We split up into 2 teams even though there was an odd number of people, Brad, Connor and James on one team and me and Tristan on another. We worked out it was best to not have an assigned goal keeper, the closest person to the goal at the time would defend it which seemed like the easier option when the teams are uneven. I used my bag and my hoodie as goal posts and the other goal posts were made from the boys hoodies. Connor started the game off by passing the ball to Brad and Tristan charged towards the ball, I stood back and watched as I didn't really know what I should do, I watched as Connor dribbled the ball all the way down the pitch and Tristan tried to defend the goal but it came to no avail, Connor scored. "GOAL!" Connor screamed and skidded on the sand which made me giggle. "Hayley! You have gotta help me out here." Tristan whined and I giggled. "Sorry, I just don't really know what I am meant to be doing." I explained. "Just get the ball in their goal." Tristan said and I nodded.
This time Tristan started off with the ball and he passed it to me, it rolled in front of my feet and I panicked as I watched the boys run towards me. "Run!" Tristan shouted, I did what I was told and tackled Connor before running with the ball beneath my feet. I kept on running until I was about 2 meters away from the goal and I thought I was going to score but Connor sneakily ran up next to me and tackled the ball, I attempted to tackle the ball away from him but this resulted in me tripping over his foot and falling face first into the sand. I felt the sand scrape up my arms and my head hit the floor before I saw feet running towards me. "Hayley! Are you ok?" I heard Tristan ask, before I could answer I felt my body being pulled up into a seated position. "I'm so sorry!" Connor exclaimed and I smiled, trying to ignore the burning pain on my arms. "It's fine! I'm fine." I replied and then I felt someone lift my arm up, I looked over to see Brad examining my arms. "You're bleeding." Brad said, I nodded and he carefully placed my arm back down before running over to my bag. He grabbed some tissues from my bag and ran back over to me before sitting down next to me on the sand, he placed some tissue over my arms and I flinched a little. "Seriously Connor, I'm fine. It's just a scratch, I'll live." I explained and rested my good arm on Connors shoulder. "Are you sure?" He asked and I nodded. "I have some plasters in my bag, just put one of them on it and I will be fine." I said, he nodded and ran over to my bag to collect some plasters. These boys are acting like I have broken my arm or something, it's just a scratch...
I turned my head towards Brad and smiled. "Thank you." I said and he looked at me before smiling. "For what?" He asked. "Helping." I replied and he winked. "Anytime." He said and took the plasters from Connor, did he just wink at me?
Once the plasters had been applied the boys helped me stand up and I brushed the sand off of my trousers and t-shirt. "Would you mind if I sat this game out?" I asked and the boys smiled at me. "Go for it." Connor replied and I walked over to the wall at the top of the beach, I climbed up it before sitting on the edge and looking out towards the boys to see Brad looking at me. He gave me the thumbs up as if to ask if I was ok and I replied by giving him the thumbs up in return, I sat on the wall and watched them play football for about half an hour before the boys walked over to me and joined me on the wall.
"Who wants some chips?" James asked and the boys all cheered. "Hayley?" Tristan asked. "Yeah sure, I will come with you so I can pay for mine." I explained and Tristan laughed. "What?" I asked. "I will pay for yours." Brad explained and I gave him a confused look. "Why?" I asked. "Because it's a nice thing to do." Brad explained. "No it's ok, I will pay for mine." I replied. "No, you aren't paying for yours and that's that." Brad explained and I gave him a sympathetic smile, if I didn't agree to come then he wouldn't of had to have paid for my lunch. I sat on the wall with James and Connor while Brad and Tristan walked up to the chip shop, I decided to take this time to do what I have wanted to do for years, think at the beach. I should probably explain my family situation as well while I'm taking the time to think about things...
I have a little sister who is 4 years old and she is called Jodie, she is the person who means the most to me as I have pretty much had to look after her for her whole life. My parents split up while my mum was pregnant with Jodie because things just weren't working out, there were constant arguments and it wasn't a nice environment to live in for about 2 years, I spent most of my time in my bedroom trying to block out my parents arguing. I have always had a love for music and this love increased as I found out music helped me block out the arguing going on around me, I would just sit in my bedroom with a guitar for hours writing a song or learning how to play some covers. Just before Jodie was born they split up and I lived with my mum, I helped her look after Jodie because ever since dad left she was in a break down state, she just couldn't cope with a child and the break up so I looked after Jodie. But now I am at university and Jodie has a qualified baby sitter that comes round everyday to look after her because I'm not there to help mum out anymore, mum has been getting medication from the doctors to help with her depression and things like that and she is slowly getting better. I promised her that I would visit her at the end of term to make sure she is doing ok and I promised Jodie that I would come round to see her, I can't break that promise. But I guess coming to university has helped me escape from my home life and let me do things for myself, I'm just getting used to not looking after Jodie everyday.
"Chips!" I heard Tristan shout which snapped me out of my thoughts, Brad walked over to me and passed me my chips before sitting on the wall next to me. "Thank you." I replied and he smiled at me in return. "So, can I ask you a few questions? I wanna get to know you more." Brad said and I giggled a little. "Yeah sure." I replied and he blushed a little. "I'm gonna start with a classic question." Brad said and I smiled. "What's your favourite colour?" He asked in a jokey voice and I laughed. "What?" He replied and I giggled. "Blue, but it has to be sky blue. What about you?" I asked as I popped a chip in my mouth. "Red." He explained and I nodded. "Why did you come to this university?" He asked, now we are getting into the more serious questions. "Because both of my parents came here and they both said they liked it, they also met each other here..." I said and ate another chip, I wasn't about to explain that I also came here to escape home for a while. "Ah that's nice, did they take music too?" He asked. "No, they don't really see the point in music." I explained. "Oh." Brad replied and I nodded. "Why did you come here?" I asked. "I don't really know, I guess I just followed where the boys went." Brad said and I nodded. "Do you have any siblings?" Brad asked and I went to put a chip in my mouth but stopped. "Yeah..." I replied and he gave me a confused look. "I'm sorry, did I say something I wasn't meant to?" Brad asked and I shook my head. "No, no. It's fine." I replied and sighed. "I have a little sister." I continued. "What's her name?" Brad asked. "Jodie." I replied. "How old is he?" Brad asked. "4." I replied, I got my phone out of my bag and showed him a photo of her. "She looks like you." Brad said and I put my phone away. "Well she's unlucky then." I replied. "No she isn't." Brad said and I continued to eat my chips.
"What about you?" I asked to change the subject. "I have an older sister called Natalie, but we call her Nat." Brad explained and I nodded, he got his phone out to show me a photo of her. "Now, she does look like you!" I said and passed Brad's phone back after I had a look. "Yeah, a lot of people say that." Brad explained and I nodded. "Look, I know this may seem like I'm going a bit fast or something... But can I have your phone number?" Brad asked and I looked at him with my cheeks stuffed full of chips, he tried his best not to giggle and instead wiped the chip crumbs off of my face. I blushed a little as I swallowed. "Sorry..." I said and Brad smiled. "Don't be, it's cute." He replied and I could not believe what was happening, he keeps calling me cute and he has just asked for my phone number. I got my phone back out of my bag and unlocked it before passing it to Brad. "Go for it." I said and he smiled before adding his number into my phone and texting me so he had my number, he then passed the phone back to me and I thanked him.
1 message to Bradley Simpson
Heyyyyyy Hayley here!!
1 message from Bradley Simpson
Hi cutie... x
I looked up from my phone and over at him to see he was already smiling at me... "Ok so I can see a play area in the distance, it's got swings and stuff so I'm going down there. If anyone wants to join they are more than welcome to!" Connor shouted and jumped off of the wall with Tristan following closely behind. "I had better go and make sure they aren't fighting children to get on the swings." James said and I laughed before he jumped down and ran after them. "Did you wanna go?" Brad asked. "Yeah. Sure." I replied, he jumped off the the wall and waited at the bottom for me. "Jump, I will catch you." Brad explained, I'm not scared of heights and I don't need him to catch me at the bottom but I'm not going to let that get in the way of this opportunity. I threw my bag down first and Brad caught it, he placed it next to him on the sand and reached his arms up before I jumped down. I landed with two feet firmly on the ground and Brad's hands supporting my waist, why do I feel so safe with his hands on my waist...
"You good?" He asked and I snapped out of my thoughts, I nodded and picked up my bag before walking next to Brad down to the park area. Once we arrived the first thing we saw was Tristan and Connor arguing about who was going to go down the slide first, but behind the boys I saw a little boy patiently waiting to get down the slide so I ran over to them. "Boys! Please just go down the slide because this little boy is patiently waiting to get down." I explained and they both looked behind them to see the little boy nervously waiting. "Sorry kid." Connor replied and slid down the slide with Tristan following closely behind him, may I add the fact that this slide is the same length as the boys so they only had to sit on it to touch the floor. I shook my head and walked over to the little boy, he only looks about 7. "I'm sorry about them, if they get in your way again just push them." I explained in a jokey manner and the boy laughed. "I will!" He replied and slid down the slide before running off down the beach. "You handled that well." I heard Brad say from behind me, I turned around to see him leaning against the climbing frame that the slide was attached to. "Thanks, I guess I just know what to do around kids." I explained thinking about Jodie.
I walked over to the swings and sat down on one of them while Tristan ran over and sat on the one next to me, leaving Brad with James and Connor. "Sooooooo." Tristan said, he actually acts like a kid in a grown up body. "Yeah?" I questioned. "You and Brad ay..." He mumbled and swung to the side so he could nudge me in the ribs. "What about us?" I asked. "You two seem to be getting on well." He commented and I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm not looking for a relationship or anything, he is just my friend. Plus, I can't really go anywhere near him because of Jasmine. God knows what she would do if she knew I was here." I replied. "She doesn't need to know and she will never find out, me and the boys were talking earlier when you went and sat on the beach wall. We were saying that we all prefer you to Jasmine and the other girls, the other girls are no fun, they won't play football with us and they don't like going out and having a laugh. They just want to use us so they can look popular, we don't want that from a girl." Tristan explained. "Well I'm glad I'm not getting in your way or anything." I replied. "Trust me, you aren't. We would rather hang out with you than the other girls any day." Tristan replied and I nodded before looking over at the other boys who were all sitting on the climbing frame and chatting.