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chapter three
The crowds of girls screamed at the five, extremely cold Westlife lads as they were jostled out of the television studio and into their people carrier which was to take them to Gatwick airport where they were to be flown back to Dublin. It was late November and there was a light covering of frost on the ground.
Bryan took a window seat and gazed out. The window was blacked out from the outside but Bryan could see all the girls pushing hard against the security guards, trying to get near the car. Although he was flattered at all the attention, Bryan had never really felt anything for his fans but gratitude and a sense of wanting to please them as they'd helped him become successful. He had never been attracted to any of them, even though he'd seen millions of different girls from all over the world. Not one stood out to him for those reasons or caught his attention.
Except her, the girl in his dream. He hadn't been his normal, noisy, cheerful self since that dream. He'd become inattentive. It was odd because Shane was usually the inattentive one normally.
"What are you thinking about?" asked Mark who was sitting next to Bryan in the car. Bryan didn't hear him and continued to stare out of the window. "He's thinking about that dream again" called Kian from the back of the car next to Nicky, "and that girl, I bet he is!". Kian undid his seat belt, leaned forward and peered through the back of the seat at Bryan.
He tapped his shoulder and startled Bryan, who turned around and looked at him "What?" he asked. "Stop daydreaming, it was just a dream" answered Mark "Don't look too deep into it". "It wasn't," Bryan sighed turning back to the window "it was a vision."
"Leave him alone" Shane joined in, "he never tells you what to think or do!". Shane lent forward and patted Bryan's shoulder in support. "Yeah, unless he starts ignoring his work and letting everyone down, it's not really our business" chirped in Kian as Nicky nodded.
The four of them then subconsciously decided to leave the subject alone as it seemed so important to Bryan. Suddenly the car stopped and swerved only narrowly missing a yellow mini. "Sorry about that fellas," yelled the driver to the Westlife lads "That car dazzled me with its headlights and I didn't see that mini."
Kian rubbed his head after hitting it on the back of Bryan's chair during the sudden stop. He put his seat belt back on and decided not to take it off again as it was too dangerous. The driver opened his window and waved at the driver in the mini and yelled sorry.
Sherry waved back and yelled "that's alright!". The other car had blinded her too. Sarah straightened herself up in the front passenger seat next to Sherry. She had been asleep and the sudden stop had jolted her and woken her up. "Are we nearly there yet?" she asked as Sherry started driving again. Sherry was going on holiday and Sarah was going with her to the airport so she could drive Sherry's car back home afterwards.
After they'd parked the car at Gatwick, Sarah helped Sherry load her luggage onto an airport trolley and they headed for the gate. Once at gate 54, Sherry lined up with the other passengers flying to New York City and waited to board the plane. Sarah stood behind the fence surrounding the departure lounge and waved and yelled goodbye to her.
There was a lot of noise coming from the next gate. When Sarah turned to see what all the commotion was, she saw a huge group of about 30 girls crowding around something or someone she couldn't see. Not interested in the slightest, she headed back to the car.
Inside the crowd Bryan was trying to push his way through to catch up with the others. They'd been separated and now one of the bodyguards was trying to locate and rescue him from the masses. Bryan pushed his way through as hard as he could. Once through he headed towards the fence before the girls could notice he'd escaped. He could see the other lads waiting and looking for him at the departure doors.
He peered back at the crowd but his eye was caught instead by a girl walking by. She looked familiar. It was her! He was transfixed and paralysed for a split second before he started to walk in her direction and followed her.
Sarah pulled the car keys she'd been given out of her pocket and in doing so half the contents of her pocket fell out too, dropping on the floor. She bent over to gather it all up.
While doing this it gave Bryan a chance to catch up. He picked up his pace and and they got closer and closer. The space between them was within talking distance. Bryan speeded up even more at this point. A car park attendant ran over to Sarah and Bryan slowed down again. He started talking even though he was out of breath, "I saw your friend or at least I think it was your friend?, anyway parking her car" Sarah nodded back "Yeah she's my friend". "You were in the car" he said. He was a tall, skinny, ginger man with a dodgy haircut and bad breath.
"I'm sorry to say another car has accidentally hit your friend's, my colleague has them waiting outside, if you'll follow me". "What's the damage?" Sarah asked worried, "It's just it's not my car." She said as she walked off with the attendant "I can't really do much as my friend's just boarded her plane."
They walked through the doors much to Bryan's dismay. He stood there thinking about what he should do next. He had a plane to catch but this was a date with fate, he couldn't let it pass by. He ran as fast as he could, not realising that the swarm of girls had now noticed his departure and were chasing after him again from afar. "Bryan come back!" yelled Nicky from the departure doors, "where's he going?" he asked the others, not expecting an answer as they were as confused as he was.
Outside the airport Bryan noticed an unattended airport cart by the curb. He jumped in after checking no one was looking and started the cart, which the person in charge had stupidly left the keys in. After a couple of minutes working out how to control the cart without crashing, Bryan drove off in hot pursuit of the girl. Weaving in and out of cars for ages it seemed, Bryan scanned the area in hope of seeing her.
He needed to see her one more time, even if he didn't actually say anything to her. She had haunted his dreams and he'd felt he'd got to know her through them. She had a character and personality now and Bryan needed to know if he was right about her or if it was just a premonition of a girl he was going to accidentally bump into and nothing important was to come of it. She was constantly in his head. He always worked very hard, but even when he was concentrating on a hard dance routine or talking in an interview she was still there in his head, tattooed on his memory. That smile, those eyes, those lips, they held a mystery that he knew he had to solve.
The cart suddenly stopped dead and refused to start again. "Come on!" Bryan said angrily hitting the steering wheel. Bryan was directly in the middle of the road and Sarah, in Sherry's yellow and now dented mini, didn't see him as she was forced to swerve to a stop behind him. Bryan glimpsed around quickly before he got out of the cart. He pushed it to the side of the road and waved to signal that the car could now continue it's journey.
Sarah drove away, she'd been distracted by her doughnut which had been resting on the dashboard but when the car came to it's sudden halt it had fallen onto her lap. She hadn't noticed Bryan at all. He hadn't noticed her either until she turned to go around the corner and Bryan caught a quick glimpse of Sarah at the driver's seat, leaving the car park.
"Aarrgghh!" he yelled, grabbing his hair, "wait!" he yelled after her. She didn't hear of course, she had her 'Savage Garden' CD on and was singing along to 'I knew I loved You'. Bryan ran after the car followed by his fans that'd finally caught up with him.
As Sarah joined the main road, Bryan was about a metre behind waving his arms at her to stop. Still Sarah didn't see him. She had only been driving for a few months and was a very cautious driver and so she was paying strict attention to the job at hand which was safely leaving the airport and joining the big junction.
Bryan stopped dead in his tracks as Sarah and the car got smaller and smaller as they disappeared down the motorway. Bryan sighed and put his hands in his pockets just as he was suddenly grabbed from behind by one of his fans while the others swarmed around him. His bodyguard, who was deeply out of breath trying to catch up with him, pulled him out of the crowd and the girl had no choice but to remove herself from his back.
Another airport cart pulled up next to them and the bodyguard helped Bryan get into it as the girls tugged and pulled at him. The cart drove off back into the airport, Bryan gazed back at the road where he'd lost her. He'd never forgive himself for not reaching her in time.
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