her life so much right now. She's always prided herself on being a strong independent woman who can take care of herself, but she's surprised at how much she's enjoying being a stay-at-home mother and housewife lol. She loves spending time with her baby, and she loves her husband a lot, too. He takes good care of her. However, similar to Ben, he doesn't really know all that much about her (Jordan goes through a similar arc to Ben's in Book 2, where he finds out the truth about Stephanie, and it changes the way he sees her. Minus the cheating lol).

Dylan is shocked at how much Steph has changed since the last time he saw her, but he's happy for her at the same time. He can see that she's genuinely happy and seemingly at peace, which is great.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, Charlie has decided to propose to El. He's taking it VERY seriously - even asked for her family's blessing and everything. They all said yes... even Adam lol (he's grown to like Charles by now). One summer evening, he pops the question (in a truly beautiful and romantic way btw), and Elise says yes in the moment, but she doesn't know if she truly feels ready for marriage yet. Something about the situation feels wrong to her, but she doesn't know what it is. However, instead of communicating her mixed feelings to her now fiance, she decides to distract herself with hangouts with her family and friends, as well as getting into her work and other hobbies, preferring to think about anything other than her problems (man, does THIS sound familiar lol). Charlie starts noticing a change in El's behaviour and it begins to really upset him (especially since Bret is one of the people she starts spending more time with, and we all know how she feels about him), causing more strain in their relationship. It only gets worse when they find out about Stephanie's whereabouts...

Dylan messages the others about his trip everyday through a group chat. One night he reveals that he's reunited with an old friend of theirs and sends a picture of him and Stephanie hanging out. The others are shocked. Elise especially.

The situation started becoming somewhat of a controversy in the news... people started talking about it more online, many blogs and news websites (including The Looking Glass) started covering it. Alice made a video on YouTube talking about it (and it came from the unique angle of her knowing the person from school and being their friend and everything. She didn't mention Steph by name, though). It blew her channel up.

The story of Stephanie's escape was quickly resurfacing back into people's minds after being forgotten for such a long time. And this wasn't good for Steph lol. Especially after finally making a life for herself that she was genuinely truly happy in.

But that's not the end of the story.

I'll tell you the rest in part 2 of this summary!

[thislovintime]

"Circle Sky"

“I wanted to explore the power trio of us. In a strange way, we were actually pretty good. Micky was a real garage-band drummer. I was a real scream-and-shout guitar player and Peter was a very precise player. He could play interesting lines and fills on the bass. The power trio that existed between us was seldom explored.” - Michael Nesmith on "Circle Sky" (the Head sequence was filmed on May 17, 1968), Rolling Stone, August 23, 2016 "[Michael] caught the episode of Friends and he said, ‘Gee, that sounds like us playing the theme song there,’ and then his — he started to think about some old Monkees songs, and his girlfriend said, ‘Well, who’s playing bass on that cut there?’ He said, ‘Well, Peter.’ 'Did he write that part?’ ‘Yeah.’ Well, so his girlfriend liked my work and he said, ‘Maybe we should…’ And at that time, he was developing a thing for ZZ Top and he wanted to play guitar like that, sound like that on guitar, and we were the vehicle for it, so we joined, got together and we made a record called Justus." - Peter Tork, GOLD 104.5, 1999 Q: "What led Michael Nesmith to rejoin The Monkees in 1996 for the Justus album?" Peter Tork: "Mike had become boyfriend/girlfriend with this woman who listened to a cut of 'Circle Sky' [written by Nesmith, it appeared on the Head soundtrack in December 1968]. She listened and exclaimed, 'Who is playing bass on that?' Michael said, 'Well, Peter.'  She quickly replied, 'Well, who wrote the part?' And he responded, 'Well, Peter.' Soon he was sort of enjoying what we had done before. He thought, God, these guys are pretty good. So he invited Micky and me, and we took over a rehearsal hall. The three of us banged away for a couple of hours, and danged if we didn’t sound just exactly the same as we did when we left off nearly 30 years previously. And next thing we knew, Michael wanted to be back in the band for a little while. Michael is very much into, What’s the best you can get right now? He is kind of aggressive about getting the best studio, the best equipment, and the best approach to sound.  So we produced and recorded the Justus album on tape and transferred it to digital afterwards in an effort to keep it as warm as possible. I’m not so interested in the sound per se. If we had made it all digital, I couldn’t have told the difference myself. All I know is I hear the energy of the band. What’s interesting is for us to play together and make a record as best we know how.  I played all the bass parts on Justus, Michael played all the guitar parts, Micky played all the drums, and Davy played tambourine and some acoustic guitar. If you hear keyboards or piano on a track, that’s me, too. I would play one instrument and then overdub the other.  There are a couple of things I would have done differently, but all in all, I think it stands up pretty well. So there’s the Justus album for you.  Mike joined us in the UK for our 30th anniversary tour in 1997. I enjoyed that tour very much; it was a good time. Nevertheless, Mike never said anything to me when he decided to leave the band after the ’97 European tour, and I still don’t know why he left." - Pop Culture Examiner, November 24, 2011

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today - March 5th, 1976

Eddie Howell "The Man From Manhattan" 7" single released

Freddie Mercury: producer/piano/bvs

Brian May: guitar

Excerpts from an interview

Jacky Gunn-Smith - Official International Queen Fan Club

Eddie Howell’s ‘Man From Manhattan‘ is one of the best known and best loved of all Queen’s collaborations.

Recorded in mid January 1976 at Sarm East Studios in London, the song was produced by Freddie Mercury, who also played piano and sang backing vocals on the track and featured Brian May on guitar. The record is so reminiscent of “A Night At The Opera” in both instrumentation and mood, that many fans regard it as virtually an “Opera” out-take. When it was launched as a single on Warner Bros records in 1976, it became a turntable hit in the UK and looked set to chart until music industry bureaucracy halted it in it’s tracks.

Birmingham born Eddie Howell began his professional career in the late 60’s, when Chrysalis music picked up on his songwriting demos and introduced him to an independent record producer, who in turn licensed his first single “Easy Street”, as a one-off deal to Parlophone in 1969.

Working as a songwriter throughout the early 70’s, Eddie’s next venture into recording came in 1975 when he signed to Warner Bros records as an artist. thursdaysHe released two singles, “Long Story” and “Can’t get over you”, and his debut LP “The Eddie Howell Gramophone Record”, which featured members of “Brand X” and guitarist Gary Moore.

The album was launched at a promotional gig at Thursday’s club in Kensington. Eddie’s band included Phil Collins on congas, Jack Lancaster on saxophone and Robin Lumley on keyboards. Explains Eddie, ”In the audience that night was Freddie Mercury who had been brought along to the gig by my manager David Minns. It was there that he first heard “Man From Manhattan”, which was a newly written song included in the set. After the gig we met and he was very complimentary about the song and offered to produce it. I remember we all went down to ‘The Elephant on the River’ to celebrate”.

Enthused by the prospect of his first foray into production, Freddie wasted little time in getting started. ”I gave him a two track guitar/vocal demo of the song” recalls Eddie, ”and a couple of days later he called and said let’s get going. Studio time was booked at Sarm East Studios and true to form, Freddie quickly took control of the sessions; ”He did lots of pre-production work on the song’s structure and the harmony arrangements”, reveals Ed. ” He had a mini cassette recorder loaded with ideas for the track, backing vocals and answering phrases”.

”We took a week to record the song”, remembers Eddie, ”which was a long time in those days, but because of Freddie’s involvement, Warners gave us a blank cheque. The sessions were quite intense, there was never a lull. Brian came in to play hismikestone2 guitar parts and the musical rapport between him and Freddie was plain to see, they were on the same page. One day, a hand-held spinning bell-cymbal in the key of ‘D’ was required by Freddie for one ping at the end of the track and the studio didn’t have one, so a runner was dispatched to scour the streets of London in search of one. The session was adjourned for half a day while we waited down at the Shazam Indian restaurant in Brick Lane for the bell to arrive. It eventually arrived and took about a minute to record, it must have been the most expensive ping ever recorded”.

On the final day of recording, a trio of Warner Bros top brass flew in from California and made a beeline for Sarm East studios to meet Freddie. Recalls Eddie, ”They probably thought the red carpet would be rolled out as they were paying for the recording sessions, but instead they were kept waiting in reception for about four hours. When they were eventually granted an audience, the charm offensive was full onlongstory3 and it was all smiles and bonhomie. At the end of the session, after the final playback, Freddie turned to me and said, ‘If this isn’t a hit, sue Warner Bros ‘ ”.

The finished article obviously had a heavy Queen influence with the presence of Freddie and Brian on the track, but ”Man from Manhattan” was far from a tribute to Queen. ”I wrote the song after my first trip to Manhattan in late 74”, reveals Eddie, ”I was reading ‘The Godfather Papers’ by Mario Puzo and the song was about those mafia characters who lead a double life. Musically, I had ‘Dead End Street’, by the Kinks in mind, complete with trombones and a walking double-bass”.

Prior to the ban, ”Manhattan” made top 50 in the UK, top 20 in Australia, Belgium and South Africa and top 5 in Holland, but sadly, as a consequence of the ban, it was never released in America or many of the world’s other major territories.

When it was issued as a single in 1976, Warner’s publicity department played up the Queen connection as much as they could, and “Manhattan” rapidly became a turntable hit in the UK. The record received heavy rotation on the airwaves – particularly in Europe where it became a big hit. Then, just when it looked set to climb the charts in the UK, the Musicians Union mysteriously discovered that Jerome Rimson, the American bassist hired by Freddie for the sessions, had been working in Britain without a permit. This obliged them to place a ban on any and all further UK media exposure due to his ‘Illegally’ recorded playing. A decision which effectively killed off the record.

Having recently regained the rights to his back catalogue recorded during his time with the label, Eddie is now releasing the tracks digitally. ”Man from Manhattan” is first up, more to follow…

(source: https://manfrommanhattan.wordpress.com/)

📸 Pic: Freddie Mercury and Eddie Howell in control room

[alovesreading]

Constant Repeat | Part 14

Summary: Having worked at Focus Creeps for a year, Ella knows that as a production assistant and part of the crew, there’s one important rule: don’t interact with the talent unless it’s needed. But once she meets Arctic Monkeys, and the recording of the music videos for their upcoming fourth studio album starts, the band seem to become her exception. Not only because they treat her more like a friend than just someone else they’re working with but when Alex continuously makes her blush with his flirting, so enthralled by her that he forgets he’s got a girlfriend, Ella finds herself growing closer to him. As videos are filmed, wrapped and edited, the friendship lines become blurry. Situations unfold, secrets are told and others are kept under lock and key, but how long can Alex and Ella endure being stuck in each other’s minds on constant repeat.

Word Count: 20.5k

Story Warnings: Throughout this series there will be suggestive talk, jealousy, cheating, alcohol and drug use, angst, smut.

A/N: Hi darlings!! I'm so excited to post this but I'm equally as gutted because this is the last part of Ella's UK trip :'( Our girl is going back to LA in no time, but first there's a fun little music video to be recorded hehehe. I hope you all enjoy this thoroughly, I'm so excited to see your reactions to this because it gets a little wild... Anyway, enjoy!!! xx

Masterlist

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 |

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'Howl At The Moon' welcomed them warmly that Monday afternoon. The crew had gotten there around a quarter to five and even though the pub had allowed them to start their recording process at five, they had let them come into the place and settle as they told the few customers in there that a production would be taking place so they had to leave shortly.

Some people asked the reason why they had to go and after being told that it was a video for a band—keeping it hush about it being for the Monkeys so it wouldn't bring unnecessary attention and halt the production—they decided to stay and be part of it as extras.

Thankfully, the extras they had actually hired through a casting process arrived just in time, merely ten minutes passed after the time agreed on and they were gathered in the middle of the pub and listening to Ella's instructions.

Ben had helped her place the extras around the pub and handing out the drinks that served as props for the video. The staff of the pub were being so lovely, Ella was thanking people left, right and center. It was always so nice to have people working so well with you whilst in the process of recording, everything flowed easier and it made it smoother to get the product desired without stressing about the littlest thing going wrong setting off everything else fucking up.

The band had arrived about fifteen minutes after the clock struck five, making chatter break out inside the pub as they got recognized. They were being dotted by their stylist though, so they couldn't be approached just yet as they got a slight hint of makeup put on and handed over jackets that would go along with their current aesthetic.

When the band was ready, Ella and Ben managed to get everyone's attention so that they could instruct everyone on what they were going to do now that they were going to start recording. They wanted a few shots of the band just chatting by the bar as everyone else did their own thing around them.

Tyler was playing with a few shots as practice, just trying to see which angle could capture the atmosphere better. Ella helped him prop himself by the pool table so they caught people walking around, drinking, playing pool and the band being the main attraction just drinking and talking by the bar.

Cameron was placing lights around the place, the best he could so that it would look good on camera, creating a better atmosphere through the screen. Margaret was fixing the mic's settings, testing it so she was sure she was capturing the noise around the place if it was needed to be used at any moment of the music video.

Ben had placed the band right in the middle of the bar, extras sitting beside them to crowd the shot up. They had given the lads some instructions, but they knew they just had to act like usual when they were hanging about in a pub. Alex had been given a prop phone, less technologically advanced compared to the iPhone he actually had, with a small touchscreen and an actual button keyboard.

As expected, Ella had to explain to him how to use it because he seemed adamant on keeping his 'texting' as real as possible. That alone had taken about five minutes and it had the lads chuckling when Alex hesitated when Ella asked him if he had understood.

Lamie got to the pub just a few minutes before they were about to roll, Ben had Jamie and Nick aside telling them they were in charge of handing out the shots to Alex and Matt and referencing the best way for them to turn around so the camera could capture it, so Alex and Matt were the ones who got to greet her along with Ella.

Ella thanked her for being there and allowed her to just watch as they filmed for they were doing all the shots inside the pub first. Lamie had liked that she could enjoy the production first before having to stand in front of the camera, it was less nerve wracking when she didn't have to be the first to be recorded.

They started recording the extras mingling around the place, some shots showcasing the establishment and shots of the bant chatting by the bar from afar. They recorded multiple of those, half an hour going by before starting to record the band from up close and purely focused on them.

Another half hour went by as they focused every frame on the band, Ella and Ben praising the Monkeys' performances so Alex got more confident in front of the camera as the minutes went by. There were moments when one of them would burst out in giggles, having the cameras too close to them and seeing Ella attentively watching their every move had them breaking character but it worked to loosen them up and make the shots more natural.

It was funny seeing Alex act drunk, but he was doing it great. He had been stumbling a bit more with every shot and when they deemed the last one they'd captured of him stumbling his way to the bathroom the best, they allowed everyone else to take a break whilst the crew followed Alex into the bathroom.

Lydia had managed to score a catering company that got the crew, the talent, the staff and the extras food to snack on, from fruit like watermelon and grapes to small sandwiches, and loads of water bottles and coke cans.

So no one really complained as the crew took a bit inside the bathroom, setting lights up to aid the dim light that the place already had and getting the best position to capture Alex in front of the sink and his reflection on the mirror for the scene.

They got many shots of him strangely looking at himself in the mirror, almost like he was questioning his own reflection, as one does when they're under the influence. Ella had a vision of what this could be and she was going to rely on their talented editing department to get her vision come to life.

Coming back to the main area, they had everyone go back to their original places and that alone took about ten minutes, making sure that everyone and everything was in place so it wouldn't differ from the latest shot they got there.

Alex was recorded stumbling back to the band, just in time for them all to take shots. The shots were just water, ensuring they stayed in their senses throughout what promised to be a long recording day, so it was easy for them to down them over and over for the different angles they captured.

Jamie had messed with Alex in one of the last takes they got of the shots scene, asking the bartender for an actual shot of tequila which the singer didn't even think twice about downing, not having even a second to take a whiff of the spirit which ended up with him coughing. He played it cool for the camera though, and it ended up being Ella's favorite take they'd gotten.

After those frames, it was time for Alex to go full into his drunk act. They used camera movement to aid in the effect of his haziness and had him stumbling and wobbling around multiple times as he stepped around the place.

Lamie was meant to come in the next shot, flirting with some lad by the door of the pub. It was all meant to be a figment of the imagination of Alex's character so it was just a brief frame but they had to get Lamie ready so Ella had the Monkeys' stylist help her with that. They had a selection of clothes they had chosen back home when working with their costume and design department so Lamie got dressed quite quickly, her makeup taking a bit longer as it had to look smokey but clean.

In that time, they allowed everyone to have another break which lasted up until Ella had finished her quick instructions for Lamie.

Thankfully that scene was shot and wrapped over in just ten minutes, and then they went back to Alex stumbling around as he walked past where she supposedly had been.

The last take they did was of Alex walking out the door and into the street, getting about ten takes of it just in case and having him do different clumsy steps every time. When Ella yelled cut, she had a brief talk with Ben and they agreed that was it for the pub, so they wrapped it up and everyone inside clapped.

All of that had taken about three and a half hours so they had everyone take whatever they wanted from the catering table after being thanked for their job as the crew gathered their gear.

Some of the extras were staying for a few more scenes afterwards but most of them were due to leave. And because now the band wasn't really needed apart from Alex, Jamie, Nick and Matt left.

They hugged Ben and Ella and waved everyone else goodbye, and after that it had been a whole hour that it took the crew to settle outside the pub to start rolling again.

Lydia had gone off to figure out the bikes being dropped off for them, leaving the rest of the extras to get ready for their next takes. The Monkeys' stylist really being a lifesaver when it came to that.

Whilst Ben took over the scene of Alex coming out of the bar and walking down the street, Ella walked down the street to see what they could do and she was pleased when she saw a little street kiosk open and its owner willing to be part of the production.

It was nearing eleven in the evening by then so many shops down the street had closed, except for a 24 hour transport service ticket agency which had two men working who were quite interested in what was happening and seeing that it had quite the crew behind it, they asked Ella about what was going on and if they could take part in it.

Getting an extra to come in for the street kiosk scene and one to stand by the transport agency, the production continued. With every take, Alex was getting better at his stumbling and drunk act, as well as letting his eyes swim around the place without staring at the camera like he had accidentally been doing a lot when they first started shooting at the pub.

Further down the road there was a kebab shop, it was still open but empty, its employees chatting about in the kitchen which was in open view for everyone outside so Lydia went in and asked if they could film there. The workers asked about what it was and Lydia told them about the concept for it, which they laughed about the explicitness of it. The PA assured them there was an extra that was gonna play his part along with Lamie and that they could stand in the background. So with a bit of hesitation, they agreed.

Lydia went over to Ella and Ben when they cut a scene of Alex walking down the street as he continued to frustratingly text the girl and told them about the kebab shop news. Both directors were stoked about it, thanking the PA for her initiative and asking her to take Ben over to them so he could further tell them about what would be done.

There was something inherently tricky about explicit scenes, there was a line that couldn't be crossed when recording them so that you kept respect for your talent and their boundaries, but still captured the essence of the take. Yet that wasn't what had been difficult about recording the scene at the kebab shop.

Something hot and bitter grew inside Ella at the concept of watching Alex watching someone else getting fucked, the way that he flustered the first take they did when he heard Lamie loudly fake moans as she acted like she was getting fucked against the window of the shop, the way he cleared his throat and looked away for a minute when Ben cut the scene and went inside the shop to rearrange the people in the background of the shot.

It took a few takes to get the scene how they wanted it and a handful more to get Alex's reaction to it, he had been blushing more than needed so it had taken a few to get him to calm down and have his face look more blank for the camera.

He had gotten better at keeping his reactions neutral when they walked further down the road and found an alleway for a scene they had planned. Lighting took a bit to figure out so they had everyone take a bit of a break as Cameron worked his magic but as soon as he was done, they had two extras standing there as Alex walked past. They were supposed to grow hostile under Alex's gaze so it took a few tries for the scene to look clean.

After that was ticked off though, it was time for Lamie to go back in and get 'fucked' again. Ella was amazed at her confidence, of course everyone was making her feel comfortable and safe enough to do what she was doing but it wasn't something that anyone else could just up and do any Monday evening.

She still felt that nagging feeling growing inside her when Alex had to walk past and stare, and even though his cheeks weren't pink anymore, she knew he was feeling some type of way from how he had his hands in fists, white knuckles clutching onto the phone he had in hand.

When they finally had that scene down, they let go of almost all of their extras. Only the crew, Alex, Lamie and the two extras who were driving the motorbikes were left by two in the morning. Time had gone way too fast and it was mental to think they still weren't even done with half of the video by that time. It was good they had planned it to be a two day shoot.

Whilst the stylist got Lamie undressed and in a robe, the extras were going up and down the road with the camera rolling on them. After a few takes, they had Alex jump in and watch them drive past him almost entirely absentmindedly so that they could get the perfect shot before the one with Lamie.

When Ella had cut that scene and sent someone to get Lamie, they got a fright, finding her lay on top of two chairs that had been pushed close together. Ben had whispered her name to wake her up but she didn't so Lydia took it upon herself to shake her softly and they took a deep breath when the model woke up with a sleepy look on her face.

Ben had fully thought she had passed out because of how cold it was, considering she had no clothes on, but the model reassured him she was just taking a quick nap.

Thankfully for the model, the bikes were rather warm when she got on them and being pressed to the back of one of the extras aided in her finding it easier to shed herself of her robe.

Ben and Ella had them drive up and down multiple times, until they deemed it enough the amount of takes they had gotten and at a quarter to four, they wrapped up the recording for the day. Not really 'the day' because they'd be coming back to record later that afternoon but they were done with the first filming session by then.

Fifteen minutes later, Lamie was saying goodbye to everyone and leaving with a comical "See you in a few hours," that everyone laughed about, a bit like they were all dreading it but excited regardless of it. The extras with the bikes left too, being thanked by Ella and Ben for their work.

The Monkeys' stylist had helped them pack up, and the Focus Creeps crew had thanked her profusely for the help when she didn't have to offer it. Thanks to the extra pair of hands—Alex was helping too—, the crew managed to get everything back in their cases and order a taxi by the time it was half past four.

Ella hugged Alex goodbye before she left on the second taxi they'd had to get—because not everything fit in the first one so they had sent Cameron, Lydia and Margaret with most of their gear—, promising to text him when she'd be leaving the hotel back to the pub's street to start the second day of shooting.

The crew had probably gone to bed by five in the morning, after struggling to get their heavy gear upstairs. So they had brunch when they woke up around noon and once they had something in their stomachs, they took over Ella's room to make some notes on what they needed to get that day.

That helped them loads when they got to recording again, since they only had to get a few more shots of Alex stumbling down the street just in case and two more scenes with the extras and Lamie before they reached the final bit of the music video.

They had gotten a guy to do a stunt, jumping off the window of a house and running across the street to jump over a metal fence, all in front of a 'drunk' Alex and it had gone rather well in the first few takes so the lad had to jump off the side of the brick building a couple of times before they relieved him.

And then the taxi driver scene, which had been a bit more tricky because of the continuous accumulating traffic when they wanted to shoot all due to nosy people wanting to know what was going on.

It had been also complicated because of the intent behind the scene, attracting confused glares their way when they had Lamie 'sucking off' the driver multiple times for the video. But eventually, when the streets cleared out of ogling people, they managed to get the perfect few shots including the ones of Alex confusedly staring at the taxi driver.

After all of that had been recorded, the crew packed up again but this time to head over to the houses they had rented for the day for the video. They only had three extras with them, the roommates that were going to be in the background of Lamie's shot and the old lady that was going to peek through the window to glare at Alex when he was knocking on the wrong door.

When they got there, they all settled inside the house they had agreed would be the one where Lamie would be at. All of the gear was arranged in the foyer so it was easier to pack up when they were done, and Lamie and the two other extras went straight up the stairs with Ella so that they could see what was going to happen.

Ella quickly figured it out, the things inside the house already made the atmosphere casual and homey so she just went on to instruct the girls to pretend to be asleep by each end of the settee. The three girls would be watching TV and then Lamie would stand up from the middle of the sofa to walk over by the window and check her phone, ignoring it to go back to her place.

Whilst Ella arranged that, Ben had crossed the street with the old lady and gave her the easy instructions of what she was meant to do: after hearing Alex knock on the door incessantly, she would turn on the lights and just peek through the window to see who it was at the door.

Shooting those ending scenes had been challenging, they were all tired but they wanted to make it well and it was just the last of it so a hint of perfectionism kept them trying different angles for the takes.

But by half past three in the morning, they did the last take on Lamie walking up to her phone and ignoring the texts and it had gone amazingly swift so with a content feeling rushing through the directors, they finally wrapped up the production.

Usually, the crew used the excuse of another production being successfully wrapped as an excuse to go out for drinks or maybe go to one of the crew member's house and have a little party but this time it wasn't going to happen.

By the time they managed to get out of the houses with their gear and said goodbye to the extras, the crew was knackered and all they wanted to do was go to bed until the latest they could.

It was already Wednesday and they would be leaving later that same night so the crew at least wanted to rest for a bit before having a little stroll around London before they had to go back to LA. Alex had a meeting with his label later that day as well so he couldn't spend the day with the crew before they left.

Alex hugged them all goodbye and wished them a good flight, hoping to see them all soon when the band would eventually land on Los Angeles for a gig later that year, inviting them all to join them whenever that would be. Everyone happily accepted and thanked him for his kindness.

Ella hugged him tightly before he left in a taxi he had ordered, which had arrived way before theirs, and smiled at him softly when he promised he would make it up to her on Thursday.

When the crew eventually woke up later that Wednesday, checking out of the hotel but leaving their luggage there until they had to leave for the airport, they all went straight to have something to eat as they walked out of the hotel.

It was a quick bite from the cafe Ella had gone to with Alex when the crew had gotten there and after that, Ella had taken them through a short version of the stroll Alex gave her when she got there.

They walked to the London Eye but did not get in it, then went to the Big Ben and from there to Buckingham Palace. They marveled at the view of the Palace for a bit before they resumed their walk over to Piccadilly and from there they went to Covent Garden, where they got some late lunch before they took a cab back to the hotel.

They had to leave as soon as they managed to step into the hotel's lobby, and it made Ella emotional to see them go and saying goodbye because she was leaving in just two days. It was like she was watching her future self from the lads' perspective and she wanted to cry about time going by too fast.

A bittersweet feeling drowned her as she tossed and turned in bed that night, willing herself to sleep by closing her eyes shut tightly and slowing her breathing. Eventually, replaying the happy memories she had made in England had been what had pushed her into her slumber, a little smile on her face when Alex kept appearing in all of them.

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A loud "Surprise!" was what Ella heard the second Alex opened the door of his flat and when she walked further inside while Alex got her bag for her, she smiled brightly seeing the rest of the band, the girls, Miles and the 1975 boys there.

"Oh my god! Hi!" Ella said loudly back, walking closer to them with a shocked expression still on her face, her hand on her chest like she was monitoring her heart beats. She hadn't been expecting to see them all together there at all, so she couldn't help asking, "What is this?!"

"Did you really think you were leaving without getting pissed with us one last time?" Flo stood up from her place beside her husband and caught Ella in a tight hug.

Ella giggled as she wrapped her arms around Florence and then playfully narrowed her eyes at everyone to say, "Oh you lot just wanna make me miss my flight."

To which Flo replied with a loud kiss on her cheek before she pulled away and shrugged, "Maybe."

The whole scene settled it for Ella, and despite feeling incredibly sad that she was leaving early the morning after, she was happy she got to share with them all one last time before they had to go back to their responsibilities.

When she had woken up that morning, Ella had been melancholic as she went about her day. She showered slowly and got ready for the day at the same pace, she enjoyed every step she took as she walked from her hotel over to the photolab to pick up her pictures and decided to not take any more pictures of London but instead take it all in with her own eyes. Lord knows she had enough pictures to remember the trip by and now she wanted to properly commit it all to just her memory.

She had checked out of the hotel once she got back and Alex had come to get her when she was ready. Alex had suggested she spent the last night over at his, so she didn't have to stress about checking out at the correct time or forgetting something when she had to rush to the airport. Plus it also gave him leverage to just not miss the chance of going with her so he could spend the most amount of time they could have together.

After they had left Ella's suitcase and her bags at Alex's flat, he had taken her out for brunch. It had been lovely, despite the long silences in between, and they had chatted about all about the time she had spent there. Of course, ignoring the mishaps here and there. They didn't want to waste time thinking back to moments they were upset and Alex didn't know if he could bring those moments up without wanting to spill it all out for her.

He was still trying to figure out the best way to do that, painfully aware of the time ticking.

Alex kept checking his phone when they left the restaurant, he had taken her to one rather far away from his so he could give everyone time to arrive at his flat. Florence had been the first one to get there, using her spare key to go in and her and Matty made sure to set everything up so it was ready when Ella got there.

By the time Ella and Alex were about ten minutes away from his, Flo had texted Alex saying everything was ready and they could come by, so Alex subtly picked up his pace and thankfully Ella didn't notice but followed along subconsciously.

Alex's flat was an open plan one, so Ella could see a good amount of drinks and mixers on the kitchen island along with crips and other snacks. They had moved Alex's settee and the loveseats further away so the high chairs could fit as well.

They all stood up from their places, taking turns to hug Ella. She had tried her best not to make her blushing too noticeable when George came around and clutched her tightly to his chest, whispering "Hi gorgeous," in her ear.

The shower of affection all around was gonna make her cry but thankfully, Katie pulled through taking her over to where the drinks were and Breana had been pouring them all shots.

"Here you go, my love." Kelly said as she handed a filled shot glass to Ella, "A proper farewell."

"Shot to start?" Ella's brow rose as she questioned the decision.

Katie smirked, "Brave choice?"

"Foolish." Ella settled with a sigh which turned into a chuckle when she saw on the microwave screen that it was five in the evening. With a shrug and a deep breath, she mumbled "Fuck it." and tossed it back.

The girls followed and Flo rubbed Ella's back when she coughed at the burning of the alcohol running down her throat, praising her with a "That's my girl." when she set the glass back down on the kitchen island.

Everyone got their drinks ready after that, taking their full glasses back to the living room where they all took their seats. Alex sat on one of the high chairs and Ella took a seat to the left of him with Florence and Matty on a loveseat, Adam took another high chair to their left and on the settee that was to his left was Kelly, Nick, Matt and Breana. To the left of Bre was George and Ross who took a high chair each and to the left of the bassist was a loveseat occupied by Jamie and Katie. Miles was the one closing the circle, sitting on another high chair to Alex's right.

Conversation flowed easily between them all, laughter contagious and constant in between the chatter but after half an hour the chat had steered into work talk and Flo wanted to make things interesting.

"Shall we be kids and just play truth or dare?" The artist suggested, eyes going around the group's reactions and she found herself smug when everyone perked up at the proposition.

Ella had a condition to put forward before she accepted though, knowing how it had gone the last time she had played truth or dare with just the band, "I'm not doing any dares with y'all."

"Then truth or truth if you're willing to spill your secrets then, Eleanor." Flo nudged her softly with her elbow and Ella smiled.

She shrugged and honestly added, "Not many secrets to be fair, but sure."

"Okay then, we'll start with you." Ella scoffed at Flo when she said that, fearing what she could ask when she was the only one apart from Matty and George to know what had happened on Saturday.

To her relief, Flo instead threw out in the air, "Anyone wanna ask Ella anything?" just to give the group a chance to start it.

A few people hummed as they thought about it, Bre having a mischievous look on her face as she looked at Ella. Ella narrowed her eyes at her best friend but Miles beat everyone to it when he asked, "What's the most public place you've ever done anything sexual?"

"Oh we're going straight into it?" Ella sipped on her whiskey and coke, brows shot up at the game starting strong.

"Yep." Miles smirked at her and Ella rolled her eyes at him, flipping him off for being so smug.

"Right. Erm..." Ella took a few seconds to think about it and after doing a quick rundown of her memories, she had her answer and it was, "The woods."

Silence followed her statement, and when Ella turned to Florence to have her choose the next person, Bre chuckled and said what everyone was thinking, "You need to elaborate there babe."

"Seriously?" She asked and seeing everyone nodding, she sighed, "Can't you use your imagination?"

"No, please paint us the picture." Flo replied with a smirk, crossing her legs and getting comfortable on her seat as if she was hoping for a good story.

Defeatedly, Ella took a gulp of her drink and started recounting what had happened then, "We were on a senior highschool camping trip and me and my then girlfriend had just woken up. We were just going for a walk but then we started kissing and getting handsy, we were hiding behind a tree and then... I got dirt on my knees." She thought that was the best way to put it, and she had to hide behind her glass when everyone was staring at her shocked.

"With your schoolmates around?!" Nick let out loudly, his eyes wide.

Ella kissed her teeth, waving his concern off and explaining, "They were a good twenty feet away."

But the bassist wasn't at all relieved by that detail, "Still!" Everyone chuckled at the exchange and Miles added fuel to the fire by commenting, "Jesus Christ, Eleanor, you're dirty!"

Katie was rather intrigued by it so she asked further, "Did they not notice?"

To which Ella shook her head, "We went skinny dipping in the river right after so no."

A low "Dirty, dirty girl." was George's input in the matter and Ella had to take a long sip of her drink so that she could hide the smirk that got out of her.

In an attempt to move on from the conversation and maybe distracting everyone from what she had just shared, Ella looked at the girls before saying, "Oh talking about skinny dipping, I have the pictures of our photoshoot."

Jamie choked on his beer, coughing loudly before asking, "You girls went skinny dipping to take pictures?"

"Kind of." Ella nonchalantly replied, and then turned to Alex when Bre was the one to stand up to look for the pictures, "Where'd you leave my bag Al?"

Alex pointed it to them, "Right over there, on the table by the door."

Before Bre could reach the bag, Ella let her know where she had to look, "It's in the smallest envelope."

But when everyone turned back around to continue the game, while Breana brought the pictures, the attempt to resume the conversation died when Bre gasped loudly.

"Oh my god Ella!"

"What?" Ella turned to see her best friend so quickly and when she saw which envelope she had in hand, her heart sank.

"When was this?!" Breana asked desperately, her eyes wide and jaw dropped.

Ella wanted to die. In any other circumstance, Bre seeing the pictures would've been fine but not then, when everyone was there including who was in the pictures, "Oh for fucks sake, Bre I told you the other envelope!"

But not even that kept Breana from continuing to look through the pictures, her eyes going wider as she flipped through them. Ella just wanted her to stop, so she stood up, leaving her glass on the coffee table and slowly approaching Bre as if she had someone held at gunpoint in her arms, "Put that back." Ella warned sternly the closer she got but Breana shook her head.

"Oh no, this is hot." She said like that was enough of a reason for her not to and then she turned to look at Flo who was smirking at the hint of what she was thinking about being correct, "Florence, have you seen this?"

Breana managed to sprint past Ella and she sighed in defeat when the model went straight to Flo's spot and showed her what she had been seeing.

"Ella..." Florence said with a smirk fighting her dropped jaw and beside her, Matty was just as shocked to see she had taken pictures of it.

"Oh god..." Ella mumbled, covering her face with her hands as it all happened.

Bre was unable to stand still so she jumped back next to Matt so he and Kelly and Nick could also see what had happened. At the same time, Flo looked at George and pointed at him as she called him out, "George you filthy bitch, didn't know you were into capturing this on camera."

"What?! Ella and George?!" Miles gasped out loud, a shocked Jamie and Katie wide eyed next to him and Flo nodded, stretching her hand out over the coffee table so they could see the few pictures she had in her hand.

When she did that though, Alex got a peak of the picture they were talking about and it was an understatement to say that seeing George with his head thrown back, mouth open, eyes shut with Ella's thighs on either side of his chest and his hands clutching them, made him feel jealous.

He felt his blood starting to boil in his veins. Alex had to clench his jaw and bite his tongue not to say something he would regret, and it took a lot of self restraint to not just go up to George and fucking deck him for even coming near Ella.

"Oh, are those the pictures?" George asked innocently, like he didn't know exactly what had been pictured, "Let me see."

"Don't." Ella glared at the drummer like her look alone would stop him.

But he smirked as he got handed the envelope and when he dipped inside to take out a print, his smirk got bigger. "But you look hot, baby." George said to her but his eyes were stuck on the picture, the one he had taken of her after she'd cum on his fingers, "This one's my favorite, don't you like it?"

"Stop." Ella said again but everyone was rotating the pictures around so her dirty little secret was out and she couldn't do anything about it. She begrudgingly took her seat beside Florence and grabbed her glass to down the rest of her drink.

"Wait, I wanna see." Katie said, wanting to check out which picture George was talking about.

The model gasped, knowing exactly what Ella's state in the frame meant and with more curiosity sparking within her, she cheekily asked, "When did this happen?"

Before Ella could even think of answering, Flo quickly let them know, "Saturday."

Alex's heart sank thinking of her going out with George being the plans she had secretly kept for that Saturday. He knew he should've trusted his gut when he felt a hunch about not wanting to find out but this time the information had come to him and unfortunately now he had to deal with it. It was so much worse finding out that way though, especially knowing how much Ella had been avoiding the topic when he asked.

"Florence!" Ella let her mouth open agape at the excitement in the artist to let them all know and she truly felt like she was on fire, her body entirely too hot from the embarrassment.

"What? Everyone knows now." Flo defended herself and when Miles gave the pictures back, she turned to Nick's wife and said with a smirk, "Look at these Kelly."

Kelly flipped through them and when she got to the one of Ella on top of George, she loudly gasped, "Fucking hell Ella!"

Ella fanned herself, seeing the pictures again plus just having everyone find out this way making her too flustered, "I'm burning up."

It only got worse when George said, "Haven't seen you this flushed since Sunday morning babe."

And whilst Ella got even redder and hissed a "George, shush!" back at the drummer, Alex was stuck in his head thinking about how that had been the very same day he had come around and the housekeeper had mentioned Ella being busy.

Alex felt himself wanting to be sick.

"Okay, I need the details right now." Bre demanded, especially offended by the fact that she had no idea about this happening. "Sorry George." She added just in case he took her indiscretion as an offense.

It was the complete opposite, George puffed his chest out and stared right at Ella as he waved Breana's concerns off, "S'alright. Think we had quite a good time, didn't we Ellie?"

But Ella ignored him and turned to Bre, "No one's getting any details right now."

Which George didn't take lightly, "Don't be ignoring me now baby, I know just how to make you beg remember?"

That was enough to have Ella turn to him and with a stern look, she threatened him, "I'll be making you regret opening your mouth later if you keep this up Georgie."

"Oh I like this." George said excitedly, shifting in his seat and looking at her with hunger in his eyes, "Are you all talk, baby? Gonna show me what you'll do if I run my mouth?"

Before Ella could reply, Bre gasped and commented loudly, "Okay this is hot as fuck."

Florence comically turned to her husband and clutched his hand to plead, "Matty, I need you to consider this right now."

Matty had to hold in his laughter, looking around and catching Alex staring into the coffee table with a look that could kill, "Yeah well, I think Turner is fuming too much to let us use the guest room for a foursome sweetheart."

Florence turned to see the singer and she noticed the look in his eyes. She felt bad she had arranged the date before she had heard him confess how he truly felt about Ella but she also thought Ella deserved to have fun and unless Alex was willing to tell the American how he felt, then there was no point in him getting annoyed at Ella's decisions.

Alex got handed the pictures by Miles, a smirk on the scouser's face that just made Alex want to scream even more. He had no intention in seeing the pictures, if anything he wanted them the furthest away from his face so he handed them back to Ella like it was a bomb about to go off.

"Can we continue with the game?" Ella scolded everyone, standing up from her seat to snatch the pictures away from everyone's hands, "Give me back those pictures now."

Thankfully, she was able to get them all quickly, stuffing them back inside the envelope and putting it back in her bag. They all watched in silence as she stomped back into the living room to get her glass so that she could walk over to the kitchen island and get herself a refill.

Only when she got back and she let herself fall back on the loveseat beside Florence, did she speak again, this time saying, "Right, uhm, Miles." so that she could continue the game. "What's the weirdest place you've gotten yourself off?"

Ella was so glad when the scouser actually listened and started thinking about his answer, a few beats of silence going back before he said, "At the sauna."

A string of disgusted reactions broke out, Jamie scowling at his friend and asking, "Are you joking?" as if giving him a chance to redeem himself.

But Miles said, "No." and they all got even louder.

"Mate, that's disgusting." Alex said for everyone, a scowl on his face directed towards his best mate.

Miles rose his hands up in sign of innocence as he said, "Swear down it was just once."

Yet no one took it as a good enough excuse, Ross shaking his head and concluding, "Doesn't make it better."

"Alright, yous are ones to talk." The scouser exasperatedly sighed out, "I bet you lot have done it in worse places." He pointed an accusing finger at everyone in the group.

And Ella watched as a certain drummer's expression changed for one of reminisce as if he was actually thinking about his case being truthful. So the American couldn't keep it to herself and called him out for it, "Ew Matt, that face you've just made. I don't even wanna know."

Matt opened his mouth, about to start bickering but before an argument could ensue, Miles took it into his own hands to continue the night, "Alright I'm gonna choose or else we will be here all night." At the sign of the game resuming, they all shut up, "Florence, my dear."

Flo smirked at Miles, challenging him to, "Do your worst."

And the singer smirked back, assuring her, "Oh I am." It took him about a second to come up with, "Have you ever recorded yourself in bed?"

To which Flo asked for more detailing, "Like shagging or just getting myself off?"

Before Miles could clarify, Adam announced to the group, "I'm covering my ears."

Earning him a scoff from Florence's mouth, "Oh Adam, we've been over this bro." She said like she was tired of having the same argument, and it had chuckles and giggles breaking around the group.

And when Adam did go through with covering his ears and started an incessant sound of, "Lalalalalala." the amusement showed in the growing volume of the laughter.

"Guess both." Miles finally clarified, his voice going up an octave from his laughter.

"Yes." Flo answered quickly and nonchalantly, even going further to confirm, "For both."

Ella watched as Matty threw his arm around his wife's shoulders and pulled her into him. She pulled back slightly to gasp and looked her up and down as if surprised, "Oh you filthy bitch."

"It's fun! You should try it once." Flo told her with a wide grin before hitting Adam's arm in signal that the worst was over and he could stop being a child about it. When she turned back, she took the perfect opportunity to taunt Ella a bit, "Should've done that with George to keep a good souvenir."

The reply Ella had died in her throat when George instantly suggested, "Or we could go again. Record it then." making Ella's jaw drop and throat go dry.

"Ella, I sincerely hate you." Florence concluded, a serious look on her face that made Ella blush.

"I'm right here, Wheels." Matty reminded his wife with a scoff, letting his arm drop until it was around her waist and he could dig his fingers on her skin like he was pinching her back into reality.

"I know Curly, but–" Flo tried to argue, her head trying to come up with the perfect wording for what she was thinking but she gave up. "Whatever," she concluded and resigned to just continue the game, calling out for the person she was choosing and that was, "Alex."

He hummed in response, sipping on his beer as he waited for Flo's question. He fully expected something foul but it ended up being quite wholesome when her inquiry was, "Who would you bring with you to a desert island?"

"Easy," He firstly said before answering, "Ella."

The director cooed, turning to her best friend and clutching his forearm with her right hand, squeezing it with affection as she commented, "Awh, we wouldn't survive at all but thanks, sweets."

"Incredibly offended here." Miles interrupted the cute moment, brows furrowed showing his offended state.

Alex rolled his eyes, "Miles, you would drive me insane in less than a day."

"Exactly, encouraging us to survive." Miles fought back the statement as if that made sense.

But Ella mocked him, with a cackle and a curt, "Encouraging him to get rid of you."

"He would get rid of you too." Miles chatted back, puffing his chest out like it would help him win the argument.

"No, she'd keep me from going mad." Alex sided with Ella, making her incredibly smug.

Everyone was watching the interaction with amused smiles, lips pressed together so they wouldn't laugh and interrupt. It got harder when Ella flipped her hair over her shoulder and added, "See? Fuck you, Miles."

The scouser scoffed but who replied was Bre, who threw into the conversation a teasing, "Yeah, he wishes."

Which gave Ella the opportunity to fake pout at him and with mocking pity ask, "Still?"

An annoyed, "Sod off." was Miles' answer, and Ella would've kept going if it wasn't for someone cutting in the argument.

"Alex, choose someone before they actually fight." Jamie pointed out, knowing full well that could happen and, even though that would be hilarious to watch, they wanted the evening to go well.

The singer nodded and panickedly ended up calling, "Erm, Adam." It took him a few seconds but the best Alex could come up with was, "What's the weirdest thing you own?"

He was expecting the question to earn a really boring answer honestly, but they were all surprised when Adam had a hard time answering for very different reasons.

"Oh, erm..." Adam managed out as his face reddened and that didn't go unnoticed. Suddenly everyone was interested in knowing because this reaction to such a simple question was rare.

Matty chuckled as he pointed out, "Oh this is good, he's gone all red."

"Any kinks you've been hiding Hann?" George teased him with a smirk, wiggling his eyebrows at the guitarist.

Adam glared at him, "Piss off." but kept silent afterwards.

So Ross reminded him, "You gotta answer mate."

And everyone was expecting more silence for a bit longer until he got the courage to say, but Adam ended up blurting the answer out and hearing, "A fucking dick chastity cage." wasn't something people were expecting.

"What?!" Florence gasped out loud, not expecting her cousin to be into that at all.

"Fucking hell Hann!" George cursed loudly as he coughed on the beer he had choked on.

The looks of shock around the room made Adam feel the need to clarify, "I didn't buy it for myself, my girlfriend bought it so we could try it."

"And?" Nick asked curiously, leaning into his knees to watch the guitarist's face.

"And what?" Adam asked rather defensively.

His tone made Nick chuckle lightly as he corrected his question, "Did you enjoy it?"

It was like everyone was holding their breath as they waited for the answer and the group broke in hollers when Adam hung his head and truthfully replied with a quiet, "... Yeah."

"Oh my god!" Flo yelled, bringing both of her hands to slap over her wide open mouth, which made everyone laughed louder.

George's laugh was so contagious and so was Matty's, who struggled to get his words out in between cackles, "I will never let you live this down Hann, hope you know that."

"None of us." Ross nodded, lifting his beer bottle up like he was doing a cheers to Hann's new confession. "Next time we're at yours, we're fucking looking for it." The bassist added in a clear threat.

That made Adam lift his head up quickly and narrow his eyes at the bearded lad, "No, you are not."

"We so are, mate." Ross smirked mischievously, already planning how and when they could pull that off.

There wasn't a way Adam could shut him up other than use something he had against the bassist so he took advantage of the situation and called out for, "Ross." with a look on his face like he was seeking revenge, "Have you ever lied to get out of a date?"

Ross loudly scoffed and that was enough for the group to quiet down, everyone's curiosity sparking inside them, "This isn't fair, you know I have. You just want me to tell the story and make me look like a dickhead."

"Well you did it, so you are a dickhead." Adam shrugged nonchalantly, fully pleased with himself that it had been enough to get him to shut up and turn it onto him.

"Is this...?" Matty started to ask, unsure of why he didn't know about it and a bit offended to be honest.

Ross could see that clearly on the singer's face so he rolled his eyes and sighed, "No. Only Hann knows 'cos I called him."

"Oh I'm intrigued." Flo perched up in her seat, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips at a growing mortified Ross.

"It was this girl I knew from college." The bassist started narrating, "We bumped into each other around Soho and she said something about going for a drink or something so we exchanged numbers and met up a week later."

He took a sip of his beer before continuing, the silence hung heavy over the group, "It was fine, we were hitting it off, until a girl she was friends with recognized her and she went off with her. Left me drinking alone for about fifteen minutes and right as I was about to leave, she came back and got annoyed that I was planning on going."

Bre frowned deeply and chuckled unamused before saying, "The nerve..."

Ross nodded in agreement, "I know. And then she brought her friends over and they were all interrogating me about shit. When I told them I was in a band, but they didn't recognize the name, they started being weird and ignoring me. They even started pointing out different lads in the pub for the girl I was on a date with to go for."

Flo gasped almost horrified, entirely offended for Ross and asking, "Who's that cow? I'll batter her I swear."

George giggled next to Ross, knowing Flo would genuinely do that but instead of letting the bassist give her that information, he encouraged him to continue onto when Adam came into the picture, "What did you lie about then?"

With a heavy sigh, Ross continued narrating, "I had to text Hann to call me like an emergency had occurred and five minutes later I was rushing out because 'he got into a car accident'." He emphasized the lie by doing air quotation marks with his fingers.

Matty grimaced hearing that, "Oh mate, the car crash excuse is so overused."

"Yeah well but it's understandable." Nick sided with Ross, he would've done the same thing in his situation.

"T'was fucking embarrassing." Ross said again, his face said everything and they couldn't imagine if he looked like that just remembering it all, how he must've looked like in the moment it happened.

"Bless you, that sounds so awkward." Flo pouted softly, eliciting a soft side smile from him.

Katie curiously asked, "Did you ever bump into her again?"

To which Ross nodded in anguish and muttered against the rim of his beer bottle, "She asked if my mate was alright the morning after but that was it."

When that was over, people kept to just take sips of their drinks so Ross took it upon himself to continue the game, "Okay, let's lighten up the mood again." He hummed for a second before he chose, "Matty." and he asked him, "What kinks do you have?"

"Oh yes, brilliant ice breaker MacDonald." Matty said sarcastically, clutching Flo tighter against him before he turned to his left to say, "Cover your ears Hann."

Once Adam had covered his ears, he started listing, "Right so: bondage, edging, spitting, hitting, choking, degradation." He was smug watching everyone's eyes widen, and he looked down at his wife when he added, "We tried wax the other day, t'was fun."

Flo smirked up at him and winked, "It was."

"A bit of role play is fun sometimes." He continued when he turned back to look at the group and before he could stop, one last thing came to his mind, "And been developing a slight breeding kink since we got married but that's about it."

"You're animals." Matt concluded, a look of disgust and shock on his face.

Florence exasperatedly sighed before telling him, "Shut up Matt, you're fucking boring."

To her right though, Ella leaned into her and squeezed her hand, "I'm proud of you."

Flo chuckled and she winked at her when she replied, "I know you get me, Ellie."

But before Ella could settle in her seat again, George spoke up, "You into all that baby?"

"A bit, yeah." Ella shrugged it off like it was nothing.

Breana scoffed and called her out though, pointing out how, "She's so downplaying it."

"Breana..." Ella said with a stern look on her face. It had been enough that everyone had seen the pictures.

"What? I've seen all the kinky shit you own!" Her best friend lifted her arms up in a sign of innocence which made Ella giggle and shake her head.

Ella fake sniffling when she said, "Dusting away in my closet." like it was the most heartbreaking thing that could've ever happened to her.

But her act was interrupted when George went in to say, "I'll get Jamie to find us something so we can tour the west coast soon."

"Awfully confident, sir." Ella looked at him with a brow raised, a smirk on her face when thinking back of what she could've done if she had her things with her when she had George on her bed.

And she only grew even more pleased about it all when the drummer pointed out in a warning that only would encourage her more, "Don't call me that or else we're going back to mine right now."

It was a miracle Alex didn't throw his bottle across the room and thankfully, someone heard his silent prayers for Matty stopped the flirting by saying, "And that's my cue." so that he could choose someone to carry on the game.

Alex's relief was devastatingly brief because Matty went on to say, "Ella, what's your dream threesome?"

Ella scoffed at being chosen yet again, especially with that being the question, "Are you serious?"

"Very." Matty replied with a smirk.

She took a bit of time to answer and eventually it came down to her two latest shags, "Alice and George." It made her blush just thinking about having them two at the same time knowing how they both had been in bed.

"Of course." Matt said in a chuckle, which only made Ella blush harder.

But Flo watched out of the corner of her eye just how sorrowful Alex looked and she tried to get something out of the American that could give him a sign, "Sorry Ellie, not valid. Only people in this room."

"Alright then," Ella said begrudgingly, only to change her answer to "George and you."

"Matty, get ready to fight." Miles quickly said just to add fuel to the fire.

Before the curly headed guy could quip back though, his wife shook her head and added another rule, "Gotta be single, babe."

"Fine then..." Ella sighed and tapped her finger rhythmically on her glass as she thought, and the group was all smirks when she concluded her choice was, "George and Alex."

Something lit up inside of Alex, and it shone through his face. He was trying so hard not to let his smile show by wrapping his lips around the tip of his bottle and taking leisure sips of his beer but everyone was staring at him and it was clear that he was happy about it.

"Fourth choice Al, not too bad." Miles said, stirring the pot again like the menace he was which made Ella blush and glare at him.

And, of course, Matt added his two cents in also to add fuel to the fire by emphasizing, "Not great either."

Ella bit back on the drummer's comment before anyone else could add something to it, "You'd be last on the list Matt, don't get too cocky. And your girlfriend would've been my next choice if she was single."

Bre smiled at her best friend, blowing her a kiss, "Thanks my love."

"George stayed there as the only choice, big up mate." Matty toasted to his best mate and George was certainly smug about it.

"Good to know baby." The drummer winked at her, and that combined with the pet name only made her more flustered.

So all she replied was a shy, mumbled, "Shut up George."

That had George chuckling before he went on with his flirting, "Oh but you don't want me to, do you, gorgeous?" He kept his eye contact and she did so as well, he was hypnotizing and she couldn't peel her eyes away from him.

George's smirk grew at the clear hunger in Ella's eyes and it all got confirmed when her gaze dropped to his lips. "See?" He said smugly, because she had proved him right and just to taunt her a bit more, he encouraged her to go through with what was going through her head, "You can if you want to."

All of this flirting happening in front of him had Alex on the verge of just leaving the room. He was debating going downstairs or even to the top of his building to have a smoke. It annoyed him so much that George got all that from Ella when he felt like after everything that had happened, he had stripped himself of the chances of getting Ella to flirt with him.

"It's not that game." Ella reminded the drummer with a challenging look on her face, like she wanted him to make a move first.

But George knew her now and he saw that right through her so he just shrugged and concluded, "What a shame."

Without wasting more time so that no one commented on what had just happened, Ella chose, "Katie!" and she quickly asked, "What's the worst sexual encounter you've had?"

"Oh no Ella, don't make me tell this story." The model pleaded lightly, her answer coming to her mind easily.

"You gotta." Ella said, slightly apologetic but curious.

Katie sighed before giving out her answer, "Alright. So it was literally my second time having sex, I was around seventeen or so, and this guy was so bad." Katie's face said it all and everyone cringed for her even before hearing the actual story, "Had to fake an orgasm because he had been down there trying to eat me out for so long he started asking if I was close over and over. And when he finally fucked me, it was just as bad."

They all thought it was it then but it somehow got worse, "And to make matters worse, the condom broke so I had to rush off to the shops to get a morning after pill, absolutely terrified to my bones that I would have a pregnancy scare at seventeen for an awful shag."

The gasps that had come from the ladies at that were loud, and a wide eyed Adam was the only one to let out a comment which was a breathless, "That's a nightmare."

"Tell me about it." The model shivered at the thought and then went on to choose someone. Her eyes went around the circle and she ended up choosing, "Matt. What's the most embarrassing thing you've done during sex."

He knew exactly what it was so it didn't take him long to reply, "Follow the rhythm of a song and when I messed up, I had to focus on the beat to go again."

"Please tell me there was actually music playing and you're not saying that it was to a song you were playing in your head." Ella said with a scowl on her face, feeling bad for whoever it had been Matt had done that to.

"No, she actually put music on, dickhead." Matt chatted back with a roll of his eyes.

And bit back by turning his words around, "You're the dickhead, you did that."

To that, Matt scoffed, "Oh fuck off, as if you've never done something embarrassing in bed."

Fair enough, Ella admitted, "I have, but not that."

To avoid the argument continuing, despite it being relatively entertaining, Kelly instructed, "Matt, go on, pick someone."

Noticing how she hadn't gone yet, the drummer jumped at the opportunity, "You, Mrs. O'Malley. You've not been picked yet, have you?" Kelly looked unimpressed by the excitement written on Matt's face but shook her head to reply regardless. And her face went even more blank when the drummer asked, "Are you tired of Nick yet?"

"Of course you'd ask that, you shit stirrer." Kelly rolled her eyes, Nick chuckled beside her at his mate's occurrence.

"You aren't answering, though." Matt pointed out as if that meant anything.

Kelly brilliantly answered, "No I am not. But I bet Bre is tired of you, that's why you're asking."

Matt went on to say, "No, she's–" but Kelly interrupted him.

And since it was her turn to pick someone, Kelly started, "Let's ask her something fun. Bre, who would you leave Matt for, in a heartbeat?"

Unfortunately for the group, Breana replied, "No one."

It was hilarious how everyone but Matt scoffed or called her out for it, Matt frowning at everyone for encouraging an answer out of her. Ella calling her best friend out with an unamused, "Breana." was the last push she needed to reconsider her answer.

"Okay, ermm..." Bre started going through her options in her head.

To which Matt was entirely offended, "Why are you trying to answer?"

The group erupted in laughter when Bre shrugged and replied, "'Cause it's funny, plus I doubt Matthew McConaughey would leave his wife for me."

"Oh that's a good choice." Katie praised the answer.

Bre smiled and nodded her head, happy someone agreed, "Right?"

She wasn't the only one though, Flo hummed and added, "Yeah, he's fit as fuck."

Ella was the one to change it up when she remembered one of her favorite rom coms and commented, "Though, I was jealous of him in 'How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days'. Kate Hudson is beautiful."

That sparked a question in Breana's head, and just because she was trying to get to know more about the secret date she'd had with George, did she say, "Oh, on the topic of romance. Ella, what's the best date you've been on?"

Complaining about yet another question coming her way went over her head when the answer came to the forefront of her mind in a flash, "Oh, Valentine's day at Belmont Park last year." She smiled, and turned slightly to Alex to add, "T'was fun, very good company as well."

Alex flashed Ella the biggest smile and offered her a wink which had a little giggle falling from her lips. He was all warm and fuzzy knowing that, a reassurance that maybe all that he'd done hadn't ruined their memories together after all.

Alex was still on cloud nine after hearing that when Ross said, "That must've hurt, G."

"He's a big boy, he can handle it." Ella kissed her teeth, waving it off.

George nodded, not letting the teasing affect him and replied with a simple, "Just need to take you somewhere more fun next time."

"Exactly." Ella agreed, a smile stubbornly making its way to her face at the fact that he was thinking of a second date, despite that being impossible now that she was leaving. She had to snap herself out of her thoughts to continue the game and she did that by complaining, "Why do I keep getting picked? Nick hasn't gone once!" She pointed out and that was her choice made, "Okay Nicholas, have you ever fallen asleep during sex?"

"No, have you?" The bassist said with a confused frown on his face, "How does one fall asleep during sex?"

Ella was glad he had never done that but, at one of her memories, she let out an unamused chuckle and gave him the answer to how, "Have too many drinks and you'll find that out."

"Has someone fallen asleep on you during?!" Nick let out horrified for her, and unfortunately Ella nodded.

"It was awful." She concluded but fearing that they would ask her further about it, she reminded, "Nick, you choose now."

"Who hasn't gone yet?"

Everyone looked around and Miles was the one to say, "George... and Jamie."

Nick nodded and went ahead to choose, "George. Have you ever shagged someone and thought of somebody else?"

Flo giggled and got excited to hear the answer, "Oooo à la Cornerstone?"

The girls chuckled at the pun, while the lads shook their heads with soft smiles on their faces. But all amusement changed to shock on their faces when George ended up saying, "Yes..."

"Ella is fuming." Miles pointed out for everyone to turn and see the frown that Ella had subconsciously let show on her face.

George had been cute and reassured her, "Not with you baby, wouldn't dream of it."

And Ella was certainly pleased by that correction, "That's what I thought."

"But who was it then?" Bre curiously asked.

When the drummer refused to answer by replying with a soft, "I won't say."

Florence rolled her eyes, "Oh you're no fun."

George knew Flo enough to know she'd be asking him about it for ages until he let it out so he figured just saying it now would save him from being bothered about it for eternity, "Just a girl I met out on the pull, shagged her right after I broke up with my ex and I thought of my ex during– It was a mess."

A gasp slipped past Ella's lips and with wide eyes she begged, "Please tell me you didn't moan your ex's name."

The silence that came from the drummer was enough of an answer and everyone winced at the information.

"Oh no George..." Kelly's words came out muffled because her hand was covering her shocked open mouth.

He hung his head and nodded, "I know. It was bad."

"What'd she say?" Ross asked beside him, it was the first time he heard about it so he was intrigued.

The cringing got worse when George said, "She kicked me out of her place."

"Yikes." Adam muttered, feeling his skin crawling for his mate.

Bre had to play devil's advocate when she tilted her head to the side and commented, "Can't blame her though."

To which Alex agreed to an extent, "Tough one that."

"Right, Jamie, mate, it's your turn." George got the guitarist's attention as he was the last one to go, "What's the last sext you've sent?"

"Erm, let me check." Jamie pulled out his phone to scroll through the messages with his fiance.

"Was it that long ago?" Kelly asked rather confused, she would've expected he would keep that up with Katie consistently whilst they were on tour at least.

"No, but I just don't remember what I said." Jamie honestly replied and when he found exactly what he had been thinking about, he smiled to himself, "Katie had this modeling gig for a lingerie line and she sent me some pictures, so I just said 'They better had let you keep them so I can ruin them later' with three kisses and that was it."

Ella smirked, looking at the model when she asked, "Did they let you keep them Katie?"

"Just one." Katie replied with a smirk on her face, sipping on her drink with rosy cheeks.

"And did he keep his word?" Flo asked this time, looking between Jamie and Katie and smirking at their flustered looks.

"He did." Katie confirmed and that was enough for hollering to break out in the living room.

Miles patted Jamie's back as he yelled, "Oi Oiiiiii!!!" only causing Jamie's cheeks to grow redder.

The game ended after that. Half of the group went back to the kitchen to get refills, Matty brought back a bottle of wine that Bre and Flo were drinking so that they didn't have to stand up constantly to get themselves some more, Alex put on some music in the background and with that, everyone fell into entertaining conversation.

Drinks flowed easily as their mouths ran along topics, laughter increased in volume the more alcohol was being ingested and smiles lingered on their faces longer under the influence.

It was when Bre very not subtly asked about Ella's date with George that Ella evaded the questions by standing up from her seat and actually bringing the pictures from their photoshoot so they could finally see how that had come out looking like.

Now these pictures were ones Ella proudly let the group look through, and she let the compliments about her frames rub at her ego a bit. She made sure to let them know which ones Bre had taken because they had turned out beautiful, and she didn't hold back singing her best friend her praises.

They had ended up teasing George when he took a bit longer to look at the pictures which were just of Ella, Matt saying how the drummer should keep some as souvenirs for himself when she was gone.

Ella had let him know he could keep the other ones for himself, the ones from the day they had spent together and when they heard that, they started joking about how if he got handed them again then he'd disappear for a bit to relieve himself. Or worse enough, he'd take Ella with him for a memory refresh.

"You lot are insufferable." Ella rolled her eyes as she drunkenly mumbled, changing the subject back to the prints everyone was looking at, "Ladies you can keep your pictures. I have all the scans so I'll send them for you to keep digitally as well."

The girls chose the pictures they wanted for themselves and gave Ella back the ones that were of her, assuming she wanted to keep them. She clumsily walked up to her bag again, putting the pictures away and bringing back with her the envelope that everyone knew contained the pictures with George.

Ella gave them to George, as promised, and he thanked her by pulling her in by the waist and leaving a kiss on her cheek. Bre screeched when she saw that unfold right next to her, and that only had Ella becoming more flustered.

She loopily smiled at him and patted the hand that was clutching her tightly, "You're welcome."

Florence wiggled her eyebrows at Ella as she poured the little left of the wine and set the empty bottle just as Ella sat beside her and when she did she nudged her as if to tease her further. Ella snorted out a laugh and told her to "Piss off." as she tried to hide her burning cheeks from the onlookers around the living room.

Whilst conversation carried on around her, Ella sat in silence just admiring the chaos surrounding her. She was going to miss this group of people so much, a knot was starting to form in her throat. And Alex noticed her change, the lack of her sweet laughter in the air whenever someone told a joke out of a story that had just been shared, the way she'd recoiled into herself and was almost hidden away in the corner of the loveseat just sipping on her drink.

"Alright, darling?" Alex whispered after he leaned in closer to her so she was the only one to hear.

Ella looked up at him, nodding, "Yeah. Just sad I'm leaving, s'all."

He cooed, grabbing ahold of her free hand and intertwining their fingers to bring the back of her hand to his lips and press a kiss on her skin.

The action did more for Ella that she could let on in front of everyone. She relaxed into his touch, his warmth bringing her peace and she was relishing in it as she continued to just be a spectator of the scene. Alex didn't let go of her hand, he rested their joint hands on the arm of the loveseat and continued rubbing circles with his thumb on the back of her hand.

That lasted for about ten minutes, until Flo went over to the kitchen to get Bre and herself a second wine bottle and came back to see the empty bottle sitting on the coffee table still. She was about to leave it to the side when she realized they could use it for something fun and she started with her suggestion, "Why don't we play something fun? We have this empty bottle now."

"Like what?" Alex replied intrigued, his thumb stopping its movements on Ella's skin.

"How about seven minutes in heaven?" Florence smirked, glancing at Ella and Alex's fingers intertwined.

Ella let go of Alex's hand, taking it to put some strands of hair behind her ear while she said, "Is this your excuse for a quickie with your husband?"

Half the group cackled, Matty sitting a bit straighter at the mention of something like that happening but his smugness was wiped right off him when his wife let out, "I was hoping for George but sure!" in an awfully chipper tone.

"Wheels!" Matty called her out with a scoff, poking at her ribs and making her jump. Ella smiled at the nickname he had for her, she had found it so cute when she first heard it at Glastonbury and it got even cuter when she learned of the story behind it.

"Sorry Curly, you know I can't help it." Was the only excuse Flo had for her husband and it made the group laugh. George was enjoying it though, he winked at Florence and that had her blushing.

The artist grabbed the empty wine bottle and rested it sideways on the coffee table, leaning in so that she could spin it around, but before that could happen, Ella pointed out, "This is the most American thing I'll ever see you do."

And when Flo replied with, "And hopefully the only one, no offense." she couldn't stop the loud laugh that escaped her.

Florence spinned the bottle and they all watched intently as it went 'round and 'round until it landed on no one else but her own husband. The couple were about to stand up and leave when the whole group broke out in complaints, the loudest one being Alex.

"No, not with Matty. They're actually gonna shag and I won't be washing any sheets right now." Alex said sternly, knowing just how the two were.

Almost throwing a fit, Flo let go of her husband's hand, "Alex, you're such a dick."

"Go on, spin again." The singer instructed once more, not letting on to have her get her way.

But Flo was keeping her ground and saying, "No." to him.

"Alright then I'll do it for you." Alex huffed out, standing from his seat and hovering over the coffee table to spin the bottle. "There you go." He said, letting it spin as he went back to his chair.

Yet, when the bottle stopped, Alex wished he hadn't done that because it landing on "George!" seemed like a much worse outcome.

"Get fucked Alexander." Flo cursed out loud as she stood up, flipping him off right before she grabbed George by the hand.

Nick found it incredibly amusing, his laughter loud as he struggled to say, "You did that to yourself mate."

But someone who also wasn't happy about it was Ella, who called Flo out loud, "You lucky bitch." and it had Miles wheezing out a laugh.

What stopped the laughter was Florence shrugging and offering, "You can join us if you want."

Everyone turned to look at Ella expectantly but a fraction of a second went by before Alex put his two cents into the situation, "You either go in right now or we're playing something else."

"Sorry Ellie." Flo said, very not sorry, and snuck away with a grinning George close behind her into the guest room.

"Do not shag in there!" Jamie thought it would be funny to remind her.

And a defeated Matty was relieved to hear, "Not without my husband, no." come from his wife.

"Fucks sake." Ross muttered under his breath, shaking his head at the gray area that would leave room for happening inside that bedroom.

Matty hurried someone up to, "Start a timer." and thankfully, Bre was quick to pull her phone out and start it for them all.

When she was younger, Ella remembered that in this stage of the game everyone went back to their conversation, drinking and making jokes until someone deemed the seven minutes to have gone already so that they could get whoever was inside the room out. But in that moment, everyone stayed silent, almost holding their breaths as they saw the seconds quickly running by, and trying to hear over the music anything that could be happening.

There were still ten seconds left for the seven minutes to end when Matty stood up and went down the hall to press his ear on the door. Everyone was holding back their laughter as they watched his confused face trying to get any noise, but he couldn't hear a thing.

The ringing of the timer going off startled him off the door but he hurriedly knocked on it to let the pair know, "Time's up! Come out now."

To Matty's relief, the door opened merely a few seconds later and Flo pecked his lips as soon as she saw him.

"How was it?" Matty asked her, intrigue written all over his face.

It wasn't until she came back to the loveseat and sat with Matty beside Ella that Flo let out a dreamy sigh and replied, "Unreal."

Matty rolled his eyes, hugging her to his side, "Stop playing."

And Florence rolled her eyes as well, like it was annoying her that her husband wasn't playing into it so she ended up truthfully letting them all know, "We were just chatting."

Of course Ella wanted to taunt her a bit so she put a confused act up and rhetorically asked, "Is that what the kids call it these days?"

"Ha, ha. Funny." Flo replied meekly to her attempt at a joke and to stop the giggles the American was letting out at her own comment, she quickly chose, "Ella, you're next."

Her giggles turned into a scoff, "Of course I am." and she watched as Flo leaned into the coffee table to spin the bottle.

"Oooo" The room rumbled as everyone watched the glass spinning, and when it almost slowed to a stop right on Flo's place, Matty went in to purposely push it a bit further. His wife hissed out a "Matty n–!" which was cut short when the tip of the bottle ended up stopping pointing right at George, "Oh shit, nevermind."

"Cheers mate." George smugly said, tipping his bottle towards his best mate in thanks.

The girls screeched at the reaction, and they looked expectantly at Ella for hers but she was just reddening by the second with her lips pursed as if she was trying not to show how much she was anticipating whatever was going to happen.

"George is the real winner tonight I reckon." Jamie pointed out, looking from Matty to Alex and gauging the fact that they had almost the same expressions on their faces.

"I really am." The drummer easily agreed. He and Flo had just been chatting about his date with Ella and he had enjoyed hearing a bit of what Ella had said about him so now that he had the opportunity to have her alone again, even if it was for a few minutes, he was fucking buzzing.

He stood up and walked over to Ella, extending his hand out for her to grab, "You ready babe?"

Ella only hummed in response, hand coming up to grasp George's and he took her lack of words to tease her, "Cat got your tongue?"

In all honesty, she was trying really hard not to react with so many eyes on her, so she told him to "Shut up before I change my mind."

But George knew she didn't mean that at all and when he called her out for that by confirming, "You wouldn't." and got more of her silence and evading his eye contact, he was incredibly smug about being right.

Alex died a little when the bottle landed pointing at George, and it continued dying a little more each step that the pair took in order to get to the guest room. He was thankful that the second the door closed and the lock was turned, Matt had started the timer.

It was a nightmare of a situation: knowing exactly what he was feeling about Ella but having obstacles like these coming in front of him actually saying something, plus her going back home across oceans while he was off going around the world. But god did the knowledge of what he felt whenever she looked at him, touched him or spoke to him with that voice of hers did to him, burn him.

Alex had no idea what to do with himself, but the bottles he'd had were threatening to let his lips loose and his thoughts escape him and he didn't know if that would be something to be grateful for or regret later. What he did know in that tipsy mind of his was that he didn't want to ever know what was going on behind that door.

And rightly so, because George had barely done one thing before Ella crashed her lips on his and hungrily kissed him like she'd been dying to for centuries. They were sitting at the edge of bed, a bit of space in between them but their hands reaching out to touch each other as their tongues met. And that space started to shorten as their breaths grew heavier and after she had to reluctantly pull back to take a deep breath, she ended up being guided by his strong hands on her hips to straddle his lap.

They lost track of time as they kissed and the room grew hotter as she rolled her hips on him. Slowly he started getting hard and she could feel it so she got more intent with her movements, keeping her eyes on him as she slowly rolled her clothed core over his hardening cock and making his jaw go slack at the friction.

Ella bit her bottom lip as she watched him struggle to keep the noises to himself and when he finally let a low groan rip through his chest, she whined and nodded in approval. She fucking loved watching him slowly fall apart under her and for her, and how she wished they had the time to go further and have him the way she wanted one more time. Her mouth watered at the thought of even getting to taste him again.

But their lack of awareness on how much time they had already spent inside the room did them dirty and loud knocking startled them out of their lustful state.

"Time's up!" They heard Miles' muffled voice through the wooden door and they sighed in defeat.

She begrudgingly got off George's lap and fixed her hair and clothes as she stood up, offering her hand out for him so she could help him stand up as well. And George did accept, standing up a couple feet away from her but he was clearly sporting a hard-on so he had to drop her hand so he could rearrange himself in order to not make it that obvious.

A loud, "Come on out!" interrupted their peace again but they ignored it. George went onto tuck himself in a way it didn't look that obvious and Ella was just shamelessly gawking at him with her bottom lip trapped between her teeth.

Thankfully, George was done by the time another yell came from the other side of the door, "Oi! Come out, you dirty bastards." this time a bit further away, but Ella opened the door aggressively and was met with Miles who had his fist up as if he had been just about to knock.

"We're out, fucking hell. Impatient crowd." She huffed out with her feet quickly taking her back to the living room, looking straight at her forgotten glass so that making eye contact with anyone in the group broke her and made it evident what had happened.

That only made her look more obvious to everyone though, and so Nick teased her by pointing out, "Ella, looking awfully messy there."

"Oh shut up." She replied with an irritated tone to her voice, still taking her fingers through her hair quickly to fix anything messy just in case.

Flo waited until the director had grabbed her drink, taken a gulp and sat back down beside her to loudly ask, "How was it?"

A question which Ella decided to answer with just an "Alright..." that no one bought.

"More than alright I bet, you're bright red." Breana called her out, the flush to her cheeks going all the way to the tips of her ears and that's how she knew Ella was properly flustered.

"Shush." Was the only thing Ella could think of to attack Breana's statement, but in the midst of avoiding everyone's knowing looks, Ella looked to her right and found a silent grumpy Alex which made her frown, "What's up with you? Why are you so pouty?"

What had just happened with George plus the alcohol that she had ingested had Ella entirely distracted, and that only made Matty want to cackle out loud at the fact that she had just asked Alex that as if it wasn't obvious.

And the urge to laugh grew more intense when Ella leaned into the center of the room so she could softly grip the bottle and said, "Right, Al, you're next. Ready?"

"Yeah." Alex softly answered, not really convinced about the game but participating just for the sake of it.

Ella spinned the bottle and when she went back to her seat, she turned to him with a grimace, "Don't sound so sure there, damn."

"Ooooooooo!!" The group loudly rumbled out in anticipation, Alex's eyes fixed on the spins the bottle did, counting twenty seven until it stopped and the gasps that drowned the room were what snapped him out of his trance.

"Fuck off!" Katie cursed loudly, a hand flying over her mouth as she giggled.

Matt wiggled his eyebrows, "Ella going in for the second time in a row..." as if that was the sole reason for the ruckus.

"Calm down now, y'all are shit stirrers." Ella giggled as she shut them up, but they wouldn't so she just stood up and grabbed Alex's hand to drag him over to the guest room. Not really dragging him, he almost had a skip on his step as she followed behind her.

From her seat, Flo was silently praying this was it and especially when the pair walked in the threshold of the room but before the door could close, Ella called out, "See you in seven minutes!"

Silence was incredibly loud outside, Miles going to the lengths of actually turning the music way down until it was almost silent so that they could pry anything that could be heard through the door or the walls.

But Alex was being quite soft when he asked, "Are you having fun?" like he was scared of sound shattering the invisible glass that surrounded them in the moment.

"Of course I am!" Ella was a bit drunker than him so she struggled as she whisper-shouted. She giggled when Alex's eye went wide at her slightly louder volume compared to his and she lowered her voice down to confess, "Wasn't expecting this."

The singer smiled sweetly at her and in his hazy mind, he needed to make sure once more "D'you like it?"

Her enthusiastic nods made him melt inside, "I do. I'm gonna miss y'all so much." She wrapped her arms around his shoulder to hug him, it was a slightly awkward hug since they were sitting on the edge of the bed next to each other so she turned a bit to the right so she could pull him closer properly.

"I know. M'gonna miss you too." He whispered in her ear, drowning in her scent which made him dizzier, "Loads."

Ella's mind went back to a minute prior so she pulled back to see him as she turned the question onto him, "Are you having fun? You were frowning outside."

Alex didn't fully lie when he replied, "Just don't want to see you go, that's it." because that was also what was bothering him, but she didn't need to know it was because of George and her and how clear it was that something had happened in the very room they were currently in.

"I'll try to come visit again soon." Ella promised with a soft pout on her face, "After tour maybe."

"Would you?" Alex asked elated, a sparkle in his eye at the sheer possibility of having her there again soon—not really that soon but at least it wasn't an uncertain space in time.

She nodded, entirely convinced about it, "Of course, I just need to check my schedule."

Alex chuckled at the way she said it, and played onto it by nodding, "Right, busy girl."

"I am though!" She snorted at his sarcastic remark, "Director now, remember?"

He hummed before he pulled her into his chest, "Yeah, I'm so proud of you."

A kiss was left on the top of her head as she wholeheartedly replied, "Thank you, sweets."

Her face was pressed to his chest, her arms wrapped around his waist and a comfortable silence enveloped them, preserving that warmth between them. They were relishing in the feeling until Ella's thoughts managed their way out past her lips, "I'm gonna miss seeing you every day."

And it wasn't at all a struggle for Alex to agree, "Yeah, me too. But we can video call." He was so fucking glad for technology—that he could barely manage—for making it possible to keep in contact.

"You promise you will when you're free?" Ella pulled back a bit so she could look into his eyes.

"I promise, darling." Alex confirmed, drinking in the never ending beauty of her hazel green eyes.

Ella tilted her head to the side and scrunched her nose as in distaste when she remembered he was a busy guy so she probably wouldn't be able to just go around calling him whenever she wanted so she brought up another request, "I don't want to interrupt you so you'll have to call me okay?"

Alex shook his head at her, chuckling at her train of thought and turning it around to her, "And what if I interrupt?"

She waved his worries off in a heartbeat, "It wouldn't be anything special. It could be just a scene I can record again, whereas I can't interrupt an interview, can I?"

The answer she wanted didn't reach her ears, instead she watched Alex smirk at her and playfully roll his eyes before assuring her, "Yes you can."

"I doubt it'll be cool to interrupt your rockstar schedule, sweets." Ella reminded him like he had forgotten just who he was.

But Alex was well aware and he didn't give a fuck about it if it meant something to do with her, "Trust me when I tell you I wouldn't want anything more."

It earned him another snort of laughter and an almost mocking, "You're such a bad liar."

"Not lying darling." He corrected her with a soft look on his face that just had Ella rolling her eyes in a need for at least a fleeting moment of cutting the eye contact short.

Just saying a blunt, "Sure." when her gaze fell on his again.

They stayed there just trying to read what was behind each other's eyes for what felt like an eternity but it had only been a mere few seconds of silence that Alex broke when he whispered, "You've got really pretty eyes, have I told you that?"

His hot breath hit her slightly parted mouth, "I don't know." She replied breathlessly and in a moment of weakness, she admitted, "I like yours."

The chuckle he let out hit her mouth again, but instead of making her breath shaky, it made her smile so big it reached her eyes. "Mine? You're joking." Alex concluded with a raised eyebrow, challenging her to take it back.

But she would never, she loved the richness of the brown of his eyes and nothing compared to how they glowed a golden honey when they were hit by the light. And just as sticky they caught her and it was hard to get rid of the feeling of them on her, "M'not! They're pretty!"

"Nothing in comparison to yours." Alex stated, and then his eyes dropped to the rest of her face, catching the freckles dusting over the bridge of her nose and her cheeks, "I like your freckles too."

She was about to thank him when his brows furrowed and as she stayed quiet because she was thinking something bad was about to happen, Alex instead let out, "You're so beautiful." with a tone in his voice that sounded slightly pained.

Ella could barely manage the soft, "Thanks sweets." she gave him in return, her throat going dry at the proximity so her tongue came to lick at her bottom lip instinctively.

That was when Alex's gaze dropped further down and fell magnetized on her mouth, and his thoughts left him before he could even process them, "You've got a pretty little mouth too."

Ella snorted at that, "Right."

But instead of taking it back, Alex insisted, "You do."

"It talks loads of shit." Ella tried to joke, raising her brows as if to accentuate the fact.

It earned her a soft giggle from Alex but what Ella wasn't expecting was for him to add, "Yeah? Wonder what else it can do."

Against her better sense, she found herself saying, "Wouldn't you want to know." Her subconscious taking over and letting her heart drive her actions.

Her heart rate started increasing in speed when he replied, "I do, actually."

And all she could even let out was a breathless, "Do you?"

That felt like the perfect moment, Alex felt it all coming to him like a wave of words coming up his throat and ready to spill it all out for her but when he opened his mouth, the endless words tangled on the tip of his tongue and he stuttered, "I–, Ella–"

"Alex?" She was frozen in his arms, not knowing what to do or say but something inside her was screaming and burning and she wanted to let it free.

"I am, I–" Alex struggled again, in his eyes she could see the frustration and through them the cogs turning inside his head.

So she encouraged it with a soft, "Yeah..."

But he couldn't trust his words anymore, and instead he decided to finally do what he had been dying to do since the second their first and only date was over.

He trapped her lips in a kiss and he hummed as he melted into the feeling of her plush lips against his. It was heaven. Her short inhales as they kissed, the way her fingers dug into his clothed skin as they went, the warmth of her flushed skin under his fingertips. His hand had come up to cup her jaw softly and he smiled into the kiss when one of her hands came over it, as if to keep him there.

In that very moment it felt like it all made sense, like everything aligned perfectly and maybe every worry they'd ever had was just a silly thought. It felt so right to feel her like this and it felt so right for him to hold her that way, delicately but firmly. He knew he didn't want to let go and she was slowly coming to that conclusion too.

It was like the shock of it all quickened the rate at which they ran out of air, so she pulled back with her chest heaving and her hand still clutching his to her face, "Was that 'cause we're drunk or did you–?"

Alex cut her question short, thinking a second kiss would be enough of an answer but also just because five seconds had gone by and, after finally having properly kissed her, it felt like long enough to wait until kissing her again.

This time it was like a switch had been flipped and the wholesomeness was exchanged for hunger. Their tongues met instantly and they both hummed in bliss at the feeling, he tasted like beer and she tasted like whiskey. Her other hand came up to the back of his head and up until her fingers could clutch onto the longer strands of his hair, intensifying the neediness of the kiss.

Their lips smacked as they kissed, skin growing hot with every passing second and their hands timidly started to roam.

That was until his fingers harshly dug into the skin of her hip which was slightly exposed from their movement lifting up her shirt a bit, but the feeling of him clutching onto her like that was so good it elicited a soft moan out of her, and from then on it became more desperate.

Right as Alex started leaning forward so that she could lie on the bed with him on top, the absurdly loud and incessant knocking started, "Time's up! Come on out!"

That was Matt's voice they'd heard but somehow more people started yelling out for them to come out that it was a choir of chaotic noises that made them both sigh exasperatedly, "God, they're loud." Ella grimaced, throwing herself back on the bed completely defeated.

Alex sat up straight and stared at the door, wishing his deadly glare went right through it and striked whoever was on the other side of it, "Yeah, obnoxiously loud."

Ella pushed herself off the bed to sit back straight beside him, fixing her hair quickly as she started to say, "We should–"

But Alex interrupted by saying something along the same lines, "Right, we should..."

Yet none of them did anything to get out of the room, instead they started leaning closer until their lips were locked together again and with their eyes closed they enjoyed the few seconds of that kiss.

Which was rudely interrupted by Matt now awfully loudly asking, "Are yous shagging in there?!"

Their lips smacked softly when she pulled away and Alex swore she saw her eyes lit up with rage when she roared a harsh "Shut up Matthew!" at the door, followed by a just as annoyed, "We're coming!"

She stood up quickly, smoothing her clothes as she walked over to the door, and before the drummer could be smart about the joke he was trying to make by twisting the meaning of her words, she opened the door aggressively and spit out a venomous, "You're fucking annoying."

"Did you...?" He tried to ask as she walked past.

"No." Ella replied sternly, turning around to watch Alex—who was coming out of the room and brushing his hair with his fingers—and they shared a look that said they would talk about it later.

Flo narrowed her eyes at them both as they walked up to their seats, "You sure look too flushed to not have." and with her words, came the input of everyone else.

It wasn't only their flustered states but their swollen lips and the almost palpable tension that came with the pair coming out of the room. Ella sighed and continued to deny anything happening, Alex doing the same thing before grabbing Ella's empty glass to get her a refill as he went to get himself a new bottle.

"I'm always blushing, especially if you are taking the piss out of me so..." Ella easily found a way out of it and whilst a few people took it as enough excuse, a fair few didn't.

"I don't buy it." Matt said warily, a look on his face that matched the one on his girlfriend's face, which Ella completely ignored just so she wouldn't get caught in her lie.

"Believe what you want Helders." Alex rolled his eyes at his best mate as he walked back into the room, handing Ella her full glass of whiskey and coke and getting a cute little thanks from her before he smirked at the drummer and turned the tables on him, "In fact, you're next mate."

Alex spun the bottle and sat back down, watching it spin mindlessly because his mind was entirely caught by what had just happened, his heart growing in size in his chest and threatening to make him explode, he was just a mush of emotions at that point.

It was the loud complaints and sorrowful comments that made him look down at the bottle who had stopped and it was pointing at Miles, "Oh no."

Matty cackled, "Miles and Matt are gonna trash your guest room mate."

Ella didn't even let the pair consider it a funny joke for a split second, "You better not, I'm sleeping there later."

"Are you actually?" Matt asked, entirely confused, and Ella was just as confused because he knew she had checked out of her hotel room.

"Yes, where else am I gonna sleep?" She scoffed out, taking a gulp of her drink as if that could help her deal with the man.

And she really had needed it when the drummer shrugged and nonchalantly replied, "Dunno, Alex's bed?"

"Oh, piss off." She flipped him off, and then ushered him out of the room along with Miles with a wave of her hand, "Off you go, you have seven minutes."

✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧

Seven minutes in heaven ended up unleashing a chaos that no one was expecting. It had been hilarious and eventually when things ended after they denied Matt and Breana going into the room after the bottle had landed on the drummer, they had moved onto more conversations and somehow ended up getting a bit of information from George and Ella about their date.

Ella was glad George didn't spill anything non-PG and they just playfully hinted at the rest of their night, keeping to just letting everyone in on where they had gone and how he had taken her around London.

Alex's blood was boiling as he heard it all but he was reassured by Ella resting her hand on his knee and keeping it there as everyone chatted about the newly shared story. And thankfully, Matty and Ross had cackled about a place George had taken her and ended up telling a few of the band's teenage years stories that had everyone creasing.

They all were so entertained that time slipped past them and with it more drinks came until Ella was crashing because of the amount of alcohol she'd had. Breana had already fallen asleep for a bit with her face hidden on the crook of Matt's neck, her legs thrown over his lap; so Ella languidly hugged everyone goodbye, apologizing for going to bed so early—it was almost three in the morning—but her eyes were closing and heading to bed with her best friend sounded amazing.

She got tight hugs and coos from everyone, promises to see her soon and visit her over in LA when time would allow it, and once she managed to escape George's grip—who had hugged her by the waist to his chest and kept her in between his spread legs, leaving kisses on her shoulder and neck—, she got Bre to go with her to the guest room so they could comfortably sleep.

And that was one of the best night's of sleep she'd had. It probably was thanks to the alcohol having dulled her senses enough for everything to feel fuzzy and nice, and how it had helped her fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow and Bre's arm was around her waist.

But all the peace she had lingering in her body by her slumber had dissipated like vapor when she opened her eyes and saw the sunlight peeking through the blinds.

Suddenly, the lack of hearing an alarm going off got her springing up from bed in search of her phone. When Ella saw that it was way past eight in the morning, she turned around in a panic and shook her best friend as she whisper-shouted, "Bre! Wake up!"

Breana mumbled something in her sleep, and Ella had to shake her a bit more for the model to finally peel her eyes open and acknowledge her. "Bre, it's eight thirty, we're gonna miss our flight!"

"Oh fuck, we're so late." Bre winced when she saw the time on her own phone, eyes going wide and blinking constantly to wipe the sleep off her face.

Ella ran off to the living room and she was glad to see Matt sleeping on the settee. She came up to him, leaning into him and shaking him softly as she whispered, "Matt! Come on, wake up Matthew."

"What the fuck?" Matt frowned when he opened his eyes and found Ella, looking disheveled and panicked.

Her anxious, "It's half past eight, we're late." was enough explanation for it.

"Fucking hell." He cursed under his breath as he sat up on the settee, rubbing his eyes, "Is Bre awake?"

"Yes." Ella nodded, looking back to the door of the guest room and praying Bre was getting ready as quickly as she could. She wanted to do that as well but asked Matt first, "Can you wake Alex up for me, please?"

And a bit of relief flooded her body when he nodded, "Sure."

With long strides she went back into the guest room and found Breana in a different outfit from the one they had slept in, grabbing her toiletry bag to go to the bathroom and quickly finish getting ready.

Whilst Bre was in there, Ella changed her clothes in record time and ended up knocking on the bathroom door so that she could brush her teeth and wash her face quickly whilst Bre did her own thing.

Breana watched as Ella quickly finished doing that and walked back inside the room, leaving the model to put a bit of makeup on her face while she took the suitcases out of the room and towards the front door.

The next knock on the bathroom door was from Matt, who gave his girlfriend a brief kiss as she walked out and hurried her up to have her things ready so they could leave as soon as possible.

Bre got to where Ella was standing by the door, taking a hurried glance inside the bag she had perched up on her shoulder. And she was stuffing her toiletries bag back inside her suitcase when Ella told her she needed to do something really quickly before they left.

Ella gave Bre no time to ask what on Earth it was that couldn't wait before she was out the door, so she was left making sure she had everything on her and going to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Out on the hallway, Ella was taking quick long strides towards the door to the next flat and silently praying that who she was looking for was home.

She had no idea why she was nervous, maybe it was the mix of fear of losing her flight and the worry about Alice not being in her flat but she was so happy when only a minute after knocking on her door, the singer opened the door and a smile tugged at the corner of her lips seeing Ella standing before her.

A heavy sigh came from Ella seeing her there and with a soft smile she reminded Alice, "I promised I wouldn't leave without saying goodbye."

"I'm glad you kept your word." Alice replied, melting at the fact that she'd actually pulled through with it.

"I have these," Ella went through her bag in a second and pulled out the envelope with the pictures she'd taken of Alice, handing them to her, "Thought you'd wanna have them. I have the scans."

She smiled at the Allie x written on top of it and when she opened it, her grin morphed into a smirk, "Oh this is perfect." Alice took one of the pictures out, one of her thighs littered with love bites and Ella's hand gripping her leg tightly, Pure Desire tattoo to the right of the frame, "Just what I needed to remember you by."

"You're a tease." The American girl laughed, her cheeks tinting a subtle pink but glad to see she liked the pictures.

"And you love it." Alice winked at her before putting the picture back in the envelope and opening her arms so Ella could give her a hug. They clutched each other tightly, and Alice whispered in her ear, "Have a good flight Ellie. I'm always a text away, or a phone call away. Whichever you prefer."

Ella hummed in content, "Thank you Allie, so am I." She pulled back, taking a step backwards and willing herself to properly take in the moment before she finally said a soft, "Bye."

"See ya' Ellie." Alice said instead, not wanting it to seem permanent, waving at her as she walked backwards but eventually turned around to head back inside Alex's flat.

Before she could open the door, it opened and there was Alex, followed by Bre and Matt. But just the sight of him made her breath hitch in her throat, the kisses they had shared the night before playing in her mind like a film and she had to fight the urge to throw herself at him and repeat it at least one more time.

There's still time, Ella said to herself. They still had to drive all the way to the airport and she wasn't going to say goodbye until they were in Heathrow Airport.

But time was exactly what they didn't have at that moment. The girls basically threw themselves in the back of Matt's car and the lads all but threw their cases in the boot of the car before getting in the front seats and making a dash for the airport.

Forty minutes it took them to get there and another nerve wracking ten minutes to find a parking spot. Ella didn't know if she could've endured this stress if she wasn't in the company of her friends, because her heart was hammering against her chest under the pressure and her panic was threatening to become worse.

The last thing she needed was to have a panic attack in the middle of the airport.

Though that seemed like a very high chance when she and Bre got to the counter of the airline they were flying and the lady who helped them there told them they needed to rush because the gate was quite far away and they were going to start boarding in approximately thirty minutes.

With their tickets in hand and their carry-on bags rolling beside them, the girls walked back to where Alex and Matt were waiting, but Ella was stressed out to the bones about time ticking, "Fuck, we gotta run Bre."

"I know." The model let out a shaky breath, squeezing her best friend's hand as if to say 'we've got this' and offer her some comfort.

"Guys, we need to run. We're boarding in thirty minutes and our gate is on Terminal B." Ella said sadly, pained that they couldn't even fit five more minutes together before having to say goodbye.

"Maybe it was a bad idea to play those drinking games." Matt winced but ended up laughing at the situation.

Bre chuckled, of course this would happen to them for trusting themselves throwing a party the night before their flight, "It was fun though."

They smiled and nodded in agreement and it was Ella to take the first step into starting the goodbyes. She walked over to Matt and hugged him with a pout on her face, "Bye Matt, I'll see you soon, yeah?"

They swayed a bit and Matt squeezed her tightly before pulling back, "See you soon Ellie, love you lots you little shit."

She giggled at him and she reciprocated as he pressed a brief kiss on her cheek, "Love you too dickhead."

Beside her, Bre was hugging Alex goodbye too and the second that she pulled back and saw her boyfriend ready to kiss her goodbye, the model jumped into Matt's arms.

Ella smiled to herself seeing them, not missing a chance to make a gagging noise when they started kissing which ended up with her getting a middle finger from the couple. That was her cue to stop stalling and turn to see Alex, who was patiently waiting for her to crush him in a hug and she did just that.

She hummed in the embrace, trying to memorize the feeling of him pressed against her the best she could because she knew it would be a while until she got the privilege to feel that again. He was desperate, his brain a tangle of thoughts so messy that left him stupefied when trying to come up with an answer to 'is this the right moment to let her know or should i wait?'.

"We'll video call, yeah?" She said in his ear, one last attempt to properly guarantee they wouldn't stray away from each other.

Alex replied, "Promise." in a heartbeat and with such conviction, not even letting her think he would allow that to happen.

And just to make sure she was covering everything, she pleaded, "Text me when you're free okay?"

"'Course darling." Alex nodded, taking in her scent and praying it somehow managed to stick to his top so it would linger in the cotton of his shirt and he could pretend she was there with him for a while. His heart twisted in his chest, he wanted to be selfish so badly and just ask her to stay with him for longer, racking his brain for an excuse to make that possible but there was none.

He felt himself growing upset, the frustration getting to him and a knot started forming in his throat so he spoke very softly and low when he said, "M'gonna miss you so fucking much."

And it made it so much worse when she agreed, "Me too sweets, too much."

When he pulled away and saw her face, he found her eyes filling up with tears and just that had him tearing up with her. He cupped her face with both hands and his thumbs rubbed softly at her cheeks, "Don't cry darling, please. Late September we'll be back in LA alright?." He had that date marked on his calendar already, and it would be a countdown until that day the second that she walked away from them.

Ella sniffled, "I'll see you then." and offered him a sad smile.

He nodded, leaning in to kiss her forehead and she felt his lips brush against her skin as he said, "It'll come quick, you'll see."

She closed her eyes at the feeling, which she lost once he pulled back to look at her and under his burning gaze, she opened her eyes again. He was going to look for that shade of brownish green of her eyes everywhere he went until he saw her again, just to feel a sliver of what she erupted inside him with her presence.

"Take care, darling." His hands were on her shoulders then, squeezing them softly.

Ella nodded again, taking every word of his to heart like a prayer, "You too, and have lots of fun on tour okay? Keep me updated, I wanna hear it all."

"Definitely." He grinned brightly at her, thinking about how he was sure there wouldn't be a thing that happened on the road that he wouldn't want to share with her. "You'll keep me in on what Los Feliz is looking like, yeah?"

The snort of laughter that came from her filled him up with warmth, and after she promised she would with an enthusiastic, "Absolutely." he pulled her back into his chest and hugged her tightly.

"Love you darling." His hot breath hit just behind her ear and it made her shiver, something he felt with her in his arms and god didn't that reaction make him want to just give her his heart entirely.

He clutched her even tighter when she mumbled, "Love you sweetness." back. The fact that they were existing in borrowed time at that moment completely escaped them, their eyes closed as they relished in each other's touch and presence.

But it was cut short when Bre sighed sadly behind her and reminded her, "We need to go Ellie."

Ella didn't even have the privilege to fight for a few more seconds because they really needed to go, so she broke the embrace with pursed lips in an attempt not to pout and let her chin quiver until she cried and she put on a brave face when she turned around to grab her carry-on case and walked along with Bre.

The girls waved them goodbye once more as they walked to the security line and the lads did the same. They watched as they, thankfully, walked down the line at a decent pace since the line was moving quicker than expected and they didn't leave until they managed to see the girls disappearing past that checkpoint.

It had been pure silence after the girls left, the lads only talking when Matt suggested going for some food and Alex agreed, but apart from that, they just seemed to be in their own heads.

Matt was clearly thinking about how hard it was to say goodbye to his girlfriend and endure a month or so without her whilst on tour until they were back in the States and she could join them on the road.

But Alex wasn't as lucky and he was mourning the missed chances he'd had to speak up. He wanted to hit himself in the head for being an idiot, wasting the time he'd had with her by being jealous and fucking shit up instead of coming clean and actually try and see if anything could happen between them.

He felt like he wanted to call Florence and just cry to her on the phone, let her call her a fucking idiot because that's what he was.

Instead, he kept that turmoil to himself all day. From the second he and Matt sat down at the pub they'd chosen to eat at—they'd gotten a text from Bre and Ella saying they had barely made it into their flight and it was all because first class had taken a bit longer to board, Ella comically saying 'thank fuck for the posh dickheads being late!'—up until the moment he got back home.

It was painful having to walk back into his flat and see the living room in the same state they had left it the night before and the door to his guest bedroom open and showing the messy bed.

He was so out of it at that moment that he just went straight to bed and plopped down on it face down, cursing himself out in his head endlessly until his eyes closed and he fully fell asleep.

Yet, he couldn't really escape. His mind tortured him with dreams of Ella, and despite the feeling of emptiness that swallowed him, he really wouldn't wish for something else.

✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧

A/N: So... it finally happened. Sorry it took this many chapter but really not sorry because this is the way I planned it to be - I did say this would be a slow burn so, you were warned. Now, something I really am apologising for, from the bottom of my heart, is for the fact that after this chapter it might take me longer to update. I had up until this chapter done and ready to post, and even though I have every chapter left in this series meticulously planned out, it's been a little hard finding the time to write it properly lately. I'm so very sorry, life has been getting quite stressful lately and there's a lot in my plate right now but I promise I will do my best to upload as quick as possible. My heart is quite literally breaking as I say this, but I hope you can understand and I hope you know I don't take your patience for granted. Once again, my most sincere apologies for this but I'm also sending you my most heartfelt thank yous for all the time you give this story and the support you show me, it means the absolute world to me and I love y'all very much. Yous are all fucking amazing, hope you have the best weekend! Sending lots of love and truly hope to see you really soon xx

Taglist:   @imagine-that-100 @red---moon @kennedy-brooke​ @faveficz @indierockgirrl @ladydraculasthings @moonvr @unwantedlovergirl @eaglestar31 @nikisfwn @funniestpersoninnyc @andrearroe @justacaliforniandreamer @alexturnersgf69 @yourorganiccigarette  

[colemckenzies]

Jesus Christ Superstar: Ultimate Edition

this easter It Is Time. using my years of fixation and research i present to you The Best Version of every song from jesus christ superstar, plus commentary. obviously subjective opinion so do feel free to discourse in the tags bc as you may have picked up i enjoy talking about the relative merits of jcs productions. also i might not even stand by this in a week bc i find it hard to keep multiple versions in my head at the same time for comparison and there are so so many versions.

please note that acting, vocal quality, music direction, and where available staging have all been taken into account. act 2 in rb bc of link restrictions.

heaven on their minds - 2012 broadway revival

obviously in terms of pure vocals carl anderson is unbeatable forever, but the staging of the 2012 broadway revival pips it for me. josh young's voice is still gorgeous and the judas/jesus/mary throuple is everything. i love versions where hotm is sung directly To jesus, and i love that in this version jesus actually listen and takes judas' concerns on board. the love and respect between all three of them is palpable and even though it is a serious disagreement, part of that disagreement comes from the fact that they care about each other so much. that's tragedy baby!

special mention to henrike tönnes on the 2022 rob carroll version, i specifically like the Ending of the song for that one. also the sarcastic clap along w the disciples that judas does in the 2013 hungary version.

what's the buzz/ strange thing mystifying - 2018 tv event

annoyingly this isn't on youtube but tbh the staging is nothing mindblowing. i think what's the buzz is a great song for showcasing the usp of each version and in this one i think being able to hear the real crowd actually cheering for jesus (john legend) really adds to the narrative. i also absolutely love brandon victor dixon and as i have said before he would be one of my favourite judases if judas were straight. sara bareilles does a great 'offended' face when he bitches about her lmao.

honourable mention to the 2012 uk arena tour for again showing off the conceit of 'modern day activists' really well in this song, not forgetting of course WOTS THE BUZZ #buzz tweet

then we are decided - 2013 hungary

(starts at about 9:49) obviously not a huge amount of competition for this one, i wish more versions included it bc it's a great song :( anyway i loveee the staging choice to have everyone else freeze-framed on stage with the priests walking among them, and i freaking love this caiaphas. literally inserting it into what's the buzz also works nicely

i do miss kurt yaghjian from the 1973 film tho, forever obsessed with his voice and facial expressions. extra shout out to the striving artists version for simply existing.

everything's alright - 2006 austria

something about the musical direction in 90% of versions of this song goes right through me, like there is always some weird instrument that makes me Cringe. but this version is Nice :) really enjoy how Pissed this judas is. and i love the way the long notes last into the next section of the song. i will say i prefer the alt melody for 'people who are hungry' but you can't have everything

this is a really nice one on the all-female cast recording as well, obviously it's already the most female-heavy song of the show but shoshana bean's judas is particularly good here i think. also of course carl anderson with tears in his eyes grasping ted neely's hands while the music swells is ingrained on my brain for all time.

this jesus must die - 1994 studio cast

this album as a whole is probably my Least Favourite JCS Ever, but i will admit that this song fucks. the haunting eeriness at the beginning. the way it kicks into a funky little syncopated rhythm. the disembodied hosannas. unexpected delight.

2012 uk arena tour is unfortunately disqualified for having possibly the Most antisemitic portrayal of the priests, which is a shame because it's probably my favourite casting. one of my favourite annas portrayals, but in general all of them are distinct and fully embodied which does make that version very fun to watch. i also really enjoy the 2019 castaway productions version for this song, the way they play instruments while they sing like a lil band, and caiaphas' eye make-up is sick. 1973 film is obviously also iconic with the little scaffolding tippy taps, and the way kurt yaghjian sings 'a trick-or-two with lepers'. i love this song sorry.

hosanna - 2017 striving artists

i kind of don't have justification for this one LOL i just like it. i know there are versions that are sung better and really the staging is quite important for this song but idk i just find this version really calming. i don't know if it's the music direction? i don't know enough about music tbh

admittedly this is another one that works really well for the 2018 tv event, but doesn't quite win for me as the crowd don't cheer in all the right places and john legend doesn't react at all to the 'would you DIE for me?' line which is crucial. for good reaction to that line the 2000 film where it elevates the bitchy gay tension in the love triangle really nails it.

simon zealotes - 2011 austria

EASYYY WIN FOR ME this is actually the song that made me want to pick a best version for each one because this version IS so much better than any other one for me. the guitar!!!!!! rob's energy!! the music design for this one really fucks so severely and then there's just rob jumping around hyping up the crowd (there is a film version from 2008 on youtube, but i wanted to capture the music for this one). iconic.

big love also to hungary 2013 for having a simon who's in a wheelchair, particularly notable when it's really the highest energy role in the show. i do enjoy.

poor jerusalem - 2022 rob carroll

i cannot find any information about this album other than what's on spotify but i do enjoy the slight alt melodies in this version and i like his voice.

not a lot to go into for this song really. i like the ben forster version a lot as well, and the 1996 london cast version. 'close your eyes' is a better lyric than 'live a lie'. moving on.

pilate's dream - 2022 all-female cast

may be biased bc I LOVE ORFEH but i just think this version is so gorgeous. i love the little vocal drifts without going too overboard and distracting from the song. the music composition is especially pleasing as well.

there's a lot of honourable mentions i could give here bc i think pilate has so much potential for power and gravitas, but 1973 film, 2012 uk arena tour, 2013 hungary, and east end theatrical ensemble. are also big favs. in terms of staging i love the fact that 2019 castaway productions has jesus himself on stage playing the backing piano like he actually is haunting pilate.

the temple - 1992 australia

australia 1992 habitually has some of the most interesting and creative music direction and this is one of the songs where it particularly pays off. love the whistles. i also like that the second 'get out' is spoken, not screamed. the second half is appropriately creepy with the sustained 'chriiiist'. pretty boring staging but at least the costumes are fun.

i don't know how to love him - east end theatrical ensemble

possibly controversial choice but ugh i love this version i even love how low the sound quality is. like listening to a vinyl. i think her voice is so gorgeous and i love her accent. deeply soothing to listen to. i feel like im in the 70s rn.

i'm also a huge fan of the 1996 london cast recording, joanna ampil has such a sweet voice and the way she emotes so that you can really Hear it works well for this song. special shout out to 2012 uk arena tour which i don't think is a particularly amazing version but we get the absolute gunshow from mel c at the end so we love it.

damned for all time/blood money - 1973 film

CARL!! I feel like 1973 film and 1996 london album are at a disadvantage in this bc they're what i grew up with so i kind of take them for granted but this is undeniably iconic. no one can commit to the tortured soul but belief he's doing the right thing like him. the way he can scream but it still sounds Good. i prefer versions that have annas suggest 'a fee' rather than caiaphas just repeating himself so that's here too. the weird keening way he sings 'on thursday night'. annas dropping the coins just as he reaches for them. UGH so good. a lot less brassy than other versions as well.

this is another song that kinda fucks in every version, but the original 1970 album and the 2018 tv event are particularly good i think. also that one bit in 2012 uk arena tour where annas is like '...... get up off the floor.'