Izzy's POV
Sophie and I fell asleep on the reclining chairs on the back deck after everyone went inside. We grabbed blankets and figured it would be nice to fall asleep under the stars and wake up to the sun rising over the mountains. I woke up first, and when the sun was just barely above the peeks, I laid right back down and went back to sleep. I didn't actually get up until Sophie shook me a while later.
"I'm hungry and I want to drink already." She yawned, and I totally felt the same way.
"I want cereal." I said, getting up and bringing the blanket back inside. She followed me and threw her blanket on one of the couches like I had, and we found the cereal and milk to make ourselves bowls.
"I'm surprised no one's up yet." I told her, looking around the empty first floor.
"It's only 11." Sophie said, looking at her almost dead phone.
"Good morning." We turned to see Niall coming down the stairs, so we smiled at him.
"Morning." I said, sitting down on the couch to eat my cereal. We heard Niall fumbling around in the kitchen for a second, but he joined us in the living room with a bowl of cereal of his own.
"There were Fruity Pebbles?" He asked, looking into my bowl to see the rainbow.
"I had the last of them, I'm sorry." I frowned, and he threw his head back in disappointment.
"It's fine, I'll just deal with Honey Bunches of Oats." He said sarcastically, and I rolled my eyes.
"I'll trade you?" I said, holding my bowl out. "I haven't even eaten any yet." I laughed, watching as his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.
"I love you!" Niall said excitedly, and I chuckled at how pumped he was to have Fruity Pebbles. He traded bowls with me, and I honestly looked forward to eating Honey Bunches of Oats more.
"Remember I did that for you." I giggled, and he nodded his head with a mouthful of cereal.
"Hey, babe." Ashton came up from behind us and kissed Sophie on the cheek. I couldn't help but be jealous of them, they literally never had problems. Especially not heavy ones like Luke and I always did.
"Hey! Get some cereal, we're having a breakfast party." She told him, and he ventured off into the kitchen and returned with a huge bowl of Reece's Puffs. You could really learn a lot about a person by the cereal they picked, so this was somewhat of an educational experiment. Soon enough most of the house was in the living room eating cereal. Harry was the only one missing, but by the time he joined us we were all pretty much done.
"Quick! Get cereal and come over here!" I yelled to him, and he furrowed his eyebrows at me but did it nonetheless.
"What is this, some fucked up cereal orgy?" He asked, the raspiness still in his voice from just waking up. We all laughed at the comparison, and he plopped down next to me. I saw Luke staring off into space with his jaw clenched, and I didn't get why he was acting this way. He could have avoided this if he just sat next to me when he came in, but now he was sitting in his own saltiness.
"Oh, I was thinking we could hike up to this lake I used to go to as a kid. It's not that far." Harry said after a moment of silence.
"The one we used to go fishing in?" Niall asked.
"Yeah, I think there are rods in the garage if you want to again." He told him, taking another spoonful into his mouth.
"I'm down for a hike." Mike said, and I couldn't agree more. I hadn't left the property in two weeks, so seeing the outside world would be a breath of fresh air.
"Please. I need to get out of this house for a while." I laughed, and Sophie agreed.
By the time we finished with breakfast, it was past noon. I ran upstairs to find something I could swim in that wasn't literally a bra. I ended up putting a sports bra on, and I threw jean shorts on that I figured I could swim in. I put a tee over it and emptied out the backpack that had a couple miscellaneous things inside that was in the corner. I was planning on filling it with drinks, and as I turned to leave the room, Luke came in.
We looked at each other for a minute, and he rubbed his chin when he finally walked past me. I took that as he didn't have anything to say, so I slowly walked out of the room. I turned back to see him pulling his shirt off to change, and it took every bit of strength I had to look away. I raced back downstairs to find that Harry was the only other person ready.
"We can swim there, right?" I asked, just making sure it was that type of lake.
"Yeah, just be careful for the fish. They're probably bigger than you are." He laughed, looking me up and down as if to help prove his point. "What's up with Luke? By the way." He asked, throwing some beers into his own bag.
"What do you mean?" I asked awkwardly, not knowing which part he was referring to. There was a lot up with Luke, and god only knows what Harry picked up on.
"He's just been quiet. Every time I've seen him he's usually to life of the party." He said, and I let out a discrete sigh of relief.
"I don't know, I think he's just got a lot on his mind." I told him, going into the mini fridge to grab drinks to out in my back pack.
"What exactly is my dad taking care of for you?" He asked, and I thought of how the best way to explain it was.
"Um... there are some guys that tried to kill Luke. They thought that my car was his and put cyanide in the water bottle in the front seat. So, I drank it and now we're here while your dad finds them." I put it simply, not really getting into too much detail. I kept fumbling with the cans and acted like it wasn't a big deal.
"Wait, so you drank cyanide?" He asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, and unfortunately I'm still here." I joked, but he didn't seem to like that.
"Don't say that. I'm sure everyone's grateful that you're still here." He said, coming over to stand next to me while I awkwardly zipped up my bag. "I'm glad you're still here." He added, giving me a goofy smile that I couldn't hate.
The fucked up part was that Harry actually seemed like a nice guy. He was goofy and sarcastic, and the difference between him and Luke was the fact that he was actually nice to me. Luke treated me like shit right from the start, but Harry's been nothing but kind. When I started thinking about actually giving him a shot, though, I snapped out of it. I finished zipping my bag and put it over my shoulders, turning to face him.
"What are you guys up to?" Luke waltzed into the kitchen, and I could tell he was trying to hide the irritation in his voice.
"She was just telling me about the Kool-Aid she drank. What'd you do to have a hit out for you, huh?" Harry asked. He wasn't being rude or nosey, he was kidding around and I was hoping Luke wouldn't rip his head off for it.
"Inside job. A meeting went sideways and they tracked the car we took, which was unfortunately hers." He explained, and he seemed to have dropped the attitude.
"Damn. Has my dad found them yet?" Harry asked, a lot more serious this time.
"He's working on it." Luke said, brushing off the conversation and going into the mini fridge.
"I packed drinks for you." I said timidly. He stood back up and smirked at me before giving Harry a weird look. I watched as he walked out onto the deck and took out his pack of cigarettes.
"I can see why he pulled a gun out last night." Harry said, breaking me away from staring at Luke.
"Like I said, he's got a lot on his mind." I told him quietly, and I turned back to see Luke eyeing me. "Sorry, I'll be right back." I said, darting around the island to go out onto the deck. I heard a ton of footsteps coming down the stairs, but the voices grew quieter when I finally got outside.
"It's okay that I told him?" I asked, watching as Luke pulled out his pack and handed it to me. I had been smoking nonstop since we got here, but it didn't even bother me. I just pulled one out and lit it, handing the pack back to him right after.
"Yeah. He doesn't get involved with Lorenzo's shit, but you can trust him with that." He said, and it almost sounded like it pained him to say. It was such a strange vibe between us. It's not like we were arguing or mad at each other, we were just simply distant.
"You guys ready?" Sophie broke us from our conversation, and we looked to see her smiling widely. Everyone else followed outside, so we nodded and walked down the steps.
The hike itself wasn't that bad, and it only took a half hour. The lake wasn't as big as I thought it would be, either. You could easily swim across it and I doubt it was very deep. There was even a rope swing set up on one of the trees. We dropped our stuff down on the shore, but without hesitation Sophie and I stripped down and climbed up to the rope. She pleaded with me to jump first, so I held onto it and pushed off.
"Oh my god!" I yelped, realizing just how high over the water I was when it was too late. I let go and fell in, and when I came up to the surface I saw everyone laughing. Sophie flew in next to me, and the splash caught me off guard. We swam closer to shore as everyone started walking in, but Sophie started freaking out next to me.
"Something touched my foot! There aren't eels in here are there?" She looked like she was about to cry, but the nerd side of my biology brain kicked in, which definitely didn't help.
"Actually, fresh water eels love upland ponds and streams. It's where they spend a lot of their time when they're not migrating to reproduce down-stream." I sounded like a fucking encyclopedia, and everyone just stopped and looked at me. "I took a marine ecology class last year." I said quietly, looking at all the blank faces staring back at me.
"I'm getting out." Sophie said, swimming to the shore.
"They're nocturnal, dude! It was probably a plant." I laughed, but she seemed to relax at least. Luke swam over to where I was treading, and he wrapped his arms around my stomach.
"Have I ever told you how sexy you are when you go full nerd?" He smirked, dipping his head down to kiss my jaw. This was the most he had touched me in two weeks, so I let it happen.
"No, I don't think you have." I giggled. He pulled away and gave me a weird look, and before I could stop him he was dunking underwater. The water was too dark for me to see him, but then I saw him resurface a few feet away. I watched him swim back to shore and climb up to the rope swing, leaving me swimming there by myself.
I tried to feel for the bottom, but when I couldn't I swam closer to shore. Everyone was congregated at hip's depth, except for Luke and Ashton. They were fumbling around with the rope swing getting ready to jump. I felt around again once I was closer, and since I was confident that the floor was there I ended up going under.
"Hop on." Harry came up to me as I was pushing my hair out of my face, and since he was significantly taller than me he could stand here. I jumped onto his back and he walked me to the shallower part of the lake, letting me fall from his back when he knew I could stand.
"Thank you." I said, smiling at him when he looked back at me. I walked my way to shore and starting throwing out drinks, returning with one for myself after. I saw Luke and Ashton swimming back in after jumping off the swing, so I doubled back and yelled to them to see what they wanted.
"Any beer you have!" Ashton yelled, so I threw him and Luke each their own.
I walked in until the water was almost to my shoulders, and I was still a few feet away from everyone. Even Sophie had height on me, so they were all at a comfortable depth. I tried to move in, but I looked like an idiot when only my head was sticking out. Louis was the first to look at me, and once he started laughing everyone joined in.
"You guys are dicks." I laughed, taking a few steps back so I could actually hold my drink.
"We'll move in, I'm sorry." Sophie laughed. They all took a couple steps closer, but Luke managed to circle around the group and come up next to me. He scooped me up so I was latched onto his torso and started walking me back out to them.
"Wait, wait." I said, making him stop in place. I let go and managed to wrap around his body, latching onto his back so I could face the group.
"You good?" He asked, smiling up at me as I leaned my head over his shoulder.
"Yeah." I said, cracking open the can in my hand and finally taking a sip. Sophie ended up doing the same to Ashton, even though she didn't need the extra height. She just wanted him to give her a piggy back ride. I saw Harry looking at the two of us, realization probably hitting him that there was something going on between Luke and me.
I wasn't expecting mine and Sophie's plan to work so well so fast, but he wasn't even mad. He was just treating me like his girlfriend again. I was eating it up, though, so I enjoyed every second of holding onto him.
"I love you." I whispered into his ear, and he turned to look at me.
"I love you too, baby." He smiled, bringing his hand to hold onto the wrist I had wrapped around his neck. I kissed his cheek since I couldn't reach his lips, but that was enough for me.
We spent a while just standing there and talking, the occasional splash off happening once we finished our drinks. We stepped out of the water and let the air dry us as much as possible, just so we didn't have to put wet towels on the ground to sit on. We all grabbed another drink and stood around for another half hour, and once I was dry I threw my tee back on and sat down on my towel. Luke sat with me and used his towel to drape around us, and I rested my head on his shoulder while we waited for everyone else to sit.
"I didn't realize you two were together. I'm sorry if I came onto you in any way." Harry said suddenly, and I watched him sit across from us.
"It's fine, it wasn't exactly obvious." I said quietly, and I felt Luke wrap his arm around me.
"Just don't do it again." Luke tensed up a bit, and he eyed Harry to make sure he got the message. He just threw his hands up in defense.
"Don't worry about it." He said, bringing his attention back to the conversation everyone else was now having around us.
We sat out there for a few more hours, and once the sun started going down we decided to head back to the house. It got dark quick, though, and only Sophie had her phone for a flashlight. The rest of us left them at the house. By the time we finally came down the mountain, we could see right through the windows. The only problem was that the lights were on, and we hadn't left them on. I think I was the only one who picked up on that, but I pulled on Luke's arm and got him to turn around.
"We didn't leave the lights on." I said quietly, and he furrowed his eyebrows and looked back at the house. I did the same and froze when I saw figures flipping stuff over in the living room.
"Guys!" Luke shouted, trying not be too loud. They all turned and he walked up to them. "There are guys in the house." I saw them all whip around and actually pay attention, and when they saw what Luke and I saw everyone started to panic.
"You guys have your guns, right?" I asked, looking between Luke and Harry. They just stared back, and the second they gave each other looks I knew we were fucked.
"They're in the house."
A/N
I'm on day 4 of working 13 days straight so I'm sorry the uploading is so inconsistent but I'm going to sit here for the next hour and a half before I go in and get a few chapters up. I've been seeing a lot of new readers on chapter 1 so hopefully they stick around and enjoy this as much as those of you who are this far along hopefully are lol. See you on the next one!!!