A/N: A time when Katie and Ned were just friends (even if things were heating up between them lowkey) before she went to New York the summer after graduation. Enjoy xx Mariah
"Tell me again why I let you drag me here?" Katie groaned as the first pungent whiff of weed hit her nostrils.
Loud chatter and louder music throb from beyond the tree line. Dried leaves crackle under her feet as she neared the clearing. She pushed tree branches out of the way and tugged down on her shorts, suddenly wishing she hadn't gone for the shortest pair she owned.
Ned shifted the 30-pack of Coors Light he was carrying to his right hand and slung an arm around her shoulder, tucking her against him. "Because, Katie, it's a gorgeous summer night, and you're too fucking young and cute to sit home like a goddamned spinster. You haven't been to one party all summer."
She drove her elbow into his ribcage and shoved him away. "I don't call 90-percent humidity 'gorgeous,' Banks. It's disgusting out here." She could already feel sweat beading on her forehead and the back of her neck, and she knew her crop top and shorts were going to be clinging to her in no time.
Even in the dusky twilight, she could see Ned's teeth gleam as he grinned. "That's what the lake is for." He wound an arm around his date tonight, Katie didn't bother to remember her name and unlike her, she offered no protest. They shared a private smile.
She wrinkled her nose at them. She could get a little nauseated watching them constantly make eyes at each other. The cynic in her wonders how long they'll last when the fall rolled around.
"So how's life at the Clancy household?" Ned teased, his eyes on her again. "I feel like I haven't been over there in like… forever." He threw his voice with a mock affectation.
"It's good," she replied. "I know I'm gonna miss it, but I am counting down the days until I move to the city."
"Must be nice for your parents to pay you through college," the girl mumbled from where her face buried in Ned's neck.
She rolled her eyes and pushed her way through the rest of the trees. She had worked her ass off to keep her 3.8 GPA throughout high school, get into NYU and earn as many scholarships and grants that she could.
"Shit, everyone is here tonight," Ned marveled as they reached the sandy shore of the lake.
Her eyes roam around and took in the scene. It's definitely more crowded than usual, but locals are all home from their respective colleges, not to mention Rockland University is just ten miles from the center of town, and many of its upperclassmen stick around for the summer.
Despite the fact that this summer hasn't seen a drop of rain, a bonfire has been lit at the edge of the clearing, tongues of red and orange licking at the wood, sending plumes of ashy smoke rising into the thick air. Hopefully, the park rangers weren't going to alert the authorities and break things up.
Bodies were already bobbing in the lake, splashes and shouts intermittently rising above the music. It's fairly early in the evening, just after nine, so the odds are most of them are actually wearing bathing suits. The clothes are shed, along with inhibitions, the longer the party raged on.
Ned led them over to the makeshift wet bar, a half-crescent of Coleman and Igloo coolers. Behind them was a folding table stocked with a variety of hard liquor.
"Banks. You finally fucking made it!" Devon McGuire, one of his best friends, looked up from where his arm was submerged in one of the coolers. He pulled out a can of Coors Light and tossed it to Ned, who caught it one-handed and passed it to his date. Devon threw a second can to Ned, and then leered at her, his eyes drifting down to her chest. "Clancy, you drinking?" he asked, a slow grin leaching across his thin lips. When he finally moved his gaze off her breasts, he grabbed a can of beer at me.
"I'll get my own beverage, thank you very much dickwad," she replied, lifting the lid of the nearest cooler.
"Ooh, she got you there," Ned laughed.
Pushing chunks of ice aside, Katie located a bottle of Blue Moon. She twisted off the cap and lobbed it into one of the large black buckets that served as the recycling bins. She could feel Devon's covetous stare on her ass as she walked away from the coolers, following Ned and the girl down closer to the edge of the lake.
Lake bonfires don't discriminate. Kids from any and all social circles show up, though the clusters that break off and speckle the shoreline tend to be from homogenous groups. Katie usually just hung with Hannah, her boyfriend and his friends on the basketball team.
"Damnit!" she muttered, stopping short. Ned turned around and the girl he was with, pulled on him to keep walking, but he didn't. "I think I left my phone back in the truck." She thrust her hand out towards him. "Keys."
He jammed his hand in his back pocket and after a second of thinking, he turned to the girl and motioned to a spot further down the scrubby beach for her to go to. "I'm gonna walk with Katie back to the truck just to be safe. Wanna go find us a spot?"
"If I wanted to come to this thing alone I would've," the girl rolled her eyes. "I think your cousin or whoever Katie is will be fine."
"Well I'm walking with her anyway," he said, clutching his keys in one hand and his beer in the other as he walked away.
"If you go with her, I'm not going home with you." The girl scoffed and crossed her arms.
"I think he can find someone better than you anyway," she said as she turned around to walk away with Ned. "I would've been fine you know. You didn't have to lose your date over me."
"I know, but Anna was clingy. I didn't really care," he groaned and took a sip of his bear.
"Anna! That was her name..." She muttered as quietly as she could, but Ned was laughing before she could even try to rebut anything.
"You could at least pretend to like my girlfriends sometimes," he tossed his arm around her and she leaned into him this time, wrapping her arm around his waist.
She sighed and looked away from him. It wasn't that she didn't like them. He just deserved so much better than girls who just thought he was a pretty face. He was more than someone to bring to parties and make out with him to make some other guy jealous.
"I like some of them," she said, shrugging. "Just not that one."
"Name one girl that I dated that you have ever liked Katie Clancy," he laughed shaking his head at her. "Just one."
"I liked Rachel," she said, pulling her arm away from around him. "You can't tell me you liked Henry."
"Of course I didn't like Henry. He was a royal dick to you the entire time you were together, but Rachel?" He asked and furrowed his brow. He was definitely trying to remember her.
Had there been more than one Rachel that he didn't know about?
"Come on, I am pretty sure she took your virginity," she laughed, shaking her head. "You two dated for like six months."
"Oh, yeah... tenth grade Rachel!" He gasped, smiling and nodding his head. "Yes, yes I remember her, but she definitely didn't take my virginity."
"Then who did?" She looked up at him, knotting her eyebrows together. "I don't remember anyone serious before her."
He laughed, tossing back his beer for a big sip. He swallowed and sighed, "Now Katie, you'll have to get me more drunk to get that story out of me."
"Come on! Give me something, Banks." She laughed and chased after him.
"Maybe another time," he said, shaking his head.
Katie and Ned were both sweating when they reached his truck. She lifted her damp hair off her neck and wound it into a bun that she secured at the top of her head. He unlocked his vehicle and opened the door for her to grab her phone from the console quickly. She leaned against the door to take a long slug off her beer once he closed the door and locked it again.
She could feel Ned's eyes on her before she even turned to look, just as he tried to look away in time. He didn't. She caught his gaze and smiled. "What you looking at?" She asked, pushing away from his truck.
"Nothing," he said, shrugging. "Just memorizing what you look like before you leave for like ever."
Just as he closed the door, she laughed and rolled her eyes. "Aw, you gonna miss me, Ned?" She enjoying poking fun at him and took another drink of her beer.
"Of course I will, Katie," he said, smiling at her.