Serendipity is for Suckers | h.s. *EDITING*

19 // ❀

"What do you mean they've just disappeared?! Bobby, this is your job! They could be in some serious trouble right now!" Graham dramatically ends his phone call and rushes to me.

"Can you try Harry's cell again? And if he doesn't pick up, try Elise," Graham requests.

"Yeah, of course," I say and pull my phone out of my back pocket. It's almost an hour to showtime and Harry and Elise seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth. I honestly never expected something like this to happen and my main concern is that they both irritated each other to death.

Before I could even press the call button, Harry and Elise come storming in the dressing room that Graham and I are standing in. There are a few shared sighs of relief that travel around the dressing room all coming from the hair and makeup staff.

Lou and Amelia rush over to Harry as he spits out some bullshit apology. After laughing at his attempt to soften Graham's pissy mood, I notice how Harry and Elise are drenched from head to toe in water.

"It was raining!" he exclaims as Amelia pushes him behind the dressing panel.

"And was the rain the reason why all the cars in Spain weren't functioning enough to give you a ride back here in time? Or to even give you enough working brain cells for you to use and answer your damn phone?!" Graham retorts. I look over at Elise the same time she looks at me and we stifle a laugh.

I cover my hand with my mouth and Elise is pulled across the room to get dried and cleaned up.

Harry chuckles to himself and he, Elise, and I are sure to have karma kick us in the ass for laughing at Graham's dismay. Elise takes off her dry coat and that's when I realize that it's... Harry's coat. Oh.

She must've been freezing outside and Harry offered her his coat or something. That small gesture, I admit, makes me a little jealous and it's fucking pathetic.

Harry mouths something to Elise and I'm not able to read what he said. They laugh again, causing Amelia to groan in frustration as she tries to dress Harry who keeps moving.

This is weird. I thought they hated each other. Well they obviously made up.

I shake off whatever small bit of jealousy I have at their interaction and follow a stressed Graham out of the dressing room.

♩♫♪♬

"Hey," Elise greets from behind me.

"Hi," I respond.

She joins me from where I'm standing on the side of the stage and we both watch as Harry and his band prepare for the curtains to drop and the show to start.

Elise is already dried up and changed and she annoyingly looks like a supermodel despite her run in the rain earlier. Her makeup free face and glowing skin perfectly compliments the extravagance of her designer outfit and tall heel boots.

It's irritatingly perfect the way she doesn't even try. We're physically the same height and I can't help but feel so small when she towers over me with her high ass shoes.

"So... I'm assuming you and Harry made up?" I ask to break the silence. Not that I wanted to break the silence in the first place, I was just curious about her and Harry.

"Yeah," a small smile forms on her face. "Wait, he told you about us?"

I think back to that time he uninvitingly showed up at my apartment to rant about her.

"Well... yeah."

"Hmmm," she sounds and her mind wanders off for a few beats. "He's my first publicity stunt you know. I didn't know what to expect when my publicist brought up the idea, I just thought we were going to play pretend for a few months and hold hands in public and everything will be just fine."

"And? Isn't that what you're doing now?" I press.

"I don't know really... I didn't think much of it when we first met but we just had an amazing day at the garden and... I don't know," she shyly shrugs.

She obviously wants me to pester her more for details on their "amazing day" so she can shamelessly gush over Harry without admitting she actually likes him.

As much as I want to hear all about what happened to ensure that they're just friends and nothing more, I would still rather stick my hand in a tank full of snakes than listen to the possibility that they're getting along more than just fine.

I had hope. And I feel pathetic for admitting to even myself that I had hope in me and Harry. It's just silliness. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't daydream a couple of times today of Harry and I at that rose garden instead.

"What do you mean you don't know?" I ask and internally roll my eyes at my feebleness.

She smiles a giddy smile. "Well, maybe it won't have to be a publicity stunt after all?" she suggests and a tiny tiny piece of me breaks.

"I just think we started all over today. We didn't start on the best terms and once we were able to get over his childishness, it was like we were able to start fresh with one another and I got to see the more charming and nice side of him today."

Her immoderate smiling is making me nauseous.

"So what are you saying? You guys are like a thing now?" I ask. Diyos, I'm sure glad I missed out on the awful hormonal typical teen problems back in high school. Like, honestly, just admit you like him and stop the "I don't know" bullshit.

She doesn't answer but smiles thoughtfully at me. Then she blows out into this whole talk about their "amazing day at the garden" that I honestly didn't ask to hear in the first place.

She tells me about their crime, the kiss, and the fountain which explains why they came in soaked in water. Her enthusiasm and passion is wearing me down and I swear I'll throw up everywhere if she mentions for the thousandth time today how she felt like her body was on fire when they kissed.

I'm not that much of a bitch so I fake the thrill in my voice when I aww and ooh at her story.

A man with an unpleasant presence and a stupid headset appears next to me and shouts "One minute!" at Harry and the band and I really just want to punch him in the fucking face.

Harry looks over at our direction and gives me his infamous white teeth, dimple showing, award winning smile. I smile back and give him a thumbs up and a mouthed "good luck."

Oh wait. Shit.

I look over to my right and spot a smirk play on Elise's lips as she eyes down Harry.

Okay. He definitely wasn't smiling at me.