Pieces // H.S

Chapter 22: Harry: Does she know?

I followed Matthew at a distance. He soon enough found Jane. I hid in the shadows and listened to their conversation. Jane seemed to be upset about Matthew spying on her. She stormed out of the dressing room she had hidden herself in, but before she could get away, Matthew caught her attention. Then to my horror, he held out my phone. There was no explanation for what I had on my mobile. I was just addicted to her. When I had nothing to do, I concerned myself with her life. It’s just so much was going right for her and so much was going wrong for me. That time she shouted at me outside the courtroom, I wanted something that would hurt her back. So I researched her whole life as more and more information emerged. I soon found that I had an unhealthy, dark obsession with her. I didn’t mean for this fascination with her to get out of hand. I watched myself subconsciously scroll through pictures of her and I sat at YouTube for hours waiting for her new videos like a stalker.

When I finally got to be her friend, Matthew had to go and ruin it all. Jane wasn’t the only one who felt like crying.

I took the long way around the stage to meet Jane to take her to the table. When she saw me coming towards her, she gave a half smile and looked at the floor again. I wondered how she was going to play this. Would she pretend she had no idea about the contents of my phone or would I have to enter a shouting match which would subsequently end our friendship? I hoped she would go with the first option, meaning that I would get to spend the rest of the evening with her.

“Quick! The awards are going to start and if we’re not sitting at the table, we’ll miss the awards!” She hurried me like I was a child. I could see that Jane would pretend to know nothing she hadn’t known a few minutes ago when we were on stage. I walked behind her to the table, having to stop several times for people to praise her on her solo at the beginning. Every so often, her appraisers stopped me as well wanting to know if One Direction were making a comeback. Fear was in their eyes that I would say ‘yes, we are making a comeback.’ So I answered with a ‘maybe’ every time.

The award ceremony went really well for Jane. 221A got about twelve awards in total, just as a band. The Awards included ‘best album’, ‘best female group’, ‘best group ’, ‘best international successes and so many more. Jane even got a separate award for ‘best composer and performer’. We were coming up to the final award, and she hadn’t said anything to me since we sat at the table. It was as if I was invisible to her. There was an ad break before the final award would be presented, so this gave Jane some time to get ready for presenting the award with Felicity. All she said was “Good luck.” She clearly knew something I didn’t. The last award was for ‘contribution to UK Pop’, or as we called it, ‘the oldies award’ because it usually went to past bands that had basically ended their careers. This was the one award tonight that no one wanted to win. The bands were never told if they were going to receive the award, so most of the time, to save embarrassment among peers in the audience, the recipients did not come to the ceremony. Felicity and Jane stood tall on the raised platform that extended out to the audience. A producer counted the girls in as the ad break ended.

“Welcome back to the UK Pop awards. If you just joined us, sadly you’ve missed most of the awards, but coming up is the final and perhaps most prestigious award.” Felicity announced into the microphone.

“That’s right, Felicity. The recipients are voted for by a panel of judges whose ages range from sixteen to sixty. Each judge is provided with a shortlist compiled by the public. Here are some of the nominees this year:” Jane then listed about ten names, each showing a short clip from their music videos. I listened and hoped that I wouldn’t hear One Direction being boomed out by the speakers. Niall sat on the edge of his chair squeezing his eyes tightly shut.

“And finally, ONE DIRECTION.” Jane boomed into the microphone. The crowd oohed and clapped covering Niall who was swearing and cursing to himself.