Rian's uncle's house was even more beautiful than I had imagined. It was very spacious and bright inside. There was a skylight above the living room, allowing sunlight to brighten the room during the day, and a luminous moonlight illuminating it at night.

"Ho-ly shit!" I exclaimed as I looked outside, my eyes widening at the gorgeous view of the beach from the sliding glass doors in the back. I reluctantly turned away from it to face the others as they stumbled in through the front door, bags tucked under their arms and tired smiles on their faces.

"Fuck Rian, I kinda wanna marry your uncle right now…" Alex said as his eyes wandered around the house.

"Then you would be my aunt…and I'm sorry but that's where I draw the line," Rian replied.

"Well, we could get a divorce…as long I get the house," Alex winked back.

"Gold-diggah!" Lisa accused and the rest of us laughed. Rian, Zack, and Jack all collapsed on the couch in the living room, dropping their bags on the floor in the process. Kara, Lisa, and Jane gingerly set their bags down and took a seat as well. Everyone looked so tired from the long drive and it was starting to really bum me out.

"Why is everyone so dead?" I asked, looking around the room at all their drowsy faces.

"Well, not all of us got eight hours of sleep in the back seat like you," Jane snapped quickly. I let it go and sighed.

"But I wanted to go to the beach," I pouted, turning to Alex who seemed to be the only other person fully awake at this point. He was too busy exploring the kitchen, searching for food to return my stare and finally defeated, I turned back to the rest of the group. "You guys are such buzz kills."

"Why don't we just pick our rooms and unpack right now?" Kara suggested, slowly getting to her feet. Everyone nodded in agreement and collected their things.

"I call the master bedroom!" Rian bellowed, suddenly coming to life as he launched up the staircase.

"No fair!" Jack called after him, "you know where everything is!"

The rest of us followed, lugging our suitcases and duffel bags up the stairs as Rian and Jack raced for the biggest room.

"Ha!" I could hear Rian shout from down the hall. When I reached the landing, I caught him doing a little victory dance and guessed that he had beaten Jack.

"Laugh all you want, man, we're rooming together," Jack laughed, throwing his bags through the doorway.

"Play nice boys!" I said with a smile on my face. Tuning out Rian and Jack's bickering, I turned my attention away from the two to look for my room. Zack and Alex had disappeared into the first room to the right of the stairs and Lisa had picked the room right across for her and Kara. The only two left in the wide hallway were Jane and me.

"I guess that means we're roommates," she said and I grinned. The only room left was the one all the way down, at the end of the hallway. I twisted the knob open and bumped the door with a hip, taking a step inside. On both sides of the room, there was a set of twin beds, made up in an ocean blue comforter and white bed skirts flowing out underneath. I walked over to the bed closest to the window and dropped my stuff down onto it. Jane dropped her bags to the floor and threw herself onto her bed, burying her face in the comforter.

"Jane tired!" she wined, her face still pressed to the bed. A soft laugh escaped my lips and I plopped down on my bed.

"No!" I begged desperately, bouncing up and down on the mattress. "Come outside with me!"

Jane just shook her head groaning. She finally looked up at me and I could tell by the dark circles under her eyes that she was wiped out. "Jane need sleep!" she said, flopping down on the bed again. I sighed and stood up, making my way over to the door. I guess I would just have to go out by myself.

***
It had taken some time, but I finally managed to get a few people to come outside with me. It was later in the day and a bit too chilly to bust out the bikinis so Kara, Lisa and I decided to save them for tomorrow. We had laid out three beach towels on the sand and were lying on them, shades covering our eyes and our arms crossed behind our heads. The low roar of the ocean and the sound of seagulls flocking was so relaxing, I could have fallen asleep right then and there. Zack, Rian, and Alex were out by the shore tossing a football around to each other. I wasn’t sure where Jack was, but I guessed that he had crashed inside like Jane had.

As I started to feel myself slipping into a light sleep, a shrill scream rang in my ears and I suddenly felt the impact of something hard smacking against my head, sending my sunglasses flying.

"Oh shit!" Lisa shouted, trying her best to hold in her laughter. "Are you okay Brooke?"

Pressing my hand to the side of my head, I propped myself up on my elbow, slowly sitting upright. At first, all I could feel was my forehead throbbing and I had the worst headache, but when that began to subside, I was more confused than in pain. I looked over to find a football sitting beside me.

"Nice throw Alex!" Rian's voice echoed in my head as the three boys came running up the beach to me. As they approached, I slowly got to my feet and grabbed the little ball.

"Lose something?" I raised an eyebrow, tossing the ball back to Alex. He smiled nervously, concern somewhat evident in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, the sun was in my eyes and it kinda distorted my view and—"

"Don't blame the sun for your inability to throw a football," Kara joked, jumping up to my side. "You okay B?"

"Yeah, no biggie, I just have a bump that feels like it's the size of a golf ball swelling on my head!" I tried to laugh it off, but that only made the headache worse.

"That's attractive," Alex joked and I flipped him off in return.

"Asshole," Zack smacked him lightly for me. I smiled appreciatively at him and sighed inwardly.

"I think I'm just going to go inside and put some ice on it."

The rest of them nodded and after I had assured them that I could make it inside by myself, I started walking up the beach to the wooden stairs that led back to the house. When I reached the steps, I heard someone running up behind me. I turned around and there was Alex, still smirking at me.

"Just making sure you didn't trip or something and hit your head again," he said, answering my confused expression.

"Oh well thank goodness, because I wasn't sure how I was going to get up these steps all by myself!" I said dryly and he just laughed. "Actually you know what? You caused this injury; you should carry me up the damn stairs!"

Without warning, Alex scooped me up in his arms and threw me over his shoulder. "Come on Princess!" he laughed as he started up the steps.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I hit his back playfully. I had only been kidding. Never in a million years did I think Alex would carry me anywhere. In fact, I had half expected him to jump on my back and have me haulhis ass up to the house.

"Shut up, I'm being nice!"

When we finally made it into the house, Alex set me down on the counter in the kitchen and literally skipped over to the freezer and pulled out a small icepack. He wrapped it in a clean dish cloth and walked back over, stopping directly in front of me. Our eyes were locked as he gently pressed the icepack to the forming bump. I winced at the sudden cold feeling and a small smile turned up the corners of his mouth as he chuckled softly at me.

"What are you my nurse now or something?" I said, taking the icepack in my hand so I could hold it up myself. He retracted his hand down to his side and stepped back from me slightly. "Thanks."

"Nurse Gaskarth is always here to make you all better," he waved it off, giving me the creepiest smile.

"Oh my God, no, stop," I pushed him back laughing. "You're so fucking weird, go away."

He stuck out his lower lip and pouted at me. I just looked down so that my face was concealed by my wavy dark hair and shook my head at him. Then I hopped off the countertop and headed towards the living room with Alex following close behind.

"Hey, where are the other two?" Alex asked as I fell back onto the couch and rested my head back.

I shrugged, "Probably sleeping…"

"We should go mess with them," Alex turned to me with a mischievous look in his eyes. I nodded in agreement and we quickly crept up the stairs, careful not to make too much noise so that we wouldn't wake either of them. When we reached the landing, I motioned towards mine and Jane's room. When we walked in, however, Jane was nowhere to be found—her bed was still made and everything. I turned back to Alex who seemed to be just as confused as I was. Silently, we walked back out into the hall and walked down to Jack's room. As soon as I pushed open the door, my jaw dropped and I had to quickly bite my tongue before I made any kind of response.

"Oh. My. God." I said slowly and as quietly as I could manage. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or just stand there in shock. On the big king-sized bed were Jane and Jack, sleeping peacefully together. Jane had her back to Jack and his arm was casually wrapped around Jane's tiny waist. It appeared to be pretty innocent, but something about this scene seemed so strange to me. What the fuck happened?

"Please tell me they're not naked under there…" Alex whispered in my ear. I pushed him back out into the hallway and carefully shut the door behind me and motioned for Alex to go downstairs. Forgetting all about my head and the football and the ice and all the things Alex was saying to me that I wasn't even paying attention to, I walked back outside not sure of what to think of what I'd just seen. Not sure at all.