"Harry you said you got me an audition." I hiss quietly into the phone trying not to make my anger obvious to the other people in the hall. "I'm literally the only dancer here, she said it's a freaking practice session today."
After Harry had told me that I would be auditioning for an Ed Sheeran music video, I'd felt like I had to sit down for a moment. He'd had to repeat the other details several times before they'd really sunk in because I was still hung up on the whole Ed Sheeran bit. But then I couldn't stop thinking about the audition and I'd gone home almost immediately to practice, and I'd spent the next week locked in the studio, going over my technique and choreographing my own solo just in case. All because I had been under the impression that Harry had got me an audition, but oh boy, was I wrong.
"Okay, so maybe, my charm worked a little too well, and Ed basically promised to give you a shot. What's the big deal, if you'd auditioned you would've got the part anyway?"
"You don't know that Harry. I just – I don't want you to get me my jobs, I want to work for them and know that I get it because I'm talented and not because my best friend is a stupid idiot popstar." I notice the lady behind the desk gesturing at me, to indicate that they're ready so I wrap up the call. "Look I'll talk to you later I have to go."
"Good luck," He says. "I love you."
"I love you too." I mumble back begrudgingly and I can easily picture the smirk on his face as I hang up. I walk over to the lady who motions for me to follow her.
"So today will be a choreography session, you'll learn the choreo with Ed and afterwards we'll give you a schedule for rehearsal and shooting times." She fires off as I follow her through the corridors. I'm more nervous now than when I thought this was a simple audition because now, I feel like there's some ridiculously high standard that I have to live up to because of Harry's intervention.
We walk into a large hall area, where there's quite a few people; choreographers, the director maybe, a few assistants milling around, and of course, Ed Sheeran, just standing in the middle of the room talking to one of the assistants. The lady who'd led me in, beckoned for me to introduce myself as everybody else turned to smile at me. I walk up to them all sheepishly, playing with my sleeves, as they look at me.
"Hi, I'm Madeline." I say with a nervous smile as I shake Ed's hand more than aware of my other hand pulling on my sleeve anxiously.
"I'm Ed, it's nice to meet you. Harry talks about you a lot, you come highly recommended." He replies with an easy smile.
"Oh, so no pressure then." I huff, and he chuckles.
"You'll be fine. If you're even half as good as Harry says you are, you'll be amazing." I blush at the compliment, although I don't know which meant more, Ed's confidence in me, or Harry's. "We're just going to learn a bit of the choreography today and see how we work together and stuff I guess, so um whenever you're ready."
I nod and smile in response, putting down my bag and starting to get ready, taking off my shoes and socks and putting on my foot thongs, before beginning to stretch. A few minutes later, I'm ready to begin, and Ed and I spend the better part of the day learning about a minute's worth of choreography. The routine is beautiful, a perfect mix of lifts and turns, where Ed and I move as one in spiralling turns and flowing movements. For somebody with little dance experience, I feel comfortable in Ed's hands, and trust him, which is paramount. We go over and over the same key movements, learning them inside out before piecing them together. Of course, there's times where we stuff up horribly; Ed drops me a few times, I fall out of my turns horribly, but when the routine works, it works well, and I can tell from everyone's reactions that it looks amazing too.
At the end of the day's work, we've learnt most of the routine, well enough that we'll both be dancing it in our sleep tonight. Ed and I are both lying on the cool floor, sweat patches all over our clothes and our chests rising and falling almost in sync as we try to recover from all the jumps and lifts that we had been put through time and time again.
"You did really well today Maddy." The director says, and I laboriously sit up to look over at him.
"Thanks, but it's easy to do well here."
"We'll organise to do a few more practice sessions, so that you both have the choreography down, and then we'll start costume fittings and then filming." He continues and I stand up while he talks. "We'll be in touch."
I shake his hand goodbye, and then once I've changed, I say goodbye to Ed, and start to make my way home smiling the whole way. It's not until I get back home and see Harry sitting on the couch next to Chloe, watching some daytime court show, that I remember I'm supposed to be mad at him.
"So how did it go?" Chloe asks, not looking up from the TV as I sit on the opposite side of Harry.
"It was good, everyone was really nice and the choreography was beautiful. We've got some more practices coming up and then it won't be long before we film the video."
"So, really what you're saying is that I was right, and you're not mad at me anymore?" Harry says, with a hopeful smile on his face as he turns to me.
"Of course, I'm still mad at you, you idiot." I say, looking at the television instead of at him, because I know that I won't be able to stay mad if I see him smiling at me.
"Here we go." Chloe mutters, knowing exactly what I was going to say, and probably not agreeing. I smile to myself slightly, biting my lip to try and hide it. Yes, I was annoyed with Harry for not giving me the chance to audition, but I couldn't exactly stay mad at him for getting me a job.
"I don't see why you're getting so annoyed, I was just helping you out." He says seriously, and when I look back at him, he isn't smiling anymore.
"Harry it's not that, I just ... I don't want to have to rely on you to get work. I don't want to have this ... this feeling of having to make sure that I don't stuff up because it'll come back on you. I don't mind you helping me out every now and then, but I want to be able to prove myself and get things on my own merit. I don't want people to feel obligated to hire me just because you said so and I don't want my bad performance to reflect on you and affect your reputation."
Harry's silent for a moment, before nodding. "Okay."
"Okay? That's it?" I ask, surprised at the fact that he isn't even fighting back.
"Yeah. I mean, everything you said makes sense, and I don't want you to feel like you have to represent me or anything like that. You're your own person, and I just want to help you out, and if that means not persuading people to hire you then I won't do that. I gotta pee, I'll be back." He says, getting up from the couch swiftly and heading to the bathroom.
I look at Chloe with a surprised expression while Harry walks away.
"Unbreakable bond." She reminds me, not even looking away from the TV.
"Whatever." I say dismissively, throwing a pillow at her, which she knocks away without hesitation. "So, what's been happening with you? I feel like we've barely talked."
"You've had Harry here, so you're a bit preoccupied." She replies flatly, and when I go to apologise, she waves a hand at me and continues. "It's okay, I know you guys have a lot to catch up on, and he's like your soulmate or whatever. Besides it's nice to have a break from you every now and then."
"You love me."
"Not really." I try to throw another pillow at her for that, but she grabs it out of my hands before I can and slaps me softly with it.
"But really, what have you been up to?"
"I went out on a date last week." She says dismissively, and I can't stop my jaw from dropping. She goes to say something else before I interrupt her.
"Hold up, you went on a date?" I exclaim. "You can't just skip over that so casually. How was it?"
"It was nice ... we clicked well. I'm seeing her again soon." Chloe shrugs nonchalantly, but I could tell by the little twitch in her lip that she'a excited about it.
"Chloe that's so good! How come you didn't tell me about it?" She goes silent for a moment, and with the look she gives me, I feel guilty without her even saying anything yet.
"I don't know. You were kind of, going through your own thing with Harry and it didn't really seem like you wanted to know. I didn't want you to feel like I was rubbing it in your face or whatever." She says hesitantly, as though she felt bad for pointing this out to me.
"I'm sorry that I made you feel that way." She goes to say something but I continue. "I should've shown more interest in you and your life, I'm really sorry. But for future reference, you can always tell me everything, no matter what mood I'm in. And if I give you lip for it, I give you permission to smack me. So, tell me all about this girl." I prompt, and she gives me a thankful smile before we go into depth about her new date.
Even after Harry comes back to the couch, we're still talking about her and how their date went. Harry sits down on the other side of me, and I lean back into him instinctively. While he watches the TV, and Chloe and I still gossip, his arm hanging across the back of the sofa and over my shoulder. Every now and then he'll join in the conversation and ask a question or two, but it never feels forced or awkward. It feels natural. Like home.