Once they both got dressed, Gunner grabbed Emma's hand and quickly pulled her downstairs. He was very excited for his cupcake to finally see the process of making his special cupcakes.

"Do you want to make chocolate or vanilla cupcakes," he asked as he pulled out all the ingredients, including a large bag of weed.

"Doesn't matter, surprise me. Are we putting all of that into the cupcakes?" she questioned him. She knew it was almost impossible to overdose on marijuana but she didn't want to be taking too much at once and have another repeat of the first time she had a cupcake.

"Not all of it but we're going to make a lot too. Pretty much all my friends will be at the beach and it's rude not to share, right?" he grinned at her.

She grinned back and pulled up her sleeves; it was time to start baking. Emma was never a good cook but she thought baking would be different, easier somehow. Gunner was in charge of the first batch; it came out perfectly. As soon as they were out of the oven, her mouth was watering from the smell. She was surprised to find out the icing didn't have any pot in it. Gunner explained it would mess up the smooth consistency and coloring of white icing but she'd always assumed he liked everything with a side of weed.

Emma's batch came out very different. Parts of the cupcakes were clumpy from where she had failed to mix the weed in completely. The tops were slightly burnt and the middle underdone due to her mistakenly setting the oven to the wrong temperature and trying to compensate by leaving it in shorter.

She huffed when she took them out. The smell was not mouth watering at all. Gunner couldn't help but laugh at her disappointed look.

"Well at least we know who the chef in this relationship is," he teased her, wrapping his arms around her middle.

"Oh shush, I can make some food?"

"Like what, cereal?"

Her elbow met his stomach when he laughed again. "Why don't you just make the cupcakes while I watch?"

He agreed and she moved to sit in a chair. She watched as he moved fluidly through the kitchen as if it was he belonged there. Emma would never know what that felt like with her atrocious cooking skills. She sighed; maybe if her mother hadn't left, she would know how to cook better.

"Why do you make cupcakes and not brownies? I thought everyone makes pot brownies?" she asked, watching him pull out yet another perfect batch.

"Brownies are more popular but since when am I one to follow the trend?" he shrugged. "I just like cupcakes more," he winked at her before going back to baking.

"You're so lucky you're cute and make killed cupcakes," she teased. "I probably wouldn't have given you a chance otherwise."

"Trust me, I'm thankful for being able to cook. I could've ended up like you." His tone was serious but his smile gave him away.

She just rolled her eyes. "So how many of your friends will be there?"

"Most of them, so like 30 or so." Her eyebrows rose. Thirty friends? She could barely keep one. "We pretty much take up a whole section of the beach but we're cool with the vendors so they don't care. I can't wait for you to meet them."

"Me too," she said quietly. She hoped they liked her. When it came down to it, they knew Gunner better and longer than she did and their disapproval could be devastating to their relationship.

"And we're… done," Gunner smiled, icing up the last set of cupcakes. "Want to try one before we go?"

"I don't know," she eyed the confectionary suspiciously. "They're so addicting, I don't want to overdose or anything."

"It's impossible to overdose on weed; I'd know." She nodded; if anyone knew about marijuana overdosing, it would be Gunner. "You can have one of your cupcakes, I don't think you'd be wanting another one."

"Where do you get off on teasing me," she giggled, deciding to take a small bite out of one of her better-made cupcakes. It didn't taste bad at all; it just didn't have the mouth-watering taste of his cupcakes.

They put the cupcakes into containers and lugged them to his Jeep. All Emma could think about during the drive was whether or not his friends would like her. She was never good at making friends. Would she fit in? They probably spent their whole lives together while she'd only been in Gunner's life for a month. By the time they pulled up to the beach, she had bitten her nails down as far as she could.

She looked up when her hand was pulled away. "Don't worry," Gunner said, his voice serious but soft. She looked down; embarrassed he could see her freaking out. "Just be yourself, that's all you gotta do."

She nodded and gave his hand a squeeze. They went to the backseat to grab the cupcakes before walking hand in hand to the sand. A bunch of people were playing beach volleyball while some were gathered around in a circle. She could hear the strumming of a guitar as they got closer.

"Ay, Gunner!" a guy in the circle called out to them. Her boyfriend squeezed her hand for a second before letting go and walking up to his friend. They did a weird handshake that she bet was made when they were kids before cracking up.

"Who's your lady friend?" another guy smirked, his eyes on Emma. Soon she was the center of attention, making her palms sweaty and her grip on the cupcake box tighten.

"This is Emma, my girlfriend." Gunner wrapped his arm around her shoulders and spoke with an easy smile. "She's here to visit for the week so don't bore her."

"Oh we'd never," the first guy scoffed. "I'm Peeta," he introduced himself to her.

Her eyebrow rose involuntarily. "Peeta? Like the bread?"

There was laughter around them. "Yeah, kinda, it's spelled differently though. Say, are those cupcakes in those boxes?" he peered inside of one eagerly.

"Of course, you ask, I deliver," Gunner grinned, passing his box around to the others so they could take some. Everyone took one to start with and immediately began digging in between their laughter. The whole situation made Emma feel warm. The feeling of camaraderie and between the friends was something she'd never felt before, being the freak with the oxygen tank.

Gunner led her to sit next to Peeta and kept his arm around her while starting an animated conversation with him. A girl with wavy reddish-brown hair to her right nudged her in the ribs.

"So you're Emma, the new girlfriend?" Emma looked over at her and first noticed a nose ring and eyebrow piercing surrounding brilliant blue eyes. "I'm the old girlfriend, Indy."

Emma's eyebrows immediately furrowed. She began inspecting every detail of the girl, the exgirlfriend. Not only was her face beautiful (except for the piercings –not her thing), but also her body was perfect. Her barely-there bikini showed off her curves and only covering the essentials. Emma became very self-conscious of undressing to her own bikini, which she only wore because she thought her boyfriend would enjoy it. Maybe she wouldn't have to.

A dark skinned girl on Indy's other side noticed the look on Emma's face. "Don't scare the poor girl," she chipped in, letting out a chuckle before taking a sip of beer in her hand.

Indy looked at the other girl before smiling at Emma. "I'm just messing around. You have nothing to worry about. We dated like four years ago before we decided we're better off as friends." Emma nodded but was still looking at her critically. If Gunner dated girls like Indy before, what could he possibly see in Emma?

"My name is Angell by the way, with two L's," the girl on the right of Indy mentioned.

"Hi, I'm Emma," she said quietly, though Angell probably already knew who she was.

"Do you want a beer?" Angell didn't wait for an answer before reaching into a cooler for a cold one. The temperature difference between the ice-cold bottle and the hot beach made Emma shiver for a second. She stared at the bottle in her hand, unsure of what to do. "You don't like beer?" Angell questioned her with a tilted head.

"No, um, I mean I don't know. I've never had one before," Emma admitted while rubbing the condensation off the bottle.

"No way," Indy chuckled, her eyes studying Emma a bit closer. "How old are you?"

"I'm 17, but it's not like it's legal for me to drink."

"And that's going to stop you? I know you've had some of Gunner's cupcakes and they're not exactly legal," Indy pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but they're readily available," Emma fidgeted. This was starting to get uncomfortable.

The arm around her back tightened. "Are you okay?" Gunner whispered into her ear.

"Yeah, I just…" she looked down at the unopened bottle in her hand.

"One bottle probably won't get you drunk. We can share it, if you want.

You can at least taste it and see if you like it."

Emma nodded and tried to twist the cap open. A few people around them started to chuckle before Gunner stopped her. "You need a bottle opener," he smirked and reached behind them for the tool. Once the lid was popped off, Emma gingerly raised it to her lips and took a sip. She grimaced as she brought it down to her lap again. The expectant faces of Gunner, Angell and Indy greeted her when she looked up but she shook her head. "I don't like the bubbles," she explained while handing the offending drink to her boyfriend.

"We have some wine coolers, if you want," Angell offered, reaching back into the cooler.

Emma glanced at Gunner but he just shrugged. "Just a little." She was handed a light red drink and Gunner took it to take the lid off. This time when she sipped, she smiled. It was sweet and fruity with only a tinge of alcohol taste.

The group sat around in the circle for a while, catching up on what everyone had been up to. Emma mostly talked to Indy and Angell, the two girls asking her about Oregon.

"You live in White Pine Bay?" Indy asked while reaching for another cupcake.

"Yeah, the past ten years or so," she nodded.

"Where'd you live before that?"

"England," Emma shrugged.

Gunner nudged her. "You never showed me your English accent," he tried to say with the accent but failed horribly.

Everyone laughed. "It's a right sight better than yours is," she smirked, speaking with her natural drawl that she hadn't used in years.

He wasn't offended and instead smiled. "That's so cool."

"So in your town you must get like free weed with all your meals, right?" Indy brought the topic up again.

"We wish, but it's like an underground trade that we all know about."

"We should go up there some day," Angell mentioned. "Check out the scenery."

"You just want to see if you can score some free pot," Gunner said knowingly.

"Well, that too," Angell smirked.

A volleyball landed in the middle of their circle but didn't hit anyone. Gunner got up but instead of throwing it back he began walking it back over. "Do you mind if I play for a bit?" he asked Emma.

"Go ahead," she tried to say convincingly but she was starting to get anxious. She wasn't used to being alone with a ton of people like this in a social setting.

When he nodded and left the group, Angell leaned over towards Emma. "Want to go into the water for a bit and cool off?" Emma was grateful they were taking her in as their own friend and nodded. She stood up and began taking off her shorts and shirt, making sure to take off her cannula before doing so. She stopped moving when she heard laughter and immediately began feeling self-conscious.

"Oh we're not laughing at you," Indy assured her, her face pink from laughing. "Just what Gunner does to you."

"What?" Emma asked incredulously and looked down at herself. Everything looked relatively fine… except for the bright red hickey on her hip right above her bikini bottom. Her entire body began to flush in embarrassment as her eyes widened.

"Oh, don't worry. We all know he's insatiable," Indy winked at her as she stood up.

"Excuse me, not all of us have slept with him," Angell rolled her eyes as she also got up.

"Well, for your sake, I hope he's better now. We were both new when we started doing it and let's just say he liked it more than I did," Indy told Emma.

Emma was getting really uncomfortable with this conversation. "Oh, no, he's… good now," she said softly, looking over to the volleyball nets. Gunner had taken his shirt off and was enthusiastically running after the ball, intercepting other people from hitting the ball so he could hit it first.

"That's good. I guess he's had a few years to practice." Indy took one of her arms while Angell took the other and they started heading to the water. "Oh wait!" Indy suddenly stopped. "You don't need that tank thing, do you?"

"As long as I don't go under water, I should be fine," Emma assured her, waiting for the inevitable questioning about her tank and disease but it never came. Gunner might've warned them before they showed up.

They walked into the water until they were about waist deep and let the small waves sway their bodies a bit.

"You know, Gunner really likes you," Indy mentioned causally while looking towards the shore.

"I hope so," Emma chuckled. "I didn't come down here for someone who doesn't like me."

"No, I mean he really, really likes you. This past month, you're pretty much all he's been talking about. He even said he wants to move up to Oregon to be closer to you."

"Yeah, he's mentioned that before." Emma leaned down a bit so her shoulders would get wet.

"I think he's really serious about you," Angell said.

"I'm serious about him," Emma looked up at the two girls.

"Good, we like to see him happy. He's going to keep you around for a while," Indy told her.

"We'd like to get to know you better, and I was serious about going up to Oregon and not just for the weed," Angell said seriously.

Emma smiled and looked between the two girls. She might've just made her first girl friends and she couldn't believe she was missing out on this.


Author's Note: I am really really sorry it took me two months to update. The only reason I'm updating now is because I'm going to volunteer in Central America for two weeks and won't have my computer so I didn't want to make you guys wait two more weeks. I'm going to try to become more consistent with my updates after I come back.

What do you guys think is going to happen? What do you want to happen? I have like a million ideas for this story but one big plot line to follow so I'm just trying to fill in the blanks while the story gets there. I hope you like this chapter and want keep reading even though I made you wait forever haha.