Before you go... //h.s

Dancing Queen

It had been exactly two weeks since I'd seen Harry and although we'd called and texted constantly, I had a hole in my chest from missing him. Although I loved his formal, grammatically correct texts and smiles over the phone, I missed the real him. I missed the solid, warm comfort he gave me.

There was another hole in my chest, a hole carved out from stress and panic. A hole that had been there since all that started when I was fifteen and had slowly started to heal. But recently, with the hate I was continually getting on my Instagram, the hole had widened into a gaping cavity.

It was really strange that these people were still sending through death threats and hate, especially considering there had been no photographs of us together in the past two weeks. But then again, I had no idea how this world worked, like I've said many times: I never understood the lives of celebrities, I always pitied them.

And even more so now, I felt overwhelmed to help them in any way I could. My tiny taste of their world had panicked me: hardly anyone knew who I was and yet I was getting all this hate. So how much hate did world renowned celebrities, known by millions get?

H: I just wanted to let you know that I'm coming to New York soon, I've been asked to perform at a concert, just a couple of songs, but Jeff thinks it would be good to remind people of my name since my new albums coming out in a couple of months. I only found out on short notice and only for a couple of days though.

Iris: When!!! Where? Ill absolutly b there to see u :)

H: That's exactly what I was hoping you'd say. It's the 8th September xxx

Iris: Cant wait xxx

Harry's text had completely brightened my day. Firstly because of his long, perfectly formed text that no-one other than him would send – I had never met anyone else who never used abbreviations or had no spelling mistakes in their texts and I loved that it was one of his adorable quirks. And secondly because I was going to fucking see him!

It had taken my a minute to process as I stared as the phone in my hand in shock. I'd literally frozen as I looked at it in disbelief, a frown of confusion painted on my face. Then the news had sunk in and I'd begun hopping up and down like a jack-in-a-box as an enormous beam replaced the frown.

I didn't even care that this would mean more photos of us together and more hate for me – I could tolerate it if it meant seeing him.

My heart had lightened in elatedness and when Ash walked out the back room and saw me jumping, he'd immediately joined me, clapping as he hopped around. Then I began to laugh at Ash's ridiculousness as he continued to bounce around.

We'd earned a few funny looks from customers, but we didn't care, me because I was just too bloody excited and Ash because he never gave two fucks what people thought.

He leapt over to me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders as we hopped on the spot together still excited even though Ash had no idea what we were happy about.

We definitely looked like doofuses.

I was back at my apartment, a smile still on my face. It was crazy how happy he could make me by sending a simple text. Even the grumpy customers and hundreds of dull coffees I'd had to make that day had done nothing to dent my elated mood.

It was absolutely time to have another dance party.

Luckily for me, Maya was home. Missing another day of work again and instead choosing to see friends and watch films. She'd probably been lying in that exact same position in her bed since 1am last night so it would be good to get her up doing some exercise. Not that our dance parties were officially exercise, but it was the closest we ever got to doing anything active.

Both me and Maya absolutely detested the gym and exercise.

'Maya!' I shouted as I barged through the door, clutching my phone in one hand and a large coffee in the other, despite the fact it was 6:30pm and it would probably stop me from sleeping, 'I need a dance party!'

Her head immediately popped around her door, like a field mouse emerging from it's burrow. Her brows furrowed and her mouth formed a line as she tried to decipher whether it was going to be a sad dance party or a happy one.

It was pretty clear from the smile on my face though that we were having a happy dance this evening. A beam slowly broke across her face as well as she grabbed a hairbrush and started to scroll through her phone, looking for the perfect song to accompany our delighted dancing.

As long as it was a song loud enough to drown out our truly awful singing, it was good enough for me.

'You can dance, you can jiiiiive, having the time of your life' Maya sang out as the music began to play and she shimmied over to me, holding out her hairbrush for me to sing,

'See that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the dancing queen,' I smiled, getting ready for the chorus. Abba was a brilliant band, and mamma mia was an exceptional film. One of the few modern films I really loved.

And you know what they did in mamma mia?

They danced on table tops.

I skipped over to the counter, twirling around in happiness as I saw Maya's mouth moving to the words but thank fuck, I couldn't actually hear her singing. Somehow, I have no idea how though considering how unflexible and unathetic I was, I managed to clamber up onto our counter.

Maya's eyes lit up and she wasted no time spinning over to me, following my twirls and I held out a hand to help her up onto the counter. She had the same struggle as I did but eventually we were both standing on the counter, our hands nearly touching the ceiling.

We took a short moment to just emit a giggle before our serious faces came back on and we sang as loudly as we could, trying to ignore the painful noise of our voices.

Prancing back and forth on the counter, I swayed my hips and pointed out as though there were people in an audience that I was pointing to. I've always loved pretending to be famous, pretending to sing to an audience of 65,000 people but now I've had a tiny, tiny taste of that, I hated it.

I only felt pity for celebrities.

The hate they must deal with was crushing me and I had hardly experienced a fraction of it.

'You are the dancing queen, young and sweet only seveteeeeeeen,' I warbled, my serotonin levels getting higher and higher, first with the notion I was going to see Harry and then with the singing and dancing which always put me in a good mood.

I focused on Stanley, across the room from me and watched as he swam aimlessly around his tank. Could he hear this song? Maybe we should try and teach him to sing with us?

What was I thinking, fish couldn't sing. Maybe Stanely could though, he was an especially clever fish. Wait, shut the fuck up Iris. People are always so stupid about their pets and it had just hit me now for the first time that I was the same way about Stanely.

How embarrassing.

A heavy thump disturbed me from my wanderings and I turned to see Maya lying on the floor, back pressed against the floor and legs waving in the air as she laughed. How the hell had she fallen off the counter?

'Dancing queen' the music began to fade slowly as I stared at Maya from metres above as I remained on the counter.

'I'm fine,' she giggled as she waved a dismissive hand and continued to lie on the floor, her hair fanned out around her head.

Thanks for reading! If you could vote or comment it would help this book grow and I would really appreciate it xxx
This was just a filler chapter so I'll update again tomorrow :)
Alsooo song was dancing queen by ABBA I hope everyone's already heard it but if not u definitely need to listen <3