Copyright ✘ One Direction [EDITING]

T W E N T Y - E I G H T

I arrived at the PR meeting already bitter. My mood was sour, I had given my Uber driver attitude for being two minutes late, and I'd closed the door of the elevator even though someone was running to catch up with it. I wasn't happy. The events of the last few days had made me rotten.

"Always a pleasure to see you, Carter," one of the PR people said to me as I walked into the room.

I nodded at them and took a seat at the opposite side of the table. The only member of the other party was Liam, which was not a shock to me as he was the main person being called out in all of this. He gave me a small smile but I refused to return it.

"You okay?" he mouthed.

I turned to face the others in the room.

"Alright, let's just get right to it." A woman with a tight bun in her hair and her hands folded atop the table began. "As you all know, there has been a big predicament which has endangered our clients. A story has leaked, stating that they have stolen a song from this woman-", she nodded at me, "-and claimed it to be theirs."

"Obviously, this a problem," said another man. "It's bad publicity. It paints our boys in a bad light, which is not something we need." He stood up and pointed to a chart projected on a screen. "Ticket sales and follower counts have plundered. We have gotten several requests for interviews."

Liam frowned. "So what do we do to fix it?" I watched the way a strand of hair fell in his eyes and had to resist from brushing it aside for him.

"It's better to do this live, to avoid any speculation," the first woman said. "We will hold a press conference; all six of you will attend. We will tell the public that everything is just a misunderstanding and that the media tends to lie." The slide on the screen changed. "The story will be that Liam and Carter dated and she gave her input on a few of the songs, but that's all. The two of you met at a bar."

"If all goes well, several news outlets will report the new story and we will remove all traces of the other." The man sat down. "And that is how we will resolve this issue."

"Hold on," I said, holding up my hand. "Are you saying that you want me to lie?"

The woman pursed her lips. "It's not a lie, per se, it is just to sweep what happened under the rug. At least you will know what really happened."

"What really happened? I hate to break it to you people, but everything that's in those articles is pretty much true. No, I'm not a golddigger, but they definitely did steal my music and screw me over."

"Carter," Liam sighed. "It's okay."

I whipped around to face him. "No, it's not okay!" I turned again. "You want me to lie to the world and tell them this is all false just to put you guys back in that angelic spotlight? You want me to continue this golddigger persona everyone's given me? You guys just don't care how this works out for me, right? It's all about your stupid little band."

"Ms. Riley, all you need to do is sign here." The man now looked frustrated as he slid a stack of papers towards me. "We can work out the kinks and details later, but we need to do this as soon as possible."

"No." I shook my head. "I'm not going to screw up my integrity just so you guys can continue lying to everyone. I've had enough of lying."

"Carter, you work for us now." The woman said harshly. "Sign this contract and let's be done with it."

"Oh, I do?" I stood up. "Then I quit."

I pushed the chair away from me, grabbed my bag and stormed out of the room. I needed to get out of there. Everything was literally crashing and burning in front of me. I banged on the button for the elevator and tapped my foot impatiently as I waited for it to arrive.