Wrong Direction

Chapter 8: One Rainbow

My breath hitched in my throat and I temporarily forgot how to breathe.

Holy effing shit...

He was standing next to the other four boys, obviously waiting for us to arrive. Harry confidently walked over and man hugged him, exchanging a few words and a laugh, before turning to Niall.

Paul was off to the side under the large gazebo that had been set up, in deep conversation with Weldon, Samson and a few other buff looking men that I didn’t recognise. But they didn’t matter, what mattered was the delicious orange that was within a few steps reach. I started to feel a little dizzy then.

“What did you do to her, Harry?”

I suddenly sucked in a sharp breath, my vision returning to normal and my head de-fogging as I glanced at the, now, six guys.

“Oh no, is she a fan?” The one called Zayn asked, looking worried.

“No, apparently not.” Liam raised an eyebrow at me.

They spoke as if I was deaf.

“What! A girl isn’t a fan of yours?” The gingerly delight chimed sarcastically.

“Yeah, only because she’s obsessed with you!” Harry laughed, as if he knew that Ed’s face would fall like it did.

“Really?” He asked surprised.

“I love you–” I blurted out, instantly throwing a hand over my mouth. He raised his eyebrows in amusement, while the other boys chuckled. I said I wouldn't do this! I wouldn't be one of those gushing fans I knew that my cheeks were red; the burning was painfully obvious. “Sorry! I meant to say that I love your songs.”

“Well, thank you,” he said in his oh so polite British accent. Oh my. “I’m Ed.”

He held his hand out and I took it slowly – I was touching him, I was actually touching him.

“Candice.” I smiled, my eyes still wide with shock, sightly watering. What was wrong with me!

“And this is Zayn by the way.” Louis gestured. "Not that she'd care at the moment."

All the boys laughed as I finally dragged my eyes from Ed and took another breath. Zayn smiled politely and gave a small wave.

"Sorry," I breathed, before managing a small smile.

“Candice here is Paul’s niece,” Niall then said, casually leaning an elbow on Ed’s shoulder.

“Higgins has a niece?” Ed looked me up and down then, looking a little confused.

 “Sure does.” Niall smiled at me encouragingly. Maybe he could tell that I was internally crumbling with nervousness and forcefully containing fangirl urges to hug Ed Sheeran.

“Hey Paul!” Harry called out to the gazebo of security men. “We’re not seriously going out in that are we?”

All of the guys followed Harry’s gaze to Bondi’s rolling waves – the perfect surf breaks.

“Sure are.” Paul replied simply as he directed a few lifeguards where to place the surfboards on the beach. I counted seven boards – seven? Oh! Paul was going surfing! This was going to be classic!

“Well we’re going to get fucking thrashed,” Ed admitted, still staring at the waves plummeting into the rocks.

“Surely we’ll only have to surf the smaller ones,” Zayn said, his voice a little shaky.