And They Knocked On The Closet Door

9. I See How Hard You've Worked To Be Yourself

Harry found Nick half an hour before the meeting. Charles, of course, was not there, why would he be? But Harry knew why it was rescheduled this early, he knew Universal wanted to catch up with Syco, that they wanted to be the first ones to speak with him.The lawyer was standing in the corridor, a pile of documents in hand, and Harry wished Louis could be there with him.

They'd talked over the phone less than an hour ago, but it was not enough, and his mom and sister's words weren't that soozing either, since they were so far away. Everything is going to be okay, he told himself, you are gonna get a good deal and get Louis and the rest of the boys out of that hellhole. Because, even if that meeting wasn't going to go anywhere and there were many yet to come, there was no denying it: their futures would be gravely affected by those couple of hours.

Inside the room, unknown faces awaited him: lawyers, accountants and people from the label. They were nice but not too much, professional, Harry would say. They offered them a seat, made the usual introductions and courtesy rule and he was asked for USB stick almost immediately.

"Thank you," a woman with a kind smile told him as soon as the stick was handed, "usually we would do this before offering a meeting, but your case is different. Still, it's important to respect the standard procedures."

"I understand." Harry assured her. He hoped they would like the three songs he had selected, they were quite good in Harry's opinion, but still, he couldn't help but be a little biassed.

After that, he shut up. As they had agreed beforehand, Nick would be doing the talking.

"This is but a draft," the other lawyer in the room explained to Nick as he handed him a mere piece of paper, "just so we can go over the main points. Of course, this is standard and the terms can still be discussed. Contracts in the industry..."

"I know, I've worked in the industry before." Eight pairs of eyes stared at the lawyer before, although not Harry's. Why wouldn't he have? He worked with Louis, didn't he?

"I'm sorry I didn't recognize your name." The other lawyer in the room let out.

"You couldn't have, I don't move around the typical circles." The man lowered his gaze and accommodated himself in his chair, clearly uncomfortable.

"We assumed you wouldn't be able to afford it, but then we were told you were indeed coming accompanied by a lawyer, so we thought they might have been a family friend, or..." A man confessed.

Now it was Harry the one uncomfortable, and even more so when a woman besides him asked Nick who was financing him, to which the lawyer cut her out with "That is none of your business.", which made the woman apologize, although she was unable to keep a straight face.

Soon, however, it was proven Nick knew what he was doing, because they started discussing the first points of the contract and Harry could only follow as a product of his two years in uni back in the UK. What he immediately understood, with a shred of fear, was that there were certain practices Nick and the rest of industry workers didn't bat an eye on that, if asked about them in a practical exam about any other field, he would have classified them as abusive, maybe even illegal.

They spent half an hour debating about "moral clauses" and thankfully, Harry had the final say about it.

"Look, I promise you they're not necessary." He assured them. "I barely have any friends here in NY, I go to one club thrice a week to sing, and so I barely drink because it's my work place and that would be very unprofessional of me, and I tried cocaine in uni once and it was the worst night of my entire life. I don't need moral clauses."

Ah, another difference with the world we come from. This Harry liked to drink, to party, to smoke weed once in a while... But cocaine was too much for him, maybe because using in and out the celebrity lifestyle were two completely different experiences, maybe because in college parties there were no big sharks who pressured young adults and teenagers into consuming alcohol and other stronger substances, so everyone could explore on their own, even if often affected by peer pressure.