Standing in front of Reese, with her feral-blue eyes fixed on me, it was easy to claim I was fine. Having her close to me made me feel invincible and I'll admit, pretty damn cocky too.

But it was a whole different story once it was time for me to start playing.

Reese had been right. It was way too much.

Even with ear protection in. Even with Jules' jackass aviator sunglasses - the ones that made me look like the biggest try-hard douche on the planet - protecting my eyes. It was no use. After only the second song my head was screaming.

An icepick was lodging itself in the space just behind my eyeballs. The blinking lights, the bright white shriek of the spot. This was worse than any headache I'd ever had. Except one.

I haven't had a migraine since I was a kid, but I remembered it well. One wretched, awful, blanket- clutchingly miserable night brought on by a bright summer's day spent seaside without any sunglasses or hat on. This was very much like that, but instead of a darkened room and my mother's cool hand on my brow, I had twenty-thousand screaming fans and a spotlight directed on my face.

Out of the corner of my watering eyes, I could see Reese watching me. Her face was a mask of concern, and somehow, more so than any night previously, she seemed connected to me. Like she was reading my mind. Feeling my feelings.

"Here," she said, suddenly next to me as the third song mercifully ended. She grabbed my hand and led me off to the wing, out of sight of the crowd and held her hands out. "Give it to me."

"What?" I felt like I was starting to hallucinate because she had a literal halo around her head.

I blinked and it resolved into her shining hair backlit by a spotlight. "I've got it," she told me, reaching for the strap of my bass.

Dumbfounded, I let her lift it over my head. She settled it around her neck, adjusting the strap so it didn't swing comically around her knees. She looked up at me with a smile. "What are friends for?" she asked. "Go. You look like shit."

I staggered off the stage, and pressed cold water to my eyes, then returned, feeling like it was my duty. I had to hurry back, the show must go on, all that shite.

Then I stopped short.

Reese was standing in the wings playing all the bass parts just out of sight of the crowd.

And she was playing them perfectly.

I sat down heavily on a metal chair in the dark, and the world seemed to condense down to a pinprick with the only thing I could see - the only thing worth seeing - was Reese.

When it was all over she waved at me, gesturing frantically to get up. I went and took the credit, bowing for a show I hadn't performed and felt like the worst person in the world for doing so.

As the applause washed over me, I closed my eyes. I hadn't thought it was possible for me to be just friends with Reese. I was certain that my need, my desperate desire for her would win out. But now I was almost grateful for the picture falling on my head.

Because without it I would have missed out on knowing I had a friend as selfless and true as Reese Bailey.

"You okay mate?" Ewan asked me as we staggered back offstage. "What the hell happened to you out there?"

I winced. "'Member I hit my head? I'm starting to get a migraine, I think."

"Oh, that's a fucking kick in the teeth," Jules said sympathetically.

"My sister gets those," Hudson piped up. "You need to get out of the light. Go lie down a dark room or something."

"That's what I was telling him." Reese had suddenly appeared, inserting herself into our band-banter with an air of harassed concern. "You shouldn't have stayed for the show, Niall."

The guys were silent. "Yeah, Niall," Jules singsonged in a higher pitched voice.

"Come on," Reese said. "Stop pretending it doesn't hurt, you're not impressing me."

"I wasn't - "

She didn't let me finish, just grabbed my arm and started hauling me away from the rest of the guys with her surprising strength. And even though I felt like the world's biggest prat, I let her.

We were back at the hotel room, standing there in the doorway when my FaceTime ringtone went off on my phone. I looked down. "Fuck, it's my mum."

"Tell her you're going to bed," Reese instructed.

"Yes, darling," I said patiently. "I am most definitely going to do that. Just let me say hi." I clicked the little icon and then winced when the screen lit up.

"Good morning love!" My mom's cheery smile filled the screen, then immediately crashed down when she saw me.

"Hello, Mum."

"My word, Niall, you look terrible! What's wrong?"

I pinched my fingers to the bridge of my nose and let Reese guide me across the central lounge of the main suite. "Over there," I muttered to her, gesturing to my bedroom as my mum made cooing sounds. What was it about a mother's power, that the second they said something was wrong with you, you it felt ten times worse? "Think I'm getting a migraine," I sighed. "Like Tally."

"Oh my poor dear," my mom fretted. "Tally suffers terribly with those, she's bedridden for days. You won't be able to do much, who's there to take care of you?" She was getting more and more worked up.

Growing up, we were a tight and close-knit family. Tallula and I never went through the usual teenaged rebellion because there really wasn't much to rebel against. My father and mother had struck that balance between being our parents and being our friends almost perfectly, and I always appreciated the freedom they gave me to explore my interests.

My mother had never told me that it killed her every day that I chose a life that took me so far away form my family. She didn't have to. It was obvious and it killed me to hurt her the way I had. "You don't have anyone there to take care of you," she moaned again.

I sat down on the bed and kicked my boots off. Then I glanced up, and hesitated. "No, I do," I said, looking up at Reese who was watching me with a strange twist to her mouth. I swung the phone around and held it in front of Reese's face. "Mum, this is my friend Reese. Reese, this is Delia Penrose."

Reese looked somewhat stricken. "Hello," she mumbled. "Nice to meet you."

"Oh how nice that he has you there to take care of him," I heard my mother say. "It's very generous of you."

"No problem," Reese said. I could hear the warmth in my mom's voice, and something in me really enjoyed the fact that Reese was getting to meet her. Even if it had to be over the phone like this.

"Niall?" my mom called. I turned the phone back to me. "You drink a lot of water now," she instructed. "I'm going to get Tally to give you a call later and make sure you're doing everything right, all right love? She probably has some tricks up her sleeve after all these years."

"I know mom," I mumbled, lying down.

"Reese?" my mom called. I dutifully pointed the phone towards her.

"Yes?" Reese said sharply.

"Thank you so much again," my mother sighed. "You're a lovely friend to my boy."

Something like a smile tugged at the corner of Reese's mouth. "No problem," she repeated, a little softer this time.