November 2011
“Once we came off the stage after finding out we came third in The X Factor, we were all in a bit of a state. I told myself I wasn’t going to cry, but I looked over at Harry and he was with his mum crying his eyes out and that set me off. Harry and I were hugging and full-on sobbing. Someone said to us: ‘This isn’t the end, this is just the beginning.’ But we had no idea what was going to happen… Niall was also in tears, but Louis was trying to make us feeling better by saying we’d be okay. Liam was being level-headed about it. He’s been told ‘no’ a few times before, so he was kind of used to it, but we were all gutted…. We got called up to Simon’s dressing room and then came a classic Simon moment. We all sat there and he was looking at us and it felt like we were back at Judges’ Houses again. Then all of a sudden he said: ‘You were great on the show. Sony and I are going to sign you up in the morning.’ Harry started crying again and we sat there in absolute shock. Simon hugged us all and said: ‘You’re going to be alright, don’t worry about coming third.’”
—Zayn Malik (via Dare To Dream Book)
