The entire day we had managed to stay safe and emergency free. It was quite an accomplishment, considering I was certain someone would wipe out on the course. 

Everyone was chilling out around the beach. It was as if our huge clique was split into different, smaller cliques as they stood around and made small talk over nothing important. Most of us were getting a high from being on an actual beach. 

"You know," Liam sighed, making both Niall and I turn our attention toward him, "This summer isn't really all I expected it to be."

I nodded in agreement as I brought my knees up and wrapped my arms around my legs. "Right?" Niall muttered. "We just went dirt biking!"

"I wasn't expecting that, actually." I smiled proudly. 

Liam let out a soft chuckle and stared over at the small crowd consisting of Zayn, Trevor, Louis and Kassidy. "We went to an actual studio and met Little Mix." He added on. 

"Who might one day be chilling with us because all Zayn does is text Perrie." Niall rose his eyebrows. It was true. Texting her didn't take up his life, but he was constantly checking his phone whenever he wasn't having conversations or eating with everyone. At least he had decent texting manners. 

"Not to mention we've met like," I tried to count in my head, but it didn't help, "hella people." Both of them let out snickers at my vocabulary choice and nodded along again. 

"And even though Zayn didn't meet an American girl, you did." I nudged Liam softly. 

He looked up at me with big, confused eyes. It took a moment to register why he looked so upset, but then it clicked. "Lacey? Did you not get her number?"

"Oh my god, was she interested?!" he exclaimed loudly. His hands came to the side of his head and he shook it violently. Words tried to come out of his mouth again, but he was completely baffled. 

"I'm so damn stupid." He finally sputtered out after awhile. 

"Yeah you are." Niall decided to add in his unnecessary comments. The glare I sent him quickly put the message through his head that Liam was already mentally beating himself up enough. 

"Relax. It's Lara's cousin! It won't be impossible to get it." I placed my hand firmly on Liam's shoulder, giving him a small shake. He warmed up a slight smile and gave in. 

"You're right." He admitted. 

"Duh, I'm Dannica. Are you new?" I teased him. 

A proud smirk came over his lips. "I'm actually the one who has been around for the longest." 

"Not true!" Niall quickly jumped in to defend himself. "I've known her for way longer than you have!" he pointed accusingly. 

"That's absolute bull." Liam shook his head in denial. 

"Is not." Niall looked to me for backup, "Right?"

I didn't want to break the news to them, but I had to end this somehow. "Well actually, I met Niall on the playground before school began." Niall made a loud 'HA' towards Liam. "But he kicked sand in my eye and I hated him. And I loved Liam when I met him because he let me use his pink crayon."

It was Liam's turn to 'HA' loudly. "Buuuut, technically Niall was around longer. Just not in the happy Dannica zone." I shrugged. Niall shouted 'HA' once more. 

Liam shook his head, refusing to believe that that counted. "Oh come on Liam. Don't be in denial." I laughed happily. 

"I'm in denial." He stated as a comeback. 

"Why be in denial when da Niall can be in you?" I pinched his cheek. Both boys sucked in their breath, shrieking in horror. 

"That has got to be the gayest and most vulgar thing I've ever heard." Niall covered his mouth with his fingers like a girl. Liam rubbed his temples harshly, trying to comprehend why those words came out of my mouth. 

"Definitely not the most vulgar, but I wasn't expecting it." Liam mumbled in reply to Niall. I erupted into giggles, which must have been contagious because the eventually joined in. 

"Hey Liam. Niall!" Riley called for them. They got up quickly and ran toward them. There was another group of boys around them, none that I'd ever seen. They were probably from around the beach. 

"We wanted to see if you guys were up for a game of beach football?" One of the strangers asked. 

Niall and Liam high fived each other, both clearly excited to play. "On the beach? Won't that be a little rough?" Niall asked, pretending to kick around a football with his feet. 

Another one of the unknown boys tossed a pointed ball towards them and Riley caught it. "Oh yeah, you guys called soccer, football."

"Oh yeah, you guys call football, soccer." Liam scoffed in reply, "You don't even play American football with your feet." 

The other boys stared at them, but shook their heads and teamed up. Riley, Zayn, Niall, and two other guys were on one side. Louis, Harry, Liam, Trevor and another made up the opposing team. 

It was hard to choose between who would do better, Louis or Niall's team. They were both very competitive. Then again, they hardly knew how to play American football. "Tackle?" one of the boys asked loudly. Riley nodded yes. 

The boys marked their goals in the sand. I watched intently as I walked over to join the other girls. "This should be interesting." Sam took the words straight out of my mouth. 

We watched at the boys slowly fumbled, not completely getting the hang of it at first. They'd keep getting tackled as they ran with the ball. Or one of them would throw it and the other boys would intercept it. Not them though- they sucked. 

In all honesty though, Mima, Sam, Lara, Aurora and I were actually staring at Louis butt. It was just so perky and looked completely squeezable. Especially when he was wearing his swimming pants. 

"I mean I don't want Louis, but can I at least have that ass?" Sam's eyebrows came together as she eyed his bum longingly. 

"I'm fine with that. As long as you let me touch it, in a complete friend way." I approved of her wish for it. 

"Agreed." Aurora nodded promptly, once. Lara looked between us all and growled. 

"Hands off the merchandise." 

I had to admit- I liked seeing Lara actually show emotion towards Louis. 

We all giggled together excitedly. "I wish Niall had a booty like that. That would make Mima a happy girl." Marina added on. 

All of our eyes shifted to seek Niall's bum. He sure wasn't as glorious, but there was sand all over it. Surely, that drove all of us crazy. "Is anyone else resisting the urge to wipe it off?" I asked. 

"Yup." Aurora seethed through her teeth. 

"Niall!" Marina called out. She was going to tell him to wipe it off. She wasn't afraid to tell him that if it was bothering her. 

He caught the ball, thrown from Zayn. There was a wide and clueless smile as he turned his head to look at all of us. "Yeah?" he stood there grinning. 

"Wait, turn around!" Marina screeched as she saw the boy running straight for him. He was paying no attention, giving the other team full advantage over Niall. 

Niall caught on slowly but surely. As he faced forward again, one of the unknown boys slammed his body into Niall's with what looked like full force. Sure, they were boys and boys mess around, but it almost seemed like too much. 

I covered my mouth in shock as Niall flew down onto the sand, his head slamming against the ground harshly. The ball slipped from his grip and everyone ran over instantly. 

Marina grabbed his head as she knelt to her knees. His eyelids were shut and his body was completely unconscious. "God damnit!" Liam growled at the boy. 

"Liam!" Aurora screeched, "We agreed no more aggression between you boys this summer." She mentioned the mass amounts of times the boys had tried to pick fights while they were here. 

"Oh my god, who cares?" Marina squealed, tears forming in her eyes. 

"Will somebody fucking call 999?!" I shouted amongst the talk. We needed to get Niall some medical attention ASAP. 

"Dannica, don't curse." Harry softly urged me. 

"What the fuck is 999 you British freak?!" Lara screamed back at me, clearly as freaked out as me. 

"What do you think?!" 

"It's 911 in America, damnit!"

"Obviously you know what I meant!" I wasn't sure why we were screaming at each other over a phone number. We were probably both panicked. That was probably why Harry was so uptight about me swearing. 

She ran for the house where all of our cellphones were. After a minute she was running down the path again, sand spewing everywhere with each step. "They're coming!" she panted, out of breath. 

I grabbed Niall's unconscious hand out of habit. He was going to be fine, and I had to keep reminding myself. It helped that Harry was whispering in my ear and rubbing my side soothingly with his fingers. 

"He's okay baby. They're coming. Everything going to be alright." His voice was calm. "You know Niall. He's going to laugh it off tomorrow. Just breathe, baby."

The ambulance sirens were within hearing distance and I could feel my heartbeat quicken. Soon there were men with a stretcher, placing Niall on it and pulling him away. 

Marina traced closely behind, still holding his head between her small hands as they rushed away. There was a bigger crowd surrounding us- people only get interested in injuries when the ambulance shows up, I guess.

"We'll take a rental car down there." I inform Lara. Her, Zayn, Trevor, Aurora and Louis go into the ambulance with them on the way to the hospital. 

The rest of us raced into the house. Riley ran along behind us with Kassidy. "I'll text you what happens." I turned to Riley. Harry grunted and yanked my arm out the front door. Liam grabbed the keys and hopped into the front seat. 

"Oh my god this isn't the drivers seat." Liam came to realization that the cars out here were backwards. Harry quickly went into the drivers side and Liam handed him the keys. 

Sam scooted as close to me as possible in the backseat. We nervously sobbed and fidgeted. Out of everyone here, why did it have to be the happiest and silliest of the bunch to be rushed to the hospital?

Niall was nothing but a joking ball of sunshine and happiness. He didn't deserve this in the slightest. "Oh my god Harry wrong lane!" Liam shouted at the top of his lungs. 

"What the hell!" Harry honked his horn as he swerved into the right lane- which happened to be the literal right lane. I covered my eyes and whimpered, scared of everything that was going on right now. 

The 8 of us were sitting impatiently in the waiting room. Louis had gone outside around 10 minutes ago. We had been waiting for an hour. 

"I'm going to check on Louis." I mumbled ask stood up. 

"Me too." Harry attempted to follow me. 

"No." I shook my head and continued to walk away. At the other end of the hospital building, Louis was standing alone. I knew he was smoking right now. 

Quickly, I power walked over to him. From a few feet away he noticed me approaching and turned away a bit. 

"Hi Lou." I whispered. 

He didn't respond. I watched as he pulled his cigarette up, taking one long drag. With the top of his wrist he wiped at his cheek, the cigarette pointing away. 

"Are you crying?" I asked him cautiously. 

He shook his head and looked down. I took another step closer. There were definitely tears leaving his eyes- noticeable even in this darkness. "Louis, he's going to be alright. It's okay." I wiped his cheek with my thumb. 

"I know he is. It's just.. girl problems." He shrugged me off. He still faced the other way as he took another drag. I watched the smoke quickly and forcefully leave his lips. 

"You wouldn't be crying over a girl while Niall's in the hospital." I shook my head in denial. 

He slowly looked at me, another tear leaving his eye. It was so hard to watch him cry. He never did. "What's going on?" I grabbed a piece of his bangs and pushed his hair back. 

"God I'm such a wuss," he flicked his cig on the floor and stomped out the light. His hands rubbed away the tears and he looked straight into my eyes. "It's Harry."

"Oh no."

"I mean, his mum."

"What?" my lips hardly opened. 

"His mum is," he shook his head and looked away, "she's out of prison."

"Does he know?" I dreaded the words coming out of his mouth. 

"Hell no!" he snapped at me. "Oh god no, I wouldn't tell him." He sobbed. I opened my arms out wide and he unusually accepted the hug, tucking his face in the nape of my neck. "Fuck." He murmured, stretching out the u sound. 

After our long hug we made our way back into the waiting room. Niall was standing next to Marina in front of our crowd of friends. "It was just a minor concussion." Mima explained to them. 

"We just need antibiotics, ice packs for his head and to let him get some rest." She was very proud as she spoke. She was probably just most relieved that she wasn't responsible for the death of him tonight.

~~~

:) it's :) 3 :) am :) I'm :) fucking :) tired :) but :) I :) couldn't :) stop :) writing :)

Plus I just wrote a whole essay for a summer assignment that's due Monday yaaaaay :)

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July 12, 2014
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