The Christmas Concert | h.s.

Chapter 18

Harli's POV

"This is kind of terrible," Michael groaned from behind me as we got closer to the top of the mountain we were hiking. Luke tripped and almost slid into Jess who yelped as she sidestepped.

"Good catch, Jess," Luke glared at her and she shrugged.

"You would have squished me, I prefer to stay unsquished."

Harry walked next to me silently, and I noticed he was wearing one of the headbands we bought. It was similar in color to mine, so I poked his arm, "Hey, we match."

Harry looked over at me and smiled, "Friendship goals."

"Totally."

When we finally got to the top, I took a deep breath and looked out at everything below us. From somewhere behind us, I heard Jess yell, "Thank God!" mixed with a victory screech from Michael.

"I want a picture," Louis called out, trying to gather everyone. A group of boys that looked somewhat familiar rounded the corner, and I motioned to them.

"I think they can take one for us."

Jess used her t-shirt sleeve to wipe the sweat from her forehead and came to stand next to me while we waited for the boys to reach us. She made a small noise and turned to me, "You know who that is right?"

"They look familiar," I shrugged.

"They're famous online, that's Scotty Sire."

"I've heard that name."

"Yeah, he's pretty cute," she whispered as they got closer.

Ashton got their attention and asked to take a picture of us. One of them agreed easily and jogged the rest of the way to us. We arranged ourselves, Jess and I in the middle, Harry on the other side of me, and asked him to take a few.

When he handed the phone back, the guy asked me for a picture, and I smiled, "Sure. I look like a mess though, but if you really want."

"I do," he responded and leaned in closer.

After the picture, we turned to go back down the trail. Calum got tired of Michael's whining about five minutes in and snapped, "We're literally going downhill for the rest of the walk, just chill out."

I snorted as Michael flipped him off. Harry took up his spot next to me again, and our walk in silence resumed.

*******

"Oh man, I'm beating you so bad," I boasted as I watched my points bar rise higher.

"No fair, you've played this before." Ashton whined.

When we got back to my house, Ashton saw Just Dance on my shelf and immediately challenged me to a dance off. Jess and Calum sat in the living room while the rest of the guys used Harry's car to pick up food for the rest of us. Unfortunately for him, Jess and I had been playing this game most nights she'd been here, so I was practiced.

After I dominated at California Gurls, Beauty and a Beat, and Umbrella, Ashton hit the pause button. I looked over to see his lips in a pout, "I'm tired of losing."

"Aw, poor baby," I laughed, "in that case, we should totally do a duet song, that way we'll work together instead of going against each other."

Ashton grinned, "That sounds sick."

I scrolled through the songs and found I've Had the Time of My Life from the movie Dirty Dancing. As a team, we were more spastic. Halfway through the song, we'd basically started leaping and twirling around the room, laughing when we bumped into each other.