Behind the Mic (Liam Payne fanfic)

Chapter Fourteen

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The car ride was silent and awkward. I sat in the middle seat to be closer to Liam, and he held his arm around me the whole time. When the driver pulled up to the back of the Hollywood Bowl, I grabbed my bag. Before I could climb out of the car, Liam grabbed my hand. I turned to him and he held my head in his hands and pressed his lips against mine. We pulled apart after a minute and he pressed his forehead against mine.

"I know I'll see you in a few hours for sound check," he whispered. "But I don't want you to leave."

"I don't either," I said. "But I have to." He sighed, his eyebrows furrowed.

"I'll see you later, then?" I nodded. I kissed him again and climbed out. I closed the door behind me and walked towards the back doors. I turned back and saw the black car drive away. I sighed. I knew we had the rest of today and all of tomorrow to hang out, and I had accepted and acknowledged that, but it was still a pang in my heart when I realized how little time we had left together. Walking into the building, I decided to focus on the now instead of looking into the bleakish future. I knew Liam wanted me to focus on the time we have together. I shook my head at myself to try and get rid of the negative thoughts and pay attention to what I had to do today. The sound check was in a few hours, and I knew Mr. Roberts would probably have something before the band got here.

"Rose, hey!" Brandon came running up to me from around the corner. I stopped and waited for him to catch up.

"Hey, how are you?" I greeted him.

"I'm fine, how are you?" he asked, looking intensely in my eyes. I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. "Did you drink a lot? At the party?"

"What? How do you know about that?" I questioned him. He pulled out his phone and opened the Buzzfeed app. "Didn't think you'd use Buzzfeed." I commented as he was pulling up news articles.

"It's for the quizzes, I do them when I'm bored." We laughed. "Here." He handed me his phone. The article title said "Liam Payne at Taylor Swift's Party With a Mystery Girl" and a picture of the two of us holding hands, walking into Taylor's house. I scrolled through the article, skimming it. It was some nonsense about him hopping from girl to girl and some jab about Taylor Swift. It was all gossip garbage. I handed Brandon back his phone.

"I did drink, but I'm not super hungover. I had a really fun time. This article is nonsense." He chuckled and put his phone back in his pocket. We started walking up towards the booth.

"I'm glad you had fun, Rose," he said, smiling to me. "But I want you to be careful."

"Careful of what?" I looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "Are you going to give me the talk? You gonna tell me to use protection? Tell me that there's only one thing that guys want?"

"No," he said defensively. "I care about you, and I don't want you hurt. He's in the public eye, and you know what kind of crap the girlfriends get. And you only have a few days together--"

"Brandon, stop." I held up a hand. We stopped in the middle of the hallway. "Thank you for your concern, but I'm aware at what little time Liam and I have together. You don't have to remind me. And we're not even dating, so I won't be in the tabloids anyway."

"You already were," he interrupted.

"I was a mystery girl! It was one article! He's leaving tomorrow, and I probably won't ever see him again. I understand this, Brandon." I turned away from him and walked up the stairs to the booth.

"Rose, hold on," he grabbed my arm and whipped me around. We stared at each other for a while. He opened his mouth to start to say something but I shook my head.

"I understand what I'm getting into," I told him. "You don't have to tell me anything. I already know." I pulled out of his grasp and sat down at my usual spot in the booth, turning all the equipment on. I placed my bag on the floor and ignored Brandon when he sat down. He was a good friend, but he was way out of line. This wasn't his relationship, so it wasn't his problem. I took a breath and stared out at the stage below us. I rolled my eyes at myself. I was being touchy because I knew Liam was leaving and I was taking it out on the wrong people. But I still didn't need Brandon telling me what he thought was best for us. We got to work, the silence thick in the air. I felt his eyes on me but held back from looking at him. I felt bad about snapping at him, but I didn't feel bad enough to apologize. My phone rang loudly, disrupting the silence. I picked it up without looking at the caller ID.

"Rose?" A knot formed in my stomach. It was my sister.

"What could you possibly say to me?" I asked, not an ounce of mercy in my voice.

"Damn, who is that?" Brandon asked me. I waved his question away, mouthing 'it's a long story' to him.

"I just want to talk to you!" She said "You've ignored me for days, I've been trying to talk to you--"

"Why do you think I've been ignoring you?" I cut her off. "What could you have possibly done to make me ignore your calls and texts?"

"If you could just let me explain--"

"Explain why you betrayed me like that? Why you would have sex with him?"

"I love him," she replied. My breath caught in my throat.

"I'm sorry, it almost sounded like you said 'I love him'," I scoffed. "You love him?"

"And I loved him before you ever did," she replied.

"I don't care if you loved him before I was born," I yelled. "I was dating him! God, Violet, we were dating. You don't do that to anyone, much less your sister!"

"Your sister?" Brandon asked. "Sorry, I'm eavesdropping."

"Don't worry about it," I said to him.

"Who's that with you?" My sister asked in a curious voice. "Is there a guy with you?"

"What's it to you? Are you gonna have sex with him too, the second you have a chance?"

"What--no, Rose, please, listen to me--"

"I get it, you say you loved him," I sighed. "Listen, Violet, I have to go. I'm at work."

"Promise me you'll call me later? Maybe I can come by and we can meet up for coffee and talk in person?"

"Maybe."

"I love you, Rose," she said. I didn't respond. I just hung up.I put my phone down and made eye contact with Brandon.

"Who was that?"

"My sister. Violet." I sighed. "Don't worry about it. Let's just get to work."

a/n: i started college, so that's why I haven't updated in a while. it's been crazy! but i have so many ideas trust me it's gonna be great