The Christmas Concert | h.s.

Chapter 23

One Week Later

Harli's POV

"Again."

I sighed and stepped up to the microphone. After the kiss with Harry and walking the whole 45 minutes to L.A., he was flown out, with Louis, immediately. I didn't really get to say goodbye. As soon as he left, Jess told me she was flying out that evening and Scooter showed up at my house and dragged me to the studio. After a tearful goodbye from Jess, I pretty much hadn't left the studio. Even Ty had taken up residence.

Don't get me wrong, I loved recording, but I'd been trying to get one section of the song right for 20 minutes. It was extremely frustrating, but it's part of the job. I looked down at the lyric sheet, trying to see what was next before taking a deep breath and beginning to sing.

She's the girl that you love to hate,
She's the heart stopping double take.
Everyone knows that she's got it made,
Working hard to be...Miss Popularity.

That song actually meant a lot to me, and Jess read it over and helped me with it while she visited. Essentially, it's about us and how we used to strive to be "Miss Popularity." I wanted to have a nod to how I used to be on my album, even if I wasn't proud of that phase.

"That was much better."

I smiled at Scooter and took a sip of water from the bottle sitting by my stool. After clearing my throat, I switched set the bottle down, "Should I move on?"

"Please, go to the second verse."

I shuffled my lyric papers around until I found the second verse and read it over silently. I took in the tune of the music and tried to match the lyrics. Humming along, I mouthed the words before singing it softly to myself, "Ok, I'm ready."

She wears the cutest clothes
She has the latest phone
And all the right accessories
Her skin's like porcelain
Her hair is perfect and
Sometimes she really gets to me
She's gorgeous and you know she knows it
She's a size zero and she loves to show it
Yeah

"Again. Try those last three lines again."

*******

My throat was scratchy as I took a deep breath. A fourth water bottle was laying on the floor next to the other ones at my feet. Scooter finally took pity on me, "That's it for today Harli, go get some sleep and we'll see you tomorrow at 8:00. I think we are done with this song, so we'll start In Love For a Day next."

I nodded and left the studio, yawning loudly as I walked to my car. Sliding into the driver's seat, I rested my head on the steering wheel for a few seconds. When the car cranked up, I saw it was past 3:00 in the morning and sighed, knowing I'd desperately need coffee when I woke up.

My cell phone ringing broke me out of my thoughts, and I saw it was a face time request from Harry. I clicked accept and turned some lights on in the car. While the call connected, I rubbed my eyes tiredly and began backing out of the parking spot.

"Hey, Har."

"Hey, Harry, how's life?"

"No complaints here, how's recording?"

"Tiring, we've done about three songs, and are about to start the fourth."

"That's good, but you look exhausted."

"Yeah, I get up around 7:30, make coffee and put some new clothes on, go to the studio and record all day long. I get done around now, which is 3:30."