love love love you guys for waiting this long for this update 💖😭 please vote & commenttt
// cries because selena is so cute & bc the chapter title isn't even the song I attached lolol
Recap
"This is different, Jess."
"How?"
I was desperate for answers and he wasn't giving any.
"What if I tell you a few possibilities and you give me some kind of movement or sign if that was what the meeting was about," I suggested.
He nodded, and his face remained expressionless.
"Was it about the movie?" Nothing.
"God forbid...a PR stunt?" Nothing.
"Photographer stuff?" Nothing.
What else could it have been about?
He was sensitive when Emily talked about Drive yesterday. Maybe it has something to do with the song? Or his voice -
No, it couldn't be...
"Was it about you singing?" I asked.
He became noticeably tense. I pushed on. Suddenly, the puzzle pieces started to match up in my head.
"Harry, was it a record deal?" I breathed.
Jess
I wasn't sure what answer I wanted to hear.
Either: "No, it wasn't a record deal. I love what I'm doing now. I've told you that."
Or: "Yes, it was a record deal. It's something I want to do, and I didn't tell you because..."
The "because" for whichever answer he chose, was going to be a huge fucking "because" if he couldn't tell me.
All of the signs pointed to him getting a record deal offer. He had a fantastic voice, and with some lessons, he could really be an amazing artist. Him featuring on one of the new tracks on my album could've been his turning point. Maybe he wants to be an artist now. I couldn't be mad at him for wanting that, could I?
His lips parted as soon as the question left my mouth. His eyes fixated more on the road and his posture relaxed against the seat.
He didn't have to say anything now. By his reaction, I knew the answer.
I leaned my head back on the headrest and looked out the window. His silence told me that he was either thinking about accepting the offer, or he already had. And...well, if he had, we'd both be looking at some messy outcomes.
Some amount of minutes passed, and neither of us had said anything.
"Did you accept it?" I asked a different question. I didn't make an effort to look at him. The only things that seemed to be relaxing me right then, were the massive palm trees that passed by.
"No."
My head snapped over to look at him. His face was expressionless, and I was shocked.
"W-why not?" I sputtered. I fully expected the answer to be yes.
"I don't want it."
"Then why didn't you just tell me?"
"They asked me not to."
I looked away and focused my attention on my burgundy colored nails.
It bothered me that he didn't tell me this when I first asked. If it was as unproblematic as that, I don't see why he couldn't have just said something, even if they told him not to tell me.
I chose to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he didn't want to screw anything up with the new management. Maybe he thought that I might approach them about their offer to Harry, and that it might cause problems.
That sure sounds like something he'd do, so why was I thinking about it so much? Am I disappointed that he rejected the offer, or am I happy?
We rolled to a stop in front of a red light. I felt Harry's hand on my thigh. I looked over at him and stared into his intense, green eyes.
"I love you, Jess," he marveled. The soft "Harry" look I've always known and loved returned to his face.
I smiled and covered his hand with mine. "I know," I teased, with a light shrug of my shoulders.
He chuckled, and pressed down on the gas pedal once the light turned green. He tightened his fingers around my hand and rubbed his thumb across the top of it. I closed my eyes and didn't open them until the car stopped and I heard him put the car in park.
Harry was still holding onto my hand, and I released it to collect my bag off the floor. I opened the door and got out, putting on my sunglasses. My eyes set on the paparazzi and fans waiting just outside the gates, opposite from the entrance we came through. I raised my hand in a wave, then joined Harry on the other side of the car.
"Have a nice nap?" He asked.
I nodded and leaned my head against his shoulder.
"Ready to meet JB?" I hummed.
"How does one get ready to meet Justin Bieber?"
***
Ha, I thought my entourage was quite large.
Justin Bieber "out-entouraged" me by a good fifteen people. All of them were in a spare dressing room backstage and on top of that, music was playing.
"Hey!" I heard a guy's voice shout. Justin stood up from the couch, and he walked over to Jane, Emily, Harry, and I. He wore very loose light wash jeans and a white t-shirt.
Before I could say anything else, he spoke again. "Let me grab Scooter and Sonny, and we can head some place more quiet."
"We'll be in the hallway!" Jane called out to him. Just before we closed the door, a loud eruption of laughter bounced off the walls.
Harry sent me a look from my side and I nudged his shoulder as a way of saying, 'behave'. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he laughed.
The door to the dressing room opened once again. Two men stood with Justin, who I recognized as Scooter Braun and Skrillex.
"Let's go to the studio room," Emily proposed.
We held off introductions for the time being until we had some privacy. The room was only down the hall, so it wasn't all too awkward. The door closed behind us and we gathered by the stage.
"I'm Jess. It's really nice to meet you guys," I finally introduced, shaking Scooter's and Sonny's hands. It felt appropriate to give Justin a hug.
Scooter and Sonny introduced themselves, whereas Justin didn't. It was a bit strange, but I guess if you're as well known as he is, it's not all that necessary.
"This is Jane, my manager, Emily, my vocal coach, and Harry, my photographer and boyfriend," I smiled.
Harry was the first to offer them all a handshake.
"It's nice to meet you, mate," Harry said to Justin.
"So, I say we should get right down to business with this track, yeah?" Scooter suggested, unlocking his iPhone.
"Agreed," Jane said.
Justin sat down on the mini stage with his legs crossed. I sat down a few feet from him and leaned back on my hands.
"Just a run down...the track sort of describes a liminal, unstable state of the feeling of love, basically," Sonny explained.
"It's missing something, and that would be you," Justin added. "You're a respectable and inspirational artist, and it would be an honor to have you on this track with me."
I smiled. "I already said yes to it, you don't have to suck up," I joked, making him laugh. "But, really, thank you for the opportunity and the chance to be in your album."
He gave a humbled nod.
"Wanna hear the instrumentals?" Sonny asked.
"Yeah, of course."
***
After the two hours we spent in that room, I completely feel in love with the song. We sang along to it, jammed out, danced a bit, took pictures, and laughed a lot. The song was called "The Feeling", and it had this unearthly, light, and hypnotic vibe to it. Both mine and Justin's voices blended well in the chorus.
Scooter had said that there was talk that Justin was going to perform on Good Morning America in the middle of November, and it would be a good idea to have me perform the song with him. I, of course, agreed.
"So, just call me next time you're free in LA, and we'll hit the studio," Justin told me as we all walked out of the studio room together.
"I will, for sure."
He held his arms out for a hug, and I returned it. "Hey, mind if I hear a few tracks off your new album? It's only fair," he reasoned.
I glanced over at Jane, who was looking at me for the answer.
"Yeah, that sounds good. I'll grab someone from my band to play some guitar. Wanna meet me by the stage in twenty?"
"Sure."
I smiled. "Okay, see you there."
Justin turned around to head back to his dressing room. I took out my phone and sent a quick text to Devin while I blindly followed Jane.
I locked my phone after, making sure my ringer was on, and tucked it into my back pocket. Seconds after, I heard a chime, but it ended up being Harry's phone.
After reading whatever had popped up on his screen, he glanced over at me. "I have to go check up on something. Text me if you leave the stage before I get back."
I nodded, and he leaned over to kiss my cheek before walking away.
"You should get changed first. I'm sure your time with Justin will take you up until the meet and greets," Jane said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear that had gotten lose from her ponytail.
"Are Meredith and Caroline ready for me, or should I call them?" I asked. It was earlier than when I'd usually show up for wardrobe. I don't know how they'd react if I was early, or if they'd react at all, because I've never been early before.
"I think they're showing the new girl how things work. They'll be in there."
New girl? I didn't know there was going to be an addition to the crew. Maybe she came with Rocket Management.
"Don't keep Justin waiting," Jane called to me, just as I was about to walk into the hair/make-up room.
I didn't respond, and instead, scoffed to myself. This is my tour. I'll be late if I want to, thanks very much, Jane.
I didn't knock, just pulled down the handle and opened the door. I gasped in delight when I saw Caroline's hair.
"You cut it! It looks so gorgeous, oh my god!" I screamed, running over to her. I had her turn around so that I could see her new haircut from all angles. Her naturally curled hair was now much shorter, so that it poofed out.
"Aw, thanks, girl. I missed my afro," she chuckled, making her hair bounce.
I laughed, then noticed the "new girl" standing beside Meredith at the vanity. She was turned around, her mouth slightly agape. She had light brown hair and her skin was naturally tanned. She looked to be in her early twenties.
I took a few steps toward her and held out a hand. "Hi, I'm Jess," I introduced myself.
"Serenity," she blurted, then blinked and shook her head after returning her hand to her side. "Like, my name - is Serenity," she unnecessarily corrected.
I chuckled. "It's nice to meet you, Serenity."
"She'll be helping with wardrobe," Meredith cleared up.
"Nice! I promise I'm not a hassle," I assured.
Caroline cleared her throat. "I beg to differ."
I smiled sweetly at her. "That's just because your special."
"We're all special around here, aren't we?" Mere laughed.
After about ten minutes chatting briefly with Serenity while my hair and face were being done up, I learned that she was from Florida and that she was quite a big fan of mine. She'd even gone to my first show as an opening act, which blew my mind. Things have changed so drastically since then.
I followed her into the wardrobe room to change into my outfit. I was going for a leather jacket and ripped jeans until Serenity pointed out a white t-shirt with overall jeans.
We talked a bit about our styles in clothing as I got dressed. She'd also found a pair of wedges for me, which I fell in love with immediately.
"Man, where's Harry? He should take a picture of your outfit with his overpriced camera!" Meredith exclaimed after we went back into the room.
"He had to go somewhere," I answered, heading to the door. "Anyways, I better get going. Thank you guys, like always."
"Mmhm...be sure to bring JB around here later!"
I smiled and gave a laugh. I walked out the door and checked my phone to see a text from Devin.
I texted him back to tell him I was almost there. I felt a little bit jumpy. Justin was such an influential and outstanding artist, and the thought that he'd be hearing songs off my album that no one else from the "outside" has heard, was a little surreal.
I heard loud laughter coming from the stage as soon as I walked up the ramp that I do during shows. Justin, Devin, and a couple other guys were standing at the end of the catwalk.
"Let's play some music, ladies," I said once I got closer.
They all turned their heads with grins on their faces.
Though I'd seen him less than half an hour ago, Justin gave me a hug. I shook hands with two of the guys I hadn't met before and introduced myself.
"So, Jess, what should we play first?" Devin asked casually.
He sat down on the ground, his legs hanging off the end of the stage, and he settled his guitar on his lap. Justin, Scooter, Sonny, and the other two guys hopped off the stage and sat at the front row of metal chairs. I sat down beside Devin.
I shrugged, then looked towards Justin. "Which would you like to hear? The track list is on iTunes if you wanna check."
He takes a minute to search it up on his phone. He looked up at me when he found his request. "'Hands To Myself'?"
"J! Where's Harry?" I hear a voice shout.
I sighed and turned my head in the direction of the sound. Patrick was standing on the main stage with his hands on his hips. I couldn't see his facial expression from the distance between us.
"Tell him I don't know," I told Devin, not wanting to strain my voice.
"She doesn't know!" Devin screamed back at him.
Patrick waved us off and returned backstage.
"Okay, ready?" I asked Dev.
He nodded towards me. "You start it of, remember?"
I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "Yeah, I remember."
I looked down at Justin with a pointed look. "You're playing one of your songs next."
He smirked. "Yeah, yeah."
"Okay..." I took in a breath, "Can't keep my hands to myself." Devin started strumming and I watched his hands on the strings.
"No matter how hard I'm trying to. I want you all to myself. You're metaphorical gin and juice. So come on give me a taste of what it's like to be next to you. Won't let one drop go to waste. You're metaphorical gin and juice. Cause oh, ohh..."
After I finished the song, I looked to Justin for a reaction. He had a grin on his face and clapped his hands together. Sonny's reaction was similar. My self-esteem definitely raised a couple notches.
"That song is going places," Sonny promised.
"Ahh, thanks. It's going to be my third single, I think."
"I love how you use both a higher and lower range," Justin praised. "Is there an inspiration?"
"Prince, actually. The studio version has this..." I tried to put the beat of the song in words.
"There's a dark guitar riff and clicking percussion," Devin finished. "One producer called the pre-chorus 'tribal-pop'."
"I can't wait to hear it."
I grinned. "Okay, how about you share one of your songs now."
"Wait, can I hear one more of yours?" He insisted, sitting lower on the chair and crossing his ankles.
"Fine. You chose again."
It seemed that he already had a second song choice in mind. "Wonderland."
"Mm, good choice," Dev approved, already beginning to play. Though the instrumentals were very drumbeat and keyboard based, he always insisted that it sounded better acoustically.
"Flashing lights, and we took a wrong turn, and we fell down a rabbit hole. You held on tight to me 'cause nothing's as it seems. I'm spinning out of control.
"Didn't they tell us don't rush into things. Didn't you flash your green eyes at me. Haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds, ohh. Didn't it all seem new and exciting? I felt your arms twisting around. I should have slept with one eye opened at night."
In my mind, the memory of when I first played this song to Harry on guitar replayed over and over again. He had this marveled look on his face as he hung on every word. Once I had finished, he'd said, "This green eyed fellow is me, right?".
I opened my eyes to see the five guys watching as I semi-embarrassingly got lost in the song. They nodded their heads to the beat.
"We found wonderland. You and I got lost in it, and we pretended it could last forever, eh. We found wonderland. You and I got lost in it, and life was never worse, but never better, eh, eh."
As the chorus bridged, I heard the echoed sound of a door closing to the side. I looked over at Devin's hands on his guitar before shifting my gaze up.
I watched Harry walk down one of the diagonal isles with his camera in his hand. I almost forgot to keep singing when he gave me a smile. He raised his camera up to his face, and I looked back down at Dev's guitar.
"So we went on our way, too in love to think straight. All alone or so it seemed. But there were strangers watching, and whispers turned to talking, and talking turned to screams, oh."
Towards the end of the song, I glanced back over at Harry. He was now sitting down in one of the chairs, watching. We made eye contact and I tried not to smile, but I ultimately did.
"I may have to push back my album release date for another year if you're releasing an album with songs on it that are even a fraction as good as those two were. You'll be number one for months," Justin spoke.
"Stop flattering me," I pleaded. "And I'm pretty sure if music lovers go any longer without new music from Justin Bieber, they'll go insane."
He chuckled. Devin and I slid off the stage to switch spots with Justin, so that we could hear some of his own up and coming music. Before he jumped up on stage with his own guitarist, Dan, he touched my shoulder in a reassuring gesture.
I sat down next to Devin in the chairs.
"This is so sick," he gasped in disbelief.
•••
Harry and I had to leave in different cars after the show. There seemed to be twice the amount of fans waiting outside the gates of the stadium simply because Justin Bieber was here. Most of the crew left before the show ended. Harry happened to be included in the crew that stayed behind, but it was my car that got stuck in traffic.
When I got to our hotel room, I hoped that he was already inside. I was exhausted, my throat hurt, and all I wanted was to cuddle and sleep.
I unlocked the door and stepped inside, dropping my bag and taking off my shoes.
I let out a breath when I saw Harry laying under the covers on his phone with the TV on.
He looked up at me and smiled before it turned into a smirk. One of his eyebrows raised, and I quickly wondered what he was up to. I neared the foot of the bed.
"How's your new boyfriend?" He teased, obviously referring to Justin Bieber.
I narrowed my gaze at him and brought my hand up to the straps of the overalls I wore. One had already fallen down my shoulder, so I slid off the other one.
Harry's eyes followed my every move with curiousity. He slowly placed his phone in his lap.
"He's great," I said with extreme sarcasm.
I pulled the top of the overalls down to my waist, then continued to slip them down my legs, leaving me in my underwear and white t-shirt.
I kept my eyes on Harry as I unhooked them from my ankles. I tossed the piece of clothing to the side and walked to the closet, breaking our eye contact. I grabbed a black long sleeve from one of the bags. I realized it was Harry's, but I was positive he wouldn't mind.
I walked into the bathroom and left the door open. I took a makeup remover wipe from my toiletry bag to clean off my face.
After only seconds of standing in front of the mirror, Harry walked in wearing his boxers and a t-shirt. He sat down on the closed toilet seat beside the vanity and looked up at me.
I wiped off all the makeup on my face, then started to pull off the false lashes so that I could remove my eye makeup. While I did so, Harry turned to the side, laid his arms on the counter, and rested his chin on them.
"We're okay, right?" He murmured, looking up at me through his thick lashes.
I finished taking off my makeup and tossed the wipe into the small trash bin.
"Yeah, why wouldn't we be?" I asked.
"I don't know. After this afternoon, I wasn't sure if you were mad..."
I shook my head. "No, I'm good. Are you?" I pointed.
His eyes flickered to my almost bare ass. "Very," he smirked.
I rolled my eyes and tugged on his arm. "Get out so I can shower, please."
He reluctantly stood up, and I started pushing him out the door.
"I feel like we've gotten to the point in our relationship where we can save water together, you know?" He argued, but I'd already closed the door and locked it.
I smiled at his teasing mood and turned the shower on. I fully undressed and tied my hair up in a bun, then stepped underneath the water.
I rinsed off for just a couple minutes, thinking about everything that happened today. I was going to be on Justin Bieber's "comeback" album, he absolutely loved the sound of my own album, and the crowd during tonight's show was absolutely insane and so loving. I was sad that we were leaving Miami tomorrow morning.
I got out of the shower and dried off. I dressed back into my underwear and put on Harry's black long sleeve. It wasn't big enough so that it fell off my shoulders, but the sleeves ended at the tips of my fingers.
I walked out of the bathroom and saw Harry lying in his previous position on the bed. When he saw me, he smiled wide and gave a little chuckle.
"How are you so sexy?" He sighed.
"Dunno," I mocked.
I climbed onto the right side of the bed and curled myself into his side. I pressed my face against his chest, a wave of exhaustion hitting me. He wrapped an arm around me while his other hand held his phone.
"Can we talk about your new boyfriend again?" He asked, his voice light.
"Justin is not my boyfriend," I said, but my voice was muffled by his shirt.
His hand trailed down the side of my arm. I heard his phone click shut and the sound of it being placed on the nightstand.
"Okay, but honestly that dude is a jackass," he continued on.
I sensed a pointless rant.
"How?"
"He didn't even introduce himself."
"He's been a household name since he was like half your age, Harry."
"It's still polite," he grumbled.
I chuckled. "Not introducing yourself does not make you an automatic jackass."
"Being Justin Bieber does."
"Oh my...go to sleep, Harry."
He reached over and turned off the lamp. Darkness flooded the room.
I moved for a second so that he could reposition himself under the covers. Then, I made myself comfortably in my original position. He kissed the top of my head.
"I love you," he whispered.
I smiled against his chest. "I love you."
A/N: you gotta love cheesy endings to chapters <3
You guys are such dolls for waiting for this update. My schedule is getting insane, and I basically only have the weekends to work on updates because other than that I have school, softball, and workouts.
But, GOOD NEWS: I also sorted out the course of events for this whole book, and I'm so excited. Drama is very soon to come...
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!! Please vote and comment to let me know what you thought!
BTW: I kinda already am planning a third story??? It's a Liam Payne dystopian fanfic, and I'm already in love with it, but I won't be posting any sneak peeks until this story and Events are deeper into their plots ☺️
Twitter: @wtvrharold
Instagram: @harry.reckless
xx