Ashley can't stop herself from following Zack

It was starting to slowly grow darker outside, as the sun was setting over the surrounding treetops and caused them to cast their tall shadows across the silvery surface of the lake.

It made Ashley want to return back to the cabin again, before the air was starting to get colder as well, but first she found herself looking around the area for someone to make her company. Her boyfriend still seemed busy chatting with Heather however, and she could see her best friend Vicky was busy talking to Gavin a bit further up the beach, while that sweet-talker Kurt was nowhere in sight at all.

That left her with but a single obvious choice, and she managed to catch sight of Zachary again just when he was on his way into the forest at the opposite direction of the cabin. With her curiosity taking over she decided to keep on following him, like she appeared to have done for the last couple of hours or so, and a moment later she was heading up a winding path that seemed to lead to the top of the low cliffs overlooking the lake.

"Where the heck is he going...?" She wondered briefly, just before she arrived at some kind of look-out point, complete with a couple of sturdy old wooden benches and tables.

"Wow...?!" The cute blonde exclaimed, just a little out of breath from the steep climb at the end, as she looked out across the silvery water below. In the last rays of the setting sun it was a truly beautiful sight, and she couldn't help but say so to the guy who was already standing and catching his breath when she arrived.

"Yeah, you're right!" He agreed with a soft smile and a curious look at her, which seemed to say to her that just got even better when she got there.

"Well, thanks...!" She returned the smile at him, and then felt herself blushing slightly as she realized he'd never actually said the words out loud to her. Still it was the only thing she could read in those probing blue eyes of his, and the redness spread across her face at the idea of him finally seeming to take notice of her scantily dressed young body. "Uhmm... Would you like to sit down for a bit?"

"Yeah, sure..." There was a slight frown of confusion on his handsome face by now, though he could hardly turn down her offer as she sat herself down right next to him on one of the wooden benches. Again she realized how they'd never really been alone together before, and she tried desperately to come up with something they could possibly have in common to start a conversation about.

"Isn't it strange really...?" Ashley finally asked him, while she leaned herself closer to the warmth of his half-naked body. "That our sisters were always so close to each other, while we just barely met at all...?"

"Well, yes it is." The guy nodded slowly, and she thought that she could see the same kind of emotions reflected in his deep blue eyes as she was feeling herself. She didn't even know the reason why she was having such ideas crossing her mind, but suddenly all she could think of was how to bridge those lost years they never had together.

"We could have been best friends, like him and Chloe..." She found herself musing at the thought, and wondered if he'd ever stand up for her like he'd done for the timid redhead back at the lake. Then something else overshadowed any further reasoning, and caused a tingling warmth to spread throughout her body while she leaned her face even closer to his. "Or we could have been something else, instead of me and Brandon...!"