When the apple ringtone bursts to life from the back pocket of my jeans, it makes both of us jump. It was up on full volume, and we'd been quiet in the car for the last ten minutes after the awkwardness of my latest bomb. Neither me nor Chase knew what to say, and I don't really think either of us really wanted to say anything anyways.

I grinned apologetically as I dug it out and slid my finger across the screen to take the call. I didn't even bother looking at the caller ID, willing to talk to anyone rather than stew in suffocating silence. "Hello?" I sat into the phone timidly, waiting to see who had called.

The person on the other end immediately responds, their voice monotone as they give me almost rehearsed information. I don't recognize the voice, but it's obvious where the call is coming from. I groan when they tell me why they've called, rolling my eyes as I internally groan and wrinkle my nose in annoyance.

I'd started this day hoping for a nice, relaxing Saturday. And now I was just hoping to get back home and do what I'd originally planned: sit around all day binge watching Netflix. Was it too much to ask for?

"Fuck," I mutter under my breath, the curse slipping from my lips before I can even think to watch my mouth with authority on the other side of the line.

This is such a pain in my ass.

My evident frustration makes Chase glance toward me with a curious look, eyebrow raised in question and also amusement. I smack his arm and point towards the road, reprimanding him. We don't need to get into an accident just because Chase is nosy.

"Thank you, officer, we'll be there," I say as I end the call, sighing as I run a hand through my hair, tugging lightly at the strands.

"Officer?" Chase's surprise shows through his tone, but I don't bother looking at his face to confirm any reactions. He's no stranger from these kinds of calls. Hell, he's been the reason behind a few before. But I have to keep in mind that Chase is still a slight stranger to me now. I'm not the same girl I was back then, but for now, that person is all he knows. "What exactly were you talking about?"

I ignore the question, not willing to deal with the headache. If I answer one thing, it will only give him more questions to fire at me, and I don't need that.

"Please head to the police station. We need to pick someone up." I sigh as I lean back against the seat, dragging my hands down my face as I drop my phone to my lap haphazardly. Chase looks worried for me, but does what I ask of him, immediately switching lanes to head in the right direction.

He does a mock two-finger salute, face stern as he makes his voice go lower. "Yes, ma'am."

The corner of my lips quirk up into a smile just the slightest bit.

***

If you put a blindfold on me, stuck me in the police station and told me to find something, I could probably do it with little problem. That's how many times I've been there.

I'm well acquainted with a lot of the staff by this point, well enough that they'd basically send me home with a muffin basket and an order to say hi to my mother for them.

I'm not lying, they've done it before.

When I stroll in through the entrance, there are already several people who greet me upon entering before they continue on with their work. They can guess why I'm here without being told. There's only two possible options, and since I'm not the one in cuffs this time, they can figure it out for themselves.

Chase gives me a bewildered look, asking with his eyes, how often do you come for them to know you on first name basis? It's a rhetorical of course. He can act stupid sometimes, but he's not dense.

"Can I see Ellie Williams? I ask the lady up front. "Please, Margaret," I add, when I remember her pet peeve over forgetting manners.

Chase gives me a another curious look.

It takes her a moment before she looks up from her computer, squinting through the glasses lazily resting on her nose. It takes her pushing her glasses up the bridge of nose and her nose scrunching in thought - which just making the glasses slide back down - before she finally recognizes me. A smile makes its way onto her face at the familiarity before they drift to the boy beside me, looking a little surprised. I can tell she vaguely remembers Chase as well.

Chase had his own fair share of run ins when it came to the officers of this town. That was way back when my brother was around to help create twice as much trouble with the two of them taking the reigns. But by now, most have moved on from then, more concerned with today's troubles.

Besides, Chase looks a little different anyways. He's taller than when he left, more buff, and he wears his hair a little differently. Maybe they didn't know him well enough to recognize him.

Margaret smiles at me, before sighing. "You really oughta stop visiting, it ain't healthy."

As she often joked, Margaret wasn't getting any younger. Grey hairs were speckled through her brown, almost auburn hair, the laugh lines on her skin more pronounced as the days went on. She was a beauty when she was younger - something I knew courtesy of the pictures she liked to boast about the old times - and that gracefulness had carried on to her older years.

She'd stayed working around here because it made it easier to watch out for her husband, who was one of the cops. While crime rate was extremely low, it didn't stop her from worrying.  

One would think that a job like this one would pull her down after so long. Boring desk work while dealing with all the bad things in the town. It should've made her age faster, make her grow duller, but it hadn't.

Margaret never acted her age. Always witty, flamboyant, and tough enough to make a kid crack. She kept in the loop of things, always one of the first to know, which constantly made me wonder if she was the grandmother of one of the Barbie Dolls.

"At least it's not me in the slammer this time." I smile at her innocently. Most of the time it wasn't anyways. I was always better at not getting caught than a lot of my friends, and I ran faster, too.

"Oh, but you will be soon enough, if I know you. And I do," she grumbles. I laugh at her words, knowing she was bound to be right.

"So what's Ellie dealing with here?" I asked her, the smile dropping from my lips as my eyebrows furrowed. Hopefully it wasn't something awful.

Margaret sighed again. "Nothing that's too bad. Spent a few hours in the slammer to be taught a lesson, but now she just needs to get picked up and pay a fee." I nodded, not bothering to ask for more. I'd press Ellie for answers when we got to her, it's her story to tell anyways.

All of the kids in this town got off easy, the people around here were just really nice. A lot of the officers around here used to be the just like troublesome kids that constantly came in here today. Teenagers were known to be reckless, and the officers didn't mind it too much as long as we kept out of too much trouble. Unless it became a serious or repeated offense, us kids were let go of with consequences smaller than we ought to have.

"Make sure the fee is paid from my account," I told her, and she nodded before returning to her computer work. I give her a small thanks before I turn and begin walking, Chase following behind me.

"Officer Lankwood will be coming around soon to unlock her cell, hun," she informed me, and I waved at her in acknowledgement as I walked away.

I didn't care about the money, didn't even care if it was a high number. Ellie was my friend I knew for a fact that no one was going to be missing the money. My mother trusted me enough not to constantly checking into my accounts, and I highly doubt my father gave a shit as to how I spend the money he gives out. He's got plenty more where it comes from.

"So far, very interesting," Chase says, his tone laced with amusement.

"We're here to bail out a friend, not make commentary," I snap, eyes narrowing at him a little.

His hands flew up, palms towards me as he fell back a few steps in surrender. I huffed, rolling my eyes before I made my way to the cells.

When we get there, we find Ellie sitting in the first cell, where she and some other guy in the third cell are the only ones there. She looks utterly bored as she sits with her back against the wall, her fingernails tapping against the bars, the other hand twirling a piece of long, brown hair in her fingers.

She's wearing shorts and a tank top, her pink toenails obvious with her flip flops and a pair of sunglasses hanging from her shirt. If that wasn't enough to tell me she'd come from the beach, then the grains of sand that littered both her clothes and the cell would've been a good enough hint.

I approached her cell, Chase coming to a stop behind me and going to lean against a wall. It's clear he doesn't want to be here, but the look on his face tells me he's more bored than bothered.

"Ellie," I say, exasperation in my tone. It wasn't like I normally really cared whether or not my friends landed themselves in here. I'd been in trouble my fair share of times and had no right to be acting high or mighty.

But right now I felt tired, and I really just wanted to go to bed already, I didn't care if it was too early. I wasn't in the mood to deal with jail, so if I could just get her out and back home I could back to my own house quicker.

Her head snapped up at the sound of my voice, face lighting up with an emotion other than boredom. She scrambled to stand up, using the bars for support. She pressed closer to the bars as she talked to me, as if doing so would make her that much closer to liberty.

"Oh good, they actually called you. I was almost pretty sure they were going to call my parents instead." I smiled at her, knowing the consequences if her parents had discovered she'd been in trouble again. How much convincing it took on her part for them not to call her parents, I had no clue, but I was glad that she'd done so. One more mistake and they'd threatened boarding school, something she knew she couldn't fight if push came to shove.

"Mind telling me what happened while we wait for somebody to get you out of here?" I crossed my arms and rose a brow at her expectantly, feeling like a parent.

"Thanks for coming, by the way," she started off. "Look, alright, we didn't know and we just weren't paying attention at all, really. And thank you again for coming and not making me call my parents."

"Woah, hold up," I said, putting my palm up to make her stop her rambling. "Ellie, who's we?" My eyes narrowed at her. Who else did she drag into this? Was it one of our friends?

My eyes drift the other person here, wondering if I knew them but just wasn't paying attention. It was clear that he'd been the accomplice to whatever they were doing. He was sporting the same sandy look that Ellie was.

"Hey," he greets gruffly, lazily waving his hand.

I don't know him, and I don't even think he goes to our school. He reminds me of one of the surfer dudes that always litters around during the summer weather. He has wavy blond hair that needs a haircut, and some of it falls in front of his eyes as he goes to run a hand through it. Lean muscles are on show with his sleeveless shirt on, the board shorts to further my assumption of him being a surfer. He has a strong jaw, and a nose that looks like it's been broken before, and yet doesn't look awful.

If I had any doubt what they were doing together before, one look at him and I do now.

"Yeah, um hi," I say awkwardly. Chase doesn't even say anything, just glances at the guy with disinterest written all over his face.

I turn my attention back to Ellie, who is biting her lip, her fingernails back to tapping against the metal bars. I put my hand overtop her fingers to stop the sound, giving her an expectant look.

She takes in a deep breath in preparation. Ellie isn't typically no nerve wracked the last times she'd been in the cell, but I understood the fear she'd held this time, and made myself patiently wait as she gave me me an answer.

"I know what you must be thinking," she said, her lips twitching into the beginnings of a smile, "and we didn't get caught having sex in a public beach or anything, I swear. We all learned that lesson after Savannah." I shake my head and let out a sigh as it turns into a breathy laugh at the memory of one of our friends.

"Yes, we definitely don't want a repeat of that," I comment, nodding my head and fighting the smile from my face so I wouldn't crack up.

Savannah was one of our friends, a free-spirited type of girl that graduated last year but was pretty good with us. Once senior year hit and she'd already been admitted into the colleges she needed to, she'd thrown caution to the wind in hopes of one more fun filled year worth remembering. Her beach escapade had been one among many decisions we'd always remember.

She'd ventured out onto the beach with some other senior guy, and it was at this part of the story that she'd explain she'd always wanted to have sex on the beach while the sun set. Though everyone had always thought that meant having property by the beach, not what she'd gone ahead and done. By the time the sun was setting and people were packing up, they were both insanely indecent, drunk of their asses, and 'engaged in activity', accomplishing just what Savannah had wanted.

Of course there were complaints, it was inevitable. They streamed in from everyone who came by until somebody just decided to call the cops to get them out. I could remember so many talking about having heard it or seen it, the number almost astounding.

Simply put, Savannah had always had good stamina.

"We trespassed onto private grounds is all, but we didn't even know," Ellie defended, biting her lips again. "We were distracted and the sign was small and well...here we are." She gestured lazily between her and surfer dude.

"Yeah you tend to miss stuff like that when you're busy sucking somebody's face off." I meant to come off as stern, a figure of authority, but the amusement escaped into my tone before I could think anything of it. She smiled brightly at me in return.

"Look, this is all fine. You're my friend so I paid your damn fee for it, but I sure as hell hope you don't want me to pay for your make-out buddy, too."

"Well I love you too, sweetheart," he calls out from the cell, dripping with sarcasm.

I make no hesitation to flip him off, showing just how much I don't give a fuck.

"Well you're just a ray of sunshine, aren't you?"

"God, Jake, just shut the fuck up, already." Ellie sounds exasperated, turning to the buff blond with irritation. "All you've been doing is complaining. Here's something, you're a shitty kisser, your pick up line was tacky, and your mouth is bigger than your brain. The only good thing about you is your face."

"Well, you sure didn't want me to shut up earlier, now did you?"

The fact that I only met him five minutes ago and already want to smack him across the face says something. First impressions are everything, and he's made an awful one. I just came here to pick my friend up, I didn't have intentions to watch this squabble.

"And just by the way, sweetheart, your dress was too short," he sneers, probably referring to something she'd said earlier.

I smiled, knowing Ellie too well. It was a signature pick up of hers, asking if her dress was too short when she knew it was definitely pushing it. It seemed sleezy when you actually said it but the way she went about it made it almost graceful.

"Thanks, the designer used your dick as inspiration." Ellie doesn't miss a beat, voice sickly sweet as she rolls her eyes before turning to me.

I burst into a fit of laughter the same time Chase let's put a few chuckles, which is the most of reaction he's given since we got here. The Jake guy blushes red in embarrassment, unable to form something to fire back.

"Alright, kids, calm it down." Officer Lankwood interrupts the banter, probably coming to Jake's rescue before he could suffer any more mortification. He walks into the space, keys dangling in hand.

Officer Lankwood was the kind of cop that had always been, and would always be someone with more bark than bite. The guy is balding at the top of his head, and if you got a bird's eye view you'd see that it reminded you of a donut. His belly's a little rounder than what is normally considered fit, the wrong kind of spare tire, and his ability to get winded running down the sidewalk is a far cry from being impressive. His mustache makes him look rather cartoonish, and every time I've seen him it has crumbs in it.

"Thank you, Howie," I say gratefully as Elliot's cell door gets unlocked. She sighs with relief when it's open, coming to me for a lazy hug.

"Of course, little lady," he says, tipping an imaginary hat. "And you, kiddo," he starts talking to Jake. "Someone's coming to pick you up soon, I think."

Howie doesn't bother with getting a response, he could care less (he'd given up on all the action for awhile now). He turned back towards where his desk, where I highly suspected he had a donut waiting; he loved those suckers with a passion.

"Alright, let's go," Ellie says, shoving me forward. "I wanna go home and take a shower."

Chase barely even waits for Ellie to mutter the words before he's walking out to the direction of the exit, clearly eager. "Well geez, definitely don't wait up," I say sarcastically once he'd already sprinted out.

"What were you guys doing before you picked me up?" Ellie gets in the back seat while me and Chase take the front, eyeing the two of us with unveiled curiosity.

"Chase burst into my house uninvited, kissed ass with my mother, and then dragged me out kicking and screaming and to the mall," I told her as I turned around in my seat to face her. Chase smacked me on the arm, making me retaliate before I turned back to Ellie. "You won't believe it, but he turned down a girl that tried to get with him. She was hot, too." I can see Chase cringe into himself in my peripheral but ignore it, not sure what to make of it.

"What? Really?" Elliot looks at Chase incredulously, as surprised as I am.

"Ok first of all, Bianca is exaggerating. I simply invited her." I glared at him, letting out a scoff of indignation at the lie. "Shut up," he told me with a smile before I could say anything. "And second of all," he continued, talking once again to Ellie, "It's not all that crazy to turn a girl down."

"Yeah but you're Chase Michaels. You're like a legend for sleeping with any girl who's worth the shot." The comment makes Chase grip the wheel noticeably harder, his entire body tensing in what seemed like anger or frustration before he shakes his head and loosens up.

"Yeah, but that was forever ago and I was what? 15 or 16?" His eyes look to her through the rear view mirror. "People change."

"Whatever," Ellie says, leaning back into the back seat in a more comfortable position. "It's bound to get to the Barbie Dolls and then somebody's bound to blow things out of proportion. Prepare yourself."

I look over worriedly at Chase, knowing Ellie is right. I can tell that he doesn't want to be the center of attention, but I don't think it's avoidable.

"Is it really that bad?"

"I don't know, Chase," I say, his gaze snapping to me. "People are used to seeing you in a certain light, with a certain reputation. A lot of people are going ask questions, raise speculations. Rumors will fly whether we want them to or not, it's the nature of our school."

Chase mumbles something that sounds vaguely like "sheesh".

It takes a few more minutes before any of us talk again, unsure on whether or not to continue the topic for further discussion or move on and leave it be. Eventually it's me who decides to switch the topic, hoping to keep things lighter from here on out.

I grinned at Ellie tauntingly, a smug look on my face as I tease her about her little boy-toy. It sends her into a rant of how awful this Jake character was, her hands making gestures the way she always did when she found herself talking a lot, even though her movements never really seemed to match what was going on in the story, it somehow fit. "But," she admits after a long episode of complaints, "he was damn hot."

"Eh, I'm hotter," Chase inputs, cocky.

I scoff and roll my eyes. "That's a matter of opinion, Michaels."

"Oh shut it, Bianca," he retaliates, sticking his tongue out at me. I smacked him lightly and told him to keep his eyes on the road.

When I turned back to Ellie she was grinning at me, a knowing look on her face. I narrowed my eyes at her but she just shrugged and winked at me, seeing something I wasn't.

By the time we'd dropped Ellie off and me and Chase had made it home, it was nearing five o'clock. I grabbed my stuff from my seat, giving him a half hearted thanks and disappeared into my house to have at least part of the day to myself.

Unsurprised to find the house empty, I sighed to myself as I went into my room to change. The house had always been quiet the past few years, with my mother always at the hospital and everyone else in the family gone. I had friends over from time to time, but not often. I missed the noise my brother and father often brought into our home, especially Hunter, but I knew that could no longer happen.

Once I'd changed into some comfortable pajamas, I turned on the tv in my room as I got out junk food from the pantry and smuggled it upstairs. I knew it was unhealthy and bad for me, but I figured Ellie would drag me out for exercise later. And besides, I didn't have a real lunch, so it's only appropriate I pig out, right? My mother will chastise me for not eating properly, but I didn't really heed any of it anyways.

Since my tv was mostly always just background noise, I grabbed my laptop and opened it up, switching back and forth between that and my phone.

I grinned when Ava's contact flashed across my screens, glad to have her call me. I accepted the call on my computer so that my phone was still free, greeting her happily.

I contemplated telling her about everything today, but considering that it would require extra effort to explain everything, I kept to myself, hoping for a regular call between us. It was selfish of me, but I'd been doing a lot of selfish things for awhile now.

It was a normal call for awhile, filled with banter and her telling me about her trip so far. We both tuned into something on Netflix, watching along as we chatted.

Until all the sudden her face fell and she looked at me warily. "Have you looked at the Barbie Doll's Snapchat story lately?" She asked me warily, eyes drifting down onto her phone. I shook my head, I'd put down my own phone while I was talking with her and forgot about it. Her eyes widened with concern. "You need to look at it. Like right now."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, wondering about what was putting that weird look on my face. I grabbed my phone from where I'd discarded it on my comforter, turning on the screen. I was met with several other people texting me about the Barbies' story, and then several snap chats that was undoubtedly about it as well.

Frowning, I opened up the latest snap sent to me from Ava, knowing that it'd be smarter than going through all of the Barbie's story right now. I took in breath at what I saw, surprise coursing through me.

On my screen was Xander, with his twin sisters as they walked through the mall I'd been in only hours ago with Chase. The time stamp showed the Barbie Dolls had taken the picture a little while ago, so I didn't understand why they chose to post it just now.

"Someone alert Bianca, her ex is back in town. A reunion for the happy couple, or something far worse?" Ellie read aloud the caption on the snap, making me groan. I so didn't need this right now. And the way the Barbie Dolls just had to write it, I mean, what the fuck?

"Fuck," I muttered, running a hand down my face. "Why the hell is he back?" I knew Ava couldn't answer that question, but she still looked guilty when she failed to come up with an answer.

"Bianca," Ava soothed quietly through the screen. "What are you going to do about this?"

I scrunched my nose and bit the inside of my cheek. "There's nothing I can do but wait and see what the storm holds for me, Ava," I murmured, my eyes floating back down to the picture of Xander. Of the smile he had with the twins as he walked alongside them, his blond hair different than the last time I'd seen it, but green eyes just the same. He was taller, stronger, handsomer, but just as heartbreaking to look at.

"I'm going to go, Ava. I'll talk to you later, okay?" Before she could protest and try to comfort me, I ended the call, and immediately declined the next call she tried.

I didn't know what this meant for me, but it couldn't be anything good.

•(edited)•
A/N: So there have been more subtle rewrites, but this is basically the same chapter as it was originally. In the original authors note it also said that I kept writing Xavier instead of Xander and I think I've already done that here a few times. I really don't have my shit together ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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