DISCLAIMER: THE CHARACTERS ELLA, BLUE, EVELYN, AND ANNA ARE NOT MINE. THEY BELONG TO THE RIGHTFUL, GENIUS, AMAZING AUTHORS WHO CREATED THEM.
A/N I'M SO PUMPED AND I HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE THIS CHAPTER OKAY BECAUSE I KIND OF DIDN'T BUT OH WELL.
DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THIS COVER? @ZENMILK MADE IT SO SHOWER HER WITH LOVE.
Firstly I want to say I'm sorry for having an author's note in the beginning. Second, I want to thank each and everyone one of you reading this because I honestly love you all and you make my day better and I would be nothing without you. Third, 99,582 reads! Wooahh! That's crazy!
Fourth, you're really going to hate me after this chapter.
Fifth and lastly, I didn't proofread. Oops.
REALIZATIONS & RUNAWAYS
~
Why can’t I ever get a break from this book? Damn, it’s always back to me. Nearly every day. What if I don’t want to write and I just want to sit back and relax today? I don’t understand management’s logic.
It’s not that bad, you’re probably saying. But nonono, you don’t even understand.
You see, after everything finally ended and our ‘faze’ was over, management started talking about how they ‘didn’t want history to repeat itself’ so one day we checked the post and it turned out to be this huge book. Then they call us and say that they want us to write in it about what happened.
I think it’s a stupid idea, really. How is it supposed to help anything? I was never really good at writing, and now I have to do it every week. I’m a singer, not an author. I didn’t know there was a thin line between the two, but I’ll be sure to keep it in mind for future reference.
I’m hoping that whoever’s reading this is at least enjoying it, because it would be useless if they didn’t. What’s the point of writing a book that no one’s gonna like? Well, maybe there are doctors with glasses hanging off the tip of their noses, licking their fingers and turning the pages of this large book as they analyze the effects of fan fiction on boyband members.
“Fascinating,” they whisper as they jot down notes on banana suits, Maybelline mascara, the use of song lyrics in everyday language, and boredom on airplanes.
How fascinating indeed.
Please sit back and (hopefully) enjoy this very new episode of ‘I’m a Boybander, and I Read Fanfiction About Myself?!??!?!?’, only on MTV.
“I think the most reasonable thing to do here would be blame Niall,” Louis said.
“How is that reasonable?” Niall yelled.
“Well, first you went snooping on my phone, and if that wasn’t enough you gave Liam a fanfic to read. Liam!”
“Well Harry went snooping on my phone, too!”
“Excuse me?” Harry looked taken aback. “If you see your name on someone’s screen, wouldn’t you want to know why it’s there? I have a good excuse, so don’t go blaming me for all of this.”
“Guys, just shut up.” Liam said. “You’re not helping the problem. Yes, snooping isn’t good and none of you should have done it but it doesn’t mean you have to go sticking the blame on each other.”
“Liam, fuck off,” Niall growled. “You’re always trying to be the perfect one here! Let me remind you that you read fanfiction too, so you’re no better than the rest of us!”
I held in a feminine gasp at Niall’s words. When did he ever get this rude? I mean, Niall usually wasn’t this bad. Sure, he had his few not-so-nice remarks, but never something like telling Liam to fuck off.
Liam didn’t seem to like it very much either, because he jabbed a finger in Niall’s chest and got really close to him. “Listen here, Horan,” he said, his voice really low so you had to strain to hear him.
“Don’t you ever,” he jabbed his finger in Niall’s chest again, “Ever, talk to me like that again. Maybe we should blame you for all of this shit; maybe Louis and Harry are right.”
I stared with wide eyes as Niall pushed Liam off of him. “Louis should be the one blamed for this!” he yelled. “It was on his phone first, he found it first, he read it first, and he left it on his phone for the world to see! We were doomed from the start!”
“I’m not going to say this again,” Louis yelled back, “You didn’t have to look at my phone! This could’ve been my own thing! But no! You stupid, hypocritical, privacy-invading twat!”
“Stop yelling!” Harry said frustratingly. His hands were tugging at his curls and it looked like he was freaking out. “You’re making my head hurt! All of you!”
“Oh please Harry,” Louis said in a mocking tone, “You’re not a bother at all. We’re not trying to sort things out here. Please, don’t do us a favor and back off.”
“Excuse me?” Harry’s eyebrows furrowed. “I’m trying to stop you idiots from tearing each other’s faces off and you’re just being you! Stop fighting for once! Damn it, how is all of this yelling sorting things out? Shut up and give it a break!”
“What do you mean ‘I’m just being me’?” Louis stepped closer to Harry.
Harry sighed deeply and started counting off on his fingers in a sarcastic way. “You’re being a dick, a twat, a prick, a dumbass, an idiot, a-”
But before he could continue, Louis brought his hand back to punch him in the face. Harry noticed fast enough to dodge out of the way, but as Louis was going to try again he threw a punch back at him. Louis staggered as it hit him in the face, but got a blow on Harry’s arm.
Niall and Liam just stood off to the side, their mouths wide open as they watched what was going on before them. We’d never – and I mean, never – seen Louis and Harry fight before. It was just something that didn’t happen. And seeing it now was so surprising that is hard to think.
But once I’d finally regained my senses, I ran off to the two boys who were now tumbling on the ground, fists flying left and right. I grabbed Harry’s arms that was about to hit Louis and I tugged him away from him. Harry tried to resist but I shoved against him so that he wouldn’t be able to move.
Niall and Liam seemed to have been pulled out of their daze too because they ran for Louis and did the same, restraining him as he tried to launch at Harry again.
“Stop!” Harry yelled. “Let me go!”
“No!” I screamed back, making sure he was up against the back of the sofa. “I’m not letting you two get near each other again!”
“Come at me, Harry,” Louis spat. Niall and Liam had him pinned against the wall. “Hit me again. I dare you. Or are you just too much of a coward to?”
“I’m not a coward, you twat,” Harry snarled. “I gave you some good hits, remember?”
“Oh really?” Louis replied. “I don’t. Says the guy whose face looks like he didn’t get enough hits in.”
Harry seemed to growl as his voice dropped several octaves. He gave Louis a look that I knew meant trouble.
“I’m tired of your crap,” he said. The room grew silent as we all watched him. “You’ve been treating me like shit ever since you started reading fanfic. I’m not going to let you push me around anymore. You may be older than me but you don’t know what you’re doing, Tomlinson, and it certainly isn’t very wise.”
Harry stood up, lightly pushing me back. “Talk to me when you’ve learned some sense.”
He grabbed his coat form the closet, tugged on his shoes, and walked out the house.
We all stayed silent as we watched the now closed door. No one knew where Harry was going. No one knew if he was even going to come back.
But it was then that I got fed up. The rage that was slowly building up inside of me exploded as I stomped over to Louis and slapped him as hard as I could in the face.
“Zayn!” Liam yelled as he stared at a stunned Louis. “What the hell-?”
“You all are idiots! Idiots!” I screamed. “You’re here, yelling a fighting over dumb fanfiction! No one gives a fuck who started it, because we all read it, and we all are to blame for this! None of is less innocent than the other; we’re all guilty in this!”
I glared at Louis. “And now Harry has run off because of you! I hope you’re happy, Louis, because I certainly am not!”
Louis stared at the ground the whole time I was speaking, his arms wrapped around his legs that were pulled up to his chest. Niall sat on the sofa, still staring at the door that Harry had walked out of minutes ago. Liam was pinching the bridge of his nose, muttering words to himself, a worried look etched on his face.
I glanced at the coffee table and let out a groan. “Well, isn’t this just great!” I threw up my hands in defeat. “Harry left his phone. We have no idea where he’s going. Hasn’t this day been just marvelous?”
I ran my fingers through my hair, messing it up a lot, but I didn’t care at the moment. I was freaking out. Harry was gone, everyone was angry at each other, and I had to be that centerpiece that tried to hold everything together.
But it felt like we were one of those broken iPhone chargers, hanging off wires, that you had to move us a certain way for it work.
(Okay, I know that’s a bad analogy but bear with me right now.)
And now all hope was lost because the wires were officially broken and there was no way we would work again.
I started to pace back and forth, wearing away the wooden floor. I’d glance at the door hopefully whenever I heard a small sound, but no one would show up.
Harry was gone.
Harry had run away.
He didn’t have his phone with him.
He probably looked like shit, since he’d just been in a fight.
If the press sees him, they’re gonna jump to conclusions and we’ll be in huge trouble.
“That’s it,” I clapped my hands together once. “Everyone up. We’re going to look for Harry.”
Liam frowned. “But Zayn, wouldn’t it be best if we waited for him to come here on his own? We seriously have no idea where he could be right now.”
“Yes, but,” I walked over to the closet, taking out my jacket. “If anyone else finds him, they could-”
I paused putting on my jacket and started counting off on my fingers, “A, be a crazy fan, B, be a kindhearted person who really wants to get him back home, C, a kind hearted person who takes him into their own house and possibly keeps him there, D, a rapist or a kidnapper, E, paparazzi, press, or someone connected to management that reports him, or F, someone we know, which is by far the worst.”
Niall looked scared as he spoke up. “But this is London!” he cried. “Anything could happen! And it’s so big, we’ll never be able to find him!”
“At least not today,” Louis mumbled.
I shrugged and zippered up my jacket. “Well, we can at least try,” I said. “He couldn’t have gotten that far. He only left, like, fifteen minutes ago and he doesn’t have a car or a phone, at that.”
Taking out everyone else’s jackets from the closet, I threw them to their owners and started lacing up my shoes. “Hurry up,” I called.
We all stood outside the house, our hands stuffed in our pockets, because it was unbelievably cold outside. I mean, I knew that this was Britain but still. Burr.
“How are we going to this?” Liam asked. “How are we supposed to find him? Where do we start? What do we do? Why did he even leave? Who-”
“Liam.” I placed my hand on his shoulder. “Mate, you need to chill. We’ll figure this out, okay?”
I took a deep breath. “We’re going to have to split up.”
“Split up!” Niall shrieked. “No!”
“We’re going to,” I snapped. “Liam, take Niall. I’ll deal with Louis.”
Louis huffed. “Can I…can I go with Liam?”
“No.” I answered. I started walking out of the walkway and down the sidewalk when Liam called after me, “You’re not going to take the car?”
I shook my head. “No!” I called back. “You take it, Louis and I will walk.”
Liam nodded at me and Louis jogged to catch up.
“Where do we start looking then?” he asked me, brushing his fringe out of his eyes.
I shrugged. “We’re just going to have to go with the flow.”
“Harry!” I called, peeking into the car doors that we walked past.
“Harry?” Louis checked behind a huge dumpster. I scoffed at him, as if Harry would be hiding behind there. But then I took it back because Harry is a weird guy and he would at least consider it.
I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I picked it up and held up a finger to Louis, signaling for him to hang on a second.
“Hello?”
“Zayn,” Liam sighed, “This is hopeless. It’s been two hours and we’ve checked everywhere.”
“Well, keep looking, before someone else finds him.”
“There’s no way we can find him on our own, though.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned as I circled the small park we were in, still looking for Harry.
“I mean, if we don’t call management or Paul or somebody we’ll never find Harry and he’ll stay missing, and we’ll get in even more trouble.”
I groaned, “C’mon, Liam! Just one more hour! If we don’t find him, I’ll call Paul, alright?”
“Do you promise?” Liam sounded unsure.
“Yeah, fine,” I nodded to myself and hung up, putting my phone back in my pocket. Turning to Louis, who was sitting on a bench waiting for me, I sat down next to him and rubbed my eyes.
“We’re never going to find him, are we?” Louis mumbled.
I shook my head, “Louis, you have to keep a positive mind. Even though it is your fault he left, he’s not going to leave forever. He’s in the biggest boyband in the world and we have an interview in three days.”
“But he could be dead!”
“But he could not be dead.”
“Something could’ve happened to him!”
“Maybe something good.”
“Crap, Zayn, stop and let me worry!”
I stood up from the bench, crossing my arms over my chest and standing in front of Louis. “Let me be optimistic! You’re not helping anything my freaking out!”
“Well, that’s how I deal with things!”
“Whether you like it or not, we’re still-”
But before I could finish my sentence, someone bumped into me and I had to grab onto the bench so I wouldn’t fall. The other person, though, wasn’t so lucky and fell back on the grass.
“Oops,” they muttered, sitting up and rubbing the back of their head.
I noticed that they were a girl. She looked a bit young, maybe around Harry’s age, and had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.
“Sorry about that,” I said, holding my hands out to help her up. She gladly accepted it.
“No, it was my fault. I tripped on a rock because I wasn’t looking where I was going,” she chuckled.
“No problem,” I replied. Before I could think twice, I continued, “I’m Zayn.”
“Call me Ella.” She held out her hand and I shook it.
“And I’m Louis,” he rolled his eyes. Ella laughed and shook his hand too.
“So what are you two doing outside in this deserted park?” Ella she asked us.
“We’re looking for our friend Harry,” Louis responded, “He ran off a few hours ago.”
I didn’t even think to be suspicious that this girl had no idea who we were.
“Harry, eh?” Ella looked like she was thinking. “What does he have, brown hair?”
“Yes!” I perked up. “You’ve seen him?”
Ella frowned. “No, I’ve seen a lot of brunettes but I was just guessing. I might have, though.” She checked the watch she was wearing. “I have a few hours before I have to go back to work, so I could help you look for him if you want?”
Louis and I shared a look. We could use all the help we could, but we didn’t know who Ella was and if we could trust her. For all we knew, she could be one of those crazy fans I was talking about. But then Louis gave a slight nod at me and I turned back to Ella.
“Okay sure, we could use your help.”
“Great!” Ella started looking around the park. “Where have you guys looked already?”
Half an hour later, we ended up in front of a café in a part of London I didn’t even know existed. We hadn’t found Harry, and guessing my by the zero texts or calls I got from Liam or Niall, they hadn’t either.
I wasn’t ready to accept the fact that Harry was missing, though. It was like what I’d told Louis; you had to be optimistic about this. Maybe Harry had gone home and was waiting at the house for us. Maybe he went out for lunch or something and was walking home at the moment. No one knew, and I had to keep an open mind or else I’d surely go even crazier.
“Rhonda needs me back to work soon,” Ella told us, “But we can check here before I go.”
“No problem,” I said. Louis nodded and we made our way into the café.
The café smelled like pumpkin spice inside. The walls were a dark red color with several paintings hanging on them. It had a homey feel and I wouldn’t have minded staying there longer.
The three of us walked up to the front counter, where a girl with black hair and deep brown eyes was leaning on it, scribbling random things into a small notebook.
“Excuse me,” Louis asked, making the girl look up.
“We were wondering if you’ve seen our friend and we were wondering if you've seen him?” he continued.
The girl narrowed her eyes. “What does he look like?”
“Um, tall, curly brown hair, green eyes?” I answered.
She slowly brought her head up, taking her arm from the counter and looking dead at us. “What, you mean Harry?”
I snapped my fingers. “Exactly! So you’ve seen him?”
She glanced nervously around. “Um…yeah, I kind of know him. What about it?”
“How do you know him? Did he come here today? Where did he go? Do you possibly know where he could be right now?”
“Woah, woah!” the girl shook her head. “He didn’t come by today but he’s been a friend of mine for a while. I’m Blue.” She nodded towards Louis and I. “Who are you?”
“I’m Zayn, this is Louis.” I gestured towards him before I suddenly stopped myself. “Wait, shouldn’t you know who we are already?”
Blue raised an eyebrow and frowned. “No? Should I?”
Louis and I shared a look. This was strange. Really strange. We were in London and she didn’t even know who we were?
“We’re in One Direction…” Louis spoke up. “Ella, don’t you-” He turned around to say something to her but stopped himself. When I looked where he was, Ella was gone.
“But wasn’t she just here?” I said.
“Maybe she had to go see that Rhonda person…she did tell us she had to leave.” Louis replied.
“Okay, makes sense.” I answered, turning back around.
I nearly freaked when I realized Blue wasn’t where she just was.
“Blue?” I called, peeking around the counter. “Hey Blue, you okay?”
“Blue!” Louis yelled, going behind the counter and checking in the kitchens. When he returned, he shook his head and he had a worried look on his face.
“She’s not here,” he said.
“First Harry, then Ella, then Blue…this is getting stranger by the minute,” I whispered.
My phone’s ringtone started blaring from my pocket and I quickly answered it, turning to face Louis as I spoke, “Hello?”
“Zayn,” Niall breathed, “Something…something’s happening.”
“What do you mean?” I glanced up at Louis, who was biting his nails – which he never does. I put my phone on speaker so he could listen, too.
“I mean, we met this girl names Anna and she said she would help us find Harry but then she disappeared so we didn’t think anything of it but then we met this other girl named Evelyn and we were talking but then she was gone too! What the hell is happening?” Niall was speaking really fast and I had to strain to hear him.
“Niall, don’t freak out,” I said slowly, “But the same thing happened to us, except we met a girl named Ella and then one named Blue.”
“Hold on a second,” Louis stopped biting his nails and stepped closer to the phone.
“What did you say their names were, Niall?” he asked.
“Anna and Evelyn,” Niall answered.
“I should’ve caught on earlier,” Louis whispered in response. He walked away from me and started searching the café, flipping over salt and pepper shakers and checking random packages.
“Louis, what are you doing?” I hissed as he made his way behind the counter. All he did was hold up a finger at me.
“What? What’s going on?” Niall said.
“I don’t know! We’re in a café and Louis’ just going through their stuff as if he owns it!” I replied.
“What café?”
“Um…” I checked the wall next to me. “Sweet Sensations Coffee and Café.”
“I’ve never heard of it…” I heard Liam say faintly from the other line.
“Me neither-” I said but my attention turned to Louis, who was holding up a stack of papers in his hand with a triumphant look on his face.
“Aha!” he cried. “I knew it!”
“You know what?” I walked over to where he was, looking at the papers in his hands.
“This is the employee list for this café,” he told me. “There’s a Jane, a Mary, a Crystal, a Jonathan, and a Marcus. The owner is a lady named Marilyn.”
“Okay…” I said, not quite getting it. “What does this have to do with anything?”
Louis groaned. “Don’t you see?” he pointed to the paper. “There’s no Blue here. Blue does not work here, and she doesn’t own this place.”
I frowned. “That’s weird…maybe we were witnessing a robbery or something?”
Louis ran his fingers through his hair. I had long since forgotten that Niall and Liam were on the phone, but I’m sure that they were listening intently, because I wasn’t quite prepared for what Louis was about to say.
“Those girls…the ones Niall and Liam met and the ones we met…aren’t real.”
I shook my head. “The fuck do you mean by that? It doesn’t make sense at all.”
“Think about it, Zayn! They’re from fanfictions!”
“What?!”
Louis leaned over the counter so his face was directly in front of mine. “Ella. When we first met her, she said ‘Call Me Ella’. That’s the fic she’s from.”
“It could’ve been a coincidence…?” I tried.
“Blue,” Louis rambled on, “From P.S I Hate You. Currently #2 in fanfiction.”
I kept quiet as he continued.
“Anna, from That One Text, still on the first page list. Evelyn, from Dark and Dangerous Love. Also on the first page.” He slammed his fist on the counter. “These girls aren’t real! They’re from fanfic and somehow we met them!”
I heard gasps coming from my phone, remembering that Niall and Liam were still on the line. I still couldn’t wrap my head around what I’d just been told. How was it possible that we’d met girls from fanfictions? Were we really that into them? Did this happen to other people? Was this going to be a normal occurrence?
This was bad. Really bad. We can’t just go on with our lives, talking to people who don’t even exist. That would be pretty fucked up.
I didn’t know what I’d gotten myself into. I should’ve never read any fanfic in the first place. Everything was all screwed up and we could only watch it get worse and worse. We could leave that café and not know who was real and who wasn’t.
And the worst part was that Harry was still missing.
~
A/N hey hey hey! it's been a month, how's everyone?
I've been okay, I guess. Could've been better.
Thank you so much for how many reads this has gotten! It's unbelievable, and now the comments section is red!!! WOOOH! If the votes and the reads sections turn bright red too I think I'd die. Like seriously. I love you all :)
Ummm today's question(s) are theories! So answer them because I like hearing from you ahhaa.
A) Where do you think Harry is?
B) Why do you think they are meeting fanfic girls?
C) Why am I so awesome?
You don't have to answer the last one, ahha. This chapter was mehhhh. It took me a month for this shit? I dunno.
Ask the characters some questions in my Book of Extras (and I know you all wanna ask Harry some questions). External link!
If this gets 50+ comments I'll post the next contest :) Now I'm off to give out the prizes for my last one.
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-Chi :) x