Always Together (One Direction AU)

Chapter 4

Finn had been sitting in the library for an hour and a half with her laptop open on a hangout before anyone else jumped on. She used that time to continue rehearsing her lines because they had one show left and shouldn’t the final production be the best? She thought so. The first of her friends to log on was Grace, along with a rush of clinking glasses and garbled shouts.

It was great to see a familiar face, other than those of her parents, Grace thought, smiling wide as the camera loaded. Finn was pretty pixely, but she didn’t care.

“Finnie! It’s so good to see your face! You look so good! Sorry I’m so late. I had a hard time finding a pub with free WiFi. It’s not like back home where there’s a high-speed connection at five McDonald’s within a mile radius of you at all times. How are you?” Grace spoke excitedly, talking fast and gesturing wildly as she did so.

Finn rolled her eyes at Grace’s speed, smiling all the while. “You haven’t changed a bit, Gracie. I’m glad you haven’t become some rude, fashion-forward European.”

Grace grinned at this. “Don’t count your chickens just yet; I’ve got a while left over here.”

“Where are the others? The time difference shouldn’t have been that difficult to figure out. And India said she’d meet me here almost two hours ago, the brat.”

“Maybe Ronnie couldn’t get off grounds. I don’t know about India.” At that moment, a loud whooshing noise cut into their conversation and a third box popped up at the bottom.

“Hey guys!”

“Veronica,” Grace said curtly.

“Oh, lighten up, Grace. Hey Ronnie! Why so late?”

“Well, long story short-” the other girls groaned, cutting her off.

“Your ‘long story short’ always precedes an extremely drawn out story,” Finn said. Grace nodded in agreement.

“Fine. I’ll let Liam do the storytelling,” she said, pulling someone else into the frame. The boy - man, more like, did a shy little wave.

Finn gasped. “Oh my God, Ronnie, he’s hotter than you made him sound in your letters. Holy shit. I’m Finn. Are those tattoos?” she asked, addressing Liam. Ronnie ducked her head back in and raised an eyebrow at Finn. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, waving her off. “If you weren’t fucking her, I’d fuck you,” she whispered with a wink. That was Finn, daring when she knew there could be no consequences.

Liam cleared his throat. “Ronnie told me she needed to get out for an hour or so to talk to some friends back home, and that she needed my help. She said she had already asked about the next trip into town and it wasn’t going to be for a while. I, uh, hesitated, because I don’t like breaking the rules, but you can’t say no to a damsel in distress, so I offered her a ride to Starbucks. We had to push the car-” Ronnie butted in.

“You’re making it sound like you had a car available to you at all hours. Tell it right.”

“Okay, I knew where the keys to the camp van were, so I snuck into the office during dinner and took them.”

“Better.”

Finn and Grace were grinning, because it was exactly like Ronnie to make a good boy go bad.

“Anyway, we had to push the car a ways to the main road because an engine starting up surely would’ve woken someone up. And subsequently, gotten us caught. And now we’re here.”

The girls broke into applause, and their celebration was quickly joined by that of a third. India had finally decided to show up.

“How long have you been standing there?” Finn asked, swiveling in her chair.