If By Chance... [h.s au]

TRACK ONE

PART ONE: SIXTEEN

I swear to fucking god if I hear one more asshole slam their hands down on the piano keys, I will lose my shit.

Who the fuck decided to make music class a mandatory subject? The kids forced to be here ruin it for the ones who choose to be. It's as if it is their mission to ruin my mood and drive me to insanity all before 10:00am.

My fingers pressed firmly to my ears, in hopes of drowning out the noise. Mr Mason, our music teacher, gave me a tight-lipped 'it pains me too' smile before trying to bring order to the class. It was almost Christmas break, that's what has been getting me through the last few weeks of school.

A chair scraped along the linoleum beside me and books landed with a thump on the desk.

"Just by the skin of your-" the bell indicating the start of class rang, "teeth." I murmured in his direction.

"You know I always show up." Harry laughed.

He began digging through his bag as Mr Mason started explaining our objective for the lesson. With a disappointed sigh, he sat up straight before opening his mouth to ask the question I already saw coming.

"Black or Blue?" I whispered, unzipping my pencil case and removing a variety of pens.

He reached for a black pen and mouthed a 'thank you' with a cheeky smile. I rolled my eyes before directing my focus back to the lesson. Mr Mason having my undivided lasted a whole fifteen minutes, which is a new record for us, before Harry started poking at my ribs.

"I swear, Styles. You will be the reason I fail the only class I'm good at. What do you want?"

"I got an audition!" He whisper-yelled, his feet pitter pattering excitedly under our desk.

I swung my body to face him at olympic speeds, my jaw fell open and my hands clamped together over my heart.

"Shut the fuck up!" I exclaimed a little too loudly.

"Vayda, first and only warning mate." Mr Mason called from the front of the room.

I quickly apologised before turning back to Harry. His bottom lip was caught between his teeth to contain his smile as he nodded rapidly. I threw my arms around his shoulder and let out a breathy chuckle.

"I'm so proud of you, Harry."

My body spun back to face the front and tune back in for the final part of the lesson, but not before catching the faint pink blush resting upon his cheeks and neck.

The bell acted as a starting gun and projected me from my seat. Harry was in no hurry, as usual, slowly loading his books into his bag. We had a study period next, so it didn't matter but he was acting as though he didn't lay an absolute bombshell on me earlier.

We walked in silence out of the music room and made our way to an empty classroom to hide in during our spare. Ever so calmly, Harry dropped his bag and sat on the nearest desk.

"You can't drop that on me and never speak of it again! Tell me about the audition, when is it? What are you singing?"

A shy smile formed on his lips and he looked to meet my gaze through his lashes, "the auditions are in March, I have no idea what I'm going to sing. I'm so nervous and excited and scared and confused. There's a lot happening up here and I don't quite know how to organise it all."

I closed the space between us and wrapped my arms around him properly this time. His arms came to rest around my lower back, chin resting on my shoulder.