Dear Santa.

I knew full well that I had a shocked expression painted onto my face, but how could I not? I was standing here in a small country side town with most of One Direction, and had hugged them which only ever really happened in my dreams though I knew I was wide awake this time. But then Liam showed up and I suddenly remembered waking up in his bed this morning, the awkwardness was obvious between us as we both gave each other a short hug.

Turning around when Harry unlocked the trunk of his car, he pulled out his own bag along with Olive’s before handing mine over to me so we could head into the old building where it would be warm. I made sure to walk with Olive as I still had no idea what was actually going on, suddenly we knew one of the biggest boy bands that was around currently.

I smiled when the blonde Irishman held open the front door for everyone before I held back in the beautiful foyer, I did have a passion for architecture especially with older more historic buildings that you could find easily in England and it was even better when the interior stayed in the older theme because it brought out the elegance.

I was busy taking in the foyer and it’s beauty that I hadn’t realised that Zayn and Liam had gotten the room keys from the lady at the reception desk, I carried my bag in my hand when Zayn motioned for everyone to follow him towards the rooms. We passed a restaurant and bar on the way down the hallway before we walked up a flight of stairs to other hallway, it was easy to find the rooms which were all beside each other.

“Alright Haz is with Olive, I’ll take a room with Louis when he gets here. Liam and Niall will share with Stella, the lady said the room was a pull out futon. Is that alright with you Stella?” Zayn asked as his dark brown eyes focused on me, along with everyone else as I nodded my head because I least I’d have Niall there with me.

“Yeah that’s fine” I smiled as Niall was already unlocking and opening the door to our room, Liam being the sweet guy that he is allowed me to walk into the stunning room behind he did. I just wouldn’t spend as much time with Liam, I wasn’t going to let myself ruin this trip for everyone just because Liam and I had a bad start.

“You two take the beds, I’ll take the futon” Liam announced which instantly made me feel horrible, futons were never as comfortable as an actual bed and if I hadn’t come along. But the look of determination that he had on his handsome face told me that he wasn’t going to change his mind, and that he didn’t even care about sleeping on a pull out futon.

“Are you sure, mate? Let’s get ourselves unpacked and then we can go get something to eat, I was starving the whole drive here” Niall spoke in his Irish accent as Liam nodded his head to his friend’s question, I set my bag down onto the bed that I had chosen for myself and pulled the zip open.

I noticed that both Niall and Liam were also unpacking their bags, firstly I decided to hang up any clothes that needed to be in the closet. There was a dark wooden dresser beside the closet which I took the top two drawers for all my other clothes, I left the guys to work out the rest of the dressers draws as I carried my toiletries bag into the nice and slightly more modern bathroom where I placed all my products on one side of the sink knowing I probably packed more than anyone else on this holiday.

“You don’t even remember me, do you? I can see it in your eyes that you don’t, did I really not mean anything to you Stella? I tried to call you numerous times and I never heard back from you, you could have at least told me that you weren’t interested” Liam said to me as he walked into the bathroom with his own bag of toiletries, I looked at him as confused not only covered my face but also my mind.

“Excuse me? I’ve never seen you before this morning, I have no idea what you’re talking about Liam” I told him honestly because there was no way he could have gotten my number, although I did only get a new number at the start of the month as I had lost my phone so right now I was using Olive’s old phone as I couldn’t afford a new phone right now.

“The bar that we met in over a month ago, you were on a horrible date and I was out with a friend. We started talking and at least I thought we had hit it off, we exchanged numbers and then I got nothing from you” He said looking at me with those warm dark brown eyes that I had always admired, I was speechless as I simply stood there and stared at him like an idiot.

“Guys, are you ready yet? Everyone’s going to meet us downstairs at the restaurant, the reception lady said the restaurant is only open for lunch today so we’ll have to go find somewhere else for dinner but that’s fine. Let’s go” Niall’s voice was my saviour as I didn’t have to answer Liam, I still didn’t know what he was talking about but he seemed certain that I had met him before.

I walked out of the bathroom after Liam as we headed over to Niall who was already holding the door to our room open, I saw that Zayn was waiting with Harry and Olive who seriously was the cutest couple that I have ever seen.

“Stell, what’s wrong?” Olive asked as we all began walking through the hallway towards the stairs but she had pulled me back so we could talk, I wasn’t even sure what to tell her but considering that we were in the same situation we needed to work together to figure this out.

“Apparently Liam and I met in a bar over a month ago, we exchanged numbers and he tried to call me. Liam Payne tried to call me but I don’t remember any of it, I don’t remember even meeting him” I explained quietly to my best friend knowing she was feeling just as confused about all of this, we really needed to work out what had happened to us.

“All that you did last month was lose your phone, don’t worry about it Stella. We’ll figure this out, just tell him that you don’t remember” Olive told me which was really the only thing that I could do, though it was obvious that Liam wasn’t happy with me and that wasn’t a good feeling.

I just nodded my head lightly as we followed the guys down the stairs and into the restaurant that held a few more people that were also staying at the hotel, we were taken to a table where I sat in between Olive and Zayn.

“This place looks like it’s going to be amazing for our holiday, I’ve been waiting for this for months” Harry smiled in his usual charming way which showed off the dimples that had all the girls falling for him, though it was obvious that Olive was the only girl who had his full attention.

As the six of us looked through the menu and decided on what we wanted, Niall waved the waitress over to the table as he was starting to complain about how hungry he was getting. So once we had ordered our meals and drinks the waitress walked to the kitchen to put our orders in, it was only a few minutes before she was back carrying a tray of our drinks.

“So Olive told us that you two have been friends since kindergarten, that’s a long time. And she told us that you’re studying to become a teacher, do you know what a teacher for?” Niall asked as we all thanked the waitress for the drinks, I took a sip of my diet coke before I went to answer.

“All of that’s true, I hope she hasn’t been telling you anything bad about me. I’m focusing on becoming a primary school teacher, hopefully the first or second grade” I smiled warmly at the blonde who instantly made me feel welcomed and like they all actually wanted me there, I had been beginning to feel like I was just tagging along because Olive had forgotten to tell me.

“I can see you being a really good teacher, you just have that nature about you” Liam said as his eyes locked onto mine and suddenly I couldn’t look away from him, not that I wanted to of course as I was still trying to get over that I was on a holiday with One Direction. That was something that was never meant to happen to me.

“It’s a good thing that you two wanted an adventure, otherwise neither of you would have moved to London and I never would have met the most beautiful woman in the world” Harry smiled as he leaned over to his girlfriend and kissed her cheek, it was obvious to me at least that Olive hadn’t wrapped her mind around this either.

“Thank you, Liam. And I want to thank the rest of you for letting me come with you, I know that you didn’t need to and that it would have been a surprise seeing as Harry asked me to come along” I said sincerely as I felt like I should do something as a thank you, I would have brought lunch or dinner for everyone but I didn’t have the money for that.

“I’ve been thinking for dinner, we could head straight over to the market that we drove past on the way in and stock up on food. We could all hang out in someone’s room and have a Christmas feast of our own” Zayn suggested in his thick Bradford accent that I would have said I liked, if it weren’t for all the guys accents and my love of accents.

“That sounds like a good plan, but are you lot really starting lunch without me? I’m really hurt” Louis’ voice sounded as he walked over to the table where a chair was free and Liam had already ordered for his friend, it was Niall who announced my presence once Louis had finished giving Olive a tight hug and now I had been expecting to receive a hug which Louis gave me straight after.

“It’s nice to finally meet you Louis, it appears that Olive likes to keep her friends apart and to herself” I smiled widely at my best friend knowing that wasn’t the case at all, but at least I’d be able to tease her about it for the time being.

“Dude, sit down. Stella was just telling us about herself and you’re ruining it” Niall told Louis rather sharply as he had leaned himself forward in his chair, his forearms resting against the cloth covered table with this look of pure interest and excitement on his handsome face which made me feel so much better about joining the group on their holiday.

“I know everyone’s excited about Stella, but how about we give her a little break. I’m sure she doesn’t want to have question and question fired at her” Liam came to save the day as it was obvious Niall was silently getting ready to ask questions non-stop, which I didn’t blame him for because I would have done the exact same thing if I hadn’t known the guys and Olive did.