When's the last time I updated…Sunday? Monday? Either way, you guys have flooded me with support and I thank you for that. Thanks to those who reviewed, including Kamesplus61, jamesmaslowlover, XxxAnimaniacxxX, Love and Heartz, 22random ninja22 and KEALY KAMES.

Here's the thing.

I'm going to be away pretty much for a week and a half, starting today. I don't know when I'm going to have Internet or not, which could be a problem. I'll be able to write, so, expect a flood of chapters coming your way when I get back—or maybe not. I don't know.

Please enjoy what could be the last update for a week and a half :/ enjoy!

Chapter 4:

"Hm, this board definitely has the best traction for your feet—especially if you're not really an experienced surfer," I listen as Carlos coaxes another customer into buying a surfboard.

"I haven't been out on the water much, I don't know if I want to buy a board just yet," the customer is completely unsure, but I walk further into the store past them to the office, confident that Carlos will change the customer's mind.

"Hey Kendall," Logan says as he notices me weaving through the racks of clothes and suits. I lift a hand up out of response, determined on fixing the rest of the files and checkbook mess I left in the office last night—no time for small talk.

I'm in the office for more than an hour, before everything's sorted through and organized. The room itself is in much better shape—it looks like someone could actually work in it if they needed to.

"Hey Kendall, I have the new shipping orders and inventory updates for you," Carlos opens the door unexpectedly with a few papers in his hands. He hands them to me, before he leans in the doorway, watching me move the papers around before labeling them and getting ready to punch the numbers into the calculator for the store book.

"So what'd you do last night after we left?" he's not going to leave me anytime soon, I can tell. That's how I figured out that it was a slow day for the surf store—which made sense because it was perfect beach weather, and everyone must have been down at the water.

"Eh, nothing really," I shrug in response, letting the night's memories fly by through my head.

"Hey," James announces his arrival by sliding into the bench across from me at the booth. We had agreed to meet at the diner down a couple miles out of the town—the only place close to but far enough from Colby.

The diner was nothing like the one I went to at home, the coffee was watery, and the water had a coffee taste in it. It was a lose-lose situation.

I look up at James, still unsure of why he might actually be attracted to me, even if it was only in the tiniest bit. All I knew at that point was that I was most definitely attracted to him—his mysterious behavior was just so…intriguing.

"Hey," I say calmly, choking down the last of the watery coffee.

"How's your cheek?" he asks, nodding at the gash and fresh bruise on my cheek.

"It's…okay," I hesitate, wincing as I reach a hand up to poke it.

"I'm sorry about that," James looks down at his hands on the table, neatly folded together and calm. "I really, really don't like my brother sometimes."

He looks genuinely sorry and pitiful, so I reach a hand out to touch his own.

"Hey, it's okay," I make sure his eyes meet mine so he believes me. "What do you want to do tonight?" I ask, deciding to change the topic.

"We could…" he pauses to think. I wait for him to think about the night ahead of us. He's wearing the same purple hoodie I saw him in couple nights ago when I first saw him at the Tip, then in the morning while he was on his skateboard. His jeans are worn out and ripped at the knees, but fitting none the less. He has a pair of vans on like me—confirming his beachy and skater lifestyle.

"Do you like pie?" He finally asks.

"Sure?" It was more of a question than an answer.

"I have a few errands to run if you don't mind. But then we can get some pie," he definitely had his own routines like I did at night. He waits for me to accept or reject his plan, watching me with his beautiful hazel-eyes.

How could I say no to those eyes?

"Hellooooo, Kendall," Carlos snaps his fingers, pulling me out of my flashback.

"What? Sorry, I blanked out," I apologize, mind setting itself back to the numbers and calculator in front of me.

"Yeah, I know," Carlos rolls his eyes. "We're here if you need anything," he says before disappearing.

I nod to myself, trying to get back on track.

A couple hours of filing and working pass by quickly before I tune into Camille's high-pitched voice outside, in the store.

"You know what I heard last night?" I hear Camille say out of nowhere in the shop. There must be no customers again.

"What's that?" I hear Carlos and Logan ask simultaneously.

"James was out, with someone," Camille informs them.

Oh? Was this not normal?

"James…as in James Diamond, Jett's step-brother? On like, a date?" Oh, they're just stepbrothers. He never clarified that. I wish it were a date.

"No, like, hanging out. All night. You know how he basically never sleeps, right?" Camille asks. I listen from my position at the desk in the office, staring at the wall ahead of me with a deep blue paint. The smell of apples from the air freshener is almost sickening, but it's not the important thought on my mind at the moment.

"Yeah, I heard that from Jett when we were dating," Carlos tells his two best friends.

"Why does he do that again? I like to sleep," Logan chuckles.

"He hasn't, ever since…" Camille says in a lower voice, so low I have to strain my ears to hear them speaking. He hasn't since what? Since WHAT?

"Since Eric, Logan," Carlos finishes Camille. Eric?

"Oh, right," Logan quiets down. The three don't say anything for a bit, which really bothers them.

"So what are we doing tonight?" Logan asks.

"How about the jump park?" I hear Carlos offer, before groans come from the other two. "What? There are boys there…"

"Carlos, I like girls, remember?" Logan sounds annoyed.

"And we went there the other night," Camille pipes in.

"But you know what I heard about James?" Carlos stops the others from complaining. "Someone said he'd ride tonight. You know, skate again. Show everyone who's king at the jump park."

"Shut up, you know it's just another rumor," Camille doesn't sound convinced.

"Yeah, every week someone says that but he never does," Logan, agrees.

"I guess," I hear Carlos sighing. "Ever since Eric, nothing's been the same with James."

Who is Eric?

"Hey Kendall," I jump at Camille's voice in the doorway. "Woah there," she giggles. "Didn't mean to scare you."

I sigh out of relief, chuckling at my own stupidity after a moment.

"We're about done here, are you?" she asks, lifting a hand up to twirl her finger through her hair. "Woah, what happened to your cheek?" she takes a step forward when she notices the gash and bruise on my cheek—the one Jett conveniently left.

"Nothing," I mutter, trying to hide it. "I'm clumsy," I lie. She seems to buy it though, for whatever reason.

"Well…. I guess we're going to go to the jump park or something," Camille frowns. "Carlos really wants to. You should come check it out."

I nod.

"Maybe I will."

It wasn't that hard to find the jump park.

Really, all you have to do is follow the random people on skateboards and bikes in town for less than a mile, and bam, you are at the jump park.

I didn't mean to come here, honestly. When I got home, my father was reading the poor baby an excerpt from a book on photography and the history of curating, and Mercedes was no where to be found. Not wanting to be a part of anything going on in the house, I grabbed my car keys and drove away.

The park was built like a football field, except smaller. There were bleachers on the opposite side of the grassy and dirty area where people parked their cars. In between the bleachers and the 'parking lot' was the jump park itself.

It wasn't what I was expecting, to be honest. I was really only expecting a couple of kids on their bikes jumping around on makeshift ramps and trick equipment as well as some stoners watching the bikers while getting high.

I was wrong though.

There were the dirt ramps for dirt bikes, as well as a huge half pipe for the skateboarding clan. There were also some rails, as well as a cemented pool-like thing in the ground where both the bikers and the boarders were dipping in and out of.

"Hey cutie, where's the party at?" I hear a familiar disgusting voice coming from my right. I turn; ready to punch Jett's lights out when I realize he's not looking at me. He's chasing after some blonde girl, who shoves her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and smiles shyly before walking away from him. He chases after her though, the persistent little fucker he is, not giving up like he did with me.

I find myself scowling out of disgust, watching Jett charm the girl into following him behind the set of bleachers. I start making my way towards the jumps themselves, only wanting to watch for a little bit. My eyes scan through the people on the bleachers, looking for familiar faces. Some of them I recognize from the Tip the other night, before Jett stole me away from everyone My eyes finally land on a familiar Latino boy—one looking worried and anxious, eyes following a certain ex-boyfriend of his and an innocent blonde girl.

"Carlos," I mumble, feeling bad for the boy—I could tell he know what was going to go on under the bleachers between Jett and his victim.

Soon though, Carlos hops over the railing of the bleacher and down on to the park ground, next to Dak. Dak blushes before getting off his bike and offering it to Carlos. Carlos smiles and says something to the blushing boy before getting on the bike and riding over to the end of the line of dirt ramps.

Carlos starts pedaling at full speed, but somehow manages to keep complete control over his bike. He goes up the first ramp at a lower height, kicking up some dust with the tires. The second ramp is higher, and by the last ramp he's at an impressive height—causing people to cheer as he gracefully lands and rides the speed off over to Dak, and returns the bike.

Deciding I've had enough, I turn around and walk back to my car.

And that was the jump park.

When I woke up the next day, it was eleven. I had gone to bed at around four in the morning—relatively early. I could run efficiently on seven hours of sleep I decided, so I rolled out of bed. It took me a moment to realize it was raining outside, pouring down rain in fact.

"Mercedes, I'm going to the store," I announce, ready to head to work. I pull up my hood, ready to step out into the rain.

"Woah, hold up there," Mercedes comes running into the hallway with a fluorescent pink umbrella.

Oh please don't hand that to me.

"Take this with you—" Shit. "We don't want you getting a cold." She thrusts the umbrella towards me.

"It's fine, I have my hood," I try to resist the pink plastic thing.

"Unless you want my pink rain jacket," she raises and eyebrow and crosses her arm over her large boobs. You were right mom, they're definitely fake.

"Fine," I grunt, taking the umbrella.

"See you later," she cheers up.

I never really realized how much I loved beach weather until I was walking down the streets of Colby in the pouring down rain, with a pink umbrella that I truly didn't want to be holding.

"Morning," I walk into the store, being greeted by Logan.

"Morning," Logan nods. "Carlos and Camille are out getting coffee. Did you want anything?"

"No," I shake my head. "Thanks though. You know where to go if you need me," I point towards the back of the store and Logan throws up a peace sign, signaling he understood.

"Hey Kendall?" Logan asks before I disappear behind the surfboards.

"What's up?" I stop in my tracks.

"Whaddup with the umbrella?" he frowns while pointing at the pink umbrella Mercedes forced me to bring.

"Mercedes," I answer.

"Ah," Logan shuts up and nods, he completely gets it.

As soon as I settle in to the desk chair in the office, my phone starts buzzing in my pocket—telling me I have a call. I answer it after checking the caller ID.

"Hello?"

"Hey kiddo," I hear the most familiar voice in the world.

"Hi mom," I smile to myself.

"I was thinking about coming down this afternoon—I'm off of work," she informs me.

"Oh sure—"

"But I'm not staying with that blondie and your father, I don't think I could handle a new born either," I can almost hear her eyes rolling.

"You know mom," I'm preparing to defend Mercedes. "Mercedes has actually been really nice, she's not what we really thought she was."

"Oh please, I've met that woman once. Once too many times if you ask me," she scoffs, disgusted by my defensive side.

"She's really been great though. I'm even working for her—"

"You're working for her? Oh honey it's even worst than I thought!" she's panicking, only because she thinks my dignity has flown out the door, I can tell.

"Yes, I am. I'm doing books. A lot like last summer with that accountant," I shrug, spinning in the desk chair.

"Seriously? At least the accountant was a respectable man," I can tell my mom is disgusted.

"Mercedes is a respectable woman! All of the products here, they're smart investments, they actually sell, it's really easy doing all of the inventory and payroll stuff," I flick at a piece of fuzz that was sitting on my shirt, growing annoyed with my mother quickly.

"Sure," my mom chuckles. "And your father?"

"What about him?" I ask.

"Has he changed?" People don't change mom, you said it yourself.

"No," I sigh, knowing she's right.

"Didn't I tell you? People—"

"People never change," I'm officially annoyed with her.

"And Mercedes hasn't either. She's the same annoying blonde bimbo with the attitude of a teenage—"

"Mom!" I shout into the phone. As much as Mercedes was to handle, I was starting to like the woman—I wouldn't have my mom insult her like that anymore. "I get it! You don't like her!"

"I don't," my mom sounds satisfied, like all she wanted to do was make me crack.

"I don't think it's a good idea that you come down here," I have to hold my growling back. "The weather's gross and all—"

"I get it, Kenny," My mom cuts me off. "I'll talk to you later." She then hangs up, and I feel a little bit guilt for what I said.

"Kendall?" I hear a little whisper coming from the door. "Can I come in?" It's Carlos, hiding behind the door from me.

"Sure," I reach a hand up to pinch the bridge of my noise in an attempt to relieve the massive headache my mom caused.

"Was that your mom?" Carlos leans against a couple of boxes stacked against the wall.

"Yeah," I sigh.

"She's a badass I take it," Carlos chuckles.

"You could call her that, I guess. I get tired of her attitude a lot though," I confess.

"She wouldn't happen to be Dr. Jennifer Knight, would she?"

"That's her," I answer.

"Huh," he walks over to sit in a small chair in the corner.

"Are you going to have her as a teacher in the fall or something?" I ask, curious.

"No," Carlos shrugs.

Carlos is a simple boy, which I like. He doesn't waste time acting like we're friends, exactly, because he thinks he has me pinpointed. He can tell I'm upset with my mother—so he offers to stay with me for a while. Rain calls for a slow business day, apparently. I nod, accepting his company. He doesn't speak, which I appreciate. He just keeps me company while I crunch more numbers into the calculator and out on to paper. Before I know it, I'm done with everything I could possibly do for the day.

"Well, seeing as you're done, I think you can head out now," Carlos stands just as I do to stretch.

"You guys don't need me for anything else?" I ask, unsure of what to do with my free time now. Usually I worked until the store closed.

"Nope," he shrugs. "Not anything I can think of."

"Alright…" I shift my weight around on my feet, making for an awkward silence.

"So there's this party tonight…" Carlos starts. God no. Please don't invite me. Please no parties. "I think just about everyone is going to be there. I'm going with Logan and Camille, do you think you'd want to come?" Oh god, Carlos is actually reaching out to me. I would look like a douche if I didn't say yes…

"Sure," I shrug, while cursing myself on the inside.

"We'll come over to your place and walk with you," he smiles.

"Sounds good."

I then make my way out of the store as quick as possible, not wanting to get myself into any more trouble or obligations.

Oh Kenny, what have you done?

"So the trick is, you don't talk to any boys until you're fully into the house. The guys outside on the lawn or by their cars are cute, yes, but they're just trouble," Carlos ushers me into the house I've never seen before—Will Blakeson's house. "If you ask me, six out of ten of them are going to get a DUI tonight on their way home." I nod pointlessly as we move further into the crowds of people while informing me on party do's and don't's. Carlos takes my hand at some point and literally has to pull me through a small crowd forming in the hallway. At some points, Logan is behind me with little Camille in the back, but other times they're lost to the crowds.

The rain's finally tapered off after pouring all day, but the grounds and sand outside are still a little wet, hence the fact that most people were inside the house when we got there.

I can honestly say I feel out of place now.

Eventually we land in the living room some how, surprisingly less crowded than the other parts of the house.

"Hey, didn't someone say there was a keg or two for tonight?" Camille finally finds her way over to Carlos and I.

"Oh yeah," Carlos nods. "I think there is. Where's Logan? He can get some drinks for us." Carlos leans against a small table pushed against the wall so it would be out of the way.

"I can get them," I stupidly offer. Camille snaps her head in my direction, shocked at my offer.

"Thanks, Kendall," Carlos seems shocked too. I don't take it offensively when he continues on to say, "I didn't know you were experienced with these things." It's not that I avoid parties—which sometimes I do, I just didn't like them. I'd show up just to say I had gone on a random night in the weekendwhen I had nothing better to do, no extra work or tests I had to study for during the school year.

"I'll be right back," I smile at the two, leaving them behind in the living room. I fall in line behind someone with an empty plastic cup, undoubtedly going for seconds. Or thirds, maybe even fourths. The point is, I had a hunch the girl in front of me is leading me to the source of alcohol, and I was right.

She finally leads me into the dining room, occupied with baked foods and beer. Carlos had told me at some point that Will's father owned the baking company in the area—so it made sense to see so much food laid out, not something you'd see at what I'd classify as a standard rager.

My eyes land on the keg as I grab three clean cups from the stacks on the table, and make my way over to the keg. It's been quite a while since I've used a keg, so when I see the faucet, the pump, and all the other mechanisms on top of the silver cylindrical container, I can say I'm confused again.

I turn the faucet on the top, waiting for the pressure to be relieved on the beer on the inside. Eventually I turn it some more and press down on the nozzle, creating a steady flow of the golden colored liquid. I wait until the cup is filled with a thin layer of foam before moving on to the next one.

"Let me guess," I jump at the voice suddenly next to me. I look up and my eyes meet James'. "You're stuck with getting the beer for the friends while they sit and talk in the other room." He grins at me.

"Actually, I volunteered," I raise an eyebrow.

"Ah," he nods. "So I was almost right." I chuckle at this.

"That you were," I finish filling up the cups before turning the faucet closed on the keg and standing up straight again. James walks over to the table covered in food, staying relatively close to me though.

"You know, the person who lives here's father is a baker, that's why there's all of this," I inform him, not able to stop the spewing of random words coming out of my mouth.

"I've heard that," James nods, eyes running over some of the pastries. He turns again so he's facing me, leaning against the edge of the table.

"How's your cheek?" he reaches up and brushes his thumb over the bruise on my cheek, the cut almost healed.

"It's better," I shrug. One thing we hadn't talked about the other night when we were together was about the kissing that occurred on my porch step. The undeniable attraction to each other was lingering above us, or at least above me. I couldn't control the way I acted around James—but he didn't seem to mind. He even smiled when I made my dorky mistakes and said awkward things, which believe me, it happened a lot.

"Do you think I can drop these off with Carlos and Camille?" I motion to the beers sitting on the table. "I've been gone a while, they probably think I've been swallowed by the crowds as a whole."

"Sure, meet me out back," James smiles again; with the beautiful toothy grin I never thought would never grow accustomed to. It was just too unique, and special. My face heats up as he takes my hand in his and squeezes it.

When I finally regain my composure a bunch of girls in the room are staring at me, wide-eyed and mouth agape. I ignore them before making my way back to Carlos and Camille, almost spilling the beer on several drunken people who bump into me.

"There you are," Camille looks at me like I'm a hero.

"We thought you got lost," Carlos takes a beer out of my hands for himself, handing the other one to Camille.

"None for yourself?" Camille asks, noticing I have nothing in my hands.

"It was too much to carry, I'll go back," I shrug. I walked away before they could protest, heading straight to the backdoor—or what I believed was the backdoor. I make my way on to the porch, pushing through a bunch of people before my eyes land on the beach out in front of us. The Blakeson family lived on the private beach I heard people talking about sometimes when they'd stop by in the store during the day, so the beach was clean, empty, quiet—less risk for us partygoers.

James is sitting with his shoes in the sand at the bottom of the porch steps.

"Hey," I say as I sit down next to him on the step.

"What's up?" he smiles at me, hazel-eyes glowing.

"Oh, nothing much," I sigh, pulling my knees up to my chest and leaning my chin on to my knees.

"So…about the other night," he starts. "You know, when we kissed…" I nod, with a blush creeping on to my face.

"Continue," I encourage him.

"Did you…" he frowns, not sure of how to word anything. "Did it mean anything to you?"

I sigh before looking out past the ocean to the dark horizon.

"Yes," I mumble, almost a whisper. "What about you?" I'd be lying if I said I couldn't care less. I was in fact desperate to know, to say the least. I turn and look at him, kind of wanting to see his face when he told me it was all a sick joke, that he thought it was funny that I kissed him.

"Yeah," he nods. Wait, what? "It did."

"Really?" I croak out, words couldn't describe how happy I was at the moment.

"Yeah," his hazel-eyes finally meet mine, and he blushes.

Was that a blush? I think he just blushed!

Here I go again, I think to myself as I feel my body subconsciously leaning in towards him. Since when did I make the first moves? This time though, instead of me having to lean all the way, James meets me halfway. Our lips connect at the perfect time, perfect angle, perfect everything. Everything seemed so perfect about James right now. Fireworks are going off in my body at this point, his lips felt so silky and soft against my own. We move them in perfect harmony, for what seems like only bare seconds—but it turns out we've been going at it for minutes.

"Abort, abort abort!" I hear someone hiss in my ear, yanking me away from James, away from the perfect moment. It's Logan, pulling me further on to the beach. I turn and see James looking confused—a heartbreaking sight. Then Camille and Carlos show up on the porch, looking just as confused as Logan stops us a couple hundred feet away from the house.

"What the hell?" I'm actually angry at him now, I was actually having a moment with James.

"Will saw you guys!" he explains.

"Will—"

"Logan, Kendall, what happened?" Carlos stops in front of us after breaking into a run with Camille by his side.

"Kendall and James were making out—" Logan pants.

"KENDALL AND JAMES?" Carlos shrieks, not letting Logan finish.

"Yes! Will saw them!" Logan's still completely out of breath from dragging me halfway across the beach.

"Will? Oh my god!" it's Camille's turn to shriek.

"What is going on?" I finally put a halt to the madness, wanting an explanation.

"Will Blakeson used to date James," Carlos explains, out of breath. "They were together for…what, a year and a half?" he turns to his other two friends. Logan shrugs, and Camille nods.

"I think that's seriously besides the point," Logan raises an eyebrow as he points to a figure running towards us on the beach, still trying to catch his breath.

"Oh shit," Camille hides her face.

"Who the fuck is this?" the boy running points at me with an angry expression before stopping. I assume it's Will, Will Blakeson.

"Kendall," I inform him.

"Kendall, eh? Did you know you were making out with my boyfriend?" His voice shakes when it says the word boyfriend.

"Ex-boyfriend," Carlos steps in and corrects him.

"Whatever!" Will shouts at Carlos.

"I want you off of my property," he motions to all four of us. "And stay the fuck away from James," he points at me angrily.

He finally makes his way back to the house, leaving us silent and scared.

"Since when do you talk to James?" Carlos finally breaks the silence.

"Since the other morning, when I saw him skateboarding on the—"

"Wait," Logan stops me, holding a hand up with a raised eyebrow. "You saw him skating."

"Yeah, and singing." All three pairs of eyes watching me widen out of disbelief.

"What was he doing on the skateboard?" Logan panics.

"What was he singing?" Camille smiles at me incredulously.

"I don't know, tricks and stuff. He's really good. And I'm not sure what he was singing. It sounded familiar though—"

"You have to understand, Kendall," Carlos has a sincere look on his face. "James doesn't just talk to anybody."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" I almost rip out my hair.

"Okay," Logan sighs. "If we're going to tell him stuff about James…"

There's a pause while he looks at Carlos and Camille, both of whom nod at him, before he speaks again.

"I think we need to tell you about Eric."

Love? Hate? Sorry if you didn't like it... :/ I tried to make it as good as possible so you guys don't hate me for not updating for a while...

xx

Sarah