CHAPTER 2 - Street Party

In the evening, the party at the cul-de-sac was in full swing, with neighbors congregating and just celebrating life and being around each other. Some delicious food, courtesy of Mrs. Austen and Mrs. White, was served and music was playing, giving an excuse for people to dance and laugh. Even his mother and sister, who were mingling at different spots on the street. All in all, a happy time.

Zachary brought his digital camera and was snapping photos of everyone. A hobby he picked up from his aunt, Serena Bishop, he had always enjoyed capturing happy moments and breathtaking landscapes. Just as he snapped a pic from the dancing adults, the young man was accosted by a duo of girls.

“Hiya, Zack!” A curvy, yet athletic, girl elbowed his arm, an amused Chloe behind her.

“Hey, Thea,” Zack nodded back.

“Oh, take one of us!” The young woman said once she spotted the camera in his hand and threw an arm around Chloe’s shoulders. Her slightly wavy blonde hair reached her shoulders, framing her attractive features with blue eyes staring excitedly at him.

He chuckled and pointed the camera at the two friends, who were smiling at the lens, or well, Chloe a bit less than her friend. Althea Zimmer, or Thea as she preferred, was the eldest daughter of Harmony Zimmer, the Math teacher. Wearing a denim jacket over a white crop top and jeans, the 19-year-old had been in the school’s soccer team with Chloe, but was now bound for college once the summer ended, having graduated back in June. Snapping the photo, he showed them the result. “You two are quite photogenic.”

“Don’t say that,” Chloe frowned. She was wearing a powder-blue hoodie and baggy jeans, which probably were cooking her body in that summer evening, but both Zack and Thea knew better than to mention it to her.

“He’s not wrong, though,” Thea casually argued, peering at the camera’s small screen. “You’re a damn good photographer, Zack. Most pics I take with my phone don’t get this good.”

“Oh, cameras are still a bit better than phones,” he claimed. “But it’s mostly about the settings and how you take the photo, really.”

“You must teach it to us sometime,” the slightly older blonde laughed.

“I’m definitely not model material,” Chloe let out a nervous chuckle. “And I think that’d stop me from having a good eye for taking the pics too.”

Zack grinned. “I don’t think I see the logic in that, but I’ll take your word for it,” he replied and then turned to Thea. “So, how are the preparations for college going?” In the week that Chloe had been away, he hadn’t talked much to her.

Althea lightly shrugged her shoulders. “Well enough, there’s not much more to do now except wait,” she explained and then her eyes lit out. “Oh, I signed up for a soccer camp!”

That made Zack frown a little. “Did you sign too?” He asked Chloe, the idea of losing her for another week or two now that he was back sucked in his mind.

“Oh, no, I’ll already be playing a lot during the year,” his ginger best friend shook her head and nodded in the direction of Althea. “This one wants me to take over her captain’s armband.”

“Don’t even start, you’ll be so good as the team’s captain, Chloe!” Thea argued, a big grin on her face. “There’s no one I’d trust more. Maybe Paris, but you still edge her a bit,” she then turned to Zack. “Speaking of her, isn’t Paris coming?”

“Uhn…, no. She and my other cousins are on a trip with their parents, they’re getting new animals for the ranch,” he explained. “I think they might be back tomorrow, though.”

Zack and his mother could have decided to live at the Bishop Ranch when they came back to town, with Monica’s older siblings and their kids, but she opted for a house in a regular neighborhood. Zack saw pros and cons with that decision, but being neighbors with Chloe, who he had missed a lot during his years away, was better than anything in his opinion.

“Where’s Lisa? I see the Riveras, but not her,” he asked, referring to their other neighbor, who was teammates with Chloe and Thea.

“On a sleepover with her other friends,” Thea was the one who answered before she looked around. “Alright, guys, I’m gonna look for my siblings. I really hope I won’t have to pry Cody away from his TV again.”

Zachary and Chloe exchanged a look and shrugged as the blonde walked away. “Zack! Chloe! Over here!” The two friends noticed their parents chatting near the middle of the circular street and motioning for them to come over, which they did.

“Here they are!” Roy McRose bellowed, reaching over to pat Zack on the back twice, his left arm wrapped around Charlotte. He was a redheaded man in his early forties who worked as a lawyer in a small firm. Zachary had always liked him, he supposed the man would probably have become a father figure to him if they hadn’t moved seven years ago.

“You wanna eat something, sweetie?” Monica inquired. She was standing next to Charlotte, wearing a cream-colored summer dress that left a modest amount of cleavage exposed.

“Oh, I’ll have one of those burgers,” Zack replied and grabbed one, his camera now hanging around his neck.

“What about you, dear?” Charlotte asked her daughter. She was in the same dress from earlier, when she had talked to Chloe and Zack on her porch.

“Uhn…, I’m not hungry yet, Mom, thanks,” the younger ginger said, a little bit awkwardly.

Monica and Charlotte looked at each other and then beheld their children. “Oh, Charlotte, don’t they look lovely?” The brunette woman asked, beaming with pride.

“Very grown-up, escorting each other to parties and all,” the redhead nodded in agreement, a big smile on her features as well. “My little wolf isn’t a pup anymore.”

“Mom!” Chloe complained while Zack almost choked on his burger and Roy had to help him.

“Now you two, stop teasing them,” the man requested, throwing his wife a pointed look.

“I’m sorry, Zack,” Monica laughed, taking the half-eaten burger from her son for the time being. “Here, why don’t you take a photo of us?”

“Alright,” the young man let out a brief sigh and pointed his camera at the three adults.

Roy grinned, his left arm casually wrapped around a beaming Charlotte’s waist, as his mother smiled from the redhead’s left. Charlotte’s creamy, overflowing cleavage made his dick twitch a little and was the obvious focus of the photo. Even if he felt guilty about doing it right next to Roy, Zack allowed himself a few extra seconds of adjusting the composition how he wanted it and snapped the pic.

“All done!” He announced.

“Send me all the photos later, buster. Not just this one,” Monica demanded.

“Oh, you can send them to me too,” Charlotte requested. “Take one of me with Chloe now.”

“Mom…,” the younger redhead groaned, but her mother was having none of it.

“Hush, dear. It’s just one photo,” she was already pulling Chloe to her side, while Roy and Monica took a step back, so they weren’t in the frame. When Zack pointed the camera at them, Charlotte wrapped an arm around her daughter’s waist and looked down at her outfit. “You could’ve worn a dress, Chloe, you have so many and it’s too warm out here.”

Chloe sighed. “I just like this better, Mom.”

“Char, honey, stop bugging our pup,” Roy pleaded.

“Okay, ready?” Zachary asked and then took the picture. Charlotte was just a tiny bit taller than Chloe, and her right breast brushed against her daughter’s left arm as she pulled her closer. Once again, Chloe’s smile was milder, just enough not to look bad for the photo. She got out of her mother’s embrace as soon as Zack said he was done.

“We should probably let them mingle now,” Monica said, giving Zack his burger back. She had noticed how Chloe was uncomfortable with all the teasing and the picture, and made a mental note to ask Charlotte about it some other time.

Chloe pulled Zack away from the trio and sighed once they had passed a few people and stood near the Zimmers’ house. “She’s so unbearable sometimes.”

The young man briefly bit his bottom lip, wondering if he should ask about the whole photos and clothes thing, but in the end, decided not to bother his best friend. “They mean well…, I think,” he nervously chuckled, scratching the back of his head.

He observed the other adults dancing for a moment. Mrs. Austen was trying to pull her husband up from his chair, but he was having none of it. It made him wonder if Brandon’s parents were having problems. Speaking of Brandon, he had taken upon himself to help people at the food tables. Zack then caught Mr. Roberts in a rare smiling moment as he twirled his wife around, the auburn-haired woman looking quite beautiful under the street lights. Erin Roberts had been hired by Monica to work as a receptionist at the clinic she opened upon moving back to Azure Rocks. Nearby, Mrs. White bustled around the food tables, filling up the role of the neighborhood’s mother quite well. She was still quite energetic and attractive for a woman of fifty. His gaze then scanned the cul-de-sac, and watching the adults dancing a bit more, some in pairs, groups, or even by themselves, a question slipped from him without really thinking about it.

“Hey, you wanna dance a bit?”

Chloe’s blue eyes widened as she sharply turned to him. “You’ve got to be joking?” She then burst out laughing. “Zack, if we do that, my Mom would never leave us in peace!”

He chuckled and scratched the back of his neck again. “Well, guess I just felt inspired by all this dancing,” he lazily gestured toward the other people. “We’d be just dancing as friends.”

“I guess you can dance with Thea when she comes back,” she grinned and hip-checked him before he jokingly pulled her to him. “Hey!”

“C’mon, Chlooooo, dance with meeeeee!” Zack pretended to beg as they laughed with his arms around her hoodie-covered waist.

“Zaaaack, stooop!” The ginger laughed, thinking they probably looked real silly.

“Dance with meeeee!” He repeated, lightly swinging her left and right as she squirmed.

“Down, boy!” Chloe giggled once she managed to disentangle herself from him. “Look, there’s Thea and Cody!”

---

Standing nearby the main concentration of people, but not exactly in it, was Taylor. The tall brunette was sipping from a can of soda as she watched everyone laugh and dance, a small smile on her face. She had put on a black t-shirt and jeans of the same color.

“So, I don’t believe we’ve been introduced yet,” a roguish male voice spoke from her left.

She turned to find a man who seemed to be a few years older than her, even taller, and had a strong, muscled build, with short light-brown hair and mysterious hazel eyes. He was quite handsome in the college coed’s opinion.

“Uhn…, my family moved into number ten a couple weeks ago,” she rasped. “I’m Taylor Bishop.”

“Ah, I suspected as much from the resemblance to Monica,” the man chuckled and extended a hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Taylor. I’m Dean Wade.”

She smiled while shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you, Dean,” she replied, taking a sip of her soda to calm the slight case of nerves in her mind. “So…, you live around here?”

“Oh, yeah, up there on Zaffre Street,” he nodded in the direction of the street that led into the cul-de-sac. “Moved three years ago, after I got finished with college.”

So he must be… twenty-five? she guessed. “Winter Lake or the community college?”

“Community,” Dean replied, taking a bite of his hot dog. “Did it mainly so I could have a degree, but I don’t use it. I became a firefighter almost as soon as I graduated.”

“Hmm,” Taylor nodded, impressed. It explained his physique. “It’s a noble path, but probably dangerous, I’d guess?”

Dean shrugged. “Eh, not much here in Azure Rocks. We don’t get many fires, which I suppose I should be grateful for,” he let out another chuckle. “But what about you? You look like a Winter Lake girl, so that’s my guess.”

“Guilty as charged,” Taylor grinned, unconsciously putting an extra rasp in her voice that she was sure Hannah would tease her relentlessly for. “Gonna start my junior year in a month, but I’m a pre-med student, so I’m not gonna be done with it anytime soon.”

Dean made an impressed face as well. “Oh, a noble path too,” he bantered. “Guess I know who to look for if I ever get on the bad end of a fire.”

Taylor laughed in amusement and a little something else. “I’ll make sure to give you the neighbor discount,” she reached up to play with a lock of her dark hair.

Her mind went back to her on-again, off-again boyfriend back in Cyan Pines, and how it had become increasingly hard to deal with his insecurities. They were in an off-period right now, had been since the end of March, and this time, it didn’t look like they were going to get back together. That notion freed her to be interested in another guy, like Dean, for example, but a month wasn’t enough time to get to know him. Taylor had never been an impulsive kind of girl, so she guessed that ship had sailed before she could even reach it. It was fun to flirt, though, and most of all, be on the receiving end of it.

Dean grinned wolfishly at her. “Oh, I’ll pay extra if it means you’re gonna be caring for me,” he said, and finally made the younger girl blush. “Look, I dunno if you had the chance to meet everyone else here, but I’ll give you the lowdown on some of them.”

---

Coming out from the Zimmers’ house were Althea and a shorter boy, with the same blond hair as hers, though obviously shorter, and his gray eyes behind a pair of glasses. Cody would be in his year at school in the upcoming year, but Zack couldn’t say he talked much to the boy during the two weeks since he moved back.

“Yes! Gamer boy successfully pried away from the screen!” Thea announced, pulling her brother with her.

“I still have my phone, Althea,” Cody retorted.

“And don’t make me take it away from you,” the older sister reminded him. She then turned to Chloe. “Your sister’s coming soon, by the way. Indigo just texted me that they’re at your house.”

“Oh, I was starting to wonder where Holly had vanished into,” the redhead nodded.

Thea turned back to her brother. “You wanna eat something? They’re serving some pretty good stuff.”

“I can attest to that,” Zack remarked, having finished his burger.

“No, I just ate,” Cody replied, shoving both hands in his pockets and looking down at the sidewalk.

“Oh, yeah, that’s right,” Chloe turned to her soccer teammate. “Thea, Zack needs someone to dance with.”

“I do?” He inquired, turning to her as he recalled that she suggested exactly that but thought she was joking.

A smirk curled up Thea’s lips. “Oh, it’d be my absolute honor to test the dancing skills of the new guy in the neighborhood,” she fixed Zachary with a challenging look, an eyebrow raised.

“Alright, then,” Zack shrugged with an amused smile, the camera still hanging around his neck. It wasn’t like the songs played at the party were romantic or those ones designed for people to grind on each other.

The two of them walked a few feet away from Chloe and Cody into the street and began shaking their hips to the upbeat, melodic song that was currently playing. It was fun, and Zack would never say no to dancing with a pretty girl.

“So, now that we’re alone…,” Thea started. “You’re the best friend I kept hearing so much about.”

He let out a chuckle. “Yeah, thanks for being here for her.”

“Hey, I would’ve watched out for any neighbor, but when I saw how well she played, damn, I had to take her under my wing,” the older girl told him. “She’s gonna be a real threat this year. Shame I’m not gonna be here to see it.”

“Well, you can always make the trip to watch the games,” he suggested. “Cyan Pines is not that far.”

“Would you like that?” The blonde grinned mischievously as they continued to sway in front of each other. “See me coming home for her games?”

Zack laughed nervously, it had been a fierce battle not letting his gaze notice her flat stomach exposed by the crop top, or to stop it from wandering toward her nicely-rounded cleavage. “You’re fun to be around,” he finally said. “I’m glad Chloe had someone like you.”

“A fun female friend or a quite handsome male one?” Thea briefly tapped her chin, pretending to be deep in thought. “I wonder what she prefers.”

Is she flirting with me? The blue-eyed boy wondered as he laughed again. Granted, his experiences were quite limited to be able to tell for sure. Besides the science club girl, he had been the target of flirty cheerleaders back in Quartz City, but that didn’t end exactly well, a memory he didn’t want to bring back. “We’re just friends, she feels like another sister to me,” he told the blonde, his lips curling up into a small smile. “As much as our mothers seem to disagree.”

Althea laughed at that, having witnessed Charlotte fussing over Chloe and Zack once. “They just want you two to be happy,” she said before another smirk came up. “Well, I can help get them off your backs if that’s annoying you so much.”

Zack raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“You seem to be a fun, nice guy, Zack,” she said, swaying before him, her blue eyes locking on his. “So it’s simple, I can let you take me on a date before I leave for soccer camp. I wanna get to know Chloe’s elusive best friend.”

He didn’t understand it at first, but a second later it dawned on him and his dick twitched at the thought of going on a date with this beautiful blonde. “My mom is really smart, Thea. She won’t fall for it.”

The athletic blonde just smirked for a moment. “Well, then, assuming things go right on that date…,” she trailed. “We’ll just have to make it pretty convincing for her and Charlotte.”

Zachary’s heart skipped a beat as his gaze held her alluring blue eyes and briefly drifted down to her soft lips once she took a step closer and continued dancing, her hips swaying effortlessly. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but just when he was about to give her an answer, someone bumped into him and almost sent him flying into a nearby car.

None other than Holly McRose stepped out of the shadows between the lampposts, playfully bumping into her older sister’s best friend and instantly killing the mood.

“Can someone point me to the soda table?” The 17-year-old redhead inquired. “No? Okay, I’ll crash the party myself.”

Startled, Zack did a double take as he picked himself up. “Yikes! Holly!” He put a hand over his beating chest. “Where did you come from? Crept up like a ghost.”

“From beyond the grave, also known as my house,” Holly responded with a smirk before turning to Thea. “Hi, Althea. Nice jacket, is it new?”

Thea, now a little stunned by the interruption, crossed her arms over her chest. “Uhn…, hi, Holly,” she raised an eyebrow. Chloe’s little sister had never acted like that, so it stumped her a bit. “It’s just a normal jacket, nothing special about it,” she let out a chuckle.

“Thea! Over here!”

A familiar voice loudly called from the door of the Zimmers’ house. Indigo, Thea and Cody’s 17-year-old sister, was waving quite awkwardly.

“Alright, we’ll talk later, Zack,” Thea shrugged with a small smile. “Assuming I didn’t scare you?”

Zack returned the smile, thinking back to her proposition for a moment. “Oh, okay, no worries, go see what your sister needs.”

As Thea walked away, throwing her hair over one shoulder, Holly followed her every step with her sky-blue eyes until she was far enough from them, and then turned to Zack, crossing her arms over her dark-blue t-shirt. “She’s so sweet, isn’t she? Almost too sweet,” she commented. “I never noticed, does she throw her hair like that every time or is it a college girl thing?”

Zachary laughed, both out of surprise and amusement. “What’s gotten into you?” He inquired. “Besides, she’s not a college girl yet. Only when the summer ends.”

Holly just shrugged, pretending to be impressed as she looked up at him.

“Okay, so tell me,” he decided to change the subject. “Where were you until now? This whole shindig started two hours ago.”

“Well, I had an unfortunate accident, a serious one,” the younger girl started explaining. “I lost my keys! Indigo helped me look but they were at the bottom of my bag the whole time. An unprecedented betrayal from my own accessory!”

Zack raised an eyebrow at the story, not believing it one bit. “Okaaaay…, and you took two whole hours to search a bag the size of a notebook?”

“It’s a quite deep bag, Zack. Deep thoughts demand deep bags,” she bantered, enjoying the hell out of it even if she wondered where those words were coming from. “Besides, the zipper got stuck and I had to use reverse engineering to open it. Smart people stuff, I’m sure you know.”

Now that made Zack laugh loudly, there was the Holly he knew and loved. “Oh, of course, you’re a misunderstood genius, Lady McRose,” he used the nickname he had for her when she played with him and Chloe back when they were kids. They were actually a bit closer in age, as Holly was Irish twins with Chloe, and would have her eighteenth birthday on the same day Chloe celebrated her nineteenth. But for some reason known only to Charlotte McRose, she had been enrolled in school a year later than her sister and Zack instead of the same year, as it would be the sensible thing to do. So she inevitably became the best friend’s little sister in his eyes.

“Exactly, Lord Bishop,” she grinned, trying to hide the blush that threatened to creep up her pale, freckled cheeks before an amused frown replaced it. “And just what the hell is that supposed to be?” She nodded in the direction of where most of the adults were. “Is Mr. Hudson trying to ruin what’s left of his spine by… breakdancing?”

“Uh-oh, someone needs to go save him,” Zack chuckled. “He’s gonna get stuck right there and I don’t think our neighbors are ready for an ambulance to ruin the party.”

Holly snorted. “And that, right over there, our moms?” She pointed out. “Wait, is your mom trying to teach mine an old cheerleading routine or something?”

“Shit,” Zack’s eyes widened, watching his mother throwing her arms as if she had pom-poms in her hands. Charlotte awkwardly tried to copy her, but all that she managed to do was draw the men’s attention to her bouncing tits. Not that his own mother wasn’t drawing that kind of attention, though. “Well, Mom spends almost all her time at the Clinic, she needs an outlet sometimes,” he scratched the back of his head. “But your dad over there looks like a robot trying to copy them.”

Holly laughed loudly, even though it mortified her a little. “Oh, gosh, he looks like one of those tube men at gas stations!” She gushed. “Look at his arms! If he keeps spinning like that, he’s gonna start flying!”

Zachary laughed even harder at the mental image she painted. One of the best things about coming back was Holly’s humor, even if she tried to hide it most of the time behind a wall of sarcasm. She turned to him, still grinning, and noticed the camera hanging around his neck.

“Hey, take a pic of me,” she requested, crossing her arms once again and turning sideways while staring at him.

“Oh, good idea, I should’ve thought about it,” he quickly pointed the camera at her and was taken aback for a quick second.

Holly had become really beautiful over the years with her long, slightly wavy red hair, a shade darker than Chloe’s, and her pale, freckled face. She had a slender build, and was wearing a dark-blue t-shirt and denim shorts that left her toned legs exposed. He recalled a casual comment from Brandon the other day, that Holly was considered one of the most good-looking underclassmen in their school, and a protective feeling arose deep inside Zack when he wondered if she had had a boyfriend yet.

“Hellooo? Earth to Bishop?” Holly chuckled when he started taking too long to tell her the photo was done.

“Oh, sorry, was just thinking about our dancing moms,” Zack lied, and then quickly snapped the picture.

“Let me see it,” she demanded, a pleased smile growing on her face at the result once he showed her. “Ah, that’s really good. You could go pro with that thing, Zack.”

He shrugged, letting out a chuckle. “We’ll see it, I haven’t decided what I wanna do yet.”

When the younger girl was about to comment on it, her mother’s voice echoed through the street. “Holly! Stop gossiping and come help me with this table right now, young lady!”

Holly let out a dramatic, frustrated groan, her eyes rolling. “The matriarch clamors for my slave labor,” she gave him a resigned smile. “Guess that’s the end of my socializing for the night.”

“Go on, Cinderella, the paper plates and napkins await you,” he bantered back.

She turned her back to him, but then turned to throw him one last look over her shoulder. “Try not to swoon over future college girls while I’m gone, okay?” She sassed. “Save me a Coke if you have a heart.”

“I’ll try,” Zachary laughed as she walked away. Chuckling to himself, the dark-haired boy decided that he took enough photos for the night and dropped it on the closest table to his house before deciding to go look for Chloe.

---

“Looks like you were having fun,” Taylor softly grinned as she approached her mother near the food tables.

“Oh, so you saw that, huh?” Monica replied, pretending to be embarrassed, but the amused smile on her features betrayed the fact that she was anything but that.

“Kinda hard to miss a former cheer captain teaching her buxom friend some moves,” the daughter sassed back, taking a sip of a fruity drink. “You sure Aunt Charlotte wasn’t in the squad back then?”

That made Monica laugh. “No, she had the looks and the body, but as you could see, none of the swagger,” she recounted while pulling her daughter for a sideways hug. “Kinda like you, sweetie.”

“Oh, I never said I didn’t have the swagger, just that I never wanted to be a cheerleader. That’s a bit different,” Taylor clarified as she looked around. “So, the party was a success, I take it?”

“Yeah, Carolina did a really good job,” Monica exchanged a warm, friendly smile with the older blonde from afar. She then turned to her daughter with a rueful expression. “I guess there’s not many people your age in our new neighborhood, huh?”

“Try almost none,” the younger brunette chuckled.

“I know Hannah went on a trip, but you could’ve invited Peter, sweetie,” Monica remarked. “I haven’t seen him and Ciara, or even Frank, much since we got back.” Ciara was one of Monica’s old friends from her early life, and her son had become friends with Taylor when they were kids, much like Hannah Woodsen.

“I did, but he had to help out at his grandparents’ diner,” Taylor explained. “And you’d be out of luck with Aunt Ciara. Pete told me she’s out of town on work.”

“Oh,” Monica nodded, thinking that she needed to get more up to date with her old friends’ lives again. Besides Charlotte and Sarah Woodsen, she didn’t reconnect with many people out of her own family, and had actually made friends with women that she knew from her teenage years but didn’t have much contact with back then, such as Vanessa Austen and Harmony Zimmer.

Her icy-blue eyes then found Erin in what seemed to be a light argument with her husband and a scoff escaped her lips. “I swear I’ve no idea what a girl as sweet as Erin found in that Mark guy.”

Taylor shrugged. “Well, he’s good-looking at least, but that’s probably the extent of his qualities.”

“Unless he’s good in bed,” Monica said, causing her daughter to spit out her drink. “Annoying guys tend to be.”

“Mom!!!” The younger Bishop blurted out, frowning in an accusatory manner.

“Oh, Taylor, you’re not a kid anymore,” the mother chuckled. “How are things with Tommy?”

“Pretty dead as of now, I’d say,” Taylor let out a sigh.

“I’m sure they’re just in a coma,” the mother pulled her daughter to her for another hug. “I’m sure you’ll shock it back to life once you go back to Cyan Pines.”

“Maybe,” Taylor responded in a disinterested tone before she briefly squeezed her mother and disentangled from the hug. “I did meet Dean, though. The firefighter guy.”

Monica grinned as if her daughter had told her she had found a boyfriend. “Oh, he’s an interesting man for a girl your age, Taylor!” She responded in a quite enthusiastic tone. “Did you exchange numbers?”

Taylor chuckled, amused at the predictable reaction. “No, Mom. We just met and I’m gonna go back to college in a month if you have forgotten.”

Her mother shrugged dismissively. “All the more reason for you to have some fun and fully recharge your batteries,” she smirked. “I bet those arms could do things you never thought possible, sweetie.”

“Ugh, Mom!!!” Taylor repeated, a little bit disturbed by how gung-ho her mother could be about her children being sexual. “I should go back inside now. Hannah freaks out if I don’t text her every thirty minutes with an update, and no, you’re not allowed to tell her I met a hunky firefighter.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna turn in soon too,” a chuckling Monica nodded, finishing her own drink. “I’ve got to be at the clinic early tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, yeah, don’t forget to set your alarm,” Taylor teased.

Monica turned to her retreating daughter with an amused frown, if that was possible. “You think I’m Hannah, young lady?!”

---

About half an hour later, Holly slammed a pack of napkins on the table Indigo was sitting by herself and dropped onto the other chair. The petite blonde looked up, startled.

“Holy shit!” She immediately brought a hand to her chest.

“Hey! I’m not a shit, despite what certain people may claim,” the redhead retorted, pretending to sound mad.

Indigo Zimmer rolled her eyes and then looked around before leaning closer to her best friend. “You’re welcome, by the way,” she said. “I had to come up with a whole lie about feeling my dress was too tight to get my sister away from him. It was the only thing I could think of on the fly!”

“You were clinical, Indy, don’t worry,” Holly assured the blonde while chewing on a burger. “We were almost too late, though. Ms. College Girl was already throwing her net,” she told her friend. “Can you believe she asked him out? I almost threw up right there!”

Indigo’s gray eyes widened as she looked up at the redhead again. “Really? I didn’t know she was looking for a boyfriend, especially now that she’ll leave at the end of the summer,” she commented. “What did Zack say?”

“I dunno, I didn’t catch enough of their conversation,” Holly shrugged, trying to sound uninterested, but it was useless around her bestie. “Luckily, I got there right on time and broke the spell. Stumbled into him and almost threw him on top of your dad’s car.”

Indigo tried to stifle the laughter, unsuccessfully. “God, Holly, you’re as subtle as a bull in a kitchen,” she let the chuckle escape. “Did he notice you took two hours to get ready? If he didn’t, he’s officially blind, because… you’re looking hot in that outfit.”

“Thanks… Indy, you’re looking great in that dress too,” Holly felt her cheeks burn as she pretended to inspect a ketchup stain in the table cloth and took another bite of her burger. “I think he did, I dunno, I had him take a pic of me,” she then shook her head. “I screwed up, had to invent a whole story about my bag swallowing my keys, it was awful.”

“Keys? Really? Yeah, you tend to do that under pressure,” Indigo said. “But what happened later? Did he get mad at you for interrupting?”

A genuine smile made Holly’s lips curl up. “No, we made fun of Mr. Hudson dancing and his mom trying to teach mine how to be a cheerleader. We… laughed a lot and it was really fun.”

“Oh, hey, that’s progress!” The blonde grinned proudly. “And, well, even if he gets with Thea for the rest of the summer, you’re gonna have a whole year with him, Holly.”

“Assuming MY sister doesn’t open her eyes by then, you mean?” Holly sassed, nodding in the general direction of a spot where Zack was chatting with Chloe, Brandon, and Cody. She finished her burger and took a sip of Indigo’s coke. “Hold on,” she stood up. “I’m gonna have a really embarrassing accident if I don’t go pee right fucking now.”

---

Another hour passed and a few people had gone home already, even though the party was still in full swing. Zachary had a rare moment by himself, sitting by the Whites’ house at one corner of the cul-de-sac, just observing his neighbors have fun. At one point someone plopped down on the chair next to him.

“You were a busy man, lil’ bro,” Taylor teased.

“Ah, hey, Tay,” he grinned. “Haven’t seen you much tonight.”

The older girl shrugged, she had put on a blue sweater now that the night had become just a little bit chillier. “Yeah, I popped out of the house here and there,” she then smiled at her brother, reaching over to ruffle his hair as he laughed. “You know, moving here really did wonders for you.”

“Yeah,” he fought off her annoying hand. “I needed this. Badly.”

“I can’t deny that,” she nodded, her gaze on their neighbors as well. “But hey, even if Quartz City sucked, you did make great friends in the other places we lived.”

“That I did,” he smiled at the memory of his friends back in Amethyst Shore and Big Lake, with whom he still kept contact over text and video calls, much like did with Chloe when he moved away from Azure Rocks. A yawn that was impossible to avoid escaped his lips. “I think I’m gonna turn in. You staying, Tay?”

“Nah, heading for bed too,” the 21-year-old stood up with her brother.

“Let me just get my camera,” Zack said and then they walked toward their house, but once they reached the food table closest to their porch, his eyes widened and he began to wildly look around. “The hell?”

“What’s it?” Taylor raised an eyebrow at his behavior.

“My camera. I left it here on this table,” the blue-eyed boy replied, a bit louder. “It’s gone! Someone took it!”

She put her hands on his shoulder. “Hey, breathe…, are you sure you left it here?”

“Yeah, Taylor!” He yelled before realizing what he was doing. “Sorry, but yeah, I… think, at least.”

“Well, someone must’ve seen you with it, picked it up, and put it in a safe place. Maybe Mom,” the older Bishop sibling pondered.

“Mom doesn’t seem to be here anymore,” Zack retorted, desperately trying to spot their mother in the crowd.

“She went to sleep already. You know she needs to rise early tomorrow,” Taylor explained.

“But how will I ask her if she…,” the younger sibling started panicking, but his sister’s hands on his shoulder softly squeezed him.

“Zachary, listen to me,” she slowly turned his body to face her, her own blue eyes locking into his. “It won’t do any good to go throwing accusations on our neighbors right now, so why don’t we go inside, sleep on it, and if Mom doesn’t have it, then we can ask around if anyone saw it.”

Zachary looked around the cul-de-sac one more time. It was hard not feeling despair at a time like this. He loved that camera, it had been a gift from his aunt about a year ago. She noticed how much he liked photography and wanted him to have a proper tool to capture his photos. Taylor was right, though, it was bound to show up. Right?

Chloe, who was still around, noticed the interaction between the siblings and came over. “Hey, what’s wrong?” She frowned at how disturbed her best friend seemed to be.

“His camera vanished,” Taylor told the redhead.

“Did you see it, Chloe?” Zack inquired, his tone full of hope.

She bit her bottom lip. “Sorry, not since you left it on that table,” she said, and her heart went out to him when she noticed how his shoulders sagged after her reply.

“Okay, so we at least know for sure where Zack left it. If our Mom doesn’t have it, it’ll be easier to ask everyone tomorrow,” Taylor said, gently pulling her brother toward the house. “C’mon, Zack, let’s go to sleep. Good night, Chloe.”

“Night,” the soccer player meekly nodded before she called out to her retreating friend. “It’ll show up, Zack, don’t worry!”

The “Thanks, Chlo,” was so inaudible that seeing her best friend in such a state made Chloe really sad as well as she watched the Bishop siblings enter their house.