Harry's POV
We were going to see management today. I was nervous. The last time we'd met with them face to face had been about three months ago, when I'd joined the band.
They called occasionally to tell us about interviews and such. I wondered what they were going to discuss with us today.
Most of the reason why I was a bit anxious was because I was curious to how they would react to me and Louis's legitimate friendship. Simon had probably told them of our hate for eachother, and we hadn't talked to him since me and Lou had become friends.
"Hey, Hazza," Louis said cheerily.
"Hello, Boo," I replied, "Eggs?"
He grinned and nodded so I passed him the food I had prepared. He immediately wolfed them down and looked at me anticipatingly for more. I sighed and handed him the rest. I'd already eaten anyways.
"Tfmks!" he mumbled, his mouth stuffed.
I rolled my eyes.
"Go get dressed. We've got that meeting with management," I reminded him.
Louis grimaced. I knew he absolutely despised them.
"Great," he sighed.
Ten minutes later, he came back, dressed and ready to go. I texted Liam that we were leaving.
Louis was quiet on the drive there.
"Do we really have to?" he grumbled.
"Unfortunately," I sighed, "But imagine the looks on their faces when we come in and don't try to kill eachother."
He smirked slightly, but it turned into a pout almost immediately.
I parked beside the building and turned to him.
"I will carry you in," I threatened. He sighed and got out of the car grudgingly.
Liam was already in the room when we entered. I sat down, and Louis sat next to me.
Niall came trotting in, and Zayn followed a few minutes later.
"So. This is an interesting meeting," I joked.
"I prefer it to our normal meetings," Louis grumbled. I kicked his leg.
"Ow!" he yelped, glaring at me.
"Lighten up," I urged.
"Hello, boys," Will said calmly as he entered. I thought that was what his name was.
"Hello, Will," Liam responded.
So I was right!
"So, how are you boys doing today?" Will asked.
"Just dandy until I got my ass dragged here," Louis growled. I looked at him, mildly surprised at his gruff attitude.
Will ignored him, and instead smiled calmly at me.
"How have you been adjusting over the past three months, Harry?" he asked.
"Very well, thank you," I replied.
"That's good. The fans have thankfully reacted incredibly well to the addition to the band. Now, we think that once your new album is finished and released, that we should schedule a tour," he said.
"I'm up for that. How long?" Liam asked.
"Seeing as it's Harry's first time, I'm thinking about three weeks to a month. Not incredibly long, but not short either. You won't have a concert every day, either," Will answered, "Speaking of which, I have heard some of the songs. They're coming along quite nicely."
"Thank you," Zayn said quietly. I'd learned how reserved he got around people that weren't me, Liam, Niall, or Louis.
We went through the songs we had recorded and discussed what ones we thought would be the best on the album for a while. It was pretty entertaining because we all had different opinions. Niall really liked this one song that the rest of us were a bit iffy on, and Liam, Zayn, and I thought one was a bit rough, while Niall and Louis thought it was the best one, and so on and so forth.
"Your voice is very good with the band, Harry. Anyways, you'll have the next two and a half weeks for Christmas and New Years, but then you will have to work hard in preparation for the tour. I know we usually have a larger period of time from when we announce a tour to where it actually takes place, but you'll do fine," Will assured us.
I could practically hear Louis roll his eyes.
"That's what you said before you forced me into doing that interview," he snapped.
What was up with him? I knew he hated management, but this was getting ridiculous.
Will raised his eyebrows.
"I've heard that you have been quite a bit of trouble to Harry, Louis," he said coolly.
Louis smirked.
"Then your sources are terribly outdated. Ask anyone in this room, Hazza and I have grown quite close since he was ill," he said, using my nickname as proof.
"Is that true?" Will asked me.
"Very. Lou's my best mate. We get along great now and we tell eachother absolutely everything," I confirmed.
He nodded slowly, then smiled mischievously.
"Tell me, then, if you're so close. Why titanium?" he asked, testing me.
There was a collective gasp. Niall looked a bit scared, Liam looked shocked, and Zayn was struggling to hide his emotions, but he appeared a bit angry. Louis went ridged, his face reddening.
"Umm...what?" I asked.
Will smirked.
"Guess your best mate hasn't told you absolutely everything," he purred.
"You can't honestly expect Harry to know that, Will. Lou hasn't mentioned it once to any of us," Liam sighed.
"I'm confused. Why titanium doesn't even make sense?" I mumbled.
"If you think you really tell eachother everything, then you're sorely misunderstood, Harry. You should know what titanium means. Isn't it obvious that everyone knows but you?" Will said, his mouth twisted into a cruel smile.
Louis was shaking, but for once, it wasn't because he was crying. His face was bright red with absolute fury.
"Every single meeting!" he yelled suddenly, "There hasn't been one meeting in the past ten months where you haven't said something to intentionally aggravate me! Why the hell do you have to do this? Isn't it enough for us just to simply say that we're friends? I trust Harry with my life, but there are some things that I'm just not ready to talk about, alright?"
I had grown so used to his happy, occasionally sad attitude that I was slightly alarmed at his anger. But then I remembered that he had once screamed at me like that.
"I'll have someone phone you about the tour soon," Will said easily before standing and walking out.
Louis looked like he was going to strangle somebody. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders as we walked to his car.
"It's alright," I murmured.
I decided that there was no way in hell Louis was going to drive in the state he was in.
He shuffled into his room as soon as we got home, but left the door open.
I made some tea and went in. Handing him a cup, I sat down on his bed.
"I'm really sorry he gets to you," I said quietly.
Louis sighed heavily. Surprisingly, his eyes weren't red from crying. He just appeared troubled.
"He was right. You barely know anything about me. What you do know is what the others have deemed not super personal to tell you," he said.
"I don't care. I know that you're an amazing person who's gone through some bad things. I don't mind," I insisted honestly.
"Titanium...it's a long story. It's a hard story," Louis started.
"Boo, you don't have to tell me. I swear, I'm perfectly fine not knowing," I said. He shook his head.
"I dunno why it's so hard. It's fairly simple. You know how Bri and I met. On the X Factor. It was some thing where me and the boys and a few other X Factor alumni, like Cher came back and did duets with the solo artists. It's funny, I actually fell in love with Bri because of her voice. I was watching the auditions for that season and it was like bam, she's the best I've ever heard," he said weakly.
He sucked in a shaky breath before continuing, "I begged Simon to pair me with her, and so he did. We chose to sing Titanium, you know, by David Guetta. It was great. But someone came up with a Facebook page designed to get all my haters to vote for all the other contestants so I'd be hurt by Bri not getting through. And it worked."
He stopped then, tears swimming in his eyes.
"You don't need to go on," I said.
"I've already started, may as well finish. Anyways, so after that, I got pretty depressed. I mean, Bri was really, really good. It took a lot of people to go against her fan base, and I guess mine. So yeah, she got voted off and I was scared to talk to her, but eventually...she was so stubborn, like you."
He smiled faintly, and I wondered if I should take that as a compliment it not.
"She brought me back. I really don't remember what exactly she said, just that she made a lot of references to the song, which is pretty much about not giving a fuck- whoops sorry, about people criticizing you."
I chuckled at him correcting his own language.
"Anyways, throughout our relationship, if either of us ever got upset about something, anything, we'd always bring up Titanium. It was like our thing. So eventually, I designed this necklace," Louis continued softly.
He tugged on a chain around his neck. I'd never seen him without it, but I'd never really put much thought into it. Whatever was on the chain was always tucked underneath his shirt.
It was a silver treble clef with a gold streak through the middle of the lines. Looking at it closely, there was a tiny green gem in the upper right. It was unique. I'd never seen anything like it.
"It took so long to find somebody who would make it for me. The emerald was like the exact color of her eyes, that's why I put it there. The gold in it...I dunno, it just looked good. And the silver, it's actually titanium," Louis explained.
The tears in his eyes spilled over and slid down his face.
"The day before she died, she took it off and gave it to me. Said she'd wanted to design one for me, but everytime she had an idea, she'd forget it because of that goddamn tumor," he spat. He shoved the necklace down his shirt roughly.
I'd learned that Louis's emotions always showed through his eyes, no matter what.
When he was happy, they glittered a beautiful bright blue. When he was sad, they dulled slightly. When he was angry, they darkened and flames seemed to shoot from them.
Right now, it was a mix of sadness and anger as he cried into his pillow.
I felt so helpless. What could I do? I couldn't bring her back. Suddenly, I got an idea.
I picked up my phone and dialed management.
"Modest! Management," somebody said.
"I need to speak with Will. It's Harry Styles," I said.
Louis looked up in confusion.
"Harry! What can I do for you?" Will said, the cheeriness in his voice completely fake.
"Why titanium? Because it was their thing. I know about the song, I know about the necklace. Me and Louis don't keep things from eachother Will. I thought we told you that. Good day," I replied, the same sickly cheeriness in my voice. I then hung up.
"Rebel," Louis mumbled.
"You're corrupting me," I chuckled.
He smiled.
"I always said that I corrupted Liam. Guess I did that to you also," he said.
I reached my hand out and brushed some of his hair from his face that had been falling in his eyes.
"That was bothering me," I explained.
He rolled his eyes.
"See, now if I hadn't moved your hair, I wouldn't have been able to see that," I said.
Louis looked at me, his expression once again thoughtful.
"You know, I don't know why, but it's so easy to talk to you. If I'd told any of the other lads that, I'd be a bawling mess," he said, "Thank you for listening."
"No, Lou. Thank you for telling me. You really didn't have to," I replied earnestly.
"No, you deserved to hear it. I know you were curious, don't even bother lying," he chuckled.
"Fine," I said.
I was about to get up and say goodnight, but he tugged gently on my wrist and forced me to lay down next to him.
"Sleep with me," he ordered.
"I didn't think we had that kind of relationship, Boo," I joked, wiggling my eyebrows.
"Shut up, peasant," he mumbled, before nuzzling into my neck.
The action felt like it made my heart speed up. But it was probably just my imagination.
I told myself that I was just tired. Which was curious, since it was only about 5:00 P.M. And I didn't feel tired at all.
Oh well. I allowed Louis to snuggle into me, and I wrapped my arms around him.
I liked this. I liked being his best mate. I liked that he had said to Will that he trusted me with his life. I liked that I could cuddle with him without it being weird. I liked his bright blue eyes whenever he laughed and the way they glittered with amusement. I liked the way his hair always looked like sex hair. It was entertaining.
Oh, what the hell.
What didn't I like about Louis Tomlinson?