28
I couldn’t be in the same room as her without feeling ashamed.
What she had said last night had hurt, but when I got back to my room and thought about it, I knew it was true.
As I sat outside, eating my cereal, not hearing a word of what anyone was saying, all I could think about was Layla and how much I liked her.
“The only thing that can ruin this is us.” Her words rang through my ears. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I wanted the world to know. Who cares what management thinks.
Layla was just about the best thing to ever have happened to me and I was tired of keeping it a secret.
My thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Richard, who had just walked out. Following close behind were Layla and Louis.
“Great, you’re all here,” he said as Layla and Louis sat down.
“Now, Friday is the day of the concert, so tomorrow we have a sound check and dress rehearsal.”
“And today,” he said, checking his iPhone, “boys, you have a radio interview and girls, you have a photo shoot.” He paused, looking around at all of us.
“I expect all of you to be on your best behaviors,” he said pointedly. “Now boys, we have to leave in 10 minutes. So meet me downstairs in 5.” He was inturrupted by the sounds of fast moving stilettos.
“Sorry I’m late,” said Katlyn walking out on to the patio, “I can’t seem to find my day planner.” She looked rather ticked off as she crossed her arms and starred us down.
“Does anyone know where it might be?” She gave a Layla and Cecilia pointed looks.
“You must have just misplaced it,” said Cecilia looking politely concerned.
“But we would love to help you look for it,” said Layla with a winning smile, “come on Cecilia.” They both rose from the table and accompanied Katlyn into the house. But as they walked, I swear I saw them fist bump behind her back.

“Time to go boys,” called Paul from downstairs. I grabbed my bag and hurried out of my room.
“Harry!” yelled a voice behind me. I turned to find Louis walking down the hall from his room.
“What’s up?” I said as he reached me.
“We need to talk,” he whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” I asked. We walked down the stairs and out the front door into the front yard.
“Cuz it’s confidential and certain people are not permitted to hear,” he said, barely moving his lips, “I’ll text you when we get in the car.” I tried to ask him what the hell he was on about, but I didn’t get the chance. In a matter of seconds, Liam, Niall and Zayn had all come over and Louis had put some distance between us.
When we got in the car I immediately felt my phone vibrate. I checked it and sure enough, it was Louis.
Louis: So we need to talk
I shook my head and responded.
Me: I know, you’ve mentioned that. But what do we need to talk about?
Seconds after I sent the message, he responded.
Louis: Layla
I starred at that message for a good 5 seconds then turned to look at him. He was pointedly starring out the window, away from me.
Me: What about Layla?
I looked back at him and saw him typing away on his phone. Then my phone buzzed.
Louis: About how you guys can’t be together in public because you are too afraid of management.
Then it hit me. As I read what he wrote, a plan started forming in my head. A plan that could solve my problem and fix things between me and Layla. But it could also back fire horribly.
Me: Okay, I have a plan to fix everything. I’ll tell you when we get to the station.

“That’s crazy!” yelled Louis after I told him the plan.
“Shush,” I hissed, looking around, but we were completely alone in the bathroom of the station.
“You can’t be serious,” he whispered, shaking his head.
“I am,” I said, “do you think it’s that stupid?”
“No,” he said, still shaking his head, “I’m just upset that I didn’t think of it myself!” He was smiling now.
“So you think it’ll work?”
“Definitely!” he said, “now let’s go put this plan into action!”
He clapped me on the back and we walked out of the bathroom.
We walked into to studio to find the rest of the boys and Richard talking to the station manager of KIIS 102.7.
“Excellent,” he said as Lou and I walked in, “the whole group is here. Well, my name is Brad and I will be running everything from behind the scenes. Ryan will be here in a few so sit down, relax and when it’s time for the interview, just be yourselves. I’ll be right in here if you need anything.” He smiled and walked into the control room followed closely by Richard.
We took our seats and a few minutes later, Ryan Seacrest walked in.
“One Direction!” he said, smiling, “it’s great to see you again.” We stood as, one by one, he shook our hands.
“You guys ready for this?” he said, sitting.
“Oh yeah,” said Louis as some of the sound crew adjusted our mics. He gave me a wink and I couldn’t help but smile.

“We are on in 5, 4,” said Brad’s voice over the speakers, “3, 2.”
“Good morning I’m Ryan Seacrest and this is KIIS 102.7. On the show today we have the hottest boy band of the day One Direction, say hi guys.”
We all said, “Hullo,” in unison.
“So boys,” he said, “you’ve only been a band for what, three years now and already you have one of the biggest fan bases I’ve ever seen, have won over 36 awards and become pop sensations. What’s it like?”
“Mental,” said Zayn, “like before The X Factor, we were just five guys but now were a group and i speak for all of us when I say it’s been the most amazing journey.”
“We’re the five best mates anyone could ask for,” sang Niall. We all laughed.
“But seriously,” Ryan continued, “how do you guys balance between your careers and family and relationships and leisure?”
“I mean,” said Liam, “we go home as much as we can and we video chat and call our families and friends. And we get a good bit of time for ourselves, it’s just hard with the relationships like seeing them in person and stuff like that.”
“So relationships are the hardest one to balance for all of you?”
“Those of us in relationships,” said Louis with a grin.
“That’s right,” said Ryan, “only a few of you are. That’d be you Louis, Zayn and Liam, yes?”
“Actually,” said Louis, “one more member is now #teamtaken.”
“Oh really?” said Ryan, “and who might that be?”
“Um, me,” I said, awkwardly.
“Harry?” said Ryan, “and who is the lucky lady?”
“Uh, Layla Hemingson,” I said.
“You mean you’re dating a member of Infinite Minute?” he said, “so I’m guessing you guys started talking when the tour started?”
“Yeah,” I said, “I mean, we got along really well from the beginning and it sorta took off from there.”
“But why haven’t I seen your photos in the tabloids?”
“Well, we’ve been keeping it under wraps for a bit but just recently we found that we didn’t want to keep it hidden, so yeah.”
“Well there you have it folks,” said Ryan, “Harry Styles and Layla Hemingson are now officially an item. We’ll be right back with more on the subject after this song, here’s ‘The Other Side’ by Jason Derulo.”