CHAPTER 3 - Dude, Where's My Camera?

Zachary tossed and turned that night, unable to force his mind not to think about his missing camera. Even Orion, even though he was just a kitten, felt how his human was restless and spent most of the night curled up to him, in a likely attempt to soothe his nerves. When Zack heard the first noises upstairs at the dawn of a new day, he quickly got dressed in casual clothes and made his way up. The sky was still kind of dark outside, so there wasn’t much in terms of natural illumination seeping into the house from the windows.

At the kitchen, his mother had her back turned to him as she worked at the counter. She was wearing a rather enticing dark-blue satin robe that reached the middle of her thighs and was barefoot, but her son couldn’t focus on any of that. His mind was full of thoughts about his camera, and his mother represented one last hope that someone hadn’t simply snatched it.

“Mom,” he spoke in a bit of an emotionless tone.

Monica did a quick jump and turned toward him, startled. The sides of her robe jostled with the unrestrained movement from her braless large breasts. “Jeez, Zack!” She put a hand over her heart. “What are you doing up at this hour?” She inquired before her blue eyes softened. “Not that I mind the company for breakfast, mind you.”

“Mom, did you pick up my camera last night?” The teenager went right at it, there was no time for greetings.

“Your camera?” The mother raised a curious eyebrow. “Last time I saw it, it was hanging around your neck. What’s going on?”

The way her son’s shoulders sagged and a look of complete despair took over his features, as if he could start crying any moment now, worried Monica deeply and she made her way over to him in two steps. “Sweetie, what happened?”

“I’ve left my camera on the closest table to our house last night,” he started explaining, dropping down onto a chair by the kitchen table and resting his arms over it. “Taylor thought you could’ve picked it up for me, but…”

His voice died down and Monica sat on another chair, a hand reaching to his upper back in a comforting manner. “I’m sorry, Zack, but like I said, the last time I’ve seen the camera, you had it,” she told him soothingly. “But that doesn’t automatically mean someone snatched it up. Someone else could’ve picked it up so it wouldn’t be just lying around, just like you thought I did,” she tried to calm him down and think about it rationally. “Who knows about this besides you and Taylor?”

“Just Chloe,” he quietly mumbled, muffled by his arms. “Before you ask, no, I didn’t get any texts from her.”

Monica slowly nodded. “Well, I guess that excludes Charlotte and Roy,” she said. “Tell you what. Why don’t you have a nice breakfast, then head down, take a shower, and wait for the sun to properly go up,” she rubbed the back of his neck. “Then you can go around the neighborhood and ask?”

“Guess that’s the only thing I can do,” he quietly replied, face buried down into his arms.

“That’s the spirit,” she patted his back, even though she was a bit worried that the camera had indeed been stolen. “But Zack, please, just ask if people have seen it,” she advised. “Don’t go accusing our neighbors until you have proof, alright?”

He lifted up his head and frowned at her. “You know I wouldn’t do that, Mom.”

“I’m aware, but I also know how attached you are to that camera,” she smiled at him while continuing to soothingly rub his back and shoulder. “You’re one of the smartest kids I know, so don’t let your emotions get the best of you. That’s what I’m saying.”

Zack shivered, his mother’s massage was starting to feel pretty good, but he readily pushed those thoughts away. “Okay,” he nodded before his stomach rumbled and his gaze shifted toward the counter. “Sooo…, what’s for breakfast?”

Once the sun was up, Zachary decided to go on his jog to clear his head up a little before visiting his neighbors. On the way back from the park, he met Brandon in front of the other boy’s house, and after checking with him and his parents to see if they knew about the camera, the athlete decided to help him.

“So, we’re meeting with Chloe?” Brandon asked as they rounded the block to go down to the cul-de-sac.

“Huh? Oh, no,” Zack clarified. “Chloe’s not too big on this whole investigation thing. She’d come if I called, but I don’t wanna bother her with it if I can.”

The school quarterback nodded before a smirk formed in his face. “What about Thea? I saw you two dancing last night,” he teased. “Going straight for the future college girl, huh?”

Zack chuckled, grateful for how the other boy was making him laugh, even if that wasn’t exactly his intention. “Yeah, I’m not sure what that was, by the way,” he lied. “So, I wanna start with the Whites. See if I can catch Mrs. White before she leaves for the bakery.”

“Good call, that lady often knows things. They don’t call her the Neighborhood’s Mother for nothing,” Brandon said as they jogged down the rest of the road.

The Whites’ home was in one of the corners of the actual cul-de-sac, a symmetric white house with a neatly-mowed front yard, courtesy of Brandon himself, who sometimes did an odd job or two around the neighborhood. Having plenty of pocket money was never enough, he always figured. Relieved to see two cars in the driveway, Zack rang the doorbell.

“Mr. White is here too,” Brandon pointed out. “He’s the chief of police, maybe he’ll have a better idea on what you should do.”

Zachary couldn’t respond because the opening door cut him off. On the other side, a still youthful 50-year-old woman with wavy blonde hair and blue eyes, her light-green blouse bulging with her buxom chest. Carolina White smiled genuinely at the sight of the two boys.

“Brandon, Zachary! What a pleasant surprise!” She gushed, pulling both boys for one of her famous bone-crushing hugs, a large breast pressing into each of their chests. She then pulled back, missing the way the two boys exchanged a quick look. “To what do I owe this visit?”

“Uhn…, good morning, Mrs. White,” Zack said, letting out a nervous laugh. “I won’t take too much of your time, I promise. I just wanted to ask if you saw my camera last night,” he explained. “I mean, I left it on one of the tables close to my house at some point, but when I went home, it wasn’t there anymore.”

The older woman frowned. “No, honey, I’m sorry, but I’ve only seen it when you were taking photos of everyone,” she replied. “No one else has seen it?”

Zack scratched the back of his neck. “No one that I asked,” he responded. “We’re actually going around the neighborhood asking if anyone saw it after I dropped it.”

At that moment, an older man with an imposing build stepped behind his wife. “Hello, boys. I was just here in the foyer and couldn’t help but overhear it,” Jeremy White said. With receding light-brown hair and green eyes, the 52-year-old man was the chief of police at the Azure Rocks Police Department. “That’s a serious accusation, you should make sure that it’s what happened.”

“Uhn…, hi, Mr. White,” Zack greeted, a bit intimidated by the man. “I know, I’m not accusing anyone. For now, I’m just thinking that someone might’ve seen it lying around and picked it up to keep it safe for me.”

“Oh, that’s smart and level-headed of you, and it’s a good call in these situations,” the man said. “A piece of advice, son, don’t fret. I know it’s not easy, but situations like this tend to be resolved on their own, sooner or later. Neighborhood squabbles always do.”

“Thanks, Mr. White, I’ll do that,” Zack replied, noticing Thea leaving the house next-door from the corner of his eye. “I’ll just ask around and see what happens.”

Jeremy smiled. “Alright, keep me posted,” he then turned to his wife. “Honey, I’m heading to the station. You going out soon?”

“Yes, it’s almost time for me to open the bakery,” Carolina replied before pecking her husband. “Have a nice day, honey!”

The boys watched as Jeremy White got into his car and pulled out of the neighborhood. Brandon then turned to the older woman. “We better get going, Mrs. White, thanks for your time,” he grinned. “Let me know when you need your lawn mowed.”

“Oh, I’ll do that! Goodbye, you two,” Carolina pulled the boys for another hug, less intense this time. “Zachary, let me know when you find your camera, okay?”

“No problem, Mrs. White,” the Bishop boy responded before him and Brandon waved at the woman and she went back inside her house.

It was then that Thea walked over with a curious look on her attractive features. “Sooo…, mind telling me what the hell was that?” She inquired with a grin.

Zack chuckled, fighting off a blush that threatened to color his cheeks at the memory of her asking him out during the party. “Uhn…,” he stammered before launching into an explanation about his missing camera. “And that’s it, we’re asking around now. Did you see it, Thea?”

“Hmm, not since we chatted for the last time at the party,” the blonde girl answered with a pensive expression. “Hang on, wait here. Everyone’s home right now, so I can ask them,” she told the boys and rushed back into the Zimmers’ house. Zack’s eyes unconsciously descended onto her toned ass encased by a snug black pair of yoga pants.

Brandon turned to his friend, saw how he was following the girl’s steps with his gaze and let out a chuckle.

“What?” Zack raised an eyebrow.

The stronger boy laughed. “Dude, you basically just got here and are already sweeping all the girls in the neighborhood off their feet,” he pointed out. “Just don’t drag Maddie into it when she comes back.”

The Bishop boy frowned and shook his head, amused. “It’s not like that, Bran, shut up.”

“Just saying,” Brandon grinned as they waited.

A minute later, Thea came back with Cody in tow, the latter looking quite annoyed but following his older sister without complaining. “Okay, no one has seen it, but I brought Cody here to help us look,” she smirked, throwing an arm around her younger brother’s shoulders, who promptly tried to disentangle himself from her grasp.

“Althea said she’d confiscate my phone if I didn’t help,” the bespectacled boy clarified. “But yeah, it’s sad that you lost your camera, Zachary. I’d be very bummed too if something of mine suddenly disappeared,” at that, he threw a pointed look at his older sister.

“Cool!” Brandon said, motioning for Cody to come closer to him. “How about we split up? I can go with Cody and you two pair up,” he grinned at Zack and Thea.

“Oh, good call, Brandon,” the only girl in the group nodded. “We can cover more ground faster this way.”

Zack felt a little stunned at how their strategy had been decided so fast in front of his very eyes, but then just nodded. He would never say no to spending some time with a pretty girl. “Well, uhn…, okay then,” he said. “We can take that block, you guys stay on this one.”

Thea smiled and then she accompanied Chloe’s best friend as he crossed the street toward the other corner of the cul-de-sac. “Looks like the Robertses have already left for the day,” she remarked. “Good, I’m not in the mood to deal with Mark Roberts.”

He let out an amused chuckle at it. “I see my impressions were spot on, then. Is he really that bad?”

The blonde groaned in annoyance. “Ugh…, I think that guy only smiles around his wife, and even that might be stretching it.”

“Poor Erin,” Zack commented. He had met his mother’s new secretary a couple times and thought she was really sweet, not to mention really gorgeous.

“Honestly, I hope someone steals her from him,” Thea said as they walked. “Or at least seduces her and lets him catch them.”

“Uhn, Thea?” Zack’s head snapped in her direction with a flabbergasted look, causing the blonde to laugh loudly.

“Sorry, I’m just very direct about what I’m thinking, as you can probably remember from last night,” she winked one of her blue eyes at him. “But yeah, the Hudsons have always been one of the sweetest couples in this neighborhood. Their daughter didn’t deserve to get saddled with someone like Mark.”

“I believe it,” Zack nodded as they reached their next destination. “Look, the Riveras are still home.”

“Let me take this one, I know Susan through Lisa,” Thea took a few steps forward before throwing him a look over her shoulder. Zack couldn’t help but admire her butt once more, and willed his dick to stop twitching, an almost impossible task as he remembered just who would probably answer the door.

Contrary to his belief, though, the one who answered the door when Thea rang the doorbell was a younger version of Susan Rivera. Most precisely, eighteen like him, and a quite voluptuous and athletic girl, with long black hair, currently tied in a ponytail, and chocolate-brown eyes. Lisa Rivera smiled brightly upon seeing her teammate and new neighbor.

“Oh, morning, you guys!” She greeted, her large tits under the black top lightly bouncing as she walked. The olive-skinned girl was truly her mother’s daughter in Zack’s opinion. “This is kinda unexpected,” she chuckled. “Why are you two knocking at my house so early like this?”

“Morning, Lis. Well, we’ve got a bit of a problem,” Thea responded, returning the smile with a smirk. “Or rather, Zack here does.”

“Morning, Lisa,” a slightly nervous Zack greeted and then explained the situation with the camera to her. “So, I was hoping one of your parents saw what happened.”

“Sorry about the camera, Zack,” Lisa gave him a sympathetic smile. “Wait a sec, I can ask my mom, she hasn’t gone to the ice-cream parlor yet. My dad’s already gone to work, so you’re out of luck there.”

“Thanks,” Zack grinned back and then Thea observed him as Lisa walked back to the house. She let out a chuckle and he raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“You were totally checking out her body,” the blonde said, crossing her arms in front of her medium-to-large breasts under the white tank top she was wearing.

Zachary rolled his eyes. “What’s with everyone policing my eyes this morning?” He asked, in a weird mix of annoyance and amusement. He was a teenage boy and sometimes couldn’t help himself, but it sounded like everyone else had sex in their brains.

“Hey, I get it, Lisa has a banging body,” Althea held up her hands in mock surrender.

“Yeah, well, she’s not the only one,” Zack blurted out and gulped at the mischievous smirk the blonde leveled at him. Although, before she could say anything, Lisa came back, jogging out of the house.

“Sorry, Zack, no dice,” the Latina shook her head. “She hasn’t seen it.”

“Oh,” the young man nodded, feeling some of that despair from before coming back, as there weren’t many houses left to visit. “Well, thanks anyway, Lisa.”

“No problem,” Lisa said as she turned to Althea. “Hey, Thea, are you free this afternoon? I’m gonna be at the parlor, but I was hoping we could have that strategy talk we were planning to.”

“Well, honestly, I was thinking about helping Zack with the camera,” the blonde responded. “It’s unclear how long that’s gonna take.”

“Oh, Thea, don’t cancel plans on my account,” Zack pleaded, raising an eyebrow. “I can look for it on my own. Worst case scenario, I can ask Chloe for help.”

“Zack, I think we both know Chloe would only help because you asked,” Thea smirked, and then turned back to Lisa. “So, raincheck?”

The black-haired girl shrugged. “Sure, we have all summer, I think,” she shifted her gaze to Zack. “Let me know if I can help too, don’t be a stranger.”

Zachary nodded almost dumbly at the pretty smile she gave him and then cleared his throat, nodding at her. “Sure, uhn…, thanks, Lisa.”

He then waited as the girls walked to the door, their toned, round asses swaying, and exchanged a few words before Thea came back. The young man thought she was going to say something about his implied comment on her body from earlier, but she just grinned and looked up the street.

“Okay, let's see what we can get on Zaffre Street,” she said, and the two of them got several repeats of what had happened in the other houses, a mix of people being sorry for his missing camera and claiming they didn’t see anything. No more flirting happened during this portion, though. Zack was starting to get nervous when they reached the last house before the abandoned one at the end of the street.

“Okay, this is Mr. Reed,” Thea told Zack as they rang the doorbell. “He’s a professor at the Azure Rocks Community College.”

Zachary noticed the car in the driveway. “He’s home, then,” he pointed out. “I wondered once or twice how much work teachers have over the summer.”

Althea smirked. “You should ask my mom,” she said a moment before the door opened.

A forty-year-old man kindly smiled as he stepped out on his porch. With short blond hair, brown eyes, and a beard around his lips and cheeks, he did give the impression of being wise and scholarly.

“Oh, good morning, Althea,” he said before turning to Zack. “And you should be Monica’s kid, uhn…, Zachary, is it? What can I do for you this morning?”

“Uhn, yeah, I’m Zack. How are you, Mr. Reed?” Zack greeted, having never spoken to the man before. The only times he saw him were at the neighborhood parties.

“Please call me Eric,” the man requested. “I’m not your teacher, both of you.”

“Okay,” Zack nodded. “I won’t bother you too much. I just wanted to ask if you saw my camera last night,” he explained. “I was taking photos at the party, but lost my camera before I went home.”

“Hmm, yeah, I noticed you photographing the party,” Eric said, a hand scratching his short beard. “Camera, camera, camera, let me try and remember if I could’ve seen something,” he tapped his foot at the wooden porch. “No, I think I only saw it when you had it, Zachary.”

The blue-eyed boy sighed, resigned that this would be everyone’s answer. “I imagined as much. Thank you, Eric,” he gave the man a small smile. “I should keep looking.”

“Of course,” Eric Reed nodded. “Sorry I couldn’t be of more assistance. I hope you find it, son.”

“Me too,” Thea said, landing a hand on Zack’s upper back and leading him away. “Thanks, Eric!”

The professor gave them another smile and retreated back to the inside of his house as the teens walked away. When the duo returned to the cul-de-sac and met Brandon and Cody, the boys’ account was the same, a whole lot of nothing. Zachary ran a hand through his face, suddenly getting incredibly nervous again.

“Alright, what gives?” He said to no one in particular as they stood in front of his house. “Someone clearly snatched my camera, but unless one of our neighbors lied to us, it was an outsider.”

“Hmm,” Brandon scratched his chin. “I don’t think I remember anyone from outside here last night, but then again, I can’t say I know every single neighbor that well.”

“We can’t rule out the possibility, though,” Thea commented. “And we’ve got to consider that we didn’t catch everyone at home either.”

“Like Zachary said, though, it’s possible that someone could be lying too,” Cody shrugged. “Don’t assume everyone is a saint just ‘cause they’re adults.”

At that moment, Chloe stepped out of her house, probably having spotted the group from one of the windows, and all it took for the redhead to understand what went on was to look at the confused expressions in her friends’ faces.

“No luck, huh?” She inquired, sidling up to the distressed Zack.

“We just asked around the entire neighborhood,” Thea was the one who answered.

“I need to think,” Zachary suddenly said and wordlessly walked back to his house.

The hours went by and morning turned to afternoon until the sky finally darkened as evening rolled out. Chloe and Thea had come to visit Zack and check up on him after dinner, and they were now sitting at the backyard of the Bishops’ house. The wooden porch had a view to a pool and a shed, and there was a hot tub on one of its corners.

“I mean, it makes sense that a thief would lie,” Thea commented as she played with Orion, the kitten looking like a ball of black fur on her lap. Every so often, though, the cat’s green eyes would find his distressed human. “But what I can’t understand is why someone here would feel the need to steal a digital camera.”

“Exactly,” Chloe nodded. “No one here is rich, but this is a middle class neighborhood. We’re not talking about a car or a house.”

“That’s what’s bugging me, nothing adds up,” Zack quietly said, his gaze locked on the pool. The sight reminded him that he needed to clean it up a bit. Being summer, someone could want to use it.

“Besides, everyone has a phone nowadays,” the blonde snapped her fingers. “If they wanted to take pics so badly, they wouldn’t need a camera.”

“Huh,” Zack mumbled, interrupting Chloe just as she was about to comment on Thea’s remark. The two girls turned to him as he quickly pulled up his phone.

“Zack?” The redhead inquired, raising a curious eyebrow.

“It’s just what Thea said,” the young man replied as he scrolled through screens. “I got so caught up in the fact that the camera was missing that I never stopped to think about what they needed it for.”

“To take pictures, I presume,” Althea chuckled.

“Yes, but I configured it to auto-upload,” he told them. “Before I got it, I lost pics I took with my phone way too often, so when my aunt gave me the camera, I immediately wanted it to auto upload any photos I took to my cloud drive.”

Chloe’s blue eyes widened as she understood his meaning. “Oh, so you can check your account and see if the thief took any pics…”

“And give us a clue about who it could be,” Thea finished for her, grinning like a madwoman.

“Assuming the thief wasn’t careful and didn’t turn that setting off, that is. Here we go,” Zack said and the two girls stood up to peer at his phone screen from each side.

“Is there anything new?” Chloe inquired as Orion leaped from Thea’s hands to Zachary’s lap.

“Ah, doesn’t seem like it,” Zack’s shoulders sagged again at the realization. “Those are all photos I took last night.”

“Back to square one, then?” Thea frowned.

“Hmm,” Zachary began scrolling again through the pictures he took the previous night, and as some of the images passed, his brow softly creased at each one. “What’s this?”

“Zack?” Chloe asked, a second before both her and Althea almost fell off their chairs as Zack shot to his feet, Orion managing to jump on top of the table before he could get launched into the air by his owner.

“What the fuck?!!!”