heart on the floor - the summer set feat. dia frampton

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I felt like my heart stopped beating but I was sure it didn’t because I could hear so many different voices in so many different pitches in so many different tones in so many different rates.

Everyone on the table was either shouting at Simon Cowell, at each other, or was slamming the table. I winced every time they slammed their fist on it; it was a glass table, for fuck’s sake. I stayed silent, watching the scene before me, and peeked at Harry. He was looking at me with his mouth shut, twirling a pen in his fingers. I raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged, looking down at his lap.

Simon raised his hands in the air but nothing happened. Everyone was still busy complaining about the sudden announcement and insulting each other.

“Shut up!” I yelled over the noise in a low but loud voice. Everyone fell silent.

“Thank you, Paige.” Simon nodded. He cleared his throat when everyone settled after a few glares and scowls. “I know this is a surprise to all of you, but there is a reason behind this arrangement.” He looked to his right and nodded at a girl standing at the end of the room.

She wore a tight black dress and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. She walked over in her high heels that clicked on the tiled floor and pulled down a projector screen. She clicked a little button and a graph flashed on it.

Simon pointed towards it. “These are the statistics on your popularity four years ago.”

“How do you even base popularity?” Nate questioned.

“We based it on how often you guys were talked about on blogs, on Twitter, on Facebook, trending topics, the number of interviews you guys had…” he continued on, counting on his fingers. He waved a hand at us. “Anyway, as you can see there are two charts. The above is One Direction’s, and the one below is Summer Breeze’s.”

“Even in charts, we’re above you guys.” Louis muttered under his breath but the whole table heard him.

Dylan glared at him. “At least we have higher lines.” It was undeniably true though; it’s on the line graph. Our line reached the top of the graph more times than One Direction’s.

Simon rolled his eyes and directed the attention back to him. “As you can see, both your numbers were at the top when both bands were linked to each other.”

He stood up and pointed at one of the steepest lines during November three years ago. “Paige and Harry were seen together the first time during your movie premiere.” Groans were heard from the whole table; a scoff from me and an eye roll from Harry. “You two were all over the media; magazines, blogs, social networking sites, and countless interviewers asked for an appearance on their show from both.”

He pointed at one during August of the same year. “Tim and Niall were spotted golfing together at California.” Tim and Zayn high-fived across the table, laughing.

He pointed at another one under September of the unchanged year. “Nate and Zayn were seen heading to a movie theater in New York.”

Simon again pressed his finger to another streak, this time during October of the same year. “James and Liam were seen walking about the streets of London.”

“Dylan and Louis,” Simon pointed at another high line in November as well of the constant year, “had selfies uploaded on random celebrity Twitter profiles and moreover, were seen hitting a bar together.”

He put his whole hand on the line at December of that year. “James, Paige, and Harry were noticed at a runway show.”

January of the year after, “Nate and Niall photographed shopping for sunglasses.” February, “Tim, Louis, Liam, and Dylan looking at guitars in London.” March, “Zayn and Tim went to a bar together.” April, “Niall and Paige at an interview.”

I stopped listening after May. He went on with his talking and I noticed that no one was listening as attentively. He continued with every single month until June of last year, which was the one with the highest line. “Paige and Harry broke up.” He said, sighing. The line dropped at mid-September this year.

I could feel everyone’s eyes on me and I had to force myself from rolling my eyes. I opened my mouth to defend myself but Simon proceeded.

“Now, we’re not asking Paige and Harry to get back together.” He raised his hands. “We want One Direction and Summer Breeze back together. Now how does that sound?”

Positive and negative words collided with each other, a few shouts here and there, and a slam on the table. Again, Harry and I stayed quiet while the rest of the group argued and yelled at each other across the table.

Harry looked at me and raised his eyebrows in question. I shrugged and then gave a small nod before raising my own eyebrows towards him to ask the same question. He licked his lips slowly in deep thought, joining his eyebrows together. After a pause, he slowly nodded.

The uproar went on until finally, Simon elevated his hands to silence them. “It’s going to be a world tour and the shows will be held at large fields like a festival. The proceeds of the shows will be donated to various charity groups. It’s November and you have a month until the start of the tour, which will be on the third of January. First show is back here in New York. The first set of this tour is America, and you will be traveling in a tour bus together, as well in Europe. You will be announcing the tour later during the Video Music Awards. Now, you can all decide whether to have this tour or not.” He stood up from his seat and nodded. “I’ll give you a minute alone.”

We all fell to silence as Simon walked out of the room and finally closed the clear doors behind him.

“So, what do you guys think?” James asked. James had a thing for taking the position of the person in charge of everything. He liked to lead people and he was relatively good at it, so no one really stops him whenever he takes the lead of things.

Liam was the first to speak. “I think we should ask Harry and Paige if it’s okay with them, though.”

I nodded. “I’m okay with it.”

“Yeah, so am I.” Harry said.

“Alright, then I guess I’m okay with doing this.” Tim agreed. Nods and a few yeses were thrown to the table.

“So he’s making us play at fields now, huh.” Zayn chuckled.

“Probably did it so that Paige would agree.” Nate laughed along.

“What does that mean?” I looked at them.

Louis snorted. “You’re a fucking hipster, Paige.”

“I am not.” I defended myself only to get laughs from every person on the table.

“You considered leaving the band when we reached mainstream success.” James raised his eyebrows at me.

“Shut up.” I muttered under my breath, scrunching my face at him.

“Hey, Paige can sing with us on one of our sets.” Niall grinned.

I shook my head aggressively. “No, thanks.”

“Come on, it’s been a long time since you’ve sang live.” Tim agreed with Niall.

I used to sing with James during acoustic sets and covers, and ever so often with One Direction before, but I stopped a few weeks after Harry and I ended and stuck to just playing the drums. The thing is, Harry was the reason why I agreed to singing before. He knew that I had a good voice (“such a lovely tune”) and he passionately persuaded me to agree to singing for the first time ever with James live in concert. We covered the Summer Set’s Heart on the Floor.

I swallowed hard and shook my head again. “No,”

“Please,” Louis joined in, pouting his lips.

“What are we going to sing, anyway?” I questioned.

They fell into silence, thinking of an answer. I sat back in my seat in content, feeling pleased with the fact that I was able to shut them up about me singing.

Although suddenly, he spoke and all I wanted to do was choke him to death.

“She can sing Happily with me.” Harry said quietly.

Everyone stared at him.

“Hey, that’s actually great, since you did write that for her.” Niall said enthusiastically.

“You should do it,” James whispered from beside me as everyone else started agreeing with Harry, giving opinions on how to make the song a duet.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” I whispered back.

“Just think about it, alright?” He squeezed my hand and went back to the group’s discussion.

From all the noise happening around me, all I could hear was my own heavy breathing as I thought about my decision. I could feel Harry watching me and I kept my eyes glued on the table.

I didn’t know what was holding me back from singing with him—there’s no harm in doing so. I mean, I guess I sing all right, and it’s not like anyone’s going to die if I sing with him, so why was I so reluctant to doing so? I thought that maybe it was because the last time I ever sang during a live performance ended with me running off the stage in tears the moment the song ended.

At the thought of Harry, I finally I had the nerve to sneak a look at him. We locked eyes and he had an unreadable expression. He raised his eyebrows at me and I shrugged, rolling in my lips. He gave a comforting smile I learned to love over the years, and I instantly felt warm like the cups of tea he used to make me and was reminded of the late nights we had together where he’d write songs and I’d read books.

Before I had the chance to have my say in the proposal of me singing live after how long, Simon suddenly came in the room with the same assistant in the black dress trailing behind him.

“Have you guys made a decision?” We nodded and he smiled. “So, what is it?”

“We think it’s great.” Liam spoke for the group.

“And Paige is back to singing during sets.” James continued. Who said I was?

Simon clapped his hands. “Alright, good. We finished early. I want all of you to go up the stage during the VMAs to announce this tour later on, all right? Now I need you lot to leave this room because I’m going to have another meeting. However, I’ll see you later, okay? Bye.”

He seemed like he wasn’t waiting for a farewell; his assistant was turning off the projector and Simon himself was looking through papers that appeared to be contracts. We all stood up from our seats and left the room quickly, gathering around the lobby of the floor. I went out last with Harry, who closed the door behind him.

We slowly walked down the hall following the rest of the group in silence. Harry bumped me with his body.

I looked up and raised my eyebrows in question.

“So, will I be changing the song into a duet now?” Harry simply asked, directing his gaze in front of him. His hands were deep in his jeans pockets and his beanie was in a mess. There were dark circles under his eyes and his black shirt was wrinkled.

I chuckled but shook my head. “I’m still thinking about it, but I’m guessing I’m going to have to sing, since James seemed to have decided for me already.”

“Why do you allow him to do that anyway?” He asked quietly.

“Do what?”

“You know, give you some motivational speech and then tell you to ‘think about it’ but he ends up deciding for you instead.” He shrugged.

“I don’t know.” I said, “He’s kind of like the dad of our band, so we think all of his decisions are right. Although it’s always fun whenever his choices are wrong because we get to tease him.”

James came running back towards us, retreating a group discussion with Louis and Zayn. “Hey, do I still have to drive you back to the hotel? Because Lou and Zayn want to go hang out somewhere before tonight.”

“I can drive her home.” Harry offered.

I opened my mouth but closed it shortly after I didn’t know what to say. “Oh, um, I don’t want to bother you or anything. I’ll just ask Dylan or Tim.”

“Are you sure?” Harry raised his eyebrows and tilted his head towards the rest of the group. I turned to look and saw Tim leaving with Niall, and Dylan with Liam. James was already leaving the floor with Louis and Zayn.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. I felt him take a hold of the hand and peel it off my face, placing it softly at my side. He gave my favorite warm, comforting smile and shook his car keys at my face with a smirk. “Come on, hipster.”

I swallowed hard and had no other choice but to follow him to the elevators. He pressed the button with the arrow pointing down. He quickly sent a text on his phone and looked at me. “I came here in a car that Louis probably arranged and only now am I asking someone to bring my car over here, so we have a few minutes to spend.”

“Oh, I don’t mind waiting.” I offered a smile.

Louis had told me that Harry was taking the breakup badly: fighting with the other boys, coming home drunk, wearing the same underwear for weeks, and hooking up with strangers outside bars. The last thing I wanted was one of those “episodes” Louis talked about where Harry couldn’t hear and started hyperventilating.

The elevator doors slowly opened after a ring. Harry stepped to the side, signaling me to enter first with his hand. I stepped foot in the lift and Harry followed, pressing the button with the letter G on it. He leaned back on the mirrored walls with a sigh and crossed his legs.

“So, got a dress for tonight already?” He started.

I felt my cheeks burn and my heart stop for a second. “Shit,”

“Knew it,” he laughed. “I’m taking you shopping to past the time.”

“No, thanks.” I laughed, shaking my head.

“You’ve been saying no too much.” He stated. The elevator doors opened and he grinned, pulling me out and dragging me to the lobby doors. “We’re buying you a dress.”

“Harry, we’re in New York. You’re from London and I’m from California, and we’re going to shop in a sea of people without bodyguards.” I said quickly. “How are we going to do that?”

“I know people,” he raised his hands and started texting on his phone.

“What kind of people?” I questioned, feeling a little panicky because paparazzi began to crowd outside the building, taking photos of us.

“People who can shut down stores so that we can shop privately.” He murmured, texting away.

I gave a few silly poses at the photographers and after a few minutes, he looked up and smiled. “I hope you like the dresses in Forever 21, now come on.”

Notes

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