Not The Same (a Liam Payne fan fic)

Under Contract

>Liam's Pov<

My hands shook horribly as I stood in the elevator. Ding! The doors opened on the 15th floor. I smiled at myself, remembering how good Audrey was at guessing floor amounts in tall buildings. I crossed the marble floor to a huge glass door and walked right in to the familiar room. It was extremely modern. On one side of the big, plain room, 3 large white, leather sofas that probably cost thousands sat forming a half circle. I walked towards the other half of the room where a huge receptionist desk sat. When I walked up, the women at the desk looked up from her computer and did a double take. I think she was a new intern, I haven't seen her around here before. She pointed me in the direction of my destination, unnecessary of course, I knew my way around. But I gave her a warm smile and walked down the too familiar hallway, feeling her eyes on my back.

When I reached the door, I struck it three times with my fist and smoothed out my dark red sweater. The door creaked open and Simon stood in front of me. He gestered me inside and closed the door. Right away, I realized this wasn't the type of meeting I was expecting. All of the guys were here. When I walked in, the room grew silent. I stood beside the chair Harry was in. Next to him, was Zayn. Louis stood on the other side of Zayn and Niall stood next to the wall, in the corner with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. None of them looked at me so I focused my attention on Simon as he sat behind his big neat, marble desk, facing us.

“So what is this about?” Harry leaned farther in his seat, clearly worried.

“Well, there has been a lot of press lately”, Simon stopped himself and let out a little chuckle which none of us understood, “who am I kidding, this has been going on since X Factor. There has been a lot of press on your girlfriends.”

“Our girlfriends aren't a part of our band, case closed.” Louis retorted sassily.

“Gotta agree with Louis, don't bring them into anything.” I didn't know what Simon had up his sleeve, but I didn't like it. Stealing a glance at Louis, I noticed he was already looking at me. When I met his eyes, he quickly looked back at Simon, who know had his 'serious face' on. Simon stood slowly and rummaged in a filing cabinet behind him. Every one of us groaned, knowing what he was doing. He'd pulled this one on us too many times to count. Beside me, Harry slumped in his chair in defeat as Simon slammed the thick contract on the desk, our thick contract.

“I make the calls.” He emphasized the 'I'. “Now, next week all of your girlfriends will be doing an interview together. Kind of a 'One Direction Girlfriends Q & A'. I don't have full details yet, but as soon as I do, I'll make sure to give you boys a call. Do you understand?” Was he insane? Had Simon not seen everything all over the place about me, Dani, and Audrey? My mind raced and I felt my heart rate pick up. This was not going to go well at all and Audrey defanielty would not like this.

“What idiot came up with this?” Louis asked, not even attempting to hide how pissed off he was.

“Al Rocker. He's from the American Today Show.” Simon announced, ignoring all of our horror struck faces. All of a sudden, Louis' expression changed from a serious frown to a wide smirk. He caught my eye, “Audrey should enjoy this.”

“Yeah, I just feel bad for Eleanor. Three against one doesn't seem very fair.” I replyed with a smirk of my own. Everyone tried to stifle a laugh while Louis sat there looking like a fool. Guess he forgot Erika and Kiani would be there and that they'd have Audrey's back no matter what.

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“But that makes NO sense!” Audrey yelled with a smile on her face from where she stood at the stove, flipping the grilled cheese sandwich.

“Well, you can't expect everyone to be as smart as you.” I mocked with a smile playing on my face as well. She threw her head back and laughed beautifully. I loved moments like this. “Other than the stupidity of others, how was your day at the shop?”

“Pretty good,” She placed a plate in front of me and took her own seat. “And of course, we have an incredibly fancy dinner, because we're classy and all.” She motioned at the grilled cheese. I couldn't help but laugh as she took a bite and spit it out, too hot.

“WATER!” She yelled and ran into the kitchen quickly grabbing a glass. I fell to the floor in a fit of laughter. She stood over me, chugging the glass, when she was satisfied she set it down. “Not funny.”

I composed myself and stood up, pecking her on the cheek. “Sorry love, but it was hysterical!”

Dinner was slightly uncomfortable, I knew I had to tell Audrey about the interview next week or she'd hear about it from Erika or Kiani. But I just couldn't find the courage. She wouldn't like it and I knew the interviewer would give her a hard time. I've been there, done that.

While she started to stack the plates, I grabbed her wrist. She looked at me really seriously.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I just really need to talk to you, please.” Automatically, she set down the plates and sat down, next to me.

“What's wrong?”

“Next week, Simon has an interview planned.” I said, stressing each word.

“So..?” Confusion creased her face, “I don't understand.”

“It's not a One Direcion interview. It's a One Direction's girlfriends interview. They're gonna be interviewing you guys.” She looked down but didn't look upset, she just nodded her head in understanding and continued cleaning up dinner. I followed her to the sink and stood beside her as she started cleaning off the dishes.

“You okay with that?” I asked. Her blue eyes caught mine. They held absolutely no emotion.
“Yeah.” Her attention went back to the dishes. For a minute, I thought I saw something in her expression. Stress, maybe? Worry? I shrugged it off, knowing the discussion was over, for now, and went off to the living room.

>Audrey's POV<

When Liam left, I threw the plate I was washing into the sink and knelt on the counter. In my head, I told myself to keep breathing. I took deep breaths and kept my mind off the terror that would come next. Because, yes, I was absolutely terrified.