𝘾𝙍𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙄𝙉𝙏𝙊 𝙔𝙊𝙐 ↣ 𝙊𝙉𝙀 𝘿𝙄𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

STILL THE ONE

[ONE WEEK LATER]

Simon Cowell called me into his office the day my contract ended. I had half the mind to tell him off, or not go, or something. But I went. It was the last time I would ever have to do it, and I had a lot of things I wanted to say.

I brought Louis with me. That was the first fuck you.

Louis and I were stood side by side in the elevator on our way up to his office. His hand held mine loosely and he pretended not to notice how I tapped anxiously my fingers over his knuckles.

When the elevator doors opened, we shared a look. And then together, we walked out and towards Simon.

Louis and I sat down before Simon bothered to look up. When he did, I raised my eyebrows. "Why did you want a meeting?"

"I think that we all need to have a long conversation about the things you can do after your contract ends," Simon said. He put his elbows on the desk and leaned forward towards me.

"I can do anything I want," I said. My eyes flickered to Louis for a second, silently asking right? I can do whatever I want, right? Louis raised his eyebrows a bit but offered me no sort of answer.

"It's not exactly that simple, though," Simon said. I sighed. "You see, Mickey, a lot of the contracts you've signed with me stay in place after your recording contract is up."

"What does that mean?" Louis asked.

"It means that if Mickey says anything bad about the label I will have a team of lawyers on her faster than she can apologize," Simon said simply.

"Oh, so you have a team of lawyers for covering your own ass but it took you four months to find me one to represent my case against Donte?" I snapped. "Do you think the fandom isn't going to realize that you wouldn't let me come out and talk about it? It's not a coincidence that right when my contract with you is up, I come out and talk about shit I've kept hidden for months."

"Easy," Louis mumbled.

"No, not easy," I said, waving him off. "Do you know how much shit you've put me through, Simon? And forget about me for just a second, let's talk about how much you've put the boys through." I took a deep breath.

"You made Harry look like a womanizer when he was sixteen. He was a fucking kid and you had interviewers asking him about his sex life. You pushed that image onto him so harshly that it still sticks today, and he's going to spend the rest of his life proving that he's not who you said he is."

"That's the way marketing works, Mickey," Simon dismissed easily.

"They're not products!" I snapped. "How long did you make Niall wait before he got his knee surgery? Huh? Months, right? You let him limp around in pain just so you could keep your steady income. Do you honestly feel good about that?" I waited for Simon to answer, but he didn't. "He was in pain and you didn't care."

"I did care," Simon countered.

"Obviously you didn't if you forced him to wait to get surgery," I said. "Do you want me to keep going? I can keep going. You worked Zayn so hard that he left. He struggled with eating disorders because he was so busy on the road that he didn't have time to sit down and have something to eat. The only way for Zayn to get away from you was to fucking run and not look back!"

"Love," Louis said softly.

"Oh yeah, and Liam. Liam has spent the last five years trying to keep the boys together and on the right track because you forced him to. You, Simon. You're the one who told him to hurry up and grow up so he could watch out for the boys. He drinks himself stupid sometimes because that's the only way he can stop thinking about everything he's supposed to be doing for you."