Take My Hand

Chapter 51

Michelle had sent me a few texts asking if I was feeling better, but I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. I didn’t know how to because I was feeling a whole lot worse.

I stayed there well into the night, and thought about everything. How it all had become such a mess. How all the boys were fighting over me, how I was destroying them, how nothing was right. They had been home three weeks and it seemed like everything was broken beyond repair. I crawled out from under the tree and walked out into the field. I sat down in the middle and lay back, looking up at the sky. The boys spun around my head along with their confessions of love. I missed the happy carefree boys that they had been before they left. I thought back to when everything was perfect.

The boys and I had spent the whole summer together. We were all happy, Leo and Michelle were doing well still at this point, and Lucas had begun to form a relationship with a lovely girl named Victoria. 

They had met through Leo, who was friends with her from back home. She was stunning. All long legs and full lips and gorgeous dark hair. She, like Michelle, immediately fit into the group

She reminded me a lot of Lucas in how she acted, and I adored her. The other boys, however, like to tease Lucas that he had replaced me with someone just like me. It took a fair bit of explaining to get Victoria to believe that Lucas and I were never really anything more than friends. When I told her it was because I had a terrible ex, she immediately understood.

Lucas and Victoria kept getting stronger and stronger as time passed. They hadn’t come out in public to the fans, although there was some speculation. I thought they were fantastic, so I was always teasing Lucas keeping her a secret.

At the begging on August the boys had a bit off time off between finishing recording their album and releasing the first single, and that was when the fun really started.

Leo was waiting at my house when I got home from shopping with my mum for things for my flat. He had a look on his face like he was trying to hide something, but wasn’t doing a good job.

“What’s going on?” I asked him.

He shook his head, trying to look innocent. 

“Leonardo King you tell me right now!” I exclaimed, glaring at him. I went to open the door, and as it swung open I heard:

“SURPRISE!!!”

Everyone was waiting there: the boys, Heather, Victoria, Michelle, Whitney, but that wasn’t the biggest surprise. Everyone was close to naked.

“What’s going on?” I exclaimed, spinning around to look at Leo who ripped his shirt off.

“What do you think?” Michelle exclaimed.

I looked at everyone, noticing the goggles on Victoria’s head and snorkel in Lucas’ mouth. Calix was wearing a duck floaty around his waist, and Whitney had on flippers. Then I noticed that they all had on swimsuits.

“Guys…” I said, looking at them.

“We’re going on HOLIDAY!!!!!” everyone screamed. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAE!!!”

“WHAT?!” I exclaimed, looking at everyone around me.

“Yup,” Declan grinned, stepping forward and pulling me into a hug.

“So go don your bathing suit! We leave tonight!” Wes grinned.

“Where are we going?” I asked.