That Summer (One Direction Fanfiction)

Chapter 29: Something's Not Right

I slid my sunglasses down my nose and looked over at Liam, who was lying on his stomach on a beach towel. We were in his backyard working on our tans with Susan and Ruth. The boys had a wedding this week and Riley was making them practice 24/7, so I barely saw Harry.

“Liam?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled.

“Amelie just texted me.”

“Oh,” he flipped over onto his back. “What does she want?”

“She wants to know how things are going with me and Harry,” I read off the screen of my phone. “Should I text her back?”

“Well yeah, why wouldn’t you?”

“Cause,” I sighed and shook my head. It would be useless trying to explain this to a guy. “Never mind.”

“All right,” Liam went back to playing with his iPod and I was left wondering if I should reply or not. I didn’t have any proof that she had tried to steal Harry away from me and I didn’t want to come across as rude if she actually was just being nice. I decided to text her back, letting her know things were going well.

My phone rang and I answered warily, “Hi Amelie.”

“Hey Brittany,” her voice was happy. “Are you doing anything today?”

I looked around Liam’s backyard at my friends who were sprawled out across the grass in various states of undress. Liam had his headphones in, his head bobbing to whatever music was playing. Susan was flipping through a magazine, her nose buried too deep in gossip to notice much else. Ruth was texting, her fingers flying nimbly across the small keys of her phone.

“No not really.”

“I have the day off. Do you want to grab coffee or something?”

I looked down at Liam, my eyes pleading for advice, but he was too wrapped up in his music. “Sure, that would be great.”

“Yay! I’ll meet you at the restaurant in 20 minutes, we can walk from there.”

“Sounds good,” I hung up the phone and reached down to rip Liam’s headphones out of his ears.

“Hey!” he protested, grabbing at them. I help the small white buds up out of his reach.

“I’m going to get coffee with Amelie.”

“That’s great. Have fun.” He made another swipe for his headphones and missed. I rolled my eyes and threw them back to him.

“See you later.”

He just nodded, shoving the earbuds back in place and fading out of reality.

I scaled the fence, dressed in nothing more than a striped bikini, plopping down in our yard. The silence surprised me as I slipped into the kitchen. I had expected to hear music, or at least Riley’s angry voice. I hurried down the hallway; I only had a few minutes to change and head down to the restaurant. I was passing Riley’s room when I heard Harry’s muffled voice coming from inside. I paused outside the room, wondering why Harry and Riley were talking. They did their best to avoid each other most of the time.

“It’s none of your business, so just stay out of it.”

“Actually it is my business,” Riley’s voice was cold as ice.

“No it’s not!” Harry shouted. “Keep your nose out of my life.”

I jumped back in surprise when the door banged open. Harry plowed right into me, knocking me to the floor. His eyes widened when he saw me and a flash of panic danced through his green eyes. Riley stood with his arms crossed in the doorway, looking smug.