serendipity ⤑ harry lewis

eight

"happy birthday, harry!" everyone cheered in unison as harry walked in, causing him to immediately turn his back on everyone and put his head in his hands in embarrassment.

"thank you, thank you" he finally choked out as he turned around, waving his hand. he clearly hated it as everyone was staring at him as he made his way over to josh and hugged him.

technically, there wasn't heaps of people that harry didn't know. it was the troops, everyone from earlier, the sidemen and their employees and a few others that harry actually likes.

"can i get a double disaronno and coke please," i smiled to the barmaid, "oh, and two shots of sambuca."

i watched as she stumbled to grab the drinks, remembering the days where i used to do this.

"thank you," i said in reply to the drinks being placed in front of me, before looking up to see a card already being pressed on the machine.

i look up to see ethan smiling before taking a seat next to me, "you alright?"

"yeah, good thanks. just need a drink before i start talking to anyone," i laugh, pushing a shot in his direction. he did just pay for it, to be fair.

we cheers before downing the shots.

"you look good tonight, eve," ethan remarked, trying to gain eye contact as i was staring behind him at harry talking to arthur, "like, amazing"

"thanks" i chuckled slightly.

"sorry, sorry. i couldn't help myself," he laughed.

"no, don't worry about it," i replied before downing the last third of my drink.

"woah, woah. slow down," cal laughed from behind me as he placed my glass down.

as cal and ethan started talking about a football video they were planning with each other, i took it as my cue to leave.

"hi!" i cheered to harry and arthur as i sat beside them.

"how drunk are you on a scale of 1 to 10?" arthur asked with a grin, noticing my stumble.

"stop asking everyone that! you're so weird," theo stressed from the other side of the table.

"probably.. a 6" i slurred, receiving laughs from everyone at my blatant underestimation.

"i still hate this, you know," harry said slightly quietly, leaning over so no one could hear him.

"how many have you had?"

"only 2!" he stressed, "i've still got like 100 more people to speak to"

"it's fine, it's fine," i stuttered, "i'm going to get another drink"

"mines a double vodka and lemonade" harry smiled as i walked away.

a few hours later, i was standing in a group with gee, mia and freya having a very drunk chat. then, we heard our favourite song start blasting through the speakers. 'american boy' got the majority of our group on the dance floor as it had become our song.

"who's the hottest in the world right now? just touched down in london town," gee and i sung to each other as we danced.

before we knew it, chip got the microphone and turned the song into karaoke, making everyone laugh and cheer him on from the dance floor.

when the song had finished, cal took it as his cue to make a speech, unannounced. "uh- hello," he slurred, stumbling on to the stage with a pint in hand, "i just wanted to say, you are all the best friends i could have asked for. seriously, i am so grateful. truly, man. especially, harry and uh- evie, where are you? you two are my favourite people in the world."

"love you cal!" i shouted over the many laughs with my finger in the air.

"oh, and chippo!" cal laughed loudly spotting chips sarcastic hurt look. 

after plenty more dancing to various different songs, i took a seat at the booth i was previously sat at. looking at all these people now made me have a sudden realisation how lucky i was. i didn't want to get soppy. but when i moved to london i never expected anything like this. i knew the capital was big and there was heaps of interesting people there, but the sheltered life that i was living meant that i never put myself out there. never experienced anything or spoke to anyone. 

since harry, he had introduced me to all these people who were now my best friends. we had gone to america, ibiza, the alps and many other places. i had realised how much i was in love with travelling, and my hundreds of pictures taken whilst exploring explained that. 

"you alright?" harry slurred, ducking his head as he sat beside me. he had definitely drank more than two drinks now.

"yes, are you? how is your birthday so far?" i smiled and turned to him.

"the day was by far better than the night" he admitted.

"im not sure zerka would appreciate that," i laughed, "but thank you."

"saw you talking to ethan earlier" 

"yeah, it was a bit awkward. he got a bit, erm- flirty" i cringed. i couldn't imagine ethan in that way, but im assuming he was just a bit tipsy.

"well, that's weird," harry chuckled, "what's he say?"

"he just said i looked nice tonight, probably just had a few too many and didn't realise who he was talking to"

"nah, he deffo did," harry pulled a face, "i feel like its just a bit strange, you know? like, the effort he puts in to be around you is clearly not just friendly."

"oh well, when he says something about it, ill just tell him how it is."

"i dont know, eves. you were entertaining that." harry huffed, tilting his head as he drank the rest of his drink.

harry was not a nice drunk and it was well and truly known. he had never said anything to me, but i've been around on many occasions where he has. i should've known this wasn't going to end well when he came over stumbling and slurring. 

"harry, what are you on about? i'm not going to tell him i'm not interested when he hasn't directly said that he is" i raised my voice slightly, not wanting too many people to hear the argument that was brewing. 

"i'm just saying, i didn't get you this job for you to get with one of them." he replied coldly, not looking me in the eye as he threw his generosity back in my face.

"do you have to be such a cunt, oh my god. move out of the way" i ordered, gesturing to him blocking me inside of the booth.

he stood up, his head hanging down as he let me out. "happy birthday" i spat as i passes him his card out of his bag. 

as i made my way across the bar, i had to try my best to brush everyone off quickly so i could just get home.

i had tried my best to make harry's day as good as possible, considering he admitted to me he hates his birthday. and now, he had said one of the things that had played on my mind since i landed the job. 

i knew people thought i only had the job because of harry. at the end of the day, no matter how good my photography got, i would have never found the sidemen and they would've never found me. all of my friends, everything i'd achieved, everything was because of harry. he clearly knew it. 

"bye" i tried my best to smile and fight back the tears as i waved to the group, not giving them time to reply.

as i ordered the uber, i slumped down the wall and tried to forget the last 10 minutes of tonight.