As soon as I turned the keys in the ignition, the radio snapped on.

An older song, Take It Easy, was playing. "Sorry, you change it." I smiled shyly. "I was sort of raised on oldies."

"It's fine." he grinned. "You know, the Eagles co-wrote this-"

"With Jackson Browne." I finished his sentence.

He smiled and raised an eyebrow, clearly impressed.

"So, where exactly where you planning to get lunch at?" he asked, changing the radio station as Take It Easy ended.

I shrugged. "I just figured we'd drive around until we found a place."

He laughed. "Good plan."

"I thought it was." I grinned.

He continued flipping through the channels. My ears picked up the unique beginning of Secrets by OneRepublic.

"Oh, can you leave this on?" I asked.

"Sure." he pulled his hand away and ran it through his hair.

I was a huge OneRepublic fan, and Secrets was easily one of my favorite songs. I sang along lightly, but when I realized Niall was staring at me, smiling, I stopped.

So Good by B.O.B. came on right afterwards. "I love this song." he commented.

"You can put your feet up, be my senorita." we half-sang, half-laughed. When had we started laughing? Or singing?

"This song's so stupid." I grinned. I actually really liked the song, but it felt weird singing with Niall.

Niall just smiled and looked out the window. I did too, realizing that I should have been looking for restaurants.

"Oh, let's go to Wendy's." I grinned as the familiar red sign came into view.

I had always loved Wendy's, but I hadn't been there in ages. I could hear my publicist, Melinda, already. "Do you know what that will do to your figure? What if the press sees you? We'll have to put you on diet pills if you go there."

I rolled my eyes at the nagging voice in my head.

"I've never been there." Niall said.

"Never?" my voice lined with surprise.

He shook his head no.

"Well, that changes today." I said as I pulled into the parking lot, and then into the drive-through line.

It turns out that ordering food for eight people, six of which weren't present, was rather hard.

Niall had a good idea of what each of the boys woulds want, and I could easily order for Lindsey and Ashley, but relaying our whole order was rather tedious.

"Never again." I collapsed into a fit of giggles after we had finished our nearly never-ending order.

Niall started laughing too and we didn't calm down until the car behind us let out and angry honk, urging us to drive to the next window.

I drove up and searched for my wallet.

"I'm paying." Niall said flatly. "No chance." I replied.

The girl at the window turned around and caught sight of me.

"Oh my god." she looked about sixteen. "You're Alex," she grinned shyly.

At this point Niall leaned across me and handed the girl his credit card.

The girls eyes widened. "And you're.."

"Niall." he filled in the gap.

"I'm a big fan. Of both of you." she smiled nervously.

"Thanks. From both of us." I grinned back at her.

"Are you two, like, together?" she asked as she swiped Niall's card.

"Oh, no." Niall said quickly.

"No way," I laughed, trying to hide my face, which was becoming redder by the second.

"Oh, well you'd look cute together." she gave another shy smile then handed over all our food along with Niall's credit card.

"Thanks." I smiled as I accepted all of our food and the card.

"Sure. Have a great day." she beamed.

"I told you I was going to pay." I hissed as I pulled up to the exit.

He shrugged and took the card I held out to him.

We drove out and the next few minutes would have been pretty awkward had Niall not turned the radio back on.

After a couple more songs we began to talk again.

"So, is Harry interested in Lindsey?" I asked.

Niall cocked his head to the side. "Yeah, I think so. Are you interested in Harry?"

"Oh, heavens no." I grinned. "He reminds me too much of my brother."

My older brother, Andrew, flirted with every girl he came across.

A light, airy lip escaped Niall's lips.

"Why is that funny?" I tried to hold back a grin.

"He'll just be upset to learn he couldn't seduce you." he grinned back.

"Such a shame." I giggled.

As we drove back to the beach, we chattered about silly ways to get Harry and Lindsey together.

"What about Ashley and Zayn?" I inquired as I pulled into the same spot Ashley had parked in that morning.

A few more cars were scattered in the parking lot.

"I think he has a thing for her." he smiled slowly.

"Great." I grinned.

He took the bags of food as I carried down the sodas.

"Hey, look. We've got food." I beamed as we made our way down to the pile of beach towels that everyone sat around.

"Have you guys moved an inch?" Niall asked the question that I'd been wondering.

"Nope." Zayn replied.

I laughed. "Don't want to be too active now, do we?"

"Of course not." Lindsey grinned.

I sat down all the sodas and plopped down on my own towel.

Niall sat next to Louis on the towel across from me, but gave me quick smile before starting up a conversation with Liam.

"So, how was getting lunch?" Lindsey asked nonchalantly as I pulled out my burger.

"I don't know." I took a bite of my burger. "How was sitting here next to Harry for an hour?" I asked, playing the same game she was.

"Touche." she rolled her eyes at me.

I half-smiled and finished off my burger.

"You know, if we stay a bit later, we should have a bonfire." the scrambled thought came out of my mouth.

"That sounds fun." Louis clapped his hands in approval.

"We'll need more food." Niall said, his face completely serious.

I smirked and nodded. "True."

"I think that's a good idea, though." Harry nodded his head slowly.

"Will we need wood or anything?" Liam asked.

"No, I saw a fire pit up there. It's already got some wood in it." I point to the area, a little farther down the beach, where I had spotted the fire pit ring.

"We just need matches." I finished.

"I have some in my purse." Ashley added.

"Cool beans." I said, squinting as the sun reflected off the deep blue water.

"So, who's going to buy food for dinner?" Harry asked slowly.

"I nominate Alex." Ashley grinned at me.

"I second that!" Lindsey raised her hand in the air.

"I also vote for Alex." Zayn nodded.

"You guys." I groaned.

"I vote Liam." Louis laughed.

"I vote Niall." Lindsey smirked.

"You can't vote twice," I said, raising my eyebrows.

"Too late, it already counts." she shrugged. "Now the only four votes left are Liam, Niall, Harry, and Alex's."

"I also vote for Alex." Harry nodded.

"I vote for Lindsey." I said, knowing it would do no good.

Liam and Niall shouted each other's names at the same time. "Looks like you'll both be going." Louis said politely.

"We'll leave to pick some stuff up in about," I looked at my watch. "An hour and a half."

Everyone nodded.

"Lindsey, would you like to go on a walk with me?" Harry got up and held out his hand.

"Um, sure." Lindsey stammered.

Niall and I shot each other an approving glance. Looks like we wouldn't have to meddle as much as we thought.

Lindsey and Harry started walking down the shore, which looked as if if it stretched around the whole planet.

"Ashley," I began. "Did we bring the kites?"

"Oh, yeah." she grinned. I had been the first person that Ashley ever flew a kite with. She was thirteen when she told me she'd never flown a kite before. We always brought them to the beach now.

"Great, I'll go get them." I smiled and got up.

"I want to see them." Louis got up and followed me up the bank and towards the car.

I unlocked the trunk of the car and got out our two kites. Ashley's was light blue and covered in light, puffy clouds and had pink tails. Mine was a vibrant gold and dragons were scattered over it. I had gotten mine in Chinatown, but Ashley's was simply from a toy store.

"This one's pretty scary." Louis pointed at mine.

"Yes, my kite's have always given me an intimidating edge." I grinned.

We took off back down to the beach and arrived back at the spot where the others sat.

"Liam wants to fly one." Ashley said, and took hers out of my hand and gave it to Liam.

"It's perfect weather." I commented. A slight breeze was rolling in and the sun was dazzling.

"Oh, me too." Niall jumped up.

"Here," I handed him mine, figuring I could fly it later.

He took it graciously and ran over to where Liam was standing, Ashley's kite already tumbling high about in the sky.

"So, where are you from originally?" Zayn asked us, leaning back a bit.

I crinkled my eyebrows. I was sure they'd already asked this when I first met them.

"Baltimore." Louis smiled at me. Oh yeah, Zayn hadn't been there when I first met everyone earlier in the week.

I smiled back, impressed that he'd remembered. "Yes, we're both from Baltimore." I grinned at Ashley who added "And Lindsey, too."

"How'd you meet then?" Zayn asked his gaze continually landing on Ashley.

I couldn't help but smile at my best friend who kept looking to me for guidance. "Well, Ashley and I met when we were two, at our preschool. Lindsey lived across the street from me, and we became friends when I was in third grade and she was in second."

Yes, Lindsey was a year younger than me, and this made me have that slight older sister role. The fact that Harry was interested in her made me ecstatic and horribly worried at the same time.

"And then she introduced us when we were in fifth grade." Ashley finished.

"They bickered a lot, but as we got older they became really close." I said, smiling as I remembered the stupid things Ashley and Lindsey fought about. They still fought, but it wasn't as bad.

I remembered one time, only about a year ago, as if it was yesterday.


"Alex!" Lindsey had shouted from down the hall.

"Hmm?" I'd replied, my thoughts occupied by the sleepover that was going to take place as soon as Lindsey got to my room.

"I'm going to guess it's something One Direction related." Ashley had grinned at me.

Okay, so our obsession with them was a little bit extreme back then. Luckily, it had mellowed out over the past year.

"It is!" Lindsey had practically screamed as she burst into my room. "Sarah texted me saying that Harry-the Harry Styles- complimented you on your performances on American Idol in an interview."

I checked my twitter right away. I mean, I wasn't as famous as One Direction, but my twitter was sort blowing up. "Oh, Gosh." I had grinned.

I didn't realize how popular I was getting until that moment. Ashley just sighed and smiled at me. "You guys are way too obsessed with them."

"Oh, don't act like you don't like them." Lindsey rolled her eyes. "I've seen the folder where you hide all your posters of them."

Ashley looked a bit taken back, but just smirked at Lindsey. "Yeah, well, I don't exactly want the public to think that my romantic life revolves around five boys I've never even met."

"Oh, knock it off. Let's just listen to some One Direction and eat m&m's." I had rolled my eyes and tossed them both bags of their favorite candy.


"Alex, you there?" Niall snapped his fingers in front of my face.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." I said, blinking back my nostalgia. I really missed our weekly sleepovers.

"Did you want to fly the kite at all?" he asked, holding it out to me.

"Oh, sure." I took the kite and bounced up. I walked a little ways away from everybody, so I wouldn't hit anyone in the face if my kite took a nosedive, then unraveled the string.

The kite took off into the air and I stared up in awe as I bounced around in the breeze. Kite's had always amused me and were a bit relaxing.

"Liam's almost as good as you." Niall said, popping up behind me.

"I don't know." I mused. "I'm pretty much a kite-flying expert."

At this time, my kite appropriately fell to the ground, dragging in the sand a bit.

"It totally shows." he grinned at me.

"Oh, please. Like you can do better." I rolled my eyes and returned the smile, my insides doing flips.

I lifted my kite up and the wind bit at it, lifting it into the sky again.

I took this opportunity to quickly turn to Niall and smirk.

His eyes sparkled and matched the color of the ocean perfectly. He was pretty adora-

Pretty good friend material. Just a friend. Nothing more. Definitely not adorable.

Apparently I wasn't as good at kite-flying as I'd made myself out to be because a few moments later a whiny "Ow" reached my ears.

"Oops, sorry." I grinned sheepishly at Harry who had been hit by my falling kite.

Lindsey giggled and I looked in her eyes. They were filled with a giddiness and twinkle I'd only seen once before- when she had been with her ex-boyfriend Jake.

Yeah, Harry would be in serious danger if he hurt Lindsey in anyway.

"Come on," Lindsey patted Harry's back. "Let's go sit with the others before Alex hits you again on accident."

"It was an accident." I whined, smiling at my best friend.

"Mhm." she winked.

"Jeez," I laughed. I stole a glance at my watch. "Should we get going in a bit then?" I asked Niall who still stood behind me, chuckling at the charade that had just occurred.

"Yeah, probably." he nodded but didn't move.

"So." I said awkwardly. "Ireland. How's it there?"

He shrugged and smiled softly. "It's nice. I mean, it is, when I can get back there." It was obvious he was a bit homesick.

I gave him the same type of smile back. I got to see my family a bit more than him probably, but I still knew the feeling. I was pretty reliant on my mom and older siblings, but once I started touring, I was sort of on my own.

Well, except for Ashley who said she couldn't bear to leave me. Or the excessive freebies I got. And the amazing hotels I stayed in.

"What about the UK? Is it nice there?" I asked, knowing we'd be doing a bit of touring there also.

He nodded, the slightly uneasy look vanishing. "It's great. Real fun. I bet you'll love it." He gave me another childish grin and though I tried to fight it, I couldn't help smiling back.

"I've always been dying to go." I admit. "London Eye. Crumpets and posh accents. Telephone boxes and tea." I grinned at the rather stereotypical references.

"All that and more." Liam said, throwing an arm around Niall.

I giggle and rolled up my kite, which seemed unaffected by the hit to Harry's head.

"Shall we get going?" Liam asked, handing me Ashley's kite.

"Sure." I said, pulling the car keys out of my pocket.

"Hey," I shouted. "We're gonna head out." Ashley nodded in response and several hands flew up to wave goodbye.

I beamed and headed up to the car, Niall and Liam following behind.

I climbed into the driver's seat while Liam and Niall argued over who got the passenger seat.

"How bout you both just sit in the back?" I suggested.

"But-" Liam started.

"That's not fair." Niall whined.

"Sit." I said.

"Fine." they both grumbled.

I grinned, pleased with my solution and started the engine. The radio that was still on from Niall and I's ride back from Wendy's clicked on.

The boys sung along to some pop song I didn't know, but as songs I knew came along I gradually started to sing with them.

We reached a super market only about fifteen minutes later, with the boys still singing along to every song that came on.

We strolled into the grocery store, with a few girls pointing our way. "Oh, goodness." I rolled my eyes and grinned.

"You guys, make yourselves useful and go get things for s'mores." I instructed. "I'll get the actual food."

Since I figured no one would really actually be in the mood to cook anything, I picked up a bag of that fried chicken that they make in the store and a couple of bags of salad mix, since Lindsey was a vegetarian. Besides, we could all use some greens once in a while.

I searched the aisles for Niall and Liam. I found Liam off getting the graham crackers, and then we found Niall filling up the basket with every sort of candy imaginable.

I scratched my head and tried to figure out the nicest way to tell him that we couldn't buy all of that candy.

"Niall, that much candy will make your teeth fall out in a minute." I winced.

"Please?" he begged.

"No. Just the marshmallows and the chocolate." I said.

"Oh, come on. Just a couple?" he gave me a sweet smile.

I looked at Liam for backup but he simply shrugged and said "It's best not to get in the way of Niall and his sweets."

I rolled my eyes and threw only about half of the candy out of the basket. Niall gave me a happy look, assuring me that I had made the right decision.

We proceeded through checkout and got back in the car.

The drive back to the beach was very similar to the ride there. The boys belted out every lyric, while I sat quietly, occasionally singing along to a song I knew.

Okay, so I knew most of the songs, but it still felt a bit awkward singing with them.

When we got back to the beach the others had already set up chairs and towels beside the fire pit.

"What'd you get?" Zayn asked.

"Loads and loads of candy." I gave Niall a glare. He gave me a boyish smile back and handed over the actual food.

"But also some chicken and salad. And stuff for s'mores." I told them.

"Sounds good." Ashley grinned and started to open everything.

We sat around the fire that Louis had started and ate our dinner, chatting away about the beautiful weather, and the tour, and travelling, and who knows what else.

"Harry, can I have the keys? I'll go get my guitar." Niall asked, standing up from his seat in between Zayn and Louis.

Harry tossed him the keys and Niall raced off to the parking lot as the sky began to darken and stars appeared.

He returned moments later, guitar in his hand, but instead of sitting back in his original spot, he sat down in the empty space to my right.

"Gee, thanks Niall." Louis rolled his eyes playfully.

"No problem, Lou." Niall replied with a grin.

He played a few chords of Stand Up and soon everyone was singing along.

"Can you play Tell Me A Lie? That's Ashley's current favorite." I smirked at my friend, who so desperately tried to hide her love for their music.

"Sure," he grinned and the song passed by as quickly as Stand Up.

We sang along to a few more songs, and I taught everyone the Campfire Song from SpongeBob.

"None of you have heard that before?" I asked in surprise.

Everyone shook their head no.

"Did you even have a childhood?" I raised my eyebrows.

Ashley and Lindsey beamed at me, knowing about my very apparent love of SpongeBob.

Niall set his guitar down and we all began to talk again.

I was talking to Lindsey when I realized Niall's hand had brushed up against mine.

"And she was going to take away my car but-" I stopped mid-sentence as shiver went up my arm.

"What's wrong?" she asked when I stopped.

"Nothing." I said, figuring Niall would move his hand.

But he didn't. His hand stayed where it was for the next twenty minutes, our fingers pressed against each others.

"We should get going, before it gets too dark." Ashley said, as we all realized how long we'd been talking.

I pulled my hands back and I could see Niall shooting me a glance out of the corner of my eye.

It was too late to pull my gaze away so I looked him straight in the eyes.

He gave me a breathtaking smile and got up, holding his hand out to help me up.

I'm not sure why I accepted his help. I mean, I've got two legs, I can stand up perfectly fine on my own, but I let him help me up anyways.

I rested my hand in his and he gave me a gentle tug up. I bounced on my heels and stood to face him. He gave my hand a light squeeze and then let go, as if nothing had happened.

Nothing did happen I tried to convince myself as we drove home, Ashley and Lindsey laughing about how precious all the boys were and how we had to hang out again soon.


Hey there! So, I really love how this chapter turned out :)

I hope you guys don't think I went too overboard their at the end, but if you did, hey, let me know :D

I'm super excited to hear feedback about this one, because it's probably my favorite of all the chapters I've written so far. So if you have time, I'd really appreciate it if you'd review

xoxo Alex