salute [h.s]

december 6 - planning family party

"We're great. Amazing, actually. I've just unpacked the last of the stuff Ally sent and, oops, sorry. I didn't mean to bring her up."

"It's alright. I'm a grown-up. I don't care if you talk about her."

"Right... anyways, I wanted to see what your plans for next week are because -"

"Going back to Ireland! I'm so excited. It feels like ages since I've been home."

"Oh, is that right? And you're flying back early next week, or closer to Christmas?"

"Probably early because, you know, I might as well. Got nothing else going on. Plus I miss my mum something terrible. You know how it is when you've been away for so long and you just want a hug from your... um, right. You know. But you know what? We should meet up after the holidays, exchange gifts and things."

"Sure, I guess."

"Have a happy Christmas, bumblebee. Call me on Christmas and we'll chat."

-

Harry stormed into their last band meeting before the holidays, so filled with rage and disappointment that he could barely see straight. Here they all were, the four idiots, lounging around like it was no big deal, like they hadn't just made a terrible mistake. He wanted to throw something. He wanted to lose his temper. He'd never felt so angry before.

"There he is," Liam called out as Harry came into view. He quirked an eyebrow when he got a good look at Harry, probably because he wasn't sure why Harry was angry. Idiot. "What's going on? You're late."

"Yeah, sorry," Harry said sarcastically as he narrowed his eyes at each of them. "But I spent the morning trying to coax Bea out of the bathroom and when she finally let me in she had a huge panic attack."

"Shit," Louis muttered quietly. Niall was wide-eyed, stunned and a little horrified. Zayn was biting his lip, looking concerned. Liam just looked very confused. "What happened?"

"You wankers happened," Harry snapped, picking up the water bottle that was sitting on the table and tossing it at Louis, hitting him in the shoulder.

"Ow," he whined as he held the injured spot. "What was that for?"

"You're all bloody idiots!"

"What did we do?" Niall raised his hands defensively when he saw the fierce look on Harry's face. "Seriously, what happened?"

"You all talked to Bea this week?"

They all looked between each other, nodding. None of them seemed to sense a problem. Harry wasn't sure whether that redeemed them a bit or whether it made him even angrier that none of them had noticed. "And that went fine? Everything went well?"

"Yeah," Louis said first, looking at the other three lads to make sure it was okay for him to talk. "I was up in Doncaster so it was a little busy but it wasn't, like, it wasn't bad. Bea sounded fine."

"She sounded fine with me too. I mean, she was a little bummed that I couldn't make it to her dinner on the 22nd but -"

"Wait, she invited you too?" Niall interjected before Liam could finished. Liam looked over at Niall and then frowned as he nodded his head. "I hadn't realized it was supposed to be all of us. You too?" he asked Zayn who nodded. When Niall glanced over at Louis, he nodded his head as well. Harry could almost see the thinking happening on Niall's face, the exact moment when two and two came together to make four, because his eyes widened and he cursed under his breath. "It's the dinner, isn't it?"

"She's been planning it for weeks," Harry informed them bitterly as he shot each of them withering looks. "She's missed everyone so much since we've been all over the place doing promo and she wanted to have a nice Christmas dinner, all five of us together. And all of you idiots blew her off."