“I can’t believe you’re leaving.” Lacie looked up from the floor and looked at me.

“Lacie,” I said, “I’ll only be gone for a few weeks!”

“We have this whole summer planned out, Megan.” Jacki said with tears in her eyes.

My aunt just moved over to the UK a few months ago. She works for an airline and got my family a deal on tickets to fly over there and visit her. I live in eastern America.

“I know,” I said “But-“

“We were all going to go to London after we graduated high school.” Lacie said.

“It’s just a lot for us to handle.” Shayla said.

All four of us have been best friends for about two years now. We became close during sophomore year. We just left senior year. Of course I didn’t want to leave them. They’re my best friends. But I don’t have much of a choice now. I’m leaving tomorrow morning. The girls are staying over so they can bring me to the airport tomorrow. I looked at the time. 10:47 pm. I started crying.

“My flight is in less than 7 hours.” I said.

We all sat on my floor and cried and just talked about how thanful we were for each other. Then it was brought up.

“If you happen to run into One Direction, tell them I love them.” Jacki said, laughing.

I laughed, “Of course!”

Just days before, we went to the concert in Boston. Front row. It was amazing. They just flew back home last night. They’re taking a break.

I don’t know what I’d do if I ran into them. Maybe cry. Maybe pass out. Maybe I’d be casual about it. Who knows.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up to my alarm clock. We all got ready and headed out the door. On the way to the airport, we just listened to One Direction. I was in the passanger seat, next to my mom, while Jacki, Shayla and Lacie were in the back. My dad and brother were in the car behind us. My dad wasn’t going to come with us to the UK. He was the girls ride home.

I turned around and looked at Jacki. She began crying.

“I won’t be gone forever!” I said, laughing.

“I know,” she choked, “but remember when I was in New Jersey for two days but it felt like weeks? You’re going to be gone for three weeks. It’s going to feel like years.”

Then I looked at Shayla and Lacie. They looked down and started crying. I turned back around to face the road, slouched in my seat, and started crying. In the corner of my eye, I saw my mom look at me. She looked straight again and said “You’ll see them tomorrow.”

I sat straight up, eyes popped open, looked at my mom and said “What!?”

She laughed, looked at me for a second and said “It was supposed to be a surprise.” She looked straight again and before I could say anything, she continued talking, “We couldn’t get them on today’s flight, so we got them on tomorrows. We were going to have dad surprise them and I was going to surprise you when we landed. But uh yeah, surprise!”

We all started screaming. They all were screaming “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” at my mom. We weren’t crying tears of sadness anymore. Now we were crying tears of pure happiness.

“Are you sure Aunt Mary wouldn’t mind it?” I asked my mom.

“Already talked to her.” she said, “she’s fine with it!”

More screaming. We all continued singing along to One Direction with smiles on our faces. I turned down the volume, looked at my mom and said “Where exactly did Aunt Mary move to in the UK?”

She thought for a minute and said “Uhhhh, I’m not too sure. Check my texts.”

I pucked up her phone and went through her texts until I found my aunts conversation. I was reading the conversation when my jaw dropped. Then there was an incoming call from my dad. I gave the phone to my mom and turned around to face the girls, my mouth still wide open.

“What?!” they all asked, in unison.

“My aunt….” I choked, “she…erm…she moved to Doncaster.”

We all started screaming. They said things like “You’re going to be breathing the same air as Louis fucking Tomlinson!!”

I didn’t know what to say. Surely I wasn’t going to be staying near him, was I?

“What if he lives right next door?!” Shayla asked.

I smiled and said “well, I’m not going to find out until we’re all together.” I said.

“Why?!” Shayla asked.

“Find out!!” Lacie yelled.

“You NEED to!” Jacki said.

“I can’t.” I said, “It wouldn’t be the same without you guys.”

They just smiled. Lacie said “tomorrow then.”

I smiled, nodded, and turned back around. We continued singing along to the new One Direction album. “Wanna go back to the old days?” I asked.

They didn’t answer. They knew what I meant.

I put in “Up All Night” and we all sang along to “What Makes You Beautiful” with tears in our eyes, thinking about how far the boys have come.

Together, we’ve seen the boys live twice. At the Jingle Ball and at the concert a few nights ago. The past year, a lot has happened. They’ve won too many awards to keep up with, they just released their third allbum, and at the beginning of 2013, they were declared the biggest boyband in history. Crazy huh?

On the down side, Danielle and Liam just recently broke up and he hasn’t been handling it well. He’s been in the media for being “very rude” to not only paparazzi, but fans. I don’t blame him. They won’t stop asking about what happened!

Eleanor and Louis are still going strong. I hope they stay together forever, honestly. I started laughing, turned around and said “Please tell me you guys remember Perrie.” They laughed and I faced foward again.

The Perrie and Zayn thing was all fake. It was a publicity stunt. A lot of people were angry, but we thought it was kinda funny. And in a way, nice of Zayn to help her out like that.

“More Than This” came on. This was my favourite song from the end of 2011-2012. The tears wouldn’t stop.

“Girls,” my mom said “relax. They’re just five normal boys.”

I snapped my head towards her and choked. “Mom…they’re not JUST five boys. They changed our lives. They are a part of us and always will be. They mean a lot to-“

“I know,” she said “but if you become close to them you can’t cry over everything they do!” She started laughing.

I knew she was kidding, but it was our dream. Me and the girls would go to the ends of the earth to be close with the boys. Who wouldn’t?

We continued singing along to “Up All Night”. Like the old days. Like when we were 15. Jacki and Shayla are 18 now. I’ll be 18 in a couple weeks and Lacie will be 18 in August. Louis is now 22, Zayn is 21, and Harry, Liam and Niall are all 20.

We pulled up to the airport. The next thing I knew, I was getting out of the car and walking inside. Inside, we gave hugs, talked for about two minutes, and caught our flight. I turned around once, to see my dad and best friends waving, tears in their eyes, as we got on the plane.

I put a couple things in the carry on and took my iPod and phone and sat down. I had tons of mentions from Twitter. All my Twitter friends were wishing me a safe flight. They’re the best. I tweeted them back, put my headphones in and turned up my music loud enough so I could hear my music, but also my mom talking, and I started to doze off. “Here I come, Doncaster.” I thought to myself.

I could kind of hear my mom talking to my aunt, who was a flight attended on our plane. I opened my eyes, looked at my aunt and said “thank you for letting my friends come.”

“No problem sweetie!” She said, “Now go to sleep. You look exhausted!”

I smiled and put my head back. “Moments” came on. I just closed my eyes and let the voices of Liam, Harry, Zayn, Niall and Louis drift me off to sleep.