Chapter One

The music blared as I took another sip from my bottle of beer. I was practically grinding on my chair as I pumped my fist to the beat. I wanted to dance so badly. Sweat was beading at the crown of my head as the screams from people attempting to have a conversation swirled around me. I wasn't paying any attention, though. I was more concerned with my adrenaline and the green bottle in my hand.

Somebody interrupted me taking my chair to third base. "Oi, Ally." They raised their cup to get my attention. My skin was so hot I swear you could have fried an egg on it.

"What?" The club reeked badly of sweat and whatever had died in the bathroom. Or maybe that was the food they served here.

They grinned cheekily. "What do you drink for?" I was hanging with the crowd that was a bit more rambunctious than most, and they asked these sort of questions a lot. Mostly to get you to drink even more.

"Me?" I blinked around at them in mock innocence, batting my heavily mascara-ed eyelashes. "I drink to forget him." Everybody cheered as I raised my bottle. "Let's dance!" I screeched, plugging my thumb in my beer and moving to the dance floor to grind on an actual person.

No one ever said forgetting couldn't be a little fun.

*****

"I'd rather shrivel up and drop dead."

"Please?"

"Not in a million fucking years!" Lizzie gave me a pleading look. I stuck a hand to my forehead. I was horribly hung-over from last night and my head was throbbing. My eyes squinted against the sunlight pouring in through the window, cursing the curtains for being open at such an unfortunate hour.

"Allison!" She uses my full name purposely.

"Elizabeth!" I retort. My entire body was sore, as a matter of fact. See, that's the thing people don't tell you about sleeping on a sofa-bed. They're wretched on your spinal cord.

"Ally, please. You're my best friend and I'm asking you for a favor. I let you live in my apartment for Christ's sake!"

"I thought you liked having me here!" I attempted to change the subject. I didn't think it would really work, but I was using any ability to my advantage. I'd fight tooth and nail on this, if necessary. There was no way she could make me go.

Lizzie and I were in her room, discussing just exactly how I would be spending my summer. Well, I guess it was her and Niall's now. I sat cross legged on her bed while she stood across the room in front of the dresser, smartly keeping her distance from me to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

She sighed. "I do, it's just I could be living here with just my boyfriend. Not my boyfriend and my best friend. Which is why you should do this teeny thing for me."

"This really isn't that teeny and you know it." I'm a stubborn chit, but you've probably figured that out by now.

She moved closer to where I was sitting, the bed sinking slightly with her added weight. "Allison. Niall asked me to come on the European part of the tour with him and the boys. They will be drinking and swearing and farting. Plus, all of your friends will be gone because we'll be on tour. Please don't make me do this alone! I love Niall but I can't be around that much testosterone all at once." Lizzie was almost laughably blunt at all times, and if nothing else it was never boring.

"I have other friends than you, you know."

"Do not." She shot me a look, and I had no room to argue. I really didn't have other close friends besides her and Niall. It was just me and my textbooks.

"But-"

"You and I both know you have nothing better to do before Uni starts in the fall. Have an adventure, Ally!" she cut me off before I could finish my argument. Not that I needed to. She knew exactly why I didn't want to go, and yet here she was, being the optimist, still trying to convince me.

I glared at her.

To a normal person, this would be the part where she was starting to make a lot of sense. And truthfully, she was. I really didn't have much else to do this summer besides my job at the coffee shop, and they were pretty flexible with their employees coming and going as necessary. I just wasn't ready to give in. The thought of spending my summer with him for two months was enough to send me running for the hills, and I'm on the anti-anything- athletic committee. It was nauseating, in fact.

Unfortunately, Lizzie still had a few tricks up her sleeve as she played her trump card. "Besides, if you go, you can rub it in his face that you have a new beau all you want." She smirked at me.

Best friends are a good and bad thing. Good, because they take you in after you break up with your live-in boyfriend. Bad, because they know exactly how to get you to agree to something. The thought of smashing my good fortune in his face was all I needed to hear for me to throw logic out the window and forget all the reasons that this was a bad idea.

He tended to do that. Make me forget all of my logic, I mean. I was supposed to have forgotten about him by now. More than a year would be enough time, you'd think. But when his best friend dates your best friend, they tend to keep popping up all. The. Goddamn. Time. If not in person, at least in conversation. In what they did last night. In a funny joke they told at the studio. In the mother-fricking Tube ads on my ride to school!

Hence why I was nursing a bad hangover, I needed something that was on my side.

Lizzie changed her expression to her puppy dog eyes, which she is way too good at. Not to mention the fact that they're big and brown and so damn cute and convincing. She gets me every time.

A smile crept across my face at the thought. It sounded pretty good, the thought of me making his life miserable. Proving that I didn't need him, that I could be in a functional relationship that didn't end with broken teapots and even more shattered hearts. What better way to show him that it was his fault. Which it was.

What can I say? There's something deliciously enticing about revenge. And don't you dare judge me, none of you would be any better and you know it.

I paused for a second. "Okay," I said finally.

Lizzie shrieked with delight and threw her arms around my shoulders. "Thank you thank you thank you! I love you sooo much!" Yeah, she was a lot. But I loved her to death.

I blew out some air. "You'd better. Geez, the things I do for you." She was still smiling. "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow," she said sheepishly.

"Lizzie!"

"I was afraid if I told you earlier you'd back out!" See what I mean about knowing me too well? That is exactly what I would have done.

"And just what am I supposed to tell Zach?" I was supposed to spend my summer with him, going to the sea and the movies and spending time getting to know each other better. Growing our relationship and all that shit, whatever people called it. His idea, not mine.

You might say I wasn't the typical girlfriend.

"I may or may not have dropped by his flat yesterday and told him you were coming. Did I mention how much I love you?" Of course she did. Lizzie had probably even thought of what she was going to say to me hours ago.

"Not nearly as often as you should." In all reality, Lizzie tells me she loves me about every day. But I think I have some room to complain when she was forcing me to abandon my boyfriend and spend my summer on a tiny tour bus with my ex. "But at the first sign of trouble I'm coming home. Make sure he knows that."

Lizzie nodded. Six weeks, how bad could it be?

Wait, don't answer that.

*****

I carefully placed a t-shirt in my suitcase, already getting to work since I only had a few hours to pack. My blood was boiling. Spending two months with him. In teeny weeny metal box on wheels with no room to escape on the chance that he would drive me bonkers. Which he would. I knew he would. Somehow he managed to get under my skin and I could never quite figure out why. There was just something about him.

How the hell did Lizzie get me to agree to this? Maybe I could finally convince Louis to boot him out of the band.

My mobile rang and I jumped to answer it. "Hello?"

"Hi." I knew it was Zach just by the sound of his voice. He was my latest victim, I mean boyfriend. Don't ask me what he sees in me, I don't get it either.

"So I hear you're going on tour." Zach and I met at Uni. He was in my Chem class (go ahead, make the joke. We have chemistry together) and one day we were assigned as partners for a project. And that was it really, I guess. He started bringing me coffee every day, and one day just asked me out. Simple as that.

I like that about him. Nothing is complicated. He's good for me, and we kind of fit together, as crazy as it seems. We just make sense. And he was just about the sweetest guy in the entire world.

I chuckled. "Yeah. Apparently Niall can't spend a day without his lady love." I'm pretty sure that Niall believed the sun shone on Lizzie's arse. It was adorable and she deserved every bit, but still, it was a lot when you lived with it every day.

It was a little weird to have my two best friends dating, to be honest. I mean, I had wanted them together since grade school but it felt odd now that it was actually happening. Now that I was awkwardly third wheeling their entire life. But who was I to complain when cheap rent was involved.

"How long are you going to be gone?" He sounded a bit remorseful and I smiled a bit. Zach was so sweet like that. He was polite, centered. He helped me keep my feet on the ground.

He was good at fixing things. Unbelievably smart, I thought that maybe he could fix me after everything that had happened. And I was right. And he was nothing like him. I can give you a list of why Zach was ten times better than he would ever be. Just give me three hours to write down every single reason as to why he's an asshole. Do you have a pen?

"Six weeks." I don't even know what I ever saw in him. I started angrily folding clothing and throwing it in the bag, holding my phone between my cheek and my shoulder. God, I feel so naive when I remember it. What was I even thinking?

"I'll miss you." What's especially bad is he knows me. Like Lizzie. He knows just what to say to get under my skin. It made me want to gag, and the hangover wasn't helping.

"Ally?" I shook myself a little. You see? You see what he does to me? I can't even have a normal conversation with my boyfriend. Just one slip of the min about him and I was able to lose my train of thought and head off on a tangent. "Are you still there?"

"I'll miss you too," I replied. Zach was always able to bring me back down to earth. I liked that about him.

"Just don't have too much fun without me, ya hear?" I giggled.

"I won't, I promise."

"See you when you get back, beautiful. Don't get to crazy."

"Bye," I said as I hung up the phone. With him there, I wasn't making any promises.

*****

The next morning I walked across the car park to the bus. It was early, about 6:00, so it was safe to say I wasn't the happiest camper in the world. I have a theory that no one is really happy at six am. Granted some were worse than others. Namely, Lizzie.

I pulled my bag behind me, glancing at the large photo that ran along the side on the vehicle. It was still a little dark since the sun hadn't fully come up yet, but I could still make it out. One Direction, it read in large bubble letters. He was to the left.

Already there was a line of girls along the fence besides the building, hoping to get a glimpse of their idols. Just a smile or a touch or a wink would make their entire year. Didn't they have anything better to do with their lives than scream about my arsehole of an ex?

They say he could have any girl in the world. Except one, the girl he screwed over one too many times. And I proudly hold that title.

Seriously, somebody should make me a sash. My favorite color is red.

I was about to open the door when someone beat me to the punch, pulling it from the inside. And there he was. Grinning that stupid grin, running a hand through those stupid curls. Harry.

"Hello, love. Miss me already?"

Hey there, it's me again. Hope you liked Chapter One! I'll probably peace out from here on out, but because we're all here because of a bunch of handsome musicians, I'll include a lil song at the bottom that captures the vibe of the chapter. For this one, it's Just the Girl by The Click Five.

Don't forget to vote, comment and share this story if you like it! I usually reply to all the comments, come at me with your thoughts.

Xoxo (okay sorry I'm done with the Gossip Girl references),

Michaela