Love Can Conquer All

chapter 37

Chapter 37

I winced as my toes hit the sand. My shoes were in one hand and Louis' hand was in my other. The moon reflected off the inky black sea and blended into the equally black sky, glistening stars dotted it like a potted blanket.

'I didn't expect the sand to be this cold.' Harry muttered as he danced across the sand, trying not to let his feet stay on the ground too long.

'Me neither.' Zayn mumbled as he glanced at Spencer and Niall who were too wrapped up in the company of each other to notice the temperature of the ground.

Louis wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. 'Are you okay?' He whispered in my ear. I looked over to him, his eyes glinting in the moon light. I nodded and smiled at him. He kissed me on the forehead as we followed the others across the sand.

Eventually we stopped walking. The tide was far out, so the road and our hotel were quite far away from where we stood. We stood in a line in silence and looked out to sea. It was so beautiful. The beach was empty except from the 8 of us.

We must have been standing there for a while before the silence was broken.

'I want to go swimming. It looks so perfect; I just want to jump in.' Rose whispered. She was still holding Liam's hand and leaning her head against his arm. I don't think they had let go of each other since they'd announced their engagement 3 hours ago.

'Is anybody up for skinny dipping?' Harry giggled.

'I was just waiting for you to suggest that.' Louis laughed. He had his arms around my waist so my back was leaning against his chest and his chin was resting on my head.

'I'm up for it.' Rose grinned.

'Babe, you'll freeze.' Liam said to her.

'Oh come on. It'll be fun. Who else is up for it?' She asked.

'Let's do it!' Zayn said.

'Yeah baby! Let's go!' Harry yelled. His words lit a spark in everyone; clothes were being thrown onto the beach, shirts mixing with dresses, shoes mixing with bags.

Harry was the first one in the sea. His body glowing as he ran into the water. 'Oh My God!' He yelled. 'It's so cold!' Zayn was running in after him and let out a shriek as a small wave hit his chest.

I looked at Louis and grabbed the hand that was hanging by his side. He grinned and we ran. Both of us laughing as we ran through the night air waiting for the cold water to get to us.

I gasped as the water swallowed my legs. I heard Louis do the same. Rose and Liam were running in behind us and Niall and Spencer were still back at the beach. Spencer was in the water already waiting for Niall to step into the cold salt water.

'Nope nope nope. Too cold' I heard Niall yell.

Spencer stood there laughing at him. She grabbed his hand and forced him in.

We carried on surging forward until we were out the same distance as Zayn and Harry. It was shallow enough that we could all stand up. Waves swelled around us, pushing us around gently.

'It's not that cold...' Rose giggled as Liam's arms wrapped tightly around her bare waist. 'It's warmer than the sand!'

We all floated around and trod water. Zayn was beginning to look a bit scared so him, Liam and Rose decided to head back to the apartment. I raised one eyebrow at Rose when she announced she and Liam were going to 'bed' and she just winked back at me.

We all swam over to them, congratulating them on the engagement one last time and wishing them a good night. Harry watched them swim back to the sand and then stood up to walk when it got too shallow to swim.

'So, what are you actually supposed to do when you go skinny dipping?' Niall asked.

'I'm not really sure.' Harry laughed. 'Do we just float or something? I've never done it before.'

'No, 'cause when you are naked you're not necessarily in water.' Louis laughed. 'I'm pretty sure when you skinny dip you just do this, right?' Louis said as he pushed a load of water onto Harry, knocking him over. Louis laughed loudly as Harry splashed around.

Harry splashed back for revenge and suddenly everyone had joined in. Everyone was getting water in the eyes, mouth and nose. Spence had to swim off to the side a bit so she could wipe her eyes.

I ducked under the water without anyone noticing, opening my eyes as I glances around until I recognised Louis' legs. I dived a bit deeper and swam up under his so he wouldn't notice. I tugged at his legs to scare him and quickly swam up to the surface to see his reaction. He thrashed around trying to see what pulled his leg and I laughed as he looked shocked and faintly worried.

He realised it was me and swam over, splashing me as much as possible. Once he was close the tried to duck under me but I caught his arms before they could get to me. We both wrestled and laughed when we both went under, inhaling water as we did.

'We're going to head back.' Spencer said, her shaking arms wrapping around Niall.

'I think I might as well.' Harry said.

'We will too then.' Louis agreed.

We swam back to the shore. Splashing and messing around as we went. We weren't in any rush so we took our time and messed about.

Once we got back to the shore we quickly sprinted over to our clothes and tried to slip them on as best as possible. The material was sticking to our skin, my body con dress was difficult to put back on.

'I bet my make-up has run all down my face' Spencer mumbled as she rung her hair out, dripping water onto the sand.

'You still manage to look hot though, babe.' Niall argued, wiping drops of water from her cheeks.

Once we were all changed we made our way back up the beach and towards the hotel. We were all soaking wet, hair slick to our heads and faces and out clothes clung to our skin like cling film.

'We're going to get a few looks going through here.' Harry said as he peered through the door into the hotel.

'Just a few.' I added. We all looked at each other for support before we walked under the sensor of the automatic doors and they whooshed open.

As we guessed we got plenty of looks. We all sheepishly hurried over to the lift and pressed the button to close the doors before anyone else could join us.

The lift stopped on our floor and the doors opened. We stepped onto the plush carpet, still dripping sea water onto the floors, holding pieces of clothing we couldn't get back on.

'Night guys.' Harry yawned as he headed off towards his room.

'Yeah, see you guys tomorrow.' Spencer called before walking off with Niall.

'I can't wait to get into bed!' I sighed. I felt so tired, it has been such an exciting night it felt like all my energy had been drained.

'Me either.' Louis grinned as he opened the door. 'But first we need a shower.' He swung me into his arms and carried me towards the bathroom as we laughed.