Chapter Twenty-Four:

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I winced as my toes hit the sand. My shoes were in one hand and Harry's hand was in the other. The moon reflected off the inky black sea and blended into the equally as black sky, glistening stars dotted it like a spotted blanket.

"I didn't expect the sand to be this cold." Harry muttered as he danced across the sand, trying not to let his feet stay on the ground too long.

"Nor me." Zayn mumbled as he glanced at Bay and Niall who were too wrapped up in the company of each other to notice the temperature of the ground.

Harry wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. "Are you okay babe?" He whispered in my ear. I looked over to him, his eyes glinting in the moon light. I nodded and smiled at him. He kissed me on the forehead as we followed the others across the sand.

Eventually we stopped walking. The tide was far out, so the road and our hotel were quite far away from where we were stood. We stood in a line in silence and looked out to sea. It was so beautiful. The beach was empty except from us.

We must have been stood there for a while before the silence was broken.

"I want to go swimming. It looks so perfect; I just want to jump in." Danielle whispered. She was still holding Liam's hand. I don't think they'd let go of each other since they'd announced their engagement three hours ago.

"Is anybody up for skinny dipping?" Louis giggled.

"I was waiting for you to suggest that." Harry laughed. His laugh rumbled through my body. He had his arms around my waist so my back leaning against his chest and his chin was resting on my head.

"I'm up for it." Liam grinned.

"Let's do it!" Zayn said.

"Yeah baby! Let's go!" Louis yelled! His words lit a spark in everyone; clothes were being thrown onto the beach, shirts mixing with dresses, shoes mixing with bags.

Louis was the first one in the sea. His body glowing as he ran into it. "OMG" He yelled. "It's cold!" Zayn was running in after him and let out a shriek as a small wave hit his chest.

I looked at Harry and grabbed the hand that was hanging by his side. He grinned and we ran. Both of us laughing as we ran through the night air waiting for the cold water to get to us.

I gasped as the water swallowed my legs. I heard Harry do the same. Danielle and Liam were running in behind us and Niall was already in, waiting for Bay to catch up.

We carried on surging forward until we were out the same distance as Zayn and Louis. It was shallow enough that we could all stand up. Waves swelled around us, pushing us around gently.

"It's not too cold…" Danielle giggled. "Warmer than the sand!"

We all floated around and trod water. Zayn was beginning to look a bit scared so him, Liam and Danielle decided to head back and go to bed.

We all swam over to them, congratulating them on the engagement one last time and wishing them good night. Harry watched them swim back to the sand then stand up to walk when it got too shallow to swim.

"So, what are you actually supposed to do when you go skinny dipping?" Niall asked.

"I'm not really sure." Louis laughed. "Do we just float or something? I've never done it before."

"We just do this don't we?" Harry asked as he pushed a load of water onto Louis, knocking him over. Harry laughed loudly as Louis splashed around.

Louis splashed back for revenge and suddenly everyone had joined in. Everyone was getting water in the eyes, mouth and nose. Bay had to swim off to the side a bit so she could wipe her eyes.

I ducked under water without anyone noticing, opening my eyes I glanced around until I recognized Harry's legs. I dived a bit deeper and swan up under him so he wouldn't notice. I tugged at his leg to scare him and quickly swam up to the surface to see his reaction. He thrashed around trying to see what pulled his leg and I laughed as he looked shocked and faintly worried.

He realized it was me and swam over, splashing me as much as possible. Once he was close he tried to duck me under but I caught his arms before they could get to me. We both wrestled and laughed when we both went under, inhaling water as we did.

"We're going to head back." Bay said, her arms wrapped around Niall.

"I think I might as well."Louis said.

"We will too then." Harry agreed.

We swam back to the shore. Splashing and messing around as we went. We weren't in any rush so we took our time and larked about.

Once we got to the shore we quickly sprinted over to our clothes and tried to slip them on as best as possible. The material was sticking to our skin, my body con dress was difficult to put back on.

"I bet my make-up has run all down my face." Bay mumbled as she rung her hair out, dripping water onto the sand.

"You look beautiful Bay" Niall argued. He was buttoning his shirt back up.

Once we were all changed we made our way back up the beach and towards the hotel. We were all soaking wet, hair slick to our heads and faces and our clothes clung to our skin like cling film.

"We're going to get a few looks going through here." Louis said as he peered through the door into the hotel.

"Just a few" I added. We all looked at each other for support before we walked under the sensor of the automatic doors and they whooshed open.

As we guessed we got plenty of looks. We sheepishly hurried over to the lift and pressed the button to close the doors before anyone else could join us.

The lift stopped on our floor and the doors opened. We stepped onto the plush carpet, still dripping sea water onto the floors, holding pieces of clothing we couldn't get back on.

"G'night guys." Louis yawned as he headed off towards his room.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." Bay hugged me before walking off with Niall.

"I can't wait to get into bed." I sighed. I felt so tired, it has been such an exciting night it felt like all my energy had been drained.

"Me either." Harry grinned as he opened the door. "But first we need to shower." He swung me into his arms and carried me towards the bathroom as we laughed.

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