~Cassidy~

“You little—!” I cut myself off as I chased Matt around the pool deck yet again.

The little fucker was a kleptomaniac, I swear. Either that or he just had a special attraction to my goggles…both of the options seemed evenly weighed.

“Matt, seriously, give them back!” I tried to yell and sound stern, but I was laughing. He just continued to run from me, both of us circling the pool deck like little maniacal children; I tried not to slip on the floor.

“Fine, fine,” Matt slowed to a stop, and I—not expecting it—bumped into his back, “Oof!”

The sight of me staggering back and clutching my head was enough to send him into another fit of laughter, this one even louder and wilder than when he’d stolen my goggles, being the little fucker that he was.

“Here,” he said, extending his hand. I took a wary step towards him, watching him skeptically, before my hand lashed out, hoping that he wouldn’t pull back quick enough. My fingers wrapped around the strap of my goggles and I let out a victorious ‘ha!’

“Calm down, Cass,” he grumbled, and I flipped him the finger.

It was Thursday evening, nine o’clock to be exact. The community center closed at eight, right after all of the elderly people had finished their Bingo games. I’d seen Mr. and Mrs. Jansen walking out of the building just as I’d been walking in, and I’d stopped to say hi.

Matt and I just thought that we needed a break.

We’d been working our asses of lately, and I think that he could tell I was a little bit high-strung—of course, he didn’t know why, and I wasn’t planning on sharing the reason with him anytime soon. So we were just hanging at the pool and spending some quality time with each other, something we hadn’t done in a while—Harry had always been here.

Not that I minded, of course. In fact, sometimes I wished he was here more often.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Matt, but I think I was in that stage of affection where I wanted to see the guy all the time—or at least, that’s what happened in books and movies. I didn’t have any experience to know it myself.

“Come on!” he yelled out suddenly, and he ran towards the pool, jumping off at the edge and tucking his knees into his chest, landing in the water in a cannonball position and creating a huge splash.

I laughed and ran in after him, diving cleanly into the water, making way less ripples than he had.

“Show off,” he mumbled when I came up to the surface. In response, I simply stuck my tongue out at him, squeezing my eyes shut tightly.

We treaded as he spoke, his black t-shirt billowing up around him and making him look like a complete moron, which I didn’t hesitate to point out.

“So I emailed the board a few days ago,” he began.

My jaw dropped and I immediately splashed water at him, “What? Dude, you need to tell me these things!”

He splashed me back, resulting in water in my eyes.

I wiped it from my face, laughing, and he continued as I wound my goggles around my wrist, “Yeah, well I was just telling them how well the sessions with the pupil were going. You’re doing okay, right?”

“Yeah,” I said, suddenly very interested, wanting to know if I was in or not. It was true—even though I didn’t like Harry at first, I was still teaching him—just maybe not in the best of tones and manners. But he had been learning.

Matt nodded in agreement, “Good. So anyways, I got an email back today.” He let that hang in the air.

I waited for him to say something else, to add onto it, but silence was all I got.

Looking up, I splashed him again, making sure to send water straight to his face, “Dude!”

He laughed, throwing his hands up in front of his face to protect himself from more spray, “Okay, okay. I just wanted to see how you’d react to that, sorry.” He broke into another small fit of laughter, making me roll my eyes.

“Well?” I questioned, my whole body tingling with anticipation. He chuckled at how needy I looked right now, but I didn’t blame him—I would laugh at myself too if I wasn’t so damn excited right now.

“They told me,” he said slowly, and I clenched my jaw, threatening to splash him yet again, making him grin widely, “That they were happy that the lessons were going so well. And,” he drew the word out, unable to fight the smile on his face as I made a frustrated noise, glowering at him.

“They said,” he told me, “That they were looking forward to working with you in the future.”

It was silent. He let that hang in the air for a moment before my mind finally processed it. I broke into the biggest smile in the world, shrieking and grabbing him by the shoulders, tackling him. He laughed, the laughs turning to gurgles as I forced him underwater, climbing on top in him, so completely happy, I couldn’t even explain it.

“Whoa, whoa,” he said, re-emerging and pushing me off of him. He grabbed me by the shoulders, both of us treading with just our feet now, “Hold on Cass. Nothing is set in stone yet. Don’t get all excited right away.”

“Matt,” I scoffed, “That’s like telling someone they won the fucking lottery but they can’t spend a dollar of their winnings.” I smiled again, looking up at the ceiling and laughing out loud. Matt chuckled along with me.

“You know you still have to go along with the lessons though, right?” he notified me. I nodded quickly, expecting just as much anyways. But still—the board had been notified of my progress.

I was on my way to becoming a fucking Olympic swimmer.

“Oh my God,” I breathed, laying back and floating on my back, closing my eyes, “Holy shit.”

To my right, Matt chuckled, “Yeah.”

“You know what this means, right?” I asked him. I looked over at him, careful not to disrupt my position on the water.

He frowned, and then shrugged, “No, what?”

“You’ll get to travel the world with me,” I said simply, and he laughed. My eyes widened, “What? It’s true! The Olympics are held everywhere.” I lifted my hands from the water and made a flourishing gesture, making Matt smile small.

He nodded, and was about to say something else, but then I heard a loud whoop coming from the pool deck.

My head shot up, and I was met with black spots dancing in front of my eyes. Cursing, I blinked a few times, and once the nausea and dizziness had died down, I looked at Matt questioningly.

“Shit,” he swore, and then scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, “I, um, invited Harry and his friends—the ones that were visiting from England. Slipped my mind, sorry.”

I rolled my eyes but smiled at him—secretly, I was kind of glad that Harry was here. We didn’t really get to spend any time at the pool just fooling around, since the only time we were ever here together was Saturdays, for the lessons. Then, I had to keep things on a strictly professional note.

“It’s alright,” I told him, and then added, nudging his ribs, “I’m trying to be nicer to the guy, remember?”

Matt grinned, looking happy that I’d had a change of heart. Fuck, he didn’t know anything. A moment later the changeroom door banged open, and five guys poured out, one of them being Harry. I watched them as they shoved each other, never failing to roll my eyes slightly.

Finally, they all calmed down enough to see that Matt and I were in the pool—but then again, Matt’s blown up t-shirt must’ve been a hint.

They froze. And then the blonde one laughed loudly and took a running head start, cannonballing into the pool, just as Matt had, “Time to play chicken!”

I think his name started with an N? Neil or something?

“Niall!” Harry laughed but followed his lead, jumping onto a centimeter away from where Niall had resurfaced and sending a huge wave of water his way. He sputtered, which caused me to laugh lightly.

While the rest of his friends made a giant show warming up and eventually jumping into the pool, Harry swam over to us, pushing his wet hair off of his forehead. He grinned at Matt and when his eyes landed on me, his smiled faltered slightly. I tried to return a hesitant smile his way—I think we were both still in shock at what had happened the night of the storm.

He loves you. Simple.

Right. It was supposed to be that easy, yet it never was. Fuck.

“Hey, guys,” he said. Matt clapped him on the shoulder, “Hey. I’m going to go say hi to your friends. Haven’t seen them in a while.”

“Tell me about it,” Harry joked, but he let him go. As Matt swam over to the other side of the pool, Harry turned to me, his eyes wide, and said quietly, “You look beautiful.”

I gasped and ducked underwater, very aware that my face was probably flushing right now. When I came back up, I splashed him, sending a spray of water right to his face. He coughed, looking at me, completely incredulous, “What was that for?”

“You can’t do that,” I whispered hurriedly at him, putting my hands over my face to try and block my pink cheeks, “There are other people here, so you can’t make me blush!”

He chuckled, wiping water from his eyes, “I’m pretty sure I do that without even trying, love.”

Okay, if I wasn’t blushing before, I definitely was now. Splashing him again, I hissed, “You can’t call me that either.”

Fucking pet names and their cuteness. Dammit.

He just laughed, shaking his head and sending a few drops of water my way. Across the pool, that same blonde guy—Niall—yelled out, “Are we going to play chicken, or what?”

We all swam over to the shallower end of the pool, Harry’s friends never failing to try and push their friends down under the water and slow them down. Once we were on the opposite end of the pool, the other boy with blue eyes and shaggy brown hair yelled out, “Partners! Grab someone closest to you!”

“I’ll be ref!” I think his name was Zayn—yelled out. I only remembered because it was so unusual.

Harry turned to me, trying to conceal a smile, “Grab my hand.”

“What?” my eyes widened and I’m pretty sure I looked totally horrified. He laughed but held his large hand out of the water, “We’re partners. So grab my hand.”

Hesitantly, I took it, lacing our fingers together. Harry bent down slightly, and I jumped on his back, inching my way higher. I threw both legs over his shoulders, hoping that I wouldn’t slip off and make a complete mess of myself.

Once I was comfortably seated, his head nestled between my thighs—I tried not to think of other reasons that could be happening—I looked around. Matt was pairing up with Louis, helping him to get on his shoulders, and Niall and—was it Liam?—were pairing up, Niall slipping off and landing in the water with a smack. I chuckled.

Eventually, we were all ready, and Zayn announced, “Cassidy and Harry versus Matt and Louis first!”

Matt looked up at me as he approached, almost as if he was asking me if I was okay. I nodded once, trying to reassure him. Truth be told, I was better than okay. Harry’s hands were holding onto my thighs, making sure I didn’t fall backwards as he moved to meet our opponents. His touch sent tingles down my spine, but I liked it.

For a moment, I almost lost my balance, and grabbed onto the first thing I could find: his hair.

I heard him groan and fought a smile—he really did like it when I touched his hair. I fisted it in my hands, waiting for Zayn to tell us to start.

Louis, who was sitting on Matt’s shoulders, crossed his arms, pouting slightly. Zayn said, “Go!”

“She’s a girl,” Louis whined, not making a move, “I don’t want to hurt—ah!”

He screamed as my hands came out and connected with his shoulders, pushing him backwards. He had no leverage, and he wasn’t expecting it, so he easily toppled off of Matt and into the pool.

Several laughs and hollers were heard as I folded my arms over my chest, glaring at him playfully once he resurfaced, “What was that?” I laughed.

Matt was dying of laughter, and he held up his hand, which I high-fived. He swam away after to help Louis get back on his shoulders.

“Nice job,” Harry told me after he’d stopped laughing. I was grateful—his whole body had been quaking, and I didn’t want to ruin the moment by falling.

“Thanks,” I smiled down at him as he craned his neck to look up at me. For a brief second, our eyes met, and he mouthed the words, I love you.

I scoffed and smacked the side of his head with the flat of my palm. “Hey,” he pouted but I just rolled my eyes, hoping that my cheeks weren’t too red. He really enjoyed making me uncomfortable, didn’t he?

“Shut up,” I told him seriously, but he just grinned. Zayn announced, “Guys, since you won this round,” he looked pointedly at Louis, who held his hands up in surrender, “You can sit out. Niall and Liam will be versing Matt and Louis next.”

Harry shrugged, making me grip onto his hair for support. We made our way over to the side of the pool, while the two teams geared up for another round.

“You know you can put me down, right?” I asked him once we were out of earshot.

I could practically feel him smiling as he replied simply, “I know.”

He chuckled as we reached the pool deck and turned around, allowing me to slide off of his back and sit on the edge, my legs swirling mindlessly in the water. I set my palms down behind me and leaned back, easing myself down, suddenly tired.

“You alright?” he asked me, and I laughed dryly. I looked up at him, only to find that he was hoisting his body out of the water and sitting beside me, a respectable distance still in between our bodies—I had a feeling that if we were alone, he’d be on top of me right now, kissing me like there was no tomorrow.

Was it so bad that I wanted that?

“How did I know that you’d ask that?” I joked slightly, flashing him a small smile. I sighed, covering my face with my hands and trying to block out the lights on the ceiling, “I’m fine, Harry. Just a bit tired. You need to stop worrying so much.”

He chuckled, sweeping his wet hair off of his forehead, “Can’t do that, love. Sorry.” There was that damn ‘love’ again.

“What did I say about calling me that?” I told him, groaning into my hands. He just laughed,

“Sorry, love.”

“You know what?” I asked, sitting up, a challenging look on my face, “Fuck you.”

Harry laughed loudly, throwing his head back and looking up at the ceiling. I smiled, watching him. I liked the way he laughed. The skin around his eyes would crease into little lines. His lips would curve up into a smirk first, and then grow into a smile, and finally, he’d show me his perfectly straight, pearly teeth, his dimple making an appearance yet again. The sound itself was loud yet raspy, his voice cracking if he laughed too hard or too high.

I turned to watch the round going on between the boys. Zayn was standing in the middle, watching as Louis and Niall tried to shove each other off of their teammate’s shoulders. Niall was laughing the whole time—I would’ve thought that Louis could take him, since he seemed so distracted.

Finally, Louis huffed and reached out again to push Niall, but the blonde boy grabbed his wandering arms and crossed them over his body, shoving him backwards. Louis lost his balance and fell yet again into the water, causing a large chorus of laughs to ring out. He broke the surface and spit out water dramatically, and Matt folded his arms over his chest, feigning annoyance, “I am never partnering with you again, Lou.”

I was surprised at how well they got along. I turned to Harry to ask, but he beat me to it.
“Yes,” he explained, “They’ve all met before. Matt’s visited me a few times in England, remember?”

I cleared my throat, “Right.”

Zayn—who was looking at the others and smiling along with them at the playful banter between Matt and Louis—looked over at us and called out, “Come on guys! You’re versing Niall’s team next!”

“Oh,” Liam grumbled, “So now we’re Niall’s team?”

“What can I say, Li?” Niall scoffed, clapping his friend on the back as if he was delivering devastating news, “I am the better-looking one.”

Liam barked out a laugh but helped his teammate to mount onto his shoulders yet again. Harry sighed, slipping off of the edge of the pool and offered his hand, “Come on.”

I grinned and took his hand. While the others were distracted, he quickly brought it up to his lips and pressed a quick kiss to my knuckles. My jaw dropped and with my left hand, I punched him in the arm, “Styles!”

He just laughed, and without another word, pulled me forward, making me yelp. I cursed at him as he laughed, helping me slide onto his back and then onto his shoulders. We joined the rest of his friends and Matt. Louis was currently arguing that he hadn’t actually lost—Niall had just cheated somehow.

“How did he cheat?” Zayn asked dryly, cocking an eyebrow.

Louis threw up his hands in mock-exasperation, “How the fuck am I supposed to know? But he did!” I laughed as I passed them, and Matt looked up at me from beside Louis, smiling at me sheepishly. I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Alright,” Zayn pushed Louis away, making me smile. Niall and Liam approached us and Harry looked up at me, “You good?”

In response, I simply rolled my eyes and flicked his forehead, hoping that that would give him a hint. He stuck out his bottom lip into the most adorable pout and let go of my right thigh momentarily, rubbing the spot. I squeaked as I almost fell off, and my arms reflexively wrapped around his neck to keep myself seated.

Niall whistled. “Someone’s getting a little handsy,” Liam noted, winking at me.

I shot him a dry smile, rolling my eyes and letting go of Harry’s neck. I pressed my heels into his ribcage to keep myself seated as he chuckled, his hand settling back down on my thigh, burning an imprint into my skin. Involuntarily, my fingers began playing with the curls and the necklace on the back of Harry’s neck as Zayn asked both teams if they were ready.

“Please don’t do that,” Harry whispered up at me. I fought a smile as I pulled my hands back, ready to push Niall off of Liam’s shoulders and wipe away that smug, knowing little smirk that had found its way onto his face as he looked over and studied us.

“Alright,” Zayn said slowly, “And…go!”

Notes

Hope you liked it! I don't know when I'll be able to update next, maybe in the next two weeks? I tried to make this chappy extra long for you guys!

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Random fact: Starfish have no brains.

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