Harry's POV

I watch Layla sing one of the songs I have wrote. Layla is the new girl we are currently working with. She's good but she lacks confidence and Mark is trying his hardest to get her to relax and open up a little. She sings the song differently to how I sang and I'm just not sure her way is going on give the lyrics the same effect.

"Layla. That was great but can you come through?" Mark asks and she takes her headphones off. She soon walks through the door and sits down next to me. "I'm just not feeling this.." He adds as he sits on the desk top.

"I'm sorry Mark, I'm not sure where I'm going wrong." Layla sighs nervously as she looks to us both.

"I guess there's not enough sadness in your voice. Half a heart is supposed to sang as if you are broken." I answer and they both look at me. Layla nods and Mark smirks.

"Harry will show you.." Mark says and I give him a stern look as I really don't want too. I start to defend Layla as I know if she keeps trying she'll get it right. But Mark's so adamant that I do it. I feel slightly pressured.

"I'm just the songwriter.." I sigh uselessly as I get up and walk into the booth. This is the most scared I've ever felt to sing. When I sang infront of Ryan that was bad enough, then I did it for Steph which was pretty tense. But this is infront of my boss and a client.

"Ready Harry." Mark says as I fit the headphones on so their comfortable. I can't believe I am doing this.

I let myself fall into the familiar lyrics that brings all my feelings back. There's only one person I can devote this too.

"Only half a blue sky, kinda there but not quite. I'm walking around with just one shoe, I'm half a heart without you." I stop and Layla looks at me smiling. I take the headphones off and I walk back into the room.

Mark looks at me and then to Layla, he starts to explain that's how he wants her to sing as goes on about my passion. I think more of it was emotion.

"So go away with the demo and we will see you Friday." Mark says and Layla nods and thanks us. I smile at her as she leaves and I turn to Mark. "Harry, I don't want Layla singing that song." I frown at his words.

"Layla has an amazing voice and with a little work she will get there. Just have faith in her." I say and Mark smirks as he shakes his head.

"No Harry, she isn't singing that song because you are." He says and my heart starts to panic at him. I frown as I feel I've misheard him.

"No, I just write the songs. Why would you want me to sing it?" I ask and Mark laughs, I look away as this isn't funny to me. I don't sing unless I'm just writing, this isn't what I've signed up for.

"Harry, do you not realise how bloody good you are? I reckon we could get you a deal easily." He says as if getting a record deal is just an everyday thing. People like me don't get record deals.

"I don't want it. I'm not in this job for a record deal. I appreciate your offer-" I stop as he puts his hand up for me to stop.

"Just think about it, we've got lots of time. Don't completely rule it out." Mark says and I look away from him.

---

Stephanie's POV

"He really does know how to treat a girl right." Amy says loudly as she walks in with her college friends. I don't bother to look at her as I really hate being at college with them. I feel them take a seat behind me as my chair gets pushed forward. I turn around and look to Amy who sits down and smiles.

"Hi Steph." She says annoyingly. Her tone of voice really irritates me. She reminds me of Megan Fox who plays Carla, the bitch in Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen.

"Hi Amy. Could you be more careful when you sit down as there's plenty of room between your chair and mine." I say as I keep a steady look at her.

"How's Harry?" She asks as she hits a nerve. She knows Harry and I aren't together, why does she have to start? "I saw his new profile picture on Facebook, he's looking hotter than ever." She smirks and I feel my blood boil just by her words.

"Don't mention Harry, you have no right to speak about him. He's nothing to do with you so just stop." I snap and Amy rolls her eyes.

"Oh come Steph. We're in the same boat here, he didn't want me and he doesn't want you. We should be on the same team now.." Amy says as if she's clever. But her words just feed the anger inside of me. I stand up and look at her.

"He didn't want you because you're a cheap little tart who wants to sleep with everyone and anyone!" I snap and Amy stands up and grits her teeth.

"So what's the reason for him not wanting you? Did you not put out enough? Did he realise he made a mistake and chose the wrong girl?" Amy sniggers, without thinking I forcefully slap her across the face causing her head to turn away.
She quickly looks at me and grabs me tightly pushing me through the chairs and we fall to the floor. I feel her fingers pull away at my hair and I try to get her off me. I shout out as I feel something sharp on my face, so I force a punch into her stomach and she rolls off me wincing. I look at her and I roll on top of her preventing her from doing anything else.
I begin to feel someone pulling me off her.

"Stephanie May and Amy James! My office now!!" Miss Macey, the head of college snaps as she pulls Amy up and guides us to her office. "Sit down." She says as she sits behind her desk. Amy and I sit down infront of her and she hands me the tissue box.

"I'm not upset.." I say and she shakes her head.

"You're bleeding Stephanie." Miss Macey says and I take the tissue. I gently press the tissue on my face and my cheeks feel so tender. Miss Macey passes me her small mirror and shows me my face. I gasp at the large thick scratches that Amy's clearly left by her nails. I never did like her fake nails, now I despise them.

"You're crazy, look what you've done!" I snap as I turn to Amy. She sighs as she looks away from me.

"Before we get to that, can we start with what happened just a minute ago?" Miss Macey asks as she sits back in her chair unimpressed by our actions.

Amy starts to explain our argument, funnily enough she says it all as it happened. I don't bother to try and give my say as there's nothing for me to add.

"So Amy, how do you possibly think it's acceptable to attack another person by forcefully scratching her so she bleeds? Because in this college we do not condone violence." I remain quiet as Amy looks at her and sighs.

"It's not acceptable at all and I know I shouldn't have done it. But she accused me of sleeping around and it aggrivated me." Amy says and I look at her, she doesn't bother to look back at me.

"But that doesn't give you the right to physically hurt someone. I'm just puzzled as I thought you were best friends." Miss Macey says and Amy looks down. "For your actions I have no choice but to suspend you for two weeks." She adds.

"But what about the play? I'm the leading girl.." Amy panics as she moves to the edge of her seat and continues to beg Miss Macey.

"I'm sorry Amy but that's my final decision." Miss Macey says and Amy stands up and storms out. I don't know what's happened to Amy, she's not the girl that I used to be friends with. "And for your part in the incident, you'll be suspended until the end of this week." She adds looking at me.

I nod and accept my punishment. If anything it works out in my favour as I don't even enjoy college anymore. I go to leave but Miss.Macey stops me.

"You've been failing to attend to lessons. Is there something going on Stephanie? Is Amy bullying you?" She asks and I sit back down.

"No she's not bullying me. We just don't get on anymore. I'm just finding the course hard I guess." I answer and she nods.

"If you are struggling we are here to help you. Don't bottle it in." Miss Macey says and I start to feel this is more awkward the longer I stay here.

---

Harry's POV

"I'm home!" I call out as I hear Liam and Louis both talking away in the living room. They both shout out to me and I walk in to see them watching TV.

"Harry, do you think we should buy a real tree this year?" Louis asks and I sit down next to him and I raise my eyebrows, I look to Liam who rolls his eyes,

"For Christmas.." Liam says answering my questioning look. I turn back to Louis and shrug as I'm not bothered what tree we get.

"Christmas is ages away." I laugh as I slouch down into the sofa.

"We have four weeks! I want to get the tree and decorations as early as we can. This is our first Christmas in this flat." Louis says and I look at him smiling.

"I just think a real tree will just be too messy, it gets everywhere." Liam says and Louis roll his eyes. I shake my head laughing at them and I let them continue their debate.

I take my phone and I browse into facebook. I can't resist going onto Stephanie's profile.I begin to frown as I read her recent post that she's been suspended from college. I quickly jump up and leave the living room, telling them two I'll be back in a few minutes. I sit on my bed and I get the chat box up and I begin to type to Steph:

Harry: Why have you been suspended from college?

I wait for her to accept the conversation I have started. Come on Steph, look at your phone!

Stephanie: Had a fight with Amy :/

Harry: What? Are you ok??

I feel sick as I wait for her to type, that's not like Steph to get into a fight. I wait impatiently as I see she's typing back.

Stephanie: She just annoyed me, I slapped her, she ended up cutting my cheeks with her nails.. So I hit her again.

I don't know what to type. This really doesn't sound like Steph at all, I find it hard to accept.

Harry: Shit, are you alright? I hate I'm not there with you.

Stephanie: Harry...

Harry: Sorry, I just want to protect you from anything like that.

Shit, maybe I was a little open as she hasn't wrote back. Why do I have to put it out there so easily. I can't seem to find the right balance, I used to never express my feelings and now, I express too much.

Stephanie: I know, part of me wanted that too.

Harry: You wanted me there?

Stephanie: We shouldn't be going into this.

Harry: I can still be there for you, even as a friend. I won't ever stop caring about you.

Stephanie: I care about you too. I have to go, speak to you soon Harry.

Harry: Bye x

Stephanie: X

I stare at her kiss, fuck this friend idea really isn't going to be easy. It completely screws with my brain the thought her being in trouble and hurt. It was my job to protect her and I'd do anything to get that back.
I annoy myself every time I think about how I could have prevented losing her, I really need her back.

"Harry!!" Louis shouts as he knocks frantically on my door. I lock my phone and stand up, I open the door and Louis looks at me smiling. "We've decided a real tree so now you need to help us decide what colours we're going to use!" He adds and I can't believe he's still going on about christmas.

"Lou, can we talk about this another time?" I ask and he looks at me disappointedly. "Sorry it's just I have no idea what colours we should get, I've not even thought about anything to do with christmas." I add and Louis nods.

"Okay, we can discuss it another time. What's wrong?" He asks and I try to shrug it off but he continues to ask me. The thing about Louis is he knows how to drive you insane, if he wants something he knows how to get it. You've got no chance winning against him,

"I had a really weird day at work." I say as partly that's what has stressed me out. I don't want to bring Stephanie up as I'm always boring the guys with my feelings and complications for her. So I follow Louis into the living room and he sits me down.

"So what colours?" Liam asks with a heavy sigh of annoyance. Louis looks to him and shakes his head,

"We've decided to discuss that another time, Harry here is hiding something." Louis says and Liam looks to me. I roll my eyes as I start to explain what happened at work, they know about Layla as I've mentioned her before so at least I don't have to go into every single detail.

"So Mark made me sing and now he wants to get me to record the song, as he thinks I can get a record deal." I laugh and Liam's eyes widen. Louis starts to question me in shock, I run a hand through my hair.

"I'm not doing it, I don't want to be a singer." I say and Liam shakes his head.

"You're lucky someone has spotted you, Harry you have to go for it." Liam says enthusiastically, I look at him and smile.

"Well I've not tried to be 'spotted' but you have!" I grin proudly and Liam frowns. "Liam, you need to come with me tomorrow and record the song. Your voice is perfect for it!" I add and Liam smiles in shock.

"So you can get Liam a record deal?" Louis asks unsure, I look at him and shrug with hope as I smile.

"I'm up for that, even if I get nowhere!" Liam grins and I smile proudly at my idea. This is perfect for me and is ideal for Liam. It's a win win situation. I'm suddenly distracted from their conversation as I feel my phone go off in my pocket, I quickly get it out and see it's a text from Stephanie:

Are you free to talk?

Notes

Hello everyone!
Please let me know what you think of the updates so far :)
I hope you like!


Thank you for voting, reading and subscribing!

X