× Mercury

I took in a breath of the salty air like it was an elixir; to me I think it was. It tasted like home. The cold onshore breeze blew right through my cardigan and I bowed my head to one side to keep the wind out of my eyes. The dampness of the sand was making its way between my toes. My hair fell loose around my face, tousled, tangled, and damp.

"Why did you tell them we had sex?" I finally asked.

Niall and I were walking the shore of the beach, away from the commotion of tourist and children playing in the sand. Our feet left prints in the brown pebbles at our feet, only to disappear a moment later from the lapping ocean.

"It just came out," he explained. "I assumed they knew being your friends and all."

"I was going to tell them, I just didn't have the time yet," I explained. "The last thing I wanted was for them to find out by you, though."

"Sorry," he finally said after a stretch of silence between us.

I looked over at him. His blonde hair was slowly losing the gold tones and being replaced by a chestnut brown around the roots. His white shirt was flapping in the coastal winds and his washed out jean shorts were specked with wet sand. He was too busy looking down at his feet to pay any attention to the beauty of the ocean around him.

I nudged my shoulder with his in a silent way of telling him that it wasn't a big deal. A small smile spread on his face, exposing a tiny dimple I only had the pleasure of seeing on special occasions.

He repeated my action a little harder, making me stumble and trip over my feet. I managed to catch myself before I fell, the water up to my calves and I could feel the small grits of sand against my skin.

"Dick," I muttered before stepping back up to the shore next to him once again.

"What did you call me?" Niall asked, looking down at me with an interested look.

"You heard me."

The words barely left my lips before I was being pushed once again into the ocean, this time with enough force to make it impossible to catch myself. The worst part of it was that I wasn't out deep enough to be completely submerged, so not only was I drenched from the back-splash, but I was also covered in wet sand from head to toe - on my legs, seeping through my cardigan, and tangled in my hair.

Sitting on my butt in the shallow water, my mouth was agape with surprise and devastation as Niall stood on the shore laughing at me.

Slowly, I stood up and spread my arms wide. "Come here, I want to give you a hug."

He shook his head. "Nah, I'm okay, thanks."

I grinned and started backing up further into the ocean until the water was up to my stomach before sinking down so I was fully plunged underwater. I waited for three solid heartbeats before I broke the water's surface and peered back at Niall like an alligator watching her pray. He was standing at the edge of the shore now with his arms crossed, eyeing me suspiciously.

In one swift motion, I quickly stood to my full height and pushed a mound of ocean water at Niall all in one go. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to make him stumble back in surprise and visibly soak his shirt.

This time I was laughing as he stood with his mouth open in shock.

"You want to play this game?" he asked as he lifted his shirt over his head and dropped it on the sand. "Fine, we can play."

The only thing that left my mouth was a loud squeal as Niall joined me in the water, taking me with him as we fell, creating a large splash that made the nearby seagulls fly away. The second I bobbed back up, I gasped for air and looked around for Niall. He was a few feet away from me, the stupidest grin on his lips as he pushed his wet hair away from his face.

"You are a dick," I laughed as I started making my way back to shore.

"You started it," Niall laughed, following after me.

When I got to the beach, I flung off my drenched cardigan and wrung out the water before doing the same with my hair.

Niall's shadow fell over me and as much as I tried to restrain, I couldn't help but look at him. The water droplets sparkled on his bare chest, the shorts he was wearing drenched and hanging low on his hips from the heavy weight, exposing the band of his boxers. He'd caught the sun across his nose a little, the skin turning pink where he'd burnt slightly. His hair was slightly curling and coarse from the salty sea water. I desperately wanted to run my fingers through it, breaking up the crisp texture and returning it to its usual softness, but I resisted.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Niall smirked, taking a step toward me.

"Pictures don't do it justice."

Then he was right there in front of me. The Santa Monica waters reflected off his eyes, making them turn an unbelievable color of blue. He was grinning at me, his pink lips spread across his white teeth in a mocking tone. I had the sudden desire to kiss him, to remove that fucking smug grin from his face.

And I think he knew it because he stepped even closer, his hands reaching out to wrap around my waist. And maybe I would have let him kiss me, but at the moment, a shout came from the edge of the beach.

"It's really hard to imagine you two hating each other at one point," they yelled.

Niall stepped away from me and spun around to find Jamie standing there, her red hair pulled back in a messy bun. She was wearing a loose fitting pink tank top that was tucked into high-waist white shorts with little pink flamingos on them. Her feet were bare and she had a beach bag over her shoulders.

But she wasn't the happiest surprise on the beach. It was who was standing next to her.

"Jace!?"

He grinned at me, exposing his perfect teeth. He had black shades on but I knew the color of his eyes were bluer than the ocean. "Hey, Lynn."

"Did you know he was here?" I asked Niall.

He wiped water from his face. "No idea."

"I thought you had plans for Christmas already?" I asked Jace. "That's why you couldn't come here with me."

"This was my plan," he explained. "I already had a ticket to come here. I didn't tell you because I wanted to surprise Jamie."

"It worked," Jamie chipped in. "Scared the crap out of me."

After I learned what was going on with Jace and Hazel and how he was ignoring Jamie, I was happy to see them with each other again. They looked good together, too, in a really cute way. Jamie was short, only standing at 4'11" where Jace was over a head taller than her. They were shy with each other, I remembered that when they had first met, and I was kind of jealous. I recall thinking that what they had was healthy, which was something I wasn't familiar with being with Bradley. And I was jealous.

Jamie looked out toward the water. "We ran into Macey and Emily," she stated. "They said you killed the waves today."

I wondered if they told her about me and Niall. Then I wondered if she already knew from Jace. I hadn't told Jamie about Niall and I having sex out of fear. I didn't really know why I was scared to tell her, maybe it was because Jamie had a way to make me open up to things that were buried deep down and I was afraid for what I might discover.

"Since you're here, we should do something," Niall said. "Any fun clubs we can go to?"

"Jamie and I actually have plans for tonight," Jace informed.

"Oh, big night out on the town?" I teased. I took a seat on the beach and started rubbing my hands up and down my legs to remove the sand from my skin. "Lots of attractions to see. The Pier during the evening is fun, you should go there."

"We will, but first we have dinner reservations. Then we'll be proper tourists."

"A date?" Niall asked. "About damn time."

"And we should get going," Jamie said. "We just came over to say hi. But maybe some other time during the break we can get together and do something?"

"I still have to go see Lucy sometime," I added.

"She's been asking about you," Jamie said with a nod. "I think she'd really like for you to visit. I'll come with if you want."

"I'd like that. But you should get going. Have a fun date."

"And use protection," Niall chimed in.

I watched over my shoulder as they left. I was extremely happy for them. It's been so long since they've seen each other, they deserved this time to themselves.

"I feel like a proud mom," I told Niall as I put my cardigan back over my shoulders.

"I'm surprised Jace came here," he said, taking a seat beside me. "I really thought he would have spent his Christmas with Hazel."

I remember the way Jace acted around Hazel. He was cold and hostile, but ever since he brought her home from that coffee shop, he seemed to take a complete turn in emotions toward her. I knew of Jace's past with her and I was beyond worried for Jamie. She had always been there for me with the Bradley issues; I really hoped I didn't have to return the favor because of Jace.

"Will he hurt Jamie?" I dared to ask.

Niall looked over at me. "It wouldn't be intentional," he started slowly. "Jace is confident, but only on the outside. Hazel found her way through his cracks once before, I wouldn't doubt it if she did it again."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"I'm not sure how much help this will be, but I'll talk to him about it."

I nodded my head slowly. "I just don't want to see her hurt. She's- she's my rock, been with me since the start of college, helped me with Bradley and other drama since I've known her. She deserves someone to treat her right."

"So do you."

Niall's eyes were different in moments like these, more soft than I knew eyes could be. They showed the kind of gentle concern Grandma used to give me whenever I come home from a long day of practice. If it were anyone else I would drop my gaze, but with him, I was drawn in closer.

"Niall..."

His eyes dropped to my lips and then back up again before he was leaning in and kissing me. A small, shocked noise vibrated out of my chest and Niall ate it up with a laugh like he could taste it. He sat back on the sand and pulled me onto his lap by the back of my thighs.

"All day," he sighed. "Ever since you walked out of your room in that skimpy bikini, I've wanted to do this."

His fingers found their way up my arms to push my swimsuit strap aside, pressing his mouth in its place. My body sank into his as I wrapped my arms around his neck between gentle pecks and deep, heart rattling embraces which left me at his mercy. I kissed his neck in encouragement as he pressed his palms against my spread thighs, up my sides, to every bit of my body he could reach. Tipping my face, I ran my tongue alongside of his and proudly dragged a moan from his throat. Niall bunched my cardigan in his fists, beaming against my lips before capturing another kiss, and then another.

"No," I shook my head and held on tight as Niall pulled away. "I'm not done."

He only stared up at me with hazy eyes and smiled. "Desperate now, aren't we? Thought you woulda stopped and told me this was a bad idea."

"We're in LA," I replied, resting my hand at the back of his neck in case he dared to move again. "No one here knows who we are."

"Now we're talking."

He skimmed his mouth over the hollow of my neck and along my jaw. Slowly, he tucked my bottom lip between his. Our teeth knocked as he smiled. He pulled my head down to lick into my mouth so suddenly that it was almost filthy. The instantaneous jolt of lust made my hips unwillingly rub against his, emitting a throaty moan from the both of us.

"I'd be careful, Princess," he teased, raising his voice to a harmonious pitch. "Don't think because we're on a public beach that I wouldn't take ya right here and now."

Trailing my hand down his chest, I looked at him with hooded eyes. My fingers stopped at the edge of his jean shorts, my thumbs running along the material until they slipped inside and rubbed the skin by his hips. I could feel him hard underneath me and I'd be lying if I said that didn't turn me on.

I leaned down and brushed my lips against his, and before Niall could even blink, my hand left his waist and grabbed a big chunk of wet sand and smashed it against his cheek.

Instantly, his mouth opened in surprise. "Was that really necessary?"

"Absolutely."

The words barely left my mouth before he had flipped us over so he was on top. I started to protest, knowing exactly what the gleam in his eye meant, but he had already took retaliation with wet sand of his own, spreading it against the side of my face and down my neck and chest.

I was about to do it to him once again, but in a flash he had gotten off me and ran away laughing like a little kid at Disney World.

Sitting up, I scooped up some more wet sand and watched as he spun around an grinned like the Cheshire Cat.

"Get back here or this is going down your pants!"

× × ×

Niall and I sat on the sand a half hour later, watching the sunset. I had begun to collectively gather seashells in a pile as he fruitfully tried to make a sandcastle only for it crumple a few minutes later from lack of support.

He was now leaning back on his hands with his legs out in front of him, looking at the fiery red orb of light slowly sink beneath the horizon. The threads of light lingering in the sky had mingled with the rolling clouds, coloring the heavens orange, red, and dark blue, until all that was left of the sunset was a chalky mauve.

We were slowly drying off from our sand revenge session and sat in silence.

The seashells in my palm were light and semi-translucent and although they were no bigger than the nail on my pinky, each one had a spirals running from the tip to the opening at the base. Inside the seashells were iridescent, shining with the colors of the ocean. Blues swirled with greens and shone prettily in the late evening sun.

"Don't you ever get scared when you surf?" Niall asked, still looking out at the sunset.

I shrugged. "Not really."

Niall looked over at me then, his now dry hair falling down across his forehead in fluffy locks. "Have you not seen the movie Soul Surfer?"

"I have," I laughed. "It's actually one of my favorite movies."

Niall pondered that information for a second before saying, "Sharks don't scare you?"

I sighed and dropped the seashells from my hand to the pile I had created between my legs. "There are more terrifying things in this world to be scared of, I guess."

I was thinking about my parents and the house fire, and I knew that Niall was thinking about that, too. I didn't have any reason to be afraid of sharks because I hadn't had any bad experiences with them, not like I had with fire. Niall knew that because he was afraid of getting hurt; something that had already happened to him and would do anything in his power to prevent that from happening again.

"How come you don't talk about Alina?" I asked.

If Niall was surprised by the subject change, he didn't show it. "The same reason you don't talk about your parents," he responded smoothly.

"Maybe that's our problem," I admitted.

Niall laughed bitterly. "I don't have a problem."

"Right, so you sleep with all those girls as a sport then?"

I saw his jaw clench, but he kept his mouth shut nevertheless. I knew bringing up his sleeping around would make him mad - it always does - but I thought that he would at least open up about it. But he just shook his head and dug his fingers into the sand.

"My complication is that I don't tell anyone what happened to my parents because there's more to the story than just a house fire," I told him. "My best friend doesn't even know what happened to them and that's the problem. She should know."

Niall stayed quiet.

I ran a hand through my damp hair. "Just tell me something about her, Niall. Anything. What was her favorite color? What did she want to go to school for? Did she have any siblings or a pet?"

Silence.

"Niall, I'm open."

This time he looked over at me. It was a tactic he used for me to open up to him about Bradley when he came to visit, so maybe it would work on him.

"You remember that metaphor, don't you?" I asked. "Back in the beginning days of practice when you wouldn't pass me the ball until you finally did for the sake of the game. Alina is the ball, and you're hogging it."

He knew the metaphor of course; he was the one who came up with it. But he wasn't so easy to break down like I was. He just sat and looked toward the water, the sun nearly down past the horizon line by now and played with a stick between his fingers.

"I don't want to talk about Alina," he finally said into the stillness.

Thinking back, I wondered where the guy I was with only a half hour ago in the ocean went. His physique was sitting beside me in the sand, but he wasn't the same person as he was in the water with me.

I didn't know Alina, but I wanted to. I wanted to know what made her leave Niall in the first place. I wanted to know what kinds of things they did together to make him look so utterly lost whenever she came up in conversation. More than anything I wanted her to know how she was making him feel right then at that moment, because it wasn't anything short of heartbroken.

I realized then that once people are cracked in certain ways, they can't ever be fixed, and that is something nobody ever tells you when you're young and in love.