Incognito (One Direction)

Chapter 13

Busy with finals and other stuff! Sorry late update!! Don't forget to comment, vote and follow!! Love you guys xx

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Niall probably was finding it odd that Eliza had decided to stick all her time near him. There was hardly a room that she wasn’t in for the next few weeks.

She had kept one bodyguard on one boy at all times. That bodyguard was on the opposite room in wherever a boy was staying. The bodyguard was in the same car as the boy that he was guarding (and resulted in them staying in vans more, while Eliza compensated by having three in one car, since five burly men couldn’t all fit in one vehicle and have five other men with them). She was always in the car behind them, so that she could watch anyone at the rear. There was also a car in front of them. She didn’t want a box formation, since she didn’t want the car where all the boys were, so that it could speed up and overtake the car in front, if the occasion arose.

Right now, her main focus was on Niall.

Eleanor had gone back to the UK, which meant that she didn’t have to worry about her safety anymore. By default, she had to keep Eleanor safe, only because of her affiliation with Louis.

Besides that, Eleanor was a nice girl, and Eliza didn’t think that anything bad should happen to her. Once Eleanor got on the plane though, she deactivated the tracker that was on the necklace. She wasn’t her problem anymore.

Niall was such a loud idiot though, and she constantly wished that she could have earplugs so that she could block out the noise. Eleanor was better company. He was a terrible gossip as well. Everyone liked him because he was a motor mouth, but to someone naturally quiet and observant like Eliza, it was too annoying.

She was currently in a waiting room with Niall, since he was going to have another interview. He looked pretty tired, and it was one of the few times that he was quiet.

Eliza was given a list of things that the interviewers couldn’t ask the boys.

“Are you okay, Niall?” she said.

“What’s it like, Amy?” Niall said, looking exhausted as he glanced at the door. He didn’t seem too fond of another interviewer going through that door.

“What’s what like what?” she said, her voice softening. She knew that look. It was that sort of look that just meant pure exhaustion that meant that it only took a little bit before they might snap. Management did overwork the boys. They controlled every aspect of their lives. They didn’t even get to go home and see their friends and families.

Even on days off, there was a publicity stunt.

“Knowing that you pull the strings on other people’s lives?” he said quietly, not looking her in the eye.

She was wrong. He had snapped, if he was talking to a woman that he thought was part of management and asking about it.

She texted Mike. ‘Call off the interviewer for Niall first. Give me five minutes. He might make a mess if he gets interviewed now.’

That would make him listen. They could control what they said and maybe tell the people to edit out a few things if they didn’t like the answers, but if the boys were too messy for an interview, then it would end up useless.

“You’ve got five minutes to rest,” she said. She looked down at Niall and couldn’t help but think that he looked like a child. He was still young.

She was still young, but she had seen so much. Niall though, he was young and was lucky and unlucky at the same time.

“Do you help them? Are they your ideas, Amy?”

“No. I just follow through on orders. They don’t come from me,” she said, moving forward. She didn’t want to touch him, but she knew that sometimes, touch could give some sort of comfort to someone. She put her hand over his. He was tense, but he relaxed a little and he looked up and smiled. “If it were up to me, I’d let you do the music and just that and let you guys do what you want. It’s not up to me though. I can only help you a little bit.”

“You’ve been the nicest so far from management, did you know that,” Niall said. “I mean, you were a bitch at first, but you ended up helping us in little ways. We noticed.”

She sat up a little straighter. “What are you talking about?”

Niall shrugged. “I mean, like this. Normally, they would just tell me to get it on and get back to work. Ever since you came, security’s been backing off the fans a bit too.”

“That might have just been coincidental,” she said. She was never described as nice, at least, not to her face.

“You helped Louis with his wound. He told us. You don’t scream at us or tell us off either, and to think that you’d have more reason to, since you’re the image expert and stuff.”

“Oh, right,” she said. It was just a perception of what he thought she was. She got nervous and excited about him noticing about anything else. Then, she might find it easier if she wasn’t undercover.

“I don’t know Amy. There’s something I can’t quite place about you. You’re hiding something, but it’s something good.”

“You expect things from people that will end up disappointing you, Niall. Don’t expect too much from people,” she said. Uncharacteristically, she reached over and ruffled his hair. He looked so sad, and it was unlike him. Niall was always happy.

“Oh, I know that,” he said. “I just like knowing the sort of people that I want to keep around me, even after all this is over.”

Her phone vibrated. ‘Time’s up. Sending them over to you.’

Her heart almost skipped a beat when she saw the first two words. She thought that at by some miraculous reason, the people who were giving the death threats found her and sent it to her. It was just Mike.

“Okay. Now Niall, I know you’re tired, but I need you to have a bit more interviews. It’ll be good for your career anyway. Exposure is good and we want to keep you marketable. Can you do that?”

He nodded and said, “Okay. Let the next ones in.”