"Stuck In The Friend-Zone Again and Again"

"No Matter What You Do Or Say"

A/N: ayyyye who likes the new cover?

The laughing and merry singing on the ride to Bondi was straight out of a movie, one of those cheesy teen ones where everyone is besties until they break up and at the end everyone is happy again.

Once we arrived, we parked and grabbed our stuff from the trunk.

The boys led me to their favourite spot with difficulty, since about a thousand fans stopped us along the way.

I loved the fans, though.
Well, I loved the real fans, the nice ones.
Not so much the mean ones.

When we were nearly to the spot according to Calum, 5 girls in heavy makeup and neon bikinis stopped us to take pictures.

They gave me dirty looks the whole time, and at one point the one whispered "you're such a slut, hanging all over them" in my ear.

I rolled my eyes, ignoring hers and her friends' glares.

We finally escaped their fake-nail talons, and hurried along the beach, thankfully not being stopped by any more fans.

When we reached the spot, I grinned at their cleverness.

It was secluded, since it was around a corner of a rock formation (don't kill me if there're no rock formations at Bondi, I've never been there!), meaning peaceful time away from the crowds.

We laid down our towels, and Ashton put up two beach umbrellas.

As soon as Calum started to take off his shirt, the rest of us followed suit in removing all of the clothes that weren't our bathing suits, then slathered on sunscreen to avoid getting burned.

Calum and Ashton headed straight for the water, but I moved my towel in the sun and settled down.

"C'mon, come swimming!" Luke said, tugging on my hand.
"I'll come in a bit later," I told Luke. "Go on without me. I'll stay with Michael."

Michael was under one of the umbrellas, earbuds in and zoned out.

Luke looked at him skeptically, and I laughed. "Go Luke."
He laughed and finally ran off, making a bee-line for the gorgeous turquoise water.

I chuckled at his childishness, and pulled my book out of my bag, ready to get lost in another world while working on my tan in this one.

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After what I'd say was about an hour, Luke came running out of the water to me.

I could hear him calling my name, but at that point I had hit that point in the book where no matter how many times you read it, you didn't want to put it down.

Before long I felt a drop of cold water hit my back, and I turned to see the source.

It wasn't raining, but water was falling from very high up.

Luke was allowing the beads of water that had collected on his hair to drip down on me.

"Luke, stop, you're getting me all wet," I protested as a dozen more drops hit my skin.
"Well if you're already wet you might as well come swimming?" Luke tried.
"No, Luke, I want to read," I said, turning back to my book.
"But you've already been reading for an hour," he whined.
"Go bug Ashton," I said distractedly, losing myself in the book again.

Luke sighed. "I really didn't want to have to do this."
He bent down and grabbed me round the middle, causing me to drop my book in surprise.
"LUKE!" I screeched as he threw me over his shoulder. "I SWEAR TO GOD IF THAT BOOK GETS WRECKED-!"
"It won't now come on, let's go swimming!" He cried happily, running towards the water.

I bounced around uncomfortably on his shoulder, and informed him.
"Luke this hurts," I complained. "Your shoulder is digging into my hip and my chest keeps smacking against yours."
"Almost there," he told me, continuing to run.
I made a whimper of protest; it actually hurt quite a bit.

We finally made it to the water, and as soon as his feet touched the substance he flipped me off of his shoulder and into his arms bridal style.
"Sorry," he apologized, continuing into the water until he was up to his knees.
"Say sorry to my bruised hips," I said somewhat resentfully, rubbing the sore spots.
"I could have tickled you," he reminded me, sneaking the hand that was closest to my head dangerously close to my neck.
"Don't you dare!" I warned him.
"Too late!" He exclaimed, starting to tickle my neck.

I thrashed around in his arms, half giggling half screaming.
"L-Luke!" I finally managed, still giggling and screaming and flailing as he continued his assault. "S-stop, you're g-gonna dr-drop me!"

Luke finally stopped tickling me, setting me down in the upper thigh high water for me.

"You are really ticklish, aren't you?" He smirked.
"Yeah," I nodded. "Laughing when you're being tickled is actually a panic response, which is why you can't tickle yourself and why people are more subjective to tickling than others. So with the whole anxiety disorder thing, being ticklish is bound to come along with it, no?"
Luke looked surprised. "Yeah. Is that seriously why you laugh when you're being tickled?"
I shrugged. "That's what I've read."
"So you're really ticklish..." he started.
"...most likely because I have high panic and anxiety levels," I finished.
"Wow," Luke breathed, looking impressed. "You know your stuff, don't you?"
"If by 'my stuff' you mean an enormous collection of seemingly useless but possibly interesting facts that could come in handy one day for a multitude of reasons, then yes, I know my stuff."
"And when would it ever come in handy to know the travel distance from Riverstone to Sydney Airport?" Luke laughed.
I shrugged. "Conversation piece?"
Luke laughed again. "You're weird."
"Coming from the guy who tickled me why holding me bridal style," I challenged with a laugh.
"Touché," he conceded. "But let's go swimming!"
"Fine," I giggled. "If it'll stop you from asking."
"Yay!" Luke cheered, grabbing my hand. "Let's go!"

I laughed again, and followed the gentle pull of his hand as he jogged out further into the warm Australian water.