Golden.

“Lia, my watch.” I followed her down the hallway. She handed it to me and rolled her eyes. Then he looked at Zayn with her big eyes.

“You’re really cute,” she said. “I like you.” She grabbed hold of his hand and walked down with him.

Zayn looked down at her and laughed. “Thank you, Lia. You’re cute and I like you too.”

Niall slowed down his pace so he could walk beside me. “Did you get it?” he whispered.

I looked at him. “The date? Not yet. I’m going to try again tonight. I mean, how could I? You guys ruined my moment!”

“No!” Niall said, looking at me seriously. “I meant, did you get my food?”

I rolled my eyes and laughed. I put my arm around his neck and ruffled his hair. Gotta love Niall and his love for food.

- -

Lia hung out with us the entire afternoon. We took her outside and taught her how to play volleyball and soccer. Niall was doing most of the demonstrating, considering he was probably the sportiest among us all.

It was a fun time. Especially not having to experience Lia’s meddling side. The sun was bright and shining, and the breeze was really cool. I will never not love the beach. Especially because it’s always so cold back at home. It’s nice to have a change of atmosphere sometimes. Like with the management. I mean the people. Haha.

Liam brought us some shakes from the bar as we were sitting down by the shore. Lia was piggy-back riding on Louis. “How old are you?” she asked.

“Twenteen,” Louis replied proudly.

She laughed. “There’s no such thing!”

“Yes there is!” Louis said as he ran to the deeper end of the water, still carrying her on his back.

She screamed and laughed as he dropped her into the water. Louis has always been good with kids. He always makes friends with them really quickly, as if he had already known them for years.

There were a whole bunch of surfers who suddenly splashed us as they skidded across the water, trying to show off whatever skills I doubt they even had.

“Hey!” I said, holding my drink up to keep the saltwater from getting in.

They all laughed and swam away on their surfboards. Louis had to scoop Lia from the water to keep her from getting hit by the surfers. He walked over to us, constantly taking glances at the surfers. He put down Lia beside me. She took a sip of my drink.

“Can you say, ‘1,000 in the douchebag jar, please’?”he said, squinting at them.

“Nevermind them,” Daddy Direction assured us. “So Lia,” he turned to her, changing the subject. “Do you and your family live here?”

She gave back my drink. “Yup, we live in the Manor.”

Everyone’s eyes grew.

“You must be really rich!” Niall exclaimed, probably thinking about how much food you can buy with all that money.

“Well…” Lia’s voice paused as someone approached us.

“Hey guys.” I turned around to find Cassandra standing in a big Ramones t-shirt and shorts.

She took off her aviators so we could see her better. And immediately, I liked her even more because of how modest she was. Even at the beach! I mean, normally, you’d see all these teenage girls in skimpy bikinis, but Cassandra stood their in her big Ramones shirt and shorts. It was still appropriate beach attire after all.

“You like the Ramones?” I said immediately.

She took a seat beside me. “Oh, yeah. Huge fan.” She smiled.

“I have the exact same shirt.” I gave her a smile.

“Come on, you two, share the conversation!” Louis said, as we all laughed and sat down in a circle. We played these fun getting-to-know-you games that we used to play back at X-Factor before One Direction was even formed. We spent about an hour or two in that same spot, laughing our heads off and becoming good friends immediately. I love how it seems so easy for us to make friends.
It was getting dark and we stood up to leave.

“You want to get a drink?” I suddenly asked Cassandra. I swear, I don’t know what came over me. Maybe the fact that I spent so much time already with her in one day, made things seem more comfortable now.

She smiled. “Sure.” Then she headed over to the bar nearby.

I motioned to the guys and gave them a wave. “Imma catch up later guys!” I winked.

Liam paused and jogged over to me. “Whatever you do, don’t bring her back drunk. Or else there’ll be a bonfire waiting for you back at the room. Guess who the main dish is.”

I laughed. “They’re non-alcoholic drinks. You can trust me.” I shot him the most innocent grin I had. He smiled and patted my shoulder.

“Good luck, mate.”

Louis came up to me next and slapped me right across the face.

I gaped at him. “What in the world was that for?!”

“For future reference.” His face was serious. Then he smiled and gave me a quick playful kiss on the cheek. I wiped my cheek as he laughed and ran away. Oh, cheeky Louis. See, it rhymes too.

“Join us for dinner, ayt, mate?” Niall called out. I nodded. Then the rest of the lads, along with Lia, walked back to the manor.

Cassandra was seated down by the bar when I arrived. She smiled at me when I sat down beside her. She had such a sweet, geniune smile that lit up her entire face.

“You’re all pretty close, aren’t you?”

“Me and the lads? Oh yeah, we’re best friends.”

“I can tell!” she laughed. “How did you guys meet?”

“Hey, Cass.” I looked up to see the surfer guy who splashed us a while ago. It was bittersweet to see him, actually. He’s a douche and I really didn’t want to have anything to do with him, but then again, he saved me from having to tell Cassandra about One Direction.

“Hi, Alex,” she said, giving him a small smile.

He looked at me and laughed. “Hey, Curly!”

Cassandra looked at me blankly. “Sorry about that a while ago, yeah?” he said nonchalantly. “Just having a little fun, you know.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you were.”

“Alex, this is my friend, Harry. Harry, this is, my uh, this is Alex,” Cassandra said hesitantly.

I was a friend, that’s a start, I guess. I mean, I’ve only really known her for a day, so I’d have to say that’s a pretty good start. But what was up when she introduced me to Alex?

“Alex!” Someone called out. He turned around and waved to his friend.

“I gotta go,” he said. “See you later, Cass.” Then he gave her a wink. “Bye, Curly.”

“It’s Harry.” But he had already started running to his friend and they both left.

“He and I used to have this thing,” Cassandra told me immediately. She took a sip from a drink. She didn’t look at me at all while she was saying it. “It wasn’t a boyfriend-girlfriend thing. Not at all,” she said quickly, as if assuring me. “We just liked each other for a while. Then I made sure he got the hint. That I didn’t like him anymore.”

I chuckled. “I don’t think you did a very good job.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Immediately, I read the hurt and shock across her beautiful face. Yes, I said beautiful because even when she looekd insulted and surprised, she looked absolutely stunning and I couldn’t even bring myself to words. And then I remembered that I had offended her.

“Oh, God, I didn’t mean that to be offensive at all.” I looked deeply into her eyes. “It’s just that…He seems to still really like you.”

She gaped at me and pushed her hair out of her face. “Seriously? I thought I already gave that boy a run for his money! Guys are so weird.”

I laughed. “It’s ironic that you, a girl, are saying that right now. Well, we lads, sometimes we won’t get the hint until you tell us directly. Never assume.” I gave her a wink.

She laughed. “And I can’t believe you’re giving me advice about guys!”

“Do I look that unlikely to say that?” I asked, giving her a big grin.

“No.” She smiled sweetly at me. “Well, I’m not going to assume that you’re NOT trying to ask me out. Because I know you will. So I’m going to tell you directly: yes.”

This girl is unbelievable. In a good way. The best way possible, in fact. I was liking her far more than I expected myself to. I flashed her a smile. “I’m pretty positive that you got my advice completely backwards but thank you. You made things so much easier.”

Then we both shared a laugh and talked until time passed us by and the night grew deeper.