Tessa's POV

At around three forty-five, Niall came through the door. He went and started walking around, searching. When he peered into the kitchen, I took my chance. I went up behind him and tapped his shoulder. He jumped and flinched before turning around to realize it was just me. He let out his breath and put his hand on his chest.

"Geez, woman, don't scare a dude like that." He said breathlessly.

"Is there something you were doing that you wouldn't want anyone to see?" I questioned him.

He visibly gulped. "No…" He didn't sound very sure of himself.

"I'm just messing with you, Niall. No need to get so freaked out." I told him, but he still tensed when I placed my hand on his bicep. "If you want to sit at the bar, I'll get you a drink. My shift ends in fifteen minutes an then I'll introduce you to some people." When he nodded, I led him over to a stool at the end of the bar and got him a can of coke, figuring it was a safe choice since he didn't say what he wanted. After giving it to him, I finished my shift and changed out of the slutty uniform. Seriously, a black bikini underneath a white v-neck? It's a diner, not a whorehouse.

I kept my bikini on, and after changing back into my shorts and tank top, I went to get Niall and we headed towards the boardwalk. I had texted Cara earlier, and she was meeting us there along with everyone else. I told Niall to look for a tan girl with wavy brown hair, and we spotted her along with everyone else. I grabbed Niall's arm-at which, he tensed, again-and practically dragged him in my rush to get to all of my people.

Cara and I met halfway, running, and jumped into each other's arms like they do in all those romantic movies. I bet it was quite entertaining to watch because Niall full-on cackled. Once Cara and I finished our movie meeting, I hugged everyone else, including Sailor who just had to be there, and then I introduced them to Niall.

"Guys, this is my new neighbour, Niall. He's going to be hanging out with us." I told them and then brought Niall forward. "Niall, this is Liam, Cara, Sailor, Lola, and Noah. They're just a couple of my friends here." Niall shook everyone's hands and was very polite, the perfect gentleman. When he shook Sailor's hand there was this predatory look in her eyes that I didn't like very much. He didn't seem to notice though.

While we all started walking towards the beach, Niall struck up a conversation with Liam, so I fell back to talk with Cara. We had texted a bit over the past three years, so we didn't have anything major to talk about.

"You snagged yourself a hot one, you know?" Cara leaned in closer and started talking quietly.

I snorted at her question. "No. I did not snag anyone. He's merely my new neighbour, that's it. His mom asked me to take him into town and introduce him to people."

"Really?" She asked with disbelief written all over her face.

"Seriously." I explained everything that happened this morning to her. She laughed extremely hard when I got to the part about Niall coming downstairs in his boxers and not even noticing I was there, and everybody turned around to look at us. I just shrugged innocently, and then they went back to their various conversations.

I had finished telling her the entire story by the time we got to the beach. It was a secluded place that only we came to. Everyone started to undress when I remembered Niall didn't bring anything to swim in. I turned around only to find him standing there in a pair of swim trunks. When I looked at him quizzically, he mouthed "Liam's." I nodded my head and turned back to undressing myself.

When all of us girls finished we linked hands-I was definitely not holding Sailor's-and ran into the water practically shrieking. When we turned around, the boys were shaking their heads at us. They calmly walked into the water together, but not holding hands. I silently laughed at the mental image. Liam and Noah walked over to Cara and me.

"Tessa, has anyone ever told you that you look positively gorgeous when you are in the water." Noah complimented me. My cheeks flushed as I muttered a thank you. Noah always complemented me for some unknown reason.

Then, Liam came up with a brilliant idea. "Let's play Chicken!" He exclaimed. Lola and Sailor were too busy drooling over Niall to hear, so us four decided to play by ourselves. I was up on Noah's shoulders while Cara was on Liam's.

"You're going down, Mason." I told her.

She met my eyes. "In your dreams, White."

The boys called go, and then it was on. The boys got close together while us girls grabbed onto each other's shoulders and tossed back and forth. It lasted for a couple minutes before the boys started attacking each other with their feet and making it harder for us girls to get the other off. It ended when all of us fell at once. We all just collapsed into laughter. It was hilarious! I didn't even know how it happened.

While we had been playing, Lola, Sailor, and Niall had started watching us. We found them arguing about who won.

"It was totally Liam and Cara! Tessa and Noah fell into the water way before them!" Sailor, no surprise, practically shouted. Sailor would always take the side against me.

"No way! Tessa obviously won! Cara and Liam fell into the water, like, almost a minute before Tessa!" Niall retorted. Wow, exaggeration much. Not that I'm complaining.

Noah suddenly appeared beside me. "Woah, bro. What am I, grilled sardines?" He asked, faking hurt and putting a hand to his chest. Niall just shooed him off and kept arguing with Sailor. Noah turned to me. "You would never have stood a chance without me, right?" The three of us looked at one another. He just got more worried. "I'm the entire reason you stuck it out that long and you know it." Though it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.

I patted his shoulder affectionately while Liam and Cara looked at each other. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Noah." I told him, putting pity in my voice.

He was still trying to convince us-and himself-by the time we decided to get out and go get dinner. We started walking back towards the boulevard. This time it was the same groups as when we were at the beach instead of walking to the beach. I guess Lola and Sailor just hadn't had enough Niall time yet.

We talked about how great this summer was going to be. Suddenly, Liam turned to me. "That reminds me! Do you want to come to this party on Saturday? It's this thing I'm throwing for the group and some other people, so feel free to bring Lou and Jesse. You can also bring Niall, too. He probably won't know how to get to my place." I nodded and told him I would definitely be there.

When we finally arrived at the boardwalk, we just had to fight over where to eat. After at least ten minutes of arguing, Liam yelled. "If you all don't stop fighting over this then I am going to find a grocery store and pick up some god-awful sandwiches!" That caused everyone to shut up and we ended up just going to The Diner. It was the place that the majority liked, so Liam took direction. He's like the Dad of our group.

We all sat down and ordered before settling into conversations. The guys started talking about some football game while the girls started talking about outfits for the party on Saturday. I wasn't really interested in either of the conversations, so I just zoned out. I wasn't even thinking. I just could not form a coherent thought.

After a few minutes, someone started snapping their fingers right in front of my nose, and I was broken out of my trance. "And she's brought back to life." I couldn't tell who said it, but someone muttered, "Sadly." So I had a pretty good idea.

"What?" I asked.

"You were zoned out." I fixed a glare upon her like, uh duh. "We asked what you were planning on wearing to Liam's party." Cara finished.

"Oh." I thought about it for a moment. "I'll probably go in a tank top and a pair of shorts." Lola and Cara nodded while Sailor looked at me like I had grown a second head or something. They went back to their conversation about dresses, shoes, hair, and makeup. I tried to put forth a little effort, but I didn't make that much of a contribution. I ended up eating my dinner and silently wishing I was one of the guys or a girly-girl. It bites being one of those awkward, in-between weirdoes.

"Tessa, you look so down. A beautiful girl such as you should never look anything but happy, especially when there's an attractive guy trying to talk to her." Noah winked. As always, his silly complements made me blush.

"Ooh, and attractive guy is trying to talk to me? I better stop talking to you then." I joked.

He laughed and mussed up my hair. "The attractive guys is sitting next to you, idiot." He said, still trying to get me to admit it.

I turned towards Cara and then back to him. Oh, he totally walked into this one. "Noah, we have been over this. Cara is an attractive girl, not a guy."

He looked downright shocked, but then laughed again. "Nice to know how attractive you think I am."

"Attractive? You?" I pretended to peer closer. "Nah, I don't see it."

"Alright, that's it." He pulled me into his side, and even though we were in a booth, he started tickling me. I'm an extremely ticklish person, and, sadly, almost everyone knows. I started flipping out. It probably looked like I was some freak, a rabid animal. I had absolutely no control over my flailing limbs.

"No! Stop! Stop!" I screeched, out of breath.

He stopped, but then brought his mouth down to my ear. "Admit it, I'm attractive." He breathed huskily, making his voice go down lower than I thought it could. "Say it, or I'll start the tickling again."

I sighed. "Fine. Fine. Noah, you are attractive." He let go of me and I almost dropped to the floor, but he caught me just in time.

"You okay?" He asked, real concern written all over his face.

"Yeah, just a little light- headed." I told him.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault." He looked sad now.

I patted his arm. "Hey, it's okay. I'm just tired. I'm alright."

He looked away and got back into a conversation with Liam and Niall, but he looked over at me every couple of minutes. Probably just to check up on me. Once everyone finished their food, we paid and went outside. Then we said our goodbyes. It was just a bunch of hugs and kisses exchanged, your usual goodbye.

Then it wasn't long before Niall and I were on our walk back to our houses. We were back to our silence from this morning before I just felt this need to talk. "So how do you like Nerja so far?" I asked, trying to make small talk.

"I like it very much, actually. It's perfect here. Everyone is so relaxed. I like your friends, too." He sounded happy, so I guessed he must have been telling the truth.

"Well, now they're your friends, too." He smiled at me in response. I guess that meant the end of our conversation? I didn't really know. We didn't talk at all until we saw our houses being lit up by the street lamps; it had gone dark about an hour ago, while we were eating.

"Thank you, Tessa. For today, I mean." Niall said as we got even closer to our homes.

I shrugged. "It was no problem." We had come up to my driveway by then, and stopped to say goodbye or something. "Do you need me to take you to town tomorrow, or do you wanna go by yourself?" I asked, just making sure.

"I think I can get there on my own, but thanks." He said.

I nodded my head and waved before making my way and walking up the steps to get into my house and get some sleep.