Rebuilding Zerrie

Impudence to Us

ZAYN'S P.O.V.

"Hello?"

Niall dropped his phone from the shock. We could clearly hear the screaming even if it wasn't on speaker. From where we stood, the words were indecipherable. I had no idea if Niall or the girl or Harry understood what the management was saying but Niall wouldn't get the phone.

He slowly backed away from it and collapsed on the bed. His eyes were wide open as he lay down, pokerfaced. Liam decided to pick up the phone from the floor and attempt to calm them down although we all knew that was probably impossible. As Liam talked, all we could do was assume what the management was saying but not really knowing for sure.

"She's with us now," Liam said into the phone, nodding and looking over at the girl who was assiduously comforting Niall at his displacement. His gaze shifted towards Harry, who had (for once) put down his phone but he was not at all enthused by the dramatic turn of events. "Harry's, uhm, alright, I guess." Lastly, he turned to me. He gave me a dramatic sigh before speaking into his phone. "Better than before."

For the next minute and a half, we all stared at him, hopefully. Liam kept nodding and replying "mhm" on occasion but one question caused him to go react violently. "You can't be serious?" He yelled on the phone. "Right now? But we're in the middle of a crisis here!" A moment passed by and he threw Niall's phone on the bed, but it bounced right off and to the floor.

It was dead silence from then on. We didn't want to say a word, but we didn't need to. We already knew. Management had called us to go to the studio right that instant.

***

The girl took it better than I expected. There were several members of the management that were yelling at us and they seemed to be targeting more on Niall than on me. He was taking it the worst. Nearly in tears but still holding up. The girl had slipped her hand in his which sobered him up a bit but did not please the management.

"And now you're holding hands!" One of them shouted at Niall, his saliva flying in directions I didn't even know was possible for spit to reach. "This is exactly the kind of behavior that the public makes a fuss over! You take her out to lunch, they think you're together. You take her home, they think she's a hooker. It's stuff like these that are so crucial. The public examines every little thing and morphs it into something completely different!"

Liam decided to step up, "Sure but don't you think we have the right to do what we want? Don't you think Kloe has the right to do what she wants? You don't own us, for goodnessakes! If this is about the contract, then fine. Just leave the girl out of this!"

"Don't even let me get started on you!" Another one bawled at Liam. "Fans were actually appreciating you when you chose not to stay with the girl! Then you drove them away the moment you interfered with her encounter with the paps in Vegas Strip! I've never been so disappointed with anyone in my life--"

"OKAY, EVERYBODY SHUT IT!" I could feel my voice thunder throughout the room and vibrate the entire building. I was now standing because I couldn't handle just sitting there, watching my friends break down. "Enough of this! None of them deserve this kind of treatment. It was me who screwed up. They didn't do anything but help."

All five of the members of Modest Management glared at me and stared me down. One of them spoke up but not to me, "What do you suppose we do to them?"

"Oh, I've already booked interviews for an entire week," another one answered. It may seemed like a normal thing but it wasn't. All of us were going mental, howling at each other, being completely barbaric. We weren't scheduled for an interview until after the TMH tour started.

That was the whole point of our short vacation in America: to relax and to not think about working or stressing about interviews and such, but they were taking away our freedom and our right to make our own decisions. But they did not have a second though on that account. "It will be for an afternoon radio show in Asia which means you will have to be up before 4:30 a.m. every morning to match their timezone--"

"4:30?!" We all shrieked in unison. That was way too early and we were already so busy on trying to write a song for Perrie and figuring out how to get it to her if she refused to see me in person. Most of our time was well wasted but I really did hope that something would happen, like a spur of the moment sort of thing when one of us comes up with this beyond brilliant idea that was sure to work.

"We will meet up here and we'll drive to the studio at dawn. We will be scheduling more interviews if offered," they said as if finalizing the topic. "No more excuses. We had no other choice than to punish you for your impudence to us and your fanbase. You are dismissed."

We exited the building with our heads down, except for one of us.

KLOE'S P.O.V.

It was rather tenebrous seeing them all so gloomy. Sure, I was pissed at the management for selfish and inconsiderate and impertinent to them, but I saw no reason why not to rise to the occasion and find a ray of light in it somewhere. When we were all finally settled in the van, I attempted to cheer them up.

"Come on, lads!" I hit Niall on the arm with mine and saw Zayn and Liam turn around to look at me. "Don't you think it's going to be fun? Waking up at 4 in the morning while it's still dark and guesting at a radio show for a week? And so what if you'll have more interviews? I'll be there with you the entire time to help you guys out."

Zayn sighed. "But there's still so much to do," he said to me, "And who knows how long the show will last? And you know how many shows would want interviews knowing that we're open 24/7 now."

"We'll find a way," I promised. I hoped we'll find a way, at least. "Trust me."

Although, I didn't really know how we'd do it. We probably couldn't but I hoped with all my heart that I did. Some of us get so caught up on all, the possibilities and probabilities that we forget that hope is the only thing keeping us alive.