Sophia's POV:
"Well where is he?!" I screamed into the phone.

"Soph, we don't know. We don't know where either of them are," Brielle explained, voice shaky.

Zayn never made his flight to the US last week. He got out of all of the interviews but last night was their first show since before break and apparently he never showed up. No one had heard from him and even management had called him, threatening contract termination and all. Even better, Niall left after the twitter meltdown earlier and has been MIA since. For once, Louis is the only one not making me want to punch a hole in the wall.

Point one, Louis.

I sighed, "What can I do?"

I heard her sniffle on the other end of the phone, "Come home, please."

I rubbed my forehead and attempted to think this out like a normal human being. But alas, no luck.

"I'll be on the next flight, I'm just going to make a phone call first."

I hung up and began pacing my room, wondering who the right person to call is. Zayn's mum wouldn't tell me anything.. if he's hiding, she'll keep him hidden as long as he pleases. Obviously none of the boys know. I don't know any of his friends from Bradford. Which leaves... his sisters.

I dialed up Waliyha and crossed my fingers as the phone rang.

"Hello?"

I sighed in relief, "Hi, it's Sophia."

She laughed, "I know, I've been waiting for this phone call."

I smiled, "I take it he's home?"

"Yep. When will you be here to drag him out?"

I thought about it for a minute. Did I really want to see him? I could easily call one of the boys and just let them know. Right now, obviously he was dealing with something and I wasn't sure if my heartbreak towards him would be anything but a disaster in the making.

But he needed me. So I did it anyways, "I can be there in an hour."

"Good. But I warn you, he's a right mess. And I'm not sure if heartbroken Zayn is the one you're prepared to see. So this is your warning, he smells like alcohol and refuses to leave his bed."

I could feel the annoyance building up inside of me. He's heartbroken? Was that a joke? He's the one who told me that I wasn't his and he wasn't mine and he didn't care if I chose him, it was over. So where does he get off playing the victim?

"He can get over it. Pack his stuff for me, yeah? We'll leave for the US tonight."

"He owes you one," I could hear her smiling through the other end of the phone.

More like he owes me twelve.

"I care about him. I'm doing the right thing, I think," I murmured.

Was I doing the right thing? Probably not. But what was I supposed to do? Let the other four get in trouble and have millions of girls not get to see their idol because he wants to be a heartbroken sob about it? No.

I packed all of my things, randomly taking all of my things and putting them back in my closet because I couldn't make up my mind. After twenty minutes of this little argument with myself, my mum walked in and leaned up against the door frame, smiling sarcastically at me.

"You're going already? Haven't even started work yet," she scolded.

I sighed and sat down on my bed, "I'm going to Bradford to get Zayn. He needs to go back to work."

She laughed desperately, "Yes well you need to get back to work as well."

I rolled my eyes. Of course she'd rather me working in Manchester at some rinkydink salon than actually getting somewhere with my career. But it wasn't like I had ever listened to her so called 'advice' anyways.

"I'll call you when I get to the states," I mumbled, zipping up my suitcase.

"Oh Sophia you're working with him again?! That's nice, he seems like a sweet boy!"

Yeah well he's not, my subconscious said. The only reason she even liked him was because he wasn't Louis. I was pretty sure that was the only reason ANYONE I knew liked him.

I ignored her and put a book and my laptop in my backpack, "Have you spoken to Max?"

She shook her head, "Not since last week when he was here for dinner. One of the girls told me he was on a gossip website for some argument he had with your awful ex on the twitter."

"It's just TWITTER, mum. It's not called THE twitter," I mumbled.

She brushed it off and looked around my room, probably inspecting the dust, "Semantics. Well if you speak to him let him know that George's don't speak like that to anyone and we do not get involved in petty drama with people far outside of our social class."

I laughed in desperation, "He makes more money than all of us combined! If ANYTHING, he's in a higher social class!"

She scoffed and crossed her arms, "New money is just as lowly as no money at all."

I grabbed my bags and brushed by her, "Well good. Take me out of your fucking will."



I knew that this conversation with Zayn wasn't going to go well. But I didn't care, really. I just needed to convince him to go back to work. This was no longer about him, it was about his friends and his contract and his fans. This was no longer about our relationship, our 'love', our 'breakup', it was about his JOB. And if it took a pissed off ex to get him back stateside, I was willing to make the effort. You know, for the good of the people.

I knocked on the door at the address Walihya had sent me and waited, not-so-patiently. I was nervous. So nervous. If I failed at this, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I was normally pretty confident of getting one of them to follow me into the gates of Hell. But this time felt different. I wasn't sure why, but I felt like I was about to see a new Zayn I hadn't met before.

A woman who I knew to be Zayn's mum opened the door and smiled sympathetically at me, "You must be the infamous Sophia."

I smiled and rubbed my goosebump filled arms, "I am. You must be Ms Malik."

She pulled me into a hug before I could even process it and I heard her sniffle into my shoulder, "Please, call me Tricia."

She released me and waved away her oncoming tears. I wasn't sure exactly why she was crying. But considering her son was an asshole, I was going to assume she had a perfectly good reason.

We stood in awkward silence for a split second before her eyes lit up again, "Oh! Come in! I'm so sorry you must be freezing. Can I get you anything to drink?"

I shook my head politely, "No thank you, I'm alright. Um... is he here?"

She smiled sadly and pointed down the hall, "Last door on your right. I warn you, he's been a little grumpy today."

I laughed, "I can handle him."

She smiled and nodded, "I know, that's why Walihya insisted on inviting you."


I excused myself and walked down the long hallway and heart Bright Eyes blaring through the door. Drama queen. I knocked lightly but after two minutes of no response, even after the music was turned off, I figured I couldn't walk in on anything worse than something I'd already seen.

He was laying face-down on his bed, picking threads off of his quilt. He didn't even acknowledge my presence.

"I'm not hungry," he murmured.

I laughed, "Good cause I'm not going to feed you anyway."

His eyes lit up and he quickly looked in my direction, "Sophia... w-what are you doing here?"

I rubbed my arms and rested against the door frame, "I'm taking you home Zayn."

He shook his head, "I AM home. And I'm not going back there."

I sighed and walked over to the bed, sitting on the edge.

"Why don't you want to go and perform?" I asked.

"Because," he said through his pillow, "I don't want to make music anymore."

So fucking dramatic.

"And why not?" I asked in the most patronizing voice I could muster.

"Because I don't have any inspiration anymore. And why are you even here? I broke your heart, remember?"

Of course I remembered.

I shrugged and crossed my arms defensively, "I really don't know. But I do know that I'm a much better person than you and I can't let you ruin everything you've worked so hard for."

"I don't care about any of it," he said.

I sighed and reached for his hand, tracing his fingers delicately. He winced at first, but relaxed into my touch, just like he always did.

"Don't lie to me," I mumbled.

He sniffled and pulled his hand away, hiding it under his pillow, "I can't go back, Sophia."

"It wasn't a question, Zayn. You're going back."

He shot me a glare, "Why would I listen to you? Why do you think you can just come here and TELL me what I'm doing?"

The words stung at first, but that's what I needed. I needed him to get defensive. I needed him to try and hurt me. It was my only doorway into getting him back to the states with the rest of the boys.

I smiled sadly and fiddled with my hands, "Because... you broke my heart and I think that kind of means you owe me one."

We sat in silence for a while. Neither of us moved an inch, neither of us said anything. We just processed it all.

He was the next one to speak up.

"When is our flight?" he mumbled.

---

Harry's POV:
My 'dad' and I had spoken one time, other than the random phone call I'd gotten last week. I wasn't sure if he really was my father, as horrible as that sounded. I mean, people could easily pretend to be someone their not on the telephone. But when I had spoken to my mum and relayed what he had told me, she said it was definitely him. But why would someone knowingly have a child then never be apart of their life at all?

She explained to me that he had been with another woman for a long time when she had Gemma and she knew deep down that eventually he'd return to her. Then when he didn't leave, they had me. He worked often, having to leave and travel for weeks at a time. She told me that he didn't seem to mind not seeing our family very much, but it wasn't because he didn't want to. She told me that he had battled depression for a long time and he didn't want us to ever see him like that. Apparently he was wonderful for the first month or so after I was born. But soon after, his busy schedule picked back up and he would leave again. Within months, he told her he couldn't do it anymore. He left, and didn't return.

She wasn't surprised in the slightest. She had prepared herself for the inevitable outcome of their drawn out relationship. But I didn't want to be apart of someone's life who was so horrible to my mum. But she had convinced me to at least give him a chance. If he was calling me then he was making an effort that she never knew possible, then he had changed. I didn't know who he was beforehand, but he didn't seem so terrible on the phone.

He was extremely wealthy, in an area of business that a connection to me wouldn't matter. So it somewhat put my mind at rest that he wasn't going to 'use' me for that. But when I had spoken to him, he explained that he didn't know what I did for a living until the private investigator told him. I found it hard to believe, but when he told me that his work had him in an undisclosed location in Asia and he didn't have internet, I guess I didn't have much of a choice but to believe him. He had tracked down Gemma and I separately and said that he was meeting up with her in England in two weeks. I called her and asked if she wanted me to come home but she didn't seem flustered by it at all. Told me that if he wanted to get to know her, it couldn't hurt. I wasn't sure how she was so calm, but I envied her positive response.

So I agreed. One meeting. He was flying to New York the next week to meet me (and Brielle) for dinner and to see my show. Brielle seemed indifferent, most of her response was in Spanish so I didn't exactly know how she was feeling. But her beet red face and possessed sounding mumbling pretty much gave her away.

"If you don't think I should do it, I won't," I said, watching her pace from the hotel bed.

She snapped her head around at me and crossed her arms, "You know damn well I'm not going to tell you not to have a relationship with your father. I just don't trust him."

Of course she didn't. She was nosy and thought she knew everything.

"Well he is my dad, Bri."

She threw her hands up in exasperation, "I KNOW, Harry. I just worry! That's all!"
I smiled and reached for her like a child, opening and closing my hands until she rolled her eyes and walked over to me, climbing into my arms. She'd been stressing all week, trying to keep everything in order. Soph was taking time for herself, so she wasn't around to help anyone with anything. Lou didn't want to leave England knowing Soph was farther than a mile away from him. Zayn was MIA. Niall was a right mess. Serena was making her question everything she thought she knew about everyone. Liam was well, Liam. And I was having a family revelation. She wasn't used to dealing with all of this, let alone on her own.

I wasn't sure when all of us started needed a keeper. Or when we started relying on our team to get us to do our jobs or even just successfully live our lives without having a meltdown once a week. But at that point in time, we DID need a keeper and we COULDN'T go a week without a complete and total meltdown occurring.

Management was already up our asses like a missile after the twitter fight round 2 with The Wanted. Modest! was threatening to terminate ALL of our contracts, which would force us into a ridiculous amount of debt. Syco was contemplating dropping us all together. Simon wouldn't answer anyone's phone calls and sent an email out saying he'd fly out next week to speak to us and until then we should think about our futures. We were fucked, pretty much.

"Are you worried about Zayn?" Brielle asked as I massaged her shoulders.

I shrugged, "Yes but I know better than to call him over and over again and pry him for information on his life. If Zayn's MIA, he's not going to come back to the real world just because I ask him to."

"Do you think it has to do with Louis? You know, not wanting to face him?"

"I think it has more to do with Sophia," I mumbled.

She sat up and looked at me, perplexed, "Why would he give a shit? He didn't want to be with her."

She was furious about that. She said he shouldn't have dragged her along, pretending to be in love with her if he was just going to break her heart. If anything, Zayn should have been terrified to face Brielle, because she wanted to fucking kill him.

But what she didn't know was that Zayn didn't 'pretend' to be in love with her. He was in love with her. He just couldn't have her. He knew it. I explained it to him and clearly he saw the light.

"She can be with Louis now," I said.

She narrowed her eyes at me, "Why would she want to be with Louis? She wanted ZAYN."

I nodded, "Yes but after my little chat with Zayn it seems he realized the right thing to do," I said before I could even register the words leaving my mouth.

Her mouth fell open and she shook her head at me, "What did you do!"

She pushed herself off of me and walked over to the other end of the room, putting her shoes on.

"Babe, wait! I just told him what I thought about it! I didn't make him change his mind!"

The look of pure disgust in her eyes told me I had fucked up a lot more than I knew.

"You are a sick bastard, you know that?!" She spat, pointing in my face.

I reached for her arm but she yanked it away from me, "Why do you care so much about their relationship?" I asked.

She scoffed, "ME?! I'm the one who said to stay out of it! You're the one who got involved! You RUINED two our closest friends relationships because you're so far up Louis' ass that you think he should get everything he wants! And don't think that I don't know why!"

I couldn't even keep up with our argument anymore. We didn't argue much at all, we would have little spats, but never actual fights. This was way over my head, and I didn't know what to do or say. So I played the confused card.

"What are you talking about?!" I yelled back.

She shoved me and I stumbled back, nearly losing my footing, "You slept with his little sister and somehow got away with it, so now you're trying to be the perfect bestfriend in hopes that he'll never bring it up again!"

She knew. She fucking knew.

Notes

HI SO I KNOW I'M REPOSTING THE SAME CHAPTER BUT I HAVE A NEW STORY IM WRITING AND I CANT DECIDE IF I WANT TO START IT YET SO IM ASKING YOU GUYS IT'S A LIAM STORY AND IT'S ABOUT BASEBALL AND I'M KIND OF EXCITED.


PLEASE COMMENT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU'RE THINKING AND IF YOU THINK I SHOULD I'LL POST A CHAPTER WITH THE LINK