That's Just Publicity

Milk it

A/N: Sorry that fanart is a little crazy but it's also so good so I had to put. I've been getting ready for summer since I'm going to Africa and I need to do a lot of shopping and work for that, but I'm also trying to finish up finals so I'm sorry my uploads have been so slow. Happy reading :) 

Harry's POV: 

"Boys, is everyone there?" Paul asked, his voice coming out of Louis' phone all choppy and fuzzy. "Yeah, where are you?" Louis asked, sitting up to speak directly into his phone. Liam, Niall, and Zayn watched cautiously from the end of the bed. "I'm in the car on my way to the hotel," he explained. "Listen, management wants a meeting with you all as soon as I get back to the hotel. They apologize for the late hour and want to stress that nobody is in trouble." Louis and I gave each other suspicious looks as he spoke. "Okay, so then what?" Liam asked, raising his voice so Paul could hear him. Paul sighed in response. "Look, just hang tight. All I can say is I'm sorry, and this is going to be a weird change, but it probably won't last long," he explained. I heard the car door shut on the other end of the line. 

"The fuck?" Louis asked, the first one to speak after Paul hung up the phone. Liam laid onto his back, running his hands through his hair. He groaned, "Always something with them, yeah?" I sighed and leaned up against the headboard, pulling my legs close to me. Louis reached out a hand, placing it on my knee. Then he shrugged, "I'm sure it's nothing, management hasn't done anything crazy yet, and it's not like we have to listen if it's some huge thing," he said, trying to sound casual as he reassured us. Then he looked back at me again, a cheeky smirk on his face. Niall snorted, "I bet they just want us to start dressing a certain way, and Paul's just acting like a pisshead." We all laughed at that, settling into silence as we waited. 

The knock came sooner than I expected. Liam got up right away to open it, revealing Paul and a couple of security guards in the hallway. Liam stepped aside to let Paul in, the guards unmoving. Paul set his briefcase down on the table in the corner, then pulled his laptop out. "Come on boys, over here," he said hastily. We all got up, fixing our hair in the mirror before huddling up around the laptop. Paul stepped off to the side after joining the call. Richard and Harry, the two big bosses of Modest management, picked up immediately. They were dressed nicely and looked way more refreshed than we did. "Nice show tonight boys," one of them said while looking down at the papers on his desk. It must be about 7 or 8 in the morning for them, even though it was like midnight here. I silently cursed them for being well-rested and lucid for this meeting when we were all sleep-deprived and disheveled. 

"We wanted to mainly address Louis and Harry, but didn't want to make any decisions without involving the rest of the band," Richard started, his voice practiced and robotic. When he looked up, I knew immediately where this was going. "I'm sure you're well aware of the rumors about you two," he said, looking Louis and I dead in the eye. I mentally cursed myself for sitting right next to him.

"Yeah," Louis responded, firm and confident. Richard and Harry looked at each other, smiling. "Great! Well, we were really concerned about the rumors at first," Harry explained. "We didn't know how progressive the fan base was and if the rumor would bring sales down, so we wanted to avoid it," Richard continued, finishing his sentence. "That's why we had you guys separated for the last show, but streams have been down way lower than expected, and the reviews across the board are more negative than we usually get." I glanced at Louis, who looked like he was being told the Earth was flat and mermaids do exist after all. My mind flashed back to his issue with the gay rumors and my stomach sank. This can't be easy for him to hear right now. 

"So, we've been running a lot of algorithms and pressing the numbers and we've found a huge correlation between Larry and our increased profits." That totally shocked me. I was fully expecting them to go on about how Larry might hurt our sales and might decrease our popularity, or even forbid us from ever interacting in public again. But this? I tried my hardest to conceal my surprise, especially as they kept talking. "We think, if we milk these rumors a little we can really get up there in terms of sales and ranking. If we can get One Direction higher up across the charts, we really have a chance at making history," Harry said. I faltered.