Chapter 2
Without any hesitation, Harry quickly shifted the gears of the car and slammed his foot on the gas pedal. To their dismay, they heard the unpleasant sounds of the engine stalling, as too much water from the deep puddles surrounding the car damaged the engine. Frustrated, Harry floored the gas pedal, gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white as bone. He clenched his jaw and his body tensed, desperately hoping that the car would budge. After several unsuccessful attempts, he gave Louis and Niall a look of defeat, finally giving in to the car's protest-full screeches.
"That doesn't sound too good…" Niall said, worriedly. He had sat up from his slumped position, as if the car would agree to move if he had paid careful attention to Harry. He sat there wondering what they would do about the situation.
"THIS STUPID CAR WON'T FREAKING MOVE!" Harry bursted out aggravated at the car's lack of cooperation. He slammed the wheel with his palms several times.
"Looks like we're going to have to try and move it," Louis admitted, seeing no other way out of the situation.
"Great," Harry mumbled grudgingly, knowing it was the only option they had. He was hesitant to step out into the treacherous rainstorm, away from the safety and warmth the inside of the car provided.
"Ready boys?" Louis asked, surveying both Harry's and Niall's reluctant faces. He gave them the cue that he was about to open the door.
The door of the car swung open, and the boys were assaulted with a harsh gust of wind and endless buckets of rain. It only took a matter of seconds for the boys to be completely drenched in their t-shirts and jeans as they made their way to the back of the car, finding it difficult to maneuver through the muddy ground while being attacked by the heavy downpour. The three boys placed both of their hands on the trunk of the car and tried to heave the car out of the mud. Their efforts made no difference as that only seemed to make matters worse.
Harry's eyebrows furrowed in a wet frustration, breathing heavily as the unrelenting rain poured and soaked him completely. He ran his fingers irritably through his fringe that hung limply over his forehead, sweeping the sopping locks away from his face while he paced back and forth trying to figure out their next move. It seemed as if the rain was never going to stop and their options were unfortunately very limited.
"We need help!" Niall screamed over the pounding of the rain, throwing his arms up exasperatedly. He pulled out his phone buried deep in his pocket and hoped to get in touch with Paul, but he had absolutely no signal at the time, especially in the middle of a raging thunderstorm.
"Let's hope the people in that house over there are up!" Louis' voice was wishful, as it was 2am and he knew that that was probably unlikely.
The boys slopped their way towards the house, maneuvering around fallen branches and large water puddles that formed as a result of the overflowing of a nearby lake. A boisterous boom of thunder blasted in their ears to an earsplitting degree as the trees around them rattled forcefully under the full brunt of the storm.
An explosive sound of thunder rattled the windows and stirred Kierra awake from her hazy dreams. She sprung up from the couch, running her hand through the tangles in her hair and straightened out her rumpled up clothes. She blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting to the darkness and the bright flashes of light that came out of the TV in front of her. She glanced over to her two best friends, who weren't disturbed by the sound of thunder at all, still deep in their sleep. Naomi was stretched out on the couch, her left arm dangling over the edge. Peyton was scrunched up on the recliner. Her knees were pulled to her chest and her head delicately rested on the arm of the chair.
"Wow. We would fall asleep like this on our first night here," Kierra mumbled to herself.
She rose from the couch silently and tiptoed into the kitchen for a glass of water, not wanting to disturb her friends. Still a bit fuzzy from waking up, Kierra clumsily stumbled into the kitchen, the cold tile floors stinging her feet, when she thought she heard someone knocking on the front door. She glanced over to the clock on the kitchen wall. It read 2:12am.
"What the hell?" Kierra asked herself, wondering if she was just hearing things. She stood still for a second.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
There it was again. Kierra heard it perfectly loud and clear; the knocks echoed throughout the large foyer and continued to become more frantic. Kierra walked slowly and hesitantly towards the front door, wondering what could be making the repetitive ruckus. She slyly peered through the side window next to the front door, but the blurred glass distorted her view and she couldn't make out any distinct faces. However, she couldn't miss the fact that someone was definitely out there on the porch. She was confused, wondering why anyone would be outside in this awful storm, especially in the middle of nowhere. There weren't any houses or busy roads for miles, except for the lake house. Kierra was conflicted, debating over whether or not she should open the door to complete strangers. She was paranoid and she considered the possible consequences that would happen if she did open the door. The fact that there were people outside so late at night in such a secluded area was puzzling and suspicious. Kierra was weary to open the door, afraid of putting herself in a vulnerable situation.
However, she considered the prospect that the people outside desperately needed some sort of assistance, noting the urgency laced in their constant pounding on the door. Kierra scanned the rooms around her quickly, looking for something to use for defense, anything that would provide her with a sense of security. She grabbed a sharp, metal fire poker sitting adjacent to the fireplace. She gripped it tightly to her chest, prepared to swing if whomever was out there tried to hurt her. Kierra approached the door as her heart rate sped up. She twisted the doorknob while holding her breath, cautiously opening the door and leaving a small sliver of space that allowed her to inspect the source of the knocking.
As her eyes acclimated to the darkness outside, Kierra was surprised by the intensity of the storm that was brewing severely. She felt cold droplets of rain land on her bare legs and the wind chilled her easily, raising goosebumps on her lightly tanned skin instantly. The door was fully ajar now as the howling wind had forced it wide open, and Kierra's view was blocked completely by three tall figures that stood before her. Instinctively, Kierra raised her arms with the fire poker in hand, as if it were a baseball bat, only to hear astonished screams from the strangers.
"WOAH WOAH WOAH, GIRL, PUT THAT DOWN!"
"OH SHIT, DON'T SWING!"
Wait what? Kierra lowered the fire poker in confusion at their pleas and allowed the strangers to speak.
"Uhh, sorry to disturb you but our car…" the raised voice of the boy in front of her began, pointing his thumb back over his shoulder toward a black sedan parked a few hundred feet away. Kierra had to strain her ears because she had trouble hearing what the stranger was saying to her over the bellowing wind, taking notice in the hint of familiarity of his voice. It was slightly high-pitched, but was laced with a lovely indubitable British accent...
Louis Tomlinson?
Kierra squinted and took a closer look at the boys standing before her in the pouring rain. All three of them were completely soaked from head to toe, but it didn't hinder her ability to recognize each of their distinctive faces, having seen them splattered all over magazines, posters, and the Internet. She blinked quickly several times, believing her eyes were truly playing tricks on her. "Louis" raised his eyebrow at her, noticing the way she stared at them in bewilderment, and chuckled at her reaction. To his right was Niall Horan, his dirty blonde hair clinging to the frame of his round face, and to the left was Harry Styles, who was shaking out his curly brown hair, trying to rid it of water.
"One Direction? I must be dreaming." Kierra said audibly enough for the boys standing at the doorway to hear. She slammed the door shut, dismissing the situation and assessing the impossibility of what just occurred. "I swear, Naomi must be putting some hallucinogens in my drinks," Kierra grumbled as she shook her head and turned to walk away from the door, trying to snap herself awake from this dream and back to reality. Suddenly, to her surprise, she heard the knocking again, along with some muffled screams telling her to wait, making her freeze in her footsteps. "No way," Kierra said in disbelief. She ran into the living room, turning on all the lights in a frantic attempt to wake up her friends.
"NAOMI! PEYTON! WAKE UP. GET OFF THE COUCH AND HELP ME OUT!" Kierra exclaimed hurriedly, startling the other two girls and interrupting their deep sleep. "BOTH OF YOU. YOU LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW." Naomi and Peyton groaned, rolling over and burying themselves further into the couch in an attempt to drown out her shouts. Kierra forcefully grabbed Peyton by the arm to pull her up on her feet and dragged her toward front door.
"ARE YOU CRAZY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Peyton screeched as she resisted Kierra's tugging and struggled to break free from her grip. She was silenced when she heard the continual knocking on the front door. She shot Kierra a confused glance, but she only responded by pushing Peyton to open the door.
"Err, hi again. Sorry to be blunt but do you mind if we come in for a little? It's a little chilly out here," the stranger asked Peyton politely after she flung the door open and made eye contact with the boys. She could tell that they've been standing in the rain for a while now, seeing that they no longer cared that they were soaking wet.
Peyton opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn't muster up any words to reply to the boy's question, gaping at the three of them standing in front of her. She broke her rude stare and directed her eyes away before stepping off to the side, allowing the three boys to come inside. It was only common sense that told her to let them out of the torrential down pour. Naomi finally stumbled into the room, rubbing her eyes with her fists to dispel the sleepiness from them. She was oblivious to any of the events that had just taken place. She turned her attention to the three boys standing huddled together in the center of the room, who were soaking wet and dripping all over the floor.
"What's going on?" Naomi erupted in a flustered tone, looking back and forth between the faces of her friends and the group of boys who stood in front of them. "I am really confused right now!"
Amused by Naomi's dramatics, Kierra began to crack up, letting out a lighthearted laugh, alleviating the tense atmosphere that built up in the room. Hearing her laugh was soothing, and it brought along a sense of bliss. She shook her head at Naomi's frenzied behavior and tried to stifle her giggles in front of the boys, who watched the girls silently with interested expressions.
"Aww, Naomi's grumpy," Peyton teased, regaining her ability to speak. Her thoughts were running wild after being hectically woken up to this odd and unexpected situation. She glanced up in the boys' direction and locked eyes with Harry, his piercing emerald eyes meeting hers. A lop-sided grin overcame his face in response to her comment and she flitted her eyes away quickly, unable to hold their gaze much longer. She felt the blood rush to her cheeks as she blushed deeply, hoping that no one would notice her embarrassing appearance.
After a few moments of silence passed, Louis spoke up and he formally introduced himself and the boys, and then attempted to clarify their abrupt arrival.
"We got ourselves in a bit of a mess outside with our car…" he began, but Kierra cut him off to enlighten her friends, who were swimming in their own pools of confusion.
"Um, well there was this loud boom of thunder that woke me up, then I found myself at the front door because someone was knocking. And now it's 2AM and One Direction is standing right there," Kierra explained, oversimplifying the situation.
"You forgot the part where you almost swung at our heads," Niall added, laughing at the memory as he recalled how ridiculously he screamed. Kierra bit her lip trying not to laugh as she gave him an apologetic look.
"Yea," Louis added. "Anyways, the boys and I were out on a little adventure here and we happened to get lost and caught in the storm. Even though we've got Niall we definitely didn't have the best luck," Louis joked, patting Niall on the back. "We were hoping you girls could help us out." Louis flashed Naomi a warm smile, and she couldn't resist his sincerity.
Naomi, after finally calming down, spoke up without looking away from Louis' perfect smile.
"Peyton, how about you get these guys some towels first?" Naomi suggested.
"They must be really uncomfortable standing in those damp clothes."