Chapter 4
"Gracie, babe wake up!" I opened my eyes in a flash and came face to face with Louis.
"Hmmmmm…whats wrong?" I looked around and they were all looking at me with confused expressions.
"You were screaming in your sleep," Zayn spoke up.
"Was it a nightmare?" Niall added in.
"Umm…yeah it was just a nightmare," I breathed out while I rested my hand on my forehead which was covered in sweat. But if I was sweating, why did I feel cold?
"Grace what is that bruise, it's huge?" Harry looked straight into my eyes.
"Oh, I rammed it into the bathroom door knob…" Even though I was talking to Harry, I couldn't help but look at Liam the whole time. I couldn't help but feel like he knew the real truth.
"I don't believe you." There it was. I knew Liam wasn't going to buy my lame excuses.
"Yeah, to me it looks like a hand print." Harry kept looking at my wrist and the atmosphere was beginning to get tenser every second.
"Just tell us the truth, it's not like we aren't going to like you anymore." Zayn patted my knee while the rest of the group had now formed a close circle around me.
"Well…it…I…Zac" Everyone just stayed quiet and all you could hear was our breathing.
"When?" Liam tensed his jaw and wouldn't even look me in the eye.
"When I was walking out of the bathroom after changing." Please, let this just blow over.
"What did he do?" Zayn questioned.
"He was just…trying to make a move…normal guy stuff."
"Are you out of your mind, no guy hurts a girl physically," Niall stated, like it was a written rule.
"Did he hit you!" Finally Harry said something.
"No! He just grabbed my wrist a little tight"
"More than a little, he left a bruise love." Louis was playing with my hair, trying to lighten the mood.
"I'm going to kill that kid." Zayn was getting up to go to the door.
"Zayn don't! I don't want this to ruin our chances during the competition." I tried giving him my puppy dog face.
"Yeah, but he isn't just going to get away with this!" Great, now Liam joined him.
"Just don't, please...I would feel horrible if you guys got sent home for starting a fight over something as stupid as this." Now I could tell that they knew I had a point.
"Ugh! So what now, we just let Zac off the hook?" Zayn said, obviously backing down.
"We can't just let him continue to harass Grace like he is some big shot player." Liam and Zayn continued on with their little conversation while Harry began to ask me his own questions.
"Why didn't you just tell us when it first happened?"
"I didn't want this to effect all of our performances and I knew that you guys liked Zac as a friend and I didn't want to screw that up." I couldn't look him in the eyes so I started to play with the hem of Niall's Mickey Mouse jumper.
"If this happened before the party, then why did you agree to still to the dare with him?" Now everyone was listening, obviously curious about the same thing.
"I knew that if I didn't he would tease me about it for a long time and…I was embarrassed that you guys would think I was a wimp for not doing a dare…"
"You're such an idiot! We wouldn't have cared because we know you aren't like that, but that's okay because we like you for who you are," Harry's words lingered in the air. Out of nowhere Louis jumped on me and gave me the biggest bear hug ever.
"You're so cute, did ya know that?" Louis squeezed me one more time before getting up and grabbing a bag of Sour Patch Kids. Man, was he good at making an awkward situation, not awkward.
"Let's all just agree to not let Zac near our Gracie until his sorry butt gets voted off the show," Louis looked around the room to make sure everyone was okay with that.
"Yeah but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve a proper beating," Zayn trailed on.
"For right now though, we can't do anything boys because we got ourselves in a sticky situation." Only Louis would say something like that, but we all laughed anyway.
"Now for some fun, Gracie, open your mouth," Louis instructed me.
"W..What, why?" Before I could get an answer a yellow Sour Patch kid hit me in the nose.
"Gracie you got to catch it IN your mouth!" The rest of the night went on with us all laughing at random stuff Louis would do. After that I can't remember much, just that we all finally fell asleep around 4:30 in the morning.
The smell of cologne shot up my nose and the sound of feet shuffling across the floor woke me up. I could barely open my eyes because someone opened the curtains, allowing the sunlight through. In the distance I thought I heard Liam telling someone to be quieter. Today was the day everyone got to go into town and shop; you know to get more comfortable with each other. But, that wasn't all that was planned. The administrator told us yesterday that had a huge day planned out, that consisted of bonding with our fellow competitors. After lying in bed for ten more minutes I decided that I had to get up sometime, but that wasn't as easy of a task as I thought it would be. To my left, Niall's face was only centimeters away from mine and you could smell the sugar on his breath. To my right, Harry had his arm draped over me; resting on my waist. The biggest problem was that Louis was crashed over my legs, making it impossible to get up without waking everyone.
"Need some help?" I looked up to see Zayn fully clothed and showered.
"Yes please." As Zayn walked to the foot of the mattress, I got a whiff of his cologne. So he was the one who sprayed it this morning, I think he might have sprayed too much. Zayn lifted Louis off my legs and set him down on his bed instead. Now it was my turn. I wiggled out from under Harry's arm and tried my best not to hit Niall in the face, but while I was doing so Liam started to laugh from behind me.
"Aren't you in a "sticky situation" love?" We both smiled at the memory of Louis last night.
"I guess I am." We both smiled at each other, but it was died silent other than Zayn's small movements by his closet. Liam broke out of the stare first, offering me his hand and I gladly took it.
"You might want to get ready before they wake up because then you'll never get enough time in the bathroom. I thanked him for warning me before opening Niall's and mines closet. What should I wear to go into town? Something that won't make me roast in the sun because I didn't want to be sweaty all day. Finally I decided on distressed short shorts and a short sleeved crop top that had a tribal print on it. I grabbed my brown sandals and my usual bathroom supplies and then headed out the door and down the hall to the bathroom. Surprisingly, no one was in there because the door wasn't locked, which meant I wouldn't have to wait forever.
After showering and putting on my usual makeup, I got dressed and let my wet, tousled hair down and ran me fingers through it. Today I didn't really care what I looked like because I was so tired from last night that I barely had enough energy to shave my legs in the shower. When I walked out of the bathroom there was a line of girls waiting, all of them giving me death glares. I picked up my pace a little bit, feeling uncomfortable in the hallway. Once I was safely inside the room I saw that everyone was up and dressed. Might I add that the boys did look really hot in their outfits.
"Morning Gracie, so I heard Niall and Harry were a little too close for comfort last night." Louis wiggled his eyebrows at me and I could tell I was starting to blush.
"Anyway, who's ready for some shopping?" Harry butted in; he must have noticed the awkward tension.
"There is no better way to bond then some power shopping!" Louis yelled, causing us all to question how he had so much energy this early in the morning.
"Today is going to be amazing. You want to know why, because I'll have all my friends with me and no one will ruin it. We are the fantastic six!" Louis may have spoken to soon…
~I hope you guys like the story line so far because I have so much planned for the upcoming chapters. Please review and give me any ideas of what you want to see happen later in the story~
P.S. I bet you are wondering who Grace will fall in love with, leave a comment on who you think it will be…