Outlawed Runaways ((Sequel to Helpless))

ch. 5 - Runaway Baby

Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars
(** the Harry at the beginning of the story is a member of Modest! Management)

           “What do you mean they’re gone?”  Will spat from where him and two others were sitting at the round table with Liam, Zayn and Niall on the opposite end.

“Well.  We mean exactly what it sounds like.  They’re gone.  They’ve left.”  Zayn replied, rolling his eyes and reaching into his pocket to pull out the sticky note.  Sliding it across the table, he allowed the three members of their Management team to take a good look before they were standing up in outrage.

“You’re not just pulling another one of your pathetic little pranks, are you?”  Harry retorted, standing up and running a hand over his head and a look of worry etched across his facial features.  Niall scoffed, rolling his eyes as he leaned back in his chair to knock his feet up onto the wooden table, despite Katie’s look of discontentment with his position change.

“Oh, yeah.  We made Harry and Louis disappear.  Are we going to pull a fuckin’ bunny out of our hats next?”  The Irish bloke retorted sarcastically.  Liam cast his best friend a warning glance before he was straightening himself upright as well.

“What he means to say is no, this isn’t another one of our pranks.  Even we know that this is going too far.  They’ve just – they’re gone.  Like the note says.  They’ve left.  We have no idea where they are.”  He said slowly, watching the way that they all glanced at one another.  Will sighed, squaring his shoulders and pushing himself upright to his feet again.

“Right then.  We’re going to call the police and file a missing persons report on the both of them.  Until then, we need to make something up before the media figures out themselves that Larry Stylinson has gone missing.  It won’t be difficult for the fans to piece everything together.”  He stated, glancing briefly as Katie who cleared her throat and sat upright then.

“We’ll create a story that you’ve broken up.  Louis and Harry have gone their separate ways – different islands or something down south – and you three will stick together.  You’ll have a different band name and different music.  The tour will be the same, though.  The fans will be too pissed off if we rescheduled that.”  She stated clearly, earning a few nods of approval from the rest of the management team.  She had always been the one with the best ideas – like the bearding with Larry and when Louis being raped had gotten out.  Katie had been the one to sort that out too.

“Right.  We need a new band name then.”  Harry started, rubbing over his chin with his fingertips thoughtfully and frowning a bit.

“Wait – what?  You can’t be serious.  We’re not making a new fucking band.”  Zayn snapped suddenly, his eyes revealing his disbelief as he shoved himself up to his feet.  His hands clenched at his sides, his jaw tightening and eyes narrowing slightly.

“Zayn, we-“

“No.  Shut up.  We’re not making a new band.  We’re nothing without Louis and Harry.  We’re not One Direction, and we’re not any other band.  We’re just three guys who can sing.”  He seethed.

“Zayn, listen to me.  No offence, but Louis can’t sing and you all know that.  Even One Direction fans agree.  His voice is too high, and he was just bringing the band down.  Yes, Harry was the eye candy of the band, but we’ll be able to work with you three.  Niall gets just as much female attention as Harry did, so we’ll start putting him more into the center of this new band.  All of your voices are okay.  If anything, the lack of Louis and Harry will bring you all up higher in the stands.  It’ll be brilliant!”  Harry exclaimed, almost proudly, and stretched his fingers out as he spoke.