17 BLACK

Chapter five: Calling and Confessing.

Reminder: The spelling is mostly gramatically incorrect, but it's like that on purpose.

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Chapter five: Calling and Confessing.

Date: December 1, 2013.

Exactly three weeks since Violet last saw the One Direction boys. Three weeks since they tried to snoop into her life by talking to her younger brother. Three weeks since Violet made up with Caleb. Three weeks since she threw One Direction out of her hotel and casino.

Guilt. It's all any of the five band members felt since that day. It was Niall and Louis' idea! The other three, Harry, Liam, and Zayn, had all claimed. I don't care whose idea it was. I told ya lot to stay outta m' business. Violet had snapped back, anger clear in her expression. Caleb had to hold her back from physically kicking them out. We wouldn't have had to snoop if you had just told us. Louis had remarked, a smirk on his face. Ya want to know about m' life? Jus' look m'up online. 

Violet didn't hesitate to tell them to leave after that, guilty expressions on all of their faces. Caleb had walked them out, covering his eyes as flashes went off. Paparazzi were there. They surrounded the band, taking pictures left and right and screaming incoherent questions at them. "Violet's life is advertised a lot. People sneak in and out of her life, getting all of the details of her drama before selling it to the media. You guys of all should know it's not simple to trust strangers with your life."

So now they all sat. One Direction hadn't acted the same since the event three weeks earlier. People noticed the boys were all a bit more bitter than usual, but no one had the nerve to say anything. Violet was the same way, just not for all of the same reasons. Still upset with the boys for intruding in her personal life, she was, but by now, the majority of her irritability was over the business trips she's been having to go on.

"Babe, come back to bed." Perrie whined, her hand reaching out to grip onto Zayn's. He sighed, laying back down next to her. "What's wrong? You've been in a bad mood since you came back from your trip with the guys." Zayn explained the entire situation to his fiancée. How the guilt was eating him alive for making Violet upset and how he regrets ever going through with the others' plan. 

Perrie listened quietly, and when he finished and she didn't say anything, Zayn thought she may agree with what him and the boys did and not with Violet. All thoughts went down the toilet, though, when his fiancée began to slap his arm, cursing him for not apologizing to the girl the day it happened. 

"Call her." Zayn looked at Perrie, bewildered. "What?" "You heard me. Call her. I want you to call her and apologize for invading her privacy like that." Zayn thought for a second, staring at her. "She lives in a different continent, Per. It costs a lot of money to make calls like that." Perrie raised an eyebrow, her eyes narrowing on him at the same time. "If twenty cents is too much to pay to call and apologize, then you, Mr. Multi-Millionaire, are a petty cheapskate."

Zayn had decided then to call Violet and apologize on behalf of himself and the others, because he knew they felt guilty as well. "Hand me the phone, please." Zayn sighed, rolling his eyes as Perrie grinned in satisfaction. Zayn went through his contacts, stopping on Violet's assistant's phone number. 

"Lyanne Muller, assistant to Violet Astor, here. How may I help you?" Her voice sounded strained and tired, but Zayn paid no attention to her. "Hi Lyanne, it's Zayn Malik. Is there any possibility I could speak to Violet?" "She's not here right now, sorry. Ms. Astor's currently on a business trip in Holland, but I can give you the phone number that she's using there if you'd like that."

Zayn didn't hesitate to ask for the number and Lyanne didn't hesitate to give it to him. Deciding to wait until the morning when he'd be with the other lads, he cuddled into his fiancée, whispering a light "I love you" in her ear before falling asleep.

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Date: December 2, 2013.

"Violet Astor spreken." The boys all huddled around the phone, looking at it in confusion when they didn't comprehend what Violet said. "Violet? It's Liam, of One Direction." He was the first to speak up, staring down at the phone as he awaited her response. "Oh, 'ello Liam! Sorry 'bout dat, I've been in The Netherlands (1) the past few days 'nd I had to learn Dutch (2) to fit in."

Violet spoke to Liam for another couple of minutes before he admitted that the others were also in the room and that she'd been on speaker the entire time. She didn't seem to mind, ignoring the fact that the five of them just gave her another reason to be angry. 

"D'ya need somethin', boys? B'cus I have a meetin' in five and I can't get my other heel on without usin' both of my hands." The boys all chuckled at the thought of Violet prancing around trying to put her shoe on. "We just wanted to apologize for butting into your life. We know what it's like to have people poke and prod like that and we were very hypocritical by expecting you to open up to us all like that." "Not a problem, boys, I'm ov'r it. But I have to go now, so we'll  talk another time, yeh?" 

Liam put his phone back in his pocket after that, figuring Violet hung up. He was the first to go into the sound booth, placing the headphones over his ears as the introduction music to one of the songs they'd been working on, Living in the Moment, began to play.

"If this life is one act, why do we lay all these traps?

We put them right in our path when we just wanna be--"

The other four in the band stopped listening to Liam's singing, their attention on the muffled sound in the secluded room. 

"Liam, mate," Harry spoke up, knocking on the mirror that separated them. Liam's head snapped up and his eyes opened, his hands immediately reaching to remove the headphones. "Yeah?" The music has stopped by then and all they could hear was the low sound. "What the hell are y'doing, mate? What's that noise?" Liam looked around for a second, confused, before realization hit him and he pulled his phone out, chuckling as he saw that he was still on the phone with Violet.

"I guess we never hung up." He shrugged, his finger moving to the 'end call' button. "Wait!" Louis' voice called from outside of the room and Liam froze. "She's talking to someone." Walking in and snatching the device from his friend, Louis put it on speaker.

"V, man, you got to stop doing this." It was an unfamiliar voice that spoke, making each of the boys wonder who Violet was with. "Stop doin' what? 'm j-jus' relaxin'." Violet's voice was slurred, giving off that she was drunk. "Who were those guys you were talking to earlier?" "Some old customers. Dey're British, y'know. Dey speak like dis: Ello mate, is yer tea tastin' swell?"

They couldn't help but burst out into laughter at Violet's drunk impression of them. "Dey're sweet guys, yeh, 'specially the curly one, H'rry. We met last year, did y'know that John? I like 'im, he's cute. Dey all are, yeh. He doesn't like me, though, at least, he wouldn't if he knew who I really am."

Harry's eyes widened at Violet's confession, a wide smile appearing on his face. She likes me back, he thought, she actually likes me back. "He'd like you if you stopped with these damn antics, Violet." "I call him the 17 Black kid, did ya know that? When we met, he was at m'uh casino and he couldn't play Roulette for his life." Harry blushed, hiding his face as his friends mocked his lack of gambling skills.

"I helped him out, though, y'know? It was nice b'cus he didn't ask how I was so great. He didn't ask why I knew what the ball would land on. Harry just didn't ask."

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Fifth chapter: Completed.

Word count: 1450.

Video to the side: The song "Living in the Moment" by Jason Mraz.

1. The Netherlands (noun): A constituent country consisting of twelve provinces in North-West Europe and three islands in the Caribbean. 

2. Dutch (noun): A West Germanic language.