CHAPTER 135
One week later and Finn was flying high. Everything in his life was perfect. His X Factor winner's single had skyrocketed to the biggest X Factor Single of all time and was still number 1 on the charts. In addition, it had passed the 1.5 million mark in terms of copies sold, meaning that Finn had pocketed 750k. However, there was one unfortunate issue. Halfway through the week, Ella had caught a pretty severe stomach bug and hadn't been feeling too great all week. Finn had spent almost every moment by her side, holding her hair back as she threw up, getting her anything she needed when she was too sick or tired to get out of bed. Finn didn't even care if he caught it. As long as Bella was okay, he was happy.
On the 17th December, Finn had one final radio interview with Kiss FM.
"Hey babe, text me if you need anything, okay? I'll be here in a heartbeat." He said, kissing her on the cheek. Bella, wrapped up in blankets, smiled. She had won the lottery with Finn. Finn waved to her as he walked out the door and into his car.
Twenty minutes later, he had arrived in the Kiss FM studio, ready for his interview. Soon, they were on the air and the radio interview started.
"What's up, man. How are you?" One of the hosts (Mike) asked.
"I'm good. It's a pleasure to be here." Finn said. "I've been listening to the show my whole life."
"You know? We are so grateful that you won!" one of the other hosts (Lisa) exclaimed.
"Thank you."
"I know everyone's probably saying this, but we have been flying the flag for you from the very beginning." Mike said. Finn smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, I've actually heard that now from a couple of people. I really appreciate it."
"So now that you've won the X Factor, what is the most bizarre thing that's happened to you in the past few days?"
"Do you know? I always find the bizarre thing when you walk out of a hotel or something, there's people clamboring to give you their twitter or Instagram handle. I try to respond to every message I get but I got messages from 989 people yesterday alone."
"Finn, I've gotta ask something and you've gotta answer it honestly. I know you didn't think you were going to make it to the finals, but honestly, where did you think you would end up? Because you must have known you were good enough to get to a certain point!" Lisa said.
"Well, I mean, you get into this X Factor bubble and you really don't get much of a feeling of what's going on outside. I've watched this show over the years and I always felt that I had the potential to make it to the live shows at least, but the minute you walk into that audition studio and see how many people are there, all of that goes away. But I mean, I guess the frontrunners were always Jahmene and Ella and I thought maybe if I came like in the Union J, Lucy kind of space like 5th or 6th, I'd be happy with myself."
"WHAT? Mike exclaimed. "I've gotta disagree with you, brother. I saw you at judge's houses and I was like this kid is going somewhere! I want him to win! I want him to be in the final!"
"Thank you. I appreciate it." Finn said.
"And then when the showdown came between you and Jahmene, I was like this is sad, but it's still going to be a great show!"
Finn laughed.
"Yeah, I've gotta say. In my opinion, not to sound cocky or anything but this year's X Factor was the best year yet. Not just because I've been involved in it, but I've heard all of the acts' raw, original material as well. At the beginning of the competition, predicting a final three was near impossible because there were so many class talents."
"Who were you worried about?"
"Well, I feel like people tended to pit me and Lucy against each other so I was always subconsciously worried about splitting votes with her. But I feel like going in, my two main worries were actually Union J and Christopher to make it to the final. They had, by far, the biggest fan backing at the beginning of the live shows. But I think everyone in this competition was incredible."
"Right, and it must have been scary when people started going out of the competition so early that we didn't think would be going out."
Finn nodded.
"Yeah, there were a couple of shocks there. Especially when I found out I was against Jahmene in the bottom 2. I was literally like should I pack my bags now or what?"
"Really?" Mike said.
"Yeah. I was scared as hell for that."
"If you could rank who you thought the order was going to be in the competition from first to twelfth, what would it be?" Lisa asked.
"Do you mean in terms of singing quality or in terms of who would get further in the competition?"
"Let's do the best singers from 1-12. Who would it be?"
"Well, first is Jahmene. Nobody's touching him. Then, would be District3."
"Really?" Mike asked, shocked. Finn nodded.
"Yeah, we would do late night jam sessions sometimes. Their harmonies… oh my god! Incredible!"
"Yeah, so District3 second. Who would be third?"
"Again, this is kind of controversial given that she was out first, but Melanie. I think she had one of the best voices in the competition but she just didn't have the fan base."
"Interesting. Who is next?"
"Well fourth would be Ella. Fifth would be me. Sixth would be Union J. Seventh would be Kye. Eighth, Lucy. Ninth, Christopher. Tenth, Jade. Eleventh, MK1. And I'm so sorry, I love Rylan so much but his voice isn't the best." Finn finished. "He's by far number 1 at entertainment though."
"That's interesting. A very interesting order" Lisa said. "So now that you've won, have you spoken to the big man yet… Mr. Simon Cowell?"
Finn laughed.
"It's funny you should say that because he rang me while I was literally on my way here."
"No way!" Mike exclaimed. "What did he say?"
"He was just like 'Hello Finn, it's Simon' in his very posh British voice. I was so confused. I was just like excuse me?"
"Is this the first time you'd spoken to him?"
"On the phone, yeah. I had no idea how he got my number so I thought it was a prank. I thought it was one of my buddies messing with me. It came from an unknown number and I wasn't convinced it was actually Simon. I eventually was like 'whoever this actually is, please fuck off' and I hung up the phone. It was then that I realised how similar their voices actually sounded and that it may well have actually been Simon. Not a great way to start off my relationship with my new boss!"
"Yeah, no kidding!" Lisa exclaimed.
"Yeah, so I called him back and apologised profusely. He just laughed. He basically just said that it was a pleasure having me on the show and he congratulated me on breaking a couple of records both on the show and with my winner's single, which if you haven't heard already, go buy or stream it now. Impossible, available now on all streaming services. Then he started talking about the insane figures I made for this song."
"Wow, all about the figures, huh Simon!" Mike joked.
"Nah, he was actually being very complimentary actually. It was very humbling to speak to him."
"So Finn, my favourite part of the show was when you sang that original song in the semi finals. Are we looking at similar songs in your debut album?"
Finn thought for a moment.
"Well, I want my debut album to be as musically ranged as possible. I've been writing songs of all genres for the past twenty years and I just can't wait to actually finally start putting my ideas on paper."
"What was your highlight of the competition?" Lisa asked.
"Um… probably working with Nicole. She's genuinely down to earth and really nice, and just being part of the X Factor in general was amazing. Meeting all the contestants and becoming friends with them. Going to Disneyland Paris! Performing with One Direction in Boston on tour. Recording a song for the new James Bond movie. Going to the Endgame premier. Visiting Dubai. So many amazing experiences were crammed into that short, ten week period."
"Now Finn, I know you're a modest guy but don't hold back on this one, all right?"
"I'll try." Finn laughed.
"How many requests have you had from big artists to collaborate with you?"
Finn laughed.
"I'm going to be honest. Quite a few." Finn replied. "Um… Emile Sande requested a collaboration. Ed Sheeran, One Direction, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Shawn Mendes, Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys, Bruno Mars all approached me either in person, over the phone or through Nicole and the competition."
"That's ridiculous!" Lisa exclaimed. "That's incredible! You and Ed Sheeran together on a track is just a God combo."
"You're telling me? People have to tell me to shut up about him, sometimes. Apparently, I talk about him too much."
"And I've got a sneaky feeling that Gary Barlow and Nicole Scherzinger would both want to do a track with you."
"You know what? If either of them want to do a track with me, I'd be more than happy."
"Because Gary was bigging you up right from the beginning, right?"
"Yeah. I think he helped me out, you know? I think he got me a lot of votes."
"If you had Tulisa, Louis or Gary as your mentor, do you think you would've won the show?"
"Well, who knows? All I know is that Nicole was the perfect mentor and she really gave me artistic license and let me roam free and do what I wanted to do. If I was starting to be pressured by the producers into doing a specific song, she would step in and be like No, he's not doing that, man! She helped me get where I am today."
"She's so nice too, right?" Lisa said.
"Yeah, she's so nice. So cool. She's the only American judge too so she was on her home turf."
"You can see that the two of you had a really good bond." Mike pointed out. Finn nodded.
"Yeah, I mean we were sending up to 15 hours a day in the studio together. We had to really be in sync with our mentors."
"How did you react when you found out she was your mentor?"
"Well, you know, at first I could barely look her in the eye. She was such a huge pop star and she would just chat with me like she's just another friend. I would have to stop and remind myself sometimes who exactly she is and how massive she is in the industry, because she made such an effort to become friends with her mentees, she was just like our friend."
"And I'm sure the fact that she's stupidly hot doesn't help, huh?"
Finn laughed.
"Exactly!"
"Now Finn, who are you kissing under the mistletoe this Christmas? Anyone you want."
"Well, I mean, my girlfriend obviously." Finn laughed.
"Damn it, Finn. I thought you were going to say me, there!" Lisa joked and Finn laughed.
"All right. Congratulations on winning the X Factor! Thank you so much for coming in, Finn."
"It was a pleasure to be here."
After his interview, Finn drove home with a smile on his face. He was so used to talking to the media by now, it had become second nature. He took the elevator up to the penthouse and when he walked in, he dropped his bag…
Bella was sitting on the sofa, crying. Finn ran over to her.
"Babe, are you okay?" He asked, concerned. She nodded and took a deep breath.
"Um… sit down, babe. I need to talk to you about something." She said. Finn, worriedly, took a seat opposite her.
"Is everything okay?" Finn asked.
"So, I found out why I've been sick lately, and it turns out it's not a stomach bug." She said.
"Oh my god! Is everything all right?"
"Finn… I…. I'm pregnant."