Until Next Time | HS

52.

"Oh, and when you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life," Harry pauses for a moment. "Oh, yeah!" pause. "Back in the summer of '69!...uh-huh...It was the summer of '69!"

With the drum beat for the last three words and the smooth strike of the guitar, the performance ends with wide smiles on their faces. I grin with my full face and lift my hands to give a silent round of applause before stepping forward and switching off the camera. I smile and give thumbs-up while saving the video, meanwhile, Gemma moves to the speaker and turns off the song which was playing for reference.

"Jesus Christ, that was amazing!" Chloe claps her hands and moves away from beside me, going towards the band. I smile as she hive-fives all three of them and stands back. "Honestly, it was phenomenal."

"You still have that same style, Harold!" Jonathan laughs and hi-fives Harry. "It did not change at all. That playing with your mic wire and stomping a bit on the spot is a very endearing habit of yours, H, I've always loved that."

"It looks like you enjoyed every second of it," Gemma speaks with a proud smile on her face. "But anyway, it was great" she looks back at the other two. "-you guys did a fantastic job, I loved that."

While the three of them talk to Harry and refresh their old memories, I quickly manage to put my camera back safely into its bag and put the bag away in the corner where the other stuff was. I stand up, turn around and see Sydney standing in front of Joshua, so my brows furrow and I walk towards them. The frown on my brows quickly drops when I see both of them in a somewhat panicked state.

"Hey," I put my hand on their shoulders and turn them towards me. "What's wrong? You seem a bit odd are you okay?"

I rub their arms as Joshua speaks, "I feel anxious in front of the camera and the fact that it's going to be up on the internet... And there were people too, strangers..."

"We did good, right?" Sydney rushes out and looks at me. "I mean, both of the times? But we did so many retakes while recording the instruments and I don't know if my face was good-"

"You did excellently." I cut off her sentence and take their hands in mine. I smile at both of them and give them an assuring nod. "And you didn't take so many retakes, it was only 3 times. It's okay, it happens. It was your first time doing so, you'll get used to it eventually."

I nod when they smile hesitantly, so I quickly tug at their hands and pull them forward in a hug. I rub their backs and pat them for unsaid praise and assurance of their first-ever performance.

"How are we going to perform in front of two thousand people and god knows how many cameras if we can't do that in front of a single camera and three people?" Joshua laughs as they pull away. "I think I will-"

"You will do just fine." I interrupt before he speaks further. "Feeling anxious about a big event is common," I look back and forth between them. "plus, it's not like you're alone. You have each other, you have Harry, me, your band, everyone. You just need to stay calm and tell yourself that you can do it." I shrug with a smile. "It will make things easier."

"You know what," Joshua folds his arm over his chest and quirks a brow. "You can be a great therapist." Sydney nods in agreement.

"Well, I hope so."

"No, but like," Sydney grand my hand. "Thank you. I truly think that we'll do fine every time we perform if you're there with us." I smile, my heart getting full. "You are like a moral and emotional support to us."

I feel my ears picking up the heat, so I tap her hand with mine and remove it from her grip. "Enough with the praise." they chuckle. "But, how am I going to get the data from your computer, Josh?"