Chapter Twenty-Nine

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Liam and Louis sat down on the couch as Harry and Zayn grabbed a cup of tea from the catering table.  Niall was in the corner of the room, with his leg up on a chair and a guitar resting across his body. The boys had met up for the day at Liam’s apartment to record a few songs for their upcoming album.  The past few days, they had been spending a few hours writing and collaborating on songs that would fit well together. They had a list of seven songs that they would record over the next two days.  The songs would be taken to the management team with Simon Cowell to make sure the boys were on the right track for promotion at Christmas time.

“I think we should do Niall’s part first and make sure we got the guitar down. This acoustic part is going to be tough.” Liam stated as he stood up to make sure the microphone in the recording booth was all set.

One by one, the boys of One Direction sang the first song into the mic.  They had been recording music for a while now and could put tracks together easier at first, then bring in producers to re-record and tune the music to fit together.  These recordings at Liam’s apartment were rough edits of what they would actually release on their album.

Niall and Harry sat down on the couch, as Liam jumped into the recording booth for his vocals. “How are you and your girl doing?” Niall asked quietly, so not to disturb the rest of the recording session.

Harry leaned closer to Niall and said, “I think I’m in too deep.”

Niall looked at Harry with a puzzled look, “I thought you liked her?”

“That’s the issue. I think I’m falling for her.  It’s too soon. But, there’s something about her. I don’t know.”  Harry said and Zayn and Louis overheard the conversation.

Within the next few minutes, all four boys were surrounding Harry and giving him advice on what to do with Sarah.  Three out of the five members had been dating their girlfriends for years and Harry trusted their instinct in relationships, but he also wanted to do things his way too. 

“You definitely have to sweep her off her feet.”  Zayn said as he punched Harry jokingly in the arm.

“Nah, she isn’t like that. On one of our dates, she made it perfectly clear that she doesn’t need to be impressed with fancy things. I'm just afraid that my life is going to scare her. ”  Harry answered back.

“When do you see her again?”  Louis asked Harry, while grabbing Niall’s guitar.

“Saturday. She invited me to this art opening at the Museum she works at.”  Harry said to his friends.

“Well, if I were you, I’d show her the real Harry. Let your guard down, man. You don’t trust people so easily and it sounds like this girl might mean a lot to you.  So, introduce her to your life.  Let her see the real you.”  Liam said with a reassuring handshake.

Harry thought about the guys’ advice and started to think about how their next dte would go. He was excited to see Sarah again and knew he had to take Liam’s advice and run with it. He knew he had opened up to Sarah a little bit about some things, but knew she deserved to know more about him.  They spoke on the phone almost every night and always had things to say, but it was more about her answering his questions and him not sharing all that he wanted.   Being in the public eye, Harry learned to keep his opinions and feelings to himself. But, with Sarah, he knew he could open up without her judging him or hating him for it.

Meanwhile, Sarah was on her way to pick up Danielle, to go dress shopping at the mall.  She pulled into the driveway and picked up her cell phone to call her assistant.

“I’m in the driveway, are you ready?” Sarah said into the phone, with the car idling.

“Yeah, I’ll be right out.”  Danielle answered and hung up the phone.  Sarah soon saw the blond girl exit her house and lock the door behind her.

Danielle skipped down the steps quickly and opened the passenger side door to get into Sarah’s car.  She threw a newspaper in Sarah’s lap, as she buckled her seatbelt. “What’s that all about?” She said with a laugh.

Sarah picked up the newspaper that was thrown at her and unfolded it to show the front cover.  In large black font, Sarah read the headline and was shocked.  “Who’s the mystery girl?”  It was a tabloid and behind the large print was a photo of Harry exiting the restaurant from last night, holding Sarah’s hand tightly.  Luckily, the photographer didn’t get a great shot of her face and suddenly, Sarah felt flushed, her blood pressure escalating and thought back to Harry’s word before they exited the restaurant last night.  “I guess he was telling the truth when he said that a photo of them would be visible within seconds.”

“This is insane!” Sarah shrieked finally and looked at Danielle.

“I can’t believe you are on the cover of a tabloid!  Well, I guess it comes with the territory, huh?” Danielle said back at Sarah, as she watched her friend starring at the cover of the newspaper.

Sarah glanced over at Danielle with tears welled up in her eyes. “Oh my gosh, I’m just kidding. What’s wrong?”

“I don’t think I can do this.  This isn’t me. I’m not that girl.”  Sarah said, as the tears started to slowly fall down her face.  She lifted the newspaper to show her friend the photo again and then, gave it back to her. “Please get this away from me.”

Sarah wiped her face and looked into her rearview mirror to fix her eye-makeup. She didn’t want to go shopping any more, but knew she had to get a dress for the event in a few days.  Danielle could tell that Sarah was upset, but thought she should know something before they left the house.

“I don’t want to make you cry even more, but,” Danielle started, “there are more of these,” and lifted the newspaper in her hand.  

Sarah starred at Danielle, as the two sat in the front seat of her car. Sarah grabbed her face and held it in her hands.

“I didn’t know it would upset you this much. What happened? Why are you crying?”  Danielle turned her body towards Sarah and held out her hand for comfort to her friend.

Sarah started to tell Danielle about the night before; how Harry took her to this fancy restaurant, how she complained and they left to go somewhere else, how Harry told Sarah to be careful about the paparazzi, how Harry didn’t want Sarah to leave with him, but she said she could handle it.  This was her fault. She told Harry that it was fine for them to leave together and at the time, didn’t think it would be a big deal. 

“I sort of knew in the back of my head what I was getting into by going out with him.  At first, I didn’t realize how well known he was until our first date when I saw people pointing and taking photos. But, I just shrugged it off.  Then, when he said that our photo would be everywhere within seconds, I shrugged it off again nd thought he was overreacting. I guess I’m just upset at myself for,” Sarah paused and lifted the tabloid up off her friend’s lap and pointed to her photo on the cover, “being so naive.”

“You wouldn’t have known how out of control it would have turned by just one dinner out in L.A. No one would have known.”  Danielle said to her friend, squeezing her hand.  “But, why are you blaming yourself?”

Sarah turned to Danielle and cleared her eyes to look at her, “Because, I can’t back away now,” Sarah looked down and continued, “I’ve fallen for him.”

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