Best Friends Forever

Lucie’s P.O.V.

When I woke up, I looked beside me to see Niall still asleep. I slowly climbed out of bed, trying not to wake him, and walked to the kitchen downstairs. To my surprise I saw Iris was awake too. “Hey”, I said as I walked up to her. “Hey! I bet Niall was still far away?”, Iris asked me. I nodded. “Harry too”, she responded grinning. I looked at my phone to see it was already noon. “For the first time ever we’re the first ones to be awake”, I stated with a grin. “It must be the jetlag”, Iris joked. “Everyone always complains we can sleep till noon. Well, look at these boys. They’re even worse”, I responded. “Shit”, Iris suddenly said. “What’s wrong?”, I asked her. “When I looked in Harry’s phone yesterday I saw they had an appointment today”, she answered. “You’re looking in his phone now? Don’t you trust him?”, I said teasingly. “Shut up”, Iris said with a smirk as she slapped me. “The appointment was scheduled at 11am”, she continued. “Shit”, I responded. Within a second we ran upstairs to wake Harry and Niall. “What the fuck, why the shouting?”, Niall asked annoyed when I woke him. Apparently someone’s in a bad mood. On the other side of the corridor I heard Harry responding the same. “You do know that you have an appointment in like an hour ago?”, I asked him. He looked at me with huge eyes. “Shit shit shit”, he responded as he jumped out of bed. I threw a jeans and T-shirt at him. “Iris and I will make breakfast for the two of you, so you can eat it on your way”, I said and walked out of the room. “Okay, what do they eat for breakfast here?”, I asked myself as Iris and I were back in the kitchen. We opened the fridge and all the cabinets to see if there was something we could make for them. “Aha, toast!”, Iris exclaimed as she grabbed it out of the cabinet. “Let’s just make some toast with marmalade. Super easy”, she said. “I bet they don’t have time now for bacon, beans, sausages and scrambled eggs”, I said grinning. “You know, it actually seems disgusting to me. To have beans and sausages with your breakfast”, I added. Iris nodded in agreement. “Unfortunately we don’t have the choice for the next eight weeks”, Iris responded with a face of disgust. “What did we hear you say there?”, Niall said as he and Harry walked into the kitchen. Iris and I looked ashamed at each other. “You think an English breakfast is disgusting? I think we’ve chosen the wrong girls, Niall”, Harry added. “We did prevent you from being even more late, lazy asses. And, we made you breakfast with our amazing skills”, I said to them. “We know and we’re forever grateful”, Niall responded. “Oh shut up with the sarcasm”, I said. “No seriously, thanks”, he said while kissing me on the cheek. I smiled. “Listen, we have to get to the Syco Studios to add the finishing touch to our album. The album is gonna be completely done today. After that we have a promotion for our album and tour somewhere else in London. We want you to be there. Jennifer and Perrie will be there too. My driver will pick you up at 4pm and drop you off at our promotion”, Harry said. “Wait, how should we be dressed?”, Iris asked. I laughed. Typically Iris. “It isn’t a formal event, more like a casual one. Just be dressed cute”, Harry responded with a wink. “We really gotta go”, Niall said and gave me a quick peck on the lips. “See you”, Iris and I said in unison. “‘Just be dressed cute’. What does that mean?”, Iris wondered when Niall and Harry were gone. “I’ll send Perrie a WhatsApp. She’ll know what it means”, I said grinning. “She says we really need to keep it casual. The boys will be wearing just a jeans and T-shirt. She suggests to go out shopping with the four of us”, I said to Iris when I received a message from Perrie. “Great idea!”, Iris exclaimed. We went upstairs to get dressed and did our makeup. In half an hour we were standing outside, waiting for Perrie and Jennifer to pick us up. A new record. Not much later Perrie drove up the avenue in a Bentley. “Is this your car?”, Iris asked amazed when Perrie stepped out. She grinned. “I wish. I borrowed Zayn’s car. He drove with Liam and Louis to the studios”, Perrie explained. “Now get in. We’ve got some shopping to do!”, she said and stepped back in.

“Where do we start?”, Perrie asked us when we got to the centre of London. “You tell us. We don’t know the hotspots in London”, Jennifer responded with a grin. “Let’s start with Bond Street”, Perrie suggested. “All the expensive brands are settled there, right?”, I asked. “That’s right”, she responded smirking. Perrie parked the car and we all stepped out. Jennifer, Iris and I all looked our eyes out. “Let’s go to Miu Miu!”, I exclaimed as I laid my eyes on the shop. “This is insane”, Iris said amazed as we looked around. As we walked in the shop, Perrie tapped my shoulder. “What’s up?”, I asked her. “Harry is gonna make an announcement during the promotion”, she whispered. I looked behind me to see Iris and Jennifer on the other side of the shop. “Is it what I think it is?”, I asked her. She nodded smiling. “Aw that’s so cute”, I responded. “Look, Iris needs to look super pretty. Casual, but pretty. Harry’s look will be casual as I said, but a little more than the lads. Will you help me find the perfect look for her?”, Perrie asked me. “And for yourself too, of course”, she added. “What were you thinking?”, I asked. “A skinny jeans, high heels, a casual blazer or jacket and a cute top beneath it”, Perrie told me. “What about this jeans?”, I said as I grabbed a floral skinny jeans out of the shelves. “That’s perfect!”, Perrie exclaimed. “Iris!”, I shouted. “What?”, she asked as she walked up to us. “This jeans is perfect for you”, I said to her. “Perhaps I should hire you as my personal shopping assistant”, Iris responded grinning. “I love it”, she added. She went to the fitting room and quickly came back to us with the jeans on. “That jeans is so you!”, Jennifer exclaimed. “I could live in this jeans. It’s perfect”, Iris responded. As Iris went to the cash deck my phone beeped. I looked at it to see I got a message from Niall. “Change of plans. We have to get to the Syco Studios first before we head over to the promotion”, I said to the others after I had read Niall’s message. “Why?”, Iris asked. “Apparently Simon wants to see all of us”, I responded. Iris’ face changed. “Don’t worry. I bet it has nothing to do with what happened before”, Perrie said reassuring her. “It is still Simon”, Iris said uncertain. “It’s not like he’s the devil. Really, it’s gonna be okay”, she responded. “Do you know why he wants to see us?”, I whispered to Perrie. “No I don’t, but Iris shouldn’t be worrying right now”, Perrie responded. “You’re right”, I said. When we left the shop, we went to a lot of other shops. We all wanted to buy a new outfit and it wasn’t that easy. A few hours later we recovered our breath while having a coffee at Starbucks. What a surprise. “Don’t you think my outfit is too much?”, Iris asked uncertain. “No of course not! It can’t be more casual than that”, Jennifer responded. Perrie and I agreed with her. “I love shopping in London. We all found such perfect outfits”, I said. “And you haven’t even seen everything. Wait until you see Regent Street and Oxford Street”, Perrie responded. “I have this feeling we’ll be shopping a lot these eight weeks we’re here”, I said grinning. “At what time do we have to be at the studios?”, Jennifer suddenly asked. “4pm, why?”, I responded. “Then we really gotta hurry!”, she exclaimed while looking at her phone. “Wow. We really have something with coming late today”, I said sighing. We grabbed our coffees and rushed back to Perrie’s car. “We’re sorry we’re late!”, Perrie shouted as we ran into the studios. “Don’t worry. It’s okay. Welcome, girls”, Simon said kindly. His gentleness caught me by surprise. Perrie was right when she said he wasn’t the devil. We’ve seen Simon once before and that meeting wasn’t such a great experience, but that had probably nothing to do with himself, but more with the situation. I really hoped he would continue being kind. “If this is about me and Harry again, I’m out”, Iris said annoyed. I looked at Iris with my ‘what the fuck-look’. I didn’t expect her to be so bold, while she actually had all the right to be. I saw on Simon’s face he was surprised too by this comment. “It is about you and Harry…”, he responded. “Wait”, he added when Iris was about to walk away. “First, I want to apologize to you, Iris. You didn’t deserve that and I didn’t have any right to demand the two of you to break up. I’m sorry. I really am”, Simon explained. “Did you also apologize to Harry?”, Iris asked boldly. She looked furious. “Yes, I did”, he responded calmly. Harry walked over to Iris. “Hey, it’s okay”, Harry said, trying to calm her down. “No, it’s not okay. First he demands us to break up and tries to take our love away and now all of a sudden he says he’s sorry. I don’t believe a shit of it. I can’t believe you can just forgive him like that”, Iris responded. “You know much pain you caused the both of us? We were hurt. Those two months I was separated from Harry was the worst time of my life. You can never make up for the pain you caused us”, Iris said to Simon. “Look, I’m not looking for your forgiveness, because I know that I demanded something impossible. It was cruel of me to tear you apart. I just want you to believe that I’m truly sorry. I’ve seen what my actions did to Harry and I regret that”, Simon responded. “You regret that because you care about Harry or because you care about his performances?”, Iris asked him. Simon didn’t respond immediately. “Let me guess. The last one”, she added. I grabbed Iris’ arm and pulled her out of the room. “What’s the matter with you?”, I asked her angrily as we stood outside the room. “What’s the matter with me? You should ask what’s the matter with Simon”, Iris responded fiercely. “I get that you’re angry with him, but what difference does it make? Simon’s truly sorry. He made you do something awful, but he can’t undo his actions. If he could, I bet he would. I know it’s hard for you to forgive him, but if Harry can do so, you can too, right? Harry and you are happily back together”, I said. “He’s still responsible for my pain”, Iris responded. I sighed. “Goddamn Iris! Don’t be so hard on him! Life isn’t perfect and everything turned out perfectly well for now, so what’s left to complain about?”, I responded edgily. “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Do you really wanna be that person who keeps holding onto anger? Because it will make you chase people away. Please just accept his apology and move on”, I continued, more gently now. Iris looked a bit ashamed now. “I’m sorry”, she whispered. “Don’t say that to me, but rather to Simon and Harry”, I responded. Iris walked back in with her tail between her legs. “I’m sorry for the scene I caused”, she said with her eyes pointed at the ground. “I will try to forgive and forget”, she continued. “Thank you. I really appreciate it. I hope we can move on as friends?”, Simon responded. “I’d like that”, Iris said with a little smile. “Well, if everything is fixed, let’s get to this promotion!”, Liam exclaimed. I walked up to Harry. “I thought the dress code was casual?”, I whispered grinning. He looked at me with a frightened look. “Is it too much?”, he whispered back uncertain. “Don’t worry, I was just joking. You look perfect. It’s such a sweet and romantic idea”, I responded smiling while giving him a little pinch in his arm. Harry smiled back at me. “Can I join this little clique?”, Iris asked grinning when she walked up to us. “No you can’t, because I am already leaving”, I responded with a smirk and walked over to Niall. “Hey”, I said while I grabbed his hand. “Hey gorgeous”, Niall responded and kissed my hand. “Are you excited for the promotion?”, I asked him. “Yeah definitely! We’ve been working on our album so hard and now we can finally show it to the world. It’s a great feeling”, he answered. He looked so happy and proud. “Will you be performing some songs?”, I asked. “That’s a secret”, he responded with a wink. When we got to the promotion, there was already so much press waiting to get in. It was unbelievable. Jennifer, Perrie, Iris and I went to the bathroom and quickly changed into our new outfits. When we got back to the pressroom, the promotion had already started. At the moment the boys were answering questions. From the side of the stage we watched the first part. The journalists asked all kind of questions. “Did you write all the songs yourselves?” Niall: “We wrote a big part ourselves, but we also had some help.” “When is the new tour gonna start?” Liam: “We’ll talk about the tour later during this promotion.” “Since most of you have girlfriends, did you dedicate one of the songs to them?” I smiled. Harry: “Yes we did. It’s called No Control. We’ll sing the song later for you.” “How long have you been working on this album?” Zayn: “About nine months.” “How does it feel to have a new album released?” Louis: “It feels so awesome. We’ve put so much effort and love in these songs. We really hope that our amazing fans will like it.” “What song will be your new single?” Liam: “We decided to make Steal My Girl and Night Changes our singles. Steal My Girl has already come out a few weeks ago. The video clip of Night Changes will be released in a few days.” When the press had no more questions to ask, Harry stood up. Now it was going to happen. “Can I please have your attention? I have an official announcement to make”, Harry stated. I looked at Iris and saw that she didn’t know what was going to happen. Harry turned towards us. “I want to ask my beautiful girlfriend to join me here on stage”, he said and reached out his arm. Now Iris looked confused. I grinned. “Do you know what’s going on?”, she asked me. “No I have no idea. Just go up there”, I responded. Iris stood up, grabbed his hand and walked up stage. “I want to introduce you all to Iris. I met Iris at a concert in Chicago last summer and I immediately fell head over heels in love with her. We hung out as much as we could and while I started to get to really know her, I started to like her even more and more. We didn’t officially date, because our manager Simon brought an end to our brief happiness. We couldn’t date each other, because one of us had to stay single for the fans. It wouldn’t be interesting if the five of us were all of a sudden off the market. Simon ordered us to break up and for Iris to go back to her country, France. We were heartbroken. A lot of people have noticed I haven’t been myself the last few months. That’s right. When I was out and about I pulled up a fake smile, but every time I was home I was a complete mess. The lads did everything to help me and they made a great effort, but the only one who could really cheer me up was Iris. When I was finally doing a little better, or I knew how to deal with the pain, I got a call from Iris’ best friend. She told me Iris was unconscious and on her way to the hospital. She had taken too many pills – and before everyone suddenly starts spreading rumours – I want to say it was just a bad accident. Niall and I immediately flew to France to visit Iris in the hospital. When we got there, Iris was in a coma and it looked really bad. She had already been gone one time, but the doctors could bring her back. While I sat in her room beside her bed and talked to her, she suddenly flat lined. I thought she was gone for real. My world was falling apart in just a few really quiet seconds. Luckily the doctors were just in time to revive her again, with success. Otherwise the both of us wouldn’t be standing here. I am able to be with this beautiful, amazing, funny and sweet girl. I am so proud to officially announce that she’s my girlfriend. Right now I feel like the happiest man on earth”, Harry explained. Iris and Harry looked genuinely happy at each other. I saw some tears leaving their eyes. Iris whispered something to Harry and Harry kissed her. Suddenly everyone started applauding. Not much later Iris walked off stage with a huge smile on her face. “Did you know about this?”, Iris asked me, Jennifer and Perrie. We looked at each other. “Maybe”, Jennifer said smirking. “I can’t believe he just did that. It’s so incredibly sweet”, Iris responded. “Just wait until he proposes to you”, Perrie said grinning. “What?”, she asked confused. “Look at the way he asked you to be his girlfriend and the way he announced it. It was nearly perfect. If he asks you to marry him someday, the proposal will be even more perfect, if that’s even possible”, Perrie responded. “Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves”, Iris said objectively. The other boys stepped on the stage again. “Right now it’s time to perform a few songs from our new album FOUR. We’re starting with No Control, a song dedicated to our girls”, Liam announced.
After No Control they also performed Night Changes, Stockholm Syndrome and Fool’s Gold. It was the first time I heard these songs. They were absolutely perfect. I couldn’t wait for the rest of the album. Luckily the release was only three days away now. I was going to play this cd until it drove me crazy. “At last, we have another surprise”, Niall said after they were done performing the songs. At that moment Simon walked upon stage. “Lucie and Iris, could you come up here, please?”, he asked us. Iris and I looked confused at each other. I glanced at Niall, but he looked very mysteriously back at me. “What’s going on?”, Iris asked me, “Is he gonna order me and Harry to break up again, in public now? Or maybe you and Niall gotta break up this time”, she continued, jokingly. “Just stop it”, I said laughing while slapping her. I was a little nervous, standing there on stage and not knowing what was going to happen. I looked at Niall again when standing next to him, but he wouldn’t reveal a thing. Finally Simon started speaking, “Last summer these two girls had the time of their lives with Harry, Niall and the rest of the One Direction family. In LA, at the boys’ concert, Lucie and Iris performed as opening act. As much as I wanted to deny it at the time, they were a huge success. Everybody loved it. I’m even surprised they didn’t get a record deal, but luckily for me.” He stopped for a few seconds. I gasped. “Ladies, I want to offer the two of you a Syco record deal with, to be honest, a little urge of the boys. I think you are very talented and you have a lot of potential. The both of you have amazing voices and it would be a shame not to let the rest of the world enjoy these voices”, Simon continued. When his little speech was done, he handed the both of us a record deal. “Oh god, I don’t even know what to respond”, I said stuttering. “Thank you so much Simon. This is unbelievable. We won’t let you down”, I continued, still a little stuttering. I handed the microphone over to Iris. “I know we had some issues together, but I’m happy we have buried the hatchet. Thank you so much. This means a lot, really”, she said. We walked over to Simon and hugged him.

Notes