Have I forgotten how to love; remind me once again

Chapter Sixteen

A/N Work has been crazy, but there's only a month left so I can finally see the end! Hope you enjoy this chapter. 

To make bad things worse, Louis barely gets fifteen minutes to gather himself before his phone is lighting up with an incoming call. He strongly considers ignoring it, but as he sees the caller id, he feels a whole lot more like yelling at their manager.

"Si-", is all Louis gets out as he accepts the call then Simon's unhappy voice cuts him off. "Tell me why I had to go through Harry's mom to get to him and hear him out about tour".

So, it was Simon who broke the news to Harry then, Louis thinks, but he seeks confirmation none the less. "You told him?"

"Yes, because I was under the impression that he knew and complied to the tour, because that's what you told me". There's no longer any trace of polite conversation, only anger and Louis' plan of yelling at Simon completely deflates as he is being scolded, the anger draining the remainder of his very insignificant energy reserves.

"I expect you at my office in two hours sharp! All of you".

Louis doesn't argue, just sighs into the phone with utter hopelessness and maybe a little hope to ruin Simon's day as well. "Harry can't come. He left".

He expects another angry outburst. Or a demanding voice telling him to fix it. Instead, the voice is calm and completely emotionless, for the first time in the entirety of the call. "All of the members of One Direction, that is. Harry is no longer a part of the band. Goodbye".

The ending beep of Simon hanging up the phone collides with Louis' vision blurring with tears, his final hope of getting Harry back breaking apart at a rapid pace.

When Liam trots down the stairs five minutes later, Louis is still standing motionlessly in the hall where Harry left him, not having moved since their boss hung up on him. He stopped crying though, now simply standing, unable to process the way-too-many-emotions flooding his body with increasingly drowning waves.

"Morning, Lou. You alright?" Liam hums, continuing before Louis gets the chance to answer. "Simon texted me to let us know he have a meeting in two hours, figured I'd wake the others up and then get down here to wake you and Harry."

When Louis still doesn't respond, Liam looks around as if he only now realizes that his other friend is nowhere in sight. "Speaking of, where is Harry?"

Contemplating whether saying it out loud will make it more real than it already is, Louis drags out the silence before realizing that it is already real. "He left me", Louis all but whispers, Liam barely hearing his words, then realization makes his eyes go wide. He doesn't manage to get an answer out before a chipper Niall jolts down the stairs, barely getting out the beginning of a 'good morning' before Louis is yelling out. "He left! He fucking left. For god's sake would you stop fucking pointing it out?"

Chock paints both of his friends faces and from upstairs they can all hear the sound of a door opening and Zayn coming towards the stairs while surprise has rendered all of them speechless. Even Louis himself seems to have no idea as to where his sudden outburst came from.

Neither is any one of them prepared for Louis collapsing in a pile of sobs and tears, Liam and Niall instantly sinking to their knees to hold him, Zayn joining mere seconds later while all of them send each other worried glances, not aware of what is happening besides from the fact that Harry has left.

"He just... And I... he can't leave me", Louis tries, but the words don't really come out right and Niall shushes him while holding him even tighter. That only results in Louis' increasingly rapid breaths feeling all that more obvious in the middle of their hug, and worried glances turns more frantic, all of them well aware that Louis is about to have another panic attack.