Prologue

"Niall Horan! You can go in now.", the secretary calls me. I'm already annoyed, why they just won't let me be. I stand up from the chair and make my way to my manager. I just walk into the office without knocking. "Go out again, Mr. Horan!" the man sitting on his chair behind his desk. "You wanted to talk to me!" I tell him with a monotonous tone. "I still want you to knock". Annoyed I walk out of the office and knock, I hear a quiet "Come in please!" I open the door again, walk in and take a seat in front of the desk.

"Mr. Horan. You probably already know why you are here.", he asks me looking with his sea green eyes into my blue ones. I shrug my shoulders: "No idea. And to be honest I couldn't care less."

"Well, although you pretend like you don't care, I beg to differ. I know that you care about your career. And that's why you are here.". I look at my hands, not really interested. "There are too many rumours out there, about you, Mr. Horan. And you give me a really hard time to make them disappear. I don't know what got into you!", he starts to get louder, his face filled with anger and disappointment "I'm sorry!", I tell him and I can tell from the look on his face that he knows I don't mean it. "Niall!", his voice gets calmer and I know what comes now, "We can only give you one more chance, if you don't take it that we are going to bring the contract to an end." I look up: "You can't do that! I've been here since the beginning ! I'm your biggest star and your first real hit!", I shout.

"I get it, I do. And we had a great time, but still. If it is going to continue like this we don't have a choice. You represent this label. And you aren't making us a really good image." "Well, what are you going to do about it? If you lose me, you lose everything!"

"Mr. Horan", he goes back into formal: "You are going to get a break from everything, no tour, no concerts or anything!" "But ..." he cuts me up. "Instead you are going to the gym. We got you a personal trainer and he is going to help you through whatever you want to call this. And hopefully then you find something better than drugs and alcohol."

"But ..."