Empire - The Next Step

here we go again

When Harper heard that the Next Step lost the first qualifier, she was not only feeling disappointed for A Troupe, but also slightly responsible and frustrated with Noah. He made her promise not to tell anyone about his back which had cost them the qualifier and made his injury worse. She decided that the only thing to do about it was to confront him and ensure he came clean about his back. The blonde made her way around the winding corridors that led to the various different parts of the studio and finally managed to find Noah in the lounge, but he wasn't alone. Amanda was there. She didn't catch what they were talking about before but what they said next was enough to clarify.

"I really really like you." As soon as the words left Noah's mouth, Harper was crushed. It felt even worse than when he kissed Abi, almost like with every new girl the pain only grew for her. That feeling only intensified when she heard the exact same words come from Amanda too. They liked each other, and once again Harper was alone.

She couldn't stand being there any longer to hear what else they had to confess to each other so she soon found herself rushing into the rehearsal room. Luckily there was no one else there. She was free to be herself, to dance with nobody watching or judging her and get her feelings out.

Harper clicked play on the stereo so the music to 'empire part 2' echoed through the desolate room. It was always her favourite song to dance to when she was feeling overwhelmed or upset about anything. Somehow it relaxed her and the movement just seemed to flow out of her. She was putting her everything into that solo, her tricks, jumps, turns, emotion, whatever she could do. As she danced, thoughts of Noah were slowly consuming her mind. She couldn't seem to shake him from her thoughts. First it was him getting onto A Troupe, then Abi, then making her lie to everyone about his injury and now he like Amanda. I just seemed like there would always be something in the way, and Harper couldn't see that changing any time soon. She was the one who needed to change.

"Harper are you in there?" Came the muffled voice of Richelle from the other side of the door. The girl didn't respond as she sat down on the floor trying to calm herself down and wipe her tears away before Richelle saw so she entered the room anyway. "Is everything okay? You don't seem like your usual self lately." Harper let out a tired sigh as she turned to face her friend.

"I've come to the realisation that I need to get over Noah." Richelle looked taken aback at what she had said. She was certain that Noah reciprocated her friend's feelings, but perhaps she was wrong. "And I need your help."

"Why would you want to get over him? If you told him how you feel, I'm sure he'd feel that same way." It somehow hurt even more when she heard Richelle saying what she wanted to hear. If Noah liked her back she would have been over the moon, but it would never happen.

"Richelle I've tried so many times to tell him how I feel, but everything keeps getting in the way. I just saw him tell Amanda he likes her and I don't think I could handle going through it a third time so please help me." The shorter blonde had never seen Harper seem so desperate for something so she nodded in agreement but, as always, she had something else up her sleeve.

"I'll be back in a second Harps." Richelle said and briskly left the room despite her best friend's protests. After searching for Noah for a good few minutes, she finally found him in Java Junction and thankfully he was alone. "Noah I need to tell you something."

"Oh hey Richelle." Noah greeted casually in a much less urgent manner than the small blonde in front of him. She rolled her eyes at his nonchalant stature but sat down opposite him anyway. "How are-"

"Harper likes you." The blonde blurted out not even allowing Noah to finish his sentence. "Not just as a friend. She really likes you Noah, and she had done for a while now." Noah was speechless. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, how could his best friend like him and not tell him about it?

"What? No, she can't like me we're best friends." Richelle pulled a face at the boy before her to reinforce that it was the truth. He was in disbelief. Richelle was beginning to regret telling Noah as she didn't know how he would react, but this reaction was particularly unexpected.

"I just thought that you should know before you pull a Noah and fall head over heels for Amanda. She really tried to tell you." Noah ignored that fact that Richelle had just insulted him by turning his name into a verb and continued to have a silent debate in his head. On the one hand, there was Amanda who Noah was certain of his feelings for and she really liked him as well. But then there was Harper who knew him better than anyone and also apparently liked him, but Noah wasn't sure how to feel about her.

"Well she should have tried a little harder to tell me. Just let her know that I'm sorry, but I like Amanda." Noah concluded their conversation before he left the juice bar and Richelle. She felt awful for Harper, how could Noah not like her back? She was beautiful, a great dancer, they had almost everything in common so what was he missing? Richelle felt as though she had made a huge mistake. She had not only betrayed her best friend's trust by telling Noah, but she now had to be the one to tell her his answer.

Richelle slowly made her way back into the rehearsal room where Harper was still sat on the floor by herself. As she entered the room, Harper's hopeful face made her stomach plummet. She was the one who had to make that look go away.

"So I'm guessing you told Noah?" The taller of the two girls assumed as Richelle sat beside her. "I'm not mad." She told Richelle softly, making the blonde let out a sigh of relief as her body visibly relaxed. Although she wasn't angry, Richelle could sense that Harper knew where the conversation was going and it was really difficult to be the one to reinforce that bad news.

"Noah said he's sorry, but he likes Amanda." Despite that being the answer she expected, it didn't hurt any less. Harper felt as though someone had winded her as she searched her head for the right words to say. None came to mind. "I'll help you get over him though, like I promised." Richelle said as she wrapped a comforting arm around the shoulder of her best friend who was feeling more small and vulnerable than she ever had before. Getting over Noah would not be easy by any standards, but it was something she had to do. It was safe to say that things between Harper and Noah would never be the same again.

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a/n: well that concludes the first volume of empire. i know i've missed out a lot of season four but what happened later wasn't really relevant to harper so there wasn't much point in putting it in. plus it's like forty episodes and i don't have the time lol. poor harper! but don't worry she'll be back next volume (season five) and stronger than ever. i'm really excited to see her and noah back at it after having a long time apart between season four and season five. it will be interesting for sure. thank you so much for reading and i hope you continue on into vol 2 :)