please don't take my sunshine away...

Chapter Seven.

Playlist Song: Fearless, Louis Tomlinson

Summer 2010

I stood at the side of the large X-Factor stage with Louis beside me. His hand is holding mine and I can hear our parents in the background.
"You're gonna do fine," he says beside me.
"Why did you convince me to do this?" I wine and turn towards him. He rests both of his hands on my shoulders.
"You've got this. Your voice is better than half of the people out there. Much better than mine and I got in," he says looking at me intently. I avoid his gaze and try not to let my anxiety pool over in a puddle of tears.
"Hey," he says, putting his hands on either side of my face and forcing him to look at me. "Do you know how beautiful you are Harry Styles?" he asks. I blush and squirm in his hands.
"You can do this," he says. I watch as both of his eyes dart between each of mine. He leans forward and kisses me softly. I rest my hands on his waist and kiss him back slowly.
"I love you," he says after pulling away.
"I love you too," I say with a smile. He holds up his hand in a thumbs up and I press my own to his. Our thumbs meet in our own little way of saying the same words without a sound.

I go over to my parents and they tell me the same words of encouragement. Then the backstage director comes over with a mic in his hand and tells me that it's my time to go on. Louis walks up to the sidelines with me and holds my hand before one of the judges calls my number. Louis kisses my cheek and gives me a comforting nod and then I walk out onto the large stage. The cheering of the audience makes my heart pound and looking at the judge's table makes me want to shit my pants.

"How are you?" Simon the judge's table.
"Hello," I say putting the mic to my lips
"Nice to meet you. What's your name?" he says looking down at his clipboard.
"Um, I'm Harry Styles," I say. I look over to the sidelines and see Louis giving me thumbs up.
"Okay," he says, then pauses as the crowd cheers. "Okay, How old are you?"
"I'm sixteen," I say with a slight nod.
"Sixteen," he repeats. "So tell me a bit about you," he says. I rack my brain for a second to think of something interesting about myself to say.
"Um. I work in a bakery," I say.
"And Harry, so you left school, went to work there, yeah?" he says using his hands as he talks.
"I work there on Saturdays, but I just finished my GCSEs just now so I'm going back to college in September," I explain, Simon inputting a small 'yep' or two as I speak.
"And what are you going to study at college?" he asks, looking at me intently.
"Um, law, sociology, um, business and something else but I'm not sure," the crowd whoops and cheers, as I count off each of them on my fingers.

I look to the side of the stage and see Louis looking at me with a proud grin on his face. I smile back at him.
"Wow," Simon says. "So, what are you doing here today?" he asks.
"Um, well I've always wanted to audition but I've always been too young and my friend Louis was the one that really pushed me," I say, glancing at him again.
"Okay. Alright, what are you going to sing?" My heart rate picks up again knowing that I'll have to start performing soon.
"I'll do Isn't She Lovely by Stevie Wonder," I smile remembering how much Louis loved that song.
"Okay, Good luck," Simon says looking down at his papers and not looking amused.

I wait a couple of seconds until the cheers have died down to start. I take a deep breath and then bring my mic up to my lips.
"Isn't she lovely?" the lyrics flow out of my mouth with ease and I feel myself immediately relax.
"Isn't she wonderful?
Isn't she precious?
Less than one minute old," I look over at Louis and see him swaying back and forth slightly.
"And I never thought that through love we'd be,
Making one as lovely as she,
Isn't she lovely, made from love," the crowd cheered, and the judges clapped. I draw in a breath and hold it hoping that I will get in. I take a small bow trying to console the smile on my face.

"Okay, Nicole, what do you think?" Simon Cowell says.
"Uh, I'm really glad that we had the opportunity to hear you acapella because we could really hear how great your voice is," I nod at her lightly.
"Thank you," I say timidly. Hoping that she'll say yes.
"You're only sixteen years old and you have a beautiful voice," she says, making me blush slightly.
"Thank you," I say again. The audience claps and I can hear Louis cheer from the sidelines.
"I agree with Nicole," Louie says. "However I think that your so young I don't think you have enough experience," my heart drops in my chest.
"I don't think you have enough confidence yet," he says. I hear Louis say a curse word and I look over at him with a glare.
"Okay," I say solemnly.

"Uh yes, I just heard someone in the audience say 'rubbish' and I completely agree with them," Simon says. I smile as the crowd cheers.
"Because you know the show is designed to find someone that's fifteen, sixte-, seventeen, doesn't matter. I think with a bit of vocal coaching you actually could be really good," he says looking up at me.
"Thank you," I say. "Thanks." I break out into a huge grin and don't even try to console it. Simon gestures to Loui to make the first answer. He sighs.
"Harry, for all the reasons. I'm going to say no because I think that you are not ready," Louie says. I feel my breath hitch. The crowd boos.
"I actually don't think they booed you loud enough there," Simon says, turning around to face the audience. They do it louder.
"Boo," I say slightly and then my cheeks blush with embarrassment. I smile slightly.
"I like you Harry," Nicole says. "I'm going to say yes," I want to scream and jump up and down but I console my excitement and wait for Simon's answer.
"Thank you," I say.
"And you'll be happy to hear that I'm going to be agreeing with Nicole and you're through," Simon says.

I smile wider than I ever have in my life. My cheeks hurt.
"Thank you!" I say. I walk off the stage waving to the crowd and then Louis runs at me before I even get off the stage and jumps on me. I pick him up and he hugs me really tight.
"You did it Harry!" he says in my ear. I smile and once I get to my family everyone hugs me around Louis making us all just a giant hug ball. When Louis finally lets go of me I kiss him passionately. When I pull away he has the brightest smile on his face and hugs me again.

After I was hugged and congratulated hundreds of times, me and Louis went into the room with all the other contestants. There were hundreds of other people there and some of them were nervous and others extremely excited. Louis and I go and sit next to a raven-headed boy.
"Hi, what's your name?" Louis says extending a hand for the boy to shake. I hid in his side embarrassed by his bold actions.
"I'm Louis and this is Harry,"
"I'm Zayn," he says, shaking Louis' and my hands lightly.
"Nice to meet you," I say.
"You were really good," Zayn says.
"Thank you," I say.
"Have you gotten in yet?" Louis asks, pulling me into his side. I giggle.
"No, I go on in like half an hour," he says nervously.
"You'll do great," Louis says confidently. "We'll cheer you on in here."

Zayn smiles and looks at both of us.
"You guys together of something?" he asks, gesturing to our close behavior.
"Yeah," I say nervously hoping that Zayn won't go crazy homophobic on us.
"Cool. How long?" he asks.
"About three months," Louis says, looking at me. We spend the rest of the afternoon talking with Zayn and getting to know some of the other people auditioning. When Zayn goes on we cheer for him while watching on the small TV at the corner of the room. He gets in as well and when he comes back we both hug and congratulate him.

At the end of the day, we exchanged numbers with Zayn before going back to our hotel room excited to return back tomorrow. When both of our families get back to the hotel room we spend the afternoon watching SpongeBob and eating crappy hotel food. To anyone else, it would just be a regular afternoon but to me, it was the best in my whole life. I had just gotten into the X-Factor and I was with the person that I loved. Best day of my life.

this chapter took forever to write. i had to watch the audition video and copy every single word said. i hope you like this one because it took a lot of time out if my day. i think this one is super cute and fluffy. i also ducking love zayn in this. he is do sweet sad i really wanted them to have a connection together before they met the other boys.
Thank you all so much for reading.
All the love.
- Lilah Sage