Pride

Melissa lets out a sigh of content as the hot summer sun warms her skin. Her whole body feels heavy, relaxed like it’s made out of chocolate that’s slowly melting in the heat.

She could feel asleep like this, the sound of the waves in her ears mingling with the chatter of her family and Niall. Her Irish friend has come along on their trip to the Isle of Wight
They’re on holiday, finally free from their awful fellow students for the next couple of days.
Melissa can finally relax, she doesn’t have to worry someone is going to throw a baseball at her.

It’s been two days since Niall had been hit by one of them and he’s recovered, thankfully. He still has a headache from time to time, but the swelling has gone down and according to the doctor, he doesn’t have to worry about a concussion anymore.

“Do you want an ice cream?” Niall asks where he’s sitting on a deckchair next to Melissa, waking her from her dozing state.

“Yes, please,” she tells Niall. She turns her head to smile at him. Niall must have forgotten to put on sunscreen because his pale skin is an angry shade of red. “And please, Niall, put on some sunscreen. I don’t want you to develop skin cancer.”

“Yes, right. Yes, sure,” Niall stammers. He scratches the back of his head, a sheepish smile on his face. “I’ll do it as soon as I’ve gotten our ice creams.”

“You should probably do it before. You can’t put on sunscreen with just one hand,” Melissa snickers. Oh, how she missed Niall’s gawkiness.

“You’re right again,” Niall snickers, cheeks blushing. “Can you do my back?”
“Sure,” Melissa tells her friend, a smile on her face.

Niall turns around while Melissa grabs the bottle containing sunscreen. She squeezes it from the tube and smears it over her hands. Then she returns her eyes to Niall’s bend back and starts smearing the protective gel over his pale skin.

“Sorry,” Melissa apologizes with a snicker when Niall hisses at the coldness of the gel.
While Melissa helps Niall with the sunscreen, she listens in on her parents’ conversation. Their voices are excited, causing her to wonder what they’re talking about.

“I’m telling you, that big ship is sailing towards the coast.” It’s Melissa’s mother and sounds exasperated.

Melissa stops the movement of her hands. She turns her head to look at her mother and then follows her finger when she sees her mother is pointing at something in the ocean.

The ship she’s calls her husband’s attention to is indeed big and it does appear it’s coming their way. But why the hell a big ship would want to moor here, is a mystery to Melissa.
Surely, a cruise – which is what the ship looks like at this distance – only stops at spots where there’s something touristic to see, and there’s nothing interesting to see on this beach.
Melissa can’t look away as the cruise stops just in front of the coastline and people appear on the deck. They all look filthy rich and really confused.

A small rowing boat is lowered and much to Melissa’s surprise and mortification, Zayn and Louis are sitting on it.

“Hey, it’s the F4,” Niall exclaims, eyes big. “What are they doing here?”

“Isn’t that Louis Tomlinson?” Melissa’s mother Betty asks, voice excited. She grabs Melissa’s father’s arm. He lets out a yelp at her tight grip.

Melissa turns her head to glare at her mother. Leave it to her mum to be excited about possibly meeting a rich guy. She’s always hoped Melissa would marry a man of means so she wouldn’t have to live in poverty like she does.

“Yeah, he’s Louis Tomlinson, but he’s an arsehole.”

The grin disappears from Betty’s face and is replaced by a look of confusion. “How do you know that?”

“He’s the reason why my uniform keeps getting dirty, mum,” Melissa admits. “Because of him, the other students keep bullying me.”

This is the first time she’s admitted to her parents that she’s being bullied. She knew it would break her parents’ hearts and she hates to cause them pain. Besides, they’ve sacrificed so much to make it possible for her to attend the school, she hadn’t wanted them to know wanting a better future for their daughter only caused her misery.

“You’re being bullied?” her brother Josh asks, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “But that’s impossible. You always kick people’s asses when they’re mean.”

Of course, Josh can’t comprehend someone bullying his older sister. At her old school, nobody dared hurt her, because she would always stand up for herself, give back what they threw at her. Josh has always admired her for it, so he’s told her.

“Unfortunately, it’s the whole school. I can’t take on all of them.”

“But now she has me. I’m fighting the good fight with your sister,” Nail tells Josh, grinning at him as he puffs up his chest. “It’s us against the school.”

“Hey, Melissa. Is this your idea of a vacation?”

Melissa turns her head to glare at Louis, who’s standing in front of her and her family, hands on his hips and a condescending grin on his face.

“Why don’t you get on my ship to see what a real vacation looks like.”

Even though Melissa knows the offer is insincere, she still replies, “No, thank you. I’m quite happy spending time with my family.”

“I would like you to come with us,” Zayn tells Melissa. He’s standing behind Louis, his arms crossed and a friendly smile on his face. Apparently, he didn’t understand Louis wasn’t really offering. “Suzanne is on the ship as well. She would like to see you again. She seems to be quite fond of you.”

Melissa can feel her cheeks heat up. Zayn wants her to spend his holiday with her. Could it be that Suzanne is right and Zayn likes her?

Maybe going the yacht isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Zayn turns to Melissa’s family. “She’s quite safe with us. If you’d like, Melissa can take her friend with her.”

“What!” Louis exclaims, a scowl suddenly appearing on his face. “I don’t want that fake blond on my ship!”

Zayn takes a step forwards and whispers something in Louis’s ear. The blonde boy’s face suddenly flushes red and his eyes flit to Melissa’s face. Melissa can feel uneasiness settle in her gut when Louis doesn’t stop looking at her.

“Alright, alright. He can come too,” Louis mumbles angrily. He swats Zayn away, apparently not liking having his friend so close. “But both of them better stay out of my way.”

And with that, he turns around.

Zayn smiles at Melissa and nods to the yacht moored in front of the coastline with his head. “Are you coming?”

“Go, Melissa. Have a good time,” Betty tells Melissa as she smiles at her encouragingly. She must believe Zayn’s word that she’ll be safe because Melissa knows she wouldn’t allow her to board the yacht otherwise.

“Yeah,” Melissa tells Zayn breathlessly. “I’m coming.”

She forces her legs to move. With a rapidly beating heart and blushing cheeks, she follows Zayn to the rowing boat, Niall walking just behind her.

Things are a bit awkward as Zayn rows all of them to the yacht. Louis keeps glaring at Niall, who keeps asking Zayn questions, excitement clearly visible in his eyes. He only answers some of them.

It seems like almost everyone standing on the deck of the yacht looks at the small group as they board the ship. The ones watching Melissa look at her with disdain.

This is just like school.

“Melissa,” the voice of Suzanne calls out.

Melissa turns her head just in time to see the blonde woman envelop her into a hug. She smells like strawberries as she puts her arms around Melissa’s neck and presses her to her chest. “What are you doing here?”

Not expecting Suzanne to be this happy to see her again, Melissa freezes in surprise. Her arms hang uselessly by her side.

When Suzanne pulls back out of the embrace, Melissa is able to use her mouth to form words again. “Zayn and Louis picked me up on the beach.”

“How did you manage to spot her all the way on the ship?” Suzanne asks, turning to Zayn with a look of confusion on her face.

Melissa is glad she’s asking the question because she was wondering the same.

“I didn’t see her,” Zayn tells Suzanne, waving his hand dismissively and then he points a finger at Louis, who is leaning against the rail of the boat, watching Melissa and Suzanne. “Louis did. He was looking at the beach with his binoculars. He told me he likes to watch poor people on vacation.”

“You know, we’re not zoo animals,” Melissa tells Louis, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Of course you are.” Louis raises one eyebrow. “You live in an entirely different world from us. You’re practically animals.”

“I’ll show you an animal,” Melissa tells Louis between clenched teeth. She moves to slap him until he learns some manners, but Suzanne stops her with a press of her hand on Melissa’s arm.

“Let’s get out of here, yes?” Suzanne proposes. Melissa turns her head and sees the other girl is smiling at her. “Let’s go to the bar. Let’s get to know each other better.”

Melissa would rather talk with Suzanne then spending one more minute with Louis, so she doesn’t put up a fight when the woman starts dragging her away.

The first hour, Niall sits at the table with Melissa and Suzanne as they drink cokes while they tell each other about their lives. Melissa tries to avoid talking about what happened after she received the red notice, but Suzanne wants to hear about that too, so after some prodding, Melissa talks about that too.

When they arrive at the subject of Zayn Malik, Niall flees, using the excuse he’s going to go fishing. If Melissa is honest, she is glad because talking about her crush while Niall is present feels weird for some reason.

“Zayn has always been somewhat of a special boy.” Suzanne has a fond smile on her face as her eyes glaze over. “ He would always stay in the background, talk to no one. I believe I was the first friend he ever had. We met before Zayn met the rest of the boys.”

It’s weird thinking about Zayn without the rest of the F4. Melissa knew of course that there was a time when he wasn’t friends with Harry, Louis, and Liam, but for some reason, she’s always thought them as one entity. A four headed monster that terrorized the school.

“I think you would be good for him,” Suzanne announces, taking Melissa by complete surprise. She crosses her arms and looks at Melissa. “I’m going to give you a makeover for tonight’s party. Zayn won’t be able to take his eyes away off of you.”

“Tonight?” Melissa asks, eyes growing big with surprise. She had thought she was only going to spend a couple of hours on the boat before returning to her family.

“You’re going to stay, aren’t you?” Suzanne asks, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “You have to stay, Melissa. Spend the night on the boat. We’ll return you to your parents tomorrow night.”

With Suzanne looking at her with pleading eyes, Melissa can’t get herself to say no, so she calls her mother to tell her she’s going to come back tomorrow instead of today. Her mother asks her if she’s sure and when Melissa lies that she is, she gives her permission.

She tells her daughter to have fun.

—-

“You look gorgeous,” Suzanne tells Melissa as the two of them look in the mirror. Suzanne has just put the finishing touch on Melissa’s make-over and the two of them are looking at Melissa’s beautiful dress and polished face that are reflected on the glass.

The dress is black and strapless. Melissa’s lips are shining with gloss and her lashes are accentuated by mascara and eyeshadow. Suzanne is right, she looks pretty.

“Zayn is going to love it.” Suzanne winks at Melissa through the mirror, making her blush. “Now, let’s go to the party.”

To get onto the dance-floor, Melissa and Suzanne need to walk downstairs. People stare at them as they make their way down, some of them whispering to each other.

Zayn is looking at them, a smile on his face. Melissa’s heart skips a beat at the thought of the possibility of it being meant for her.

He isn’t the only one of the F4 who’s looking. Liam, Louis, and Harry are all watching her as well.

“Way to go Suz. You made her really pretty.” Liam congratulates his friend when she and Melissa have made their way over to them.

“Yeah, she looks great,” Harry agrees, lips pulled into a grin.

Louis doesn’t say anything, just stares at Melissa with flushed cheeks. Melissa can feel something flutter in her chest at his intense gaze.

“Do you want to dance with me?” Zayn asks and for a moment she thinks he’s talking to her but then he takes a step forwards and grabs Suzanne by her arm.

“I would love to, but I think Melissa would like to also,” Suzanne tells him, a smile on her face. “Why don’t you dance with her?”

“I rather dance with you,” Zayn protests, the look on his face a mix of confusion and irritation.
His words are like a dagger to Melissa’s heart. What a fool she’s been for thinking that Zayn might fancy her. Of course, he doesn’t, he’s only interested in Suzanne, who’s much prettier than Melissa, even with this make-over.

“I’m just going to find Niall,” Melissa tells Suzanne. The smile on her lips doesn’t reach her eyes. “You guys just have fun together.”

Saying she’s going to find Niall is easier said than done. Melissa searches the crowd but she doesn’t seem to be able to find her friend. Defeated, she decided to just go to her cabin, cry herself to sleep.

But then someone yells ‘Kiss In The Dark’ and the lights go off suddenly.

“Shit,” Melissa curses.

She could wait for the lights to come back on, but she doesn’t know when that will be. She doesn’t want to wait longer than necessary to get out of here, so she decides to try to find her way through the dark.

The first few steps Melissa manages to not bump into someone but then she loses her footing and trips over someone’s foot. She falls forwards but before she can fall face first to the ground, strong hands grab her arms, stopping her descent.

Whoever she bumped into pulls her against him and before she can protest, his lips are on her. They are soft, a bit chapped, and they feel nice against her. For a moment, she forgets she doesn’t even want to be kissed.

And then, the lights go on.

It is Louis who stares back at her when Melissa quickly pulls away from the embrace and he’s looking at her with a blush on his cheeks.

Notes

I'm really sorry for the long wait, guys. Life has been crazy busy lately. I hope you guys liked this summiry chapter in the middle of the winter. Please, let me know your thoughts. What did you think of the kiss!