Falling | h.s

twelve

HARRY'S POV

"He did what?" I hear my manager, Jeff, whisper angrily. I see Mitch shrug and Jeff throws his hands up, exasperated. Jeff opens a creamer packet and splashes it into his coffee carelessly, his anger clearly affecting his ability to do anything calmly. 

"And you just let him do this," Tom adds, trying to clarify, and Mitch scoffs. 

"Yeah, like I have any control over his actions, especially these days," Mitch quietly defends himself. Jeff paces small steps back and forth, shaking his head. 

"I still can't wrap my head around this. Please explain it again," he mumbles, rubbing his temples in distress. Jeff didn't like when I acted outside our plan. He didn't handle stress well.

"Just ask him yourself," Mitch rolls his eyes and Jeff sighs again. 

I'm sitting alone at the conference room table, twisting my rings anxiously. My back was turned to where they were not so quietly discussing me, but I could hear every single word. As soon as Jeff came into the office today, he met Janie, and once he realized that she was here to work, he called a meeting between the four of us. 

"H?" Jeff says, pulling my attention back to the others in the room. I lift my head slowly and meet his tired eyes. Stress was written all over his face. 

"Can you explain your thought process here?" He asks and I can see him trying to hold back his frustration. 

Jeff and I are close, but at the end of the day, he is my manager. And a damn good one at that. In moments like these, when I stray from our plans, his stress gets the best of him. I can see the control freak side of him coming out and the veins on his forehead protrude. 

I shrug at his question. "Not much to explain." 

He lets out another shaky sigh and sits in the chair next to me. Mitch and Tom follow suit and sit at the table as well. 

"Well, can you explain why you decided to ask a random girl who you know nothing about to come and write your album with you? Hm?" He tilts his head to the side with wide, anxious eyes. 

"I know stuff about her," I protest and it's Mitch's turn to sigh. 

"Not the part to focus on, H," he says and I huff. 

"I don't understand why this is such a big deal," I shrug again and Jeff runs his hand through his hair aggressively. I'm shocked when he doesn't pull a clump of hair out. 

"The big deal is the logistics, Harry. The fact that you already have a songwriting team. The fact that this girl could be scamming you," he starts but I interrupt quickly. 

"Scamming me? What the hell, Jeff." 

"I'm serious, Harry. You do not know this girl. You are one of the biggest rockstars in the world and you just let this random girl you don't know at all into your studio. She could sell secrets about you and Camille to tabloids. Or, secretly record the songs you write and blackmail you with it. You have no idea what her intentions are here." 

"I know damn well what her intentions are: she wants to help me write the best album that I can," I argue, getting angry in her defense. I understand where Jeff is coming from, and appreciate his protectiveness over me. He always looks out for me, even when I claim to not need him. 

"But why though?"

"Because she's a songwriter and that's what songwriters do," I retorted, crossing my arms and legs in defiance. 

"Who is going to pay for this, huh?" Jeff changes the subject, still trying to gather as much information as possible. He picks up a stack of papers and looks down at them quickly. I wonder what they are. My contract? A contract for her?