Letters To Harry

33 - End Up Here

Liam's POV

"If you two don't stop that, I'm cutting the recording time." The sound booth manager snapped. Niall and Harry subtly moved to stand behind me as I glared at him.

"They weren't doing anything wrong." I told him, not breaking eye contact. He scoffed.

"Oh really? So those three microphones just magically decided to stop working when they were in the booth? And the track just got mysteriously changed when I left the station? And the stain on the carpet just randomly matches the paint on their hands?"

"Let me explain something to you." I stepped forward, keeping my tone serious. "Those microphones haven't worked for days, since before we started recording. The track is the same as before, maybe you just realized something you wanted to change. And, for your information, Harry was trying to clean up the paint sitting on the counter that Niall accidentally knocked over. So yeah, they didn't do anything wrong."

It had been a hard enough day already without this. None of us had even been near a recording studio in months, we weren't finding it easy to readjust. Zayn had barely been able to leave Perrie this morning since she hadn't been feeling well. We'd had to end up arranging for her mum to drive down and spend the day with her. Louis had forgotten today included studio time and had made plans with Stan who was in London for the day which he had to cancel, meaning they wouldn't get to hang out for another almost year since Stan was leaving for Spain tonight. Niall...well, he was still technically on his honeymoon, so self-explanatory. Harry seemed fine, which was odd considering he disliked recording the most out of us all. I didn't feel like anyone was going to be working well today, and had tried to cancel our time, but Simon had insisted. Whatever bad things he had done, we were still signed to his record label and he was still our boss.

"Get out."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me." The man's voice was flat and emotionless. "You aren't taking this seriously, so get out. I have other clients who want time here, you're just wasting it."

Niall's bottom lip trembled and Harry wrapped an arm around him protectively. Louis and Zayn were both giving the man death glares and I was simply shocked. We had NEVER been kicked out before! Of course we'd gotten plenty of warnings...but this...it was really extreme. 

"Sorry." I said softly, bowing my head slightly. This was terrible. "I didn't realize it was such a problem. We'll just be going."

Zayn grabbed my hand and let me lead him out of the studio. I saw Niall walking close to Louis, with Harry close behind them. The man watched us leave together, not changing his arms-crossed cold-faced stance. I sighed and pulled out my ringing phone.

"Hello, Simon." 

"Liam!" His voice was too peppy. "Great to talk to you."

"What do you want?" I asked, not quite rudely, but definitely on the verge of it. 

"I heard you boys got kicked out of the recording studio." His voice stayed just as fakely positive, making my stomach turn. "I just wanted to let you know that I've been in contact with the studio, and this will stay completely confidential on one condition."

"And what's that?"

****************************************

"What did he say?" Niall asked the second I hung up. I shrugged.

"Nothing. Just wanted to say hi. No big deal." I shoved my phone into my back pocket and got into our waiting car. Paul was sat behind the wheel with a power cord for each of our phones as usual.