Living in London

let the water hold me down

ZAYN's POV

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The drive was torture. I could not believe how hot it was in the car- or van, I should say. Lou managed to get his hands on one of the hippy vans similar to the one we used in What Makes You Beautiful. About forty five minutes into the drive, the air-conditioner pooped itself, so we all had the windows rolled completely down, blowing a warm breeze in our face. None of us were wearing shirts anymore and Elle and Ari ditched their dresses. For some reason, Elle went with another one-piece. I don't know why-she has a ripper body. I think Louis may have some strange fetish... At least Ari went with a bikini.

The radio was blaring and I was singing along to my Tell Me A Lie solo. Trust Louis to bring our album as the only source of music.

Ari grinned at me as I finished the big note. For some reason she had been extra girlfriend-y since Ed's. I don't know why, but Harry had been avoiding me a bit. I haven't done anything to offend him and we got over our argument about me and Ari in the car last night. Oh well, I guess I'll just let him go. He's probably in one of his angsty moods.

I wrapped my arms around Ari's waist and pulled her against me, ignoring the heat. She smiled and tilted her head so her blond top-knot wouldn't be in my face. I pulled the sun-glasses off her face and played with the arms a little, bending them in and out.

The drive remained calm and relaxing for a while until Louis suddenly swerved sharply and I grabbed on to Ari before she could go flying into the back of the seat in front of us. The van Louis managed to hire lacked in multiple luxuries, like airbags and window tinting and seat-belts.

"Bloody cows... who lets a cow on the road anyway?" Louis muttered.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head on the window when I was sure we weren't going to crash. Ari was gripping onto my leg for dear life, but her hand was fairly high up my thigh and I was trying to think of anything to stop it turning me on.

Puppies in a blender.

I pulled a face at myself. Oh my God, I am a terrible person.

I gritted my teeth trying to ignore Harry, Niall and Elle's rendition of 99 Bottles of Beer. They started singing as soon as the radio cut out (that pooped itself soon after the air-conditioner) and they were now down to 23 bottles.

"If you guys don't cut it out, I will cut you off," Ariadne threatened and they stopped singing abruptly.

I smiled and wrapped my arm around her waist. "That's my girl."

---

I felt a sharp nudge in my arm. "Oi, wake up!"

"Niall?"

"Get out the car- we're here," he said, attempting to pull me out of the door. I groaned and leaned back towards the seat.

Niall sighed. "I'm glad we prepared for this." Suddenly, my face was wet. I opened my eyes and saw Niall standing with a spray-bottle aimed at me. "Get out the car or I'll spray you again."

I rolled my eyes and wiped my face. "I'm going... I'm going..." I threw my arm around his shoulders letting him guide me towards the tiny campfire everyone was standing around. Niall sprayed my face one more time, effectively waking me up properly.

"Did anyone bring food?" I yawned, scratching my neck and dropping down on a log between Ari and Liam. Harry threw a bag of chips at me and I caught them with a grateful nod.

"What should we do first?" Niall asked.

We all looked around at each other and Elle and Ari shifted nervously. They hadn't been to one of our lake-gatherings before. I understand why they're a bit nervous; we're a group of teenagers (save for Louis) sitting around a campfire in the middle of nowhere at some ungodly hour.