Platinum// H.S.

9

T.W.- mentions of depression, anxiety, and suicide

I watch the staff of Ellen's Stardust Diner dance and sing around the tables to Cell Block Tango from Chicago with a small smile on my lips. I have yet to see the musical live, but I remember the day that I first watched the movie. It was my eighth birthday, meaning Gemma was eleven, and my mum had brought me home a DVD. She had heard about this musical that came out in cinemas and had just been released on DVD. She knew how much I loved musicals, as I always participated in them at school, so she decided we should watch it as a family. She didn't really know what the movie was about before buying it and would try to cover mine and Gemmas eyes or ears when a risqué song or scene appeared. Gemma and I would giggle uncontrollably every time and try to move mums hand away. For weeks, Gemma and I would sing the lyrics around the house, while doing chores, schoolwork, or eating dinner. It became a tradition after that to watch a musical on both mine and Gemmas birthday.

I'm brought out of my memory when a plate of food is placed in front of me. I look up at the waiter and thank him with a smile, he shoot's me one back and continues working quickly to get the rest of the table their food. I see Reyna and Jazzy speaking out the words of the song and dramatically acting it out.

"And I fired two warning shots," I see Reyna mouth, she is holding up her fingers to imitate a gun while Jazzy is pretending to be scared but is really just holding in her laugh, "into his head."

She puts her fingers to Jazzy's forehead and "shoots", and Jazzy plays along by going limp in her seat, her head hitting the back of the cushion.

I notice a smile has grown on my face from watching the pure happiness erupt from Reyna, so I look away. I'm met with Niall's eyes, who sits in front of me, and he raises an eyebrow at me in question. I ignore him and look down at my steaming plate of food that holds a vegan burger and fries. I take a bite of the burger and am pleasantly surprised at how good it tastes.

"Hey photographer!," I hear, I look up and see Reyna staring at me from her end of the table, "Do you mind taking a picture of Jazzy and I?"

I swallow down my food, "It's my job isn't it?," I ask while pulling out my phone from my pocket, "Along with chauffeur and tutor."

She rolls her eyes but I snap a couple of photos of Reyna and Jazzy together. Once they think I'm done, they start singing again and I take some more without them noticing. As I'm picking at my food, I look around the room of performing waiters, Gemma still on my mind as I mumble the words of the song that are engraved in my mind.

All of a sudden one of the waitresses that is singing makes her way to me and crouches so she's performing while at eye level with me.

"I guess you could say we broke up because of artistic differences," she says into the mic while looking at me, "He saw himself as alive."

All of a sudden the microphone was at my lips and I couldn't stop the next words from coming out of my mouth even if I tried, "And I saw him dead."

She smiles and dances off while singing the next part with the rest of the performers.

Reyna reaches over and slaps my arm, "Is Harry Styles a theater nerd?"

I scoff, "I wouldn't say nerd per se."

She gasps, "Oh you so are!"

"Acting like you weren't over there singing with Jazzy," I playfully roll my eyes at her.

"I am a theater nerd, I'm not afraid to admit it," Reyna says.

"And I'm going to school for being a theater nerd so you can't say anything bad," Jazzy says, pointing a fry at me.

"He can't say anything bad about theater nerds," Louis says and then smiles while looking at me, "He's one of the biggest ones."

"I have seen the videos of you in Grease you know?," I squint at Louis.

"Hey! I was a great Danny Zuko," Louis defends, "Plus the girl that played Sandy was hot!"

"Not really into it," Zayn says, looking around the restaurant.

"You know who is into theater?," Jazzy asks, dipping her fry into some ketchup, "Hailey."

Zayn's head snaps towards Jasmine and it takes everything in me to hold back my laugh.

"Really?," he asks.

"Mhm," Jazz replies, swallowing her fry, "Said she's never seen anything on Broadway and would love to go with someone," she raises her brow at Zayn.

"Wouldn't the perfect person for that be the guy who wrote a song about her?," Niall says smirking.

Jazzy slaps her hands on the table, "No fucking way! You wrote a song about her?"

"And he's gonna perform it next week and I already told Naty and Hales to come," Reyna says.

"Yeah I was just kidding," Zayn says biting into some of his food, "We're not gonna perform that song."

"What?," I say, "Why not?"

"Cause I'm gonna look mental for writing a song about her after one night."

Little does he know that I wrote an entire song for his little sister when we hadn't even done anything, and we'll be performing that song in front of her next week. I feel like it's vague enough that she won't notice, no one else in the band did when they heard the song.