[Dedicated to izzzyyyyy123, who leaves the best comments I've ever seen on any book, not just on my books. She never fails to bring a smile to my face whenever she reads this book, and for that, I am forever grateful and send much love.]

Cara picked up a red solo cup with the most exaggerated expression of absolute disgust, loathing, and general disappointment in the human race that I had ever seen in my life – not like she was touching a set of rotting human remains or anything.

I held in my snickers although I must have not done that so well since a choked laugh or two spilled out. She sent me a searing look that completely took all the humor out of my system. Completely. "What?" I said defensively. I picked up a broken plate right next to the cup and stuffed it into the black trash bag next to us.

"You're not funny." Cara glowered, putting the cup in the same bag. "You and Dacey got me into this mess in the first place."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, the three of us agreed to do this thing together." I sighed, looking up and scanning the entire beach, which was littered with random bits of tablecloth, plastic cups, and other shit that I didn't particularly want to know. "You were attacking the spiked punch like the world had run out of any other drinks."

Dacey, who'd been mostly silent for the majority of our trash-picking expedition, looked up from the sand, with which she'd been messing around for the past five minutes. "I was simply socializing with my peers."

I scoffed. "You were attempting to hook up with my brother."

Rolling her eyes, Cara held her hands up. "We all fucked up, and we didn't stay behind to clean up like we were supposed to. Ergo, this stupid mess that would probably mess up my record, which was not only impeccable up to this point but in fact gleaming."

Dacey stretched her arms as far as she could to snag a little piece of a transparent something, which looked suspiciously like rubber – the thin kind that males often used in certain activities. I coughed, hiding my little smile in my elbow. Perhaps I shouldn't ruin her so-far innocent perceptions. After all, she wasn't wearing gloves.

Again, Dacey was never the sharpest knife in the drawer even though she was pretty much brilliant when it came to social cues.

Cara didn't notice apparently since she only held up the trash bag so Dacey could deposit her little treasure in it. "Well, someone should have cleaned up."

"Have you seen this beach?" I gestured to the entire landscape, wincing and wrinkling my nose. "I feel like the green earth activists are gonna come after me in my sleep and murder me with photocopies of my carbon footprint." I frowned. "Think about it: death by paper cuts."

The very thought sent shivers down my spine, and Cara snickered at me loudly, shaking her head. "Lottie, have you ever thought about writing for the gossip column?"

When I turned my head to meet her, blinking my wide eyes blankly, she let out an excessively long sigh that sent a couple grains of sand flying away in the late morning breeze. "You know, for the school newspaper? It's not completely shit, but the gossip column looks like it's written by freshman girls who have way too much time on their hands."

Dacey turned her head to Cara as well, her mouth slightly agape and eyes quizzical. Cara let out an even longer sigh. "You guys never get my jokes." She put her chin on her wrist since she couldn't quite lean it on her dirty and greasy palm. "Maybe I should join newspaper. I can just imagine the headlines."

"Woah." I turned my head away from Cara to grab a cigarette butt, which I was sure didn't come from the high school students from the party. "Cara, I didn't know that you used your imagination."

In the distance, I caught sight of my brother, who looked like he smelled a mixture of rotten eggs and dog fart, as he gingerly picked up pieces of cardboard and plastic from who-knows-where. His darker sandy hair danced a little in the wind, and somehow, he looked like he belonged right there on the beach, like he hadn't left for college at all.

I slumped down a little and sighed. Well, maybe after all, I did miss my brother. (However, that didn't necessary mean that I was jumping for joy because he was back. I mean, he was a lazy ass whose skills mostly consisted of eating one and a half pizzas in one sitting and finding obscure facts on the most random websites.)

I turned back to my friends when I noticed there was an odd silence in the atmosphere. (Dacey and Cara usually always found something with which to insult each other, which I supposed was an interesting skill.)

"What?" I said. I stuffed the cigarette butt in the trash bag. "I'm allowed to look at my brother at times."

Dacey paused for exactly one and a half seconds before her mouth dropped open and she began spewing words like she had a time limit to make a particularly concise speech. "So you're sure he didn't mention anything about me."

"Dacey, please." Cara stood up, dragging the trash bag with her as she traversed a couple yards further down the beach. Dacey somehow found a way to crawl there without looking like a flatworm with epilepsy, and I scooted to them on my butt. Cara continued, "At least you can be sure that he's used to your presence."

"It would be a little weird if he wasn't," I added. I shrugged. "I mean, he's seen you around for three years."

Dacey threw her hands up. "Okay, you guys don't get it." She slapped the back of her hand against the palm of another. "There's a huge difference between acknowledging someone's presence and considering that someone as a potential girlfriend."

"Good God," I breathed, feeling a sudden desire to roll over on my stomach. However, I had a feeling that I'd done something like that during the party, and that hadn't gone over too well for me. "I'd ask you to keep that nasty, horrible conversation away from my ears, but I actually agreed to help you." I covered my ears. "Good Lord, what have I done?"

"Something very stupid," Cara supplied extremely helpfully. To add to the point, she tossed a whole beer bottle inside the trash bag and listened to it clink with some other pieces of glass.

"I'm getting nowhere for the latter option," Dacey continued as if Cara and I hadn't said anything. Cara and I exchanged a glance. To that, Dacey shook her head, sending us both dirty looks (although she wasn't yet the master of the stink face, so she wasn't exactly intimidating). "Seriously, I'm out of ideas."

"Bring him food," I blurted out. When Cara and Dacey turned their heads to look at me at the same time, I held up my hands. "I'm sorry. That's the only way I can lure him out of his bedroom nowadays."

Cara shook her finger at me, now maintaining eye contact with Dacey. "I know," she said slowly. Oh God. She was going to say something very Cara-like now. Oh God.

She pointed her finger at Dacey. "Maybe you can learn some college jokes. Like the ones that only people from Carter's college know." She paused, putting that finger on her chin. "Or I can teach you some existential puns. That'll blow his mind."

Dacey was just nodding and grinning like she'd hit the jackpot when I raised my hand. When Cara pointed at me, the way a teacher who didn't know the names of his students would, I called out very loudly, "It will blow his mind. He has a very limited amount of neurons, and I'm afraid they're already dedicated to the three B's."

"The three B's," repeated Cara flatly.

"Booze, boobs, and butts," I said slowly.

Dacey's eyes lit up like she'd finally understood them meaning of life. "Oh, I see. Now I think I have an idea."

"On that note" – I stood up, yanking the trash bag from Cara's hands – "I'm going to take out this trash." I put on my best therapist smile. "You can tell everything you want to Cara over here."

Aside from her very defiant and scandalized eyes, Cara looked like a mouse locked in with a very psychotic cat.

I skipped away down the beach, pulling the trash bag behind me and making sure to kick up a huge cloud of dust behind me. Although I was probably being a sucky friend for leaving Cara with that mess of teenage hormones, at least I was giving her time to gather her thoughts by temporarily blinding Dacey, right?

I made it down to the trash can, around which were several bulging trash bags, in about two minutes. A couple police officers were standing guard around it with their hands stuffed in their pockets, watching the relatively small number of teenagers slave over the half-cleaned beach. I narrowed my eyes as I looked at them. Did I see a glint in those eyes? Scoffing in disgust, I plopped my bag down next to a bag with metal sticking out the bottom and grabbed another trash bag.

There was a person standing at the adjoining trash bag, and with that, I started to believe that Dom was, in fact, stalking me. That was because he was standing right there, innocently tying a trash bag with his lithe fingers as he ignored my presence.

My chest stung a little – I was still recovering from the shock that I was seeing him literally everywhere and also from the feeling of chagrin that he was now ignoring me after I rejected him. That was completely overwhelmed by the heat that took over my body. Was it even right that I felt like I was placed in an oven?

I removed my fingers from the trash bag and tried to sidle away as inconspicuously as I could. However, my feet were quite good at making shuffling noises, even in the sand, and Dom looked up.

My eyes floated to his rear end. He had a nice ass. I wasn't even going to deny it.

And he was standing about two inches away from me, so that probably wasn't the best time for me to reveal my embarrassingly obsessive infatuation with him and his gorgeous body, especially with those eyes.

Eyes.

Since the silence between us was beginning to grow very, very awkward, considering the fact that we were surrounded by trash bags and belligerent police officers (who thought we were rich, spoiled punks), I cleared my throat as loudly as I could. "Hi."

At least I didn't squeak it out, right?

He turned to me, lifting an eyebrow. "I thought we weren't on speaking terms."

Did I really give off that impression the last time we talked? I winced. "Well, maybe insulting my favorite musical wasn't the best way to go when it comes to an apology, if you meant that."

Somehow, I was really, really good at alienating my crush by saying things that I hadn't exactly meant to come out that way.

Dom let out a very long sigh, releasing his trash bag. "Sometimes, you need to learn when to shut your mouth, you know?"

Without even thinking about it, I snapped off my gloves and tossed them on top of the other trash bags. I crossed my arms. "That wasn't the most polite way to put it, and if I'm right, you're usually a gentleman when you're sober."

"What are you talking about?" Dom cast a glance toward the policemen, who were watching us with narrowed eyes. "Don't act like you didn't know that," he called over to them. He turned back to me. "You didn't really have to announce that right in the open, you know." Giving me a pointed look, he grabbed my upper arm and led me a little further away from the trash pile.

"We got off easy," he whispered in my ear as we walked down the beach. "We're all lucky that we all didn't get charged with disorderly conduct, so don't get us down for underage drinking."

His breath was warm, and the entire situation just felt hot for some reason. This was Dom Amaro whispering in my ear. What more could I ask for? Maybe his lips could move a little more south, and I'd hit the jackpot that way. (The entire notion felt vaguely familiar, I realized with a rush of heat to my cheeks, but I wasn't sure when or where or how.)

By the time we were out of earshot from the police, I shoved him off me lightly. "But aside from the Guys and Dolls thing, which I will ignore because your ignorance will not fade that easily" – I shot Dom a dirty look, to which he rolled his eyes – "you're such a kid."

"It's not like you're any more mature," he shot back to me.

My fingers tightened their grasp on my upper arms. "Fine, if you insist." I tightened my lips, levelling my eyes on my toes, which looked rather dandy in one of my favorite pairs of sandals. "I'm sorry for shoving my favorite musical in your face." I paused, clearly perceiving the relief on Dom's face, probably because I didn't say any more than that. "But that was only because I wanted you to appreciate a cultural phenomenon that will mark you as an educated individual in adult society."

There was an awkward little pause between us as Dom scrutinized my countenance, furrowing his brow. Because it wasn't very likely that Dom had anything of substance to say to me, I offered him a tight-lipped smile and headed off down the beach.

A couple steps down, I realized that I was going the wrong way if I wanted to return to Cara and Dacey.

My luck was just fantastic today, wasn't it?

I stopped on the beach, standing on the spot with my arms crossed over my chest. If I turned around now, I'd risk the chance of looking stupid in front of Dom (I'd redeemed my former stupidity by explaining the cultural worth of the musical that he'd dissed several times) again.

I sighed. Well, if I continued walking, that would cause more issues than just a sense of wounded pride. Therefore, I found myself wheeling around, staring straight ahead as I marched down the beach once again.

Sneaking a glance at the police officers whom I passed again, I realized that I shouldn't have been so afraid of looking stupid in front of Dom. Now they probably thought that not only was I a rich, spoiled kid with nothing better to do than to trash a public beach, but I was also so stupid that I couldn't even make up my mind about which way I wanted to go.

This absolutely sucked.

Then, out of nowhere, Dom appeared in front of me with his hands behind his back in what he assumed was the most contrite posture he could assume. "Look," he said, meeting my eyes with those dark ones that I could never quite forget, "you're right."

Wow. Dom must have read the amazement on my face because he immediately held up his hands, eyes still somewhat pleading. "No, not about the musical." He wrinkled his nose. "That'll take time. But all right." He put his hands behind his back again. "I'm very sorry for acting like a stupid jerk by being so insistent about the subject."

Dom Amaro had just apologized to me – for real without any snotty side comments. What a breakthrough. It was incredible – the rate of progression I'd made with Dom in the last couple weeks.

"Apology accepted." I picked up my pace and headed down the beach once again.

Dom somehow appeared right in front of me again, like he had when he apologized for the first time. "Okay, I feel really bad now," he puffed out as he jogged backwards to keep up with me as I moved forward. "Maybe I shouldn't have been so hardheaded."

"That's exactly why you wouldn't be a very good scientist," I pointed out. "You're not very accepting of new ideas."

I felt some more heat rush to my face as Dom held my eyes firmly with his own. "Well, you won't have to deal with much more of my belligerence," he said. He stopped in his ridiculous jogging exercise and stood right in the middle of my path so that I had to face him (even though I could have just around him, but I didn't want to waste a prime opportunity to observe his very nice chest). "Look, I'll even listen to you when you go on one of your rambles."

I frowned. "What?"

Then, I decided that I did, in fact, want to walk around him and did so, coming closer and closer to Cara and Dacey by the second. Luckily, they both were blissfully oblivious as they drew in the sand with their fingers like little kids.

"I'll let you have your opportunity to change my mind." Dom took a couple of his long strides so that he was keeping in step with me. "I'll hang around you, and you can go all batshit crazy with your educational material about that musical." He furrowed his brow, looking up at the sky. "Girls and Fellows? Or was it Dudes and –"

The mention of "dudes" didn't hit me right. I held up a finger. "First of all, you're going to get the title right. Guys and Dolls, all right?"

"Guys and Dolls," he repeated, nodding. Why did he make the title sound so much more sexy than when I myself said it? It simply wasn't fair. Dom glanced back over his shoulder.

"You got something to do?" I took a glance at Cara and Dacey myself, who were now attempting to build something (probably a sand castle) that, unfortunately, resembled a collapsed shed.

Dom pointed to something behind his shoulders. "Yeah, I'm needed by my friends too. At least I got the title right for the first time in never, right?" He flashed me a bright grin and left me standing there in the dust, feeling a little more affected than I wanted.

Hazily, I stumbled back to Cara and Dacey, who looked up at me expectantly.

"Hey," Dacey said. She gestured to the pile of sand. "You like it? We're trying to make something emulate the dome at Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello."

I plopped myself in the middle of the pair, which coincidentally happened to be right on the "dome". Cara and Dacey squeaked out some protests, which I silenced immediately by slinging my arms over both their shoulders.

"Wow," I said.

Cara shrugged my arm off her shoulders. There was a one-second pause before she spoke up. "Hey, where's the trash bag where we're supposed to put our new trash?"

The three of us looked at the pile of assorted plastics, some dubious-looking clear bags of an unknown substance, and pieces of paper. I froze. "Oh God. I forgot the new trash bag at the trash can."

When my best friends sent me dirty looks, I held up my hands. "The cops there were creepy, okay?"

→

So hi, everyone! Thank you so much for reading this — the number of reads in three days I got pretty much made me feel so happy and blessed and everything, so again, a huge thank you.

Community service for the teens here — looks like everyone had fun. (To be realistic, it was lucky of them to not get anything on their records...I'll let you guys think about how that happened.) But to the more important part of the story: Dom finally agrees to hear Lottie out! Trust me, Lottie will take advantage of this because this is basically all she's ever wanted. But how do you feel about the gang and everything that happens in this chapter?

Attached above is the song in the title. It's super cute and one of my favorite songs in the musical (again, I say that about pretty much every song, so...). This video is a little quiet, but I hope it's okay. Basically, Miss Adelaide, the star in the show, is with her showgirls, and she's singing this song that is quite self-explanatory, actually. (This matches the chapter, sort of, I think. In a way, Dom is showing Lottie that he cares by agreeing to go along with her schemes. Progress, right?) Enjoy!

Also, I finished Camp NaNo officially today, and that is why my profile banner is showing off my accomplishments. #sorrynotsorry But anyway, I'm so excited and happy to have written 45K!

Anyway, again, thank you so much for everything, and until the next chapter <3

Anne xo