A/N wow two chapters in one day. i have no life. well, not today anyways :P
I have no idea how long I was laying on that towel, but after what was probably a couple hours, I got up and brought the towel into the house, where I was greeted to a confused Lauren.
“Please explain to me how you never get sunburned except on the perfect spot on your face?” She said, sounding really annoyed. I finally looked at her, and realized that she was sunburned on the backs of her arms and legs, and her chest.
“How do you get sunburned in those areas, without anything happening anywhere else?” I asked while sitting down next to her.
“I don’t really know.”
“We’re so special!” I laughed. “Where are the guys?”
“Talking to their manager, I think. Alexa is taking a nap.”
“Oh. Can I tell you something?” I asked. She gave me a confused look and nodded when Alexa came in. Lauren patted the table, and Alexa came and sat down on it. “This morning, before you guys got back and while Zayn was still asleep, I went outside and sat on the sand and was writing in my book. Well…” I rambled while trying to find the best way to explain this.
“Quit stalling and tell us!” Alexa shook my shoulders.
“Jamie came up and talked to me.” I said as quietly as I could.
“The one you said always bullied you and put you down?” Alexa asked. I nodded my head and looked over at Lauren. She looked at me with a sympathetic look on her face. I returned it with a small smile. I could hear the boys walking into the room, and I was about to get up and leave, but Lauren and Alexa stopped me.
“What did Jamie say to you?” Alexa asked.
“She was all like, ‘I heard you had some friends staying with you’ and I said that it really did not concern her, and then she asked me how it wasn’t and then I told her that this was private property and if she harassed anyone else here I would get her ass dumped back in ’Bama by the cops.” I said with no emotion in my voice. I looked at Lauren who smiled at me.
“Did she say anything else after that?” Lauren asked while grabbing my hand.
“She got up and walked off,” I said with a smile creeping on my face, “But when I got to the door, I yelled and told her not to get in the water that much because all of her coloring would fade in the ocean.” Niall came up to me and grabbed my hand and forced me to look him in the eyes, which resulted in tears forming in mine.
“You handled that really well. I’m proud of you.” He said while kissing my forehead. I heard a bunch of ‘awws’ from the rest of my friends, but I didn’t care, I was with Niall, the only one who really mattered to me. Did I just say that?
I blinked the tears out of my eyes and looked at the clock above the TV. 7:05, hmmmmm… I wonder what we could do with this?
“You guys want to go out for dinner?” I asked. “There’s a Five Guys down the road.”
“Five Guys?” Liam asked. I shot him a weird look.
“Yeah…” I said slowly, “Five Guys Burgers and Fries.”
“Hey, there’s also a Black Jack’s.” Alexa suggested.
I suddenly got really happy. “Are you freaking serious!?” I squealed. She nodded her head and I declared that we were going there. The boys chuckled and I dragged Lauren and Alexa into our room to get ready. I pulled on a grey tank top with Kermit’s head on it, some dark green Wet Seal short shorts and my sparkly silver Toms. I put on some mascara and scrunched my hair with some mousse. I sprayed myself with some perfume and stepped out of the restroom to find Lauren and Alexa staring at my shirt.
“What’s wrong with my shirt?” I asked.
“What, oh nothing! We were just trying to figure out when you got it.” Lauren said and pulled me out of the room.
“We ready to go?” I asked when all of the guys were downstairs.
“Mhm.” They all said in unison. I walked out the door and hopped in the backseat, immediately squished between Niall and Liam.
“I can't believe you let a girl get between us!” Liam pouted, “I thought we had something special!”
“I still love you Liam.” Zayn said while awkwardly patting his shoulder. After 10 minutes in the car with these idiots, we finally pulled into Black Jack. I pulled Niall into the familiar sports bar. Everything was the same as I remember! The slightly pink floor, tan walls with scattered cartoon pictures of jazz artists, and the 60 inch plasma screen TVs on all four corners of the restaurant. It even smelled like the same BBQ/alcohol smell that I haven’t smelled in just about three years!
“Well if it isn’t Elise Richards!” A booming deep voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I turned my head to the direction the sound came from and a huge grin came on my face.
“Eric! It’s been forever!” I yelled while dropping Niall’s hand and hugging the owner of the establishment. Eric had owned the Black Jack’s that was down the road from my house. Hugging him made so many memories flow back to me. I pulled out of the hug and stared at the giant teddy bear, deadly on the verge of bawling my eyes out.
“Who are your friends?” he asked. I introduced everyone to Eric and he promised not to tell any paparazzi that One Direction was in town. After getting seated, Eric and I were making conversation, mostly about the big move to Florida, but then he asked me something that really caught me off guard. “So how’s your dad?”
This was really a touchy subject for me, and the only people I had really talked to about it were Lauren, Alexa, and Mac. But this was Eric, and he and my dad were really close, so I guess he deserved to know. “Well,” I sighed, “a couple of months after you guys moved down here, my dad got into a terrible car wreck and ended up into the hospital. After a few days of treatment, he had a seizure and died.” I could see the worry in Eric’s eyes when I told him this, “But, hey, that was years ago. Let’s just forget about the past.” I said shakily.
“Would you like your usual?” He asked, thankfully changing the subject.
“Yes please!” I said while handing him my menu. After everyone else ordered, Eric walked off to place them in. I could feel Niall’s hand squeeze mine under the table, and I looked up into his gorgeous blue eyes.
“I’m sorry to hear about your dad.” He whispered into my ear.
“Let’s please not talk about it. And besides, it’s in the past, and there’s no way to change that now.” I whispered back. We turned and joined the conversation, but he never let go of my hand.
“Well, I’ll be damned! Is that really Elise?” I heard a voice call from the kitchen. I turned around to find Antonio, my family’s regular waiter. We weren’t as close to him as we were to Eric, but he was still a good friend of mine. I looked over at him and winked, and he ran over in a fit of laughter. I dropped Niall’s hand and got up out of my seat to give Antonio a hug.
“I’m surprised that you're still working here!” I said when I sat down. Niall took my hand again and I could just see the gears turning in Antonio’s head.
“Is he your boyfriend?” He asked. I nodded my head and he shot me a smile. “I have to get back to work, but if he ever hurts you, he’ll be answering to me.” He gave me a kiss on the head and walked back into the kitchen.
“Dang, girl. When you described him to us, I could tell he was good looking, but… dang.” Alexa said, while earning a shocked glance from Lou.
“How old is he now?” Lauren asked.
“Well, the last time I came here, he was sixteen and I had just turned thirteen. If I have the dates right, he is either 19 or 20.” I said. Finally our food came out and I hungrily stared down at my four BBQ sliders with a heaping pile of fries in the middle. It looks like everyone else either got the Chicken sandwich or the Buffalo Lettuce Wrap. I dug in to my first slider, savoring every bite till I finished my plate and downed my Sprite. We finished the meal and split the tab, and when I was about to walk out, Eric and Antonio pulled me into a hug and told me their goodbyes. It took all I had not to burst out crying in the middle of the restaurant.
Once we got home, I walked straight into my room and shut the door. I sat down on the bed and let my silent tears flow. Normally I didn’t get emotional that much, but seeing Eric and having to explain the situation with my dad, it just sort of got to me. I didn’t bawl, or start screaming into a pillow or anything like that, but the tears were pretty hard to stop. I heard a knock at the door and some British accent asking to come in. I walked up and opened the door, but failed to look at the person’s face and just sat down on the bed.
“Do you want to talk?” Liam asked, still standing in the doorway. I shook my head and he left. Soon, Niall came in with a worried look on his face. He sat on the bed next to me and pulled me into a hug.
“Calm down.” He whispered into my ear. When I stopped crying I finally looked up at him. I must look like crap, but if I did, he didn’t seem to notice. He brushed a stray piece of hair out of my eyes and rested his forehead on mine. Our faces were merely inches apart, and when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, our lips met.
Sparks flew throughout my body as he pulled out of the kiss. I looked at him and smiled. “Thank you.” I said. He smiled back at me and took my hand, leading me back into the keeping area.
“What movie should we watch?” Zayn asked from the recliner.
“THE LION KING!” Liam and I both yelled when we saw it in the movie rack. We popped the movie into the DVD player and began to watch.
I woke up the next morning to, yet again, a very quiet house. I put my glasses on and straightened my Superman sleep shirt and groggily walked out of the empty bed room. I walked in to a room filled with boxes and bags, but yet no people to be seen.
“What the -” I started, but was interrupted with seven bodies pulling me into a group hug, yelling ‘SURPRISE’ at the top of their lungs. After our hug, I was pulled into the center loveseat and handed a giant pink bag.
“Happy Birthday!” Alexa sang when I opened the bag. I pulled out the bright blue shirt with my all-time favorite quote from Glee in bold lettering: Did you know that dolphins are just gay sharks?
“Holy fudgecakes I love it!” I squealed while giving her a hug. Next was Lauren, who gave me a red and white hound’s-tooth print Kavu over the shoulder bag. I gasped, and she laughed and told me to actually use it. I stuck my tongue out at her, but I thanked her, knowing that I really needed a purse.
“My turn!” Louis screamed before handing the most random object I have ever seen. Louis Tomlinson gave me a stuffed carrot with dreadlocks; a red, green, and yellow striped beanie; sunglasses; and a goofy smile for my birthday.
“I will treasure it forever!” I said dramatically while giving Louis a huge hug. Harry gave me a pair of Glee earrings, which I started freaking out over, and Zayn and Liam got me a huge stack of Mountain Dew. Every single flavor. I got up and walked over to the huge pile of soda.
“Wha? You- how- and- what? OH MY GOSH THIS IS AWESOME HOW DID YOU DO THIS?!” I squealed and pulled them into a huge hug. Liam said it was a secret and to just enjoy it. Oh yeah, I will.
Finally, it was Niall. He looked so nervous as he took the box off of the table and handed it to me. I opened it, and felt my jaw drop at mere sight of the gorgeous locket that was just given to me. The small, silver heart opened to reveal two pictures, one of all of the boys, and one of me and Niall. I looked up into his sapphire eyes, and found myself at a loss of words.
“Thank you.” I said, he took the locket from me and clasped the chain around my neck. He came back to face me and pulled me into a tender kiss.
“PDA” Louis screamed, interrupting a happy moment with my boyfriend. I stuck my tongue out at him and started cleaning everything up. When all of the trash was collected and thrown away, and all of the Mountain Dew was in the fridge, the boys made us sit down and listen to an announcement.
“As you may know,” Liam started off, “our break is only a month and a half long, or six weeks to be exact. Well, we got a call from Simon the other day, and he told us that when we left the beach, we would begin touring and not have the last three weeks to spend in the states.” I literally felt my heart stop at this. They were leaving us? I knew this day had to come soon, but not this soon.
“You're leaving us?” I asked, my eyes never leaving Niall’s face. He looked back at me with a happy look on his face. Happy? What the freaking hell?!
“Actually, you girls will be coming with us.” Harry said. We were silent, still trying to process this.
“But our parents?” Lauren asked.
“They all agreed.” Zayn confirmed.
“School?” Alexa said, sounding as unsure about this as I felt.
“We have a tutor who travels with us, so your senior year won’t be gone!” Lois exclaimed. I was still holding on to Alexa, still trying to process everything that has happened. We are finally leaving Alabama, but not going to experience our senior year of high school. I mean, Alexa wouldn’t be that affected, since she was homeschooled. But Lauren and I weren’t.
But then I thought, no Jamie, and I can spend the time with my boyfriend and best friends. A smile crept onto my face, and I looked at Niall.
“Does this mean you’ll go?” He asked.
“Yes.” I smiled as he pulled me into a hug. But that was when it all hit me. Me, and my two best friends, were going on tour with One Direction.