Moon Tower

7.

this chapter has been updated. enjoy!xx

"Harry!" I gasped, stumbling my way over to him. I was a little drunk.

I wasn't quite sure how I ended up tipsy. I mean, I understood the mechanics of it: drink alcohol, get buzzed. But I wasn't quite sure how or when I went from one drink to shouting Harry's name and stumbling while trying to reach him, though I do blame a little of that on the sand and the darkness.

***

The night started out relatively normal. The three of us, Niall, Harry, and I, walked over to where a few of my friends were already gathered. When we reached their firepit, everything got a little quiet as they took in the famous friends I had brought with me. Before it could get too awkward, though, I heard a voice call out my name.

"Luz!" the voice shouted. Coming up from the direction of the water was my friend, Brendan. I smiled and met him halfway as he continued walking over to us, throwing a sweatshirt on as he did so.

"Brenda!" I shouted, giving him a bear hug. When we pulled apart, I stepped back and introduced him to Harry and Niall.

"Brenda, these are my friends Harry and Niall. Niall, Harry, this is my friend Brendan." I watched the three of them do that universal guy shake/hug/pat on the back thing.

"It's nice to meet you guys," Brendan said. "Glad you could make it. Listen, I'm gonna go put some music on, but please, help yourself to drinks, snacks, whatever you want. Any friend of Luz is a friend of mine."

"Thanks, Brenda!" I called out to him as he jogged off. Brendan might have acted like he'd never seen Harry or Niall before, but I knew the truth. He had a younger sister who adored One Direction, but I appreciated his effort to keep everything low-key. I turned and faced the boys, who shared a look and then looked at me, both seemingly confused. I ignored the look for now, picking up the blanket I'd dropped to greet Brendan.

"We can set our stuff here and then head over to grab a drink," I told them. We didn't bring much. Harry was holding a second blanket to rest on top of us in case we got cold, and Niall was carrying a football that Brendan had asked me to bring last minute.

"Sorry, I, um, I just," Harry started, with that same quizzical look on his face. "Did you just call him Brenda?" he asked, and Niall nodded like he was wondering the same thing.

"Oh, yeah, I did. I'm not sure how it started, but I've been calling him Brenda since I met him freshman year," I said. "He tried calling me 'light bulb' once because my name means 'light,' but that didn't really stick. He still tries it occasionally, though."

Niall chuckled, but Harry still had questions. "He looks familiar. He wasn't at your house last night and I missed him did I?" I tried to think about where on earth Harry might have seen Brendan, thinking at first that he might just have one of those faces, but then it hit me.

"You saw a picture of us at a school dance," I told him. "In my room on my wall. You made fun of my braces." Harry let out a long, Ohhhh, remembering the tour of my room I gave him.

He frowned, though, in afterthought. "Excuse me, but I distinctly remember saying you looked cute with braces. I did not make fun of you."

"Semantics," I quipped. Niall still looked confused, so I filled him in.

"Was he your date?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. I could tell he was fishing. Niall liked when things came up in conversation about me that he could use to make fun of me later for. "Were you in loooove?"

I shoved Niall in the shoulder. "No, you dork. Neither of us had dates, so we went as friends."

I heard music start to play from a speaker somewhere, an old Drake song. Brendan must have succeeded in his task to turn the music on. A few seconds later Brendan had come back to join us, as we had not moved from the blanket I'd laid out. "Luz, I told you guys you could help yourselves, right?" he asked. "What are you still doing over here?"