And They Knocked On The Closet Door

11. Stories Made Up When We're Young

Harry did not know this when the day started, but that night would be her last in Bluebird. Focused on the protests still going on at Sony Square rather than on her own life, she didn't think for a minute that signing the contract would mean quitting her job. Nick had called her just after supper to tell her the news and Harry had been surprised to say the least.

"Have you made a decision yet?" The man had asked her.

"What? Between Simon and Charles?" Harry answered "Did I ever have a choice? Charles! Of course I'm going with Charles!"

"I figured," he said, "I was gonna advise you the same thing. The problem is that, with everything Sony has on hand right now thanks to the One Direction boys, they are desperate to change the public perception... You could be called by Columbia or any other label under Sony in the next few days, offering you everything you want, to be as queer as you want, only to wash their hands, to show they are LGBT-friendly."

"I don't want that." Harry interrupted him.

"Universal is not any better. I truly believe they're offering you such a good deal because it is you , because Charles is besotted by you. I don't know if they'll offer the same opportunity to the boys, but, if they don't, I've been chatting with another lawyer in the industry who negotiated a contract for BMG, they've been independent from Sony for a few years now and my friend assures me they're very LGBT-friendly. She signed an NDA, of course, so she couldn't reveal any details, but..."

"Then what do I do?!"

"Take it." Nick told her. "It's a three albums and three tours contract, they'll allow you to be yourself and that is the most important thing. You are gonna make your dreams come true, kid, and if things go well, then in four or five years you can decide to renegotiate terms and stick with them or I can look into BMG and other labels."

"Okay, okay, I'll do it. Is that why you were calling?"

"They want you to sign as soon as possible, so that Simon doesn't have time to retaliate and offer a better deal or something." Nick finally informed her. "If I call them back now, you can sign tomorrow morning and they'll probably want you to stop working."

"What?! How am I supposed to survive in NY then?"

"I don't know, seek your mom's help, work as something else... They just don't want you performing demos or covers for someone else, that goes against the contract. Being a waiter, for example, would be perfectly fine. Just make sure you have time for them, they'll want you to start making music with producers and song-writers as soon as possible, they'll ask for everything you've ever written, you'll have to take your music down if you have it in any social media platform and your socials should be way more active, try to keep people interested, your followers are skyrocketing since that 1D concert."

"So I'll resign at Bluebird today after the gig and sign the contract tomorrow asap."

"Great, thank you. I'll tell them."

"No, don't go yet. What can you tell me about Louis's situation?"

Nick hadn't told her much, only that Simon wanted to renew their contract sooner than expected and Sony, on the contrary, was pressuring Simon into dropping them.

"What? Dropping them?!"

"Yes, only so that another label under Sony can take charge of them. They would never let One Direction go, those boys are quite the money-makers, but Syco has earned a terrible reputation, there is no way they can revert this. They'll probably encourage Simon into taking one or two open queer artists, then the public will calm down and, with little to no promotion, said artists won't make it and will be dropped eventually."