Between The Lines

Perched on the couch over-looking the city below, Niall strummed away on his guitar waiting for the others to finish up. The hustle and bustle of Times Square was fascinating to him. They were very fortunate to have such a great management. Last time they were in New York their hotel was across the street from Central Park.

“Stopping hogging the hairspray Zayn!” Louis angry shout could be heard throughout the whole suite, Niall snickered at his band mates playful fighting. They always took so long to get ready. You’d think as boys it would only take them a couple minutes.

“That’s nice” A voice interrupted Niall’s thoughts.

Niall pale blue eyes met those that belonged to Harper Quinn. He could feel the heat rush to his cheeks as a small blush appeared on his face from petite girl’s compliment as he mumbled a small thanks.

“Do you know how to play” He queried.

“My Dad taught me when I was little, but I stopped once...” She trailed off for a second before continuing “I’m not really a patient person so I got bored of having to practice all the time”

“Here” He patted the couch beside him “I’ll help you refresh your memory”

Harper took a seat next to Niall and gently rested the guitar on her lap. She felt Niall’s wrap his arm around her until it was resting on the neck of the guitar.

“Alright the song I was just playing was The A Team” He told her “It starts off with the G chord”
“I think I remember that” She moved her fingers over the strings to make the chord. “Is this it?”
“Not even close, here let me help” Niall laughed, taking her hand in his, guiding her fingers to the right frets. “Now gently strum”

Harper strummed lightly, however the sounds the guitar made wasn’t quite like how Niall had been playing it earlier. Niall just laughed at her, while she pouted slightly.

“How about I strum, and you just do the chords” He suggested “I’ll teach you the first verse”
For the next twenty minutes, Niall taught Harper the right chords to the first verse of the song as he strummed his pick gently across the strings. Harper was a fast learner, however when you haven’t picked up a guitar in eleven years it’s takes a little bit to learn again.

“I got it!” Harper said excitedly, proud of her efforts.

“Very good, now let’s try one more time”

Harper positioned her fingers for the G chord as Niall began strumming.

“White lips, pale face. Breathing in snowflakes” Harper had to admit, Niall had a great voice and as he sung she was trying hard not to get distracted by his singing. Lost in the music, Harper began to sing the next part with Niall.

“Burnt lungs, sour taste. Lights gone, days end”

Taken aback by her sudden singing, Niall let her finish the last part of the verse.

“Struggling to pay rent. Long nights, strange men”

As soon as Niall had stopped singing the first verse, applause and cheers broke out behind them. The rest of the One Direction boys were all watching them from the kitchen, huge smiles on their faces that matched Niall’s beside her.

“I didn’t know you could sing like that!” Harry exclaimed.

“You never asked” Harper smirked.

“We might have to have a jam session together” Liam suggested.

“Later” Harper checked her phone. “Right now we have to get across Manhattan for your radio interview, we’ve got time but you can never know with New York traffic”

Harper grabbed her things and was first out of the suite, all the boys quickly followed still completely mesmerised by their assistant. They’d liked her from the start, but now even more. She was totally unpredictable to them.



“Now of course you’re gearing up for the show at Madison Square Garden in December” The radio host, a man in what looked like his 30’s, began.

“That’s right” Liam spoke up first. “We’re all really excited to be given such an enormous opportunity. I think I can speak for all the lads when I say that we definitely are counting down the days”

The radio host nodded, smiling at Liam’s response. “Can you tell us a bit about it?”

“Well we don’t want to give away too much of our secrets” Zayn laughed.
“But we can tell you it’s going to be big!” Louis announced.

“I heard the show sold out in less than a minute?”

“Yes” Harry confirmed “We were honestly so surprised at that. We cannot thank our fans enough for all of their continuous support since The X Factor. We never dreamed of any of this happening” All his band mates nodded in agreement.

Harper tuned out the rest of the interview. The host went on to grill them about their promotional trip before the show, their new album which would be out next and then asking them questions sent in by fans via twitter. It wasn’t until the last question did her interest spark up.

“This is directed at Niall” The host told them “Now this has been circling over the internet since yesterday. Who is the blonde girl you were seen with arriving at your hotel?”

Niall looked confused by the question but spoke up. “Oh! That must be about Harper. She’s our PR assistant while we’re here in New York”

“So there’s nothing going on between the two of you? The photos were you had your hand on her back say otherwise”

“Nothing at all. It’s strictly a professional relationship, and I was just helping her through the crowd of paparazzi. She’s a bit of a rookie when it comes to that sort of thing” Niall laughed.

“But she’s good looking!”

“She is fit” Harry said “But like Niall said it’s professional and we wouldn’t want to damage her career or get her in trouble”

Harper grew slightly uncomfortable that they were discussing her, but thank fully the interviewer wrapped it up by thanking the boys for coming in and wishing them good luck for their show in December.

It wasn’t until they were almost back at the hotel did Niall question her about what happened in the interview.

“Did you know about the articles and photos online?” He asked “I looked over at you when he asked that and you had this look on your face”

“Oh” Harper laughed “My friend had sent me a link to one last night”

“Right” Niall nodded, dropping the subject.

“No doubt you boys are starving, who is up for Chinese take-out for lunch?”

They all loudly agreed, clearly they were hungry. Harper took down all their orders, surprised by how much they could eat. It was almost enough to feed a group of people, not five boys.

“You boys all head up to the hotel and I’ll go get lunch” She told them “However, because you ordered so much I’m going to need a volunteer to help me”

“Niall will go with you” Harry announced, winking at the blonde boy who proceeded to punch him in the arm.

“I don’t really care who comes with me, I just need someone too”

“No I’ll help” Niall said “Clearly everyone is too lazy to even bother”

“Atta boy Niall” Harry clapped him on the shoulder.

“Take one for the team” Louis grinned.

“Alright then Ireland” Harper turned to Niall, rolling her eyes slightly, as the rest of the boys wolf-whistled at the pair before entering the hotel “Follow me, one of the best Chinese takeaway shops is just down the road from here”