That One Thing

Chapter 16

*Saba's POV*

After everyone finished singing we decided to just go walk around the city and see what we might find to do. We walked along the streets in the late afternoon sun, just kind of meandering along not really headed anywhere. We ended up by the water and came across a little playground. There was a super high, long slide that looked a little precarious to me but of course with one look at it Tatum ran over and started climbing the ladder up to it. All the boys quickly followed suit climbing up after her. Penelope and I hung back but after watching Tatum go down we joined in as well. I climbed up just fine and slid down, at the bottom i flew off the end into the sand. I lay there for a second just thinking about the oddness of the situation before standing up. Just in time to see Penelope lose her footing on the top rung and fall backward into the sand. Like I said the slide was actually very high, probably about 10 ft, and she fell all the way down into the sand. I jumped up, oooo crap! We all ran over to her. She lay in the sand not moving. "OHMIGOSH ARE YOU--" I started to yell, but was cut off when she stuck up her hand at me to stop. She sat up very slowly and started only breathing out. Can she not breathe!? Omg what do we do! We looked nervously at each other. "Are you okay...?" Harry asked, concerned. She still didn't answer. That was worrying. Why wasn't she talking to Harry? "TALK TO US!!" I yelled. 'I can't!' she mouthed. "What you can't talk?" how do you not be able to talk because you fell off a slide? "Oooooh!" Said Tatum, who until then had been very quite, "She's been winded!" Right okay that makes sense. She nodded her head and kept breathing out. This is very weird... "Your freaking me out! Breath already!" She gave me withering look. "She can't. The fall shocked her muscles and now they have seized, for a while she can only breath out." Zayn suddenly said. "Oh... so now what?" Penelope waved a hand signaling us to go away. "Umm not likely!" Tatum said and sat down. So I sat down as well, as did the boys. We all sat in a circle with Penelope in the middle. After what seemed like forever but was probably only 30 seconds she started breathing properly again. "That was scary..." she whispered. 'Ya don't say!" I replied. We all started to stand up, except she only fell over again. "Owwwww" she complained. "Uh oh... what?" Tatum asked. "I think I turned my ankle over..." she said quietly still. I looked down at her ankle. Poking out above her converse was swelling up and turning into a bruise. "Can you stand?" Louis asked. "Errmmm" she tried again and fell again, "No, I cannot" Tatum stuck her hand out and pulled Penelope up so she didn't have to put weight on her foot. "You can't walk anywhere now!" Harry said. "Yes I can! Lets keep walking! It'll just have to be a little slower," She looked sheepish, "Alrighty, Tatum we've done this before! Lets go!" And she started hobbling along with Tatum supporting her. They were slow but we kept walking and started talking about the crazy rumors people have made up about them. "Once, people started tweeting about a "Larry Stylinson" sex tape! That was quite weird..." Louis said. I laughed "It was an April Fools joke you nut! The twitter directioners organized it!" He looked surprised, "Huh well it will be interesting getting the inside scoop on our fanbase!" Tatum proceeded then to tell him about how there were certain fans nobody liked because they started false rumors. They laughed and I told them they had to be careful of Directionators because they were pretend fans. They kept laughing and we didn't even notice that Tatum and Penelope had lagged so much behind until Tatum yelled "Wait up! Cripples are slow!" I laughed. "Right," Harry said, "This isn't working!" He walked quickly over to Tatum and Penelope and scooped her up into his arms like a baby! Well that should make her day....

*Penelope's POV*

Oh noooo. I can't believe he picked me up! As amazing as it is to be this close to him now he knows how heavy I am... gleep. I can feel my face flush, damn this ankle! Why did I have to twist it?! I sigh, o well might as well make the most of it!

I look over at Tatum who is grinning at me, she winks dramatically at me. I laugh slightly and shake my head. Unfortunately my ponytail hits Harry in the face, causing him to look directly at me. His face is just inches away from mine. Usually if a boy I like even talks to me my brain sort of shuts down. At this proximity I can't even get a thought through my head, Tatum stands behind Harry and waves her hands at me. I break from the trance to see her mouth "KISS HIM" I cannot believe her! I shake my head again. Harry, who is still looking at me, says "What?" "Oh nothing... just Tatum being a nutter!" Woah man that was a coherent sentence! I made sense! Pleased with myself I smiled. And Harry smiled back. Okay there goes me making sense ever again. I very well would kiss him right now if I had the courage! "I'm uh, not too, erm... heavy, am I?" I asked awkwardly. Talking to someone while they walk with you in their arms is sort of difficult. He smiled "Nope! You are most definitely not too heavy!" He didn't seem out of breath or staggering or anything so I took his word for it and shut up. 

We continued walking for a but until we found an ice cream stand. Harry sat me down on a bench and they all walked over to buy the ice creams. I ordered chocolate as always. Saba got vanilla, Tatum got something called Moose Tracks, Niall got mint-chocolate chip, Harry got chocolate as well, Louis got cookie dough, Zayn got vanilla as well and Liam got chocolate chip. I made a mental note, 'My fangirling Twitter follows will enjoy this information' I thought. Am I aloud to still fangirl? Would it be creepy if I fangirled while being friends with them? While I contemplated what being friends with 1D meant to my fangirling life Tatum sat down beside me and handed me my ice cream. "You should have kissed him!" she said, badly masking it with a cough. Right then Harry sat down on my other side. Please say he didn't hear then, or maybe please say he did? I don't know! "Sounds like we are going to walk around for a bit more, and my arms are getting a bit tired so how about a piggy back instead?" I smiled, "Alrighty!" I replied, and started eating my ice cream.

A while later when we were all pretty much done out ice creams I looked up to say something to Tatum she started laughing, "You got a little somethin'..." she said still laughing. "Whaaaat?" I complained. I looked around to everyone else, they snickered as well. Tatum handed me a compact. In the mirror of it I looked and saw what had everyone laughing. My entire mouth area was literally covered in chocolate ice cream. It looked like I had a beard and mustache! I sighed and slapped a hand on my forehead, "Trust me to pick the darkest colour of ice cream and then get it ALL over my face!" They all laughed again. Tatum walked over to the ice cream stand to grab some napkins and I wiped off my lovely chocolate beard. Fabulous. I always find a way to embarrass myself no matter where I am or who I'm with. "And people wonder why I'm socially awkward!" I muttered, "Paaaardon?" Tatum asked. "Ooh nothing..." I replied.

Once the whole chocolate beard fiasco had blown over we resumed our walk down the beach/through the city. I climbed on Harry's back and we were off. We kept walking until we came across an interesting, I don't know what to call it, Hang out place? It had benches and a hollowed out tree and some swings. Everyone sat down in various places. Liam and Saba on a bench, Niall, Tatum and Zayn on the swings. I directed Harry over to the tree. "I wanna look inside!" I said. He walked over to it and set me down. I hopped over and into the tree. It was massive, I couldn't fit my arms around if I tried. The opening in the side was small but opened up into a gap big enough for about 3 people (if they were pretty squished). I hopped to the edge and Harry came in as well. "Well this is cozy!" he said laughing and looked down at me. I really wanted to kiss him. But I just couldn't. So instead I sent him mind messages, 'Kiss me kiss me kiss me kiss ME!' but all he said was "I think you missed some chocolate..." I self-consciously looked down. But when I looked back up his eyes were crinkled in a smile. "Let me get that for you..." he said and leaned to kiss me right on my bottom lip. It wasn't a long or scandalous kiss but it was enough to send my stomach into spirals and my brain into mush. He pulled away slowly looking into my eyes and gaging my reaction. It took all my brain power not to just stare at him with my lips puckered and eyes wide like a fish. I managed a relatively normal smile (I'd like to think) but my eyes were like saucers. He chuckled a bit and smiled. Any of my previous awkwardness melted away and I leaned up and kissed him back. I had never actually kissed a boy before so I just sort of went with it. His lips were warm and moist but nothing like Whelk Boy from ATAFFS. He tasted like strawberries and chocolate ice cream. So basically heaven. He pushed me back against the wall of the tree to kiss me harder, but I lost my footing and accidentally put weight on my bad ankle, causing myself to fall over. "Ouuuch!" I yelled, not as much because it hurt, more to let out my frustration over the terrible timing. Harry crouched down beside me, "I'm sorry! I got a bit carried away," He smiled "Are you alright?" "I'm just dandy," I replied sarcastically. He chuckled and helped me up. Which proved difficult inside a tree with only one good foot. After a couple non-successful tries I was standing again. Having kind of lost the moment I wasn't sure how to get it back. "We better join the others, they might get suspicious," Harry said with a wink. "Okay if we must!" I replied which made him chuckle. Now I just have to think of a way to get him alone again...