Chapter Text
“I can barely breathe. Never would I have called, in your shoes. The delete option is there for a reason, Niall” Benny, the radio host of Triple Style, chortled loudly.
“For someone who can't breathe you're still talking an awful lot” Niall shot back smugly.
“Nice one, Nialler. No idea how you always come up with something like this on the spot” Liam patted his shoulder impressed.
“It's called natural talent” Niall laughed carefreely.
“Not everyone can be ...”.
“Don't start this now, Lima. We're still on the radio and I don't think you wanna embarrass yourself in front of the whole UK, right?” Harry stopped him amused. His two friends could never leave it be. It was always the same.
“So, you don't think I could take him?” Liam raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.
“Really?” Harry threw him an annoyed look. “We both know none of us two is sassy, sarcastic or witty enough to battle Niall. It's his job to be a pain in the ass”.
“Yeah, Lima. HEY!”.
“As amusing as this is, we should get back to our game. Liam, you're next. Scroll down your contacts with your eyes closed until I say stop” Benny instructed them entertained.
“I'm gonna regret this” Liam sighed out heavily but started scrolling anyway because he had no choice.
“Loosen up a bit, Lima. What could possibly go wrong? You have no interesting contacts in your phone anyway” Niall joked to lighten his bandmate up.
“Did you just call yourself boring?” Harry grinned at him.
“Stop trying to be cheeky, H. You're not” Niall shut him down.
“Stop,” Benny said loudly and immediately, Liam's hand stilled. “And, who is it? Call or Delete?”.
“Actually, it's Evan. Let's just call him. He won't answer anyway. He's a busy man” Liam sounded totally relieved.
“How boring but okay”.
The dialling tone sounded over the loudspeakers in the radio station and Harry thought Evan might really not pick up but then his voice sounded lowly out of nowhere. “Liam, Hi. What's up?”.
“Nothing much. Just having an interview marathon but it's the last one for today. You?” Liam answered and made all of them groan.
For as long as Harry knew Liam, he has never been good at starting random conversations, especially not with people listening in on him. When he wasn't prepared for an interview and had no clue what was coming his way he was always freaking anxious. This man needed a plan to breathe and couldn't take a joke to save his life. Or more like, he wouldn't understand it's a joke until it's too late, which was obviously used by his other bandmate Niall to his advantage because he loved to prank people and take the piss out of everyone and Harry couldn't love two people more.
“Let me guess, Call or Delete with our favourite Drama Queen Benny?” Evan guessed over the phone but Harry could clearly picture the smug smirk on his face.
“How did you …?”.
“I'm just good” Evan cut him off. “Hi, Niall. What's up, Harry?”.
“Not much” Harry shrugged, being as unable to come up with good answers as Liam.
“I have to endure these two useless idiots ruining the game. Nothing good happened apart from me calling an old friend of mine. It was freaking hilarious” Niall let him know.
“Childhood days or early band days?” Evan checked curiously.
“Early band days. His name is Isaac and let's just say he was confused about why I called and I might have interrupted something I shouldn't have” Niall told him, already cackling again.
“Oh my god! This is so you” Evan started laughing out loud.
“Guilty as charged” Niall laughed along with him, which made everyone else laugh as well.
“Anything you wanna add before we move on to torturing Harry, Evan?” Benny threw in, tried collected because he still had a show to run and an interview to continue.
“Not really. I'm working on new songs. So, I guess I'll go back to it” Evan teased evilly.
“What? You can't just leave us hanging after you dropped that bomb! Evan!” Benny exclaimed horrified.
“Bye, guys”.
And with that, the line went dead.
“I hate when he does that” Benny grumbled cutely.
“He is a good old tease, isn't he?” Harry chuckled amused.
“Innit” Niall grinned broadly.
“Whatever. Harry, your turn” Benny clapped into his hands, startling all three of them.
Still trying to stop laughing, Harry grabbed one of his two phones. For this interview, they had all been digging out the oldest phone they still possessed. The one Harry had with him was from the very early band days, way before they've become famous overnight. If this had been a good idea …
“And go”.
With his eyes closed and a racing heart, Harry started scrolling through his old contacts. Many people in there he hasn't seen in ages. Most probably had totally different numbers by now. Hopefully, he would just land on an old number of his sister or something. Then he would call but no one would pick up.
“Stop”.
With Benny's voice signalling him to stop his movements and open his eyes, Harry's whole world stopped around him. He blinked a few more times to make sure his eyes were seeing the actual downfall right in front of him or if he had made this up in his head. But no. His eyes weren't betraying him. This was real.
“Harry? Call or delete?” Benny's voice sounded somewhere in the far distance but Harry couldn't focus on it.
He knew a camera was pointed at his frozen face, loving every little piece of this personal nightmare but he couldn't care less. His thumb was hovering over the contact. Internally, he was fighting the biggest battle of his life over something that wasn't worth it. Someone who wasn't worth it but he couldn't help it. After some more silence and hesitation, Harry decided to just call the number from over eight years ago. He could never delete it.
When the dialling sound stopped with a loud click and someone answered the call Harry's heart stopped. But the voice sounding through the studio made him freeze in his seat. “Why the fuck are you calling this number, Harry?”.
Everyone was staring in shock at him, but Harry was totally confused. “Zayn?”.
“Don't sound so surprised, Styles. After all these years you should be able to recognise my voice” Zayn snorted unamused.
“No! I mean, what … Zayn, why did you …?” Harry stumbled over his words, making no fucking sense.
“Don't bother, Harry. Don't ever call this number again” Zayn ordered sternly and ended the call.
The deafening silence afterwards felt like tiny needles were poking him all over his body and it was going on for way too long. Zayn's cold and dismissive voice was echoing through Harry's mind while everyone was still silently staring at him, even the producers and other staff members from all around.
Highly embarrassed, Harry cleared his throat. “Niall, it's your turn again. C'mon. We don't have all day”.
Awakening from his stupor, Niall took his phone and scrolled through it but couldn't stop looking at Harry. When Niall had to call his brother the mood relaxed again but Harry could feel the tension in his bones paralysing him. His old phone was still safe in his strong grip underneath the table because he couldn't seem to let it go. Let him go.
His second call ended up being one of his ex-flirts, Megan. Calling her was fun and he realised she hasn't been so bad, after all. This almost made everyone forget about his first call. Almost.
“Guys, I'm afraid that's it for today. It was fun to have you here” Benny smiled friendly at them towards the end.
“Thank you for having us” Liam thanked him politely.
“Always. After your break, I demand your first comeback interview” Benny joked light-heartedly.
“We'll see about that” Niall chuckled freely.
“Okay. This was it, guys. This was One Direction playing Call or Delete with me before their undefined break after years of being together. Let's wish them a great time off. They deserve it and tune in next week when I will try and tickled some secrets out of Dolphin's Curve. See ya” Benny ended the show.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Harry jumped out of his seat and sprinted out of the room and right into the backstage dressing room. He needed to get a second to breathe before his bandmates would make him talk about what happened earlier. With a lump in his throat, he was staring at the still open contact on his phone without a name saved, just two symbols.
“Harry, what was that out there? Why would you call Zayn? You could have deleted his old number. No big deal. But this now is a big deal. The press will be all over it” Liam stormed into the room and immediately, attacked him riled up.
“Liam, calm down. They most likely will cut this out of the final version. Our label won't let this bit air. You know them” Niall tried to reason with him unexpectedly.
“And if not? It will be all over the internet. Harry Styles calls ex-band member Zayn Malik and get told off. Another proof the boys are no longer in contact and the friendship is broken” Liam was losing it now.
“That sounded pretty accurate. Maybe you should write it yourself” Niall threw him a mad look, making Liam shut up.
“Sorry. I'm just worried about you, Harry. You don't need more bad press. He's ruining your image enough as it is. Band drama shouldn't be added to the mix” Liam apologised ashamed.
“It's okay, Lima. I understand and I appreciate your concern. I don't want that to happen” Harry smiled softly at him.
“Then why did you call Zayn? Deleting the number instead was an option. You couldn't possibly think Zayn would be wanting you to call” Liam wondered perplexed.
“I hate to say it but he has a point, H. Why would you call him and risk this drama?” Niall sided with Liam.
“I wasn't calling Zayn” Harry scratched the back of his neck.
“What?” Niall looked incredulously at him.
“But it was Zayn on the phone and ...”.
“If you didn't call Zayn, whose number was that?” Niall cut Liam off hesitantly. “Whose number wouldn't you delete?”.
Harry looked down at the heart and hedgehog symbol on his old phone and swallowed heavily before answering, shocking both of his friends to the core. “It was Louis' number”.