A/N: Important author's note at the end, please read!
Louis's POV:
From: Ro Boat
Sure! I'm actually going to go to bed soon, so I'll text you when I get up.
I smiled at her text, but before I could reply someone barged into my flat.
"Louis! Come on, we've got to get ready for the interview! We're performing, so we've got sound check."
Liam marched over to me and grabbed my arm, pulling me upright and shoving me towards my bathroom. I glanced at my phone as I went, too drowsy to talk back, though my mind was violently protesting. You'd think that after years of getting up at ridiculous times of day that my body would be used to it by now, but no. My body still protested getting up at five in the morning as much as it used to.
Why does it have to be a morning interview? I complained to myself while I brushed my teeth. Why couldn't it have been later, so we could sleep in? I asked myself the exact same question every time I had to get up early, it had become a sort of personal ritual.
I staggered out of my flat in a t-shirt and sweats, not bothering to dress properly or do my hair since they always did that at the interview.
Harry and Niall looked just as exhausted as I was, whereas Liam had the nerve to almost look cheerful. The three of us glared at him briefly before turning to our phones in our efforts to stay awake. I was beginning to regret my decision of texting Ro instead of trying to go back to sleep when we pulled up to the venue. As usual, crowds of screaming fans surrounded it, despite security doing their best to keep them at bay. A small opening had been cleared so that we could get from the car into the building. Liam prepped to go first, followed by Niall, me, and Harry bringing up the rear. On the count of three, Liam flung open the door and we walked inside as fast as we could. As soon as we entered the building, the people from hair, makeup, and wardrobe swarmed us.
Before we knew it we were doing a brief sound check and then the interviewer was announcing us. We sang 'Drag Me Down' as usual, it was one of our most requested interview songs. We finished and it cut to commercial break, giving us time to touch up our hair and get into our places on the couch. One good thing about being four instead of five was the fact that we could all fit on a couch comfortably. The interviewer was an older man, one who I hadn't seen before. He did the intro back to the show and then turned to us.
"So, boys! You're going to be leaving for a hiatus soon, are you excited?"
Liam saved the rest of us from having to answer and launched into our cookie-cutter answer for the question, I just tuned him out and scanned the audience, bored already. I only snapped back into reality when I heard my name.
"So, Louis, word on the street is that you have broken up with your long-time girlfriend Eleanor Calder, can you confirm that?"
"Yes, we have broken up." I kept my answer short, not wanting to break down. Up until that point I had managed to keep myself distracted, managed to push the memories into the farthest, darkest corner of my brain. The moment her name was said, they all came rushing back, causing tears to threaten the corners of my eyes.
"You've also been spotted with a new girl: actually, the first sighting was the day you broke up with Ms. Calder. Can you explain that?"
My breath unintentionally hitched as a picture of the two of us talking appeared on the screen behind us. Ro. Her name flitted across my brain, slicing through the memories of Eleanor like a hot knife through butter, anger replacing the sadness and driving the tears from my eyes.
"Just a fan I happened to run into." I lied through my teeth.
"A fan that you went to a bookstore with directly afterward?"
A picture of her leading me into the store replaced the first one, making me clench my jaw. How dare they intrude in our moment like that? I raged to myself.
"I happened to be going there as well, Liam had asked me to pick up a book for him. It was purely coincidence."
"She was later spotted leaving your apartment building with Harry, Liam, and Niall's girlfriends. How did she know them?"
Yet another dreaded picture popped up, making my fists clench. I'm almost positive my eyes were flashing fire, from the looks the lads were giving me.
"We are done discussing this topic. If you have nothing else to ask, we are leaving."
The man frowned, but moved on to another topic. I barely said five words the entire rest of the interview, opting to maintain my composure instead. If I had said anything else, I knew I would end up tearing his head off, which was not something that I wanted to do in public. We escaped as soon as we could, fleeing as soon as the interview ended. The second we were safe in our car, all three of the lads turned to me after exchanging looks.
"What was that all about Lou?" Harry started, knowing that he was the one that I would be the most open with.
"I got angry, okay? Him bringing up Eleanor, and then interrogating me about Ro immediately after, just ticked me off. What did you expect? For me to go through it smiling and cheerful? I may be good at faking my feelings, but I'm not that good."
They knew better than to question me after that, and didn't say anything else about it for the rest of the drive. We had one more interview, and then we were off for the day, thankfully. The questions for the next interview were pre-planned, so we had time to go over our answers for them beforehand, something that I was eternally thankful for. It was a short interview, so we were back at our flats by three in the afternoon. Niall followed me into my flat, going and digging around in my fridge before flopping on my couch with a Coke.
"Are you alright, Lou?"
I looked at him, surprised, from my seat on the other end of the couch.
"Yeah Ni, why do you ask?"
"You seemed so upset, earlier, when you were talking about Eleanor. I just wanted to make sure you were alright."
I smiled softly.
"I'll be fine soon Ni, don't worry about me. I'll be alright."
He still looked concerned, but left me alone anyway, saying that he would see me for dinner. We were all going over to Harry's, him and Lou were cooking for us.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, making me jump in shock. I pulled it from my pocket and checked the name. Once I saw who it was, I grinned.
"Hey, Ro!"
I am extremely and eternally sorry for going so long without updating, I had some severe writers block and I've been dealing with some medical issues as well. I hope you guys like this chapter, I'm happy with it but I want to know what you guys think! I am going to be starting CCP college next Monday, so I cannot guarantee consistent updates, or any updates at all for several months. I know that is a long time to go without updating, but I will update when I can. I'm not going to post anything that I am not happy with, so the quality should be the same even if the quantity isn't. Since it will mostly be syllabus stuff the first week I should have another update next week, but after that there are no guarantees. Oh, if you don't know what CCP is, go look it up. It stands for College Credit Plus, previously named PSEO, though I can't remember what that stands for. Anyhow, comment what you think, vote if you liked it! Love you guys!