Twist Of Fate

Harris And The Torturous Dance Routine

Harry leads me upstairs to where they've been performing for a week now. He says that they're supposed to me rehearsing up there. However, they're running a little late because the choreographer is late. When we enter the huge room where the stage, and all of the seating for the audience is set up, Liam's eyes immediately fall on us.
"Finally, Harry!" Liam exclaims, throwing his hands up in the air. "We were going to send out a search party." My eyes fall on Louis. He's scowling at us.
"Harry, if you're going to head off for hours, the least you can do is inform us." Louis says, getting up from his seat and marching toward the stage. "Nowadays you're getting too distracted." Harry grimaces and tightens his hold on my hand.
"Don't blame this on Bumper." Harry says through clenched teeth. "I held us up."
"Oh, sure." Louis scoffs, rolling his eyes. I really don't like him.
"Louis, it's okay. Harris isn't here anyway," Niall says.
"Harris?" I ask Harry, my voice barely above a whisper. I feel like I'm trespassing on One Direction's territory and now I'm regretting my decision to come here.
"Our temporary choreographer. Our usual choreographer is on leave and Harris is his replacement for a few weeks. He's going to teach us the new choreography for the Europe leg of the tour."
"Europe? You're in America right now."
"Yeah, but we're not rule-following guys, so people need to really drill something into our minds." Harry rolls his eyes. "That's why our old choreographer made sure that we begin rehearsing from now."
"Oh," I murmur. Somebody claps from behind us, and all of our heads turn to see who's there. A man, probably in his thirties, is standing near the door. He's wearing a Polo shirt, with khaki pants, and white sneakers.
"Sorry I'm late, but I had to drop something off." The man says, making his way down the stairs hastily.
"Harris," Harry says. Realization dawns in my mind. I'm so excited. I'll be able to see how One Direction rehearse. "Bumper, you can sit here." Harry gestures toward the front row. Right now, there are no barricades between the stage and the front row. I nod my head, and untangle my hand from Harry's. However, the minute I do so, and he realizes what I'm doing, Harry grabs hold of my hand again and leads me toward the seats. "I'll take you." These small, sweet gestures make my heart flutter all the time. From the corner of my eye, I see Louis gag and I roll my eyes.
"Louis doesn't like me very much." I whisper to Harry. He purses his lips and shakes his head.
"It's not that he doesn't like you...Louis' just complicated." Harry says. I take a seat and he crouches in front of me, placing his hands in my lap. "Louis wants what's best for me, and he knows what a toll a long distance relationship can have for the people involved in it. He had a long distance relationship years ago." I nod my head. I'm sure Harry's talking about Eleanor. Harry gets up and bends down, placing a short kiss on my lips.
"Watch me rock that stage." Harry says, winking at me. Laughing, I shake my head at Harry's antics.
"Let's see what you got, Styles." Harry wipes off imaginary dust from his shoulder and runs toward the stage, bounding up the few steps that lead to the stage where I stood two nights ago. I brace myself for what I'm about to see. The new choreographer takes out a dock and an iPod. He sets them up and then does some hand stretches and some leg stretches. What is he planning on teaching One Direction? Ballet? I hope he knows that they can't dance. Even though for me their small dance steps are better than the complicated ones.
"Okay, first of all, I'd like you to show me the choreography that the guy before me - who's not very important - taught you." Harris says, rolling his neck. Arrogant, much. The boys look at each other with confused expressions and then they take their places onstage, and stare at Harris for further instructions. Harris, realizing that One Direction isn't going to do anything else, gawks at them.
"That's it?" Harris asks, bewildered.
"Yeah, we don't dance." Liam says, and the others nod. "Our choreographer just tells us where to stand at the starting of the performance, and after that...everything's up to us." Harris shakes his finger and head.
"No, no, no!" Harris practically yells. "We're going to have a proper dance routine and dazzle the world." Cue Harris' jazz hands. Harry looks at me desperately and I give him a thumbs up and a smile for reassurance.
"So, what're we going to do?" Harry asks, his eyes trailing back to Harris.
"First of all, stand in a square." Harris instructs. The boys shuffle around, until they're standing in a square. "Now merge." I watch the boys, my eyes travelling between each one, until I realize that they're not moving. Harris realizes this too after a few seconds and he raises an eyebrow.
"I said, merge!" Harris barks out.
"How?" Louis asks him, irritated. "We've never danced in our life and we're not willing to now. Just tell us our opening positions."
"I will certainly do no such thing," Harris says. "You will listen to what I say." They're not kids, I want to yell. Harry's eyes meet mine again and he juts out his bottom lip.
"Relax," I mouth.
"Torture," Harry mouths back. Liam slaps Harry's back and moves his eyes toward Harris, indicating that Harry should hear what their new - thankfully temporary choreographer - has to say. I roll my eyes behind Harris' back. He's a man who doesn't understand that One Direction cannot dance. Nor does he understand the fact that they can fire him in the blink of an eye.
*******
Two hours later, Harry comes stumbling toward me, covered in sweat. I hold out the water bottle that Gideon told me to give to Harry once they got a break. Harry takes it gratefully and gulps down the water.
"Bastard." Harry murmurs, taking a seat beside me. "He thinks we're dolls. Lift your arm, move your leg, who says such things?" I shrug my shoulders.
"He's useless, I agree." I say, placing my hand on Harry's shoulder and massaging it. Honestly, Harris is just doing his job. However, he needs to realize that these boys have no hand-foot coordination.
"If we get rid of him, Paul will get really upset and knowing him, he'll cut his vacation short and come back."
"So, you're stuck with him until Paul's back?" I already know the answer and my heart fills with pity for these four poor lads.
"Yeah, that's the sad truth." Harry sighs, and chugs down more water.
"Easy there, Harry." I take the water bottle from his hand, and hold it close to my chest, so that he won't make a grab for it. "I know you're thirsty, but small sips will be better. Bigger sips, and gulping the water is going to make your insides hurt when you start practicing again." He nods his head, and I hand him the water bottle. This time, Harry takes a sip and then looks at me. I nod my head, smiling. "That's it," I agree.
"Thank you for another wise lesson in life, Madam Mus." Harry winks at me, and I laugh.
"You're welcome, Sir Styles." I give Harry a two-finger salute, making him spit out the water in his mouth because he's laughing too hard. The boys and Harris shoot weird glances our way, but this time I remember what Harry told me down in the corridor and don't care about what they're thinking.
"Back to work!" Harris yells, clapping his hands together. Groaning, Harry hands me the water bottle and gets up.
"Back to torture," Harry whispers. He leans down and kisses my lips, and then heads back up the stage. After another fifteen minutes of watching the boys struggle, I've had enough.
"I think you need to stop!" I announce, keeping my eyes locked on Harris. I get up and make my way to where Harris is standing. He's stuck in some weird dance step. Once I'm standing beside him, I hold my hand out toward the boys. "Can't you see that they're all clearly struggling? I don't think four boys can go wrong, but I think one man can. You."
"Miss, you're disrupting our practice and I can get you evicted for doing so." Harris warns me, clearly furious that I have interrupted his precious dance.
"Don't speak to her like that." Harry says sternly, making his way toward me. He stops beside me, wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me closer to his side.
"Harris, all I'm saying is that you need to change the choreography a little bit." I say, feeling a little more confident now that I know I have Harry's support. "Merge the steps that they already know into a small dance routine."
"Steps that they already know?" Harris scoffs and rolls his eyes. "They're a bunch of nincompoops and they know nothing about dance."
"Sure they do." I defend the boys. I turn to face Liam. "I've seen the Where We Are movie many times and I know that you can do some excellent break dancing steps." Liam nods his head, smiling at me. Well, he seems relieved. I turn to face Louis. "You know this move that you do," I take a step away from Harry and perform the move that I've often see Louis perform. "You can do that, right?" Lips pursed, he nods his head. Then, I turn to Niall. "You already move your hands a lot, and that's fine because you're also playing the guitar." Finally, I turn to face Harry. "And you, Harry, don't need dance moves. No one can box your stage energy into certain moves. You can jump around, bang your head and spit out water, and that's all you need." Harry cracks a grin and I laugh. "Plus, you all know that rowing move. Now, if we just make a three to five minutes routine with those steps, wouldn't everyone win?" I turn to face Harris and place my hands on my hips. He stares at the boys and notices their expressions of approval.
"Fine, show me what this lady's talking about and we'll incorporate those moves into a poor dance routine, but it'll have to do." Harris says, and Harry kisses my cheek, before joining the boys back on stage. They all seem happier, and more energized now.