Even the Stars they Burn

Chapter 10

(Harry’s POV)

It’s been 2 weeks since I woke up and I’m happy to say I’m recovering. On the other hand, Steff is still the same. Apparently, she’s been asleep for 7 months now. She was in a coma ever since she was brought to the hospital. As for me, I woke up on the hospital before falling into a coma.

The lads have been quite distant with me, which is quite weird since we’ll be working again in 2 weeks. Louis and Niall went back to their hometowns for recovering purposes. But Liam and Zayn are now back in England. They don’t really talk to me. I just know that they are hiding something from me.

What happened when I was in a coma?

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Two weeks had passed and we are back to working. We are currently sitting in the conference room where we usually know what stuff to do in a week.

“You are going to start first at an interview with Daybreak and you are going to testify yourselves with all the issues that are going to be thrown,” Leanne, a part of the management, said in a monotone. Eating cereals during breakfast make me happy.

“What are the possible issues?” Louis asked before taking a sip of his tea.

“Well, a very sure guess would be the things you did while Harry is in a coma. You would want to not sound like you do not know what to answer. And saying you were drunk is all will not sound convincing at all,” Leanne answered in a monotone. Partying. I missed partying.

“So, you’re saying is we should lie?” Niall asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s not lying what you’re gonna do, Niall. It’s telling them what they can’t sell. Like when they asked you why you would do such thing, you would simply answer that you don’t know. It just happened. We do not need you boys to create more damage. You’ve already lost billions of earning of this company in six months,” Leanne reprimanded. Wait, what did really happen?

“May I ask what happened?” I asked with all the courage I have.

“So, your band mates have not tell you? Well, this will be an exciting interview. You’ll know everything tomorrow, Styles. All the ruckus these pricks have caused. Now, off you all go,” Leanne ordered. Why did she not tell me? She is crazy.

No one dared to explain to me what happened. But I know they all are just devastated. Probably as much as I am. No one dared to talk to me. They all have been distant from me.

All of us were practically shoved from our bedrooms for the interview. I am still unconscious with what’s happening. I still feel very sleepy so are the lads. I mean, who in the right mind would wake up teenagers at 3 AM? That is just wrong. You do not force someone to do something when they feel sleepy. That is like taking away your freedom.

“Interview starts in 5 minutes,” someone announced before exiting the room. That man is fast!

The interview…

“And we’re back. So, we all have missed these 5 lads. Well, we are lucky enough to get a chat with them before they continue touring next week. Let’s all give it up for the 5 talented lads of One Direction,” Sheila, our interviewer, said before claps erupted from the audience.

“How are you?” she asked, making sure to stare Zayn for a long time.

“We’re good,” Zayn said, faking amusement.

“Let’s get down to business. Before you all were in a big break, things happened. Let’s start with Louis. So you and Eleanor broke up, what do you have to say about that?” she asked. Eleanor and Louis broke up? Fans must have celebrated at this and new theories about Larry Stylinson are born. Sigh.

“Uhm. Well, it was a mutual decision. It was for the best,” Louis answered pain obvious in his face. Poor lad.

“Each of your fans seems devastated about this break up,” she scoffed. Ain’t that the truth?

“It was for the best,” Liam confirmed. More like, management forced Louis to break up with Eleanor since we don’t need any more damage.

“Liam, you were spotted with a girl and you two were being more than friendly. Who is she?” she intrigued. Liam did such thing? This is bullshit.

“About that. I was drunk to the point where I do not know what I was doing. It’d mean the world to me if we stopped talking about the mistakes I have done,” Liam replied sternly. Liam did fuck a girl. I never expected him to do such thing. Well, looks like things I did not expect happened. What more?

“Oh, okay. Now, onto Zayn. It says here that you were almost in a car accident. Explain yourself,” she said with a amusement in her tone.

“So, Liam and I were in a bar. We were clubbing. We both were drunk so we were both not in the proper mind. I forgot to call a cab so we drove on a vehicle. We were drunk and yeah,” Zayn trailed off. Why do I feel like there’s more to this story? Why on earth would management let us answer this type of questions on our own?

“But why were you drunk?” she asked, obviously liking Zayn being uncomfortable.

“We had to forget our problems,” he muttered softly.

“Oh, right. You four were in a situation no one would ever think of. All because Harry and Steff were in a coma,” she said with a laugh. I feel four of them tense when she said that.

“How would you feel if your very close friend is in a coma and almost everyone in the world pressures you with questions you do not want to answer?” Niall said calmly before walking out of the stage. We really are doomed.

I stood up and followed Niall. I need to talk to him. Maybe, he’ll tell me what’s wrong.

“Niall, wait up!” I yelled as I was running. He stopped on his tracks and walked slowly. I caught up with him and he led me into an alley way.

“Niall, what did really happen?” I asked.

“First of all, you won’t tell anyone,” he stated and I nodded.

“We were all put into damage control by management. Since a month before we were all drinking til midnight. We are wasted. We didn’t know what happened but we were like that for a month. Liam fucked a random girl which ended up on tabloids. Zayn almost died in a car crash. Louis cheated on Eleanor lots of times which the paps wrote news about,” Niall explained avoiding eye contact with me and it’s obvious that pain is written all over his face.

“What did you do Niall?” I asked softly.

“I almost committed suicide,” he said before bursting into tears and collapsing on the ground.

“So now it all makes sense how management let you guys off,” I muttered softly.

“It was all too hard on us,” Niall said in between tears. I have never seen him this devastated.

“What were they forcing you to do?” I asked as I looked him straight in the eyes.

“Management wanted to discharge us since they can’t make money from us anymore. But we all called Simon and begged 9 more months,” Niall said as he wiped his tears. I took a seat beside him.

“How many more months Niall?” I asked.

“One more month,” Niall answered before we fell into a deep silence.

How can we do it in one month if we barely could clean our names? Will we even do it one month?

I guess this is what they call now or never.

~’~’~

Harlow! This is gonna end in a few chapters. I had to since school is starting in more that week. Yes, I’m Asian.

Have you guys heard about Made in America by Cimorelli? Well, you should because it’s such a tune.

PLEASE VOTE and COMMENT because I can end this book in 3 more chapters or I could make it longer. Please TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF THE BOOK SO FAR.

VOMMENT!

Later.