Choose Your Own Direction - Harry Styles

Publicity

The annoying buzz of your phone woke you up. You answered angrily, “ Hello?”

“ (y/n) where are you dah-ling? You have a flight in half an hour!” Your stylist Maryanne panicked.

“ Oh fu- I'll be out in ten minutes.” You fall out of bed and start rifling through your drawers.

“ There's no time! We're already outside.”

You stumble over to the window down the hall. Sure enough, a car was waiting in your driveway.

“ Can I just-”

“ We can't miss this. A big storm is coming in.”

You hurry out the door and hope it is a slow day today.

***

You self-consciously wrapped your pea coat tighter around yourself and dragged your luggage along. You were wearing your favorite pair of pajama pants, but they admittedly weren't as classy as your usual wear. They were worn in, and the bottoms were slightly ripped. At least your top was covered by your coat.

Another day, another bunch of vultures. You sigh to yourself and continue through the crowd. You kept your anxiety at bay. That is, until you realize that Arnie and Maryanne aren't by your side. That terrible feeling began to form in the pit of your stomach. You wrapped yourself tighter in your coat. That sickness...the overwhelming urge to just lash out, filled your mine. Conversations became nothing but garbled consonances and vowels.

Just breathe.

Easy, except for the fact that your heart was going to beat out of your chest.

“ We outta hurry to avoid the crowd mis (y/l/n).” You shiver as you feel a hand gently spread across your shoulder blades.

Arnie thankfully was on high alert and sent along a bodyguard to accompany you while you waited. A personal favorite of yours actually. He was a few years older, and boy was he cute. Tall, strong, cute Boston accent. Best of all he knew how to care for your shyness/partial anxiety.

“ Thanks Mark.” You nod giving him a sleepy smile as your heart slows to a normal pace.

“ He-uh.” He hands you a styrofoam cup. “ You look like you haven't been sleepin'

much.”

You take a scalding gulp. “ I have to remember my lines. Filming starts in 2 weeks.” You try to hand the cup back to Mark, but he just waves it off.

“ Nah, you need it more than me. 'Sides it's your favorite.”

“Thanks.” You gratefully suck down the rest of the life sustaining coffee. Suddenly the ground beneath you began to rumble. “ What the-?”

Mark quickly pulled you between him and the wall. “ Quiet miss (y/l/n).”

You place your hands on his shoulders and gingerly peek over. The decibel of girls screaming almost made you deaf. “ Lemme guess.”

“ One Direction.”

“ Well maybe we could sneak away then?” You wrap your peacoat tighter around you. Mark nods and puts a muscled arm around your torso and guides you through the least dangerous path. Luckily, whether it be because you aren't quite A-list yet or because the boys were here, you were happy to not be the center of attention.

You and your body guard-carefully-shuffled through the shops to waste some time since the plane was unfortunately delayed.

“Hey miss (y/l/n), I really think this is mah colah.”

You look up to see Mark posing pin up girl style with a bow in his hair.

“ You know it, girl.” You giggle readjusting it on his head.

“ I think its safe here.” A familiar British Accent wafts into the room. You glance over at a curly haired boy and his striped friend.

“ Where are the others?” Louis asked, watching the windows like a hawk.

“ I don't- oh hey (y/n)!” Harry greets you mid hair tug.

You drop your hand, staring at the ground momentarily. “ Hey, Harry. Tough crowd?”

Harry was about to answer as Louis grabbed the younger boys arm. “ L-let's go.”

You smile understandingly and they leave. Mark comes back to stand next to you. Just got off the phone with your man-ah-geh. It's time ta go.”

He holds out his arm for you take. You're blissfully happy for his familiarity in the crowd.

**

“ Miss (y/l/n), its time to get up.” Mark yawns. A nice 5 hour plane ride to New York was just what you needed to catch up on lost hours. However you weren't too keen on the whole needing to be ready for interviews in an hour.

Luckily you were in and out within 2 hours and were back in the new air port. You boarded sleepily and slumped into your seat. You began to panic as Mark walked past the first class seats.

“ Where are you going?” You ask quickly.

“ First class is filled. I'm going to sit in second class.” Mark gestures to the back. Fear must have been evident on your face as he carefully patted your shoulder. “ It's okay miss (y/l/n). I can still protect you from all the bad guys.” His smile was somewhat comforting.

You nod, taking a deep breath. He leaves as you watch the window. You suddenly felt the seat next to you fill up. You take in the person beside you.

“ Whoa...” Even as an actress you were still starstruck often. “ Taylor Swift?”

She gave you a sweet smile. “ Hi. You're (y/n) (y/l/n) right?”

“Y-yeah. Wow, I really like you're music.” You manage to get out. Whether it was true or not, you figured out early that being kind is helpful in the end.

“ Thanks. I liked your movie!”

That was the start of a long series of conversations.

**

You arrive early to the Alan Carr show. You also finished your hair and make-up early too. It was some sort of special today, so he booked several talented artists-such as yourself. You uncomfortably wondered around backstage. Then you saw him. He appeared to be entertained by some crazy story that Niall was telling. You have a good 20 minutes before you need to go on stage. What do you do?

Say hi > Hello is it me you're looking for?

Try to distract yourself > I'm fine