Last Girl Standing

"Don't you have anything to wear?"

Haley groaned out in desperation, ransacking the suitcase she never bothered unpacking as Aurora glanced at her nervously.

"No! What the hell does cool casual mean anyway?"

Aurora looked almost as distraught as Haley did, but for very different reasons.

"I'm sorry, I wish I could lend you something."

Haley shook her head, finally admitting defeat against her non-cool casual (whatever that meant) wardrobe.

"No, it's fine. Don't worry about it."

With one final breath of frustration, the brunette decided that whatever the fuck 'cool casual' was, it wasn't red shorts and yet another band shirt.

The two groups and Tanisha were already on the beach waiting for Aurora and Haley when she finally managed to hobble over.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen. I'm glad everyone made it fairly on time." The hostess wasted no time starting off the evening. "As always, the winner of the challenge gets to pick the dates. Niall?"

The blond nodded, his eyes looking over the girls.

"Harry and Sadie, o' course. Louis and Haley."

Oh, balls.

Even though Harry was paired with his girl, he still looked miffed with Niall's choice for Louis. But Haley knew the Irish boy's reasons for pairing them had to do with the previous week's challenge.

"Liam and Kassandra."

The blond girl beside Haley huffed in annoyance, crossing her arms over her chest. Haley was sort of glad Niall didn't chose her, she didn't like Jenna all that much.

"Zayn can have Abelia, and I want October."

A quiet murmur rippled through the girls after all the boys had received their dates. Haley shuffled her bandaged foot through the sand gently, not daring to take her eyes off of it.

"I'm so excited for you," Aurora gushed quietly to Haley, earning a displeased glare.

"Why?"

"You and Louis look so cute together. When you actually are."

"Did you not see what happened earlier today?"

Aurora pulled back slightly, wincing. "Well, I mean-"

"Okay, girls. You'll have enough time to chitchat later during the date. For now, I'll tell you what's going to happen. The dates will be having a barbecue dinner on the beach, followed by getting together with a bonfire. Make some s'mores, get to know the other girls and boys and have fun, contestants." Tanisha smiled.

All of the respective couples clapped, save for Haley as the rest of the contestants went back to the house.

Aurora squeezed the brunette's shoulder one final time before leaving.

"So," a soft British accent caused her to whip her head back up.

There was Louis, hands in the pockets of his tan trousers, biting his lower lip with an innocent expression on his face. Waiting as everyone else made their way to the barbecue.

Haley wanted to explode.

"Don't talk to me."

Louis sighed. "I wanted to know how your foot was doing."

Haley wasn't even thinking about her foot. She was thinking about Louis. Well, not specifically. She would never give the boy that much credit. But she was hung up about what he had done during the previous challenge.

"It's fine."

He kept his pace annoyingly slow to be in stride with her.

"I uh- I really liked your truth and dare during the challenge. Liam's was a good laugh."

"I really liked yours too." Louis smiled, thinking he was getting somewhere. "You really got a reaction out of everyone. Harry especially."

The pair reached the barbecue wearing matching frowns and didn't bother to strike up any conversation like the rest of the couples throughout their whole meal. Not that anyone else took notice.

The sun had just started setting when all of the food was finished off, and Haley watched as Liam lit the huge pile of wood alight, bringing grins to everyone's face.

Her own grin quickly subsided when she caught Louis watching her. Licking her lips, Haley sat down on one of the wooden benches, keeping her eyes everywhere but on Louis. Niall had magically managed to produce a fancy acoustic guitar and was strumming along quietly with October looking on. Harry was smiling at Sadie, Liam and Kassandra were chatting it up and Abelia and Zayn were both quiet.

A half hour later, the sun was almost fully submerged in the ocean, the beer was flowing and Niall was strumming his guitar full force, in between sips of his own drink. The small conversations had died down, replaced with all five boys singing and a couple of girls who dared try to compete with their voices. Haley wasn't one for music past 1989, but she knew she could get used to the boys' harmonies real fast.

"So, what made all you girls decide to join?" Harry finally asked after a while.

There was a giggle from everyone.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"We're looking for love too," October supplied shamelessly.

All the other girls agreed, and then Harry's eyes flashed to Haley's. In a second, she wished she had nodded along.

"What about you?" His green eyes bore through her own, voice condescending.

In a flash, Haley was taken back to that night.

"Chase, no. What're you doing? Shea's coming right- this isn't funny!"

"Shh, Hay. Shea's gone."

His lips pressed against her own and she had almost given in, until the front door slammed and Haley ripped herself from her friend.

The look on her older sister's face broke her heart, and she wished she had never gone through with her plan, had never even gone over the house in the first place.

Shea Hart was absolutely devastated, and there was nothing Haley could do about it. It was her fault.

"I knew it," the older Hart spit venomously, tears collecting in her eyes.

Haley's mouth dropped. "Knew what?"

"I knew you had a thing for Chase. God, how was I so stupid?! Why the hell did you ever introduce us, you bitch!?"

"Shea, no! It's not like that!"

"Bullshit!"

With a sigh, the brunette pulled herself from the memory.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Harry snorted. "Of course."

"Hey, lay off yeah?" Louis growled, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Why are you always stickin' up for her?" Harry shot back. "Someone who actually wanted to be here could still be if it weren't for her."

"If she doesn't want to talk about it, she doesn't want to talk about it, mate."

Haley was just about to shrug Louis' hand off of her shoulder, tell him to let it go himself, but Niall strummed his guitar loudly to grab everyone's attention.

"Let's sing some more, yeah?"

"Oi, let's do the one we've been practicin', Ni." Louis offered, abandoning his spot next to Haley to sit with his bandmate.

Niall's face lit up as he stuck the guitar pick between his lips and started plucking the first few notes out with his fingers.

Haley immediately froze, her cheeks went up in flames, and she couldn't look anywhere but down.

"I took my love and I took it down," Louis began.

Haley dared a glance up.

"I climbed a mountain and I turned around."

Sadie was looking at Harry with a small smile.

"And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills."

Harry was looking at Haley intently, gauging her reaction.

"'Til the landslide brought me down."

Haley didn't want to know who Louis was focused on.

"Oh mirror in the sky, what is love?"

He had actually listened.

Without a second thought, Haley was up and hopping away as fast as she could from the bonfire, wanting the darkness to swallow her up.

Niall had stopped strumming.

A cameraman was hot on her tail.

And Louis' voice was calling out after her.

"Hay!"

"Don't call me that!"

"Hay-"

"I said don't call me that!" Haley hissed.

"No, listen!" Louis grabbed her arm, so tightly that if she tried to pull away, he would have left a mark.

"Do you think I would have let Sadie go so easily if I wasn't interested in someone else?"

His eyes were soft but determined, pleading. Haley gulped, having a hard time meeting them with her own.

"Yeah, Sadie and how many other girls?" She snapped, biting back the strain from her voice.

Louis finally let her arm go.

"You're impossible."

"Yeah? And you're easy."

It wasn't that she was in love with Louis Tomlinson or anything (she was far from it), and that he broke her heart. She just didn't want to be second. Or third. No one did.

She wanted to be first for once.