Niall’s view:
I got up and walked over to Harry, I felt more tears coming. I wanted to stay strong, but so much hurt and healing was happening at once, I didn’t know what else to do. Harry stood up, wrapped his arms around me, and put his face in my shoulder so Claire didn’t see him crying. This wasn’t a bro hug where you pat each other’s backs and separate. It was our way of saying sorry. We held on a bit, I started crying harder and I could feel Harry wipe away tears before they got on my already dirty t-shirt. Harry let go and turned to Claire.
“Could you excuse us for a bit?” She nodded with a smile as we stepped out of the room. Luckily no people were around to see us otherwise we’d have to be having this conversation in the bathroom, or worse, with Claire.
“I don’t even know what to say.” Harry looked at me, full of grief. I didn’t feel any better than he did, I’m sure. I was such a jerk to him and the guys. I did horrible things just to get back at him, and for what? I didn’t gain anything, well except Claire, but I lost a friendship temporarily with my best mate.
“You don’t need to say a thing, because I’m just as much to blame as you are. I’ve been an idiot, and you didn’t even deserve it.” Harry gave me an expression questioning me. “Well, then you only deserved it a little bit.” We chuckled before turning back to our serious expressions.
“I deserved it because I was a jerk to you, I saw something I didn’t have and took it from you. Claire was yours, you noticed her true self before I did, and all I saw was a pretty face and took her. You deserve every bit of her, you can have her.” I looked up slowly in amazement. Was I really hearing these words? I tried not to act so excited because I knew Harry still cared for her.
“You like her though. We shouldn’t be the ones to decide this you know? She should, but we don’t want it to be another competition, it should be fair and square, let her choose without letting her know she’s choosing. How does that sound?” I looked at him questionably. Even though we were making a deal to let Claire choose, I was determined to spend time with her more often. And considering the circumstances between us now, I had a feeling that was a big possibility.
“Sounds pretty good mate, pretty good. It might be hard at first you know, but we have to stay strong. You’re my best friend, I’m not losing you ever again, you hear?” We laughed and gave each other a short hug before stepping back inside the room. Claire was texting, probably Justin or Jess. She looked at us, wondering what went on.
“So…” We laughed at her awkwardness. “Is there a friendship put back together again?” She looked at the both of us. We looked at each other and back to her before nodding in agreement.
“I’m glad. I felt guilty ya know, I’m the one who caused this, it’s my fault.” She really thought so, for some reason, but she was wrong. It was both of our faults, it was me and Harry being ridiculous, and it had nothing to do with her, just over her maybe.
“No, what happened here was between me and Harry and our man pride.” I looked at him and smiled, but it was true. I felt bad for saying so, it seemed so stupid to fight over such a thing.
“Justin’s on his way to get us are you coming with me or going back with Harry.” She made an odd expression, everything that involved me, Harry, and Claire was going to be awkward and we all knew it. Harry nodded at me.
“You should probably go with Claire to help her explain this story of yours. It’s quite the story by the way; it’s going to be all over the news.” As if on cue, a notification went off on my phone, I looked down to see an incoming News Flash about me and Claire and the man that attacked her. I clicked on the link and read further. His name was Nich Johnson, a father of two, divorced, criminal offense. Recently out of jail for raping a woman, and the first thing he does is attack another innocent girl. I didn’t want to show Claire, it was already too much for me to handle. I looked at some of the pictures of us, we looked terrible. I could imagine we didn’t look much better now. I put my phone back and didn’t say anything. Just then the front desk came in over the intercom, “Niall Horan, Claire Chasez, and Harry styles could you please report to the main lobby.” We heard gasps coming from outside the room, the lady on the intercom spoke slowly when she said our names, probably in shock herself. Those announcements can be heard outside, which means the paparazzi would be swarming.
“The paps are gonna be everywhere, we should probably text Justin to meet us out back instead.” Harry suggested.
“Good idea, Justin already did so, let’s go before they follow.” We tried to hurry, but Claire couldn’t. I looked at Harry before going to help her. I put her in a wheel chair that I grabbed from an empty room and started running through the halls. My knee hurt but I tried to ignore it. We went down the elevator to the main floor and took a back exit. Only two or three paps were in the back, but I could hear more coming so I picked Claire up out of her wheel chair, we said goodbye to Harry, and left for home.



Claire’s view:
I watched intently out the window as a very sad Harry drove away. I felt so bad, but for some reason, I didn’t want to leave Nialls side. I felt so protected by him, almost as if he was my safe haven. Niall and I explained everything to Justin on the way home. Jess wasn’t there, she was resting with the rest of the lads, and Nan wasn’t allowed to come because of her health, at least that’s what Justin said. Justin was really emotional about it all. I’d never seen him cry before, at least not from being sad, but tears fell after we told our story. He couldn’t stop thanking Niall for saving me and saying how happy he was that we were alright. We tried to keep from talking about it too much, I couldn’t really handle it. I brought up the competition and Justin gave us the low down on what was going to happen. He said all auditions and week one mentoring was postponed until next week. I was relieved to find that out, but the next part was nothing I expected to hear, or wanted to hear.
“There’s some bad news, I shouldn’t tell you now Claire, but you’d find out as soon as you got home. It’s your Nan. We had to take her to the hospital. They don’t know if she’s going to make it.” Justin sighed and put his head on his hand. Nialls jaw dropped and he turned to see my reaction. My heart stopped, I couldn’t breathe, my eyes filled with tears again. I thought everything was going to be okay. I looked down at the ground and clenched my fists.
“Stop the car!” I yelled. Justin pulled over immediately and stopped the car. I jumped out and stood bent over on the curb, I felt like I was going to puke. I heard Niall jump out and run over to me. He started rubbing his hand on my back. All of a sudden I was heaving, my body shaking and convulsing, I started puking, not just a little, a lot. Niall pulled back my hair and kept it away from my face. I was crying at the same time so I couldn’t really breathe. I tried to take a deep breath and started choking. Niall got on his knee and looked up at me. I cleared my throat before looking up to the sky in pure agony.
“Why me, why does this happen to me?” I sat down and put my head in my hands, tears rolling down my wrists and falling onto the rocky pavement.
“I’m so sorry Claire.” Niall rubbed his face with his hands and put his head down. She was the last person on Earth for me, the last person I loved like my family. Sure, Justin was my Uncle, but what’s that compared to your Grandma. The one who would invite you over and treat you like a princess, serve you any food you wanted, buy you clothes and toys. She watched over me when my Dad died and then she got sick and I had to move in with Justin. I didn’t want her to go, I started begging God.
“Please, please let her stay. I know she’s sick, but you have the power to make her well again. I can’t live without her.” I sat there for a long time crying, thinking, and sitting in my sorrow. I finally calmed down and after a couple of minutes of dry eyes I turned my head and looked at Niall. He was staring at me, with a sad expression on his face. He stood up and opened the passenger seat. He came back out with some tissues and gave them to me. I blew my nose and tucked the tissues into my pocket. I stood up pitifully and started walking down the road miserably, it’s like I didn’t even care anymore. I wanted to think without all the commotion. Niall close behind me and Justin driving slowly behind us. I turned around and waved Justin to keep driving, we weren’t too far from the house and I needed the time to think.
“Where are you going?” Justin asked with concern filling his question.
“I’m just going to walk home. I need to clear my head.” I answered. It was true though, if I didn’t try to sort through my emotions now, I would explode later.
“Would you like me to go with Justin?” I turned around to see Niall, I couldn’t tell him to leave. I shook my head, but I kept walking. After about a mile we started towards the park. I stood at the edge of the road staring out to the ocean across the grass. Niall came up beside me and took a deep breath of the fresh salty air blowing in from the water.
“You want to go out there?” He looked over at me with a little smile. It actually didn’t seem like that bad of an idea. I nodded as we walked across the street. Luckily no paparazzi were out and about so we could just be normal. I guess that didn’t even matter when a couple of girls were drawing attention to us, pointing and whispering. We simply ignored them and continued walking across the grass towards the white sand beach and crashing blue waves. I took off my shoes and walked barefoot through the grass. It felt nice and was almost therapeutic. A dog ran over to us and dropped a stick at my feet. I picked it up and threw it back towards the direction of the owner. I focused on the tingling rays of sunshine on my face, the wind in my hair, and the texture of the grass. I prayed and prayed for the safety of my Nan. I didn’t want to see her now. I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I would go tomorrow, I didn’t want to go alone, but I didn’t want to bring just anybody. It had to be someone special, emotional, and caring. I turned to the blonde boy walking beside me. He had his hands in his front pockets and was staring into the sun. I reached over and gently grabbed his arm. I guided him to a nearby bench and we sat down.
“Isn’t this the bench we were at yesterday?” He seemed hesitant to ask.
“Yeah, I just thought it would be sort of fun to come here. Coming here will make me happy, knowing that it was before…before things happened, ya know?” I tried to keep calm. My anxiety was over the top, my eyes were swollen from crying so much, and my wrists and stomach were starting to hurt again.
“You know what? We need to have some fun to help us feel better. Everything feels so claustrophobic right now, let’s do something about it. Starting right now we should just be spontaneous. Let’s go to a club and learn a new dance, or go night swimming.” My head turned at his last idea.
“You want to go night swimming? That sounds a little dangerous, there are sharks out there, and we’re some very scrumptious people.” I laughed at my sudden change of attitude. All of a sudden, a thought hit me. I didn’t have a bathing suit that I could wear around Niall. All I had were bikinis that I wore at the pool back at the house. I would be so self-conscious, he would never understand, and even if he did, I’d be so uncomfortable.
“Well, maybe… urrggg, I don’t have a bathing suit I could wear.” I ran my fingers through my knotty hair before standing up and walking towards the water again.
“What do you mean? Do you have a bathing suit or don’t you? Don’t tell me you’d feel uncomfortable in a bathing suit around me?” He ran over and pushed against my inner elbow to turn me around, he was trying to look me in the eyes, but I shifted my attention to some kids playing in the sprinklers.
“Hi, yeah I’m right here not out there.” I slowly turned my head to be looking directly into his big blue eyes, then I couldn’t stop looking and I started to blush. “I don’t care about what’s on the outside alright? You’re a beautiful girl inside and out, and I shouldn’t have to be the one to remind you of that.” He smiled at me encouragingly. I started picking at my nails, a nervous habit when I get self-conscious. We continued walking towards the water.
“Fine, I’ll go and buy a bathing suit on the way back to my house. Then you can go get yours and we’ll meet back here.” I threw out the idea in an attempt to avoid wearing one of my skimpy bikinis around him, no matter how much he didn’t care. I wasn’t going to show him what I really looked like underneath these clothes. There was no way I’d let that happen, ever.
“No way, I’m not letting you walk back here alone. I’ll come back with you so you can get your new bathing suit,” he sounded irritated at my stubborn decision, “then you can change at the shop and come back to the water. How does that sound?” I thought about it for two seconds before giving him a weird face.
“Wait, what are you supposed to wear?” I didn’t like where this was going.
“I have boxers, I’ll manage.” He laughed and elbowed me. I shook my head in utter embarrassment.
“How about we both buy a new suit so you don’t look like a moron and I don’t look like whatever I look like when I’m wearing a stupid bikini.” I smiled at myself, but it hurt to admit. I had to be tough on myself though, it was the only to feel better about my image.
“Would you stop it, don’t be down on yourself. I hate it when girls are like that, everyone is different, and not everyone is perfect or as skinny as a stick. Which by the way, neither of those are attractive to me at all, just thought you should know.” He sounded disappointed. It must be pet peeve of his. I just sighed and pushed his kind words out of my head, I didn’t feel like thinking about my state of mind right now. He decided to buy some swim trunks after all. We finally got across the park and jumped off the dune hill into the sandy beach below. We stopped an older woman to get our picture jumping off the dune again because we thought we looked cool. After several retakes the lady finally got it clear, and Niall and I were exhausted. He took a picture of the sun streaked water, and then took an overexposed picture of me and him. He made sure you couldn’t see our stitches and bruises. I watched him edit and crop the photos, put them in a collage, and then post it on Instagram and Twitter. He commented and said, “Hanging out with my bud, so happy she’s okay and even happier to be alive.” I smiled at his tenderness, which made me think of a Michael Bublé song.
“Man, where’s some food when I need it?” He complained.
“Yeah, honestly, I’m half starved. I don’t remember the last time I ate a single morsel.” I acted all dramatic before draping my hand across my forehead and pretending to pass out. Niall laughed and fell back into the sand beside me. We watched the sun set while talking about the competition a little more. We ended up going off on a different subject about some of the most embarrassing moments of our lives. I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time. He told me about this time at his private boy school that he and his friends were sitting in the dining hall eating. Niall fell backwards off of his bench and just stayed there. When an instructor asked him what was wrong he said he didn’t get enough food and he thought he was going to die. The instructor argued and fought with him in helping him to understand that too much food wasn’t good. Niall, in rebelliousness, ran to the front of the hall and pulled down his pants in front of everyone. He ended up getting detention for two weeks and a good spanking from his pa when he got home.
“That’s the best story ever! You were a rebel. I got away with a lot, but nothing to get a detention and spankings over. I would get grounded sometimes, but that was mostly for putting myself down or promising my dad I would never eat again.” I laughed while I put my hands above my head to stretch out my body. Niall turned over and poked my stomach. I laughed, he smiled mischievously.
“Oh no you don’t, don’t even think about it! Niall Horan, I will feed you to a shark!” I screamed as I got up and ran, him chasing after me. He tackled me by my feet; I fell, still laughing. He tickled my foot and then pinched my knee good knee. I screamed and began whimpering. A random burst of fear filled with my body as memories of last night cascaded around my mind.
“Whoa, whoa, hey, are you okay?” I shook my head and felt myself relax. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you Claire. I’m sorry, I should’ve been thinking of that.” I nodded in response. “Here, you can slap me to make up for my terrible misjudgment.” He tapped his cheek. I carefully slapped him, not hard at all. As I pulled my hand away he grabbed it. I stopped crying, still a tear on my face. He pulled my hand back to his lips and kissed the top of it. Butterflies soared through my stomach, making me anxious and nervous.
“Should we go get our suits now?” He put my hand down by his side, still holding onto it. I held on, even though it felt weird, the first thing that popped in my head was Harry. A wave of grief crashed over me as I thought about our curly headed friend.
“Harry?” Niall asked, as if reading my thoughts. I had had my head down and hadn’t answered Niall yet.
“I just don’t want him to get upset. Is that wrong of me, to feel like I owe him my loyalty?” I felt weird asking such a question, as if Niall were my father.
“Not wrong as in bad, but wrong as in incorrect. He told me back at the hospital that if we wanted to talk, he would give you away. He believes that he chased after you because of your looks, not because of who you truly were on the inside. Not to mention his disloyalty to you.” Niall scratched the back of his neck, he was feeling awkward too.
“What do you mean disloyalty?” I narrowed my eyes trying to imagine how Harry could ever “cheat” on me in any way. Niall sighed and blew up at his hair. He turned to me and I felt his grip on my hand soften, he let go and put a hand in his pocket. Why did I have the feeling this wasn’t going to be a good thing? Niall motioned me to sit beside him in the grass. There was still a mild amount of light left from the setting sun. I sat beside him and looked intently into his eyes as his grew with sorrow as he told me something that would change everything.
“I knew that I’d have to tell you this eventually, but I guess sooner than later is always better. The night that I got drunk and kidnapped you...” He turned red at the thought that there was once that much awkwardness between us, I did too. “The bar I was at, there was this girl. Her names Sam, she’s actually a really nice girl, she’s my friend now. That night I felt so foolish in the way I acted so I went back a couple days later and sure enough she was there. I apologized and said we should keep in contact, but sadly I wasn’t exactly being truthful in my reason for wanting to be friends. My plan actually was to use her to get to Harry, so I could at least meet you. I was so scared to talk to you, I was sure you’d never even want to be within a couple feet of me.” I felt terrible. I never really thought that about Niall. I mean sure I was uncertain in his motives, but I didn’t hold him to his actions because I knew he could be different. Meeting him at the VMA’s and at Justin’s studio assured me of his sanity. I nudged his arm to let him continue.
“Anyway, I brought Sam to the house after she agreed to be a bit of a distraction for Harry, I didn’t really expect it to work though…” He turned away and I felt him tense up, I wasn’t totally sure as to what he was talking about so I waited for him to continue. “So, I was up in my room and she was with me, Harry came home and was obviously gawking at her when he came in. He’s the type that can’t stand not having the best. So, he saw Sam, he liked what he saw, she went downstairs and he kissed her. I didn’t do it to hurt you. I did it to help you. I was jealous, but I liked you longer then Harry did. I noticed you for…for you. Not just a pretty face, although that did help, because you are beautiful. I just need you to know that I would never do something like that to you, ever.” He looked at me seriously and I took a second to process what he just said. I always knew there was something off about Harry, but I didn’t know it was this bad. I took a deep breath, more of a sigh and touched Nialls arm to pull him up.
“Well, we’ll see what happens and let fate carry us down the right path. We can’t predict what’s to come of us, we can say one thing and do another, but it all depends on the moment.” I had told that same thing to a crush I had back in middle school, I smiled at the fond memory from the different life I had back then.
“Hmm… where’d you come up with that?” I was about to answer when Niall’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his sandy pocket and swiped the screen with his t-shirt. Speak of the devil, the screen read Harry and had a picture of him sticking his tongue out. I didn’t know what to do, and neither did Niall. He looked to me before pressing the ignore button. I honestly didn’t want to talk to Harry anymore, knowing that he kissed another girl reassured my doubts of whether I should stick with him or not. I couldn’t be let down anymore, especially in a relationship with a guy, it was too much. I trusted Niall. I think he’ll always be true to his word, no matter what.
“I shouldn’t ignore it, but I’m not in the mood to talk right now.” He put the phone back in his pocket just as another call came in. This time it was Justin, I put my hand out so I could talk to him.
“He’s probably wondering where we are, we’ve been gone for ages. We don’t want to give him another heart attack.” He handed me the phone, I picked up.
“Hello?” I answered warily.
“Claire?” It wasn’t Justin, it was Harry. I looked at Niall speechless.
“Umm, yeah, it’s Claire.” Niall cocked his head to one side in confusion. I mouthed the name Harry, he told me to not say anything, but that seemed too late.
“I take it you and Niall are together. Justin and Jess were worried about you guys, and so was I.” Niall could still hear what he was saying. He rolled his eyes and sighed. I chuckled at his reaction before responding.
“Yeah, we probably won’t be back for a bit, we were just going to go hang out by the water before heading home. Could you tell Justin and Jess for me?” There was a long silence before he responded in a dull tone.
“Sure, yeah I’ll do that. Well, umm… have fun and be careful, please.” He sounded miserable, was it really that hard for him? What was I saying? Harry really liked me and I was being a jerk.
“I’m sorry, don’t be upset. We’ll be back later, I promise. I’ll talk to you when we get home, okay?” I tried to sound a little encouraging, but it was a bit too late to try and make him happy.
“Yeah, sounds good. See ya.” He hung up before I said bye, I handed the phone back to Niall before letting out a sigh and blowing my bangs out of my face.
“Is everything okay?” Niall asked. I nodded first and then shook my head.
“He’s making the friend zone a lot harder than it should be. It’s a little annoying to be honest. I wish he could just understand that having feelings for someone can only last for so long, especially after such an incident like this, especially with me and you.” I looked at him hopefully to get a positive response. He smiled a bit, but I don’t think he understood very well. I pushed the thoughts away and tried to focus on what we were trying to do.
“I’m sorry. I’m being a total downer. We were having fun, let’s keep it that way, no claustrophobic situations, right?” He chuckled, it was really cute. He had the cutest face. It was still like a kid face, sort of chubby around the cheeks, but also a really defined jaw line. I looked away just as he noticed me staring at him. I leaned in and kissed his cheek, he raised his eyebrows and his eyes got really big.
“Umm... wow, well you’re quite the bi-polar type aren’t you?” I giggled and leaned my head against his shoulder. We walked like that, still holding hands until we walked across the lamp lit street to the small shop called Mandy’s. It was still open, so we walked inside and waved to the very surprised register girl. Niall led me to the junior’s bathing suit section.
“What about this one?” He held up a green bikini. I stared at him with a sarcastic expression.
“The style sucks, but the color is good. Try again.” I said as I pushed his hand down with the bathing suit. We looked at a few others before a girl excitedly came over to help us.
“Hi, my names Trisha, can I help you guys find anything?” She kept going up and down on her tip toes, obviously excited to see us.
“Well, we’re just trying to find a bathing suit for her. We’re going night swimming.” Niall wiggled his eyebrows, making Trisha laugh. I turned bright pink and rolled my eyes. Niall squeezed my hand and winked at me.
“Well, I heard you say you liked the color green, so I thought he might like this one. It’s our newest surfer suit, just came in this afternoon, haven’t had any buyers yet, but I’m sure you’d look great in it.” She held up a bright green bathing suit. The top was like a bikini that went down to the top of the ribs, and the back crisscrossed. The bottoms were shorts, they had a plain squiggly line pattern, but they were really cute, and it was just my size
“This’ll work, thanks Trisha.” I took it from her and held it in the hand that wasn’t firmly attached to Nialls.
“Is there anything else I can help you guys with?” She smiled and blinked probably five times in a row really quickly. I coughed and covered my mouth with my hand to cover my smile.
“We’re good for now, thanks anyway.” Niall replied. She walked away, her ponytail bouncing behind her as she ran behind the counter and immediately got on her phone, probably telling the world who she just sold a bathing suit to. Niall quickly bought a pair of matching green swim trunks. They had black trim at the bottom and one black pocket on each side. We both agreed it would fit him. I tried mine on just to make sure.
“How does it fit?” He asked from outside the dressing room. I looked in the mirror at the top. It would look great on a tall, lean model. But it just didn’t suit me. I frowned and threw on a t-shirt. My shorts were too tight and they made me look like a freaking elephant. I groaned and covered my eyes with my hands.
“I just…” I didn’t want to say it in front of Niall, I knew he hated it. It was true though, I didn’t look good in bathing suits. I felt like the fattest person in the world. I lay down on the floor and covered my face with my hands.
“What’s the matter? It doesn’t fit? They have different sizes Claire. I can get one for you. Can I at least see it?” I reached up and unlocked the door. I was still lying on the floor with my t-shirt and bathing suit shorts. He opened it and looked down at me.
“Hey, I like it, it’s cute! Do you not like it?” I didn’t respond, instead I rolled on my side so he couldn’t see my face, I tucked my legs into my shirt and wrapped my arms around myself.
“Claire, please don’t be like that. I already told you I don’t care what you think about yourself, as long as I approve, that’s all that matters.” He sat down beside me and rolled me over like a little ball. I felt a small tear run down my face. I couldn’t even have fun with anyone because I hated the way my body looked.
“Please don’t cry Claire, I hate to see you like that. Look at me, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. You look hot and we’re going night swimming. You’re with Niall freaking’ mofo Horan! Who’s more laid back than me, huh?” He poked my arm and I smiled. I sat up and looked at his shorts. They fit him just fine, he had nice legs and was fit, he probably had abs too.
“Alright, sorry, let’s go.” I wiped away a tear and stood up. We walked out together and paid for the suits. We started out the door and back to the water when he made a ‘U’ turn back to the shops.
“What are you doing?” I watched him as he ran into a store and a minute or two later came out with a bag full of food. I laughed and ran over to him. I looked in the bag and pulled out some chips and a bottle of water. We walked but didn’t talk. I ate my chips and threw the bag away in a trash can that was in the park. I took a sip of my water before putting it in my backpack. Niall ate his bag and pulled out another bag of gummy worms. I watched him start to eat one, then two, a third one was about to be demolished when I reached over and snatched it out of his hand and ate it myself. He looked over with disbelief as I swallowed the remains.
“I can’t believe you just ate my worm!” He pushed me and I stumbled over my foot, laughing.
“You weren’t going to share and these are my favorite type of candy. I had to have one, you can’t blame me.” I tried to grab another one out of the bag but he scooted over. I started chasing him through the park, carefully watching out for trees, since it was twilight and only the dim lamp light was my way to see. We reached the beach and I finally got close enough. I hit the bottom of the gummy worm bag in his hand and grabbed it as it flew into the air.
“Oh! What now?” I laughed at my victory before putting two in my mouth. He put down his back-pack and got down on his knees. He folded his hands and put them up to his eyes.
“Please? Claire Elizabeth Chasez, I will do anything. Just give me one more!” He pretended to cry. I took another gummy out and swung it around while compromising with him.
“If I give you the rest of this bag, I don’t have to take off my t-shirt to swim, can we compromise?” He gave me a curious expression before standing up and putting his hands on my waist. I felt my throat go dry and I put down the gummy in my hand.
“There’s nothing wrong with the way you look, why won’t you accept that?” His eyes spoke even more sincerely than his words.
“Niall, you just don’t get it! You’re so perfect looking with your bright blue eyes and you’re fit and attractive. When I look in the mirror, everything I see is wrong. And I can’t help but wonder why you choose to hang out with me. I feel like half the time you’re dead honest about me and then other times you’re just trying to make me feel better. I don’t know why I’m this way, a lot of girls are, but I didn’t always look like this. When I was younger I looked really fit and muscular, then suddenly it all changed after dad died and I moved in with Nan. Now I’m 17 and ...I mean, I’ve tried eating healthy, exercising, nothing changes. I’m miserable like this, which is why being with you makes me wonder why you… why you…” I sighed. “It’s just complicated.” I pulled his hands off my side and gave him the worms. I walked towards the water and put my feet just where the tide came in. I heard him put the candy away and shuffle around in his bag. He walked back with just his trunks on, I peeked over at what he was doing and he was running his toes through the sand. I stared down towards his stomach and rolled my eyes, “He does have abs.”
“I don’t judge people, you know? I look at people and don’t assume anything about them, at least not anything bad. When I first saw you at the VMA’s, my only thoughts were beautiful ones. That’s why I came to meet you, even though you were crying. Walking out of Burger King and running into you, I dreamt about it that night because I was so happy about running into you, even though you were crying again. Then of course all the times I saw you with Harry. Seeing you at the dance studio with Justin even for a little bit gave me the greatest joy. I don’t care what you look like, I think you’re beautiful, but your outside image has nothing to do with the way I feel for you and what’s on the inside.” He looked at me intimately. I felt strange hearing his thoughts and feelings coming out so fluently. I opened my mouth with tongue-tied speech.
“Well, I can’t say anything close to as wonderful as that, but I can say this, I always thought you seemed the sweetest out of all the other guys. Even before I met Harry, you stood out to me, and not just because you’re the only Irish blonde in the band. It’s because you just have this love for life and a fun spirit, you’re carefree and simple. When I look at you, I think a lot of myself. It’s just inspiring to look at someone and think, ‘wow, they must really get it.’ Because that’s exactly how I feel when we’re together. We just click and that’s what makes us so good for each other. Niall, I’ve never felt like this before, I know I sound insane because we’re just getting to know each other. With Harry, everything was physical, but with you, it’s emotion. I feel for you like I’d feel for anyone in my family that I… lo...” I was about to finish confessing my deepest feelings when Niall completed my sentence.
“…love.” He grabbed me and pulled me close. The wind swept my hair from my face, which was pressed onto his shoulder. I leaned back and put my hands around his neck, pulling him into a kiss. I felt all kinds of feelings grabbing at my stomach, everything just felt right. He pulled me closer, our bodies touched and I felt sparks fly. Third kiss ever and he didn’t have any excuse for kissing me. I was kissing him because I wanted to. He didn’t force it which makes him better than Bieber and Harry. He pulled away and gave me a little kiss on the nose.
“I’ve wanted to do that for so long. Now it’s happened and I didn’t even have to ask, you did it all by yourself. You really like me, are you sure?” He seemed so happy and surprised, just as I was. I nodded over and over just to emphasize how sure I really was. “Well then, now that we’ve sorted that out, how about that swim?” He took me by the hand and with his other hand reached for my t-shirt. I hesitated at lifting my arm, but I gave in. He threw my shirt in the sand beside his as we waded through the shallow water. It wasn’t extremely cold, but the wind didn’t help. I got immediate goose bumps. Niall pulled me in front of him and held me close. He wrapped his arms around my stomach as we got knee deep into the water.
“I hate wading, can we just dive?” I shivered, my teeth chattering.
“Are you sure?” He said. I turned to find a concerned expression on his face.
“Well you’re not scared are you?” I laughed as he picked me up and jumped into the water. I lost my breath at the shock of the temperatures. I came out of the water shrieking and laughing at the same time. We swam around using our feet to look for seashells. At one point Niall found one but whenever he went underwater he couldn’t pin point where it was at. I swam down his leg where his toe was and couldn’t feel anything.
“Niall, you’re crazy, there’s nothing down there.” I said spewing water from my mouth as I talked.
“Claire, I feel it right there!” He claimed. I thought he was playing a game, but in the moonlight I saw his face freeze. He was pulled underwater; his hands came to the surface searching around. I grabbed them frantically, I didn’t know if he was faking it or not. My adrenaline was pumping yet again. I used all my muscle and pulled him back to the shore. He just laid there, I couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not.
“NIALL…” All of a sudden he jerked and grabbed my head. I screamed and he started laughing loudly.
“Man, you’re pretty strong for a 17 year old.” He pulled me down onto the sand. I rolled onto his stomach with my hands over my eyes.
“You freaked me out.” I said. “Don’t ever do that again, I really thought a shark was attacking you. You’re such a butt!” I sighed and lay down again, this time my head on his chest. He raised his hand and started playing with my hair, it was soaked and I could feel the water droplets running down the back of my neck.
“That was funny. But mean too, sorry. Still though, you have to admit that I got you pretty good.” He laughed again as my head nodded up and down. Hearing him laugh made me laugh, it was contagious.
“I don’t want to leave Niall.” I sighed, breaking up the happy moment.
“Me neither, I wish we could stay here forever.” I felt him breathe in and out. I suddenly had anxiety and felt like I couldn’t breathe. I started remembering Nan. I couldn’t even begin to think about all the problems I had to face when we got back. I wanted him to stay with me all night, although I didn’t know if he did that sort of thing.
“We both have a lot to face when we get back, but honestly Niall, I don’t want to do it alone. I can’t do this alone, I’m not strong enough.” I felt a pain in my throat and felt the anxiety building in my chest.
“Don’t get anxious over it alright? I know you’re a strong person Claire, emotionally and physically.” He laughed, hinting at the act of rescue I just preformed. “But I also know that facing this alone isn’t healthy, especially after the past few days. I will be here the entire time. We’re on the same team, remember? Anything you do will never be alone, because I’m always right here beside you.”
He sat up and leaned over to kiss me, but I put a hand on his chest to stop him. I placed my hands on his face and rubbed my thumbs over his temples then slowly guided his lips towards mine. We weren’t gross kissers, they were short kisses. Unlike Harry’s that lasted forever and ended with a mouth full of saliva. I still felt weird thinking that only yesterday I was in the arms of Harry Styles, on the edge of a relationship with him, and the next day I’m with Niall Horan expressing my love. It seemed like two completely different situations though. I questioned my feelings for Harry, but with Niall everything seemed so sure. I pulled him away and looked into his eyes.
“Thank you a hundred times over.” I was running my fingers through his bushy wet hair.
“Thank you for what?” His voice was soothing to hear.
“Everything, top to bottom, everything we’ve experienced together. Thank you.” Even though most of our experiences were bad ones, I couldn’t help but be happy that they brought me and him closer. I hoped he felt the same way. We sat in that position for a while just whispering sweet things to each other when we suddenly saw a flash of light.
“Who’s out there?” Niall and I jumped at the voice of a night guard checking to make sure the beaches were empty. We scurried around like frantic ants trying to gather our stuff. The guard came inches away from us just as we jumped into the dune grasses. We snickered before dashing back into the park. I gripped his arm as we walked through the familiar places. I couldn’t believe I was back here, but at least that guy was dead. I hated saying it but after that episode I couldn’t be sad of his misfortune.
We finally made it to the street and talked about past experiences and how they changed us. Niall told me about his childhood in Ireland, I told him it was my dream to travel there someday. He told me that he would bring me the next time he went to visit. We walked the rest of the way back in partial silence, it wasn’t awkward silence either; we just had a lot of thinking to do for when we got to the house.

Notes