Anna Reconnects

"You two ready to go shopping?" Nicole asked as Kenny pulled into a shopping plaza and parked his car,

"Yeah, wooohooo," Anna sarcastically cheered back,

"What if we get caught, Nikki? Are a few bottles of booze worth losing the rest of our trip?" Kenny interjected, his face now looking a bit worried,

"He...has a point, Nicole," Anna agreed, now feeling a drop in her stomach as well,

"Oh both of you calm down, things are going to be just fine," Nicole firmly stated while pulling herself out of the car, Anna and Kenny both reluctantly followed the red-haired girl out,"Besides, Anna, you're in no danger, Kenny and I are buying the drinks. You're grabbing the soda's or whatever,"

"Oh, thank god," Anna said with a relieved sigh, Kenny glanced over at her, a bit envious, "Sorry, Ken." She whispered over,

"Here, forty bucks should be enough for you," Nicole said with a shrug of her shoulders and pulled two twenty's out from Brian's funds, "Now go on, shoo," Nicole smirked,

Anna grabbed the money and turned away, power walking towards the grocery store before Nicole changed her mind and made her go as well. "There we go, now we're alone again," Nicole grinned at Kenny,

"Yeah, we'll be alone until we're put in the back of a cop car," Kenny muttered back,

"Relax, stud, I'll handle this. All you need to do is stay calm and browse the store while I'm buying." Nicole calmly explained, "You do that, and I promise to reward you for your bravery," She tacked on with a murmuring giggle,

Kenny raised one eyebrow, "How so?"

Nicole let out a small smirk and rolled her eyes, she walked over and grabbed Kenny's jacket, roughly pulling his lips to hers. Kenny slowly sighed as Nicole treated him to a long deep kiss before abruptly stopping it, "There's your hint, m'kay?" Nicole said as she turned around, heading up towards the small liquor store, Kenny now following her adamantly.

Meanwhile, Anna entered her store and quickly grabbed a cart, she headed over to the soda aisle and began to grab a few different bottles of soda, not sure which ones mixed well with ****. Once she felt she had enough different kinds and was close enough to her forty dollar limit, she headed right over to check out. She only made it out of the soda aisle before halting completely, "ERIC?!" She exclaimed,

A young black-haired teen whirled around, his eyes bugging out, "Anna!" He replied with an ecstatic shout,

Anna's jaw dropped, she hadn't seen Eric Roosevelt since he moved away at the end of summer. The two stared at each other for a long minute before Anna let out a small squeal and sprinted over to Eric, jumping at him while tossing her arms around his back, "Oh my god, oh my god, it really is you! Eric, what are you doing here? I thought you moved out of state!" Anna asked, now rocking her ex-boyfriend either way in her arms,

"Dad got a better job off in this town, so he relocated us here two months back." Eric explained, "What are you doing all the way out here? Greenwall is like, eight hours away," Eric asked her in confusion,

"Brian's dad owns a ski lodge up on Kaster mountain," Anna quickly replied, "He's letting Nicole, Kenny, JJ, Mindy and I all stay up here for a week,"

"Oh no, shit? Well that's great Anna, sounds like you're up for a fun week," Eric warmly replied unable to stop himself from wrapping his arms around the filled out blonde who continued to hang onto him,

"Um...Eric?" A soft voice suddenly asked,

Eric's eyes went wide, and he immediately let go of Anna, "Zoey!" He said a bit louder than he expected, Anna pulled away from Eric and looked behind her. Approaching the pair was a drop dead gorgeous redhead with the lightest blue eyes Anna had ever seen before. Her long amber hair lightly bounced with each step, along with her massive D-cup breasts, Anna couldn't have become more intimidated by someone's presence.

"Yeah, who's this?" Zoey calmly asked with a little cock of her head,

"Oh, um, well, this is Anna," Eric awkwardly replied, "Anna, this is Zoey Irons...my girlfriend," He said causing Anna's heart to immediately sink,

"Girlfriend..." Anna weakly said under her breath,

"Anna? As in Anna Ross?" Zoey asked, surprisingly sounding happy over the fact, "Oh wow, Eric told me so much about you. You really made an impact on him," Zoey warmly said while approaching the blonde, hand stuck out,

"He told you about me?" Anna asked with a slightly pleased smile as she took Zoey's hand,

"Eric told me about you for days when we first met. Honestly, I was so surprised when he finally asked me out, I never thought he'd get over you," Zoey replied, flashing her boyfriend a small smile, "So what brings you down to Dartwin?"

"Oh, my old friends, one of their dads apparently has a ski lodge on Kaster Mountain. He's letting Anna and a few others stay there for the week," Eric answered for Anna, who only nodded back with a weak smile, unable to stop flicking her eyes between the pair in front of her,

"Wow, that sounds like a fun time," Zoey said, almost sounding a bit jealous, "So they sent you down on a food run?"

"Drink run...I'm picking up soda, Nicole and Kenny are picking up liquor, because we so need that," Anna sarcastically replied causing Zoey to let out a soft giggle into her hand,

"Sounds like Nicole," Eric scoffed, "I'm guessing you're having a party then?"

"Brian's idea, him and Nikki couldn't bare being sober though, so they sent Kenny and me down here with Nicole." Anna nodded back,

"Pfft, it'll forever surprise me that we met at one of those fucking parties," Eric smirked, "Only two sober people there,"

"Aw, really? That's kinda cute," Zoey said with a smile,

"Yeah..." Eric nodded before shaking his head, "Well Anna, it's been amazing to catch up, but me and Zoey got to go," Eric suddenly said,

"We do?" Zoey asked back in confusion,

"Yeah, we need to...do something, see you, Anna," Eric quickly followed up with as he grabbed Zoey's hand, pulling her away. The young teen wasn't able to be next to Anna any longer; his mind was racing in too many directions,

"Oh, uh, okay...bye Anna, nice to meet you!" Zoey called out as the blonde girl went wide-eyed, watching Eric suddenly leave. Anna's heart began to beat rapidly; she couldn't lose him so soon, not again, "Wait! You two should come back with me!" She quickly offered,

Eric froze in place as Zoey's face lit up, "Oh my god, really?!" Zoey asked back while pulling Eric back towards his ex, "We wouldn't be imposing would we?" She asked, a giddy smile on her face,

"No, not at all, it's a party so the more, the merrier, right?" Anna replied with a smile, "What do you say, Eric, you and Zoey want to come?"

"Well, uh...we would-" Eric stammered back, trying to come up with some, any, excuse,

"Would be delighted," Zoey finished for him, "We've been wandering around town for the last few days just looking for something to do, this sounds like a great time, and I'd love to meet Eric's old friends,"

"Great!" Anna happily exclaimed, "Just give me a second to check out then we can...go get Nicole and Kenny I guess,"

"Okay, sounds like a plan," Zoey smiled back as Eric stared at the floor. As Anna rushed back to her cart and headed over to a check out lane, Zoey looked over to her boyfriend, "What's wrong?"

"Why would you make me go to a party with Anna?" He lowly asked, "You know our breakup hurt,"

"Of course I know that," Zoey tenderly replied, "And you've moved onto me now, but I can see it in your face, you're still conflicted. I want you to finally have your chance to really say goodbye, get some closure. I think it'd be good for our relationship if you finally buried your last relationship once and for all,"

"I have! We don't need to do this," Eric replied, grabbing Zoey's hands immediately,

"You haven't; if you did, you wouldn't be treating this like it was a big deal. Now I trust you, Eric, I don't think you'll do anything with her, but you have to talk to her." Zoey sternly said, "Okay?"

Eric gulped and slowly nodded, "Okay,"

"Good, everything's gonna be okay. This is for the best, for both of us," Zoey tenderly said while leaning in and planting a long comforting kiss on Eric.