Styled | h.s |

TWENTY FIVE

San Diego, June 25th 2023

I flopped onto my bed as soon as I arrived at my hotel room, feeling the exhaustion from the long flight set in. After sending a quick message to my friends back home to let them know I had landed safely, I sighed deeply, enjoying the moment of peace. My phone buzzed with replies, and I smiled at their excited and supportive messages. Just as I felt my eyelids get heavy a knock on my door startled me.

With a reluctant sigh, I got up and made my way to the door. Opening it, to find Liam standing there, looking a bit apologetic.
"Hey, everything okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, just that Russell needs us all to come down to the lobby in 10 because apparently, we now have an interview," he explained, looking slightly annoyed.

"An interview? I thought we got the rest of the day off," I said, frowning.
"Yeah, so did we. I've got the job of waking up Zayn," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, right, good luck with that. Well, I'll just get changed and head down in a bit," I said, hoping to make his life easier.
"Thanks, Aubrie," Liam said before heading off to Zayn's room.

I quickly freshened up, doing a little makeup and changing into a black cropped waistcoat and high-waisted black jeans. I slipped on my Campus's and I grabbed my phone. Taking a deep breath and headed downstairs.

When I reached the lobby, I saw Russell standing there with Amanda, both of them checking their watches anxiously. Amanda spotted me first.
"Aubrie!" she called out, waving me over. I made my way over,
"Hey," I greeted them.
Russell looked up, giving me a nod of acknowledgement.
"Thanks for actually being on time, Aubrie."
"No problem," I replied, trying to suppress a yawn but smiling politely.

I looked around and saw that only Louis had made it down so far, so I made my way over to him. "Hey, where are the others?" I asked him, who was leaning against the wall, looking half-asleep.
He shrugged. "Probably still sleeping, where we should be."

One by one, the rest of the band made their way down. Niall sauntered in first, looking surprisingly awake. He grinned when he saw me. "Have you seen these rooms? Fucking amazing,"

"Haven't really had much time to check it out yet," I half-joked,
Harry appeared next, wearing sunglasses and not speaking to anyone, clearly still waking up.

Finally, Liam came down practically dragging Zayn, who looked like he could fall back asleep at any moment. Zayn gave a half-hearted wave, before leaning against the wall and shutting his eyes.

Once we were all gathered, Russell clapped his hands together, drawing our attention. "Alright, everyone. We have a quick interview scheduled with a local news station. Shouldn't take too long, then you can all relax for the rest of the day."

"Bullshit," I heard Harry mumble beside me, Russell shot him a glance but didn't say anything.

We all followed Russell and Amanda out of the hotel and piled into the van, with the band groggily settling into their seats. The drive to the interview location was filled with a mix of sleepy silence and quiet conversations between Russell and Amanda.

The interview was just for the band. Thank God. So I was only there to make sure they were dressed appropriately and fit the image. Issey wasn't with us, which made things slightly harder to manage, she always managed to get the band to behave.

When we arrived at the interview location, they seemed to perk up a bit, Russell, went over a few last-minute details. "Remember, just keep it light and fun. We don't want any controversial topics. Stick to the new album, the tour, and your excitement about being in San Diego."