Warning: Profanity, sexual content/references, and crude humor/dialogue.
Note: The title comes from "Heatwave" by Charli XCX.
A/N: I've been thinking of this story for ages, but, as always, the story I end up publishing is never the one I start with. The premise for this story has always been the gang hanging out at Jonesy and Jen's pool due to hot temperatures and Jonesy deciding to throw a pool party. However, the story has taken on a life of its own in the best way. You'll see.
I'm excited to share finally this with y'all!
Chapter 1: Temperature Rising
Even in the morning, the summer air was thick, unbearable, and sticky.
As soon as Jen set foot outside her house for her morning shift at the Penalty Box, the humidity clung to her skin like saran wrap, damn near suffocating her. She couldn't recall a summer day as hot as this one. She prayed to God that the rest of the summer wouldn't feel this miserable.
However, she considered herself grateful that her Penalty Box uniform only consisted of a referee t-shirt and her signature tennis skirt. That way, she didn't have to deal with any sleeves or pants on a day like this. Otherwise, she would have sacrificed her perfect attendance record for a day off.
On her way into the mall, her phone lit up with messages from her friends' group chat. Caitlin mentioned how Kevin, the other Big Squeeze employee, would be working there all day today, giving her a day off from work. Sydni added that she was scheduled off from the Khaki Barn. Jen smiled at the prospect of hanging out and beating the heat with them after her early-morning shift.
She felt bad for Nikki, though. Nikki texted that the air conditioning had stopped working in her house overnight, forcing her to sleep in next to nothing with all her windows open. Needless to say, she called Chrissy this morning to say that she would not be at work today.
Damn, babe. That sucks ass, Jonesy texted with the pile of shit emoji.
Jen saw three dots at the bottom of her phone screen, indicating that Jonesy was about to send another text.
Y'all should come over the crib today & chill at our pool.
For once, he suggested an idea Jen was completely on board with.
What time should we stop by? Caitlin asked him.
Anytime tbh, he said. Not working today so stop by whenever.
I leave work at 12, Wyatt texted, so I'll be there ASAP.
Same, Jen said. I'm coming home as quickly as possible.
Uh oh, Jonesy teased, are you finally gonna go above the speed limit today? He posted the crying-laughing emoji for emphasis.
She left him with stfu before starting her long and hellish shift.
"Shit, I never realized how much I needed a pool in my life," Nikki said, stepping into the shallow end of the water and walking into waist-deep territory.
"See, this is why Casa de Garcia is the place to be today," Jonesy said before diving beneath the surface, popping up in the deep end.
"Totally, dude," Jude said. "I really needed somewhere to chill today. I didn't feel like going to the game shop and working the ice rink really wasn't the move."
Nikki furrowed her brow. "Jude, don't you think today—the hottest day of the year—would've been perfect to be at an ice rink?"
"Nah, bra. It's all cold and icy and stuff."
Jude's logic remained unparalleled. "Wow. Brilliant reasoning," she deadpanned.
"Hey, babe," Jonesy started, grabbing Nikki's attention, "how long did you say the A/C's out at your house?"
"Probably just for today. My dad's supposedly getting it fixed right now. Why?"
"I was gonna say that you could spend the night here so you can actually get some rest, but never mind."
"Well, I appreciate the offer. Thanks anyways," she said. (She failed to mention that her parents had been arguing back and forth lately, so, even when the air conditioning got fixed, she'd still be living in unbearable conditions.)
Nikki peered over at Sydni, who sat poolside with her feet in the water. "What's up with you, Bambi? Not up for swimming?"
"If I had known about this sooner, I would've gotten my hair braided, so the furthest I'm going in that water is waist-deep. Black hair and water don't always mix well… especially when the heat already got to it," she replied, whipping her frizzy ponytail for emphasis.
She chuckled. "Duly noted."
Hours later, Jen burst through her front door, slamming it and rushing up the steps. She couldn't wait to peel her suffocating clothes off her body in favor of a bikini. A day by the pool consumed her every thought while at work. It didn't help that the mall's air conditioning malfunctioned, nor did it help when Coach Halder insisted that she keep working through the sweat and utter discomfort.
"Masterson!" he'd barked. "Just because it's eighty-five degrees doesn't mean you can keep taking breaks from reorganizing the stockroom!"
"But, Coach, don't you think we should tackle the stockroom another day? Maybe when it doesn't feel like we're roasting alive in an oven?"
He paused to think. "Nonsense! A task that's started is a task that's going to get finished."
She sighed and wiped her brow. "Sir, yes, sir," she said in an unconvincing tone.
He's lucky I need to become assistant manager, she grumbled to herself as she headed to the sweltering stockroom once more.
As one would deduce, the first half of her day had been literal hell.
With her hair in a messy bun and her torso adorned in a periwinkle swimsuit, she made it to the backyard—finding Nikki and Sydni conversing poolside with their feet in the water while Jude, Jonesy, and Wyatt hit each other with pool noodles in the deep end. She could hear music playing in the background, identifying it as coming from a speaker in one of the chaises. It must have been Jonesy's.
"Hey, guys," she greeted as she made her entrance. She'd never been more glad to see them and cool water in the same setting.
"'Sup, bra—oomf!" Jude let his guard down to greet her, only to be whacked upside the head by Jonesy.
Nikki snorted. "Nice hit."
Jonesy turned his back to the boys, giving his girlfriend a smile. "Thanks, Ni—"
In retaliation, Jude had hit him on his side, knocking him into the water.
Jen giggled while getting into the pool. "Now that was a nice hit."
Jonesy broke through the pool's surface. His dark-blue hair clung to his forehead as he spit out chlorinated water with a grimace. "I heard that."
She crossed her arms. "It was meant for you to hear. That's what you get for talking about my driving earlier."
"Not my fault you drive like somebody's grandma."
"Well, you drive like you're in the Fast and Furious."
"Yet you're just Slow and Curious."
Jen peered beside Nikki, noticing a few stray pool noodles nearby. "Hey, Nik, can you toss me one of those?"
Nikki threw it to her, deadpanning, "Go nuts."
She promptly slapped Jonesy upside the head with it.
"Hey! Watch where you aim that thing!"
"Oh, I will," Jen said with narrowed eyes. She joined the boys' pool noodle war—mainly just to attack her aggravating step-brother.
Nikki and Sydni looked onward at the ensuing fight among their four friends.
"This is actually pretty entertaining," Sydni commented, amused to see Jen roughhousing with the boys.
Nikki chuckled. "What you're witnessing is the old gang."
Sydni quirked an eyebrow, although it was obscured by her bangs. "The old gang?"
"Yep." She offered both a smirk and an explanation. "Before you and Blondie came along, it was just me, Jen, and these three knuckleheads doing shit like this."
Nikki reminisced about her and Jen wrestling with the boys in Wyatt's basement, playing flag football with them at the park in middle school, and playing basketball with them in Jonesy's backyard (before his dad turned it into a pool). Now that she thought about it, she and Jen were always running with the boys.
"Thank God the estrogen now outweighs the testosterone in this group." Nikki placed on a hand on her chin, noticing the absence of the gang's biggest estrogen source. "Hmm, I wonder where Blondie is."
"I'll text her and ask," Sydni said. She swung her feet out of the cool water and onto the much hotter concrete patio, grabbing her phone from her purse. She sent Caitlin a message on Snapchat, asking where she was.
Moments later, Caitlin replied, Omw! I can't wait to chill at the pool!
"Cait said she's on her way," Sydni told Nikki.
Nikki gave her a thumbs up.
Before Sydni could put her phone away, however, she received another message from Caitlin.
"Okay, so she said that she accidentally sent that snap to me and her friend Andrea, who now wants to know if there's a pool party happening and if she can come."
Jonesy stopped fighting with Jen and the boys long enough to eavesdrop on their conversation. A devilish smirk tugged at his lips. "A pool party, eh?"
Jen saw his inner opportunist spring to life. "Don't even think about it."
"What?" he asked with mischief in his voice. "If Cait's friend thinks we're having a pool party, then why not make it into one?" His devilish smirk turned into a toothy grin, with his pearly whites sparkling under the blazing sun.
"No. N-O. No, Jonesy."
He climbed out of the pool and grabbed his phone off the chaise where his speaker rested. His fingers moved at the speed of light as he told Caitlin to invite Andrea over, as well as a bunch of her other friends.
Jen climbed out of the pool after him, snatching his phone away from him. "Oh, you are not throwing a party."
"Then why did I just tell Caitlin that I am?"
"Tell her it's cancelled. Seriously, I'm not getting busted because you wanna have a busload of people over."
"And you're not. Get that stick out of your ass, sis. I'm just trying to turn a shitty day into one of the best parties of the summer. And I can make some coin by charging admission in the process." He couldn't see why Jen was so frustrated. Their parents were at work, Courtney had recently moved in with her best friends, and baby Emma was at daycare. "It's a win-win."
"It sounds like it's only a win for you," Jen grumbled.
He shrugged. "Okay, so maybe it is."
Jen grunted and shoved his phone into his hands. "I give up."
"Good," he said, tossing it back onto the chaise. "Now, if you excuse me, I gotta go convince Robbie and Diego to keep their mouths shut."
Jonesy went upstairs, making his way into Diego and Robbie's room. The lingering odor of gym socks and excess Axe body spray attacked his nose. He watched as his brothers sat in their bean bag chairs and played Assassin's Creed, instantly recognizing the game's graphics on their TV screen.
He cleared his throat to grab their attention.
"What do you want?" Diego asked without even looking up from the screen.
"Let's just say I wanna buy your silence."
Diego and Robbie glanced at each other, wordlessly agreeing to pause their game. Both of them turned around and faced their older brother.
"How much we talking?" Diego asked.
"I'll give you both twenty-five dollars and I'll do your chores for a week if you don't snitch on me about this pool party I'm throwing." He crossed his arms and glared at them. "And I better not catch your asses in the backyard while it's happening."
Robbie looked unconvinced. "I don't know. I think dad and Emma would love to hear about this. Right, Diego?"
"Yeah, little bro's got a point." Diego's devious smile resembled his older brother's. "I think it would make their day if we told them."
Jonesy squinted. Sometimes the three of them were too damn alike. "Thirty dollars each and two weeks of chores. That's my final offer."
His brothers glanced at each other again and nodded.
"Deal," Robbie spoke.
Once Caitlin showed up, it didn't take long for her friends to follow. Jonesy's friends arrived next. Soon enough, friends from the hockey team, the school's fashion club, and the gang's high school in general crowded the backyard. (And Jonesy had collected a five-dollar entry fee from all of them.)
Thumping hip-hop, excited chatter, and splashing water reverberated through the air, making everybody forget about the dreadful temperatures. Some girls twerked on the patio to the music. Others dodged water balloons from mischievous boys. Teens laughed and yelled in delight as they soaked each other with water guns. Some played volleyball in the shallow end. Lovers made out in the deep end. Jude jumped off the diving board several times, drenching many people in the process.
Nobody said it but everybody felt it: what a time to be alive.
…At least, everybody except for Jen felt it.
Her body tensed with anxiety as she walked around the backyard. Her mind ordered her to clean up after people, so she picked up discarded red cups, paper plates, and beer bottles. Her voice commanded peers to stop making out on the grass and to stay out of the house and to slow down.
She desperately wanted a day by the pool—after already being overworked by Coach Halder in sticky humidity—but never envisioned it going awry like this. Then again, she must have fooled herself to think that Jonesy wouldn't wreak havoc on her day by making it about himself, his social life, and his love of money. He always disregarded the rules and stayed scheming. It made her blood boil.
She sighed as she shoved another beer bottle in her trash bag, hoping this heatwave wouldn't kill her.
Nikki looked at the excitement all around her as she kicked her feet in the pool. "I have to hand it to you, Garcia: You know how to throw a hell of a party. I never realized this many people could fit in your backyard."
"Yeah, there's hella people here." Jonesy's mind and his eyes wandered, noting how many girls filled the yard. He recognized some of them as girls from their high school. He figured the ones he didn't recognize were Caitlin's friends. "Damn, a bunch of chicks showed up."
"No kidding," she said, thinking little of his remark. She continued people-watching.
Jonesy glanced at her, noticing how she scanned the pool party. "See any girls here that you like?"
She side-eyed him. "Excuse me?"
"What? I'm just curious."
She cocked her pierced eyebrow. "About what?"
"Your type."
She gaped.
"Your type in girls—y'know, 'cause you're all bi and stuff now. I just wanted to see if your taste in girls and my taste in girls overlap or whatever."
Her brow furrowed. "Why? So we can have a threesome? Or, better yet, an orgy with every girl at this party?"
Though her tone was livid, his horny and immature mind pondered her questions.
Hmm…
"Jonesy."
After snapping out of his thoughts, he could only offer, "Oh, come on, I just think it's kinda hot that you're into other chicks!"
If she wasn't so appalled, she would have laughed at how offensive his statement was. "Wooooow, I can't believe this shit."
She swung her feet out of the pool and onto the patio, getting up and walking away.
He chased after her. "Nikki, wait! I'm sorry!"
She turned around and jutted her index finger into his chest. "Until you learn that my sexuality isn't fuel for your wet dreams, apology denied."
Before he could say anything else, she promptly walked away.