My night was complete and utter rubbish. I wasn’t able to get an ounce of sleep because I kept tossing and turning in my bed. The events that happened with Harry troubled me more than I thought they would. I had harbored the anger that I felt for eleven months, waiting for the day that I’d let it all out on Harry, but now that it had happened, I felt like such a git. After seeing the look on his face, I felt bad for screaming at him, but I had every right to. He abandoned me when I needed him the most and he thought that he could come back with a smile on his face and pretend like everything was the way it used to be.

I didn’t want to think about him anymore, but no matter how hard I tried he always seemed to find his way back. I couldn’t let Harry haunt my every thought and take over me – I needed to get away for the day and not have to think about anything, especially Harry. I decided to ring Ashley and see what she was up to today. Her phone rang a good five times before her perky voice sounded on the other end.

“Hey there nightingale!” she exclaimed, using the nickname that she called me.

Ashley had caught me late one night writing a bit of poetry in my journal. I had been singing quietly to myself with only my desk lamp on and didn’t hear or see her come in. She’d asked what I was doing up so late and I told her that I couldn’t sleep so I decided to write some poetry, a hobby that I had taken up once my mum passed. I didn’t know why this amused her, but she quickly explained that it reminded her of a line in one of her favorite poems written by Percy Shelley – a poet is a nightingale who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds.

I couldn’t help, but smile at her lively attitude. That was one thing I absolutely loved about Ashley; she always seemed to be in a good mood no matter what was going on. “Hey Ashley! I was calling to see if you had any plans for the day” I asked, hoping that she’d be free for a girls’ day.

There was a long pause as I heard her feet bound up her staircase. “Erm no, not at the moment. Why, what did you have in mind?” she questioned back.

“I was actually thinking that we could go to the beach, ya know, have a girls’ day. I was going to invite Charlotte and Sam as well” I explained while absentmindedly searching through the refrigerator. Nothing really appealed to me except for some strawberries and yogurt.

I heard a loud thud and Ashley’s voice curse out loud on the other end. “Shit that hurt! Yeah, that sounds really nice. It’s gorgeous out today, might as well make use of it. I’ll be at your house around midday then” she agreed before saying a farewell and hanging up the telephone.

I placed a strawberry in my mouth as I rang Charlotte and Sam, letting them know that Ashley and I were heading to the beach later today and wanted them to come along. I was thankful when they both agreed to tag along with us – I really needed this bunch to get my mind off of things. They always knew how to let loose and have more than the normal amount of fun.

I had a little less than two hours before the girls arrived at my house to take the hour drive to Blackpool Beach. Most of my things were still sitting in my car and I needed to unpack it before the girls got here. I didn’t need them complaining about how little room there was because of all my things that I was too lazy to unload. I started with the small things that sat on top of boxes or that were packed in crates. Figuring it would be quicker if I just put everything in the family room for the time being, I placed all of the boxes with things that I didn’t necessarily need in there – I reckoned I would move everything into my room and put everything in its place when I had the time. It didn’t take long for me to unload the car – I’d say 45 minutes was good for just one girl and the amount of stuff that I had.

I quickly ran upstairs to my room, taking out my floral swimsuit and setting it aside on my bed before taking a 20 minute shower after the sweat I had worked up. Thankfully, I didn’t bring my dresses to university since the weather hadn’t called for one, making it easier for me to find something nice to wear. I walked to my closet and picked out a navy blue sundress with pink and white tulips scattered all over the dress.

Once I was completely dressed, I had a good 30 minutes before the girls would start showing up. I decided to make a few snacks for the ride up – I imagined we’d get something to eat at a place near the beach or just head to the pier for food if we got hungry. I made a few ham and cheese sandwiches for me, Charlotte and Sam while I made Ashley tuna sandwiches – she wasn’t a big fan of cold cuts. I also packed a few bags of crisps and cold bottles of water.

The girls had arrived shortly after I finished packing everything into a picnic basket. I quickly grabbed the keys off the hook near the front door as well as my bag and made my way to the car. Sam called shotgun on the front seat, much to the dismay of the other girls, but they quickly got over it as we made the trek to the beach while music blared from the speakers. Thankfully, I had packed enough food because within five minutes of being in the car, the girls were already rummaging through the basket. The beach was only about an hour’s drive so it beats me how they could have eaten everything in the short amount of time.

When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised that the beach was relatively empty. There were a few couples walking along the beach or laying on their towels and there were a few groups of friends playing footie or volleyball in the sand. We found a spot away from the other group of what seemed like other uni students and laid our towels down. Once everything was settled, we all turned to each other with knowing smiles on our faces. Sam quickly turned around, running towards the beach, throwing her arms in the air and letting out a loud shrill as she splashed through the waves. Not taking long to think about it, we followed Sam’s lead and ran into the ocean, stumbling into the water as the waves knocked us off balance.

We spent a good hour in the water, throwing around a Frisbee, playing chicken, and simply just floating around. Goofing off in the water left me exhausted so I made my way back to our things. Ashley was already there – after a game of chicken, she decided to go up to her towel and read a book. I sat on my towel, allowing the salt water to dry off of my body before pulling the suntan oil out of my bag and spraying the parts of my body that needed to tan – thankfully I wasn’t as pasty as Ashley was at the moment, but I also lacked the olive toned skin that I desperately wanted to get back. As I was finishing up putting the sun tan oil on my back, Ashley and Charlotte joined us as we took in the sun’s rays.

About half hour into our tanning session, I could hear someone letting out one of those trashy wolf whistles that you heard in movies when creepy guys were trying to get a girl’s attention. I didn’t even bother entertaining the sleezebags by responding to it. I wasn’t a dog and they weren’t going to get my attention by whistling at me. Some girls might be flattered by it, but I wasn’t – chances were, they probably did the same to dozens of girl’s before they came across us. I should’ve known that Sam was one of those girls though; she liked anything that gave her attention and had a penis.

“Why hello to you too” I heard Sam reply in her ‘I want to take you home’ voice. I could only imagine the look on her face. I’d seen it so many times that it was practically engrained in my memory. She no doubt had her left eyebrow raised as her mouth pulled to the right side of her face and into a sly smile while she popped her chest out a bit more – not like she even needed to. Sam was a fit girl; she had a pretty face that grabbed any guy’s attention and the body that sealed the deal.

I looked up to see two fit boys walking by, looking back at Sam and Charlotte. Without any hesitation, Sam got up from her towel, grabbing hold of Charlotte in the process, and jogging towards the two guys that she had her eyes on. Usually Charlotte wasn’t one to go after boys, but this time she had no choice – Sam held onto her with a vice grip, there was no way that Charlotte could get away.

Unlike Sam and Charlotte, Ashley and I weren’t on the patrol for any guys. I was more worried about my milky skin. The last thing I needed right now was a boy, especially one who couldn’t handle me. I was an absolute train wreck and I was not fit to love anyone at the moment – I barely loved myself sometimes. My mum told me I was beautiful all the time and to not get down over it, but that was her job. She was my mum and she was supposed to make me feel better about myself even if she lied. Harry had been the only other person to tell me that I was beautiful, but he was my best friend and I knew he was sparing my feelings.

There were those times when I actually believed him when he said it and I would feel beautiful for the slightest bit of time. I always hated the freckles that were scattered across my nose and cheeks and Harry knew that – I always got sensitive when someone mentioned them but he was different. He’d gently trace his fingers over the freckles on my cheeks and he would tell me that freckles were kisses from angels. He’d then travel to the birthmarks that adorned my shoulders and aimlessly trace lines between them because he could “make out constellations” between them. He would tell me that only the most precious angels were made up of stars. The little things like that were what made me fall in love with Harry, but those days were long gone.

“What’s going on Abs? You don’t seem to be enjoying yourself. Usually we’d have to get your stubborn arse out of the water by now. What’s wrong?” Ashley questioned, clearly being able to know when I’m going through a hard time.

Leave it to Ashley to be able to pick up on when I was going through things – she wasn’t oblivious to my ever changing moods. Ever since she moved a few streets down from me two years ago, we’d become the best of friends – she was honestly like a little sister to me. She had been there through everything besides my parents’ divorce. She was there when I’d wait for a phone call or a Skype session Harry and I had planned that he of course forgot about, she was there when my mum died, and she was there when I’d cry my eyes out every night because the only thing I saw when I closed them was my mum’s cold, lifeless body.

I let out a long breath before rolling over to face the ocean. “Harry’s back” was all I said, not giving her any more detail in the hopes that the tone of my voice told her I didn’t want to talk about it.

She knew about me and Harry – she knew that we were best friends, she knew that he had forgotten about me and didn’t care about me when I needed him the most, and she knew that I loved him.

I could see her shrug her shoulders from the corner of my eye as I looked out at the water. “And what’s wrong with that?” she questioned. I didn’t expect her to respond in the manner that she had. Usually when I brought Harry up, she would just give me a shoulder nudge to get my attention and flash me a reassuring smile. She quickly rolled her eyes when she saw that I was giving her the ‘I can’t believe you right now’ face. “I meant what does that have to do with you being so mopey. Yeah I understand what you went through, but it’s not like you’re going to see him all the time. You’re just making a bigger deal out of it than it is”

Ashley was completely right; it didn’t have to matter, but I made it. If I wasn’t a person who was greatly affected by small things and if I didn’t have a soft spot for Harry, I wouldn’t care – the fight with him, however, just ate me alive. “We had a huge fight last night. I was hoping that coming here would get my mind off of it, but it obviously hasn’t so far”

“Well in that case, we’re going out tonight – clubbing. Us girls are going to put on a sexy outfit and let loose tonight” she smiled eagerly, hopping up from her towel and jumping up and down. She quickly grabbed for my hands to help me off my arse before calling over to Charlotte and Sam. When they didn’t turn their attention to her, she quickly jogged over to them.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what the conversation was going to be about. Ashley of course told them about our plan to go out tonight and Sam obviously invited the guys along. I didn’t really care at this point; all I cared about was getting piss drunk and maybe shagging a nice bloke.

I quickly gathered my things and packed them back into my bag as I waited for the girls to finish their obvious and quite embarrassing flirting attempts. When they said their goodbyes to Adam and Henry, we headed to the car park to pack up and head home. The girls were complaining about being hungry the minute we climbed into the car. They suggested getting Nando’s since it was only a 10 minutes’ drive down the road. I wasn’t complaining in the slightest – Nando’s did sound pretty appetizing after not eating for a few hours.

We quickly ordered our food as we decided to eat there to kill some time. We chatted about the boys that Charlotte and Sam met while we ate our food, letting out a few laughs here and there. Sam was desperate to get in at least one of their pants – she didn’t even mind getting in both of them in one night. Sometimes I honestly thought that Sam had a problem with boys. It seemed that they were all she ever thought about and talked about.

When everyone was full and ready to go back home, we hit the highway for another hour long ride filled with hair blowing in the wind, feet up on the dash, and horrible attempts at singing the songs that played on the radio. Luckily, on the way up not one song by the boys came on the radio. This ride I didn’t get so lucky – it seemed like every five minutes, What Makes You Beautiful or some other One Direction song was blaring through the speakers. Whenever I heard the opening lines to a song by the boy band, I would quickly change the station. It’s not that I didn’t love them or their music; I just didn’t want to think about Harry, let alone hear his gorgeous voice that made me melt when he sang. I just wanted to get sloppy drunk and make a fool of myself tonight and not regret it in the morning.

***

I quickly ran inside my house and up the stairs once I had arrived home. The girls and I agreed to meet up at half nine before making our way to the club. We were going to take a taxi home since we all planned on getting pissed tonight. Even though we did stupid things most of the time, that didn’t mean we were irresponsible – we knew that none of us would be in the right state of mind to drive home after the night we were planning on having.

I made it to my bedroom and walked into the bathroom to start my shower. After a day of lying on the sand and playing in the water, a shower was no question. I turned the faucet to the shower to the right so that warm water spewed from it before stripping naked. I turned around to glance at myself in the mirror. Granted, I looked better than I had last night, but there was pain still etched on my face. My face lost its color, my smile lost its charm, and my eyes lost their sparkle.

That was something I was thankful for my mom for – I had her eyes and her smile. Sometimes when I felt down and alone, I would look in the mirror and see her in me and have a conversation with her. It was different now; now I didn’t see her glittering eyes gazing back at me or her lips turned up into a radiant smile – I felt alone now. I stared at the lost girl in front of me until the steam from the shower slowly made her face disappear right before my eyes.

I stood in the shower for a 30 minutes, just letting the hot water run over my head and hit my body as my mind wandered to my mum and Harry. It wasn’t until the water started turning cold that I came to my senses. I quickly scrubbed at my skin, getting off the sand and sweat that had accumulated on my body before washing my salty hair. Once the smell of my violet scented body wash lingered on my skin, I climbed out of the glass encased shower and wrapped a towel around my wet body.

My hair was still wet and I debated on whether I should let it air dry or blow dry it. I chose the latter, figuring my hair would get tangled if I let it air dry. I moved over to my armoire and plugged in my hair dryer. Thankfully, it didn’t take longer than ten minutes to completely dry my hair. I walked over to my closet to pick out what I would wear to the club. After much deliberation, I decided on a black, illusion cocktail dress with cutouts and bronze studs in the neckline and red heels with studs as well. I decided to loosely curl my hair and keep it down, letting it fall just above my chest. I applied a bronze smokey eye to my eyelids along with a stroke of liquid eyeliner. I wanted my lips to pop with the dark outfit I had on so I applied a vibrant red stain to my lips as well.

Just as I was putting on my bracelets, I heard the doorbell ring. I made my way down the stairs to open the door and let the girls in. To my surprise, I saw Sam with the two chaps from earlier. She quickly pushed her way past me, giving my cheek a kiss as she entered my home. The two guys just stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do exactly. I stepped to the side, ushering them in before closing the door behind them. When I turned around, I noticed them standing in the foyer, taking in my massive home. I cleared my throat, getting their attention before sticking my hand out.

“I’m Abigail. I don’t expect that Sam told you. She can be a bit rude sometimes as you just saw a few seconds ago” I said, shaking their hands with a friendly smile.

The tall brunette was the one to speak for the both of them. “I’m Adam and this right here is Henry” he replied, referring to the blonde haired boy that was a few inches shorter than him. “You have such a lovely home. Do you live here alone” Adam questioned, looking completely amazed at the size of my home.
I couldn’t help but to let out a little chuckle. “I actually live here with my dad. He’s a neurosurgeon” I explained. Adam gave me an understanding head nod while contorting his mouth to form an ‘O’ shape.

Before I could respond, the doorbell rang again. I made my way over to the door, opening it to be greeted by Charlotte and Ashley. They seemed to be a bit buzzed already as they stumbled into my house, eager to hit the club and shake their arses. I called Ashley from wherever she managed to sneak off to as she her heels sounded through the foyer. Everyone made their way out of my front door once Ashley joined the group. I sprayed myself with Marc Jacobs’ Daisy before slipping out the door and locking it. The club wasn’t that far away, a ten maybe 15 minute walk depending on how quickly we walked. Tonight it was pretty hard to walk at a fast pace with the tall heels that each of us were wearing, but we’d managed to make it in a reasonable amount of time.

As soon as we stepped into the club, I made my way straight for the bar. I wasn’t waiting another second to get some alcohol in me and just forget about everything that was going on in my life. From where I was standing, I could see that the bar was littered with desperate birds trying to get some bloke to buy drinks for her and her friends and maybe get something else out of it as well. I rolled my eyes at their desperate attempts to get a guy’s attention before making my way over there myself.

Once I reached the bar, I realized that I had underestimated how many people were crowded around, waiting on the barmaid. I scanned the crowd to try and find an open space that I could slide into. Luckily, I spotted one not too far from where I was. I quickly made my way over to the clearing so no one else could reach it before I did. I slowly slide in between two people before making it to the bar table, placing my clutch on top of it.

“What is a pretty girl like you doing here all by herself” I heard a low voice call out. I slowly turned to my left to be met by a relatively handsome bloke taking a swig of his lager.

I gave him a sly smile before flipping my hair off of my shoulders. “Actually, I’m here with my friends. I just want to get a head start – things haven’t been going that well for me lately”

“Well hopefully I can change that for you” he countered with a wink. Normally I would be immediately turned off if a guy did that, but tonight I didn’t care and he was really nice to look at. “What can I get for ya” he asked, breaking my thoughts.

I let him know that I was someone who had a soft spot for vodka and he ordered a few rounds of shots for me. In between shots, we had a bit of light conversation. I had discovered that he was called Simon and he was just finishing his third year at uni studying engineering – he wanted to become an architect and one day build important buildings. The conversation was very friendly and I was entertained the whole time I sat there with him. I had laughed and smiled more than I had in the past year and I liked the feeling that I got from it. He was in the middle of telling me the story of how his friends dared him to walk around school in a belly shirt and shorts that were so tight, he thought his penis was going to shrink when I heard it.

“Oh my goodness, I absolutely love this song.” I squealed, as I jumped up and began to move my hips to the Tiesto remix of Clarity. “Come on, let’s go dancing!” I insisted as I took my sixth shot of vodka in a little more than 30 minutes before dragging Simon onto the dance floor with me.

I pulled him onto the middle of the dance floor before turning around and grinding my hips on his. I was passed my wits in alcohol and I didn’t care what I looked like or how badly I danced at this point. I could see Sam and Adam on the dance floor as well while Charlotte and Henry as they went shot for shot at a table. Ashley was making her way out of the ladies room, no doubt releasing the contents in her bladder – alcohol made her use the bathroom more times in one night than Lindsay Lohan got arrested.

I turned around, snaking my arms around Simon’s neck before closing my eyes. We continued to move our hips against one another, not caring if we weren’t in rhythm with the music. I was having a good time tonight – I didn’t know why I didn’t do this more often. For a few minutes, it seemed like all of my problems were gone and I didn’t have to deal with anything. A smile crept upon my face as I opened my eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it came. I should’ve known my fun wouldn’t last for long – he always had a way of making that so.

There he was, on the dance floor with some trashy bint shaking her arse all over him. Our eyes caught for a brief moment before he looked away, clearly not registering that he just looked directly at me. The other boys of One Direction were just behind Harry dancing with their significant others. For a moment, Louis and I exchanged glances, him acknowledging my presence by lifting his beer in the air and giving a head nod in my direction before hitting the other boys to get their attention. They all looked over at me, giving me the same head nod that Louis gave me. I simply just smiled in their direction and copied their gesture.
I don’t know what had come over me – maybe it was because I really liked Simon (or at least I thought I did) or it was the alcohol in my veins mixing with the anger that was building up inside of me, but before Harry’s eyes could lock on mine again, I quickly took Simon’s face in my hands and began snogging his face off. His hands quickly went to the small of my back, trying to deepen the kiss by sticking his tongue down my throat.

After a few moments of hasty kissing and Simon constantly trying to grope my arse, I opened my eyes to see Harry staring at me as he stood there in the middle of the dance floor frozen. The look on his face was enough to satisfy me for the time being. I wasn’t sure if the alcohol was making my eyes blurry to the point where the look on Harry’s face resembled one of hurt and disgust or surprise seeing as I was never one to do wild things like snog a stranger in a club while I was drunk. I peeled my eyes away from Harry’s with a satisfied grin before taking Simon by the hand and leading him back to our table where the girls were.

“Hey, I’m gonna go back to Simon’s so don’t try to find me at the end of the night. Are you guys alright getting home?” My words were slurred and my body was swaying just standing there. I could see the girls give me a thumb’s up and a few head nods and that was good enough for me. I picked up the two shots that were sitting on the table and pounded them back before walking out of the club with Simon towing not too far behind.

As we walked down the street to Simon’s apartment, I heard a voice calling out my name. I slowed my steps and turned around, gripping the brick wall of a building for support. I couldn’t make out the person running towards me. All I could make out was a blurry figure waving at me, trying to get my attention. The world around me was spinning and all of the noises were becoming distorted. It wasn’t long before the figure was standing in front of me, holding my shoulders to keep me balanced. All I could make out was a head of dark hair.

“You’re not going home with this bloke” the voice directed towards me – at least that’s what I thought I heard. I couldn’t really register anything that was going on. The figure quickly turned to Simon and began growling at him.

“How dare you try to take some girl home and take advantage of her in the state she’s in? She’s coming with me mate” he hissed through gritted teeth before turning his attention back to me, but not for long.
Simon had grabbed ahold of the stranger, turning him back around. He pulled his arm back in an attempt to hit whoever called out for me. The stranger ducked out of the way and cocked his own arm back before his fist connected with Simon’s nose. Simon fell to the floor, curled into the fettle position crying out in pain as he held his bleeding nose. I didn’t know who this guy was or why he was fighting with Simon. All I knew was that I couldn’t keep my balance anymore and I was about to pass out on the cold hard ground outside of the club. The last thing I saw before blacking out was a male figure running towards me as I slowing began to fall to the ground.

Notes

Abigail's Beach Outfit
Abigail's Club Outfit
Much longer chapter. I hope it doesn't intimidate you to read it!
What do you guys think of this Simon guy for Abigail? Let me know what you guys think!