Public Sphere | H.S. | #Wattys2016

Chapter IV

Simon clicked his pen annoyingly as we waited for One Direction to arrive into his office. I had flown into London that morning and went directly to Simon's office to talk to him. After hours of deliberation, we came up with a plan that we both agreed on.

"Why is she here?" Harry begrudgingly looked over my way as the four of them took a seat. He was clearly still upset about the Anguilla incident.

"The bloody Sun did an update on their One Direction exposé. I don't know which of you drunkenly told someone that you guys are done for good, but it's out there now," Simon looked at them sternly.

"No one really believes in what The Sun writes," Louis nervously retorted.

Guess we found our drunken idiot.

Simon continued on, "Doesn't matter, Jess is here to fix it."

"Why are we here?" Liam asked monotonously.

Simon looked over at me, this was when I would take the reigns, "Because you guys can't deal with the public right now. If you guys go out there right now, you guys will be bombarded with questions and the public demands an answer. It doesn't matter who published the news; it still reached thousands of fans."

"We can go on Twitter and give the fans a friendly nudge that we're getting back together," Niall suggested quietly.

"Are you guys planning to get back together?" I asked them all seriously.

They all sat there quietly. No one was willing to talk. I had encroached dangerous territory.

"It's still undecided," Simon spoke up.

But there was a slight quaver in his voice that even the Simon Cowell couldn't hide. One Direction would not be coming back together.

After Simon had spoken, none of the other members decided to throw in their two cents. They all remained frighteningly silent. No one talked, no one moved and no one dared to look at each other. Then I wondered where it all went wrong. The last time I was in this exact room with One Direction, it was when there were five of them. They all looked much more lively and much more happier in their predicaments. Somewhere along the road, they had lost their spark.

The uncomfortable silence was broken by Liam, "What do we do?"

"Alright, this is how it's going to work. Do not contact anyone, not even family or girlfriends, or boyfriends, from this point on. We are going into hibernation mode. You do not do anything without consulting me first," I said as I looked at the four staring at me confusedly.

Then we said our goodbyes to Simon and I led the four down to the garage and into a van.

"We will be staying together for anywhere from 72 to 96 hours, until this whole fiasco blows itself over," I said calmly as I checked my phone for the ok to start heading out.

"72 to 96 hours? Where are we going to be staying?" Niall asked as he pulled out his phone.

"We will be staying at my apartment," I started off saying and saw Harry's head snapping towards me demanding an explanation. "Hotels were out of the question and I cannot have you guys staying at your own places. Plus the media won't know where to look if you're in my apartment in Chicago."

"Why not? It's not like we don't know how to ignore the media," Louis complained out loud.

"I know you guys can handle the media, but this just happens to be a delicate situation. So instead of you guys dealing with it, Simon and I decided that it would be best for you all to lay low for a few days," I explained to everyone.