Chapter 26 ― Louis
“You okay, Tommo?” Niall asked as we walked down the hall.
I hung up the call and looked at the blond boy next to me. I had just called the Radio Station to leave a message for Havi. I hadn’t talked to her but I had this feeling in my guts that I had to do something. I just felt like she needed a reminder that I was with her no matter what.
“Yeah, mate. Just trying to do something nice,” I replied with a smile and he nodded, but didn’t seem at ease. “Everything okay?”
“I thought you were worried about whatever management has to say. This sudden meeting is kinda weird, don’t you think?” He commented and of course I thought it might have to do with me and my relationship with Havi, I just didn’t want to overthink things. I was sure about being with her and if I had to stand up for what I wanted, I was going to do it.
“Everything’s gonna be fine, mate,” I assured the Irish boy and he smiled genuinely.
Management had set for an extraordinary meeting and I was ninety per cent sure it was about the last interview. The possibilities of them asking me to cut any kind of relationship with Havi were high, but I wasn’t going to let anyone direct my relationship. I was totally sure about that.
We walked into the conference room where the team that was management was already reunited. There were five men and a woman, among them there was George who looked at me immediately.
Yup, this meeting was about my relationship with Havi.
“Boys,” Carl, one of the men in the management group spoke for everyone, addressing all of us who were taking a seat around the large table. “We are very happy with all the attention this contest is bringing to you and you are managing this quite well. Congratulations. And it’s great you are helping this radio station which later might be of a great help to you.”
This was starting great and all my band mates were grinning proud of themselves. This was the first time we were so involved in a contest and the fact that management was pleased with how we were handling it meant a lot for us, but I was sure there was another reason for Carl to start his speech like that. He was giving us the good news first to then dive into the bad ones.
“But we can’t look everything through rose-coloured glasses, can we?” Sonja talked this time, her dark eyes on me. She was a severe woman and very strict with us. “Louis, this applies specially to you as you are the one in the eye of the hurricane right now.”
I knew it.
“What do you mean?” Harry asked for me and I could already feel his support. He even sat straight in his chair to look taller.
“We are talking about this Havi girl you seem so fond of,” John, another member of management, replied for everyone.
“You mean my girlfriend?” I questioned rather defiantly. They look at each other, surely they didn’t know this bit of information and were confirming how it affected their plans.
“Your girlfriend,” Sonja said and you could tell she wasn’t happy with the idea. “Anyways, we think it’s not a good idea for you to be involved with her and you should think of putting some distance between you two. It’s not going to be good for your image and she might be using you just for your–”
“Don’t you dare to say that!” I cut her off. “Havi is not using me and I’m not even gonna consider that.”
“If you keep a relationship with her, you’re gonna lose fans,” Carl reminded me and I could feel my anger growing stronger inside.
“I know that and I don’t care. If they leave because I’m in a relationship and I’m happy, then they never were true fans,” I snapped. I was squeezing the end of the table and I hadn’t even realised it. “We have a solid fan-base and I know they are gonna stay with us, no matter whom I date. I–” every single person in that room was looking at me. I felt the support of my friends and the distrust of management. But I had made my mind about Havi already. If we already took the step into this relationship and she was able to face all the hatred from the fans, the least I could do was to step up for us in front of management. I owed her that. “I love her,” I said out loud for the first time and I realised it was true; I loved her. “And I’m not gonna let anyone get between us. I have the right to a personal and private life, and I want her to be part of that. You can’t stop me from being with her.”
“You won’t affect only yourself, but your friends as well,” John said ever so serious.
“Well, we are with him on this. We don’t mind, we want him to be happy and he’s the happiest when he’s with Havi,” Liam said standing up to make his point stronger. I looked at him very gratefully and he smiled at me.
“If Louis’ happiness means to lose fans, then we don’t care. He’s first,” Harry said putting his hand on my shoulder and giving me a light squeeze. Those were my friends, always with me.
“Quite right too, if you’re sure about this we can’t do much about it. It’s your personal life, after all. We just want you to keep it secret. Don’t let the fans know you two are together yet. We can’t forbid you to be with her, but we, as management, can demand of you to be as discreet as possible. Are we clear?” Sean, another man from the group said and we all nodded. I could agree on that and I thought it was for the best. The less the fans knew about us, the more protected Havi was.
“Deal,” I agreed and they half smiled at us.
* * *
“Told ya it was her real number!” Harry cried out after his phone buzzed with a new text.
We were in the set for a new photoshoot with a magazine and Lou was working on our makeup and hairstyles. She slapped Harry for moving so abruptly and ruining what she was doing. Niall laughed shamelessly at the curly-haired boy.
“What are you talking about, Hazza?” Liam asked as he buttoned his shirt.
“I’m talking about Maca. She replied to me! Told ya it was her number! Ha!” He exclaimed again gaining another slap from Lou.
“Stay still or I’ll cut your hair, Harry,” she threatened and Harry’s eyes shot wide open. “That’s better.”
Niall was still laughing and Zayn was smiling. “You sent her a text? I thought you were gonna call her,” I commented offhandedly.
“I will, I just wanted to make sure it was her number. I thought it was gonna be less embarrassing if I only texted her. And she replied and even added a smiley face. I knew no one could resist the curls,” he added arrogantly and moving again.
“Your curls are so gonna leave if you move again, Harry,” Lou threatened one more time and Niall literally fell to the floor laughing at Harry. The youngest boy pouted but Lou still had this severe expression. She was a mother, she couldn’t be bribed with something as cheap as a pout.
I was glad that the girl from the cafeteria had actually given him her number. Harry really seemed into her the day before and she looked like a nice girl. Havi liked her and I trusted her.
We were about to go into the set to start with the photoshoot, Harry was the only one missing, so in order to kill some time, I went onto twitter to check how things were going. I scrolled through the thousands of notifications, including those spams with the same message a hundred times. I only wanted to know how things were going about Havi.
Almost all mentions related to her and even thought there were loads of tweets about how awful, ugly, slut, gold-digger she was, which were all lies and I was never going to follow them, there were plenty of mentions saying that they believed Havi was so pretty and that I looked happy again. Mentions saying that they were happy for me. Those fans were the ones I loved the most. I even followed some of them for being so nice.
We already had a name for the couple, even though nothing was official. We were Louvi. And I liked it. It sounded sweet.
Even though, I wanted to say something to all those haters who called themselves fans but they couldn’t be if they did that; however I already knew that the best way to deal with immature and narrow-minded people like them was to ignore them. I wasn’t going to give them a reaction because that was what they wanted.
I went onto the hash-tag Louvi just to see that we already had many shippers and those were fighting for us against the Larry shippers.
You’re fucking Louvi is not real! Louis denied it! #larry4ever
Neither is your Larry, you fucktard!
Were the kind of exchanges between the people there. I still couldn’t believe there were people obsessed with something that was only a friendship to the point to never accept what was really happening. I felt pity for those who were blind to see reality.
When I was about to close the app, I noticed a few tweets about something that froze the blood in my veins.
I can’t believe some idiots went to the station! Their relationship is not even official and they’re already hurting Havi
Some people went to the station?
Apparently, many girls had gone to the station ‘to show their discomfort with the situation’, that meant to hate on Havi. Did that really happen? Did they get to Havi?
My heart was beating frantically whilst I dialled Havi’s number. I needed to know exactly what had happened, if Havi was okay or not. But I didn’t have the chance to hit the dial button when a man came for us.
“We’re ready. Please, come with us,” He said and all my friends stood up, but I couldn’t move. “Louis, we need you, too.”
“Coming,” I said and he looked at me suspiciously but turned on his heels and walked away. I stayed there for a couple of seconds and tried to call Havi but it sent me immediately to the voice mail. I grew worried but I reminded myself that she had to be fine. If something bad happened, Joy would have called me. Havi had to be fine.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t be at ease until I talked to her.
I walked into the set with a bad feeling in my guts. I just wanted to be done with this so I could try to call her again and make sure she was alright. Until then, I had to do my job. I just hoped nothing bad happened to her.
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Dedication goes to @dancegirl_LEY because she was my favourite comment on the last chapter.
Bel, xx