A/N I do not own either of the songs featured in this chapter.
Niall's POV
We pulled up to the beach about 10 minutes later, all of us pulling off our shoes and socks and leaving them in the car. The boys and I had all decided that, after a long two weeks of recording, concerts and interviews, we really needed to blow off some steam. We had spent two hours kicking around ideas before I suggested having a bonfire. I couldn't help but be a little proud of my brilliant idea. Usually Louis is the one coming up with fun things for us to do. But this time it was all me. We had decided to keep it small though, just the five of us, Liam's girlfriend Danielle, Louis' girlfriend Eleanor, Zayn's girlfriend Perrie and Stella. Harry had said that he might bring someone, but he was already there and I didn't see anyone I didn't know. Dammit. We had brought Liam's iHome, which looked like an old school boombox, and I had made a party play list. We also had massive amounts of alcohol and food, but I wasn't really hungry. Yeah that's right, I, Niall James Horan, was NOT hungry. I was too nervous to eat. I walked over to the iHome and plugged in my iPhone, selecting the play list and turning it up, just loud enough for us all to hear but not too loud so that we could also talk and hang out. The fire was already raging when we got there and it looked as if the boys had found some giant logs for us to us as benches. There were five of them circled around the fire and they were all just big enough to fit two, maybe three people on. It looked pretty awesome, I had to admit.
“Hey Nialler!” Harry calls over to me from a log across the fire as “I Like It Like That” by Hot Chelle Rae starts playing.
“Hey Haz!” I call back. I noticed someone sitting next to him, someone I hadn't seen a few minutes ago. But it wasn't a girl, like I thought it would be. It was Josh our drummer. And they were sitting particularly close to each other. I might have to ask him about that one later. I walked around the fire, saying hey to the other boys and their girlfriends before grabbing a beer and plopping myself down on an empty log, turning my eyes to watch as Zayn introduced Stella to everyone. She looked nervous, biting her lip and giving everyone shy awkward smiles. I wished she would stop biting her lip like that. It was really starting to get to me. Like really turning me on. I took a long sip of my beer, trying to distract myself from her adorable face and smoking hot body, but had no such luck.
“Um can I..... uh, can I sit here?” Fuck. It was HER. And she was talking to ME. 'What do I do? OK calm down Niall. She's just a girl. You can do this. You've talked to plenty of girls before, this shouldn't really be that hard. Just open your mouth and use your big boy words.' I told myself.
“Yeah.” I croaked out. Smooth, Niall. Real smooth. She sat down next to me, close enough for me to smell her hair. Lavender and vanilla. Holy shit did it smell amazing. I kept my eyes on the raging fire and she did the same. “Are you... Um, do you want a drink or something?” I asked her, watching her out of the corner of my eye. She nodded.
“Sure.” She said simply. I reached over for the cooler, conveniently sitting right next to me and pulled out a beer. I looked down at the bottle to see what it was. Stella. How ironic. I chuckled a little bit and she turned to smile at me, confused.
“I swear I didn't do this on purpose.” I laughed as I showed her the bottle. She read it and laughed too. I pulled my bottle opener out of my pocket and opened it for her, handing it to her carefully so as not to spill it. She took a sip and then turned back to me smiling.
“So do you like being in a band?” she asked me. Small talk. OK I can do this.
“Yeah. It's great. I love it.” I nodded, taking another swig of beer. Her fingernails dug at the label on her bottle nervously as she bit her lip again.
