High Maintenance (Liam Payne AU)

Part 6

A few days later, Liam showed up at the store, buying a few snack items and a bottle of dish soap. He walked to the counter, nodded at Gen and smiled. She just rolled her eyes at him. "Where you going with dish soap and chips?" she asked. This wasn't what he normally bought.

"Meeting some friends for a project."

Gen raised an eyebrow at him. "You have friends? I mean, scary asshole mountain men have friends?"

"HaHa. Yes. I do. We belong to a group of environmentalists. Got a project." Liam said. Gen shrugged and nodded. "Uh...You want to come along?"

"Seriously? With you? Like...what is it?"

Liam rolled his eyes. "Are you afraid of getting dirty? Or chipping a nail? I can tell you for sure that there isn't a Starbucks. Jesus. Forget I asked."

Gen glared at him. "That's it, you jerk. I am so tired of you making fun of me. I'm going. What do I need? Can I bring my dog?"

Liam laughed. "You are too easy. Clothes that you don't care about. Enough for a few days. And no. He's too young for a plane ride. I'll take him down to my mom while you pack. Move. I can't be late."

Liam drove them to the local airport, which was nothing more than landing strip and a building, and they boarded a tiny plane. "We have to FLY? What are we doing?" she asked again.

"Just wait. I'm going to show you that there is more to life that just tanning and coffee. I already taught you to care about something other than yourself, by the way." Liam said.

"Excuse me? You taught me what?" Gen gaped at him. "You did nothing of the sort."

Liam grinned at her. "Really? Because I'm guessing that six weeks ago you'd never be worried about leaving a dog."

Gen huffed and looked out the window of the plane. She refused to look at him for the entire two and a half hour trip, choosing to listen to her iPod instead. Once they landed, they climbed out of the tiny plane and walked to the terminal. Liam pulled open the doors and was greeted with a shout of "Payno! You're here! Let's do this. Still got an hour drive." Liam walked to the curly haired, lanky man, grabbed his hand and gave him the 'guy hug' pat of the back. Gen stood behind him, suddenly feeling out of place. These people all seemed to be the kind her friends always called 'crunchy." Nature loving, vegetarians, hug the world people. Nothing like her. "Yo, Liam, who is the chick?"

Liam turned to Gen and grabbed her hand. "This is Genny. She's new to this 'care about other people thing,' so be nice. Genny, this is Harry."

Gen pulled her hand away and gave the group a half smile, crossing her arms over her chest.

Harry laughed. "Where'd you find her? Doesn't seem like she likes you much!" he joked.

"I don't" Gen said.

Harry laughed and threw his arm around neck. "Well, you'll like me then." he grinned, winking at her. "I'm nothing like Payno."

Together the group walked out to the parking lot and loaded into two vans. They drove for nearly an hour before the vans slowed and parked. The entire way, Gen kept Harry's arm around her and shot looks at Liam to see if he was paying attention. She was pleased to see that he was. He didn't look to happy about her being flirted with.

When the car stopped, Gen could see and hear the ocean. There were also people everywhere. The people in the van started to reach into their bags, pulling out dish soap and climbing onto the sand. "This way!" Harry called, leading them to sign that said "Volunteers." He gave the name of the group, something about ocean friends, she couldn't hear over the noise of the ocean and people. Liam came and took her hand, leading her along with the others to a row of shallow dish pans. She stood behind the table and looked around.