Australia was starting to cool down, but the boys still felt the need the strip down to almost nothing. We had rented out the very top floor of the hotel, since so many people needed rooms, so most of the doors down the hall were open and shirtless boys were in and out, talking, yelling, laughing. Hallie had told us that we were free to do whatever we wanted, but I was pretty sure that going out with the boys was out of the question.
Em asked me to go out to the parking lot to get something with her. We were crossing the lobby, where Paul and Marie were still arguing with the manager about something, when I saw Nicole and Harry coming from the elevator opposite. Harry was now dressed, since they had left the top floor, in shorts and a long sleeved shirt. Nicole had been dressed in jean shorts, a tank top, a black cardigan, and a light pink beanie since we’d left NY. She saw me as Em and I were walking past a hollering Paul, and she waved me over. Me and Em crossed the lobby to them.
“We’re all going out to Sydney Harbor in about fifteen minutes, you guys wanna come?” Nicole asked, her arm around Harry’s long torso while he had his arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders.
I glanced over at Marie and Paul, they were too busy arguing that they hadn’t noticed us, but Hallie was standing outside the elevator with Jacob and I was sure she’d heard Nicole. Harry followed my gaze and saw Hallie and Jacob, he leaned his mouth down to Nicole’s ear and whispered something.
“I really want you to come, we haven’t really hung out much since LA,” she said. That was smart. Hallie got inside the elevator, thinking there wasn’t much to see here.
“I told Emma I’d go shopping with her, so I can’t go, but Michaela has nothing planned.” Em offered.
”I promise I’ll make Niall share his beer with you if you come,” Harry said grinning.
“Thanks, but I don’t drink, I’ll still go anyways,” I said smiling.
“Woo! Meet us out front in a few minutes,” Nicole said happily. I nodded as she and Harry walked off.
“I call shotgun!” Zayn shouted running across the parking lot and jumping in the van. “You can sit in the back with us,” Liam said putting his arm around my shoulder. By ‘us’ he meant me, Niall, and him. Louis, Harry, and Nicole were in the middle row while I was between Niall and Liam in the back, Zayn and Paul up front.
“LIVING YOUNG AND WILD AND FREE!!” I covered my ears as Niall screamed the rest of the song along with the radio, his voice breaking off when he started laughing. I was laughing also, but my ears were ringing a bit from how close he was.
“I’m sorry,” he said pulling my hands away from my ears, still laughing.
“Don’t worry, Michaela, if you’re around him enough you’ll get used to his loudness,” Liam said leaning forward in the seat. Niall made a face but he was still smiling. Louis shouted something as we pulled to a stop at Sydney Harbor.
“No one yells as loud as Tommo over here,” Niall said as Nicole pulled the seat forward the let us out. “But no ones as jolly as you, Nialler,” Louis said patting him on the back as Niall laughed. Louis, Zayn, and Liam were the first ones on the yacht, Nicole and Harry lagging behind me and Niall. Louis was already at the front of the boat screaming something before Liam hit him across the back and he jumped away from the edge before he fell into the water. I was busy watching them so I hadn’t even noticed Niall had already climbed onto the boat and was holding his hand out to me. I hesitated, but grabbed it anyways and he helped me onto the boat.
“How do you deal with it?” I asked, looking out of the blinds of the window inside the yacht.
“With what?” Nicole asked.
After everyone was on the boat, Nicole said ‘We’re going to change.’ and she pulled me inside.
“The paparazzi constantly bothering you and Harry and always following you, digging in your private life,” I said sitting down at the small table by the window as she dug through her bag pulling out clothes.
“You get used to it after a while, but when there are four other boys the paps can bother, it’s not so bad,” she said pulling out a green bikini top.
“Good point. So how long have you and Harry been together?” I asked pulling my legs into the chair. She pulled out a rainbow bottom and laid it in the chair beside her.
“Hmm… We met back in June, but I guess we didn’t really consider ourselves official till about August.. So maybe about nine months,” she said. I heard a loud noise come from over heard and I looked out the window again to see Niall waving at something in the sky, his other hand clutching a beer bottle. “Paparazzi’s are in a helicopter,” Nicole said looking out the window as Niall started laughing about something.
She went back to her bag and I leaned back in my seat. “How long do you stay with them at a time? I mean, I know Danielle and Eleanor stayed for a short time and went back to the UK…” I said. “I visited my Dad back in January, then I came back to stay with Haz around the beginning of February, and I’ve been traveling with them ever since,” she said.
“What about your Mom?” I asked. I knew I shouldn’t have asked that when she stopped messing with the zipper on her bag. “I’m sorry.. I didn’t mean..” I wasn’t sure of what to say. No one ever knew what to say to me whenever my Dad was mentioned, so I never knew how to respond with someone else. “It’s alright, I never knew her.. She passed while giving birth to me.. So my Dad raised me,” she said.
“How was that like? Growing up without a Mom.. I mean.. if you don’t mind me asking..” I said as she sat down in the chair across from me.
“It was normal to me, but I did feel a little left out whenever girls at school were always talking about going shopping with their Mom’s, when my Dad never really did anything with me.. I guess loosing Mom hurt him a lot more than I ever realized..” she said.
I started to just end the conversation, not wanting her to get upset, but then she started talking again.
“There was one time, in Junior High.. It was the week of my birthday and I wanted so badly to out shopping and go to this spa all the girls in my class were talking about.. so that Monday, my Dad showed up mid-way through the school day and checked me out.. he took me shopping and he even suffered through the spa.. That was marked the best day of my life.. That was until I got to school the next day and the top girls in my class started saying rude things about my Dad, and how it should’ve been him that died instead of my Mom, that maybe I would’ve turned out a better girl than I was.. It took two years before my Dad finally realized that I was being bullied.. took an extra two and half years for me to get rid of my depression and eating disorder, still gets me some days, but now I have Hazza to help me through it..” She was looking down at her bare feet, like she was talking to her self, but I had listened to every word.
My mouth dropped open. She looked up at me and I quickly rearranged my face. “I’m sorry… You probably didn’t want to hear that.. I just.. I get carried away sometimes, you can just forget all that I just said.” She quickly got up and went back to her chair with her bag. I was still trying to process everything she’d just said, especially the part about her depression. How could a person like Nicole ever have depression? I would’ve never guessed. She always seemed so perfect to me, but I was definitely not even close.
“So where’s your bathing suit?” she asked, clearly not even on the subject of herself anymore.
“I.. uh.. didn’t bring one..” I said quietly.
“You didn’t bring a bathing suit on the boat?” She asked incredulously.
“I didn’t bring one at all.. I didn’t think I’d be swimming,” I said shrugging.
“Hmm… I think I might can fix this… Though I don’t have another suit,” she said looking around the small room.
“Ow… You know, Nicole, I’d like to keep my hair,” I said as she continued to try and pull my hair into a bun on the top of my head.
“I’m sorry, you just have so much hair, it’s hard to grab it all!” She said.
She finally stopped pulling my hair out and let go out of head. I was so used to my hair hanging over my shoulders that I had to look in Nicole’s mirror to make sure she hadn’t cut it all off. It was pulled into a tight bun at the crown of my head, a few stray curls falling from it and hanging around my face. She had me dressed in a black tank top she had with her and she had it pulled tight at the back and all the way above my ribs with it secured right below my bra. She also found a pair of extra short jean shorts that had gotten lost a couple weeks ago and told me to put them on. When finished with me she changed into her light green strapless bikini top with rainbow cheeta print bottoms, and she added her beanie.
The boat had stopped about 10 minutes ago and I could hear splashing outside, along with screaming. None of the boys had bothered us, though I figured that was mainly because Nicole had warned them not to come into the room until we were out. “Niall, where’s all the drinks?” Nicole asked walking out onto the deck. “I think they’re…” I was trying to stick my phone in Nicole’s bag when I heard Niall trail off. I looked up to see him staring at me, his eyes a bit wide. When I made eye contact his cheeks turned bright red and he looked at Nicole. “They’re over there,” he said nodding towards a cooler while getting up off the deck. Without saying anything else he walked straight past me and went inside.