"Mind if I join you?"

"Of course not," I replied, lifting my sunglasses from my eyes to place them atop my head.

I sat beneath the sun, making sand castles in the same spot I'd dragged Xander --and then he dragged me -- on the beach.

It was so hot.

"Jesus, it's hot," my new companion said, as he scooped sand from around my castle. Then, he looked up at me with big grey eyes. "I think your castle needs a moat."

"Tell me about it," I grinned.

He lifted an eyebrow. "D'you mean that to my moat, or to the fact that the sun is cooking my skin like strips of bacon?"

I laughed aloud. "To both," I replied. "It's like, boiling out here."

"Here," he said, and he pulled a baseball cap from the back pocket of his swim trunks. "Want my hat?" He smiled, and pointed to his head of curly hair, "You could use it more than I could."

I took the black cap and fit it over my ponytail.

"How do I look?"

He grinned, smiling at the red Comets laced on black fabric. "Like you went to Westchester."

"I'll take it."

Our sandcastle was enormous.

"You know," I said, standing now that the tide rose all the way to Peter's moat, "everyone's told me that I'd have liked you, y'know," I paused, "that we'd have been friends."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "And I think they're right."

"Good, 'cause they need you, Thalia."

I squinted beneath his cap. "What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said," he continued, eyes still on the sand. "They're like, they're like our sand castle, right?"

He slipped my bucket from beneath me and filled it halfway with sand.

"Xander, Collin, Tuck, David..." He paused. "The guys are all like sand."

I raised an eyebrow. "Sand in a bucket?"

He grinned with a nod. "Sand in a bucket."

Then, he paused, and he knelt in the tide.

"The girls," he said, "they're like water," and I watched as the ocean filled any remaining space in the bucket.

The sand darkened inside.

"Alone, they're both doing their own things, right? Like, sand is sand and water is water. They've both got their own purposes and they cross paths occasionally; like, they coexist together, but it takes someone else--" He held up the bucket, "You know, like, it takes a helping hand to turn a bucket of water and sand into a sandcastle."

"And we're that helping hand?"

Peter shook his head, dumping the wet sand against the wall of his moat. "You are."

"But--"

And in that moment, the sky grew dark. Clouds completely covered the sun and the wind picked up, whipping sand into our eyes and stripping the walls of our castle.

"What the hell?" I pulled Peter's cap lower. "What's going on?"

I rubbed my arms now, because now it was freezing.

"Why is it s-s-o--" My teeth were chattering. "S-s-s-o freaking c-c-cold?"

Peter rose from the ground, wiping sand from his hands and knees. "It looks like it's about to snow."

"You do realize that it doesn't snow here, right?"

He shrugged.

"Well, c'mon," I yelled, heading towards the parking lot. "We've got to go," because the sand was in my mouth and in my eyes and it was all very overwhelming and it was really starting to hurt.

"I'll be okay. I'm gonna stay."

"I can't let that happen," I replied since the wind and this weather was all a bit much. "If you stay out here you're going to--"

"Thalia," he laughed, "I'm already dead."

And he disappeared into the storm.

I woke up sweating.

Grabbing for my cell phone, I checked the time.

4:46, my clock read.

It was barely five o'clock in the morning. I had a little over ten hours before my flight left, and a little over eight before I left for the airport.

Essentially, I had too much time.

I had too much time for my mind to wander.

What I wanted to do, was to call Xander.

I wanted to tell him about my dream and have him talk to me; I wanted him to help me get back to sleep because I knew he could.

But at the same time, me having a dream about his dead best friend was not how I wanted him to board his own flight. It would be selfish to unload that story upon him before he headed back to school on his own.

So, I turned over and opened my phone, reading through tabloids and checking late-night Facebook streams to get my mind off of a boy that really should have been alive, and I kept reading and scrolling until my eyelids were heavy and I was too tired to think -- I did that until I was far too exhausted to do anything but sleep.

~*~

In my first semester of my freshman year, I took General Psychology, an introductory course that I needed only to pick up a few extra credits. And honestly, while the class really had nothing to do with my major, I found myself actually enjoying the discussions. I liked hearing about early psychologists.

I was the nerd who enjoyed hearing about the first people to really study the brain and its functions.

My favorite sessions were all centered around the Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud.

It was so interesting; how his studies of latent desires and repressed ideals were manifested in our subconscious -- how all dreams were reflections of our mental states.

During one class, we dissected our own dreams. We wrote them out and our teacher chose them at random, forcing us all to dissect the dream and discover the hidden meanings.

Now, I couldn't help but wonder what my dream meant, now.

To tell you the truth, I was actually happy to be going back to school, because as soon as I got to campus, I was heading straight to my professor's office and asking him to tell me what my mind was telling me while I slept.

I couldn't help but wonder why Peter had shown up at the beach. Why was he helping me make sandcastles and telling me about my friends?

What did that mean to me?

What did that mean about me?

What were the repressed thoughts hidden deep in my brain, the doormat beliefs I held that had brought snow and a dead first baseman to the beach?

~*~

Four hours later, I awoke a second time with an onslaught of texts that were ding-dinging beside my head.

NA - Have fun in the snow Parciera. I can't believe this, but I'm actually going to miss you. I know. It's weird.

NA - But I've decided to take it upon myself to teach you some Portuguese this summer. (I know, I'm a god and a saint), but that's just how I roll.

NA - Lesson 1.) É o jeitinho brasileiro. Get back to me with the translation.

JK - I love you darling daughter. :-) Have a safe flight and text me when you land!

EA - I miss you already! Let's meet up soon please? -- Spring Break in New York?

EA - And call me when you land! I've got big things to tell you about Jamison lolzzz.

RC - Have a safe flight, babe. Only a few months until summer...

RC - Hah, and Rob says 'bye.'

TW - I'm gonna miss you Little T. Have fun in DC, be safe on the plane and don't forget to check in on that little fucker Xander for me every once and a while.

TW - WATCH FROZEN ON THE PLANE AND CRY WHEN IDINA MENZEL SINGS.

MP - Do you have an iPhone? Are my initials showing up when I text you?

MP - Change my name to "MVP"

MP - I like that. That's fucking awesome.

MP - Oh yeah and have fun back at school and all that.

MP - Learn. Don't freeze.

MP - Oh yeah, but you've got Xander there to cuddle with. I know he'd be down.

And while I scrolled through more, those were definitely my favorites. I'd received a text from everyone except for David and Xander, and I knew that I'd be seeing April and Mischa later...

"Does this seem like it's sixty pounds to you?" I asked, struggling to lift my suitcase from my bedroom floor, because why was it already 1:00?

"Does it," I paused, "D'you think it's too heavy?"

"If I had to guess," April began, "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say hell yes."

"Damn it!" I exclaimed, throwing down the bag and unzipping it. "I'm not trying to pay extra for these again!"

"Thal, calm down," my brother said, as he rose from his seat beside Mischa and April on my bed.

He placed two large hands on my shoulders. "Chill, alright? Let me see it. I'm sure it's fine."

With a sigh, I switched places with my brother, plopping between my friends on my mattress.

I had not gotten enough sleep.

Thanks, Peter.

"It's all going to be okay, Thal," Mischa said, reaching out to rub circles on my back. "Please don't stress over nothing."

"Says you," I sighed. "I should have caught a red-eye, too. Then I'd have been able to spend a few extra hours--"

"Of what?" Mischa laughed. "Packing? 'Cause literally, that's all I'll be doing."

"Where's Nikita, anyway?" April asked, and my brother let out a grunt of disapproval from the floor.

Mischa kicked him lightly with her boot. "She's at the doctor, Aaron. Besides, she told me she talked to Thal last night."

I nodded with a yawn. "She did," I replied, because I'd spoken to her for at least an hour before I fell asleep.

Maybe she's the reason I dreamt about Peter.

...Maybe.

"Yeah, well," my brother replied, "it doesn't make a difference to me, anyway."

"Of course not," I scoffed. "And hey!" I exclaimed, as my brother lifted two piles of clothes from my suitcase. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Making it so you don't have to pay extra for baggage," and he zipped the case closed.

"Aaron!" I exclaimed, dropping to my knees beside him. I raised one of the dresses he'd pulled and shook it in front of his face. "I'll need this!"

"Except you won't," he replied. "In fact, you'll thank me later."

"Let me see this," April exclaimed, snatching the dress from my hands. She lifted it to her body and examined herself in my mirror. "Thal, isn't it like, snowing back there?"

"Thank you," Aaron nodded, and he fingered the rest of the clothes he'd dropped to the floor. "And the rest of this stuff, it's useless too."

"Yeah, Thal," Mischa nodded. "I hate to agree, but he's right."

"Duh."

Mischa rolled her eyes, shoving my brother playfully. "You won't need this 'til next summer."

"It's called 'layering,' thanks," I muttered.

"No, it's called 'pneumonia,'" Aaron quipped. "Now, c'mon, Thal. Your flight leaves at three?"

I nodded.

"Well, we've got to go," he said, rising from the floor. "You know Mom's always like, 'Get there at--'"

"'--at least two hours before,'" I sighed, finishing his thought. "I know, I know."

"C'mon, then," he said, grabbing my suitcase, now. "I don't need Mom on my ass 'cause you missed your flight."

And he left me with my friends in the room, dragging my suitcase behind him down the stairs.

"Ah, brotherly love," April grinned, as I picked up the extra clothes and shoved them in my drawers.

She placed her hands on her hips. "Don't you just love it?"

"Most times," I sighed. "Although I must admit, I am going to miss him."

"Of course," April nodded. "Because you're going to miss me, too. It's what happens when siblings are super close," she shrugged. "At least, that's what I heard."

I crossed the floor and threw my arms around her neck.

"You're right," I nodded. "You're so right."

"Awww," Mischa crooned, and all of a sudden her forehead was resting on April's shoulder and her arms were around our waists. "Group hug!"

"Seriously?"

I looked over my friend's shoulders to see my brother, leaning in the doorway, arms crossed.

"Can I help you?"

"You really want Mom to be pissed, huh? You're trying to miss your flight on purpose so she can ask me why I'm a shit brother and I get to tell her that you were too busy hugging your friends to get in the car so I could take you to the airport and--"

"Aaron!"

"What?" He snapped. "What, Thalia?"

"Get your butt over here and hug us, you big baby."

He shuffled our way. "Then we can go?" He pouted.

I nodded, laughing as my brother threw his arms around us. "Then we can go."

"Good," he said above our heads. "Text me, yeah? When you get to your gate and whatever."

"Me too!" April exclaimed, voice muffled in our pile. "You too, Misch."

"Done."

"Promise I will," I nodded.

Then, I shook lightly, breaking the hug as I stood straighter, grabbing my phone from my bed. "I'm counting down the days until summer."

"Aren't we all?" April laughed. "But, have fun. Text me often," she grinned. "Or always."

"Of course," I nodded, and I grabbed my backpack from my bed as Mischa and April picked their way from my room.

I turned to my brother. "Ready," I said.

"Good," Aaron replied. Then, he surprised me, throwing both of his arms around my shoulders and pulling me into another hug.

"Break was fun," he said softly. "It was a lot of fun and I'll...I'll miss you, Thal. Make a snowball for me and, and that East Coast stuff," he chuckled, and I almost teared up because I don't think my brother had actually told me that he missed me in like, years.

I mean, we didn't have to say things that we already knew, but--but, I don't know. Now that we were older, this time it was different.

"Of course I will," I replied.

Then, he did something that surprised me even more.

He kissed the top of my head and, breaking the hug he squeezed my arm. "I love you, Thalia."

I couldn't help but smile at that. "I love you too, Aaron."

"Have a safe flight."

"I will."

~*~

After bidding my final 'goodbyes' to my family and friends, Aaron dropped me off at LAX and once again, I was on my own.

I went through Baggage Checks and TSA and finally, as I sat down at my gate, I pulled out my cell phone and texted out a mass, I'm at my gate to everyone who'd asked or, I thought, might have cared to know.

My brother texted me back first.

AR - Mom says yay and Dad says great. Have fun in DC. We'll miss you.

I grinned, typing my brother back.

TR - Love you all. Go back to Stanford and kill 'em.

AR - Thanks. You're the best.

And just like that my phone buzzed again in my hand.

DK - Have a safe flight Thal.

I beamed because it was David.

I began texting him back when another text came through.

DK - And thanks. Thanks for everything.

DK - And I mean it. It sucks doing this through text but thanks for forcing the love and togetherness and that other shit.

DK - You're The Peacemaker. That's your nickname. It's done.

DK - See you soon Thal.

I stared at my phone, and if anyone passed by and saw me, they'd have seen a nineteen-year-old grinning at her phone like an idiot.

For a while I just sat there, rereading his texts over and over before finally I could think of a response.

TR - Thank you! I LOVE YOU TOO!!!

And so satisfied, I reached for my backpack, searching for my headphones because yes, I had time to kill, when out of nowhere my phone rang.

As my phone buzzed against my knee, I checked the screen and immediately unlocked it, answering the call.

It was Xander.

"Hey!" I exclaimed.

"Thal?"

"Xander!" I exclaimed. "What are--Are you already at Georgetown?"

"Nope," he replied, and I could practically hear his smile. "Actually, I'm not."

"When's your flight, then? Are you still home? Are you about to board or something?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Thal," he laughed. "Sheesh, you're drilling me here with the questions."

I smiled. "Sorry. You know, I'm in the airport so I've got nothing but time to kill."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really," I replied. "My flight won't take off for another hour."

"Shit," he laughed. "Well," he paused, "guess what?"

"What?"

"You're in luck, because I've got a way to pass the time."

I arched an eyebrow. "How?"

He paused, sucking in a breath.

"Turn around."

I whirled around in my seat. "Huh?"

"Come on, you can do better than that."

"Xander, what are you--?" And my voice dropped off because I was turning and I didn't see--

"Boo."

And then that's when I froze, a wide grin breaking across my face as I met the bright brown eyes of Xander O'Hara, as he leaned against a kiosk of magazines, staring at me over a copy of GQ.

With his phone pressed against his face he smirked that smirk of his right back at me.

"Hi, Thal."

"H-hi, Xander."

-~*~-

1. Okay, so it turns out that Chapter 4, (The Morning After) has been marked private, which is crazy because there's like, really nothing bad in it. But, that's just a head's up to everyone who can't read it. Sorry, guys. :-( I've contacted Wattpad and everything -- You're probably going to have to follow me to read.

2. Yay! Thalia got a nickname!

3. One more chapter left I'm crying because wow and also because the last chapter is probably my favorite.

4. Nicoism #5 - É o jeitinho brasileiro: It's the Brazilian way.

5. My sister asked for a list of the colleges that everyone (the main characters) went to. Here are the ones that have been explicitly stated throughout the story:

Thalia - George Washington University

Mischa - George Washington University

Aaron - Stanford University

Xander - Georgetown University

Roman - University of Virginia

Collin - University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)

April - University of Southern California (USC)

Marco - University of Southern California (USC)

Tucker - Pepperdine University

David - University of Notre Dame

Eliza - University of Pennsylvania

And here's everyone else:

Jamie - Brown University

Nikita - Yale University

Jason - Tulane University

Nico - University of Texas at Austin

Robert - University of Maryland, College Park

Comment and vote guys! 34 down, 1 to gooo! <3