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Friday is finally wrapping up. It has been a long stressful week and Niall's tin foil prank yesterday put him behind schedule. But he is almost caught up with his workload and is ready to go out. Harry is excited for tonight. Every Friday, he and the boys go for drinks at the pub down the street. It’s their ritual to wind down after another long week at One Direction Financial. Tonight is especially exciting, as it is the first ever karaoke night at their usual pub. The owner is trying to draw in new business with the classic bar activity to compete with some of the new trendier clubs that have popped up in the area. Harry is looking forward to his chance to perform in front of a crowd and is also excited to see how the other boys will do.
“Hey babe. Ready to go?” Louis says as he leans over Harry’s desk.
“Just a sec, Lou. I have to finish this quick.” Harry has to send one last email before he can leave. Harry types a few more sentences, reads it over once, and then presses send. He shuts down his computer and then grabs his bag. “Alright, let’s go!”
They head out of the office and walk to the pub. Liam, Zayn, and Niall must have snuck out of the office a few minutes earlier. They’ve already snagged their usual corner booth. They grab their first rounds at the bar and then head over to the corner. They all shift around to make room for Harry and Louis.
Harry is about half way through his pint when Shawn walks up. “Sorry I’m late.” He sits into the last open seat next to Niall, who gives him a chaste peck on his cheek and slides him a pint.
“No worries. We were just getting started,” Harry says raising his almost full glass to demonstrate. He takes another drink.
“How was your day?” Niall asks Shawn. Shawn is the newest addition to their Friday after-work ritual. A bit shy to meet all of Niall’s coworkers, it had taken a few months to convince Shawn to come out with Niall’s coworkers. But after over a year of coming to the pub, he fit in seamlessly.
“Today was awful. We had an afternoon meeting that ran late. A lawyer from some downtown firm visited the office and give a presentation to all of us social workers. He literally introduced himself as 'the area’s most eminent family lawyer' and then proceeded to list a bunch of his accomplishments for ten minutes before he even got to the updates in divorce and custody law that he was supposed to cover.”
“Oh god, eminent is such a pretentious word,” Louis says.
“Yeah, you can’t just call yourself the eminent anything,” Zayn agrees. “You have to be given that honor.”
“I’m the most eminent marketing assistant here.” Harry laughs pretending to flip a lock of hair over his shoulder with a dramatic flick of his wrist.
“Hey!” Louis exclaims. “I’m an eminent marketing assistant too.”
“You’re the marketing assistant with the most eminent ass, babe,” Harry says, patting Louis’ thigh.
They both cackle loudly at the joke and the rest of their group groans.
“Gross. Don’t start on that already, it’s still early,” Niall says. “And anyway, if you’re the eminent marketing assistants, I must be the eminent copy editor.”
“Not hard to be the eminent copy editor when you’re the only one,” Louis says.
“Hey!” Niall huffs.
“We can all be eminent at our jobs. That’s why our department is the best,” Liam says, always the peacekeeper. “And Zayn can make us all signs that say so since he’s our eminent graphic designer.”
“I’ll take that,” Zayn nods, raising his glass in agreement.
“And Shawn’s the eminent social worker of our group!” Niall adds.
“Thanks, hon.”
“Well, thankfully you got out of there. Now we can drink enough for you to forget about the pretentious ass eminent lawyer and we can have some fun,” Harry says.
“Cheers to that.” Shawn raises his glass and the five other glasses meet in the middle of the table, clinking together to signal the start of a really good night.
They order another round of drinks and some appetizers to share. By the time the waiters return to clear their empty plates, the karaoke stage is set up.
They all agree to give it a few rounds before they sign up. They’ll let some of the other people in the bar have a go to warm up the crowd. There’s already a few more people than usual for this time of night and the three tables closest to the makeshift stage are already full.
Louis is animatedly telling Zayn and Liam about one night during his senior year of uni he’d ended up leading a Disney sing-along at a karaoke bar. Harry has already heard the story a few times, so he takes a moment to think of a song. He carefully considers his options, weighing various songs in his mind. He wants something with a lot of attitude and heart that he can really belt out. This is the one night where he can give it everything he’s got.
Meanwhile, Harry overhears Niall trying to convince Shawn that he should sing at least one song. Harry hopes that Shawn will try at least once, but he knows that Shawn was apprehensive about coming to karaoke night in the first place.
Finally, the lights dim down and a man walks onto the stage. He introduces himself as the emcee, explains where the sign-up list is and kicks off the night by introducing the first singer.
When the music starts up, the nervous, balding man on stage belts out a respectable rendition of Summer of ‘69. However, the next few people cannot seem to find the notes they are trying to hit. A string of out of tune hits follows. A lady attempts Don’t Stop Believing but falls flat. Next, a couple attempts Barbie World which makes Harry want to unplug the microphones. Harry is not drunk enough yet for the lack of talent to be funny.
But then, a man, dressed in a tan polo and black dress pants, takes the stage. He stares blankly into the crowd with the microphone held to his mouth, the mic picking up the sound of his breath. He shifts his weight from foot to foot as he waits for the track to begin. Every cringey bit of the early hours of a karaoke night has manifested into one awkward man on that stage.
Harry does not expect the first bars of Gangnam Style come through the speakers. And he absolutely does not expect it when the man begins belting out the lyrics complete with the dance moves that has nearly their whole booth on the floor with laughter. Harry is laughing so hard he can’t catch his breath.
When Louis heads to the bar for another round of drinks. Harry looks around. The bar has started to fill up, getting later on Friday night and more people have come out. They’re lucky they get here early to claim their booth, as there are only a few small high tops that remain open at the back of the bar. Their booth has a great view of the stage and Harry realizes that he is actually enjoying the performances. This is a great way to take his mind off all of the work related stress from the past week. Louis returns with two drinks for himself and Harry, and a round of shots for the whole table.
They are all sufficiently tipsy by the time they decide to add their names to the list. All except Shawn, who claims he’s not up for singing in front of strangers. Harry notices that Niall looks a little upset about it, but doesn’t push the matter. It’s not really his place. Louis however, latches on and tries to convince Shawn that he’d be great.
Out of their group, the first called up Louis, singing “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”. Harry is enraptured with his voice and his performance. He beams at him the entire time until Niall kicks him under the table. Harry congratulates Louis with a kiss when he returns to stage. “You did amazing babe.”
Next, Liam blows them all away with “Wrecking Ball” and Zayn follows with “No Scrubs”. Both get a generous amount of applause. As Zayn makes his way back, another person takes the stage for a subpar Katy Perry song.
“Wow, I didn’t realize you guys were so good at this,” Shawn says when Zayn returns to the booth. “You three can really sing.”
“Yeah, they’re good,” Niall says. “But did you know, I was the eminent Karaoke-er in all of Dublin during college.”
“Bullshit,” Louis says.
“That’s not a thing,” Liam argues.
“Sure it is. I went all the time. There was a whole group of us in college that would go every month. I was always the best. Could win over any crowd.”
“I didn’t know you did that,” Shawn looks surprised.
Just then Niall gets called to the stage by the emcee.
“You talk a big game, Nialler. You’d better live up to it,” Louis says.
Niall takes the stage, grabbing the mic and waiting for the cue. “TiK ToK” starts to play and Niall owns the two feet of stage. He sings with passion and hits every note, but dances horrendously to the Kesha song. He wins over the crowd in seconds. At the start of the second chorus he jumps off the small stage and wanders, as much as the short mic cord allows, through the audience. It truly is a performance.
Harry is up next. Well, that will certainly be hard to beat. From the stage, he can see out into the crowd. Even the tables at the back have filled up now.
A moment of nerves overcomes Harry with the mic in hand as he waits for the song to play. The feeling dissipates as soon as the music fills the bar and the opening lyrics to spread across the screen. “I want to break free. I want to break free. I want to break free from your lies. You're so self satisfied, I don't need you,” he sings, swinging his hips along to the beat of the music and the performance overcomes him. He belts out the lyrics as the song was meant to be sung.
He looks toward his booth when he sings, “I've fallen in love for the first time. And this time I know it's for real,” and winks at Louis. When someone in the audience whistles at that, he knows he’s found his angle. He amplifies the playfulness and teases the crowd with exaggerated dance moves through the rest of the song.
Cheers erupt as the music dies out and a huge smile takes over his face. He’d forgotten how fantastic performing for a crowd feels. It takes him back to middle school, when he and his friends started a band and would practice in his garage after school.
Louis gives him another kiss when he returns to the booth. “I love watching you on stage. You’re so magnetic.”
The crowd grows more raucous as the alcohol continues to flow. As the night progresses, the performances get more ridiculous. Having all performed, they sit back and watch some of the acts. Louis still tries to convince Shawn to give it a try.
After a few more acts, Louis drags Harry onto the stage for a duet. Harry swears he hears Niall groaning over the bopping rhythm of “Summer Nights”. They overdo the heart eyes and goofy dance moves, and play up cuteness of the song.
They return to the table to retching noises. “What? It wasn’t that bad,” Harry says.
“That was disgustingly couple-y, even for you,” Niall says.
“You know, I’ve got to relive my Danny Zuko days whenever the chance arises. And with the perfect Sandy to accompany me, it was meant to be.” Louis responds cheekily while running his hand through Harry’s curls.
“Oh my god, you two are terrible tonight,” Shawn sighs.
“Well, you could be that cute too,” Louis smirks.
“Fine, I’ll do it!” Shawn throws back the last of his drink and sets the empty glass on the table top a bit too hard with a loud thud. Shawn heads over to the sign up sheet. There’s three people in line before Niall and Shawn are called to take the stage.
Niall doesn’t know what song is playing until the title shows up on the screen. “Islands in the Stream” is not a song Niall would have chosen for himself, but at least he knows it. He plans to make the best of this duet with Shawn. Shawn opens the song, taking the Kenny Roger parts. Despite his reluctance to sing, his voice is strong. Niall sways gently off to the side waiting for the first Dolly Parton lines to come on screen. They manage to out-couple Harry and Louis’ Grease performance with intense staring during the verses. By the end of the song they even get the audience to sway arm-in-arm during the final chorus. They get a standing ovation as the music fades and they take a bow and kiss before leaving the stage.
“See, I told you I was the eminent Karaoke-er,” Niall brags to Louis.
“Maybe this crowd just doesn’t respect the musical genre and is easily won over with cheesy eighties country. Poor taste, that.”
“Maybe I’m just more enigmatic on stage than you.”
“You can have the karaoke, but I’m still gonna beat your ass at mini-golf tomorrow. You know I’m the eminent mini-golfer of the group.”
“You wanna bet money on that?” Niall suggests.
“Hey, hey, no money on the mini-golf game or I’ll uninvite you both,” Liam interjects.
“Oh come on Li, you’re no fun,” Louis pouts.
“If there’s money on the game you’ll both be insufferable.”
“It’s true,” Zayn backs up Liam, of course.
Niall and Louis would continue arguing their point all night, so Harry steps in to distract Louis, effectively ending the conversation.
“Hey, Lou, wouldn’t it be great if we could all do one as a group?”
“Oh, I have so many ideas.”
Just then, the emcee calls last-call for sign-ups. Louis races up to the emcee’s table without hesitation. Harry watches as Louis talks with him for a bit, before he finally writes something down on the sign-up list.
He returns with a huge shit-eating grin. “What did you do?” Harry asks.
“You’ll find out in two people.” They sit through the next two people, both slurring through the songs as it’s getting much later into the night.
“And, finally, our last song of the night. Let’s give it up for One Direction!” The emcee calls out dramatically.
All five men whip their heads toward Louis at the announcement. “What’s going on?” Shawn asks.
“Come on!” Louis is already on his feet and dragging Harry out of the booth beside him. “We’re up!”
The others start to shuffle out, used to Louis’ spontaneous antics. Only Shawn remains, hesitant to move from his spot. “I think I’ll sit this one out.”
“That’s okay,” Niall says, patting Shawn’s thigh before he scoots out of the booth.
“Please, Shawn?” Louis pouts.
“One song was enough for me tonight. But I’ll record this for you.”
“Alright,” Louis concedes. “But we better be in focus.”
They file up the few steps to the stage. Harry trips up the first step, but Louis’ hands on his waist keep him upright. There’s two mics between the five of them so they stand close to each other, not that there’s much room for them to spread out on the stage anyway. Harry can see Shawn above the crowd, kneeling on their table. He’s got his phone up and ready to record.
The crowd cheers at the first chords of “I Want It That Way”. Louis starts them off and the others quickly fall into the harmonies of the song. They really get into the song and manage to incorporate some half coordinated shimmies and hip thrusts, despite the lack of space. The nostalgic boyband music filling the bar has a contagious energy and the whole audience is up dancing and singing along. It’s the loudest the crowd has been all night.
The song eventually ends but the noise only increases. Whistles and shouts carry over the applause. The boys exit the stage and hand the mics back to the emcee. As they walk back to their booth, some people high five them.
“Wow that was amazing!” Shawn congratulates them.
“Shawn, you should’ve joined us. You could’ve basked in the glory of the boyband with us.” Louis says.
“Nah, that’s alright. I’m glad I caught all that on camera, it was so epic. I’ll send it to you.”
There’s still two hours before bar-close, but they’ve already started packing up the karaoke equipment and the bar empties out quickly. The boys finish their drinks and then decide to part ways.
Harry is feeling great after a fun night. The adrenaline from his performance and the bubbly feeling of the alcohol in his veins making him feel content as he and Louis walk together toward their apartment. He is glad that their pub had tried something new and they were able to have an entertaining karaoke night. He couldn’t have imagined a better night.
After all, karaoke was the perfect way to end to a stressful week at One Direction Financial.