Labels || H.S. [#Wattys2020]

N I N E T Y - O N E

Hailey opened her eyes, her head throbbing violently. Her phone vibrated upon her nightstand, a sound ridiculously amplified by her hangover. She threw her pillow at it, as if that would stop it. It was not until the phone rung for the sixth time that she got up and bothered to look at who it was that was incessantly calling her through squinted eyes. When she saw the name Reagan Bailey upon her screen, her insides twisted and her hands turned into tight fists. Needless to say, the last thing she wanted was to talk to Reagan.

Last night she had gotten completely wasted at the hotel bar, half expecting to be cut off at some point. But she wasn't, she figured it was the unwavering, pathetic sadness in her eyes that kept the bartender at bay and her shot glass filled.

Her pounding headache made her regret the alcohol, but at the same time it kept her from going off the deep end. After everything that had happened, he still chose her. And she didn't know what to make of it.

Hesitantly though, she hit answer, just for the sake of hearing Reagan squirm her way through a conversation with her. But in reality all she wanted to do was crawl back into bed and never have to deal with Harry, Reagan, or anything else ever again.

"Hello?"

Reagan cleared her throat, "Hailey?"

"What?"

"Are you coming in today?"

"I think not."

There was an awkward lull, Hailey could almost feel Reagan's discomfort. That at least made her feel better.

"Hailey, you can't just not come into work," Reagan whispered, she obviously didn't want Lydia to hear, "You're recording today."

"I believe I can do whatever I want, especially since I have something of yours that you don't want made public."

Reagan sighed, "Hailey."

"I can come in." Hailey replied, a sly smile upon her face, "I have to show Lydia this DVD before I release it anyway. She should have the honor of being first."

"Fine." Reagan relented, "Don't come in. But you're only hurting yourself, you're the one missing your studio time."

"Don't worry about me. Worry about yourself." And with that she hung up.

She still had no idea how to counter Harry's dismissal of her. A part of her wanted to ruin him, to destroy his career. Another part of her wanted Reagan to take the grunt of her anger, it was her fault after all that Harry didn't want her. Or so she thought in that twisted mind of hers.

Hailey didn't want to be alone though, not now. Ten minutes ago she would have preferred it, but after having heard Reagan's voice on the phone it had awoken all the feelings she tried drinking away the night before. So lonely Hailey called the only person she believed could possibly understand what she was feeling.

"Hello? Hey, Kennedy? Yeah, it's Hailey. You think we could talk?"

—✴—

"Honestly, not as bad as I thought it would be." Harry said, a wide smirk upon his face.

Louis chuckled to himself as Reagan groaned across the room. She had taken to avoiding all the boys for the time being, they were stressing her out far too much for her liking.

"So Lydia was fine with it?" Niall asked, completely in disbelief.

"Yeah, mate."

"So all that yelling was her being 'fine with it'?" Louis quipped as he sipped his mug of tea.

"You know Lydia." Harry said, "Always a lively one."

Niall shook his head, "There is no way she was fine with it. Fuck, no. You got off that easily?"

Harry smirked, "Must be my charm."

From across the room Reagan scoffed, making the other two boys chuckle. Harry turned to look at her pointedly, "You have something to say to me, Bailey?"

"Nothing Mr. Styles, just trying to do my job." And with that Reagan promptly turned back to her laptop and continued typing away, trying to fix all the damage Harry had made last night, and bracing herself for what was most certainly about to come with the boys' impromptu single drop at midnight.

"Where's Liam?" Harry asked, his brow slightly furrowed.

"Off making a remix of the single." Louis replied in an exasperated tone.

Niall leaned back upon the couch, and put his feet up on the coffee table, "I thought he liked it as it was?"

Louis shrugged, "You know him, DJ Payno being a pain in the ass-o."

Niall burst out laughing, as always whenever Louis made a joke, or tried to.

Harry simply shook his head, "Hey now, better he get the chance to express himself creatively then repress him and have him turn into Zayn."

"Oh don't give me that bullshit. Nobody repressed Zayn, if anything he alienated his fucking self. We all had a say in our music, but he wanted no part in it."

"Okay." Harry said unconvincingly.

"What are you going to side with him?"

"You know I don't side with anyone."

"Oh, so you don't side with us?"

Niall looked helplessly between them, wanting them to stop fighting. He hated when people fought, especially the boys.

"I didn't say that."

"You just said, I don't side with anyone."

"Can we just drop this? Is this really the important thing right now, shouldn't we be focusing on dropping the single?" Harry asked, subtly wanting to change the subject before he got Louis all worked up about Zayn again.

It was too late though, "You want to talk about dropping the single? Well, seems that if we drop that single then your allegiances will be to us, will you be okay betraying your boyfriend?"

Harry punched Louis in the arm, "Fuck off. I'm done talking about it, I'm sorry I even mentioned it. I shouldn't have said anything, I forgot how sensitive you are about Zayn."

"I am not!"

"Really? You realize you're risking a whole hell of a lot just to spite him right? Those are not the actions of someone who is fine."

"I am fucking fine. You know what? I have a right to be mad! I have a right to want to spite him! After all the shit we've been through, he just decides to fucking leave! Who does that? No explanation, no warning!? And he had the audacity to say it was to be a normal 22 year old, and look at him! He signed with another fucking label!"

Niall stared at Louis wide-eyed. Harry sat in silence, taking his friend's anger in.

"And you know what? No I don't believe your I don't side with anyone bullshit. I know you don't side with anyone because you think it's your fault that he left. But it's not, Haz. It's not. He made his choice, and not one person influenced it."

Harry shook his head, "I was never there for him."

"He never wanted you to be, Harry."

"But we could've done more."

"Friendships are a fucking two way street, he could've done more too."

"I still can't believe he just left like that." Niall said, piping in.

"But he did." Louis said, slumping his shoulders, his mug of tea clearly having gone cold.

"And we didn't." Harry nodded, "We're still here."

"Yeah mate, and we're about to shatter records." Louis smiled, "Let's show that twat exactly what he's missing out on."