.The moment I woke up, I went into the bathroom and checked myself out. Wondering if my body was something Niall would look at once we go to the beach and then I started fixing my things, and out of boredom I started preparing Niall's things as well since he was still asleep on his bed.
"Harry" I heard him groan and I turned around to look at him.
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing?"
"Preparing our things for our trip to the beach!" I said too cheerfully.
"Oh, right. Sure, let me just get some breakfast for the both of us" Niall said, chuckling lightly to himself before crawling off the bed and walking slowly towards the door, giving me time to check out his pale skin.
"Don’t worry honey, you'll get to see more soon" Niall said, winking at me before completely disappearing downstairs and I fought every urge not to blush.
I got my laptop and opened Skype, only to be greeted by a call from Caroline. I took a deep breath and braced myself momentarily before accepting her call.
As soon as her face showed up on the screen, she shouted "HARRY STYLES! HAVE YOU BEEN AVOIDING ME!? I sent you a hundred BBMs yet you did not reply to even a single one!"
"I'm sorry, I'm just busy with my family and Niall and stuff" I said.
"Niall? Is that the girl you're using to cheat on me!?" Carline asked, her eyes narrowing when I said 'Niall'.
"Niall is a boy and I'm going to the beach with him okay?" I said and right on cue, Niall decides to enter the room holding two plates of toast and eggs.
"I have to eat now, Instill have to go to the beach later" I said, looking at Caroline on the screen.
"That should have been us going to beach! Now our plans are ruined!" Caroline whined and I did my best to stop myself from rolling my eyes and just closing to the laptop.
"I'm sorry okay? Maybe next time" I said "bye baby" and closed the laptop before she can even say anything.
"Wow, you have to put up with that?" Niall chuckled, handing me a plate.
"Well, she isn't so bad sometimes" I said, while gladly accepting them for my growling tummy.
"Oh yeah, bad news and good news" Niall said.
"What?"
"We're still going to the beach except then your mum found out our plan and wants the rest of the family to come along. You okay with that?" Niall asked.
The rest of my family to come along? Damn it, I was planning on forgetting about Caroling for a while and just playing around the sand with Niall. "Yeah, I'm cool" I lied.
"Great, I really wish we could be alone though" Niall said, winking at me and I just looked away, not wanting to admit that I want the same as well.
What am I to Niall? Is he just flirting with me because Zayn's not here or does he like me and find me attractive as well? Or am I his only choice? Not like he can flirt with his family, my parents or Gemma.
I sighed deeply. "What's wrong?" Niall asked and I looked at him.
"Nothing, I'm fine" I said.
"Did you put on lotion?" Maura asked Niall "your skin is very sensitive, I don't want you crying for me again when you get sunburn"
"I won't mum" Niall said, blushing slightly.
"Let's go!" mum said, taking my father's hand and leading the way outside the house, towards the beach.
As soon as we got there, I couldn't help but smile as I remember our little trip here yesterday.
"Let's set up our stuff, how about you kids tag along?" mum said, smiling at the 4 of us and Gemma rolled her eyes and muttered something that sounded like "we're teenagers for Christ’s sake"
"You want to test out the waters Harry?" Niall said, looking at me innocently and I shrugged "sure"
We made our way towards the water, stopping at the part where the water meets the shore and we just let the waves wash over our feet.
Niall sat down on the wet sand, closing his eyes as the waves continued crashing towards us and I sat beside him as well.
"Can I ask you a question?" I asked.
"Sure, you just did" Niall chuckled.
"Why do you...flirt with me?" I asked tentatively.
Niall opened his eyes to look at me and shrugged. "Maybe I'm lonely and I miss Liam and Zayn and I need to get off some steam or maybe I think you're a nice bloke who is sadly straight and has a girlfriend" he said.
Straight. Right, I'm straight and I have a girlfriend. But how come my heart beats faster whenever Niall winks at me and touches me longer than he should?
"Why don't you have a boyfriend?" I asked bluntly causing Niall to laugh.
"I don't know. I prefer teasing people and making them blush and for some weird reason, I can't fall in love" he admitted. "It's too complicated and what if I get hurt? What if I hurt someone? And how can I try to like someone for who they are but how can I love them for them when they only love me for my body?" Niall asked, sounding exasperated for once.
"Maybe someday, someone will fall in love with you for you and you will realize that there's so much more to you than just your body and you will learn to love them as well" I said.
"Deep" he said.
"I know" I said, causing the both of us to laugh.
"Look at Gemma and Greg, they seem to be getting along" Niall said, casually pointing to Gemma and Greg splashing sea water at each other.
"Thanks to Greg, Gemma isn't half as pissed about this trip when we our mum first told us" I said.
"I was pretty upset too when I found out, I didn't want to be away from my friends especially when it's our last summer together but it's okay, thanks to you anyway. I thought I was actually gonna die of boredom.
"Thanks" I said as I blushed. "Same goes to you, you're a funny guy except when you give me these advances" I said.
"Can't handle a little hickey, Styles?" Niall asked, eyeing the fading bruise on my neck.
"I-It's not that" I stuttered, blushing as I tried to think of a way to tell him that I like it when he does that but at the same time I don't.
"I get it, I get it, I'll stop" Niall said, looking away and into the horizon, squinting a bit because it's 11 in the afternoon and the sun is up.
"N-no!" I said before I could think.
"No?" Niall asked, looking at me and smirking. "So I guess you don't want me to stop" he said.
"Yes, no, yes, no. I don't know" I said, burying my face in my hands "I was sure I'm straight but then you come along and got me confused"
"I'm sorry" Niall said although his tone says he's not "I'll give you some space to help you clear out your feelings"
"Seriously Horan" I said. "I've known you for 3 days and this is what you do to me?" I continued while laughing.
"It's a Leprechaun's secret" Niall said, winking at me before standing up and holding out his hand "want to go swimming for a while? Before I practically devour every single meal that will be on the table later"
"Yeah" I said, taking his hand and pulling myself up as well, except that Niall pulled me too hard, causing me to fall on top of him once again.
"Déjà vu Styles?" he teased.
"Nah, this is destiny" I winked this time. Looking into his blue eyes, the same blue eyes I looked at a couple of days ago.
Then I remembered that our families were just nearby and quickly rolled myself off from Niall and said "raise you to that rock in the middle" before running off to the water, to let go of this crazy beating in my chest.
"Unfair!" I heard Niall shout before I heard the distinct sound of him running towards the water as well.
"Thank you mum and Anne again, for this lovely lunch" Niall said after he burped, patting his satisfied belly.
"Seriously Niall, how are you so slim even though you practically eat every meal off the table? Greg told me a lot of stories involving you, food and eating contests?" Gemma asked, looking and paying attention to Niall for the first time.
"I don’t know" Niall shrugged as he grinned "fast metabolism I guess"
"Hey Niall let's go make sand castles" I said.
"Sure" he said, smiling at me.
"Sand castles? Really?" Gemma said, rolling her eyes.
"We should make sand castles too!" Greg said, looking at Gemma.
"Sand castles, yeah, sand castles are good" Gemma said, nodding at Greg and this time, I was the one who rolled my eyes.
"Let's make it a sand castle building contest!" mum said.
"Winning 'couple' gets to do whatever they want for a day" dad shrugged and Niall and I looked at each other and nodded.
We ran to the sand and started building the biggest, nicest and sturdiest sand castle we have ever built in our lives. Niall was able to find broken shells lying everywhere to design the sand castle.
Occasionally, Niall's hand would drop on top of mine or vice versa as we formed the sand castle and I tried my best not to blush or ruin or work.
"We need to put something pretty on top!" Niall said and I looked around and found a little yellow starfish a foot away from us.
I reached out to grab it and so did Niall, causing his hand to move on top of mine and this time we stayed that way, and I wanted us to.
I looked at him and saw past his flirty attitude and the need to tease people. I saw Niall Horan, the boy who just wants to feel loved.
The boy who's forces a smile every time someone talks to him just to get a quick fuck. The boy who's using his power to control people's bodies and feelings to distract him from getting too attached to people and getting heartbroken.
And for a moment, I fell in love with that boy