Trace of Innocence (No Control Book 3)

Chapter 67

(No Control - 67. I Would)

I don't sleep very well, and when Jess's alarm sounds the following morning I groan and pull the pillow over my head. I hear her switch it off, and the next thing I know she is pulling the pillow off me and standing over me, fully dressed.

"Hurry up, I need to leave for work soon," she says, and I reach my arms out sleepily towards her. She steps into them and I pull her against the edge of the bed and rest my cheek against her leg. "Come on, get up," she urges.

"'m sleepy," I mumble.

"I know," she says softly, stroking my hair off my face. "But I can't be late for work."

I sigh and push the covers back and crawl out of her warm bed, and take the towel she is holding out to me. "I'll drive you," I mutter, and ignore her protests as I stumble, half asleep, into the shower.

I give her a lift into work and promise to pick her up at five on the dot, and then head towards the recording studio where I am meeting the others at 9.30.

They are standing around holding steaming paper cups when I get there, and we greet each other with the usual nods and high fives.

"So, are you guys ready to record Drag Me Down?" Julian asks, appearing in the doorway. "Liam, you're up first."

Liam makes his way to the door and follows Julian through to the recording booth, and the rest of us sit around the mixing desk to listen to Liam singing the track.

"We got a release date for this yet?" Louis asks, and Julian gives a brief shake of his head as he joins us.

"Something's going down, because they wanted to get it recorded and mixed asap," he tells us. "So I think it will be sooner rather than later. But we need to get our skates on with the rest of these half-written tracks. We'll end up recording them in the US while you're touring, but I want John to get them pre-recorded for you to start listening to, so you can get a feel for them."

This is what we do when we write songs: usually John Ryan records a demo version for us with him singing the words, so we can spend a few weeks listening to them to learn the lyrics before we record them. None of us have co-written Drag Me Down, and it's always harder to learn a song you haven't helped write.

"H, I want to run through some lyrics for Perfect," Louis says to me. "I can't get it out of my head, and I've got an idea I think you might like."

"Oh yeah?" I ask, looking at him with interest, but he shakes his head.

"I'll tell you when we've finished Drag Me Down."

We're all pretty tight, and manage to get our vocals laid down in only a few takes.

"John, can I borrow you?" Liam asks as John enters the studio with Maureen McDonald and Jamie Scott, more of our songwriters. "I want to run through some lyrics I've been thinking of myself."

"I want Jamie," Niall calls, which leaves Julian and Mo to join me and Louis in one of the studios.

"OK, so Perfect," Louis begins. "I have an idea and I want you to hear me out before you say no, OK?"

"Oh God," I moan, closing my eyes and grinning.

"Now, see, you're already on the wrong foot with it," Louis scolds, grinning too. "Just listen."

I fold my arms and sigh, and smirk at him. "Go on."

"OK, so you wanted a line about the paps, didn't you? And that big fight with Jess started because of Swifty, who can't get over you and keeps trying to get your attention by writing songs about you... so...." He clears his throat and sings, "And if you like cameras flashing time we go out, oh yeah.... and if you're looking for someone to write your breakup songs about, baby I'm perfect. Baby we're perfect."