Light Me Up [H.S]

3

Dinner was impeccable as always. Not because of mum's cooking skills, but because of the private chef, Paulo, who worked for them. Mum never cooked a meal; not even a comfort meal if any of us were sick or sad. Paulo however knew all the comfort dishes we loved growing up. Half of the time I had been sick during my childhood it had been Paulo and his wife Leona, who was our housekeeper, that had helped us. Our parents were literally always on the go. 

The chat around the dinner table was very polite and light. Niall was joking as always and he made everyone laugh. I had to raise an eyebrow at him when I caught him flirting with Peyton, who sat across from him at the dinner table. He was being a smart mouth, but Peyton was quick on her feet and not afraid to call bullshit. They were discussing what made an author great. 

"But there's like a million people online, who call themselves authors writing Harry Potter fanfiction and they can't possibly be taken seriously," Niall said and swirled his wine glass, making the red wine create tears on the inside of the glass. He had a cheeky smirk on his face, but Peyton wasn't fazed. 

"Of course they're authors. They create the content, don't they? Yes, they build it on preexisting characters, but there's so much more to it. They still have to create the story and structure the narrative. If a guitarist plays another musician's riff does that mean he isn't a musician himself?" Peyton leaned her arms on the table, giving Niall a challenging look. A wide smirk spread across his face and he held up his glass to salute her. 

"But surely there is a sense of plagiarism involved with these fanfictions?" Dad suddenly said, having quietly observed the conversations around the table. Everyone looked at him, and I felt a knot form in the pit of my stomach. He would probably make Peyton look like a fool. 

Peyton looked at dad, and where I could have feared she would back down, she stuck her chin out and shook her head. "No, it's not plagiarism. Plagiarism is claiming someone else's idea as your own. Fanfiction is creative writing, but there needs to be proper credits to the original source. It can still infringe on copyright laws, depending on the stance of the original creator and the specifics of the fair use doctrine, but not if the authors get their facts straight. Besides isn't all literature based on something?"

I caught Harry's lip quirking up in a small smile as dad backed down and agreed with Peyton. She calmly returned to talking small with Niall and Louis, while dad observed her. Something told me he was impressed with her. 

After dinner mum and dad decided to retire, leaving us to do as we pleased. Harry and I opened the bar out by the pool and we decided to go night swimming. Alli and Peyton went upstairs to change into their suits along with the rest of the guys. 

"I'm impressed that Peyton made dad shut up," I chuckled, as I started mixing a tray full of drinks, so they were ready when the others came downstairs. 

"Mmh," Harry agreed and rolled a couple of joints and placed them on a tray next to the drinks. "Alli seems really nice. She's a caterer?" 

It was obvious he didn't want to talk about Peyton. I wasn't going to force him to tell me what had happened earlier when he had surprised her in the bathroom, but I was sure something had gone down. "Yeah, she's wonderful. A really good caterer, too. I really hope she likes it here. I'm getting a weird vibe from mum and dad." I bit the corner of my lip and hoped Harry would disagree and tell me it was all in my head. He didn't.