The New Kid

Ch. 29 Perrie

Nick stood up and brushed off his shorts after looking at Natalie and I.

"C'mon, we can help them look for her." Nick sighed.

"Alright, alright." We both said as we stood up.

Liam was already half way down to the beach by the time the three of us ran over to the small path. The dirt path seemed longer than usual and I felt my knees growing weak. Where could Perrie be? She couldn't be hurt, right?

Zayn was running around the entire beach, kicking sand up from his heels. It was very dark by the water but you could clearly make out 5 figures standing at the edge of the sand. Once we reached the warm summer sand, Zayn jumped into the water and started diving to the bottom. He bobbed his head up searching for air. He used his breathes to shout Perrie's name. There wasn't a response anywhere so the rest of us decided to join in. I walked to the other side of the beach, searching for a blonde head of hair. I walked along the row of tall evergreen trees looking in the piles of leaves that rested on the ground.

"Perrie?" I shouted into the trees.

No answer.

"HEY!" I heard Zayn yell from the opposite direction.

I turned around and saw Zayn kneeling on the sand. I ran over to him as fast as I could and stood over him. He was holding a small green beanie in his hands. I saw a few tears drop onto the fabric as he leaned over his hands.

"This was Perrie's. She was wearing it before we went swimming earlier." He barely got out.

"It still is Perrie's mate." Harry tried reassuring him.

"Don't worry, we'll find her Zayn. She couldn't have gone far. She's probably up there getting dressed looking for us." Liam tried giggling but he was cut off by a scowl from Zayn. We all turned around and started heading back to our original spots. I returned to the trees and continued my search for Perrie. The sun was almost completely set by now so it was getting difficult to see into the woods. I tried focusing but the chirps of the different bugs made my head start to ring. I felt a hand gently res on my shoulder.

"Niall!" I jumped.

"Relax, love." He smiled.

"You can't just go around and put your hand on people's shoulders!" I whispered loudly.

"I'll keep that under consideration."

"Want to help me look over here?" I offered.

"That's why I came over here," he laughed, "but I needed to talk to you too." He sounded serious now.

"About what?" I asked.

"About your surprise." He sighed.

"Niall I'm sorry but I think other things are more important than the surprise right now." I said as I turned my attention back to the darkening forest.

"But I wanted to give it to yo-" Niall started.

"Niall! Please, we need to find Perrie and I don't really care about your little surprise for me right now. So if you're going to talk about it go talk to Liam." I growled.

"Oh, I see. I won't bother you anymore. I'll just go over here then." he whimpered.

"Niall..." I started but he had already walked back and was shaking his fingers through his hair. I felt bad that I hurt his feelings but I wanted to look for Perrie. I didn't want Zayn to be hurt! I cared about him too much. He was like my brother.

A few hours had passed and Zayn started going crazy that Perrie hadn't been found yet. By this time, it was really late and the sun was almost completely set.