Grade 8

Harry was a man of his word. He called Lena the next day and the next and by the end of the third day he called so many times Lena was forced to turn it off completely. He never was one for taking a hint.

Tuesday morning Lena was in the studio with Finn. They were working on the last five songs she needed to record. Her time in London would have been ending the next week had she not received word to the contrary. The day of Zayn's failed intervention Lena had good news to tell Mia but never got the chance to do it until the night after.

Mia was hardly speaking to her too angry with her for going against her rules about Zayn. Lena had hoped her news would fix things between them.

"Did Archie ever call you?" Lena asked cautiously.

Mia was watching a rerun of Made In Chelsea a bag of crisps in her lap as she munched on them. "No."

"Good then I can tell you the news." Lena brought her own snack, a bag of chocolate covered pretzels, with her to sit down on the couch. "He wants me to stay in London for a while longer."

"Is that so?" She may have been talking to her but her attention was obviously else where.

"Yeah, I need to finish the album, but then I'm going to do some promotion here. Then he said I'd probably do a small tour." Lena continued in vain to make Mia as excited as she was.

"Where will you be staying?"

The question had stunned Lena. Even two days later she still thought back to it confused. She hadn't had an answer for her then and she still didn't have one.

"Focus, Lena." Finn said for the fifth time that hour. "What's got your mind so everywhere?"

Lena sighed into the mic shaking her head. "I'm sorry let's try this again."

Finn nodded starting the music again giving her the cue to begin. "You only look into my eyes when I've been crying to see if the tears that you have made are slowly drying. Oh, even if they've dried it don't mean that I'm feeling ok 'cause I'm still sad inside. All I really need is you to comfort me you don't understand, you don't hold my hand. Your kisses are not what I wanted. Your kisses are not what I crave. Your kisses may be a beautiful art but all I wanted was your heart right from the start."

With everything going on singing a song about Harry wasn't therapeutic anymore. She was regretting putting so much of him in her music. She had come to the decision that Harry just couldn't be in her life any longer.

"Then I see that I'm not the only one in your life. And I start to wonder what this girl, she might be like. And I bet she don't look at stars in the night, I bet she can't sing, I bet she can't write the lyrics to make your heartbeat. Sing notes to make you go weak. Oh, the lyrics to make your heartbeat, sing notes to make you go weak. Oh but her kisses were just what you wanted. Her kisses were just what you craved. And her kisses may be a beautiful art but she don't really care about your heart. She don't really care about your heart. No, she don't really care about your, she don't really care about your, she don't really care about your heart."

The music was cut off leaving silence in its wake. Finn stood up from his spot at the sound boards making his way into the booth. Lena hadn't moved her eyes staring unfocused at the lyric sheet in front of her. Finn took the headphones from off of Lena's head, that's when she felt the tears. She didn't know when she had started to cry but there was no mistaking the wetness on her cheeks. As soon as Finn's arms were around her middle Lena let out a sob.

"It's ok." Finn whispered holding her to him. Her back was pressed into him as her whole body shook body hunching forward by the force of her sobs; if he hadn't been holding on to her she would have been on the ground unable to hold herself up. "It's ok, Lena."

"This is about that One Direction kid, right?" Finn asked finally too curious not to ask.

"Yes." Lena straightened herself the tears subsiding slightly. "No, I don't know."

"You can talk to me."

Lena turned around in Finn's arms meeting his eyes. "I know, it's just complicated."

"Complicated." Finn laughed the sound causing Lena smile. "That's never good."

"I'm sorry." Lena wiped away the last of her tears. "I don't know why I started crying."

Finn smiled a small shrug lifting his shoulders. Lena let her arms drop to her side she waited for Finn to do the same with his. He didn't instead he pulled her closer and before she could respond otherwise he kissed her. No slow build up or time to think about it.

The thing about sound booths is you don't know what's going on outside of the booth. They never heard the door to the studio opening. They never saw Harry standing by the sound board. Which means they never saw him leave heart left shattered on the ground next to the sound board.



"I feel like I'm in prison."

"I would think its a lot better then prison."

"Hardly." Zayn sighed. "I hate it here."

"How long are they making you stay?"

Zayn had used his one call for the day on Lena. She hadn't been expecting it when her phone had rung automatically thinking it was Harry calling again. Not that he had called in the two days since his last call.

"Until I'm needed for song writing." Zayn sighed again. "Could be weeks, maybe months, no definitive date for my release has been set."

"Think it'll be different this time?" Lena hadn't stopped wondering if this time rehab would work.

"I don't know." Zayn sounded pretty defeated. "I want it to be."

"I think you'll be fine."

Lena had all the faith in the works that Zayn would be ok. It was if she would ok that kept her up at night. Mia still wouldn't speak to her, unless it was related to being her chaperone or to tell her she was going out with Liam, and then there was Finn.

They didn't talk about the kiss or about what happened in the sound booth after the kiss. Seeing him the morning of Zayn's call hadn't been awkward. He didn't act like things had changed between them now that the sexual tension between them had been taken care of.

"Alexis hasn't tried to contact me."

Alexis was another chip on her shoulder she needed to fill in. If only she could just get away from the toxic girl.

"Have you tried calling her?"

"Everyday." Zayn replied. "Well except for today. I think it's because she doesn't want to be linked to me right now."

"That doesn't sound good."

"Her dad wouldn't like it if she was in the middle of all of this. It's understandable."

"Not really." Lena hadn't meant to say it but once it was sad there was nothing she could do. "Sounds pretty unfair to me."

"What else-"

Lena didn't hear what Zayn had to say in her defense as Niall walked into the apartment looking absolutely miserable. They hadn't spoken much since she had been London. He had his own life to deal with and Lena was just trying to figure hers out.

"I have to go." Lena said cutting Zayn off. "Call me again sometime, I want to know how you're doing in there."

Zayn agreed that he would but Lena had already hung up. She watched as Niall paced in front of her. His face was red, first sign that he was angry, his hair looked as if he had been pulling on it recently, more then likely the whole drive to her apartment.

"Niall, what's wrong?"

Niall stopped his pacing his blue eyes looking to her. "I can't adopt Olly."

That was all it took for Niall to open up and spill everything that had been happening since November. Olly's biological father, Ben, had been notified of Niall's intentions of adopting Olly. He had left Andover to stay in London doing everything in his power to stop the adoption from happening.

"He's shit, the absolute worst." Niall had stopped his pacing once Lena had found him a beer to keep him occupied. "He's only doing this to get back at Sam, I have no fucking clue what for though."

Ben had never wanted to be apart of Olly's life. His and Sam's relationship was a one time thing that resulted in Olly being conceived. He had his lawyers put a hold on the adoption for months and now they had it stopped for good.

"He wants fucking visitations with him now!" Niall almost spilled his beer with how agitated he was getting. "Fuckin' wanker."

"He can't possibly get it can he?" Lena asked. "And how did they find away to stop it?"

"I may have tried to pay him off." Niall told her. "That didn't go over well in court. Now he can do what he wants."

"This is what's been going on between the two of you?"

"Mostly." Niall shrugged. "I think she blames me for Ben coming back."

"That's not true." Lena knew it was quite possible that Sam was taking everything out on Niall, but saying that to him right now just wasn't going to happen.

"It is true." Niall drank from his beer bottle. "She broke up with me, for good his time, after she found out about Mia."

"How did she find out?" Lena knew what had gone on between them and it was hardly anything for Sam to be concerned over.

"I told her."

Niall stayed and drank the rest of Mia's beer. They had long since moved on from Niall's problems putting a movie on as something to do. Both of them couldn't have told you what the movie was about both of them in their heads going over their lives. Their futures had never been so bleak.