My Little Bird

Staying up all night on google had been a big mistake.

Asher had started by listening to the albums, watching the music videos, and then watching hours and hours of interviews. The fact that each of those videos had hundreds of millions of views was overwhelming, as were their follower counts on twitter. She had read the wikipedia pages for each of them and then for the band. And when she had finished all those things at almost eight o'clock the next morning, she looked under the news tab. The very first article had been posted just minutes before and she felt sick as she read it.

One Direction member Harry Styles was spotted leaving Alpha late last night with American beauty Asher Maxwell. They looked very much the couple, Harry leading her by the hand through the massive crowd and to a waiting car, both keeping their heads down and staying silent despite the loads of questions being shouted at them. "She seemed very surprised by all the attention," one onlooker said. "But she braved the crowd like a pro."

[Check out the photos here.]

The pair left the exclusive nightclub just moments after fellow 1D member Louis Tomlinson and his girlfriend Eleanor Calder exited through the same back door. Sources inside the club say they were all together with a big group that included the rest of One Direction, partying in the VIP room in celebration of Calder's upcoming birthday and they all appeared to be having a great time. A carefully watching waitress who shall remain anonymous said Styles and Maxwell were acting quite cozy the entire night, dancing very closely and later cuddling together on the leather sofas.

The teen heartthrob has most recently dated actress Abigail Prentiss, their on and off relationship ending only a few short weeks ago. Many still speculate that our favorite American darling is the reason for the breakup since she has been spotted with Styles many different times over the past few months, both before and after Prentiss's return from filming in New Zealand. The cheating rumors were denied by the boybander's management but reps for Prentiss could not be reached for comment after their initial confirmation of the breakup.

We don't know what's fact or fiction in this whole situation, but one thing's for certain: we think Harry and Asher make an adorable couple and we hope they stick around! Quick, someone think of a ship name!

She should have stopped there. After spending another few hours reading through every article she could find on the two of them, she could see that the first article was by far the nicest. The comments on them were worse. She couldn't believe how speculative and hurtful and just downright hateful most of the people were; the things they were saying about her and the names they were calling her were malicious and completely unfounded.

Googling her own name turned out far worse. Whatever things she had seen people saying before had increased tenfold with the new search. There were facebook pages dedicated to bashing her, a photo of her with a red X over her face as its default photo; there were thousands of posts in the tag of her name on tumblr, some of them just lists of reasons not to like her and reasons why she wasn't good enough for Harry. Tears rolled down her cheeks in a steady stream and she choked back sobs, but she couldn't stop reading. She knew she was only punishing herself by reading it because these people didn't know her and they didn't know her relationship with Harry, but she felt like she needed to read it anyway. She'd been kept in the dark about so many things that now she wanted to know everything she could possibly learn.

The images tab was filled with paparazzi shots of her, mostly with Harry, but also with Eleanor, Perrie, and all the other boys; there were even a few of her by herself. She saw pictures all the way back from the very first day she'd even met Harry when they went to pick up chinese food for everyone. The realization that these people with cameras had been following her every move basically since she arrived almost two months ago was highly unsettling. The only thing worse than that was the complete invasion of privacy she felt when she saw one photo in the bunch that was not like the others.

Surrounded by paparazzi images was a photo of her lying in her bed, her eyes closed and her hair piled into a mess on top of her head as Harry's head rested on the same pillow, smiles on both their faces. Niall was missing from her other side, something she was sure had been done on purpose to make things look more suggestive. Niall had taken that photo himself with his own phone and as far as she knew, he had only sent it to her. Realizing that despite only the two of them having it, it still somehow got out and got posted to the internet sent a new surge of panic through her and she quickly slammed her laptop shut, pushing it away from her as she rolled over and curled up on her side, a fresh wave of tears following.

A soft knock on her door jarred her awake around three that afternoon but she ignored it, not even bothering to ask who it was. She was angry with all of them, even Eleanor; the way she saw it, they had all lied to her and kept something very very important from her so they were all to blame. Pretending she didn't hear it only made the other person keep knocking, three short raps against the door every nineteen seconds. After five straight minutes of this continuing, she finally groaned and rolled onto her back, glaring at the ceiling. "Go away!"

"Please talk to me, Ash," he begged desperately from the other side of the door. He sounded pitiful, his voice cracking with the strain and it took everything she had to stay where she was. She was beyond angry with him, but she hated hearing him so miserable, even if it was his own fault.

"Just leave me alone, Harry."

She waited for him to respond, but when he didn't after a solid thirty seconds, she let out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, relieved that he had done as she asked. She unplugged her phone from its charger and picked it up from the nightstand, now seeing the seven texts and missed calls from him, and at least one text and missed call from all the others that she hadn't heard while she was sleeping. Even Eleanor had resorted to texting her when she wouldn't let her in after Harry left the night before. She deleted all of them without bothering to even read them and she left her phone on silent, tossing it into the empty space next to her as she turned over to go back to sleep.

Harry came by again on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday but she still refused to talk to him, just asking him to leave her alone every time. Eleanor became more concerned as time went on and she begged Asher to come out of her room, but she didn't. It had been three days and she hadn't seen her cousin once; Asher had only come out of her room to take a shower in the middle of the night while Eleanor was asleep and then she would go right back in, locking the door behind her. She didn't want to see any of them. She kept her phone on silent, not answering any of the calls or texts she received, unless they were from one of her sisters at home.

Shortly after Harry finally gave up and left on Friday morning, Eleanor gave it another shot. Asher ignored her like she'd been doing all week until she finally sighed and told her she was going to have lunch with Louis and that she'd be back in an hour or two. Asher waited until she heard the front door shut before she came out of her room and she immediately went to take a quick shower before pulling on some clothes and leaving the flat.

She wasn't really sure where she was going, only that she was going crazy being stuck inside that bedroom for so long and that she needed to get out for awhile so she just started walking, letting her feet take her wherever. When she ended up at Finch's, she froze outside the building, debating on whether or not she should go in. Maybe she was doing it out of spite, but when she thought about how much the boys and Eleanor would dislike her going in, she immediately pushed the door open and did just that.

Regina was standing behind the counter, giving her a bright smile as she walked up and slid onto one of the stools. "Hello, love! Haven't seen you around lately. You look stressed. Would you like some coffee or tea?"

"Coffee please." She watched as Regina poured her a cup and set it down in front of her and she gave the woman a weak smile as she added some milk before taking a sip, not caring that the hot liquid burned the inside of her mouth. Regina disappeared into the kitchen as Asher took a few more sips before setting her mug down and propping her elbows on the counter, leaning her forehead against her fists. The door swung open again, but she kept her eyes on the pale yellow counter top in front of her.

"Hello, stranger."

Her head popped up at the sound of his voice and she found him leaning against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest and a frown on his face. She didn't even bother making any excuses as she ran a hand through her damp waves with a sigh. "I'm sorry. I know I suck and that doesn't make up for it, but I've had a really shitty week so please just be mad at me later." She took a deep breath, looking up at the ceiling to try to keep the tears from forming again. She'd already done so much crying in the past few days that her eyes felt raw and she was sick of it.

Olly immediately dropped the indifferent facade as he walked around the counter to pull her into a hug. "What happened?"

She gave a hollow laugh as she ran her hands over her face. "I'm an idiot."

"Come on," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her up from her seat. "Let's go for a walk."

Despite her weak protests, he led her toward the door and she finally gave in when they reached the sidewalk outside, just so that he would drop her hand. She was still unbelievably angry with Harry, but now it just felt wrong to have her hand enveloped by anyone else's but his. They walked in silence for awhile and it was actually nice, but the longer she was left alone with her thoughts, the worse she felt. As soon as they reached the park, she headed to one of the empty benches under a large tree and he sat down beside her, throwing his arm over the back of the bench as she turned to sit sideways so that she could be face to face with him.

"Now why are you an idiot?"

She shook her head and blew out a puff of air, causing the strand of hair in her face to move only slightly before settling back where it was. Olly chuckled and raised his hand to brush the strand behind her ear and she froze completely until he put it down again. "Just-....how could I not have known who they were?"

"Oh," he sighed. "That."

"All these things that I thought nothing of before suddenly make sense now. I went with Harry one day to get food for everyone and I was sure I saw something flash, but he just brushed it off saying he didn't see anything. Now I know it was a fucking photographer. Harry looking really surprised when I started singing a song I'd heard on the radio-- because it was his own fucking song. We left a restaurant through the back door one day because Eleanor said it was a shortcut; of course I thought it was weird, but hey, this is a foreign country and she's my cousin so I didn't question it. I overheard Liam say something about a 'video cut' one day, but I didn't want to seem like I was prying so I didn't ask and then I just forgot about it. At lunch one day, some lady just started talking to me in the bathroom, asking me all these questions like how old I was and where I was from. I just thought she was nosy! God how could I be so fucking naive?!"

"I don't think it's naivety, Asher. Who would actually suspect that the people they became friends with on summer holiday were famous? How would you know? To you, they were just your cousin's boyfriend and a few of his mates. Hindsight is 20/20, babe. All those things may seem obvious now because you know who they are, but before that you had no reason to suspect anything so mental."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Course you can."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Olly leaned forward to prop his elbows on his thighs, licking his lips as he took his time in answering. "Harry asked me not to."

"What?" Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"I knew as soon as I came out of the kitchen that you didn't know who they were and when I said his name, he gave me the stare-down to make sure I didn't blow it for them. He came back later after you went home."

"Did he say why?"

Olly shook his head. "He only said that they didn't want you to know and he asked me not to say anything to you. It was very hard for him, asking me for a favor, considering how much he hates me."

"He doesn't hate you. He doesn't even know you."

"Doesn't matter," he chuckled. "None of them like me, not even your cousin."

She wanted to be able to tell him that he was wrong, but they both knew he wasn't. Instead, she shook her head and leaned back against the bench, pulling her right knee up to her chest. "You know, I stayed up all night the other night just looking at all the pictures that've been taken without me knowing. Finding out what people are saying. Reading all the articles that've been posted about me." She swallowed the lump in her throat, annoyed that she was letting herself get upset again. "People are so hateful."

Olly only watched in silence as she quickly reached up to wipe away the tears collecting in the corners of her blue eyes. "I didn't even know I was being watched all this time, you know? And all these girls have to say about me is that I dress weird and I look like a bitch and I'm not worthy to be around the boys. One of them actually made a list of all the things that are wrong with me according to her. My eyebrows are too prominent, my boobs are small, my tattoos are tacky." She shook her head and sniffled, running her tongue over her bottom lip. "I have a hard enough time with people liking me when I actually meet them. And now I have millions of people judging me based on what? Pictures I didn't even know were being taken?"

"My personal favorite comment is the one where I'm a whore. I mean, why? Harry and Abby broke up before she left for New Zealand. But even if they hadn't, that wouldn't mean I couldn't hang out with him. I hung out with Zayn and Louis too, and Liam after he started dating Sophia. It was simple hanging out. But every time we went somewhere and someone took pictures of it, they used it as 'proof' that he was cheating on a girlfriend he didn't even have. All the times they took pictures of me out with any of the other boys, there was never any speculation. No one ever thought Zayn was cheating with me, or Liam. But everyone sees the pictures of me with Harry and they automatically start spreading all these lies that we had a secret relationship behind Abby's back? That's bullshit. Harry never cheated on Abby with me because we were just friends. I even tried to become her friend for Christ's sake!"

Olly finally sighed after letting her finish her distressed, agitated tirade. "Hate to tell you this babe, but unless you plan on gettin' on a plane home today, you're gonna be in it from now on. Things won't change that much I suppose, except for the fact that now you'll be aware of the paparazzi, but they're not going to stop. If you go out somewhere with any of them, you can pretty much guarantee a photo posted the next day."

She just stared at him, feeling an entire new rush of panic. On some level she knew that, but she really only just realized it when he told her. From now on, if she was going out to Tesco to pick up ingredients for dinner, she'd have to look decent. Now she knew there were millions of people who were just waiting to criticize what she wore or how her hair looked or if her fucking nail polish was chipped. She put her right leg down and ran her hands swiftly across her damp cheeks. "Okay, I think I need to go hide in bed for a few more days."

He chuckled as he dropped his palms to his thighs and pushed himself up to stand. "Come on," he said, nodding his head back toward the way they'd come. "You look like you could use one of Finch's specials."

Her stomach growled at the mere thought of getting to eat something after she'd been locked away for three entire days and she immediately stood up to follow him back to the cafe for the meal he promised.

She could go back to worrying about that big stuff after a burger.