"Alisooooon!"

Alison almost jumped out of her beach chair when she heard a bit too familiar voice yelling her name.

"What the fuck Louis," she said, putting the book she had been reading aside and raising her sunglasses to her head. She squinted her eyes to look at the man smirking in front of her and blocking the sun rays. The crew was now in Italy and Alison absolutely loved the pool hotel they were staying at. She had done nothing but laid in the sun all day.

"Don't be rude, love! I'm just the messenger," Louis said. He seemed to be in extremely good mood today, Alison noted. By the way he was grinning from ear to ear and holding a cocktail in his hand.

"Drinking before work? I see," Alison raised her eyebrow at him.

"It's non-alcoholic," Louis said, frowning.

"Sure thing love," Alison mocked.

"As I said don't be rude," he answered, bringing the cocktail on his lips and taking a sip. Then he sat next to the blond girl while looking around the pool. Alison leaned against her chair, putting her sunglasses back on and closing her eyes.

"What are you reading?" she jumped up quickly after Louis' words, trying to snatch the book but it was pointless as the book was already in his hands. Louis turned to read the cover, a smirk forming on his face.

"Fifty shades of grey? I see. Getting some tips? You know 21 is the age where sex doesn't feel so exciting anymore..." Alison cut off Louis' teasing with a loud groan as she covered her head with her hands.

"Fuck off! Why are you even here? Got nothing better to do? Just leave me and my book alone," she told him grumpily.

"I'm here because I love winding up my tour sister," he grinned, offering Alison the book and she snatched it off his hand. "Okay as I said I've got a message for you," he said and she
nodded for him to go on.

"They need you quite urgently in the head office," he then said casually.

"And you're telling me now!" Alison yelled and quickly got up of the chair. She rushed to pick her things up and turned around to head in the insides.

"Actually! Leave me the book," Louis said just as she was about to leave. He held his hand in the air and she offered the book for him with a huff before rushing off.

She got in the floor where the whole crew was staying at and ran infront of the door where she knew the tour manager would be. She didn't have time to knock when the door was pulled open in front of her.

"There you are! About time..." Rick greeted her with a stern look.

"Louis was just..." she started to explain but he had already turned around so she shook her head and walked in after him.

"I think you've got an idea why you are here already," he started but she only got more confused.

"I-I think you lost me," she stammered frowning.

"There's pictures," he said, picking up his laptop and starting to search for something. Alison's mind started to race. It must be about Harry? What else could it be? She started to think about the times they had been somewhere together during the tour. What if there was pictures of them on their date? Of them being close? Alison felt her face going pale.

"The fans have found out about you being with us on this tour," he continued.

"I mean they were obviously gonna find out at some point and I'm surprised it got even this long but I would've liked it to happen some other way," he said sternly, turning the laptop for her to see. Her heart was in her throat by now but when she saw the pictures she sighed out of relief when it wasn't anything too bad. It was a picture of her, Harry and Zayn outside the arena in Austria the other day. The picture was rather blurry but she was still easily recognizable.

"But as it was expected if you two got photographed together, there would be rumours of you getting back together. And that's not what I wanted. The boys are better selling when they're singles," he explained as if she was stupid and she didn't like the tone of his voice at all.

"Isn't it a bit unfair for Niall and Harry?" she asked and he shrugged.

"It's a part of the deal. As it was also a part of the deal with you that you stay away from Harry," he said, staring at her eyes. There wasn't really anything for her to say anymore if she wanted to keep her job so she sighed and looked away from their little glaring competition.

"So this is what we're gonna do. The lads are gonna have some interviews today before the show and I'm gonna make them ask about relationship statuses and Harry's gonna make sure everyone knows he's single," he said.

"And I'm gonna make sure there'll be no more pictures of us?" she asked, already getting up of the seat she had earlier taken.

"Yes. But not so quick!" he said motioning her to sit back down.

"Also we were thinking..." he started but he was cut off when the door was pulled open suddenly.

"Sorry! You said it was urgent so I ran..." Josh stopped out of breath in the middle of his sentence when he was Alison. "Oh... I can wait outside if..."

"No it's fine! Come here. It's actually good you both are here," Rick said and picked a chair for Josh to sit next to Alison who was frowning. She had had a bad feeling about this meeting from the minute she had stepped in the room. And now Josh was also there and she had no idea where this was going.

"So..." Rick started to explain the situation for Josh but Alison tuned out. She could feel Josh's eyes on her sometimes but she didn't spare him even a glance, just kept picking at her nails. She thought about Harry and she knew he wasn't gonna like this. He always wanted to be a little rebellious towards their management team so when he was made to tell he was single in an interview which wasn't really true, Alison knew he wasn't going to like it.

"Alison?" she raised her head when she heard her name being called and found out they both where staring at her.

"What? Sorry I was just," she shook her head and blushed a little, straightening her back. Rick was her boss after all and she should be doing a better job at listening to him.

"I just asked you if it was okay with you," Rick said.

"I'm sorry but I'm afraid you lost me," she muttered embarrassed. She really had been in her thoughts but Harry just had that effect on her. He seemed to be in her mind all the time these days.

"About you two making the fans think there'd be something going on with you?" Rick made it sound like a question but when Alison still looked confused he sighed out heavily.

"I doesn't have to be anything big. Just like a picture of you being close with each other like in instagram? You've got one right? Just to make the fans know you've got someone other than Harry on your mind," he explained and Alison's eyes widened. He really was going to make them do it.

"But I'm not anything important I mean... Isn't it enough that Harry tells he's single?" she started to panic. Alison did not want to pretent there was something between her and Josh. Harry wouldn't like that either and it would only make a bigger gap between such good friends. And she didn't want to be the reason for that.

"They will find out about the pic and it's more believable when you've got your eyes on someone else so to speak," he seemed to have already made up his mind.

"But my instagram is private!" she felt frustrated and she didn't know what else to say.

"You can put it somewhere else too. As long as the fans will find it," Rick chuckled.

"We can put it on my instagram. I've got more followers anyway," Josh suddenly spoke up and Alison gave him a glare.

"Good idea. You can sort out the details between you two on your own but you're free to go now," Rick informed turning on his laptop and starting to type.

Alison literally ran out of the room, feeling like she'd cry at any minute. She didn't stop even though she could hear Josh' foot steps behind her as she rushed towards her own hotel room.
But just when she about to show the key card on the lock to get inside she heard his voice. "Looks like we've got a relationship to fake," he said and she turned to glare at him but Josh was already on his way in the lift.

Frustrated, Alison pulled the door open and slammed it shut after her. She kicked off her shoes and threw her little bag on the floor before collapsing face forward on the bed. She screamed as hard as she could, the pillow muffling her voice, and felt her tears wetting the sheets.

Notes

thank you for reading! :)