"But we haven't even rehearsed the song yet." Louis avowed, his forehead creased in frustration.
"But we have played it before." Liam shrugged.
"Yeah, with Daniel." Louis crossed his tanned arms. "We should do something simpler since he isn't here."
Harry picked up his new Gibson guitar as he revelled in his own thoughts. He licked his pudgy pink lips as his eyebrows contorted downwards. "We don't need him. We can do better." He disagreed.
They were supposed to be up on stage after one more gig and they still hadn't decided which song they were going to perform. As I helped guard their belongings backstage, I watched them argue. Niall and Zayn were seated quietly beside me as they marvelled at the band's terrible organisation.
"Really?" Louis scoffed. "It's just you, me and Liam. How are we supposed to do a Weezer song?"
"Harry, you should've let us know that Daniel wasn't going to be here." Liam added. "Who's going to be on the bass?"
"I don't mean to intrude but I'm quite the Hendrix on the guitar." Niall interfered in a quiet voice as he stood up. "And I know Beverly Hills by Weezer. So if you need someo-"
"Great!" Harry cut him off and patted him on the back. "Niall can play bass." He smiled.
Louis and Liam arched their eyebrows before exchanging pondering glances. "If you say so." Louis sighed. "Just try not to make us look too bad." He tilted his head to the side to get a glimpse of another band performing on the stage.
Zayn looked a little left out. He fumbled with the wires coming out of the broken microphone that he was holding. "Zayn," I called. "Have you got anything musical in you?" I asked, citing the time I heard him sing in the choir room at school.
He bit his lower lip as he thought to himself. "Uh... no."
"Zayn can sing." I ignored his answer and lightly pulled the hem of Harry's t-shirt.
"Helena!" Zayn groaned through his grit teeth.
"Is that right, Zayn?" Harry chuckled. "You can sing alongside me if you want."
"Woah, Harry, I think you should stop adding more of your 'new friends' in our band if you don't want us to look like a big joke up there." Louis quietly asserted to Harry, his hands all jerky. He looked stressed.
"Calm down, Louis." Harry placed a hand on his shoulder, attempting to get him to relax. "The only thing that's going to make us look bad up there is if we're too uptight. We're going to be great."
Louis shut his eyes and took a deep breath before turning to Zayn. "Do you know the lyrics to Beverly Hills?"
"Yeah, I do. But I don't think I-"
"We could use another singer." Louis interrupted and handed a working microphone to Zayn. "Try singing."
As Zayn worked on his vocals, Mr Jonah entered through the flowy, red curtains; but he wasn't alone. He had a woman who looked younger than him on his arm. Slightly resembling that of a lion, she had lustrous, tousled locks of dirty-blonde hair that bounced with her every step. Her red dress which could easily camouflage in the curtains hugged her body tight, outlining her curvy and somewhat busty physique.
Harry's face suddenly lost its emotions as he watched his father stride over to us with the woman. "You all look prepared!" Mr Jonah laughed in a gruffy tone as he pushed back a short, stray strand of his grey hair.
"Hopefully, Mr J." Liam replied, scratching his head.
"Harry, I see you've brought some new friends."
Zayn and Niall looked at Harry as they waited to be introduced. But Harry remained silent so they did it themselves.
"I'm Zayn,"
"Niall..."
"Nice to meet you, sir." They said in harmony as they shook his hand one by one.
"Nice to meet you, too." He smiled. "This is Melinda." He introduced to all of us.
"It's a pleasure to meet all of you." Melinda flashed a seemingly forced smile before adding, "He must be your son, Jonah. Those green eyes gave him away." She smiled at Harry.
"Harry, if I'm not mistaken?" She extended a hand. Mr Jonah waited anxiously for Harry to give some kind of response.
Harry let out a small sigh before shaking her perfectly polished hands. "Yeah, that's me."
Oh, the awkward tension.
"You guys are up." An unfamiliar head popped into the room from the curtains. "Go, go!" Mr Jonah supported. He followed with Melinda as the four boys carried their instruments and rushed outside while Harry took slow steps as if he was uncertain of whether he should go.
He stopped when he got to the curtains and turned to look at me with a rather doleful expression plastered across his usually charming face. I knew Melinda made him uncomfortable the moment she walked in. Harry hadn't gotten over his parents' divorce yet and seeing his father with another woman must've made something inside him cringe with despair.
I quickly made my way over to him and held onto his arms. "Harry, go."
"How come he's gotten with someone so fast?" He wondered.
"I'll tell you something, my parents are getting a divorce this month too. I know how much it hurts but you shouldn't let that shape your future. Try to erase that off your mind for now, Harry. This thing is a bigger deal." I told him, caressing his cheek. "You can do this." I tiptoed and kissed him in encouragement.
"That was a real booster." He grinned. "Thanks." He playfully pecked me on the lips once more before heading to the stage.
I walked back to the bags to get the keys to lock the room when heavy music began to play outside. I smiled to myself at how good they were sounding. I couldn't wait to watch them.
"Are you Harry's girlfriend?" I almost dropped the keys when I heard Melinda's voice. I thought everyone had left.
"Oh, you gave me a fright." I chuckled. She entered the room, her six inch heels clacking with every step. She was shorter than me even in those heels.
"Didn't you hear what I asked?" She bleated, walking closer to me. I was surprised by the rudeness in her tone.
"Why do you ask?"
"I saw you kiss him."
Weirded out by her remark, I arched an eyebrow. "Yes... why?"
She scoffed. "Your boy sure does know how to get the ladies." She sat down on the couch.
"Okay..." I murmured. "I need to go now." I told her, walking away.
"He chased me for months when he used to live here." When the words struck, I was taken by extreme surprise. "Until I finally gave in." She grinned.
"Wh..." I was at a loss for words.
"He was friends with my son. He came over to play video games one day and I caught his eye. Oh boy, did he ogle me." She laughed, fanning herself with her hands. "We met again when we attended the same counselling programme for bipolar disorder. Since then he began to flirt with me and told me he wanted to date me in secrecy. He knew I had a husband but that didn't stop him from pursuing me. He had a charm... it was so electric that I finally gave in to him. He made me feel like a teenager again." She sighed, resting her head on the arm of the couch.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Just when I thought there couldn't be more surprises, something new pops up. I didn't know what to say.
"The nights we had were unbelievable..." She beamed to herself as she reminisced. "I was pulled back into reality when my son found out about us from one of the boys from their circle of friends. Then my husband did too. Harry had a massive fight with my son which eventually led him to move away. His family didn't know a thing about it, though. They were in their own worlds, preoccupied with their own things. I pitied Harry because it seemed like they knew nothing about him. They just decided to move because the parents were getting a divorce and they thought he was just having random fights." She began to tear up a little.
"Why are you telling me this?" I finally spoke in a low voice.
"I want you to know. Because I want to teach him a lesson." She grinned, wiping her tears away. She couldn't have really fallen for Harry, could she? "My marriage is over. My son and husband have left me."
"None of that would have happened if you didn't play a part in it." I told her.
"But the thing is, he didn't mean any of those things he told me. He told his friends that he only wanted the sex. That's the word that he left." Her voice cracked.
"How old are you, anyway? You're the adult. You should'v-"
"Don't you dare come and tell me what to do or what I should've done." She spat. "He broke my marriage and my life. I don't care how old he is. I'm going to get back at him."
I realized that she wasn't very stable... mentally. The blaring music from outside stopped and loud chantings and cheerings could be heard.
"By getting with his father? Why would you tell me all this then?"
"Either you blurt all this out, or I do. Either way, he's going to be in a lot of trouble. He used to tell me about how much he looked up to his father and how close they were before he became too busy with his business. I'll break their bond." She let out a small laugh. "I also wanted to warn you that he has a habit of stealing people away. He likes a challenge."
The boys burst in, cheering and jumping about. Harry's face froze when he saw us.
"That was magnificent!" Mr Jonah entered behind them. "All of you were utterly fantastic!"I glanced at Harry before lowering my head and walking past him. It was too uncomfortable to stay here any longer.
I went outside where I was met with crowds of noisy people. I felt a firm grip on my hand. I turned to see a frustrated Harry. He pulled me to a quiet corner.
"Helena, I don't know what she told you-"
"You broke a marriage?"
Harry exhaled distressingly as he cupped his face in his hands. "I was wrong, I know. But that wasn't me. I had bipolar and I couldn't think straight. I realized I was wrong and that's why I conformed into taking medication... so I won't do anything like that again." The tips of his fingers twirled around the nape of my neck as he rested his forehead against mine. "Helena, say something."
"That was a really terrible thing to do." I replied. "But people make mistakes. It's good that you've realised it's wrong and it's in the past so you can't do anything about it..."
"God, Helena, thank you for understanding." He gave me a quick, yet rough peck on my lips.
"But she told me that you have this habit of... stealing people away?" I told him. "I'm just not sure if you're a changed person, Harry. I mean, what you did with Danie-"
"Could we please drop that already? I've explained it to you. I really did like you. And when you wanted me to back off, I did." He told me.
Just then, my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I knew it was Daniel because he'd been leaving me missed calls and messages the whole day. So I just left it there. Harry glared at me before reaching down into my pocket and pulling the phone out.
"Hey, give it back!" I struggled to snatch the phone from him.
"Daniel?" He fussed. "Daniel... Daniel... Daniel..." He mumbled as he scrolled through my caller log.
"Stop it, Harry, that's an intrusion of privacy!"
"Daniel... Daniel... DANIEL!" He raised his voice and threw my phone to the ground. I whimpered as I heard it crack against the hard cement below.
"What the hell is your problem?" I cried as I bent down to pick up my phone which was now broken into parts.
Harry watched me pick up the parts of the phone. "I-I'm sorry, Helena..." He placed a hand on my shoulder. I jerked away from him and shot him an annoyed look.
He took a few steps back and ran his fingers through his curls before pulling them. "This is what happens when I try to go through a day without the fucking medicine!" He violently punched the wall.
"Stop it, Harry..." I murmured.
He rested his back against the wall before sliding down to the ground. I noticed that he had tears brimming his eyes. My anger faded and I felt sorry for him... he was trying to see if he could survive without the medicine for a day. And he couldn't. He was severely troubled.
I sat myself beside him and rested my head under his chin. "I'm sorry, Helena. I'm just not normal." He uttered.
"You're normal with the medicine, Harry." I sat up to face him. "There's nothing wrong with that. Just forget about that Melinda woman and think about how well you played with your band today. Talk to your dad about her tonight, and hopefully he'll understand. When we go back to Gripleville tomorrow morning, everything's going to be alright again." I cupped his face in my small hands and wiped his tears away before pecking him on the tip of his nose.