Ladies and gentlemen, this is why Karen Reynolds is the best mother in the world:

"Mom don't get mad, please. I swear this is the first and last time I sneak out. We just wanted to do something fun before I left and...I'm sorry. I won't go if you don't want me to."

A normal mom would have given me a lecture about the dangers of going out at three in the morning and would've most likely grounded me until senior year but since in my family we are anything but normal she just started laughing. And not a small laugh, no. She was laughing so hard that I wouldn't be surprised if our neighbors got nightmares that night.

I looked at her with a very confused face. She stopped laughing and breathed in. "You should've seen the look on your face! It was priceless. Go with your friends, enjoy. If you get in trouble with the police call me after ten."

I tried to process what just happened. "Wait, you're not mad?" She laughed again. "Shawn told me the plan for tonight. He told me so that I wouldn't be worried when I saw you were missing in the morning. So no, I'm not mad. Be careful honey, there are crazy people in the streets at night. And don't even bother going out the window. Be normal for once and go out the door."

I left my apartment more confused than I'd ever been in my life. So first my boyfriend tells on me and then my mom let's me "sneak out" at three in the morning. That's just plain weird.

I got inside Vincent's truck and Vincent, John, Michael and Shawn all looked at me. "What took you so long?" I sighed. "My mom caught me but she didn't care. Where are the girls?" Vincent started the engine and started driving to the beach. "They went to pick up the twins on Ashley's car." said John. I nodded.

"You know a normal girl would think it's dangerous to get in a blue pick up truck with four guys at three in the morning." Michael laughed. "Please, a normal girl would kill to be in a car with four hot guys like us at this hour." I turned my head over to him.

"Are you implying I'm not normal?" Shawn laughed from the front seat. "I think it's no secret that you're not the most normal girl in the planet." I slapped him slightly. "I'm normal!" This time the four of them laughed almost like they were friends since they were babies. "Yeah, because normal people hide their feelings from the person they like when they know they like them back." I glared at John. "That's not fair. You hated Shawn! I was just trying to not get you guys to hate me."

Vincent looked at me from the rear view mirror. "See, that's where you're wrong. We wouldn't have hated you if you'd gone out with Shawn from the beginning. We told you, you're weird for thinking that but we love you just the way you are. You're our weirdo."

Why did it take me so long to realize that my friends were such amazing people? It's like just when I'm about to leave I finally realize how much they to mean to me and how much I mean to them.

When I first moved, one of the first things I noticed from my apartment was that the beach was really close. At least the public beach. Vincent's uncle's part of the beach was way farther from where parked the cars and the worst part? We had to walk that long distance.

We were still walking to the private beach when I started getting closer to Shawn. "You remember when yesterday you said "I love you"?" He nodded, though I could tell he was blushing. Stupid darkness, I love watching him blush.

"Well I love you too, so don't worry about stuttering and becoming nervous next time you say it." I put my hand in his and we continued to walk in silence.

Michelle heard us talking and walked over to us. "Don't you think it's weird that you've been together for a few days and you're already saying you love each other?" Both Shawn and I rolled our eyes. "We've been boyfriend and girlfriend for a few days, yes, but we've been friends for much longer and as far as I know you can love a friend the same as you can love a boyfriend. For instance, I love all of you the same way I love Shawn. See?" She nodded and kept walking. Maybe sometimes I should just keep my lectures to myself.

After fifteen minutes of walking in complete darkness we finally arrived at our destination. It was probably the cleanest part of the whole beach, no wonder it was private.

"Did any of you guys bring a cup?" We looked at Michael with a confused look. "Jeez, I just wanted to make a sandcastle, what a way to make me feel bad." I laughed.

I looked around the beach and found what I was looking for. I reached inside the trash can and took out a red cup. "Does this work?"

If I could just describe the look on Tamara's face you'd get why I threw sand at her but since I can't then you'll just think I'm a bad person.

The bad thing of being the first one to throw sand, especially to Tamara, is that I was attacked by her and her boyfriend. And trust me, being sand attacked isn't nice. Especially when you're wearing shorts and...well, you get the picture. There was sand everywhere.

What started as simple revenge quickly turned into a huge sand fight and let me tell you there's nothing fun about a sand fight. Well, it is fun until the sand hits someone in the eye. Or more specifically Michael, who cries and screams like a little girl when he's in pain.

John and Kasey were trying calm Michael down when we heard it. Sirens. Vincent looked at each one of us and whispered, "Run!"

We ran in different directions. I ran to where Vincent's truck was and then it happened again. I tripped on air.

This time though, instead of just falling I put my right hand on the ground in order to soften my fall. Bad idea. As soon as my hand hit the ground I felt pain shoot up from my hand to my wrist. I yelled and some how Shawn appeared next to me.

He tried helping me up when they lit the flashlights in our faces. Why is it that I was caught twice that night?

*

An hour later we were all sitting in a police office waiting room while they talked to Vincent's uncle.

Vincent's uncle, Tom Mathews (a.k.a the owner of the biggest hotel in The Town) came out of the interrogation room.

A police man walking behind him shot us a glare. "You are all free to go. Ms Reynolds, I'd suggest you get that wrist looked at." And he left.

Vincent stood up and looked at us. "So guys, this has been fun. When's the next dumb thing?" I breathed in trying to calm my anger down. "Never. If I broke my hand then as soon as I get a cast I will hit you with it." Vincent's nervous face was quickly replaced with a fearful face.

In fifteen minutes Vincent drove me to the hospital where I met my mom.

"When I told you not to call me if you got in trouble with the police I was joking. It wasn't a suggestion." I gave my mom a weak smile. "I'm sorry." She hugged me and said, "You're grounded for two weeks. Give me your phone." I sighed and gave her my phone. That's what you get for doing stupid, illegal things.

By nine in the morning my hand was in cast, I'd broken my wrist. Some luck I have. My mom and I drove home to find my friends all sitting in the living room. "So this is a public house now? Good to know." My mom laughed to herself and entered her room.

"Okay so, explain to me one more time how did you break your wrist while falling." said John trying hard not to laugh. "I was running and tripped on air. When I was falling I put my hand down, I still don't know why, and my wrist took all of my weight."

Their reactions were a mix of "oohs" and "oww", except Michael's. "Wow, then I can see why you broke it then." I glared at him. "Are you implying that I'm fat?" He shook his head very fast. "No, no. What I'm saying is that you have a lot of muscle so you have lot of weight." I gave him a fake sigh and put my hand in his face. "No. What you said is not forgiven. Talk to the hand."We all laughed at my sudden surge of immaturity, even my mom who we all thought was not listening to our conversation.

"Is anyone else hungry? Emma, do you think your mom will kill us if you ask her if we can go eat?" Vincent looked at me with fear in his face. He'd known my mom ever since we were kids and had always been scared of her for I don't know what reason.

I thought about the probabilities of me being grounded until college if I asked her to go out. The chances were pretty damn high, but who likes to miss the fun of hanging out with your friends?

Tamara's face lit up. "What if I ask her? We could go to the park that's near here and eat. Maybe we won't get in trouble." I glared at my best friend and then at the rest of my friends. "If I get in trouble again I swear I won't talk to you guys again." Ashley tried but failed to control her laughter. "Please, we already got caught by the police and you broke your wrist, nothing worse can happen. Trust me." We all turned our heads towards her. John shook his head in a dramatic way. "How do you know, Ms Evans?" Her face turned into a red more vibrant than the shirt John was wearing and we all exploded in laughter. Those are my favorite moments.

*

A few minutes after Tamara convincing my mom to let me go to the park, the girls were waiting at the park for the boys to arrive with our food.

Normally I would restrain myself from acting so much like an animal in a public place but when I saw how excited my friends were about the playground I couldn't help but join them in the fun.

I saw Ashley sitting alone on the swing with her look somewhere in the distance, she was deep in thought. "Hey" She looked up and smiled. I sat down on the swing beside her. "Can we talk?" She nodded. "Well usually a talk includes words..." She laughed at my dumb comment. "Okay, sorry. What's up?"

I searched for the right words to say, words that would get her on full on bitch mode but they didn't come. She looked at me expectingly. It was now or never.

"Have you thought about forgiving James?" She sighed and rolled her eyes. She swung her swing a little stronger, trying to evade my question. "Yes, I have thought about it but I don't think I can." I stopped swinging and looked at her. "But what if you just try. Or even just talk to him. You don't lose anything. He's not a bad person, he's just a dumb teenage boy caught up in the fun and adrenaline of parties and hormones. And yes, now that I say it out loud I realize that maybe that's not really good but my point is that we're young and stupid and we make mistakes. You can't get caught up in a few mistakes he made because I'm sure you did some too. He's changing for the better Ashley, and he's doing it for you. What's the loss if you at least talk to him?" I breathed in deeply after that mouthful.

She stared at me as if I was crazy, I'd never been one for somewhat mature answers. "Look Emma, I appreciate what you're trying to do and I'm happy that you and Shawn found happiness and forgiveness in each other. I really am. But I don't think I'll find that in James, I'm sorry."

She had tears in her eyes and I realized I'd pushed her too hard. Maybe the cold hearted truth isn't always the answer.

I decided to join Tami and the twins who were on the little platform beside the slide sitting and talking. I climbed up the slide and popped my head from inside of it. "May I join?" They laughed at my hilarious entrance. Tamara gestured for me to come up. I sat down beside her.

I started to pay attention in order to find where to fit in. They were talking about Tami's current relationship with her dad and step family.

"So how are things going then?" I asked. Her small smile turned into a big, bright smile. "Everything's...perfect. Now that he's helping me and my mom things have been great. Mom hasn't had any drugs since early December and she got back on track with her job. My dad has been of great help at home, I even refer to him as dad now! He even took my out to ice cream last week. It's like I'm spending all the time I didn't spend with him before. He's finally become the father I never had."

I wrapped my arms around my best friend. She released herself from my grip and wiped away her tears. "Enough about me. So, Kasey, a little bird told me that you have a huge crush on John." The blush on Ashley's face earlier was nothing compared the bright red Kasey had somehow made appear on her face. You'd think that having a darker skin town would hide the change of color a little but she was blushing so hard that her skin color didn't make a difference

Ashley appeared out of nowhere and gasped. "Oh my God! You like John?" Kasey's blush became stronger. "Is it that obvious?" Michelle laughed loudly. "Nah, I just told Tami in case she knew if he liked you back." Kasey tensed and looked ready to slap her twin sister's smile right off her face.

As twins, Michelle and Kasey Rivers were nothing alike. Michelle was blond and had light skin while Kasey had light brown hair and darker skin. I'd never met their parents but from what I've been told Michelle got her dad's features and Kasey got her mom's.

Before Kasey got time to respond the boys arrived and scared the crap out of us when John, very calmly, said, "Who likes who back?" We looked between each other debating what to do next. "No one. Nobody likes no one." Kasey was always a quick thinker. John smiled. "Nice to meet you no one, I'm nobody." Kasey's jaw dropped and John's smiled became wider. The rest of us were in a state of shock.

Michael stepped forward. "Slow down a bit. How come us," he pointed to Vincent and himself, "your two best friends, didn't know you liked our best friend?" John looked down with guilt. "Yeah about you guys being my best friends..." And before he could even finish his sentence he was already pinned to the ground by his two best friends. "I'm kidding, I swear!" Both Vincent and Michael laughed and high-fived each other. The girls rolled our eyes.

I looked around to find Shawn but I couldn't find him anywhere. Vincent looked at me confused and then he lit up like a lightbulb. "Oh right. Shawn left because something about his dad telling him to go home or something." I nodded but brushed it off quickly.

We were all starting eating the food that the boys brought, cheese pizza. My phone vibrated and I took it out of my pocket to see who had texted me when Tamara spoke. "Who thinks Ashley should forgive or at least talk to James?" Half of my friends nearly choked on their pizza thanks to Tamara's random outburst. Ashley coughed. "What?" Tamara nodded confidently. "What I said. Raise your hand if Ash should talk to him."

We looked between each other, asking ourselves if what we were hearing was right. When we were sure we weren't dreaming we all raised our hand. Ashley breathed heavily and slowly. "Fine. But if I do then you girls have to cut your hair up to your shoulders. And don't come with your excuses that "what if I don't like it?" Suck it, if I have to talk to James then you can do something as simple as cutting your hair.

Ashley knew how weird the twins and I were about our hair, to us our hair was everything. It was what most times made an outfit look good and it was amazing for events in which our hair could be our accessory, and she was using this against us.

Before Kasey or Michelle could even protest I held my hand for Ashley to shake, "Deal."

Taking advantage that they were now talking about relationships (Vincent and Tamara, Kasey and John...) I discreetly grabbed my phone and looked at the text that appeared when I turned my phone on.

I looked at the message in the middle of my screen and tried processing what it could mean.

It was a text message from Shawn that read:

You need to come to your house now. No time to explain

A/N

I'm just loving these cliffhangers!

The media is a song I think goes perfect with the first part of the chapter!

A quick note, I might not post a new chapter for probably two weeks (the most). I'm sorry but I have three tests coming up these two weeks and two of those are two of my worst grades and I really need to concentrate on school first of all, sorry:(

It makes me so sad to think that there are only FIVE CHAPTERS LEFT😭 I feel like it was only yesterday when I posted the first chapter...

Well that's enough talk for today, please don't killl me. I'll make the last chapters worth the wait. 

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