*LIZZIE’S POV*

When we landed back in London after our Paris sleepover, Harry and I went through a drive-through and then just went back to our apartment for an early night. The guys were supposedly all coming over in the morning because management had asked them to finalize their lyric choices for a few songs, and Eleanor had texted me that as girlfriends, we were to keep them on task and not let them leave until they were done… which was apparently going to be a very difficult job.

~~~~~~

“Okay, here’s how this is going to go.” Eleanor said as we stood in front of five semi-asleep, pajama-clad boys. “Finish a verse or make a good contribution, and you get to pick out of the goodie bag. Get side-tracked or distract anyone, and you’ll be sprayed with liquids from a mystery bottle.”

“You need to start recording this song this afternoon, so get to work!” Danielle announced just as professionally as Eleanor as I passed out cups of tea. For a few moments, everyone was silent. Dani, El and I initially let it pass as them thinking, but when Zayn started to doze off in his chair, we threatened them with the liquids again so they got to work.

“What about instead of saying ‘something you do has got me crazy for you’ in the third line of the chorus, we say.. umm..” Niall half suggested before trailing off.

“We could change it to ‘everything you do has got me falling for you’?” Harry suggested.

“Good job, Harry!” I said, reaching for the goodie bag. “That’s the first real suggestion we’ve had all morning!”

“Not fair!” Louis exclaimed as Harry reached in the bag, “that wasn’t even a good suggestion. You’re just biased because he’s your boyfriend.”

“Yeah well I’d be pretty biased too if my boyfriend took me to Paris for the night.” Eleanor said, returning from where she and Dani were making toast in the kitchen.

“Be quiet and write the song,” Danielle stopped them as Louis opened his mouth for a rebuttal to Eleanor’s comment. I was distracted from the budding argument as my phone buzzed in my sweatshirt pocket; pulling it out, there was an unknown number calling me.

“I’ll be right back,” I said, sliding answer on my phone and walking into the bedroom.

*HARRY’S POV*

I got up to follow Liz into the other room when she answered the phone, because I was concerned about who it could be, but Danielle and Eleanor stopped me before I even took two steps.

“Harry, sit down. Lizzie’s coming back out here when she’s done.” Eleanor said, aiming the spray bottle at my face. Not wanting to cause a problem, I sat back down and stared back at the list of lyrics in front of me.

“GUESS WHAT!” Liz exclaimed, scaring all of us as she burst out of the room down the hall, running into the living room.

“What?” most of us asked in unison.

“That was IMG modeling! They want me to come into their London office tomorrow to talk to me about doing print work for them!” She practically squealed, her face lighting up. Danielle and Eleanor seemed to be the only ones who understood fully what she was saying, because they immediately jumped up and hugged her, joining in the excitement.

“Uhm, excuse me? What?” Niall finally asked, hoping for a bit of clarification.

“A big company might want them to model for her,” Danielle explained slowly in our direction.

“That’s great!” I said now that I understood, getting up from my seat to go over and give Liz a hug.

“Hey wait, aren’t you a bit short to model?” Louis asked, distracting the three girls from the rapid discussion they were having.

“Not too short for print!” Liz sang out in an excited voice before she got serious. “Now, sorry for the distraction. Don’t spray me. But y’all have to get back to work!”

~~~~~~

That night, though I was exhausted from the 6+ hours we had spent in the studio recording for the new album, Liz could barely sleep. She tossed and turned under my arm for what seemed like hours before she attempted to quietly leave the bedroom, seemingly stepping on every squeaky floor board possible. Sighing, I waited a few minutes, struggling with debating on whether I should get up too or not, before I finally rolled myself out of bed and followed her to where she was sitting on the couch, flipping through tv channels.

“Can’t sleep?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes, trying to adjust to the bright light from the tv.

“Sorry, Harry, I didn’t mean to wake you up. Go back to bed, I’m fine!” She said cheerily, though I know her, and I can tell when she’s using her fake happy voice.

“No, I’m okay,” I said as I sat next to her on the couch, wrapping my arm around her and pulling her into my bare chest. “Let’s talk. What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know Harry,” she said softly after a moment of silence. “I just don’t know..”

“What do you mean, love? What’s bothering you all of the sudden?”

“I’ve just been thinking a lot lately, and that call from this morning made me finally realize something..” she trailed off.

“What’d you realize?” I asked, urging her to continue.

“I’m not happy.” She paused and said even softer. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than happy with everything about our relationship right now,” she quickly clarified probably due to the heart attack that I was having.

“Well what’s making you unhappy?” I asked, after I calmed myself.

“I’ve just really been missing my friends lately... especially Emma and Nicole. I left everything to come out here for school, and now I’m not even sure if I want to continue. I haven’t been to my summer classes in weeks, so my work is piling up, and I don’t even know what I want to do yet with my life, so how do I know if school is even right for me? I’m supposed to decide in a few weeks if I want to enroll in the university, but honestly, I don’t even think I want to.” She spoke rapidly, before she stopped and took a deep breath. “And then this modeling call, it made me realize that maybe I don’t even need school to do what I want to do. There are plenty of people who don’t. I could be one of those plenty!”

“Well, I wish I could give you better advice, but I didn’t go to university either so…” I stammered, trailing off, unsure of what to say.

“But see you’re lucky! You never had to make the decision, your path literally began to unfold in front of you as soon as you were called back to be put in the band.”

“Well who knows?” I asked, finally knowing what I should say. “Maybe that IMG phone call was your call back to be put in the band.” That statement seemed to reason with her. “However, I know how you get when you get tired. And no one will want a tired Lizzie in their band. So let’s go back to bed?” She smiled a little after I said that, setting some of my nerves at ease.

“Carry me?” she finally asked, reaching her arms around my neck.

“Of course…” I said, giving in without an argument before I lifted her up and finally went back to sleep.

~~~~~~

I was in the booth recording when I looked through the glass window in front of me and saw Louis holding up my phone. I was waiting for Liz to text me about how her meeting went, so I quickly cut the track before practically running out of the booth to check my phone.

From: Liz
All done! On my way to the studio now

I typed a quick response as Louis and Zayn took my spot in the booth to record some back up vocals together.

To: Liz
That’s great! How’d it go? Miss you .xx

From: Liz
We should talk about it in person when I get there..

Unsure of how to respond to her text or even of what she really meant, I put my phone up and got back in the booth, distracting myself as I waited for her.

*LIZZIE’S POV*

As I walked into the studio, I was pretty unsure of a lot of things. Finding the familiar room down the hall, I knocked twice before entering (just because sometimes, though it is a recording studio, they’re surprisingly not always decent. They have a habit of pants-ing one another).

“Lizzie!” Zayn immediately got up from the black spinning chair as he heard me enter the room. Harry was with Niall still recording at the time, so I quickly waved to him through the glass and signaled for him to stay and finish. “How’d it go?” Louis asked from where he sat, taking back my attention.

“Uhm, from a modeling perspective, it went really well!” I said with a smile, “they really liked me!”

“That’s great, Liz! Congratulations!” Danielle said as she and Liam entered through the door behind me.

“Yeah, but there’s one small problem...” I said, wanting to avoid this part of the conversation but knowing that it was necessary to discuss. “They want me to go to their office in Sydney.”

“Oh wow.. for how long?” Danielle asked as I sat down in one of the vacant spinning chairs.

“They said anywhere from four weeks to three months…” I admitted quietly as gasps resounded throughout the room.

“Have you told Harry yet?” Louis asked, looking to the curly-haired boy in the booth. Almost as if on cue, Harry hung up his headphones and collected his stuff to leave the booth.

“No. I haven’t told him yet,” I said quickly, though Harry caught the end of it.

“Haven’t told me what?” he asked as he bent down to give me a quick kiss hello.

“Do you want to go talk in private?” Danielle more of suggested than asked.

“No, it’s fine; we can talk here. Right?” Harry asked, his worry becoming evident. “So what’s up? How was IMG?”

“They want me to go to Sydney.” I said quickly.

“Australia..?”

“For anywhere from four weeks to three months…” I added quietly. The room had gone silent; everyone was waiting for Harry’s response.

“I think that’s a great opportunity.” He finally said, looking up from where he was peeling the label off of his water bottle. “Congratulations, love.” Harry reached out and grabbed the arm of my spinning chair, pulling me to where he sat on the couch. “Let’s have a celebratory dinner at our place tonight!” He announced, further surprising me as the others cheered at the announcement and Harry’s newfound, unexpected support.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this, Harry?” I asked quietly to just him as conversations started throughout the room.

“More than okay,” he said, plastering his face with a smile though no dimples showed…

Notes

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