Time of Our Lives

*Niall’s POV*

We got back from Vancouver to Washington within the same night. We didn’t make it back into the tour bus to go to sleep until one o’clock. Dakota was fast asleep and Kariann stayed up the whole time to make sure we made it back safe. She soon went to bed after seeing that we were okay. I didn’t know why, but I felt restless. I kept tossing and turning for a half hour before I figured screw it, let’s get something to eat.

I quietly made my way downstairs to the mini fridge of goodies. I squatted down to look inside. I wanted something good, but I wasn’t for sure what yet.

From there, I hear a phone start to vibrate. I looked over to see Dakota’s phone going off. I watched as her hand began to frantically reach up and search for her phone. Her hand finally rested upon and out of habit answered it. “Hello…?” She asked sleepily.

Dakota slowly began to rise out of bed. “Whoa, whoa, Bonnie, calm down. What’s wrong?”

One of her legs were off the couch and exposed as her foot touched the floor. “What- hey! Seriously, Bonnie. You just woke me up at two o’clock in the morning crying and now you’re saying you’re fine. What the hell is going on?”

Dakota rubbed her hand across her face, confused and unsure of what to do. “What should I do?” Dakota asked quietly to herself before looking up.

When her eyes landed on me, they went wide and she brought a hand to her mouth. “Oh, my God. Niall! What the hell are you doing standing in the middle of the bus like a freaking creep!?”

I held up my hands, one holding a bottled water, the other a banana. “I got hungry.”

Dakota grabbed at her chest, trying to calm herself down. She stopped to think for a moment before she came up with an idea. She jumped out of bed, running to me. “Niall! Can you do me, like, the biggest favor a best friend can give?”

I raised an eye at her. “Bonnie, give me a few minutes. I got something that’ll make you happy.”

She smiled at me. “Mind playing Bonnie a song on the guitar? She’s crying because she has to leave to come home tomorrow and had to break up with her boyfriend.”

“You sound totally sympathetic.” I slightly mocked.

She held up her hands. “I can’t help it if she can’t deal with long distance relationships. Anyways, can’t you do it? Please, please, pleeeeease?”

“Okay…” I sighed. “I can’t sleep anyways.”

“Yay! You’re awesome! Meet me outside at the bench.”

I walked upstairs, bottled water and banana in hand to grab my guitar. I threw on my shoes and walked back down to go outside. The weather was humid and slightly hot as I walked out. I found Dakota on the bench and sat down next to her. She scooted over some, putting her phone on speaker and placing it in between us. “Bonnie. Say hi.”

“What? Why?” An Australian accent rang through the phone. I heard a soft sniff before she just gave in. “Hi.”

Dakota hit my arm. “Um… hi.” I said.

“The… what? Who is that?”

“It’s Niall.” Dakota introduced me. “He’s going to sing you a song.”

“What-“

“So shut up and pick a song so he can sing to you.” Dakota continued, yawning.

I heard a huff on the other end, making me smile some. So this was the ‘lover’ of Dakota. I’ve never talked to her before, but already did I like her. “Um, well, since I don’t know what songs you sing, how about Summer Love?”

“Seriously?” Dakota sighed.

“What? It’s my favorite song.” Bonnie said.

Dakota rolled her eyes. “Alright. Niall?”

I was already a step ahead of her. “Can’t believe you’re… packing your bags… trying so hard not to cry…”

“’Cause you were mine… for the summer… now we now it’s nearly over…”

Dakota sung along toward the end of the chorus. “You were my… summer love…”

To be honest, it was actually fun. I’ve done plenty of guitar playing in front of crowds and singing with just an acoustic playing, but this… it was so much more different. I was playing a song to make my best friend’s best friend feel better. It felt like some kind of Inception deal. I heard a small laugh on the other end as I finished the song. “Thanks. That really helped.”

“Glad to have helped.” I said.

“Can I go to bed now…” Dakota whined. “I’m so freaking tired… and cold…”

“What!?” I exclaimed. “It’s seventy degrees and humid!”

She shrugged. “You Europeans just don’t know. I’m going back in. Niall, since you’re in the mood to talk, talk to Bonnie. I’m no good with relationship deals.”

“What makes you think I am?” I asked her.

She shrugged. “Whatever. See you in the morning.”

She ran back inside, leaving me with her phone. “Um…” I started, grabbing the phone and putting it off speaker.

“I’m sorry.” Bonnie broke out. “I kind of overreact when it comes to break-ups. Dakota knows this and always listens to me. You don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want. You can go to sleep.”

I was confused. “But I want to talk.”

“What?”

“I want to talk.” I said again.

“Seriously? You don’t have to.”

“But I want to.” I said.

I wasn’t really sure where this conversation was going, but the two of us started laughing. “Okay, well, what should we talk about?” Bonnie asked.

“I don’t know.” I started. “Why do you have an Australian accent?”

“Um… because I’m Australian?” Bonnie answered.

“So you live in Australia?”

“Ah, no, but I used to. I live in Indiana near Dakota and Kariann. During the summers I come to visit family.”

Our conversation sort of went on like that. I’d ask her questions about herself, curious about everything. She was pretty open about everything, upon herself and who she was. Just talking to this girl made me smile until her questions came toward me. I answered them quite honestly until she asked one thing, “You know, you’re one of the most loved guys from the group. By God, why don’t you have a girlfriend?”

I never really thought of why. I felt myself shrug. “I’m not sure.”

“Oh, don’t give me any of that rubbish. Seriously, do you not like to date because you travel a lot?”

I sighed some, leaning back against the bench to stare up at the sky. “Just because I choose not to date doesn’t mean I don’t want a girl. I’m just waiting for the right time and person.”

A snort and loud laugh was heard. “Oh, Niall, you’re as innocent as they come. If you keep that attitude up, you’ll never get a girlfriend.”

“What about you?” I challenged. “Aren’t you waiting for the boy of your dreams too? But as long as you wait, you’ll continue to date other guys until then? Isn’t my idea of finding a dream girl the same thing? It’s just that I just don’t want to date others for the hell of it.”

“I don’t believe in that kind of bull.” Bonnie said back. “There’s no way your ideal person is around. The best you can do is find the person who treats you best and fall in love from there.”

I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who didn’t have an ideal mate. So many people have gone around and asked us as a group what our ideal girl was. To think there was a person who wasn’t interested in a person’s attributes. “Well… I’m not sure what I can say to top that.”

Bonnie laughed. “Save it, Irish boy. Ah, it seems I have to go. I got a shoot here in a few.”

“A shoot?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m a model for a clothing brand. Air Waves. Feel free to check me out. Haha, don’t fall in love with my picture though. Well, it was nice talking to you Niall. Thanks to you I think I can manage a smile for this shoot. G’day mate!”

She hung up on me then and I just stared at the phone. So Bonnie was a model, huh? I walked back into the bus, putting Dakota’s phone back on charge for her and headed upstairs. I threw off my shoes and put my guitar down. I grabbed my laptop, getting on the bed and turning it on.

After signing in, I got on Google and typed in her name along with the brand of clothes. The most recent pictures shows her hair being dip-dyed. Most of the pictures showed her smiling and looking offset of the camera. I had nothing to say but one thing.

She may have just been the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on.

*Dakota’s POV*

“Okay, it’s your girl’s last day with us. So let’s make the most of it!” Louis hollered, drinking down a beer.

“It sucks how you’re the only one allowed to drink.” Zayn whined, staring at the six pack of Budweiser in front of Louis.

Louis grinned, shrugging. “Soon, my brother. Soon we’ll be home and we can drink all we want to. Well I can now, but I’d rather not be drunk during a concert. I hear bad things happen when you’re drunk.”

I probably wasn’t the only one that rolled their eyes. It was true, today was our last day. We were to dock on a plane as soon as the concert was over. The boys said they wanted to make sure to see us off. Apparently they had something planned with their concert tonight.

“Okay, how about we play a game?” Niall suggested. “It’s nothing big, but let’s gather in a circle and talk.”

A thought came to mind. “A circle like we did in drama?”

“Oh! Good idea, Dakota!” Kariann said excitedly.

“What are you talking about?” Liam asked.

“Okay.” Kariann said, standing up from the couch. I went to stand beside her. She put her right arm over her left arm, as did I and we connected our hands accordingly. “We join hands like this and one by one we go around, saying whatever speech we want to the group. Well, there’s only seven of us so we can say as much as we want.”

“Can we sit as we do this? I don’t think I can stand properly.” Louis said, taking another drink.

“Might as well. Spinning out is a drama thing.” I said, whispering the last to Kariann. She smiled, agreeing.

We got into our according spots. We were all knee to knee, only because our arms were long enough to do the right over left, we decided to just hold hands with each other. In order was Louis, me, Liam, Kariann, Zayn, Niall, and Harry, whereas he held hands with Louis. “Okay, who’s starting?” I asked, looking at the group.

“I volunteer Zayn as tribute!” Niall said, smiling at his friend.

“Alright, alright.” The guy said, looking at each of us. “Am I saying a piece for everyone or just the girls?”

“Say whatever you want to say.” Kariann said, “It can be to anyone.”

Zayn took a deep breath, looking at each of us. “I’m not sure where to start. From the time I met you boys all the way to this day, it’s been a life-changing experience for me. So many times I said to myself that I should just give up on X Factor, because I thought I was hopeless. You boys changed that about me. You made me realize just what it’s like to do what I wanted to do most, along with having fun with it. And because of us being together from X Factor, we got to travel so much. Japan, South America, and other countries. We got to come to America, from there, meeting the two most awesome girls in the world. You girls helped me see that there are normal people that are extraordinary. I mean, come on, who else would want to touch our underwear?”

We all laughed and he just continued to smile his cheesy smile. “We get along so well and we’re just one hell of a family. I want to see all of you happy, and everything that we’ve been through to today, I feel that it only caused us to become closer and stronger as a family. I love you guys like crazy. It sucks that you are leaving tonight and we’ll be leaving back home in another week. We definitely need to see each other again, no matter what. But instead of you girls just being our ‘nannies’, I want to hang out with you girls as friends.”

“Aw, Zayn… you’re making me tear up.” Niall said, mocking a cry.

“Save it for later, Niall.” I said, rolling my eyes. “You just might.”

“Ah, okay… let’s see.” Niall said, smiling some. “The past three weeks have been one hell of a time. I got to hang out with my best friend whom I’ve only met last month. Dakota, you’re such a smart ass, but I can’t help but love that about you. You’re my closest girl best friend. And you Kariann, you so much like a mother to us. It’s like you fill that gap that’s needed because of Daddy Direction. It’s so crazy how we’ve been together like this. There were so many high and lows, and many more are to come, but that’s not important. What’s important is that we here together, right now, creating the best memories to relive as we move on with our lives. Especially with you guys, before we met the girls, we’ve been so set on with going on with our lives and doing what we love. I believe it’s because of them we came to learn to love in a way that’s different. I know I can’t really say anything as sad as Zayn, but I do love you guys. So, soooo much.”

Harry and Niall raised their held hands together, shaking it some. “Well, I guess it’s my turn. Um… This… Our lives have been crazy. To be together like this, I don’t have the words to express how happy I am to be here. I got to meet my four best friends who are like my big brothers to me. Now there’s two more girls to add to our little family. We got to see so many different sides of each other these past three weeks that we’ve been together. I’m not sure if there will ever be a day I’ll look back here and regret anything. I hate that you’re leaving us so soon. It feels like we’ve just gotten together…” I heard him sniff some.

“Oh, Harry, what the hell? Don’t cry now, you crybaby!” Louis shouted, hitting him on the shoulder.

“I’m not crying!” Harry pouted. “Anyways, I love you guys, especially you girls. You treated us like you’re older brothers and even when you’re gone, we’ll be sure to protect you like our little sisters. Okay. I’m done. Now, Louis, you say something.”

I looked to my right, seeing Louis puff out his cheeks to think. “Can I pass?”

“No!” We all shouted at him.

“Okay, okay, I was just kidding.” Louis said, rolling his eyes. “Well, I guess the best memory I’ll ever have is seeing Kariann’s face as she saw me in the bushes in Ohio. Oh, God, it was so funny!”

Kariann stuck her tongue out, “Jerk!”

Louis smiled, “Well, then again, I got a really bad sprain too. From the moment I met you-“

“Everything changed-“ Niall cut in.

“Ha ha, very funny Niall.” Louis said, rolling his eyes. “Anyways, everything about our lives changed when you girls showed up. I mean, Liam got his heavy crush on you-“ He nudged me with his elbow. “and I practically had to force him into doing stuff for you. I guess the biggest memory I’ll never forget was the day Liam brought Dakota flowers. I overheard everything she had to say about her mother. All I knew was that it pissed me off, but I wanted to help. I got Zayn to help me out to bring the girls on stage. I thought it was a big step for all of us.” I felt his hand tightened around my own. “I hated to see you cry. The first time I couldn’t help with, but the second… I still don’t know what I’m going to do about that. I still can’t get over the fact that it was my fault that got you in the position you were in with your mother. I…”

I was sure it was the alcohol in him talking now. I rested a head on his shoulder. “It’s okay, Louis. It really isn’t your fault. I’ll just have to figure something out when I get home.”

I heard him sniff some as he rested his head on my own. “I just care about you guys so much I don’t want anything to happen to all of you. It’s because of you guys that I can manage the way I do, yet then again it’s moments like these I just want to cry…”

I looked at our small crowd. Everyone’s faces were drawn down, lost in thought. I felt a small smile tug on my lips. “Okay…” I started. “I just want to get this out of my system, but I don’t think you guys understood just how… lucky Kariann and I felt to be able to meet you. To think we would be able to hang out and become close friends with you guys like this, it’s a dream come true.” I kept my head rested on Louis’s shoulder and he just kept his head on my own. I squeezed his hand some. “I learned to become strong with all that has happened. Even with Liam. I know you liked me and I really did feel bad about hurting you, but I hoped it wasn’t too much that you would start to hate me. I love you guys so much.”

“How much?” Liam asked, squeezing my hand, curious and feeling up to the moment.

I grinned at him as I craned my head to look at my shirt. “Just as much as I love plaid!”

“Oh, my God.” Kariann said, rolling her eyes as the boys laughed. Hey, I even got Louis to chuckle some.

“Anyways.” I said. “Even if we’re going home tonight, we’ll definitely see each other again. I mean, come on, you’re boys of One Direction. You can do just about whatever you want.”

“Eh, true.” Zayn said. “As long as our schedule doesn’t get in the way.”

I smiled at each of the boys. “I really do love you guys and I want to make this day the best yet.”

“Ah, wow…” Liam said, looking between our circle. “Look how far we’ve come. We got to meet the two most beautiful girls in the world and become friends with them. I… seriously don’t want this day to end. I don’t want you girls to leave us just yet. My birthday’s coming up!”

“Mine too!” Kariann added, sticking her tongue out.

“Okay, how about this…” Liam started. “For mine and Kariann’s birthday, we need to come together again. It’ll be next month, so no biggie, right? Right? Right?” He asked, nudging me and Kariann.

I smiled. “For sure I am up for it.”

“Anything to see my girls again.” Zayn said, smiling.

“What kind of brother would I be if I didn’t get to see my sisters again?” Niall said upon smiling.

“So it’s pretty much settled.” Kariann said. “Looks like we’re having us a birthday party, Liam.”

“Don’t you find it ironic that Mommy Direction and Daddy Direction have very close birthdays?” I asked aloud, causing everyone to laugh.

“Okay, guys, let Liam finish.” Kariann said, trying to get everyone back on track.

Everyone fell silent, waiting on Liam to speak. “Yeah, well, I’m not sure what to say. We have so many memories we can look back on, but I feel that I’ll be looking back more on the time I spent with you guys along with these girls than anything. It makes me wish that we’ve met sooner. I. Seriously. Freaking. Love you guys.” He finished, closing his eyes and forced mine and Kariann’s hands in the air.

Everyone turned to look at Kariann. She took a deep breath. “Wow, you guys… it’s just so unbelievable how far we’ve come. Sometimes I still cannot believe we know each other. I still feel like I’m living a dream. I mean I’m travelling across the US with my best friend to be with the coolest five boys in the world. Well, at least in my world. I want to be able to go on tour with you again because the concerts are fun to watch and the fans are crazy to watch.

There’s just so much to experience with you guys I want to experience it all with you. Whether…” She grinned and cracked up some. “Whether it’s being locked in the closet with Harry Styles-“ heavy laughter, “or being confessed to by Liam Payne. It can be put on the cover on a magazine with Louis Tomlinson for false accusations or even hearing Niall Horan singing Bob the Builder too much that it makes your ears bleed. Or even Zayn Malik, whose words of encouragement never fail to amaze us. I really do love you guys and I want to be with you forever.”

We stared at one another. “Okay,” I said, “One by one we should express our best memory upon our stay. Going backwards!”

Kariann: “Probably the first time we got our checks from management.”

Liam: “Singing Just Give Me A Reason with Dakota.”

Me: “The time when I ran upstairs to get a shirt because I forgot after taking a shower!”

Liam laughed, remembering very well.

Louis: “The day the girls were allowed to travel with us!”

Harry: “The day at the amusement park, when Kariann thought I was going to kiss her.”

We all had to blink at that. We stared at Kariann. “Kariann!?” We shouted.

“I did not think you were going to kiss me!” She spat, gaping in shock.

Harry was laughing. We continued on anyways.

Through Niall’s laughter: “Speaking to Dakota’s friend Bonnie for the first time.”

“Am I sensing a crush?” Louis asked, raising an eye at the blonde boy.

Niall shrugged, not denying it. “Oh, my God. It is!” I screamed, smiling from ear to ear.

“Don’t you dare tell her!” Niall begged, staring right at me.

I laughed. It was way to funny. “Okay! Zayn! Zayn! Zayn!” Liam shouted.

Zayn with a smile: “The fact I got to meet these girls.”

That should’ve been all of our best memories. The fact that we got to meet each other and hang out for three weeks straight. Tonight was the big concert. It was a farewell gift from the guys. They had us sit on the stage on stools as they sang a song to us. Quite upbeat and funny at the same time. It was Stand Up, and they dedicated that song just to us. It was ironic how the song fit all of us, not in a romantic sense though. They had the crowd going too. It represented out friendship so well.

The concerted ended sooner than we wanted, now we had to be at the airport. Niall was giving me one of his bone-crushing hugs. “You have to call me once you land, alright? The very second that plane touches the ground, you better whoop that phone and dial my number.”

I rolled my eyes. “Dude, that’s impossible. Don’t worry thought, I’ll call you.”

I moved on to Zayn, giving him a long hug. “I’ll miss you. Text me when you can.” He said, kissing my cheek.

I smiled up at him. “I’ll miss you too.”

Next was Harry and I looked to see where Kariann was. She was hugging Niall so she was at a safe distance. I hugged Harry. “Harry…” I started and he looked at me, curious. “Don’t give up on her, okay? She’s slow, but I’m pretty sure once you make it obvious to her, she won’t be able to get you out of her head.”

Harry let out a breath, smiling. “Thanks. I think I’ll live up to your word then.”

I smiled as I moved on to Liam, giving him a hug. It lasted for quite a moment. I pulled back and kissed him on the cheek. “Keep the lookout for the guys, okay?”

“Don’t I always?” He rolled his eyes. He bent down, kissing my cheek. “You don’t have to worry about me either. My feelings for you have become quite mutual. I guess me lacking a girlfriend got to me.”

I gave him yet another hug before moving on. I stood in front of Louis, staring up at him. “Well.”

“Well.” Louis replied back, staring into my eyes.

I smiled up at him. “Thanks for all of your help, Louis. Without you, I’m not sure I could make it through everything.”

He reached up, resting a hand on my cheek before pulling me into a hug. “Idiot. Just because a stupid article said some bad things about us doesn’t mean we can’t exchange a friendly hug.”

I blinked. What was he talking about? “What…”

“You’ve been keeping your distance.” He whispered into my ear. “I don’t like it. We’re friends, what’s wrong with a simple hug?”

The last time I hugged Louis was when I cried because of my mother. I had to admit, I kind of missed having his arms around me. I wrapped my arms around his waist. “Sorry…”

Maybe it was from the accusations against us, maybe it was the mere fact it was always him supporting me through everything, maybe it was the mere fact that he was closest I’ve been to since these past three weeks, along with Liam. Our hug lasted the longest time and I had to be the one to pull away otherwise I knew I would start crying. “Thanks for everything up until now.” I said as he kissed my forehead.

He smiled down at me. “Thanks for being such a good friend.”

The intercom came on. It was time for Kariann and I to board the plane. I kissed Louis’s cheek goodbye. “Bye guys!” I yelled as I grabbed my bags and Kariann and I started walking down the stretch.

*Louis’s POV*

The tour bus felt so quiet without the girls. “Just think about it.” Zayn said, “We’ll be heading home soon.”

Home. Something that should’ve came so much longer ago. Six months of being away sucked. I couldn’t wait to see my family, along with Eleanor. God, did I want to see her so bad.

Yet, even still, there seemed to be a bigger void in my chest. “Are you heading to bed?” Liam asked me as he stood up.

I shook my head. “I think I’ll sleep down here tonight.”

“Same here.” Harry said, spreading out on the couch that use to belong to Kariann.

“Well, good night!” Niall said to us before heading upstairs.

I think we could all admit that we did miss the girls. I looked at Harry with his arm over his eyes. The mere fact that he liked Kariann didn’t help his case. He wouldn’t be able to see her until her birthday. It made me think. When was Dakota’s birthday? If I remembered correctly, I think she said sometime in March…

March… wait. Spring Break was in March. I smiled, I remembered hearing Kariann and Dakota talking about their schedules together. Their Spring Break was to last two weeks. We didn’t start our world tour until April. This was perfect, we could definitely plan out some sort of vacation During Spring Break. Yeah. It wasn’t the end of the world. But still, that was until March.

The hell was I supposed to do until then?