Passenger Seat

The holidays came and went. Aunt Jenny and I spend Christmas with Blue and her parents, like we do every year. I got a mini lecture from Blue’s mom about not coming to see her enough, but she understood. She was so proud that Blue had finally talked me into getting in front of the camera.

New Years was a blast. We all went to this party at Grimmy’s house and all got completely car parked, and Niall and I rang in the New Year snogging in the corner.

No one’s seen much of Harry since before the holidays. He had come home for Christmas, but spent it with his family, before flying back out to spend New Years with Taylor. Now they were on a ‘couple’s vacation’ in the Bahamas. Gag me.

Other than that, things were good. Niall and I were good, there was no drama in the group, the bakery was getting a good amount of customers, my aunt and William, who she was now officially referring to as her boyfriend, were doing amazing, and I was doing steady modeling shoots. I was still overly tired all the time, but it was good.

While I was on my lunch at the bakery, Zayn had called and said Kota wanted to get together and talk to both of us. I was nervous, for her mostly, but glad that she was ready to talk about everything. I don’t know why she wanted to talk to me and Zayn, but I was glad either way.

So after work Zayn picked me up to take us to Kota’s. “So what do you think she’s gonna tell us?”

He shrugged, not taking his eyes off the road, “Hopefully how and why this all started.”

“I hope so.”

The drive to Dakota’s didn’t take long, and before we knew it we were sitting in her living room trying not to seem too anxious. Zayn and I sat on her couch while she sat on the one across from us, “So, originally, I wasn’t going to ever tell anyone this,” she said biting her lip. She was ringing her hands together, we could tell she was nervous.

“It’s alright Kota. Take your time.”

She sent a grateful glance at Zayn before looking to me, “I wasn’t going to say anything, until Zayn told me what Taylor said to you.”

“He told you?” I asked surprised, glancing between the two friends.

Zayn shrugged, “I had to tell her. It was partly about her.”

“Look Ayden,” Kota said pulling my attention back to her, “You shouldn’t underestimate Taylor’s threats.”

“Dakota, what happened?” Zayn demanded. He was so impatient, he just wanted her to get on with it.

She glanced at him fleetingly before looking back at me, “She could ruin your relationship with Niall.”
“How?” I said in hardly a whisper.

She sighed and sat up straighter in her seat, glancing between Zayn and I. “A few months ago… well I guess almost a year ago now, your publicist,” she said looking at her childhood best friend, “came to talk to me.”

“Marie?” he asked confused, “Why?”

“She,” she sighed again, “I’m sorry, this is hard for me to get out.”

“It’s alright, take your time,” I encouraged.

She nodded, “Well, she basically told me that, it’d be better for Harry and the rest of One Direction, if we broke up so he could date someone more ‘high profiel.’ Someone that could bring enough media attention to the band.”

“What?” Zayn and I said at the same time.

She held her hand up, “Let me finish. I outright told her no. That I would tell you and Harry what she told me. But then a few weeks later, she came to me again, with Taylor’s publicist. I guess Taylor had her eye on Harry. She needed a muse for her next record. And well, they had dug up my past, you know the drinking and the partying, and threatened to leak it to the press if I didn’t do what they asked.” She wasn’t looking at either of us anymore, her eyes cast down to the coffee table between us, “I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let my horrible past taint Harry or even you” she said looking back up at Zayn. She shrugged, “I finally agreed. They told me I needed to make it believable, so I had to drag out the fighting. It was easy once I nitpicked everything. Now he’s with Taylor. Everyone got what they wanted.”

I was speechless. I had no idea who to say. Did I have a slight inkling that something like this happened? Yeah. Did I think it really did? No, not in a million years.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Zayn seethed. “Why didn’t you tell me this Kota?”

“I didn’t want to burden you! You over react about everything!”

Zayn shot up, “Over react? This is mental! This is wrong! This is… This…I’m going to fix this.”

“How?” Kota and I said in unison.

He glanced between us, “Well first, I’m calling Simon and telling him what Marie did. Marie is getting fired or I’m walking. She can’t do something like that to someone I love and get away from it. Then I’m calling Harry.”

“Don’t do that!” Kota jumped up, “He’s happy. Let him be happy.”

He scoffed, “He’s not happy Kota, he’s settling.”

“Zayn,” she said in a warning tone.

“Do you still love him?” he asked. His eyes had softened so he wasn’t glaring anymore. I felt like I didn’t belong in this conversation, but I had nowhere else to go.

“Of course I still love him, but-”

“There’s no ‘but,’” he cut her off. “He’s still in love with you and once I tell him what happen he’ll be on the first plan back here to get you back.”

“You don’t know that. I really hurt him!”

“Yeah, you did,” he agreed. “But it wasn’t all completely you’re fault.” He turned to me then, “Can you find another way home? I’ve gotta to see Marie and fire her myself.”

“Uh, yeah,” I stuttered. Before Kota or I could say another word, he was already out the door.

Dakota sighed and took Zayns spot next to me on the couch. She was staring down at her hands in her lap, “I’m so scared that once everyone finds out the truth they’ll hate me.”

“They won’t hate you.”

He looked up at me, “They might. They’ll be angry I didn’t come to them first. But Ayden, I was so terrified of my past ruining their reputation! I didn’t think I had any other choice!”

I grabbed her hand, “I know. I don’t blame you for what you did. I’d probably do the same thing if I were in your shoes.”

She nodded, “I’m also scared that… if everything get’s fixed, things will fall apart again.”

“They won’t. How could they? Just be open and honest about things with everyone and there won’t be a problem.”

“That’s just the thing,” she sighed, “I did some sketchy things the past few months that I’m not proud of.”

“You’re getting help now, none of it matters.”

“Can I tell you something in confidence?”

I bit my lip. The tone in her voice made me feel on edge, “Yeah.”

She looked up into my eyes again, “Promise not to judge me?”

“I’d never judge you,” I said instantly.

She nodded, “Well, one night about 2 months ago, probably a week or 2 before that dreadful night before you picked me up from that club, I… well I had gone out on my own to Funky Buddah, yeah?” I nodded, telling her to continue, “Well I got obliterated. I was so drunk I couldn’t even see straight. I don’t remember anything about that night.”

“Okay…?”

Her bottom lip trembled like she was trying hard not to cry, “Well the next morning, when I woke up, I wasn’t at home.”

She wasn’t looking at me anymore, like it hurt to tell the truth. Which I guess it did. I squeezed her hand encouragingly, “So are you trying to say you have a one night stand? No one would hold that against you.”

She looked back at me, “No, they would. Especially the lads.”

“Why?” I asked confused.

“Because…. Because I slept with Nathan Sykes.”

I froze and I couldn’t help the shocked look cross my features, “You slept with Nathan from The Wanted?”

“Now you see why I can’t tell anyone. Everyone knows One Direction and The Wanted have this ridiculous feuded. Can you imagine if it got out that a Wanted member slept with one of One Directions ex’s? The media would go nuts! Harry would never forgive me for that, and Louis would absolutely hate me!”

I wanted to tell her she was over exaggerating or blowing it out of proportion, but I knew she wasn’t. I loved Louis, but he would be completely livid if he found out. He hated The Wanted and loved starting shit with them. I sighed, running a hand through my hair, “Wow.”

“I told you.”

I let out a sigh, “Alright, okay. So… we have two options here. One, you can just bite the bullet and tell Harry what happened when he comes to talk to you. Because Zayn’s right, he’ll be at your door as soon as he finds out what happened. Or, you could just not say anything, we keep it between us, and just hope it never comes out.”

“I like the last idea,” she said instantly.

“What if Nathan tells someone?”

“Don’t you think if he was going to tell, he would have already?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know, I don’t know the guy.”

“I just…” she sighed, “Just, for now, let’s just keep it between us, okay?”

“Okay,” I hated that I was agreeing to keep this secret for her, but I understood why she wanted too. I was just hoping nothing came back and blew up in her face.

Kota asked if I’d stay with her for a while longer, which I had no problem with. We decided to make something to eat and pop in a film. But half way through this movie I got a call from Niall.

“What the fuck didn’t you tell me about what Taylor said to you?”

Wow was he angry.