Strained

Chapter 10

When they finished the recording of the album and after having a makeover with new haircuts and clothes, they flew to New York to shoot the video clip. It was their first time in the USA. They had never been on another continent before and most of the boys never took a plane before or did not even have a passport. They had to make one in emergency. They played the tourists for a bit, marvelled by everything they were seeing. It was different from England and they loved it. Their new life was full of excitements and they could not wait to see more of it. The music video of only three minutes took four days to film and they were not expecting it. They did not know it could take this long.  They were dressed like young Abercrombie models and had fun doing the shoot. After landing back in England, they went through another week of media training and then they were ready to be out there.

A hectic schedule during the whole month of May was waiting for them, they went to every major radio stations in the UK, singing lives their single in the radio studios, doing interviews after interviews. Everything was kind of a blur, they were going from cities to cities in a short time, doing the same things, answering to the same questions. The journalists and radio hosts were nice to them as they were young and endearing and the boys liked the experience most of the time. It was not as daunted as they were expecting and they could be themselves.

When the single was released, they did not even know if the public appreciated it because they were still promoting themselves all over Europe the next month. They were exhausted but they always managed to keep a smile on their faces. And then, they heard the incredible news, they were number one in the UK.  But they could not even enjoy it, everyone was asking for them. They were the new sensation.  The girls showed up by thousands wherever they went, screaming their names, crying, fainting in front of them. It was intense. How could they have such an effect of them? They didn't do anything extraordinary, they were just normal boys. They were puzzled.

Gabriel was the first to come across the unpleasant side of being famous. He messed up during their first TV live performance by tripping over the stairs and landed face first on the floor at the beginning of the song. Even if he stood up quickly, he was so ashamed and stressed that he could not sing his first verses properly. William backed him up at that moment, letting Gabriel the time to regain himself and then he gave an incredible demonstration of his voice. Despite the slight accident, the performance was still excellent but Gabriel felt worthless. Even Louis could not cheer him up. It was nothing but for Gabriel it was the end of the world. He was convinced that he deceived the boys despite them telling him it was not true. His phone kept buzzing and buzzing after the performance and he checked it only to realise that there was an impressive amount of notification on his Twitter. With trembling fingers, he opened the application and his blood froze. His name was trending and when he read what people were saying about him, his perfect world was collapsing. Thousands of tweets were bashing him, mocking him, insulting him, saying that he was bad and annoying. Some of them even stated that he deserved to die. And to add more to the humiliation, there were already Gifs showing his fall on the loop. All the hate he received was horrible for him. He did not expect to be as wild as this, he was not even a worldwide star. Making fun of him for being clumsy was one thing but the bullying was another one. It truly affected him and he could not believe how people could be so mean. He tried with difficulty to keep a straight face and to not show to everyone that he was actually hurt. But as their single kept hitting number one in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and several countries in Europe and by literally conquering the world with one single, Gabriel finally realised that he was more supported and loved than he thought and it became slightly easier to not give attention to the haters.

The first of July, Andrew called them in the morning asking them to be at the office in less than an hour. They did not see much of Andrew during the last months but they knew that he was watching them carefully.  When they pushed the door of the conference room of Empire, the first thing they saw was Andrew with a smile that stretched to his ears.