BACK		What Am I Doing Without You

By Vicky

Chapter 1

It was a normal day, just like every other 365 in the year, with exceptions to the leap year of course. I stumbled into work and I felt like the living dead. I wondered if it was too obvious that I’d been completely paraletic the night before! It was a miracle I still had this job, after all I was always late, or getting yelled at for doing something wrong. Ah well, that’s life I guess. Anyway let me tell you a little more about me. My name’s Chelsea, I’m nearly 18 years of age, and I just broke up with my dorky boyfriend – Nathan, don’t ask what I ever saw in him! I live in a London flat with my Best mate – Nicola. We’ve known each other for about 5 years now, we met at Secondary School. I’m just about to leave work for my break now, and yes I know this McDonald’s outfit isn’t the most flattering, especially not these daft baseball caps and hair nets! It always gets real busy round about 12, rush hour would be till about 2 then it would calm down again. I’ve seen my fair share of famous people, Bradley from Sclub, Jade Goody, Will Young… the list is endless! But I suppose living in London all that’s normal. I even bumped into Darius on the tube one evening, he was such a gentleman! I guess I’m a bit too engrossed in famous people’s lives, I’ve always got a copy of heat magazine handy! There was really only one man for me though… Yeah that’s the one, Bryan McFadden! Ok so it’s a bit far fetched, like he’s in one of the biggest boyband’s… ever! But every girl can dream. I’d never met him but I knew he was a big fan of McDonald’s, I guess you’re thinking *ahh so that’s why she works there then* and you would be absolutely wrong in thinking so! Nah I’m not a psycho obsessive stalker, believe me if I could get a job else where I would! I haven’t got the time at the moment though, what with working 24/7, and I really need the money. Enough about my life story anyway, Ooo my phones ringing! “Hey Nic, how ya doin?” I answered. “OMG are you serious?? You are a legend!!” “You bet I will! Thanks mate, see ya later!”
I could hardly believe this, it was the best news I’d heard in ages. I let out a scream of excitement.


Chapter 2

We both got dressed and by 7.30am we were ready and out the door. We called for a taxi to take us to the airport.
“Have you got the tickets??” I screamed.
“Yes They’re here!” Nic said pulling them out of her bag.
“Thank god! Oh what would I do without ya!” I laughed. I had ants in my pants, I couldn’t sit still for 1 moment. I loved flying so I couldn’t wait to get on the plane either.
“Boarding Tickets, Check, Passports, Check, Luggage…”
“Check!” Nic butted in. We both laughed. Before we knew It we were at the airport and we checked our luggage in.
“I’m just going to the loo ok?” I said
“Sure, Just don’t get lost,”
“I won’t!” I wandered off to find the toilets, and as I was turning left for the ladies, I saw a familiar face walk out of the men’s. I stood there with my mouth on the floor, I couldn’t believe it!
“Wha.. oh.. a… um…!” I stuttered, pointing towards him. He saw me and laughed. I covered my mouth with my hands and gave him a stunned look. I began to walk over to him.
“Er.. uh.. bu…?”
“Pardon?!” He asked
“Bry.. Bryan?” I managed to squeeze out.
“Yep that’s me!”
“I’m coming to see you… Tonight!”
“Really? Where are ya sittin?”
“Uh.. Row 2 I think”
“Well I’ll look out for ya then” He grinned. He had a killer smile, I could have melted right there.
“I think I’m gonna pee myself!” OMG why did I just say that? You FOOL Chels!!
“Well.. I’ll leave ya to it then!” He laughed.
“Oh wait.. could I have an autograph? I don’t have my camera, it’s in my case!”
“Nah sorry,” My face dropped and my mouth opened.
“I’m kidding!” I gave a sigh of relief
“I knew that!” I said trying to force out a laugh, I was still in shock! “Hang on.. don’t move!” I came back a few seconds later out of the toilets, and handed him a piece of loo roll.
“I hope ya don’t mind… it’s all I could find!” He pulled a pen out of his back pocket.
“Of course not,” He giggled. “What’s your name?” He asked
“Oh … it’s Chelsea” He leant up against the wall and begun writing
“Chelsea, that’s a real pretty name!” I blushed, and let out the hugest smile you’d ever seen. He called my name PRETTY!! He handed me the loo roll.
“Here take this too!” He said handing the pen over.
“Thanks,” I said “See ya tonight then!”
“Yep, bye!” He said as he began to walk away. I was left there holding the signed loo roll and Bryans pen, floating around on cloud 9. My brain wouldn’t register what had just happened, Nicki would never believe this! I ran back off to find her, but she seemed to have gone. I looked around, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. I decided to sit down for a while, and relive what had just happened. I let out a squeal of excitement.. I had a habit of doing that in public places! 20 minutes had passed and I still hadn’t found Nicola, she had the boarding passes, so I needed to get hold of her. I tried ringing her but her phone was off. I sat down again and began to bite my nails, and think of what to do next.

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Chapter 3

Just a few seconds later I heard an electronic voice calling out my Boarding number.
“Flight DB752 to Dublin is departing in 15 minutes. Please board the plane”.
“Oh cr@p, what am I gonna do” I said to myself. I couldn’t believe Nic had just wandered off, where the heck was she! I approached the air stewardess and asked her if there was anything I could do, but she assured me there wasn’t. No boarding pass, no flight. Great, the dream of my life was turning into a nightmare. Nicola would never have got on that plane without me though. I sat down on the chair and I felt a tear roll down my face. All of a sudden I heard footsteps running towards me, followed by heavy breathing.
“STOP THE PLANE!” Shouted Nicki as she appeared beside me. The plane was just about to take off and we stood there helplessly.
“Like, I don’t think the pilot can actually hear you from here…!” I said sarcastically.
“Haha!”
“Where the heck have you been?? It’s your fault we missed that plane!” I said sternly.
“Well I had to go somewhere…”
“Where???” I interrogated her.
“I saw Shane! I saw Shane Filan, come on it was a once in a lifetime thing…”
“Yeah really, that’s why you’re going to SEE him tonight”
“You know what I mean.. anyway I caught up with him and got an autograph” She held out the signed flight ticket in front of me that read,
“To Nicola, with love Shane xxx”
“And ya think they’re gonna let us on with that!?” I asked. Nicola was distracted by the paper in my hand.
“So what’s that?” She said pointing to my hand.
“Well.. I bumped into Bryan as we were going into the loo’s”
“And you got him to sign toilet paper???”
“Well I didn’t have anything else! And anyway, I got his pen too” I said sticking my tongue out at her. We managed to switch our flight to the next one departing from Heathrow to Dublin. We would still arrive in time for the concert.. it’s just a good job we had a morning flight. We had to wait an hour for the next plane though.
”Right, this time I’m not letting you out of my sight.” I told Nic “Chels, we ain’t missing this plane, I promise!” To help pass the time we sat and spoke about our encounters with our “loved ones”. Yeah they were our loved ones – they just didn’t know about it yet!


chapter 4

“Did I tell ya… Bry said he’d look out for me tonight!” I said with a big smile appearing on my face.
“Really? Cool, ya better hope he recognizes you!”
“He’ll probably remember me as the toilet roll girl knowing my luck…” There was a pause then we burst into laughter.
“If only there was a way to get closer to them…” I said dreamily “Closer? Isn’t 5 rows enough for ya?!”
“Well ya know what I mean, like we met them today, but I wanna spend quality time with him, get to know him..”
“Yeah and I bet half of Dublin does too!” I gave a sigh realizing that Nic was right. Well I was on my way to making this dream come true, and when I set my mind to something I will always succeed.
“Look he even put 3 kisses!” Said Nicola staring at her ticket
“Well I got “Love” on mine AND 3 kisses!” I replied. We were acting like a couple of school girls, but that’s how we were a lot of the time, just having a craic. The time seemed to pass pretty quickly and soon we had boarded the next plane and were well on our way to Dublin.
“Chels, I hate flying!” Nicola revealed to me.
“Well I never knew that before… just don’t be sick over me!” I laughed. The flight was only about an hour, though it seemed longer, all we’d done the whole day is wait around. There was a bit of turbulence as we landed but we got off safely, and were getting more excited with every step. As we exited the plane we went to collect our luggage.
“Ours is gonna be the last out, I know it is!” I said
“Well we can’t miss them anyway” We had both stuck pictures of Westlife on our cases, just to make sure they didn’t get mistaken for someone else’s. In fact they were first out… maybe our luck was about to change, or maybe I just read too far into things. I had decided to put the loo roll and Bryan’s pen away safely in my bag, I didn’t want anything to happen to them. The time was 11.30am, we still had a whole day to kill. We got a cab from the airport to the hotel we were staying in. No-one said anything about the price of Taxis in Ireland! We checked into the hotel and ran up to our room, then frantically opened the door and dumped our bags down.
“Well here we are” I said bouncing myself down on the bed. “I bet this hasn’t seen some action in a while!” I joked
“It would if I had my way” Nic replied. We were both in fits of laughter.
“Well, we might be in luck, what if Westlife stay here!”
“Don’t be stupid, why would they stay in this dump? It’s the cheapest thing I could find!”
“Dump? This place is great! It’s 4* too, so much for being cheap” I said rolling my eyes.
“Enough about that anyway, let’s go see the sights!” Nicola said.
“I’m up for that,” I said jumping up again. We wandered the streets of Dublin, and gazed at all the beautiful sights.
“This really is a beautiful place” I said looking around me. All of a sudden Nicki started shaking me.
“LOOK! LOOK WHERE WE ARE!!”


Chapter 5

I looked up and we were stood in front of Morgan – Shane’s very own shop. Our mouths dropped. What if he was in there, this could be the start of something very good!
“Well… go in then…” I said pushing her forward. She took another small step towards the shop. Surprisingly enough she opened the door without hesitating, and I followed her inside.
“I can’t believe we’re here!” I whispered. I know it wasn’t anything really special, but it was in our eyes. Westlife were our life, they were the main topic of every conversation we’d ever had, and now we were in Shane’s shop! We looked around and everything was very nice. We both decided we HAD to buy something, we considered it to be a souvenir. I picked out a lush pair of jeans, and Nix decided to buy a revealing top! As we made our way to the counter and fished out our Euros, we realized no-one was there.
“Hello??” I called.
“Chelsea!” Nic said under her breath.
“What? We need some service!”
“Sorry about that…” A soft, male, Irish voice said. We both stood in Awe of the voice that was Shane.
“Hey.. didn’t we meet in the airport?” Shane asked Nicola
“Yeah… yeah we did! You remembered me!” She said trying not to make a fool of herself.
“So what are you doing here?” She questioned him.
“Oh we arrived here earlier so we could visit family.” Shane smiled, while taking the items and running them through the checkout.
“We…?” I asked
“Me n the lads” He smiled again. He came across as a very warm person.
“I thought I’d come down and see how business is doing” I had to know where Bryan was, I had to see him again. Nicola was happily chatting away with Shane while I kept asking myself questions.
“So I’ll see you at the gig tonight!” He smiled.
“Bye Shane, thanks” Nix grinned.
“See ya Shane!” I chipped in. As we walked out through the door the day had just got even better. I was rather superstitious… not freakishly, but I did have a feeling too many things were going right. I guess I was just being optimistic.
“I’m staaaarvin Nix!” I moaned
“Well.. there’s a Maccy D’s over there!” She giggled
“Yeah Right!!”
“Well there’s nothing else around here…”
“Fine!!” I said in a sulk.


Chapter6

We went in got our food and sat down near the window.
“Uh I’m sorry but I just can’t eat this sh!t!” I said spitting a piece of lettuce out.
“Well, I’ll have it then!” Nic laughed. I stared out the dirty glass window in a daze, while Nicki carried on eating.
“Why you don’t like this is beyond me, it’s so good!”
“mmm” I mumbled only half listening. I couldn’t stop thinking about Bryan in the airport. I suddenly noticed a familiar figure across the street. I ran outside as fast as my legs would take me, ran across the road, nearly getting run over, and put my hand on his arm. He turned around and gave me a funny look.
“Oh… uh, I thought you were someone else…. Sorry” I sighed and walked back over to Nicola who was now standing outside with our bags.
“What was all THAT about?!”
“I… I just thought he was someone else..”
“Like Bryan ya mean!”
“Yeah” I said with a long face.
“Oh cheer up Chels, it might never happen!”
”Well that’s just it.. it probably won’t!!”
“Let me tell you a little secret… once upon a time, there were 2 girls who went to Dublin…”
”Cut it out!” I said, but she continued
“…and they went to Mcdonalds for lunch. One of the girls had a mad crush on Bryan from Westlife, and the other, Shane”
“It’s not a crush anyway…” I interrupted
“Little did the girl that liked Bryan know, he’d been sitting right behind her for their whole meal…”
“Hahaha you’re so funny!” I looked back in through the window out of curiosity, and sure enough he was sat just behind me with another guy. He saw me and gave a little wave. My mouth nearly hit the floor. He must have thought I was a complete loon running across the road like that.
“Go on, go in and say hello!”
“No… he’s eating!”
“Look he’s just getting up… go on, do it!” I hid behind Nicola as I saw him exiting. Oh My God, could this really be happening? Once again I was faced with his beauty, and I was stunned. He was actually getting closer as he walked towards me smiling.
“Man that was good!” He said grinning. “I hear you’re not too keen..?!” The other guy was one of their security I think, he seemed to have a big build and didn’t say much.
“Well.. uh I work there, back in London”
“And we’ve only just met?!” We both laughed.
“I’m really sorry, I’ve gotta dash, but I just thought I’d say hi”
“Thanks” I smiled “ I guess I’ll see ya again later!”
“3rd time lucky” Nic chipped in. I kicked her discreetly. Bryan just smiled and began to leave with the other guy. I felt like screaming, but he was still within hearing distance so I held it in.
“I need to get a drink!” I went back inside and ordered a large coke. As I began to leave, I noticed a mobile phone on the table Bryan was sat at. I walked over and picked it up. Oh My God! I said to myself.


Chapter 7

“Nic… LOOK!”
“Yes, it’s a phone…”
“Not just ANY phone… it’s Bryans!!” She gave me a confused look.
“He left it on his table!! Now all I gotta do is wait for him to ring it… then meet up with him!”
“Chels, that guy is a millionaire, he’ll probably just go and buy a new one…” She had a point, but I wasn’t going to listen to it.
“Maybe I could ring one of the other guys… and then they’d tell Bryan and then he’d ring me…”
“You can’t go through his phone book! And anyway he probably doesn’t know his number,”
“Well then he can ring it off someone elses phone.. someone’s gotta have it right??”
“Hmmm” She shrugged her shoulders.
“What’s up with you??”
“Nothing.” I knew something was wrong, but it was like forcing ketchup out of an empty bottle! We stayed in town for the rest of the day, and at 5 decided to make our way back to the hotel room. Nicola was right, no-one had rung but I had Bryans phone… what was I meant to do with it? Like what if someone else rings.. his mum or.. or a friend?
“OMG guess what…” Nic gasped
“Wh.. what??” I said in a shocked voice.
“It’s only like 4 hours till we see westlife!” She laughed
“Don’t do that to me!”
” I was just getting my own back” She grinned. At least she’d started to cheer up a bit now, maybe she just missed home.
“Ya know what I haven’t looked at for like ages?” I said
“Uh… no??” I pulled out my toilet roll and smiled hugely, She gave a little chuckle.
“Right let’s start getting ready!” I said dancing around the room like a fairy. Nic was laughing at me, then we started getting changed. I called the bathroom first, it took about half an hour just to decide what to wear! I came out then started fixing my hair up.
“It’s not a fashion parade y’know” Nicki called from the bathroom
“Yeah, but I wanna look good for Bryan!” I joked. Just then I heard the Nokia ringer sound.
“Nic your phones ringing,” She came running into the front room and grabbed her phone.
“It ain’t mine…” She said. I stared at my phone which wasn’t ringing either. I ran to pick up Bryans phone and a private number was flashing on the screen.
“What do I do nic.. what do I do!” I panicked.


Chapter 8

I stared at the screen for a while longer, and then she snatched it out of my hands, answered it then gave it back to me.
“Hello…” I said in a nervous tone.
“Hey, um, is Bryan there please?” It was a girls voice, well it was hardly surprising, he probably had them falling at his feet. I explained the situation to the girl on the other end.
“Oh I see… well this is Susan, his sister, I’ll try and get hold of him and let ya know what’s happening!” She said in a friendly voice.
“Ok, thanks, Bye”
“Bye” She replied. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“It was his sister!!” I yelled to Nicola
“Wow! What did she want?”
“Oh she just said she’ll try an get hold of Bry, to let him know what happened.” “Cool!”
“Yep” I smiled and continued fixing my hair. 10 minutes later and I was ready. Nic just had to put her slap on! It was now 6.15 and we’d only just left the hotel, we had plenty of time though, after all they wouldn’t be on stage till about 8.45 and who wants to watch support acts?! I felt a phone vibrating in my pocket, so I pulled it out and it was Bryans again. This time the name on the display read “Nicky”.
“OMG NICKI, NICKYS RINGING!”
“Nicky Nicky what???” I put the phone in front of her face. “Oh we’re not having a repeat performance of earlier, just ANSWER IT!”
“It’s not really my place to though is it…”
“Well you found it!” I shook my head and answered all the same.
“Hey,” I said reluctantly.
“Hey, it’s Bryan, erm I understand you found my phone?”
“It’s Bryan” I mouthed silently to Nic
“Oh uh yeah, it’s me, Chelsea, you left it in McDonalds!”
“Whaddya say I fix some passes for ya, so ya can come and give it to me personally?”
“For real??” I asked in shock
“Sure, I’ll have a word with Paul.. and tell him to come n find you after the show, where are your seats?”
“Row 5, Block B4 seats, uh.. hang on” I covered the phone with my hand.
“Nic, what seat numbers have we got?”
“15 and 16” She said smiling
“Seats 15 and 16” I said to Bryan
“Well, just turn it off for now, and I’ll see ya later”
“Sure, thanks!”
“Bye” He said
“Bye” I replied. I turned to Nicola and started laughing nervously,
“I can’t believe what just happened!”


More coming soon