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Chapter 5 : Friends...or something

"YOU HAVE 15 minutes. No personal questions, only movie-related," dressed in a flawless short sleeve black dress, the publicist bluntly informed the interviewer who had just sat down in front of Steve, Jake, and me as the techs were adjusting his mic and testing the lighting. He looked relaxed, despite the fact that he seemed to be quite young and I had never seen him before.

"Nice to meet you," the man bent over with a smile and shook our hands, "I really enjoyed the movie."

It was the 10th and last interview of the day, and we were feeling exhausted. After a few hours, all of the questions seemed to be the same, but we were making an effort to sound interesting and funny. It was a part of the business that I've never been particularly keen on, but I understand it is important to promote my work.

"Thanks, man!" Jake lifted his eyes from his cell phone and smiled.

I was drinking the third coffee of the day and checking memes with Steve on his phone, but we also succeeded in being polite greeting him with broad grins. I was sitting between my two co-stars all dressed up in a blue dress from some designer Jill swore by but I couldn't recall, hair and makeup in place as well. 

"We go in 5!" the publicist announced.

We straightened up in our seats; the boys put their phones away and we all pulled the best smiles we could.

"First of all, congratulations on the movie, I've laughed a lot and really enjoyed it. You definitely make a great team, the energy between the three of you flows very naturally," the journalist stated.

"Thank you so much man; we really enjoyed the whole process of filming it," Steve replied.

"Olivia, this was your first comedy, was it hard for you to work on this character?"

"Well, it was a huge challenge, definitely. I think it's much easier to make people cry than to make them laugh, so I was a bit concerned that I didn't have it in me. But working with these two comedy monsters was what convinced me to take the risk," I was certain that was the millionth time I gave the same answer, in the same tone, with the same smile.

Overall, the dialogue went on the same topics we've already covered and was pretty smooth. We even managed to make some jokes and share a few laughs. After 20 minutes we were beginning to close the interview when the reporter turned his eyes back to me.

"Before leaving, Olivia, I wanted to know your opinion on these rumors about Harry-"

"No personal questions!" The publicist burst into the set shaking her arms in front of her body vigorously.

"What?!" I didn't understand what was going on and started looking around the room for an answer. Everyone seemed as disoriented as I was.

"Today a few websites were claiming you and Harry Styles from One Direction were having an affair," he explained.

"That's it! Cameras off," the publicist yelled flushed in anger.

I ripped off my microphone storming out of the set and into the changing room to find my phone. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. My phone had been in my purse for those last 5 hours, and I was urged to contact Nick. I found 16 missed calls, 14 from Nick and 2 from Matt. It had been almost five days since Matt and I had spoken for the last time, so I assumed he'd heard the news.

"Finally! I've been calling non-stop all day," Nick picked up the phone on the first ring.

"A journalist just told me about- Nick what is this?!," I could hardly breathe, a million scenarios spinning wildly in my head.