Public Sphere | H.S. | #Wattys2016

Chapter X

Author's note: I am SO sorry that this chapter took a million years to upload. I have school, work and am trying to keep a social life. I'll be more consistent. THANK you to everyone who has commented, voted, read this story. I love you all, x!

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I was finally back in Chicago and back into my work groove. After leaving Holmes Chapel, Gemma and I had managed to consistently text each other; we updated each other on random things and got to know each other a bit more. Anne called once to make sure I was home safe and asked if she could send me anything from England. Although I only spent a few hours with the both of them, they were impacting my life in an incredible way.

It was a slow few days at the office. Harry Styles was doing everything by the book, and the other members of One Direction were laying low. All our other clients were behaving extremely well, too.

It was 9 a.m. when I got into the office for the day. The office was silent except for the TV in the background. Everyone was seated around the table but no one was talking, their eyes were glued to the TV screen.

"Harry Styles was spotted with this mysterious dirty blonde in Anguilla, Chicago and Holmes Chapel. The mystery beauty was pictured just last week dining with none other than Kendall Jenner. Sources revealed that Kenny was just being a good friend and accompanied Harry's new fling to Anguilla to keep the cameras off of her. Stay tuned to find out more about her," the TV presenter beamed as a picture of me zoomed out.

As soon as that trash gossip show went onto its commercial break, the phones in our offices started ringing. All of my team members were answering with "no comments" here and there. It seemed like all of the calls were coming from our clients rather than the media. I was hoping that the media wouldn't get ahold of the office phones.

After 30 minutes of incessant ringing, I pulled out the power cord to all the phone lines.

"We're done for today; everybody go home," I said as I left the office.

The usual ten-minute walk back home felt longer because I felt like everyone was staring at me.

I popped open a new bottle wine, popped some popcorn and sat in front of the TV and mindlessly watched all the gossip shows talk about me for some time. Every single person had an opinion on me, my hair and my outfits.

At 11 a.m., they released my name and my occupation. Some members of the media and One Direction's fanbase decided that they didn't like my name. They also didn't like how I was a lawyer either. They pretty much didn't like anything about me.

Then at noon, they apparently got a source that revealed that me and Harry Styles was a long time coming. There were also pictures of me and Gemma walking around Holmes Chapel. The source also revealed that Anne was "just so delighted that Harry has met someone as wonderful as Jess."

At 1 p.m., #Jarry was trending on Twitter along with #JessSucks.

All anyone wanted to talk about today was me. I found out stuff that I hadn't even known about myself. It was a crazy yet depressing experience. So many different aspects of my life was being exposed to the world without my consent. Was this what it was like to be a celebrity? I was usually on the other side and yet today, I was experiencing what my clients experienced; I didn't like it. I felt like I couldn't get a grip of my life and that my life was out of my control.

Then at 4 p.m., my private life was exposed to the world. It was beyond name, age, occupation and favorite article of clothing; this was incredibly personal. The media got ahold of my apartment building and even the kind of car I drove.

After that, I was debating whether I should get my team involved. I wasn't sure if this was the final straw of privacy invasion. I thought about handling it myself but I was hoping that this would blow over in a matter of days. I would take the advice that I give to my clients; I would lay low, not contact Harry Styles and disappear from every news source.

Before turning my phone off, I decided to take a glance at the copious amount of emails, calls and texts that I had received. Most of the calls were from Simon, but members of my team, Gemma, Anne, a few friends and even Zayn had contacted me.

Then the front desk called me to let me know that they were tightening security due to the large crowd outside the building. They advised me to not leave through the front door as I would be mobbed.

I decided to turn on my laptop and browse some of the gossip sites to see what they were saying about me. Most of the information about me was correct. I was a workaholic, somewhat anti-social and from an extremely well-to-do family; they pretty much nailed it on the head. So many of the sites claimed that they spoke to close friends of mine and I just wondered where those came from since I knew how the media worked.

Being in the business where I dealt with the media; I knew the tactics and the sources. I just wasn't sure who was behind this media maneuver.

Before long, there was a pounding at my door. I decided to ignore it, deeming that whomever was pounding at the door was not important enough for me to get up.

After the pounding had ceased, it started back up again about 15 minutes later. Then it went away again.

Then when it started up once more, I decided to get up and open the door to a red-faced Simon.

He didn't say anything but brushed past me and sat himself on my couch.

"Jessica," he called out at me.

"Simon," I courteously nodded.

I sat myself down across from him and just played with my fingers until he decided to speak up.

"You want to explain this?" he looked at me.

He looked at me with his menacing look that he gave to pretty much everyone, except this one kind of hurt. He looked furious.

"They're rumors, not much to explain," I shrugged it off because it was exactly that. The media was making assumptions based on what looked good in pictures, not based on any factual information. "They're spinning what they have. I was in Anguilla when Harry and Kendall were there. Then I had lunch with Kendall, which affirmed my friendship with her. Then when Harry decided to walk out of my apartment, I got spotted in Chicago with him. Then I was spotted with both Gemma and Harry in Holmes Chapel. It's just a culmination of my job."

"Why did you put yourself in this situation?" Simon asked me knowing that I didn't have a good enough answer for him.

"It's my job," I said lamely.

"I don't want my goddaughter in the media like this," he sighed as he looked at me with unfamiliar kind eyes.

"I don't either," I murmured almost wincing at the fact that he acknowledged me as his goddaughter.

"You're fired," he said as he got up and walked to the main entrance.

"What?" I asked in shock.

"You're done working for me. I thought it would be good for you to work for me but obviously it's not a good idea. You're done," he said as he opened the door.

He didn't wait for a response before he exited my apartment. He left with me in shock.

After standing around thinking about how I was going to break it to my team that our biggest client fired us, well me, because of the news, I poured myself a glass of wine and sat on my couch. I hoped and hoped that the news about me and Harry had ceased and that the world had moved on from the blasphemous news and cared about something a bit more important. But as soon as I turned on the TV, there I was on screen once again. Except this time, they weren't just rattling information about me, they were talking about something I didn't share with anyone: my family.