Elusive [Harry Styles]

3. In The Spotlight

~Harry~

We were finally excused from the sofa we'd been instructed to sit on for the entire day. It felt good to stand up and stretch my legs. We'd done at least ten different interviews in just one day, all with different institutions, and quite frankly I didn't want to talk for the rest of the day.

I like to think I'm a friendly person, and I'll always try my best to be nice and not to react in a bad situation, but sometimes it's hard. You get a bit tired of smiling and being polite around people you've never met before as though it's routine after a few hours, especially when some people are just wanting to delve into your private life without even thinking about how it might make you feel.

Luckily, after the first one, I hadn't received any uncomfortable questions about the bar situation in any of the other interviews. However I was intending on bringing it up with Louis and giving him a good telling off for embarrassing me like that; he was the sole problem, the other boys just followed along with his teasing like sheep.

"Mate, that was not cool," I told him quietly as we were walking out of the room we'd been confined to for the day.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Harold," he said innocently — all too smugly for my liking. He had that sweet, wide smile on his face where his eyes turn into mere slits that just told you he was up to no good.

I walked next to him but just behind, making sure to keep close so that no one else picked up on our conversation. "Don't be an arse..."

"Mate, chill out, no need to cry over a bit of banter."

If you didn't know Louis well enough, something like that could really get to you, but when you know him as well as I and the other boys do, you grow accustomed to his snide 'laddish' sense of humour. He was loud and to the point — he liked to pick fun at people, but it was all in good spirits.

"I'm not crying. You know I'm not a baby when it comes to your little hits and digs, Louis, but this is a bit more serious. You're not only throwing me under the bus, you're also throwing an innocent girl under the bus as well."

"I didn't say anything that could cause an issue for her, you did that all yourself," he chuckled, and I knew he was kind of right. It was me that had spoken about her as a person rather than just an anonymous girl I'd been spotted with, but that was because my mates wound me up and I didn't want to look stupid. If Louis hadn't started what he had, I would never have brought her up in so much detail. I probably sounded like a right idiot, when I come to think about it. I bet the press are going to have a whale of a time with those quotes.

"You know I'm right," he grinned, pulling me from my thoughts. "She'll be fine; she's a nobody, how exactly are the fans going to find somebody like that?"

I don't know why I felt a prick of anger at how Louis was talking about her, but I did. I know he didn't mean it like it came out, but he still needed to consider what he was saying sometimes. In response, I just mumbled something a long the lines of 'I guess so'.

~Emily~

"Yeah," I spoke into the phone, jotting things down in my diary at the same time, "I'll have someone call you before the end of the week to sort things out further." My phone call was interrupted by Louisa popping her head around the door, without knocking of course. She looked at me with an expression that told me she wanted to talk urgently, so I finished up my phone call. "Sorry, I have to go. Someone will call you by Friday. Bye, bye."

"So you are here then," I said to my friend, my eyebrow raised condescendingly but a teasing smile playing on my lips.

"Yeah, sorry I'm late. You know Mondays are hard," she says casually, waving her hand at me like it's nothing as she trotted inside my office in her heels and closed the door behind her. She sat in her usual seat opposite my desk with her tablet in hand, scrolling and tapping maniacally.