Josie’s P.O.V.
The flight back home was nothing special, I slept through the entire thing, but once I woke up I still couldn’t believe it was real. I was so used to seeing Luke right beside me in another hotel room or in his bunk but now my eyes fluttered open to a flight attendant politely waking me up. Kate sent a driver to pick me up from the airport and I was in home in under half an hour from landing. It was nice seeing everything as it was again. My house still looked exactly the same with one of my friends house sitting while I was gone. The first thing I did when I came in was drop my suitcase on the floor and dump my body onto my bed. Even though I slept the entire flight I felt even more exhausted and since it was night time where I was, I decided to continue sleeping it off. But I wasn’t sure whether it was the jet lag or the effects of the concussion that made me so tired.
I woke up with the sun streaming through my windows like it always did and my first instinct was to call Luke. I completely forgot about calling him once I landed because of how tired I was so when I checked my phone I had about five missed calls from him and a few texts from the rest of the guys asking if I landed safely. I was about to press the call button on Luke’s number, when Kate called me instead.
"Hello?" You answered still groggy from your sleep
"Josie baby, how are you doing? Are you alright?" Kate asked with a hint of insincerity in her voice like it always had
"I’m doing just fine Kate," I sighed hoping that’s all she wanted to know so that I could get back to getting in contact with Luke
"Fine enough to come by my office?" She asked
"You always want something don’t you?" You groaned
"Just come, we have some important things to discuss," Was all she said before hanging up
I kept my head tucked onto my soft pillows before having to force myself to get up. I expected her to be a lot more sensitive considering the fact that I have slight brain damage, but of course she wouldn’t, this was all business to her. I threw on a shirt and some jeans before covering myself in a jacket and slipping on any shoe I could find. I didn’t know what she wanted to talk about, but I just wanted to get it over and done with so I could go back to resting.
I backed my car out of my gated home feeling a sense of familiarity with my surroundings again, but once I was fully out I noticed something else that I did not miss at all. I landed only a little over 15 hours ago and the paps already knew I was back so by the time I was spotted coming out of my house, they were already flashing pictures for their latest cover story. The flashing lights from their cameras were not helping me at all, it was making me feel even worse actually. I put shades on in hopes of hindering a more severe pain from occurring in my mind as I drove away to Kate’s office building.
Once I got there I kept my sunglasses on in case there were more photographers waiting for me there but fortunately the coast was clear. I entered saying hello to the staff and security who I’ve become somewhat close with since I’d come to Kate’s office a lot before the tour with the guys. The news of me getting rammed into by one of 5sos’ die hard fans spread like wildfire and one of the first things they’d ask was if I was doing okay, I’d assure them by saying yes, and I swore to myself that I wouldn’t let the information about my concussion slip because it would be even more bad publicity for the guys. Even though it wasn’t even close to being their faults, the tabloids still managed to put the blame on them for something that they had no control over.
"Hey Kate," I greeted her as I walked into her office
"Josie, it’s been a while nice to see you," She said giving out her signature fake smile to me as I took a seat on the chair in front of her desk
"So what did you want to talk about?" I asked her leaning back in my chair as she took a deep breath. I knew this was going to be a long one.
"How are you and Luke doing?" She asked making me sit up in my seat at the sound of his name escaping her lips
"We’re fine…why?"
"Well the contract is over, so you know what that means," She said looking at me indifferently even though she was basically dropping a bomb on my entire world
"I can’t do that Kate," I shook my head
"You signed a legal paper Josie, and that brat never signed his paper making me his publicist so he’s worthless to both you and me," She spat
"I’m not doing it Kate you can’t ask me to do that,"
"I’m not asking you sweetheart, I’m telling you. You signed legal papers. And the deal isn’t even over yet once you two break up it’ll shake the world remember? And you’re name will be spread all over the news thanks to your amazing publicist,"
"I don’t care about that. I’m not fucking doing it,"
"What’s with you? You wanted this in the first place? For gods sake you were about to claw your eyes out the first time you met him," She scoffed
"Well it-it’s different now," I admitted
"What do you me- Oh, I get it. You love him, don’t you?"
"Yes, I really do, Kate," I said thinking back to the happy memories I had with him in the past few months
"Well you should’ve thought of that before you signed the papers my darling. This was just business. Here, I’ll make your decision easier, if you don’t break up with him, I’ll release even more photos with him and that groupie after the award show," She smiled as if this was actually helping me on making my choices
"What do you mean more photos? When the first ones came out, you were threatening to sue him for them,"
"Oh sweetie, my naive little girl, publicity is a delicate thing, I knew those photos would come in handy sooner or later, it would be wrong of me to not have a back up plan for if you two didn’t work out and fortunately you did manage to fix it, but now you need to break it. You knew this was going to happen eventually Jojo, you can’t be mad at me for telling you what was bound to happen," She explained
"What the hell are you saying? That it was my fault for falling in love with him?"
"Exactly," She stated simply
I stood up from my chair in disbelief and spoke the first thing that came to my mind
"Fuck you," I spat walking away from her and towards the door
"Say whatever you want, but if a huge break up doesn’t land the cover pages of the magazines by the end of the week, those pictures will be sent to every big pop culture magazine out there," She said making me stop once my hand reached for the door knob
I couldn’t do it. I just fucking couldn’t.
"You’ll thank me in the long run Josie," She said
I was fuming after she said that. I forced open the door slamming it behind me as I walked down the hallway towards the elevator. I couldn’t fucking believe she was doing this. She’s done some pretty fucked up shit in the past, but this draws the line. I couldn’t lie that she was a damn good publicist but the amount of shit that comes along with hiring her was not enough. I wanted to fire her so badly, but I knew that she had so much dirt on me, if I even uttered the words to her, she’d send every piece of information she has on me to every big gossip site, all the popular magazines, everything.
Once I got in the comfort of my car, my phone began ringing. Of course it was him. Of course it was Luke. I kept running the thoughts through my mind, do I answer it or do I not answer it? What was I supposed to say to him? And the number one question of the day was whether or not I was going to go along with what Kate wanted.
Deep down inside I knew I had to. I couldn’t let her ruin Luke’s reputation. I know how bad it could get. Even with fake rumors, some celebrities have been knocked off the famous totem pole of popularity completely. The guys were just starting out with their first headlining arena tour, I couldn’t stand in the way. I wouldn’t. But I also knew how hard it was going to be once I finally did it. So I let my phone continue to ring as I started my car. When I got home that’s when it started to hit me. I actually had to do this.
Luke’s P.O.V.
It was a day later and Josie still wasn’t answering to mine or even the other guys’ calls. I lost track of how many times I dialed her number once I hit twenty and I honestly had no idea what was going on. She told me she was going to do it. She wrote it in words actually. The first ting that came to my mind was the plane crashed or something like that, but I knew that was impossible because there was no news of any plane disasters whatsoever.
"Maybe she lost her phone mate," Michael reasoned trying to make me feel better
"She would’ve tried to contact me through something else then. I don’t understand. Do you think she’s okay?" I asked them having a wave of concern overflow me at the thought of her hurt
"If she wasn’t then she’d be all over the news by now, she’s Josie Castano for gods sake," Calum said
A couple more days passed and I couldn’t bare it anymore. The stress from not speaking to her for days on end started showing up during our shows. I couldn’t focus knowing that something could be wrong with her, but I couldn’t leave since there were still a few more days left in the last leg of tour. So I held it out for a few more nights, the fans were starting to notice though. It was crazy how well they know me without all of them knowing me personally. They started wondering about the two of us too, they pointed out that Josie hasn’t tweeted or used any form of social media throughout the passed week which was unusual considering the fact she was in the middle of writing her next album and she’s told me how she loves informing the fans about new music, she just loves connecting with them in general and now she’s left both the fans and I out of her life.
The last night of tour was more nerve wracking than ever, the boys wanted to end it with a huge bang but they also knew that I had my mind set on other things tonight. Regardless, we pulled off a seemingly good show and with a few fake smiles and forced laughter, I was able to survive the night. The flight back home was set in the morning, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I was contemplating on whether home or Josie would be my next destination, but the fact is that I had no idea where Josie was to be exact. I saw rumors in the magazine that she was taking a vacation in Hawaii or another rumor saying she was with family. But to get my answer I knew exactly who to call, the one person who hand her hand gripped so tightly around her that she wouldn’t be able to go anywhere without her consent, Kate.
"Hello?" Her familiar voice rang through my cellphone
"Kate, this is Luke," I said wanting to get straight to the point a little sooner
"I know who it is, I have caller ID," She stated plainly with a hint of annoyance in her voice
"Where’s Josie?"
"Josie? Why are you asking about her didn’t you oh-" She began to say before stopping herself
"She hasn’t…" She said before trailing off her words like she was thinking of something else to say
"She hasn’t what?" I prodded
"She hasn’t spoken to you? I’m assuming you two are still together correct?" She asked
"Uh yeah, can you- can you just tell me where she is?" I asked confused as to why she’d even question whether we were still together or not
"She’s in the hospital Luke, she’s been there for the past few days now," She told me
"Are you going to go visit her?" She asked
"Wait she’s in the hospital? Is she alright?" Fuck, I knew this was going to be bad
"Just come down here and see her for yourself, I’m sure she has a lot to say to you," Kate said before hanging up
That’s when I knew I had to see her. Instead of going with the rest of lads for our flight back home, I headed straight for LA.