It's the morning of the X Factor auditions in Manchester. It's raining and Zayn Malik is stuck in front of a guy dressed as Britney Spears. He's ready to peace out but Harry Styles can't wait to go in. He's not being smug, but he knows he can sing, so when the judges say no, he's devastated. Zayn finds him crying in the toilets before his audition and realises that he doesn't want it that bad. Four years later and Zayn's living in East London and about to graduate from Central Saint Martins while Harry's in a band and living in Camden. Their lives couldn't be more different, but when their paths cross again will they get what they want this time?

Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see. That’s what his father always tells him with that smile of his, the one that says, I’ll tell you that much, but the rest will cost you. Harry never knew what he meant, but he gets it now that he’s sitting in the dim bar of another hotel he won’t sleep in, the ice melting in his £18 gin and tonic. He doesn’t even like gin and tonic, but it’s all part of the game. And it is a game. It has to be, because if it isn’t that means he doesn’t enjoy it and he does.

We’re just friends. Zayn needs to get that tattooed somewhere so he never forgets.

The one where Harry is the boy next door and Zayn doesn't stand a chance.

An old piano, a guitar named Nigel, a run away girl and a flame haired singer/songwriter meet unexpectedly in a music shop one chilly December evening.

When they first meet, Niall's a bit irritated and Josephine can hardly complete one sentence without stuttering.

THE STORY OF LUKAS LANCASTER, AND HOW HE BECAME -- or, how a phoenix needs a spectacular flame to be reborn again. [ #204 spiritual 12.19.15 ]