Complacent [Duplicity Niall]

The sun is high, the waves are crashing, and the sand is literally melting my feet off as I walk alongside the boys. Who decided we should go to the beach at nine am? This is cruel and unusual punishment.

I tug my oversized t-shirt down over my bikini, adjusting my sunglasses like that’s going to protect me from this godforsaken heat. Spoiler: it doesn’t. Louis and Liam, however, don’t seem to notice that we’re all actively cooking. They’ve already gravitated toward a group of girls near the volleyball net, looking like a pair of golden retrievers who just spotted a group of tennis balls.

It’s like watching sharks sniff out blood, except way less graceful. Louis is already cracking some joke that has the girls giggling, while Liam just stands there, flashing that stupid charming smile like he’s in a toothpaste commercial

And, of course, Niall follows.

I sigh, hands on my hips, watching as Niall throws his head back laughing at something one of the girls said. I know that laugh. It’s the I’m-pretending-you’re-funnier-than-you-actually-are laugh. Classic.

Yeah. No way am I third-wheeling this mess.

So, I do the logical thing and wander off. I walk toward the water, the cool waves lapping at my toes, and scan the beach. There’s a group of kids building some elaborate sandcastle kingdom to my left, a couple making out aggressively on a towel to my right (seriously, get a room), and—oh.

I spot a familiar face.

“Ashton?”

He turns at the sound of his name, and, yep, it’s him—Ashton, the ridiculously tan, perpetually laid-back guy I’ve seen at a few parties before. He’s standing near a surfboard, hands in his swim trunks, looking like he was born to be on a beach.

“Madi,” he grins, giving me a once-over. “Didn’t think I’d see you here. You know i havent seen you since that party- In Daytona.”

Oh. That party. The one where I may or may not have had one too many drinks and spent an embarrassingly long amount of time trying to convince Calum to let me put eyeliner on him. (He did not let me. Tragic.)

"Yeah, sounds about right," I say, trying to act casual. "That was… a night."

He nods toward Louis, Liam, and Niall, who are still very much in full frat boy mode with the volleyball girls. "Lukie told everybody you got some chaos going on."

I snort. "Oh, trust me, I’m avoiding that chaos. Im only here for Miami, then going straight home."

"Good call," he says. "So, you surf?"

I blink. "Do I look like I surf?"

He tilts his head, pretending to assess me. "You give off potential surfer energy. Like, maybe if you lived here, you'd be one of those girls who always has sand in her hair and drinks coconut water for fun."

I fake a dramatic sigh. "Damn. And here I was, trying to give off cool, mysterious city girl vibes."

He laughs, shaking his head. "Nah, you seem cooler than half the people in the city. You just need to learn how to ride a wave."

And okay, I won’t lie. It’s nice talking to someone who isn’t trying to flirt in the most painfully obvious way. It’s light, it’s fun, and it’s—

Easy.

We start talking, and it’s easy. Ashton’s got that whole chill, surfer energy, which, honestly, is kind of refreshing. No games, no dramatics, just casual conversation about the ocean, music, and whether or not I could survive learning how to surf. (Spoiler alert: I could not.)