The Songbird [Harry Styles]

2: Reunions + Doubts.

♪ CHAPTER TWO: Reunions + Doubts. ♪

The mid-autumnal sunshine pouring through the thick paned windows splashed the bright and airy room in exposing light that drizzled over the features of the place. It was quite a small room, with crisp white walls that bordered the shiny laminate flooring. On the front wall was the farthest window, in front of which sat a large and sturdy oak desk. The desk had two chairs behind it, poised in wait at either end for the next two people that would enter.

In front of the back wall, a good two metres away from the desk, were five chairs in a somewhat neat row. On these chairs sat the five boys that made up five-fifths of One Direction. They sat mostly silently on the expensive and plush furnishings. Some were more nervous than others. They were forced to tone down to an almost halt their excitement in seeing each other after around a year apart. Aside from some phone calls and odd days out together, they’d relaxed into their own lives for the past year, centring themselves away from their fame and fortune of being the world’s biggest boy band. It was needless to say they had missed each other, it was only mandatory for friendships to blossom when they had spent so much time together in the past. And they had, becoming five best friends since they met all those years ago all in their common hope of pursuing their dreams.

Mere days ago they’d each received contact summoning them to the place that used to be so commonly visited it was almost like a home to them. The details had been brief, claiming off-purposely that they were being called to discuss their major comeback that was planned for the beginning of next summer. Like all good musical acts, there were the good and the bad parts. It took major debating between everyone involved with the band to decide that they should take a year off from being them to let someone else take the stage. But now that, that break was almost over they were each mentally priming themselves to sink back into their world of being world renowned superstars. The return of their talented selves was one greatly anticipated by their many fans across the globe who – for the majority – had stuck by their side and patiently waited until they could watch their idols dive back into the limelight.

The original soul and root for the reappearance had been one that was cliché - but yet greatly waited – for their fans. The new album (full of much perfect collaboration) was going to be shortly followed by a large line of concerts based around every single country they could get to. Weaved in between these was the of course prominent signings, meet and greets, interviews and photo-shoots. Absolutely everything that would be necessary to climb back to their previous stance in the world of music and fame.

All five of their heads snapped to look upwards as the door opened and two senior members of their management strolled formally into the room. They all shuffled in their seats, sitting up a little straighter. They wondered briefly if what they had done with their lives in their time off unadvised from their image creators was going to be appropriate for their management’s satisfaction. But they quickly brushed the thoughts off, remembering that even if they were like puppets on strings to the people behind the scenes, they were still deep down their own person and were entitled to some say in how they conveyed themselves.

They felt their heartbeats quicken as they realised the second person to enter the room and sit in the left chair to be the one man who had set their fame and fortune up. The one and only Simon Cowell was inclined to be professional towards the five boys who clearly held a lot of affection for him. He kept his lips pressed tightly together as he rolled his gaze across the five young talent bearing celebrities that he had created with his popular talent scowering TV show.

There was a brief silence in the room, each band member too nervous for what was about to propose itself to speak. The silence was quickly filled by the throat clearing of Simon.