Understanding it All

Chapter Four

Liam’s POV

I dreamed again about her that night. Her smile lit my dreams, and I woke up with a smile on my face. That was, until I realise why I was awake. Louis and the boys were right in my face, just staring at me. Then Harry started making kissing noises. I threw my pillow at him, laughing as he fell backwards. Paul came in and told us we had to be on the pier soon if we wanted to head out to the reef. I looked out the window and smiled. No clouds in sight. I started humming to myself as we went down to the pier. We could walk there, which was great. I was really liking Cairns.

The place was full of tourists. Apparently this was the time of the year to visit the reef (A/N: Winter is the best time to visit Cairns, you can swim in the ocean without having to worry about jellyfish). The cruiser was filled with chattering people, so it was lucky we took our own boat. We decided to sit on the very top, as there were a few, but no more than ten other people inside. We had decided the night before that we would stay the night out at Green Island, and catch the boat back the next day.

…………………….

Sarah’s POV

Meg and I caught the earliest boat out to the reef. Meg’s best friend Josh managed to get us on for free, so I was happy. My friend Fran came along with us. Well, Meg’s too, Fran had basically grown up with us.

We raced to the beach to grab a good spot. It would soon be fairly populated. But we weren’t the first ones there. Instead, I was faced with Liam and his friends again. Only then did I realise who they actually were. “Oh shit,” I said to myself. Meg was trailing behind, so I motioned to Fran.

“Fran, we need to move away, or Meg will go nuts.”

“Wait, why?” she asked. I pointed to the boys, but Fran shrugged. “So? Who cares.”

“Um, Meg will once she realises that they’re One Freaking Direction!” I hissed at her.

“Oh! Shit, ok, move move move!” she said. We ran out of sight from the boys to the pool. Meg finally caught up.

“Why aren’t we on the beach?” she whined. Fran and I looked at each other.

“Um, well, I thought it would be nicer here today. Didn’t Josh say that they were expecting a large number of tourists today?” I asked. Meg nodded, and realised my ‘point’.

“Ok then. Well, I’m going to get changed, and I might sit by the pool for a while instead.”

“Yes, go do that!” I said a bit too quickly, but Meg wasn’t paying attention. She was already moving towards the bathrooms. I motioned to Fran. “If she heads towards the beach before I get back, distract her unless I give you the all clear, ok?”

Fran nodded. I took my phone with me, and my camera. I had decided I would take a few photos on the island with it; I had just gotten it from my grandfather.

I headed down to the beach. I noticed that only the dark one, wait, Zayn, wasn’t in the water. I headed over to him.

“Water too cold for you?” I asked. He looked at me, and then did a double take.

“You again?” he said. I shrugged.

“Cairns is a pretty small place, we were bound to run into each other again if you’re staying a while. But you didn’t answer my question,” I replied.

“Oh yeah. Well, you see, I can’t swim, so jumping in the water isn’t exactly the best idea,” Zayn replied with a little sarcasm.

“Wait, really? You don’t know how to swim?” I was astounded. Meg and I were learning to swim as soon as we were starting to walk. “Come on, I’ll teach you.”

“You, teach me to swim? Haha, funny,” he said.

“No really, I will. I’m a qualified learn to swim teacher.”

“Don’t you work in that clothes store?”

“That’s my second job. I do that when I’m not teaching. Come on, if you don’t swim while you’re here, you’ll regret it.” I said to him. He nodded. I stripped off to my bikini and ran into the water. The other four still hadn’t realised I was there. Feeling confident, I went underwater and swam towards them. Louis was the furthest away from the other so I swam to him, and clamped down on his ankle. He jumped up and started paddling away, yelling.

“Shark!!!! Oh my god it’s a shark!!!! Get away, get out!” he yelled to Harry, Niall and Liam. Zany and I laughed in the shallows as I swam back to Zayn.

“You see the fun you can have when you swim?” I asked him once I had calmed down enough to talk. I could see Niall, Louis, Liam and Harry make their way towards us, Louis red-faced. I giggled.

“That. Was. Not. Funny.” Louis said to me. The others laughed.

“Really? Well, everyone else though it was,” I said. “Come on, I’m teaching Zayn to swim. Give me fifteen or twenty minutes, and he’ll join you.” I pulled Zayn in after me. The others went up to the beach to dry off.

………………………..

Liam’s POV

Sarah was teaching Zayn to swim? Zany was actually willing to learn? I shook my head in wonder. This girl was really something special. Harry plonked down next to me.

“She’s something, I’ll give you that,” he said. I smiled, of course she was.

“You do know that nothing can come out of this.” Louis said. “You might really like her, but do you want her to be hounded by the cameras, and be the recipient of hate? She lives on the other side of the world for crying out loud.”

And Louis was right, except: “I can still spend time with her though, can’t I?”

We looked at each other in agreement. There was no harm in that. I looked out to the water, to see Zayn actually swimming. We cheered. Never had we thought this would happen. Sarah gave a little bow as we went down to the water again. Zayn had a grin on his face.

“Who would of thought that Zayn would be swimming in the ocean?” Niall joked.

Sarah got out of the water and stood next to me.

“Thank you,” I said. She looked at me questionably. “For helping Zayn.”

“Oh, gotcha. No biggie really,” she said to me. “Do you want me to show you guys around the island?” she asked. I looked at Louis and gave a ‘don’t even think it’ look. He smiled.

“Nah, I think we’ll just chill by the pool.”

…………………….

Sarah’s POV

Oh shit. Not a good idea Louis. Meg was gonna go nuts. I had to tell them I knew.

“Um, not your best idea Louis,” I said to him. They all looked at me, and I sighed. “Shit, I was hoping not to let on that I know that you’re One freaking Direction, but if you go over to that pool and my sister sees you, the rest of Cairns and Australia will know you guys are here. And I’m guessing you all came over early to not be hounded by the media.” I said to them. “So I suggest you come with me.”

Liam muttered something under his breath, but I was too busy waiting for the others to reply.

Harry thought about it. “Yeah, she’s right I guess. Sorry Liam.” Louis punched Harry in the arm. “What? I thought we were going to leave them alone so Liam could confess his love for her.” He laughed. Liam went and punched him in the arm too.

“Aww, Liam really?” I asked. He looked stuck.

“Well, I uh, um, I ……” he said. I laughed.

“Come on silly, I can always tell. No need.” I said. I started to walk off, smiling to myself.