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Two more chapters after this one. Enjoy! Much thanks for all the support.

Chapter 10

In the two weeks since the therapy session, things had been a little awkward with me and my parents, though they were trying their best to not act differently. They both seemed to want to spend a lot of extra time with me though, so I'd spent most of my free nights watching movies with them. I liked the movies because it meant they felt like they were spending time with me but that I didn't really have to talk to them.

They both had to work all day and they'd left me alone, so I invited Adam over. He and I hadn't spent as much time together this summer as I would have liked, because his mom had gotten him a job doing boring filing and data entry work at her office, but we'd tried to have a guys night at least once a week. He'd stopped working this last week before school so he'd get to have a little bit of a summer vacation.

We'd spent the entire afternoon on our laptops in the TV room, playing Portal 2 together. It was fun while it lasted, but we'd beaten the game, and we couldn't come up with anything else to do.

"We could go to the mall," I suggested, even though I wasn't really that big of a shopping fan.

"It's too hot to go outside," Adam complained. "We could watch Clown Academy 6. It's on Netflix streaming."

"No thank you," I said.

My phone buzzed and I read a text from Brian. Finally out of prison. Wanna smoke a blunt? I laughed. "We could get high with my old roommate. He finally got out of rehab."

"You're joking, right?" Adam asked.

"Seriously?" I threw a pillow at him, then typed a quick response to Brian, declining his offer.

"Okay, okay, sorry," he said. "Guess he didn't really learn anything while he was there."

"He was in for four months too." I shook my head. I was pretty sure the drugs weren't really his problem, but I wasn't so sure he'd figured out what it was.

"Four months? Shit, that's like forever. I thought you said your six weeks was a long stay."

I shrugged. "He has rich parents who don't pay attention to him. Easier to keep him locked up, I guess."

Adam's phone rang. "We're awfully popular today," he joked. He glanced at the caller ID. "It's Clare," he said, wiggling his eyebrows at me. "What's up, Clare?" He kept smirking at me as he listened to her talk. He laughed into the phone, "Everybody wants a piece of me today. I'm with your boyfriend." I shot Adam a dirty look but he was listening to Clare with a smile on his face.

He covered the mouthpiece though his voice was loud enough that there was no way Clare couldn't hear him. "Is it okay if I invite her over?"

"Of course, you idiot."

"Yeah, you can come. But we're bored, so you need to come up with something for us to do…Surprise us," he said. "See you in a few."

Adam hung up and grinned at me. "I guess you told Clare we were hanging out today?"

I shook my head. "Nah, I didn't get to talk to her last night. She was out with her mom so I just texted her to say goodnight."

Adam looked pleased. He and I had always been closer than he and Clare were but I knew he appreciated when she spent time with just him, even though he'd complained jokingly that even when I'm not there, she never shuts up about me. "Well, I'm sure she'll be happy to see both of us then."

I was really happy Clare was coming over. She'd been on my mind pretty much constantly. We were going back to school next week and I wanted to make sure that everything was settled between us. I knew the school year would be stressful for me, particularly since I'd almost certainly see Fitz and I just wanted to make sure that Clare and I were in the right place.

"Can I ask your advice on something?" I asked, distracting Adam from checking his Facerange page.

"Sure."

"I want to ask Clare out."

Adam laughed. "Didn't you do that like eight months ago?"

I smiled remembering our conversation in the hallway after my French exam and our mindblowing kiss. "Well, she sort of did the asking the first time. But we're not technically together anymore, and I'd really like to change that."

Adam rolled his eyes. "And by not technically together you mean you go out every Friday night, you hang out at least once a week besides that, usually more, and you are constantly sucking face with her when you think I'm not looking."

Okay, when he put it that way, it did sound kind of ridiculous. "Things have been really good between us. I just don't want to push her away. We broke up because things were too intense and I was a mess."

"But you're not a mess anymore," Adam protested.

"I'm not a mess at this moment," I said.

"You're over-thinking this."

He was right. And my hands were already starting to shake. "I just want to be able to tell her I love her again."

"You're such a romantic," Adam said dryly.

"And I want to see her naked again."

Adam shook his head. Then he narrowed his eyes as he processed what I just said and looked at me in shock. "Again?"

I grinned. "Oh, I didn't mention that?"

"Wow," he said, sitting back against the couch cushion. "I thought Clare was so innocent. Did you sleep with her?"

"Nope. But I got close enough that it didn't really bother me."

"Nice. You'll tell me if you do, right?"

I smirked. "Sure. Unless Clare swears me to secrecy. I do hope to do it more than once."

Adam laughed briefly, but he turned serious again. "You should tell her. That you love her. You've spent all summer dancing around each other. You're just wasting time."

"You're right," I said. "Ugh, we've spent the whole summer going out on these Friday night dates. I've already used all the good ideas. It's my turn to pick, and every romantic, original idea I have I've either already used or I pretty much can't do since I lost my license."

"Why do you have to come up with something new?" Adam asked. "You want things to go back to the way things were. Just tell her how you feel so you can get her naked."

I laughed. "And this is why you're single."

He threw the pillow I'd lobbed earlier back at me. "I'm pretty sure officially, so are you."

The doorbell rang but I heard Clare open the door. "Hello?" she called.

"In here," I yelled.

As she walked into the TV room I moved my legs off the couch so she'd have room to sit next to me, but I was disappointed to see she took the seat next to Adam on the loveseat. She dropped a large totebag on the floor and fanned her face with her hand. "It's so gross out," she said.

"You're gross," Adam said, teasingly. He was right though; she was all sweaty and I could see the top of her tank top was soaked. Not that I was looking or anything.

"You'd be gross too if you had to walk two miles in 34 degree heat." She reached up to pull her hair away from her neck and her elbow grazed Adam's shoulder.

"Yuck," Adam said pulling away from her. "Maybe you should sit next to Eli. He probably doesn't mind when you're sweaty and disgusting."

I just realized what Adam was trying to do, and immediately felt grateful to him, even though Clare not sitting next to me wasn't really that big of a deal. "Only when I'm the one who gets to make her sweaty."

Adam cringed and Clare blushed. "Gross, Eli," Adam said, and Clare kept her seat next to him. "So what are we going to do?"

Clare reached down into her tote bag and pulled out a lawn sprinkler. "It's pretty hot out. We could run through this to cool ourselves down like we're little kids."

"That's ridiculous," Adam said.

Clare gave me a hopeful look. "I don't know, Clare."

Clare shook her head at us. "When was the last time you guys ran through a sprinkler?"

"Um…never," I said and Adam didn't respond, looking uncomfortable.

"So you don't even know what you're missing out on?" Clare gave us an exasperated look. "Come on, it's a zillion degrees out, and we're bored. It's at least something different."

She glanced at Adam and I could tell she knew why he was hesitating. She nudged his leg. "We can go in our clothes. It's not like we're going swimming."

"Yeah, my mom will kill me if she picks me up and my brand new school clothes are soaking wet," Adam said, imitating his mother's voice.

"I'm sure Eli has something you can wear," Clare said, looking pointedly at me.

"She's not going to give up," I told him, ignoring her request. "The sooner we give in, the sooner she stops nagging us."

Adam laughed as Clare shot us both the evil eye. "Fine."

I stood up. "I'm gonna change. I'll grab you something to wear."

Adam looked embarrassed. "Make sure the t-shirt is dark. And pants are better than shorts."

I shook my head. "Like your legs are any skinnier than mine," I teased.

I ran up to my room and changed into my bathing suit, figuring I could just leave a t-shirt on over it. I grabbed Adam a black Dead Hand T-shirt and the only pair of track pants I owned. We were about the same height so they'd probably fit.

I handed Adam the clothes and he took off for my room to change. I decided to use our brief moment of alone time to lower myself onto Clare's lap and wrap my arms around her shoulders. "Hi," I said, grinning at her.

"Hi," she said, mirroring my expression.

"How come you sat next to Adam when you came in and not me?" I said, pretending to pout.

Clare laughed. "What are you, jealous?"

"Me? Nah…," I joked.

"I'm already interrupting your guys' night. I don't want him to feel like a third wheel." That was Clare – always thinking of other people's feelings.

I wiggled my eyebrows at her. "Maybe you should kiss me before he comes back then."

Clare smiled and leaned in for a brief kiss. When she pulled back, I noticed that underneath her tank top there were straps that looped around her neck, and I knew she didn't own a bra like that. "Are you wearing your bikini under there?" I said, not even hiding the fact that I was trying to peek down her top.

She blushed. "Yeah," she said. "But I'm leaving my shirt on over it."

"Why?" I whined.

"I don't want to make Adam uncomfortable. It's less weird if all of us keep our clothes on."

I laughed. "Something tells me having a nice view of your boobs isn't going to make Adam feel uncomfortable. He is a dude, after all."

"Great, now I feel uncomfortable."

I kissed her cheek. "You're beautiful."

Adam came back downstairs and we went outside. Cece liked to garden in her spare time so I dragged over the hose that was already hooked up and Clare set up the sprinkler. She backed away and I turned on the water so the sprinkler started it's slow arc.

"After you," I gestured and Clare took off, leaping through the water with a graceful dancer's leap. She let out a little shriek when she hit the cold water but she turned around to face us with a grin on her face once she reached the other side. "That was awesome."

Adam and I exchanged a look. "I feel like an idiot," I complained.

"Me too," he said.

But we both knew Clare wasn't going to give up on this, so I ran through the sprinkler to make her happy. The sun was so hot that the water actually did feel really good. Even Adam had a smile on his face when he went through.

I ran back inside the house to grab my ipod dock and turned on the music and we spent a good twenty minutes running through. Clare kept dancing as she moved toward the spray while Adam attempted to run through as fast as he could without hitting my fence. I kept things simple, just enjoying being outside for once and spending time with my two best friends and how much the water cooled me off.

Clare got creative and did a cartwheel over the spray. Adam watched her intently. "I can do that," he said. He copied her move but he couldn't keep his gangly legs straight and he ended up falling over on the other side. I cracked up and he shot me a dirty look. "I bet you can't do it either," he challenged.

I grinned. There were a lot of things that Clare and Adam didn't know about me. I set up a little father from the sprinkler and calculated the distance. I took off in a sprint and went into a roundoff, my feet hitting the ground at the perfect distance from the sprinkler to arch over it into a back handspring. I landed perfectly and held my hands over my head as Clare and Adam gaped at me.

"What the hell?" Adam asked.

"That was amazing!" Clare said.

"Three years of gymnastics," I said. "My middle school had a program and I took lessons at the YMHA."

They both laughed. "You were a gymnast?" Clare asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. I didn't really compete or anything, but I did it for fun. I was more into trampolining than traditional gymnastics though." I felt a twinge in my back and rubbed it. I had cut back tremendously once I hit Grade 9 and quit totally after Julia's death so I was really out of shape. I took a seat on a lawn chair and hoped I hadn't really messed my back up.

"The secret life of Elijah Goldsworthy," Clare teased. "I'm thirsty; do you guys want anything?"

"I'll take a water," I said and Adam shook his head.

She walked toward the house and I stared at her. Her clothes wet enough that they were clinging to her and I could kind of see the outline of her bikini top through her damp yellow tank top.

"Stop creeping your girlfriend," Adam said, pulling up a chair next to me.

"It's so hard," I said. "She's got a bikini under there and I can't see it. Just torture."

He smirked. "She'd probably take it off if she was drenched somehow. Too bad we don't have a pool to throw her into."

I laughed. "She'd be so pissed. It'd be worth it though."

Clare came back carrying two glasses of ice water and chugged half of hers down immediately. Then she headed back for the sprinkler. "You guys coming?"

I shook my head. "Taking a break." We watched her as she danced through the sprinkler.

"This has been fun," Adam said. "I haven't gone swimming in a really long time. I used to really like it. It's not the same, but…"

Adam looked sad, but this day was too fun for us to dwell on the more difficult parts of our life. "My aunt has a pool. We could go sometime. They're never home. And I'm not going to mock you for wearing clothes in the pool." I smirked and lowered my voice so Clare wouldn't hear us. "As long as you can convince Clare that you're totally cool with her not wearing them."

"Well, she should at least wear a bathing suit," he said. "You guys can save the skinny dipping for your private perverted parties."

"Ooh, I wish," I said and Adam groaned.

"I'm gonna go inside," he said. "I'm kind of thirsty and I need to take a leak."

He went back into the house. I pulled out my phone, noticing Brian had sent me a few more texts, mocking me for buying into the brainwashing. I was typing my response when Clare called my name. I looked up and saw the sprinkler had stopped.

"It broke," she said, her voice a little whiny. "I think the bar is stuck. I think if I had a screwdriver I could unjam it."

"Flathead or Phillips?" She gave me a blank look and I couldn't help but laugh. "Really, Edwards? You don't know the difference?"

I walked over to take a look and Clare held up the sprinkler. I leaned into to get a closer look at the screw she was pointing at when she pressed a button and the water turned back on full force and hit me in the face.

I screeched as the cold water drenched me, and Clare squealed with laughter. I reached for her, but she dropped the sprinkler and took off across the yard. "You little devil," I called, chasing after her.

My yard wasn't very big and I was a lot faster than her so it only took about two loops around before I caught up with her. Unfortunately we were in the grass that the sprinkler's spray reached so once I grabbed her, my feet came out from under me and we toppled to the ground. Clare was lying on top of me, and I held her to me, trying to transfer the extra wetness to her as punishment.

"You got me soaking wet," I complained.

"That's what she said."

My jaw dropped in shock at Clare's dirty joke. "I can't believe you just said that," I said, and Clare grinned.

"What? I can be dirty. You of all people should know that." She had a devilish grin on her face and it took all the strength I had to keep myself from tearing off her clothes and begging her to prove it, especially since she was still lying on top of me.

I pushed her curls out of her eyes. "I think you owe me for such a mean trick."

"Oh yeah," she said, eyes sparkling. "What do you have in mind?"

"I think you should take your shirt off."

"I'm not going to do that," she said plainly, and I knew I had to stop pushing her.

"Then I think you should go out with me Friday night. And let me surprise you."

She smiled. "Of course." She brought her mouth to my ear. "Maybe I'll even let you take my shirt off then."

I felt like I was dying of happiness and then she kissed me. My hands were on her waist and I pushed her tank top up just an inch or two so I could feel her skin. I wished it was Friday night already and we were alone and I could…

"Oh, lovebirds," Adam called but before we could look up we were hit full blast by the hose that Adam had detached from the sprinkler while we were wrapped up in each other. This was much worse than Clare's sprinkler trick and we scrambled to our feet to try to get out if its path.

Adam looked really pleased with himself, and I glanced at Clare. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" and she nodded. "Get him!" I shouted, and we tore after him. We came at two different angles and there wasn't much place from him to go even if he was a lot faster than either of us. I tackled him and held him down while Clare grabbed the hose.

"Any last words?" she asked before spraying him all over.

He managed to get out of my grip and tackled her by the leg and we all ended up in a soggy heap on the ground, laughing hysterically, happier than we had been in ages.