*Emily’s POV (Afternoon, Sunday the 8th)

I’ll admit that at first I wasn’t too happy with Zayn for revealing our relationship to the nation, but the hate hasn’t been near as overwhelming as I thought it would be. The good news is that we didn’t lose followers because of it.

The worst tweets both of us have received so far say things like “I like you, I hate that you stole my man.” and “I don’t like that you’re dating Emily, but your music rocks!” so we’re pretty lucky that we haven’t experienced anything nastier. Either way as soon as Zayn starting seeing those types of posts online, he immediately came to me to ask me if I was okay. I’ve been fine the whole time, but it’s nice to know that he doesn’t want negative comments to affect me.

We’ve gained so many more followers online ever since Zayn did that first interview in March, and there have been many more interviews since then, some with both of us. We’ve performed a lot more in town and in LA’s neighboring cities. We’ve done enough shows now that the band is starting to gel more and sound connected and balanced.

It’s also been decided that a physical version of the EP will be in stores starting this summer. We are so excited because after it’s released for a few months, we plan on doing a California tour. Our producers expect us to sell a lot of tickets by that time seeing as Zayn’s fan base will have grown even more. Despite hate from our relationship, our careers are taking off and we’re going through everything together.

Kenzie has also gotten a much bigger following since Zayn talked her up on the radio. Her album is now near the top of the iTunes charts with Zayn’s and she’s in rehearsals with her band practicing for more gigs. She’s had a few since we got back from Chicago, but mostly Mr. Horan has been giving her time off.

Speaking of him, he never did seem to find out about that magazine cover with her and Niall on it. He never mentioned seeing anything and we’ve all been pretty on edge ever since we’ve been home. He could know and have known all this time and could just be waiting for somebody to feel guilty enough to spill. That seems pretty convoluted for him though. He’s such a straightforward type of person. Regardless, that magazine was everywhere and I don’t know how he missed it. We’re just all thankful he did.

We just finished lunch and have gone to our usual rooms of the house. Zayn is at an interview still and I’m bored as hell so I decide to go on my phone and check out Twitter to see what the fans are saying today about the album. I scroll through and see all the positive encouragement. It feels amazing to know that Zayn has so many devoted fans already.

Every now and then, I’ll see some criticism on the music and that’s to be expected. I just scroll right past it. But all of a sudden, I see a splurge of negative comments targeted towards us as a couple. It starts with the usual with ones that aren’t that nasty, but are still people disapproving. I brush those off all the time. We don’t need strangers’ permission to be together.

As I get further down the page, the posts keep getting worse. It’s getting to be that all I’m reading are people going after me. I think about logging off and ignoring it all, because it’s only people’s opinions who don’t even know me. Instead my curiosity gets the better of me. The order is as follows:

“Emily’s style is ugly as balls.”

“ZM’s songwriter is so Goth it’s disgusting.”

“She’s got zero talent. Why did ZM pick her?”

“Out of everyone in the whole wide universe ZM picks that ugly bitch?”

“ZM deserves so much better than that chick. I’m prettier than her!”

“I bet ZM only hired Emily Taylor to be his sex slave. #EMILYTHEWHORE”


And they only get worse from there. That’s all I can stand reading before my eyes overflow and a few tears roll across my phone screen. I have never read anything this mean about myself, or anyone for that matter. Somehow I’m still scrolling and now it’s gotten to the pictures. They’re all edits and memes of Zayn and I or just me. The ones of the two of us are all sexual and the ones of me are all made to portray me as a hooker.

All of them have the hashtag #EMILYTHEWHORE. I look at the trends for LA and sure enough there’s just the right number of people using this stupid thing that it’s trending. This is unreal and so humiliating. And worse, Zayn isn’t home to squish to death. I don’t wanna go to Kenzie or Niall because I don’t want them to know about it. Actually it’s best if Zayn doesn’t even know about it.

I do my best to dry my tears and look normal when I hear the front door open downstairs. “Em?” I still don’t look normal enough so run to the bathroom. I hear Zayn come up the stairs and go to our room. Damn it, I left my phone in there!“Emily, where are you?” I can hear him go into Niall’s room to ask him and Kenzie. He leaves and I hear footsteps go back to the room, then a few minutes later come racing to the bathroom door. He rapidly knocks.

“Emily, I know you’re in there. Open up.” I hesitate but decide to let him in and play dumb. “Babe, what is it? I was about to take a shower.” He can tell I’m bluffing, I know it. “Yeah? Well this is important. Did you hear about one of the trending topics on Twitter right now?” Yeah, he knows. “No, what is it?” I say still sticking to my plan. He drags me out of the bathroom and into our room.

“I was at my interview answering Twitter questions when the interviewer said that they saw a trend. An awful one. About you. Yeah, I think it was called #EMILYTHESLUT or something?...” He knows I have to correct him.“It’s #EMILYTHEWHORE.” I say. “Ah ha! You know I saw the picture on your phone and figured out you were looking at it, right? Em, are you okay?” he says holding my hand. I have to appear strong, it’s my reflex.

“I’m fine! This doesn’t matter. It’s just stupid people who have no lives…” I’m getting choked up again though. “No, you’re not.” he says not having it. “No, I’m not!” I admit embracing him as tightly as I can and crying into his chest. “How can people say such mean things like that?!” I shout-sob into his body. “They know I can see what they put up, right?!” He sits me up straight and says “I don’t know…Maybe they don’t. Maybe someone needs to tell them.”

He thinks for a minute, then gets up starting out of the room. “Babe, where are you going?” I ask wiping my eyes. “We are going into town. Come on.” he says motioning me over. “Why?” I ask curiously. “There’s something I have to do.” Okay?

I get up and follow him out of the bedroom door. We go to tell Niall’s parents that we’re going out and as we’re heading out the door we hear Mr. Horan call out “Niall, Mackenzie, can you come down here please?” and we close the door going who knows where.

On the way to wherever, Zayn calls a few people. “Yeah, meet me there in 15 minutes.” What is he up to? We end up going to the “center” of the city where there are tons of people and when we get to where Zayn wanted to be, he gets up on a table and shouts “People of Los Angeles, California!!” What are you doing?? A bunch of people turn his way and groups of girls start screaming.

“For those of you who don’t know me, I’m ZM.” The girls scream again. “And this is my absolutely wonderful songwriter, pianist, and girlfriend Emily Taylor.” he says. This time, some girls scream and others shout ‘boo’ among various insults. Zayn is looking around frantically and in total shock. Then, he yells at the top of his voice “HEY!!” Everyone within…probably a 5 mile radius, falls silent.

“To those who just booed, I came here to speak to you directly. You know, I’ve gotta say…it is extremely difficult to come home to the one you love crying, because people who you thought supported you are calling her such awful things. Whore, hooker, and worse. Did you think that making something trend city-wide on Twitter wouldn’t allow her to see it? You may not realize it, but when you post and send negative comments and hate, there is a real person on the receiving end of it all, with real emotions and feelings just like you. There is such a thing as taking things too far. I get that there are some of you who aren’t happy that I have a girlfriend but if you really are a loyal fan of mine, you will like that I’m happy.”

He looks to me and holds out his hand. With tear-filled eyes, I let him pull me up next to him on the table. “I love this woman. She is the most spectacular person I’ve ever met. I care about her more than anything else in the world. …And I would like all of you to respect that.” He looks at me with a smile and everyone around us starts applauding. I see a big group of girls leave as well. Couldn’t handle the truth, ladies?

Zayn helps me down from the table and lots of people come up to us saying great things. It’s nice to know that his little speech moved some people. I just hope he realizes this won’t make the problem completely go away. People won’t just completely stop publicly hating on celebrities. Jealousy is a trait we all have within us that can’t be thoroughly defeated.

“Hey, losers!” I hear a familiar voice shout. We turn around and sure enough coming toward us is the rest of Zayn’s band: Michael the guitarist, Calum the bassist, and Ashton the drummer. It was Mikey who greeted us. “Hey, lads! Thanks for coming.” Them?“It was them who you were calling on our way here?” I ask not very surprised. “Yeah I figured that they would be helpful in cheering you up, along with me making that big gesture for you.” he winks.

I shake my head at him and hug my band mates. “Let’s go get something to eat.” Ash suggests. “I could go for something, I’m starved.” Calum says. “I could really go for some Chinese. You guys?” I ask. “Oh yeah sounds great.” Zayn says.

We set out together and try to look for a good restaurant. We stop at the nearest place instead because the boys can’t wait that long. Typical teen boys, always hungry. We order and get our food and sit down at the corner table.

We’re eating and talking about how excited we all are for touring when Mikey changes the subject. “Okay, time to get serious. Are you all right, Em?” Mikey asks. “Yeah, we saw that trend on Twitter. People can be so horrible.” Ash adds. “Well I wasn’t fine but then Zayn brought me there and made that speech to everyone.” Zayn smiles to himself smugly. “I’m not all better yet though. Did you see those edits?” I ask.

“Yeah we did. Only a few though, we couldn’t bear to look at too many.” Mikey says. “They’re revolting.” Calum pipes up. “I wonder how long it’s gonna take for all this to die down.” I comment. “No matter how long it takes, just know that we’ll all be here for you. At this point you’re not just a band mate, you’re our sister.” Ashton says. “Thanks, guys. You’re like my brothers too: supportive and slightly less annoying.” I joke.

We finish eating and go our separate ways. On the way home, I talk to Zayn properly about what he did for me. “That started out embarrassing but ended up being the sweetest thing anyone has done to cheer me up.” I take his hand. “Well when you’re hurting I’m hurting too and I couldn’t have both of us hurting over this. Besides, I wanted to prove to the world and to you how important you are to me. I feel like I don’t say it enough in either case.”

He looks out the window of the bus. “Babe, I know how much I mean to you. You don’t have to do something as big as this to let me know.” He still won’t look at me. “I just feel that it’s partly my fault everyone is attacking you so much. If I showed the public how much you really are to me more, maybe they wouldn’t be so hard on you, or us.”

Okay, it’s my turn to make a speech. “If you think this is your doing you’re insane. People are going to say these things about me because of stupid jealousy and we can’t change that. You have nothing to do with all of this hate. If you haven’t noticed, you still have thousands of fans who adore you despite you being "off the market," so to speak. What you have to remember is that no matter what happens from now on in our careers, we’ll never have to face it alone. We’ll get through everything together; as friends, as music partners, and as a couple. There’s nothing we can’t handle, baby. It’s you and me.”

He turns to me now and says “You and I. Forever?” “Always.” I respond. We share a kiss and enjoy the rest of the ride home talking about our upcoming tour some more. We get back to the house and see that both of Niall’s parents’ cars are gone. This isn’t normal for a Sunday evening.

We walk in and Niall’s parents are nowhere in sight. What we do see are Niall and Kenzie in the living room, Niall holding her in his arms while she cries and he tries to calm her down. “What happened?!” we ask together, sitting down next to them on the couch.

Notes