Breaking Free » l.∤.

Chapter 17 - Broken Friendship

Harry's POV:

"Look at this." Mr. Walus, one of our managers, had called us to an emergency meeting. He threw a pile of newspapers and magazines down in front of us. "Well, pick them up and read them. Don't just stare at them." Liam looked at me nervously and then picked up the first one.

"Harry Styles gets in heated fight with war veteran at Chet Trattoria." Liam read it quietly.

"Levi was not a veteran. He was just in the National Guard." I said.

"I know that! You know very well how the tabloids will exaggerate! Read the next one." Mr. Walus crossed his arms.

Liam picked up another one and read it out loud. "Louis and Niall court their misstresses to sample Californian couisine."

"Mistresses? Who? Katie and Emily?" Niall swiped the magazine out of Liam's hand and flipped through it.

Zayn picked up a magazine as well and read it out loud. "Ashton Irwin from One Direction's opening act 5 Seconds of Summer gets cozy under an umbrella with mysterious girlfriend."

"I want to know right now who's idea it was to take these fans out." Mr. Walus demanded. We all looked at Louis who took a deep breath before speaking up.

"It was me." He said quietly. "I'm sorry..."

"Your sorry? Your immature act has started dozens of rumors! We can't possibly extinguish them all! I hope you're happy!"

"Mr. Walrus, you we've never cared about what the tabloids say about us." Louis said and we all chuckled quietly at his joke.

"It's Mr. Walus, not Walrus. You know that. How many times do I have to say that?" The anger was burning in his eyes as he took turns staring at each of us. "How do you plan on taking care of this?"

"I don't." Louis said. "I've already told you, we don't care what people say. Do we?" Louis looked at us and we all shrugged. "If you care about it so much then you do something about it."

"Louis is right, this will all blow over soon." Liam said. "It always does, just wait for Justin Bieber to do something even worse and everyone will have forgotten."

"We'll see..." Mr. Walus walked out of the room, taking his magazines with him. We sat there in silence after he left. There was nothing to say really and we were all a bit hostile towards each other for one reason or another. It was only the next day since we saw the girls. One day and so much gossip had happened. I'll never know how they printed those pictures and wrote up those articles of lies so quickly. Everyone was upset with me for fighting with Levi. That was not the smartest thing I'd ever done and I was embarassed of it. I don't know why it happened, it just did. I know the paparazzi wouldn't have even bothered to show up if word hadn't got out about me and Levi fighting. Louis wasn't even speaking to me today. He was the most upset because it was sort of his night that I ruined and Eleanor had gotten hurt in the mess of photographers that showed up to see me fighting. What was the fight even more? Levi and Sasha have probably made up and are making out as we speak. What does she see in him? Is it the kicking? Because I can kick too? Emily and Niall probably had the best night out of everyone. They stayed out for several hours eating God knows how many ribs.

Katie's POV:

So somehow, I avoided getting on most of the news and was written off as Eleanor's 'friend.' No one cares about Eleanor because they think she's fake so basically I never even existed last night. However, Emily's face is all over the paper, sitting at a booth with Niall at Chili's. Angel mostly hung out with Ashton and since 5 Seconds of Summer are still so upopular most newspapers didn't care about her and Ashton very much. It was Harry's fight with Levi that was on the front page of every newspaper.