LA to The Bay

Chapter 8: Anaheim (3)

"Meeting diverted to the pool area. You better have brought your bathers! Love Leah. X"

Great so I missed that memo. I look down at my tight skinny jeans which end at just the perfect length above my diamante kitten heels; my Cinderella sunshine slippers as I like to call them. Not too dressy but elegant enough to show that I am a woman of sophistication. The perfect outfit for socialising within a bar perhaps, but not, amen, at a pool party, which evidently is what I am about to do.

"Niamh, over here!" Lottie's voice yells over at me causing everyone to turn and gawp. I raise my hand awkwardly, not sure if I'm acknowledging her or the fifty other people in the area.

"That's right I'm Niamh, and I'm here, joining you on this trip, now move along."

But I guess  her calling my name at least makes me look like I have a slither of credibility with the cool gang, as opposed to what I actually am, one of the other rejects, travelling alone, milling about and studying the pool bar menu like it is the most engrossing thing we've ever read.

'Hot dog sounds good, right?' An Australian accent approaches me.

I want to be rude and state the obvious, that it is just a hot dog, a common snack found globally and with nothing remarkable about it to be worth starting a conversation with a stranger over, but the way the man is staring up at me makes me feel immediately guilty.

'I'm Duncan. Duncan from Melbourne.' He holds a plump hand out to me. Something about him just makes me want to wrap him up and put him in my pocket. Probably the fact that he is only 5 foot tall and balding badly under the age of thirty, but I just know that he was the kid that everyone bullied at school. I instantly want to protect him from Lottie and the cool gang. From Louis and Harry; the type of guys he can only ever dream of being.

'I'm Niamh.' I shake his hand. 'I'm from England.'

'Listen up guys!' Music starts. A jive of Hispanic hysteria, clanging and arriba-ing signals that it is actually happening, the party, the trip of a life time is about to commence and everyone begins to clap as our host, a miniature Asian woman with a mass of black hair, power ball's her way in to the area like an amphetamine crazed Chihuahua. I feel my throat tighten. It hasn't done that in a while.

'So I'm Leah! This is me!' She signals to herself like we should already know that. 'Welcome to the party!'

'Woooo!' A voice screeches from the pool area. Lottie, in the Jacuzzi and standing on Louis' shoulders looking like she's about to burst something, just from the mere presence of our host. Her hands waving about like she's at the front row of a rock concert. Maybe Leah is some sort of Z list celebrity from a reality show that everyone else has been watching all year except me?

In contrast to Lottie's hysteria, Harry, who is also in the jacuzzi, is apparently engrossed in conversation with two other girls. Model thin and epic tans of course, and not one of them appears to have a frizzy stand of hair despite the humidity of the hot tub. Even Harry. That guy must use some serious salon strength product to get his mane looking so good. If I let myself be, I could be jealous for never have I quite been able to achieve such mermaid like curls, despite the years of trying.

Of course he is too cool to be interested in listening to whatever it is Leah might be saying. Because he knows it all already, obviously. I don't know which is worse, Lottie's deluded exuberance or Harry's nonchalance. Or the fact that Louis has Lottie straddling his shoulders. So she is still clearly more than happy to twist the knife then?

I try listening to whatever it is that Leah is or isn't saying; something about the toilet being called the bathroom in the US and other colloquialism's we need to be aware of if we are to survive our stay here, but I'm too distracted by what's happening in the jacuzzi. They may as well actually be having sex together in there. All of them. Since their limbs are all entwined in some gross ball of fornicating flesh. The two girls are pawing at Harry's chest; at the two blobs of ink etched upon him. Of course he has tattoos. He was probably born with them.

That's the thing I love about Louis, that he's all natural, especially with the light falling perfectly upon him under the glimmer of the moonlight, it makes his skin appear the exact perfect shade of a caramel cream frappacino on a summers day.

'Oh my life!' I gasp. Fortunately Leah is talking so much that nobody notices, except Duncan who is looking at me, confused by my outburst.

'Sorry.' I whisper, but I'm not, I'm fuming; tendrils of steam are spilling from my ears and nose, and I might actually self combust into a puff of smoke at the horror. Louis has got a tattoo. He's standing up in the Jacuzzi, and it's just there, stamped just above the top of the waistband of his swim shorts, which really are hanging far too low by the way, like a used goods trademark.

As I focus my vision I can make out that it's a diving swallow, exactly the same as the two birds on Harry's chest. I can feel my vision blurring. Louis and Harry have the same tattoo. This really is the stamp of their brotherhood. I can imagine how in the outback of their Australian trip, as their fraternal bond grew and they slapped each other on the back, chanting the word "dude", they concluded that a swallow, that it like totally represents their freedom man, and that by getting it marked upon them, that this is what they'll forever be; free.

It seems ironic that all this time I've been worried about Lottie, that she was the one who had stolen Louis away, when could it be that the real bandit of Louis is Harry? And it's on this thought that I realise just how much I hate Harry.

Authors note: Since we are still in Anaheim I've uploaded my second favourite No Doubt song, Just a Girl, as I think Gwen's mood in the video is kind of similar to Niamh's in this chapter. God I just love Gwen in her crop tops and baggy trousers but perfect make up and hair. It's the style of my soul.

This chapter is dedicated to kayrry for all the votes and comments whilst I was writing.

Please be kind and remember to vote and comment. Love Ally xx