Chapter Text
“Hey mum, it’s me.”
“Oh Louis, sweetheart it’s so good to hear your voice, how are you darling?”
He needed to tell her before anyone else did.
“Look mum, I have to tell you something,” he clears his throat before continuing, ‘I-I’m leaving the band.”
“But Louis-“
“No mum I can’t do it, Harry and I are done, I can’t be in the band. It’s fine. I have enough money for you and the girls I don’t need it, just put it towards school.”
Louis can hear his mum silently sobbing on the other end and he wishes he could have told her in person and be there to hug her but he’s too much of a coward.
“Lou, oh Lou please come home so we can talk, please.”
“I can’t I have to go talk with the label tomorrow, actually I have to call them when we hang up. I just wanted you to be the first to know, I didn’t want you finding out any other way.”
“Louis you know we’re here for you no matter what, through all of this, your sisters are very worried about you. Did you talk to him? I’m sorry I told him where you were, I thought it would help.”
“Tell them not to worry. Yeah, he actually just uh left. Don’t be sorry mum, it was good closure.” Louis’ eyes start to water.
“So that’s it then? I mean you don’t have to talk about it Louis, I’ve just been in the dark the whole time. You know how shocked I was to hear, Anne actually stopped by yesterday, she felt terrible Louis.”
Instead of sadness a wave of hate sweeps over Louis because not only did Harry ruin their relationship he also ruined their mum’s.
“Yeah I don’t really want to talk about it mum but yeah that’s it, it’s over. Fuck mum I’m sorry don’t let it ruin your friendship. But I have to go I’m sorry love you mum.”
“I love you too Louis, you’re so brave, we are so proud of you bye.”
Louis’ heart is heavy again, for his mum and how much this is affecting her. He thinks about how fucking selfish Harry is to do this, ruin his life, and mess up everyone else’s around them. He gets a glass of water before dialing Modest.
His phone call went a little smoother than planned, the label suspected it and already had some pr tactics worked out, some shit Louis didn’t understand. The other guys were already notified and told not to connect Louis at the present moment. But he had to make a statement; Louis didn’t want to make it a big deal even though it was huge. He didn’t want to cause any more attention to himself; he quite frankly wanted to disappear.
They reminded him though that the band had one more performance tomorrow and that he would have to come out of hiding. Louis almost forgot all about it and promised he’d be there but not at rehearsal.
He sits down on the couch and opens his laptop scrolling through tweets and instinctively clicks on a link about Harry.
“Harry Styles seen leaving unknown flat crying,” Louis says aloud as he scans the photos of Harry his eyes red and puffy, “Louis Tomlinson hasn’t been spotted in days, was Harry visiting him?”
He closes the article and writes his first Tweet in over a week. It’ll do for now.
News tomorrow. Love you all. Can’t thank you enough for everything !!
***
Louis gets to the venue about 30 minutes before they have to perform. The air is tense and thick and his hands are sweating like crazy. Liam, Niall and Zayn all rush to Louis the second he walks in the door.
“Didn’t think you were coming mate,” Niall says.
“So happy to see you Louis,” Zayn kisses him on the head
“Thank you for showing up,” Liam says.
There’s so much Louis wants to say to them he wants to apologize and cry and beg for their forgiveness, but he knows they know how he feels, how he would never intentionally let them down. He can’t believe this is the last time he’s ever going to perform with One Direction, the last time he’s going to stand on a stage and live his dream.
He can’t help but start crying and Liam ushers him into a room shutting the door behind them.
“Louis I don’t know what to say or how to make things better but-“
“Li no it’s not your job to, fuck I’m so sorry mate I can’t believe I’m doing this to you guys.”
Liam’s got Louis in a hug rocking him back and forth as his tears seep through his shirt.
“No, don’t be sorry. If anything we’re sorry, we wish there was something we could have done to prevent this. None of us had a clue you and Harry were having trouble. Louis you can do this, you can get through this performance, we could never hate you or blame you for anything okay?”
Louis looks up wiping his nose and eyes, he can’t believe how lucky he is to have these amazing friends, he’s ruining their dream and here Liam is apologizing when it should be him.
“Love you Li, I will never forgive him for this.”
“Love you too Louis and I know, and don’t worry you’re not standing anywhere near him you’re gonna be next to me and Niall on the opposite side of the stage. We’ll get it over quickly but we gotta go now, run to the bathroom and splash some water on your face okay.”
Louis wipes his eyes and gets up with Liam walking out the door.
Louis hurries to the bathroom opening the door at the same time someone else is doing it on the other side.
“Oops! Sorry about that.“ He hears a familiar voice say. Looking up to see Harry on the other side of the door.
“Hi.” Louis manages to get out.
“Wow, you’re here, uhm yeah I guess I’ll see you out there then?” Harry says awkwardly trying to get around Louis and out the door.
“Yeah I guess.” Louis says walking past him, not letting the door go quite yet.
“Ya know it’s funny,” Louis Laughs to himself, “this is where it started. Now it’s ending here as well. Fucking perfect.” He lets the door shut.
Louis somehow manages to get through their performance putting everything he’s got into because he’s never going to do it again. He feels terrible, watching all these people cheer for them and scream, not knowing it would be the last time they’d ever see them together on a stage.
“Uhm there’s something I’d like to say.” Louis says into his mic a little shaky.
Liam gives him a “what the fuck” look but knows better than to stop him.
“I just wanted to thank each and every one of you for being here, for supporting us and our dream. We literally would not be up here right now if it wasn’t for all of you. I cannot thank you enough for your continuous support and love. You really are the best fans in the world and we love you all so much. Which makes the next thing very difficult to say.”
Louis wasn’t planning on telling everyone after they sang but he felt so guilty up there watching the fans and seeing how happy they were thinking there was not going to be a change, that everything was normal.
“I just wanted to let you all know that this will be my last performance with One Direction.”
The entire place falls silent; Louis notices many of the girls in the crowd starting to cry and he begins to get choked up himself as he continues,
“I cannot thank you enough for giving me the opportunity to sing for all of you over the past three years. I still can’t believe this was my life and I owe it all to you guys. I love you so much and it pains me deeply to tell you this. One Direction will go on, they’ll still tour and make videos, but at this point in time I can no longer be apart of this band, and I hope somehow you can understand that and continue to support them in my absence. Thank you all really, I love you-our fans more than anything.”
Louis brings his mic down and takes in a sigh before kissing his hand sending it out to the crowd and bowing one last time as a member of One Direction.