Believe

Chapter twenty three

The next morning I wake up to a text from Alice.

"Can you come over at twelve o'clock at the studio?"

I reply to her back that I'll see her there and get up to get some breakfast. After that, I take a shower and put on cropped jeans from Levi's with a white t-shirt tucked in. I do my makeup, dark red lip, and eyeliner. My hair is loose and I decide to curl my hair. I look in the mirror and I'm satisfied with my look. Looking at the time I see that I need to go and put on my Dr. Martens. After I put in my AirPods I close the door behind me and go to the studio.

When I get to the studio I see that there's a lot of paparazzi in front of the building. I go to the door and ring the doorbell, a big intimidating security guard opens the door.

"Name?" He's very straight forward and cuts right to the case.

"Hill, Lauren Hill" I look at him, this has never happened.

"Come in" he says and opens the door for me to get in.

The photographers don't even pay attention to me and I'm glad that I'm not a celebrity, I don't think that I can handle that pressure.

I walk straight to the studio and open the door without knocking, Harry and Alice are inside, they both lookup. We walk up to each other and hugs each other a hello.

"What's going on outside?" I ask and put my stuff down and get comfortable on the couch.

"Well since I've got photographed the other day when we went for lunch, people know that I'm in London and recording again" harry answers me and sits beside me.

"That must suck" I say and I can't even imagine how it must feel to be watched by paparazzi 24/7.

"Yeah a bit, but I'm glad that my fans have something to look forward to" he says and I admire that he always sees the positive side of things.

Harry gets up again "I have to get back, but it was nice seeing you again, and Lauren thank you for yesterday, it was lovely".

"You're welcome, wait how did things go with Sarah?" I say and this time I wiggled with my eyebrows and using his technique against him.

Harry gets nervous but doesn't get off guard "we went for a walk and that's all I'm saying" he says winking at me and leaves Alice and me alone.

Alice sits on her stool behind the control panel and rolls up to me.

"So I have a surprise for you, but before I tell you the surprise I need to talk to you about something" Alice says very seriously, I sit up straight to get ready for her surprise.

"First of all, we need to talk about your payment, I know that you probably didn't think about that, so we give you £100,000 and after the song is released you will get 50% of overtime that the song is released" I feel my jaw drop and Alice says more stuff that I don't understand, but I feel frozen. So much money for just one song? I can't even imagine what someone would get paid for a whole album.

"Lauren, are you okay? You look a bit pale" Alice's look is worried and she puts her hand on my hand. I try to speak but my throat is so dry as a desert. Alice sees me look at the glass of water on the table and she gives it to me, I gulp the whole thing down and clear my throat.

"Is this the surprise?" I say hoping, I can't take a surprise after this.

"No it isn't, but if you agree to the terms of the payment, I need you to sign this contract" and she takes a small piece of paper, I read it and after I'm sure that there's nothing wrong in it, I sign.

"I'll make sure that the money will be on your bank account as soon as possible" she says and smiles at me.

"Okay now that we've talked business, your surprise, Niall invites you to come to La for a week to finish the rest of the song, and shoot the cover of the single, so that when you come back to London we can launch the song.

I feel a warmth going through my body, Niall wants to see me and he wants me to fly to the other side of the country to be with him. I feel my cheeks blush and try to hide them from Alice.

"He must really like you" she says reading my mind and I look at her and smile. This must mean something right? Otherwise, Alice wouldn't say that.

"Everything has already been taken care of" Alice says "your plane leaves tomorrow evening if you say yes of course".

I've never been to La and I always wanted to go there, since I'm already free from work I don't see the problem.

"Okay" I say and laugh at how this day has been a bit crazy.

After Alice and I are done in the studio I go back home and it's five o'clock and I try to FaceTime Niall, maybe he would be up already.

I set my phone on the kitchen counter and start making some dinner, today I'm going to make some tacos.

"Hey" I hear Niall say and I wave at him smiling.

"Hey" I say back while I cut some unions "how are you?".
"I'm great, especially now that I see you again" he says with his beautiful smile and I feel the warmth go through my body, my cheeks are blushing, I can just feel it.

"I'm happy to see you too" I say "thank you for inviting me to La" I say a bit shyly because the tickets must have been very expensive. I can't wait to see him again and to be able to hold him. I look at his lips and I get carried away, thinking about our kiss, his lips on mine, his scent, and his touch.

"Your welcome, it's no big deal" he says and that drops my mood a bit, no big deal? See he doesn't like you my subconscious say but I try to push the negative thought away.

We make some small talk and I finish dinner, after I'm finished Niall has to go to the studio so we say our goodbye's.

"See you Monday, goodnight" he says and I can see his eyes twinkle with excitement.

"See you Monday, have a nice day" I smile and I'm so happy for a moment before I realize that I only have 24 hours to pack my suitcase.

Author's note: Hey guys!Thank you so much for reading! How do you like the story so far? Please let me know and don't forget to vote :)