Grade 8

Harry looked out the window of the cafe waiting for Alexis now that she was nearly ten minutes late. That's when he saw her. She was across the busy street a girl he had never seen before at her side both of them smiling wide as they spoke. He had known she was here he'd seen it on her twitter but he just figured London was a big place they couldn't possibly run into each other and yet there she was. He watched as she turned her head to look across the street their eyes met and Harry was sure he would fall over dead right then and there. Her smile fell replaced instead by a frown she had come to a stop her friend continuing on with out realizing.

"Sorry I'm late the Tube was packed with bloody tourists!"

Harry's eyes left Lena's briefly as he glanced at Alexis who had sat down her brow furrowed. Harry looked back out the window but Lena was gone now.

"Harry, everything alright?" Alexis asked concerned. "You look poorly."

"I'm fine." Harry cleared his throat taking a short moment to collect his thoughts now that his brain was a mess. "Just thought I saw someone."

Alexis' expression turned soft. "You saw her didn't you?"

"It doesn't matter." Harry waved away her words. "You said on the phone you have a favor to ask me?"

"Oh! Yes!" Alexis pulled her bag onto her lap so that she could look through it. "My mum is going absolutely mental trying to find another celebrity to wear her stuff and since she just launched a men's line, well naturally, I thought of you."

Harry was silent as Alexis rattled on about some pieces from the collection he could wear, free of charge of course. "Just to get it out there ya know?" Was her convincing ending as she shoved the catalogue of clothes under his face.

"Right." Harry looked at first page but it was just a blur of color. "You know what I like, why not pick something for me?"

Alexis smiled. "I'd love to!"

"Great." Harry handed Alexis the catalogue back.

"You can keep it if you want." Alexis said taking the catalogue from his long fingers, for a moment her mind wondered to sinful places a flash back to what those fingers could do. "Or, uh, Zayn has a copy you can borrow."

"I'll just look at his if I need to." Harry brought his now cold tea to his lips.

"Thank you for this." Alexis watched him carefully. "What are you going to do now that Lena is here?"

Harry set his cup down green eyes falling to look at the table. "I don't know yet. She's made it pretty clear she doesn't want any of us around."

"When has that ever stopped you lot?" Alexis laughed. "It's been awhile maybe she's changed her mind?"

"I don't know." Harry wished he knew what was going on in Lena's head. The closest he could get to her was stalking her twitter page that had been active again since the first of the year.

Alexis watched her friend for a moment. "You can win her back, I know you can."

"I'm glad someone out there is rooting for me."



Harry walked into the recording studio with very little pep in his step. He had to wake up at eight for starters and then the traffic to the studio was less then stellar. On top of that he had woken up with the worst sore throat he had had in ages. The day was turning out to be not one of his best.

Entering the little studio they had taken over for the last four weeks was just the icing on his shit cake. Niall was lounging on the futon stuffed into the corner a breakfast burrito in hand. Zayn was MIA he probably hadn't even bothered to get out of bed on time. Liam was in the booth already doing vocals and Louis was sat at the sound board looking just as lifeless as Harry felt.

"Morning." Harry croaked. "I don't think I'll be of much use this morning."

To emphasize this he went into a coughing fit that lasted until Louis finally took pity on him and gave him a water bottle. Their producer Julian watched him unamused as he tried to formulate a plan that would work now that Harry was out of commission.

"Alright just sit down and hopefully you'll be feeling better later." Julian said nodding towards the futon. "Grab some tea and just relax your voice."

Harry gave him a nod already heading towards the futon. Niall moves his legs long enough for Harry to sit down before he brought them on to his lap.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked sending Niall a scowl. "I'm sick."

"And I'm tired." Niall retorted closing his eyes.

"Sick and tired will you shut up?" Louis grumbled running his temples. "You're giving me a headache."

It was nearly an hour later that Zayn showed up looking more awake then any of them would have thought. He met Harry's inquisitive stare giving a shrug.

"Had to go to the airport." He said not saying anything else.

"Just in time for your turn in the booth!"

Zayn shrugged again before walking into the booth Louis had just finished doing his bit in. They had been at this for weeks and still had half the album to do it was starting to get to them.

"What's new with you boys?" Liam asked his feet coming to rest on top of Niall's that had yet to move from Harry's lap. "I feel like we never talk anymore!"

"We talk all the time." Harry mumbled. "Just last week you were jabbering on about you're new bird."

"Yeah! What's her name!" Niall spoke up eyes hidden underneath his snap back.

"Lily." Liam reminded them. "That was last week has anything changed since then?"

"I saw Lena."

The silence that followed this statement was so palpable that Julian turned to look at them confused. Niall's legs fell from their perch on Harry causing Liam to fall forward.

"What?" Niall asked his eyes had gone wild. "You saw Lena? Where? When? Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"Niall calm down, mate." Louis shook his head.

"I can't just calm down!" Niall shot him a cross look.

"I saw her yesterday afternoon." Harry answered some of Niall's questions. "She was across the street from the cafe I was in."

"Are you sure it was her?" Liam asked.

"Positive."

"Well we have to find her!" Niall was already getting off the futon more then ready to go on the hunt.

"We can't do that." Harry pushed him back down. "If she wants to see us she will."

Niall looked hurt his baby blues losing the excitement they had had about seeing Lena again. Harry hated being the one to do this to him but nothing good would come out of Niall finding her.

"He's right." Liam agreed. "She'll call when she's ready, right?"

Niall had lost hope that she would ever call him so he couldn't just agree with them. "I'm going to find her."

"I don't know why you'd want to see her anyway. She's a proper bitch now."

Niall growled. It was a purely animalistic sound as he shoved Harry off the couch. At this point they were all ready to jump in whenever there was a fight, there had been enough of them in the last year. Liam was the first to jump up his body falling on top of Niall. It wasn't really needed Niall hadn't moved only sat back to glare at Harry. Louis had stood up ready to help if he needed. Julian looked beyond frustrated as Zayn stopped singing abruptly ruining the take.

"Will ya get off of me!" He grumbled pushing Liam away.

"Alright that's enough!" Julian stood up hands in his hips. "We're here to record an album! Not fight each other! If you can't get along then just stay away from each other!"

Harry got up from the ground a hand going into his hair as he pushed it back. "You and me outside now."

Niall followed Harry out of the studio. Liam had wanted to follow them but was stopped by a single look from Niall. Harry took him to an empty studio closing the door behind Niall.

"Alright let's just get this out now, yeah?" He said standing in front of Niall. "You hate me."

"I don't hate ya."

"Coulda fooled me."

"Just can't stand ya."

"We any keep going on like this. Look at what almost happened to the band because of me and Zayn. I won't let that happen to us." Harry shook his head. "I'm sorry about what I said I should just keep my mouth shut for now on. I get that. I'm just angry with her, but can you blame me?"

"No." Niall glanced down at his feet. "I'm mad at her too."

"Alright, I'll keep my comments to myself and you'll keep your hands to yourself." Harry held out his hand. "Deal?"

"Yeah but if you open your fuckin' mouth again you'll regret it."