Incognito (One Direction)

Chapter 17

The boys were all around the table, signing photos and CDs that were going to be distributed. They had chips on the table in the middle as they passed posters and pictures to each other for them to sign. There were individual tags that only one of them was going to sign, and it was going to be sold.

Eliza was on the laptop again, writing up a report for Simon. She was also looking for details of other things. She was also looking at the envelope that was sent to Niall. It was sort of frustrating how she had a lead, but it was yet another generic one.

She tried scanning for fingerprints, but there was nothing. There wasn’t even handwriting on it. The stamp could show where it was originally from. She had been looking for it. It was one of those that were produced and used only for residents in Los Angeles.

But what was a person from LA hanging around and travelling to torment five guys for? This person obviously had the means, or someone with more money financially backed him up.

There might be more foul play into this.

Eliza went and looked for rival companies of Modest and companies affiliated with One Direction.

There were plenty of rivals. She knew that there were several companies that went into dirty business eventually, just to keep their companies alive. The wealthy would do anything to keep their wealth, once they’ve discovered it.

Eliza could go into it though.

She went researching past scandals with these varying companies. Maybe she would find something there. Maybe there was a case that was very similar to this one. Death threats to celebrities weren’t something that was uncommon.

People didn’t pay her enough money for this. These were hours of exhaustion that could have otherwise been put into some boring office job. Then again, maybe she wouldn’t be paid as well. But then, she never could imagine herself in an office job. Being in a cubicle didn’t really attract her. It was too much of a closed space.

Maybe she could have gotten into something nice. Flying planes seemed like a good idea. She always liked flying, but she just didn’t want the commitment of being tied down to one place. Freelance was more her thing.

She had to work with people, eventually, no matter what line of business that she would get into. This was the best ideal that she could reach in her standards, and it ironically involved being around people that needed to put their wholehearted trust in her.

She should look into this. There had to be something out there that was exciting that only had minimal interaction with people.

She glanced up and saw Zayn slip in a pill and drink it. The boys looked around at each other, but otherwise didn’t say anything.

Eliza looked around. No one else seemed to notice or care.

That was something that concerned Eliza. They didn’t seem to care, unless they did something in front of the cameras that was unwanted.

Before she got interested in a possible new line of work, she had to make sure that she was doing well in her current one. Right now, Zayn was her concern.

*

“What pills do you take, Zayn?” Eliza asked, once they were taking lunch. She had deliberately sat herself next to Zayn so that she could have a talk with him.

“What are you talking about?” he said, not even giving a smile or a look at her.

“Don’t be rude. Look at me when I ask you something important.”

Zayn made a face that made it clear that he found it amusing that she thought that he cared what she thought was rude. “You care now do you? I forgot. You’re one of them.”

“Yeah, and I’m one of the few, if not the only one, that’s on your side,” Eliza said bitingly. It was true. She was the only one who seemed to care about the boys and their health. The others just seemed to overwork them, not caring whether or not they were at their limit. Even the security was pushy and demanding.

His jaw clenched and unclenched. She raised her eyebrows, testing him to say otherwise.

“You should know. They gave it to me,” he said, glancing at Steven, who was on the phone yet again.

“Management gave it to you?” she said, genuinely surprised. She didn’t think that the boys were at that point where they would get pills from the actual management. She could understand Vitamin C and antibiotics, but not pills that were needed for people who were actually diagnosed with something.

“Antidepressants,” he said, eating something. He continued on with what he was doing without giving any sort of facial expression at all. “Sometimes sleeping pills. Sometimes both. Sometimes more.”

“Why?”

He shrugged, looking even more uncaring than a couple of seconds ago. “I don’t know. Maybe they thought it was going to help me. It might have made me more controllable, happier. I don’t know.”

“But there’s nothing wrong with you, Zayn,” Eliza said. As far as she knew, he was perfectly normal, aside from blazing a few times and the boy band lifestyle.

“As far as you see, anyway.” That was the first statement that made him look amused. But it was a sardonic kind.

“I bet I can tell you that there are more things wrong with me than you,” she said. Eliza was being very honest. There were a lot of things that were wrong with her. She had a lot of secrets that no one knew.

One in particular was something that would eventually come back to find her.

She didn’t know if she was going to be ready for that one.

Right now, that wasn’t something that she had to haunt herself with again. She had to focus on Zayn first, and make sure that he was fine, that they all were.

“Really? Name one thing that makes you more messed up. Maybe you’re not taking pills because you’re in denial.”

“There’s something wrong with everyone Zayn,” Eliza said, standing up and taking her plate to get a second round of food. Her capacity for a heart-to-heart had reached its limit. She wasn’t good at confrontations, and she was an avoider. Even in fighting, she was. “Some people are just better at hiding it than others.”

“I’m looking forward to finding out what you’re hiding then, Aims,” Zayn said, smiling lazily up at her. “And I’m pretty good when it comes to getting girls squeal and tell me what I want to hear.”

She stopped and straightened up to turn toward him.

“And I’m good at doing the same thing. Who wins that bet then?”

She grinned and turned around to get another round, and then she would sit beside someone else so she wouldn’t need to talk to.

She needed to get away from remembering her own deceptions.

Management wasn’t the only one who was capable of pretending.