Twenty-Two ➳ l.p.

Chapter Ten: Chicken

Liam groaned, and I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest.

                “I’m not jumping in the pool, Liam, I don’t care.”

                “What if I jump in with you?”

                I huffed, shaking my head. “No.”

                “Chicken.”

Chapter Ten: Chicken

It wasn’t that I hadn’t noticed Niall before, because I had. Every single member of One Direction was unfairly attractive, and if I had said that I didn’t notice that, I would be lying.

I knew that Niall was stunning, it’s just that I hadn’t pieced it together before.

The tentative smiles and little waves and shy grins—I had just placed that as him being nice. I hadn’t thought that he’d fancied me or anything.

But now that I did know it, it was impossible to ignore it. Every time I laid eyes on him my brain turned to mush, and it was ridiculous, because I didn’t even like Niall like that.

Granted, I definitely could learn how to, and it probably wouldn’t be hard, but there was still Liam.

I had known him pretty much all of my life—those feelings couldn’t just vanish because I had gotten kiss-close with Niall.

Even if Liam still hated me—which he did, by the way—I couldn’t deny that nothing had changed in the way that I felt for him.

His presence still gave me goosebumps, and just because Niall had admitted his feelings too didn’t change a thing, even if I was starting to hope that it would.

Nothing had really changed with the amount of time that I spent with the boys, although a couple times I did see Liam smiling down at his phone, and with the pitying look that Niall would send my way, I could only guess that he was replying to either Danielle or Rachel.

I really didn’t care to know which.

“You know what I haven’t done since I’ve been here?” Harry asked, shaking out his curls before giving us a grin.

“Get a new tattoo?” I piped up, and he laughed, shaking his head.

“Well yes, but no. I haven’t been swimming. I want to go swimming.”

“Are you sure?” It was a reasonably warm day, yes, but it would be just our luck that as soon as we got outside it would start to rain. “I mean…”

“Ali,” Niall chuckled, throwing his arm around my shoulder and pulling me close—he had been a lot more touchy-feely since his confession, I’ll admit, “there’s not a cloud in the sky.”

And so what if he was right? I glanced out of the window anyhow, staring up into clear sapphire and blinding light.

And yes, it would probably be more than a good idea to take advantage of the dry day and go for a swim, but I wasn’t in the mood.

                “Can we please?” Louis pouted, and Liam let out a groan, glaring at him.

                “She’s not the boss of you. You’re not her guests.”

                “But she’s nicer than you, Li,” Lou shot back, rolling onto his back and giving the other boy an accusatory stare from the floor. “Ever since we got here you’ve been rude, and it’s not fair. Like really, if you’re going to act like this, then just don’t come. It’s whatever.”