The Adjacent Room [h.s]

Chapter 29

I felt Harry wake up about 5 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. I only get out of bed for necessity, but if Harry is actually awake, then he'll get out of bed straight away most of the time. I don't think he knew I wasn't asleep, but he kissed me on the cheek nonetheless. I'm not sure how to feel about last night, but I'd rather avoid the thought than think about it, so that's what I'm going to do. Despite his late night, Harry actually slept for a decent amount of time, and it's comforting to know that he won't be facing dark circles today. Eventually, my alarm goes off and I force myself to find Harry in the kitchen.

The first thing I notice when I walk in is the massive pile of letters sitting on the coffee table. There has to be at least 35 in the pile, and it was definitely one of my biggest mistakes of 2020 to put so many names on that list.

I turn to the kitchen, where Harry is watching the final moments of the sun rise and finishing a bowl of some sort of cereal. He's shirtless, and his back is turned. It's an interesting contrast to see his heavily tattooed arms against his completely ink free back. I've always wondered why he chose to have it like this, but I like how it looks.

'Good morning.' I say, causing Harry to spin around and find me standing by the coffee table.

'Hi. This is for you.' He responds, holding out a steaming cup of coffee.

'Thanks. How are you feeling about your first day in the studio?' I ask, walking over to him leaning into his side. He wraps one arm around me, holding his coffee with the other free hand.

'Nervous..I think, but I'm looking forward to making music with the boys again. I think it's safe, but it's alway exciting and that's what I like about it.' He says. While I can't say I know from personal experience, I think I know what he means. Before the band broke up, Harry realised that he wanted to be able to create music more personal to him, and have the ability to sing every word of it. And he's done just that. He experienced being solo and being able to fully explore every aspect of creating an album, and now he's ready to go back to his boys.

'That makes perfect sense.' I say, smiling and turning my head to look up at him.

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When we arrive at the studio, I'm sort of shocked at its beauty. It's a massive red brick building, but with charcoal coloured doors and yellow painted podiums.

My research and the photos I saw of this place, The Village, does not do it justice. There's 4 individual studios at this particular studio, but the boys are going to be recording in studio D, and the management has rented one of the auditoriums where the team will work from. I can only imagine that this way, they might be out of sight, but never out of mind. Studio D is by far my favourite studio from what I saw on the website, and I can assume that my judgement was correct based on what it looks like in person.

It's hard to explain exactly, but the live room is almost beautiful. There are moroccan rugs on the floor and plants everywhere, with a massive piano in the middle. The roof is painted black, and the brown wooden walls curve to make an interesting shaped space. The room is dimly lit to give it a warm ambience, and microphones and other various instruments fill the whole space. There isn't much natural light either, which should be weird, but it makes everything more peaceful. There are records and albums on the walls in the entryway, displaying all the famous artists that have recorded here too.

Surrounding the live room are two isolation booths, a live echo chamber and the control room. Separated from all the recording spaces but still within the studio, is the lounge, where I can only assume will be the place where the boys go when they're not recording. There aren't many spaces to write here, but I'm sure the boys and the writers will manage to find spaces, probably utilising the isolation booths. Harry's best writing never usually happens at the studio, but I guess this is how it works in a band. I never used to know much about music or how any of the recording of music works, but after travelling the world with Harry and watching him record and write music everywhere, I've become familiar with the process.