Neds POV

Ned grunted audibly. Shifting his feet, he placed on against the front tire of the car, grasped both sweaty hands on the handle of the wrench, and pulled. Not even a budge.

"Come on Ned, I thought you lifted at the gym?" his father teased.

Turning a scowl onto his dad, Ned growled under his breath that he noticed his father wasn't doing any heavy lifting or pulling. He just sat there, leaning on the work bench with a cold beer in this humid garage watching Ned do all the work.

"Going to have to speak up son," his father laughed, pressing the air compressor into the torque wrench with a loud blast, "here, let me give you a hand with that."

"You had that the whole time?!" Ned asked incredulously, stepping away from the car as his father loosened and detached the lug nuts with short bursts from the wrench.

Ned made his own way to the work bench and snagged his water bottle, gulping it down as if his life depended on it. After squeezing out the last few drops, Ned casually tossed the bottle across the garage into the trash, grabbing a rag and wiping the sweat off his face as he did it. The work bench was a small clutter of rags and tools, a few small piles of screws, nuts and washers; and closest to him was the wax and buffer he had used earlier that day. Glancing at the window, he looked past into the dark.

"It's still hot as hell, even with the time." Ned remarked, nodding towards the window where he could vaguely make out the dim illumination of the street light near the end of the driveway.

Ned's father peaked at the clock, "Let's call it a day kid, it's already eight o'clock and I don't want to take your whole Friday night."

"Thank God!" Ned cried, ripping his sweaty shirt over his head and draping it over the stool at the bench, "I was going to complain about child labor laws, but that didn't seem mature of me."

"Yeah you sure have matured, haven't you," his father mused, sliding back to the bench and popping open the mini-fridge underneath it. Fishing two bottles out, he popped both caps and handed one to Ned, "I think you've earned a cold one with your old man."

Ned took the bottle and welcomed the coolness against his hand. Glancing down he read the label, Sam Adams, but he was barely seventeen. He shot back a questioning look to his father.

"We aren't drinking to get drunk Ned, we are drinking because that is what a father and a son do after a hard days work, sit down, crack a beer, and reflect on what we have done," his father explained between sips, "and in all honesty, age is a stupid reason for...anything. I know plenty of kids that are twenty-one that still aren't mature enough to drink." Casually walking to the garage door, his father bent down and yanked it open. "Maturity is earned," he continued, turning back to face Ned, "I think you have done an awful lot of growing this summer, I mean that. We won't be doing this everyday Ned," he laughed, winking at Ned as he finished his bottle and clapping him on the shoulder, "Enjoy it."

Ned watched his father retreat into the house and slowly made his way out onto the drive way and sat on the hood of his car, looking at the Impala up on jacks in the garage. The black paint shone brightly with a fine wax sheen in the garage light, courtesy of his own hand earlier in the day. The hood was still open, showcasing the innards of the car him and his father had been working on. There wasn't any severe rust damage under the hood but his dad wanted to remove, scrape, and refinish every bit of it. Ned didn't mind, with the instruction from his dad he had been learning quite a bit about car maintenance. He never knew it but he actually had a striking interest in cars.

Ned took another swig from his beer as his gaze slowly, but predictably shifted from the car to Moze's house next door. A red Jetta parked in the driveway and a blue Pontiac Sunfire parked on the road indicated Suzie and Missy were over hanging out with Jennifer. He grimaced, taking a few more gulps, he didn't want to think of Moze. Just the thought of Moze made his gaze inadvertently slip to Moze's bedroom window and he almost dropped his beer in surprise. In the window were three heads staring back at him.

Jennifers POV

"Oh as if you slut!" Suzie cried, flashing a smile at Missy, "Me and Resting Bitch Face here know what you did with Billy...AND Mark-"

"And Jason." Moze added with a smirk.

"Oh ganging up on me I see," Missy said with a laugh, "well we don't all have the sex Adonis that is Chad so I'm forced to play the field." She continued with a wink at Moze, "And don't even get me started on you, Suzie."

"Fair, fair," Suzie replied, raising her hands in defeat, "So what's on the agenda for tonight then ladies?"

Jennifer smiled, leaned her head back, and closed her eyes as her two best friends teased each other. It had been a while since they had had a true girls night, her with Chad and Suzie with Seth all the time made plans hard to make. They continued to bicker and Moze couldn't help but smile and think of how much it reminded her of the good old days.

"I know Seth is having a party tonight but, I don't know, I'm sort of over him a bit, you know?" Suzie said as she jumped off the bed, "Just getting a bit...woah." her voice trailed off and Jennifer's eyes snapped open, seeing Suzie motionless, staring out the window.

"What's up?" Missy asked, slowly standing from the floor.

"When was the last time you guys saw Ned?" Suzie asked, Jennifer noticed that her face had begun to flush red.

"What are-" Missy started but abruptly stopped with a sharp intake of breath.

Moze scooted in next to her friends and peered out the window. She felt color begin to rise in her own cheeks as she saw a shirtless Ned sitting on the hood of his car drinking a beer. Her mouth dropped open as she continued staring. She hadn't really payed much attention to Ned in a long time and the boy had changed. His boyish short hair now lay down across his ears and his jump in height seemed to stand out more. He had packed muscle onto his frame, quite a bit of muscle judging by his chest and arms, but the way he dressed hid it well. He also had kept his body fat low since his abs practically popped out of his body. The dim lighting was definitely helping but there was no way around it, the boy was hott.

The three girls sat in stunned silence for minutes as they continued to stare, Missy finally breaking the silence to say what was on each of their minds.

"Holy fuck me..."