“No, no, absolutely not.” You rubbed your sleepy eyes and searched for the source of Niall’s voice. He was sitting on the edge of your bed talking to someone. He was trying to stay quiet so he wouldn’t wake you up, but he was obviously getting worked up about something. You closed your eyes and pretended to be asleep so you could listen to the conversation.
“Why? Give me one good reason.” He paused for a bit and listened to the receiving end, “That wasn’t even her!” You moved a bit closer to him and tried to figure out who he was talking to. You could hear a high pitch sound, but you couldn’t make out his words. You started to get worried. Niall was using his your-making-me-really-angry-but-im-going-to-try-and-contain-myself voice.
“No, there’s no way. I’m not leaving her.” You jumped up. Her? That meant you didn’t it? Who was he talking to? He turned around and saw that you were awake. He quickly muttered into his phone, “I’m coming down there.”
He leaned against the headboard, and you crawled into his arms, “Niall, who was that?” You were pretty sure you could guess.
“Management.” He stated it simply, like he wanted to end the conversation, like he had no interest in telling you anything.
“And they want, they want you to leave me.” This wasn’t a question. You knew it was true. About a week before someone pretended to be you. Every social networking account you had was hacked. Someone created lies about the boys, and the public believed them. Everyone turned on you. It was a mess. You almost lost Niall to it.
He nodded simply and started to get dressed. He pulled a shirt over his head and put some jeans on. You started to do the same.
“No, Kate, stay here, I don’t want you to see this.”
You shook your head, “No I’m coming. If I’m going to lose you I at least want to hear them give a good reason to it.” You pulled a dress on over your body and twisted your hair into a bun.
He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you back onto the bed so you were sitting in his lap, “No, I’m not losing you, not after all that crap last week.” He pecked your neck with a kiss.
“I’m still coming with you.”
“But Kate they won’t exactly be…. Kind.” You stood up and pulled him off the bed. He groaned. You won.
You arrived to the building minutes later. You didn’t like it there. It was dark and serious, and professional. You traveled up to the top floor, past the tall men in suits. Niall greeted them each by name. He held your hand and nervously adjusted his clothes in the elevator. You plastered a fake smile across you face and showed it to him. He shook his head and replied, “I’m not losing you. Not now, not ever.”
The wide doors opened to one of the conference rooms. Five seats were empty. This didn’t really concern the other boys, but it would be nice to have their support. Serious looking men and women surround the table. You didn’t know their names, but you knew how much power they had over Niall. Your fingers curled around the coffee mug set at the tale.
A man across from you read a clipboard and tapped his pen. Niall placed his hand on your thigh reassuringly. You swirled the coffee around and waited for someone to speak. The man tossed the clipboard in front of you.
“This is not ok.” You picked up the clipboard and read through it. Graphs, charts, pictures, tweets, basically everything and anything was put onto those pages to prove that you shouldn’t be together. Some study shows that the amount of Niall’s fans decreased since you started dating. Another one said that he was distracted and hadn’t been working as hard. Tweets were printed out from fans talking about how much they hate you together. One picture after another showed you going out in a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt.
Niall looked at you examining your expression. You put on your best poker face. The papers in front of you were eating at your heart. Maybe they were right. Maybe you should leave him.
You waited for someone to speak against it. Maybe someone in a suit would disagree. But no, instead they raised their eyebrows at you as they read the copies of the papers.
“Not everyone is going to approve of our relationship.” Niall shot at the man.
“Yes, but it’s affecting you. Look at the graphs.” He motioned to the clipboard.
“If anything she’s making me a better person. How could you even think anything against it? She’s important to me. I’m not about to lose her to some study claiming that she’s no good for me.”
You closed your eyes and hoped that his words wouldn’t come back to hit him in the butt. The men and women analyzed the crap in front of them.
“She’s not good for your image.” So you were ugly? That’s awesome, cause it’s really easy to live under the pressure of being a teenager. It just makes it so much better when you are called ugly.
“She’s allowed to go outside in a pair of sweats, and she’s absolutely beautiful. Your mental to think otherwise.” He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the man. He was good at this. Maybe you could still be together. Maybe they would let him love you.
The man searched through his papers and tried to find something else he could bark at you for.
“The whole internet thing got out of hand, that was ridiculous. How do you expect to handle it if it happens again? You just stood there and watched it unravel.”
Niall stood up and placed his hands on the table. “It won’t happen again. She took all of her accounts down. What did you expect her to do? She told everyone they were all lies. She came straight to me and wouldn’t stop fighting until I knew that she didn’t do it. Stop tearing her down.” He was mad. He was defensive. He was perfect for the situation. The men and women sat back in their chairs surprised by his behavior. He grabbed your hand and pulled you out of your chair.
The man started again, “The boys,” Niall wouldn’t let him finish.
“The boys love her, and you know it. Anything else to say” The man stared at you. Maybe he could find something on the spot to yell at you for, but it wouldn’t be enough. He shook his head, and you left.
“Babe, I’m sorry you had to hear that. I wish you stayed home.” He scratched the back of his neck and proceeded to his car.
“No it was nice to hear you defend me.” He smiled at you, and you pulled him closer to you.
“I wasn’t about to let them take what we have. I love you too much.” You stopped in your tracks. You knew he loved you, but something about the way he said it made everything perfect. You confused him. You pulled his arms around your neck and kissed him. Your lips robotically moved together in perfect motions, and in that moment you knew, you had a place in the world, and it was next to him.
