We're back, and today there will be a second update. Can you believe it? Two updates in one day. Don't count on that happening too often. LOL

For those of you who have asked, yes we know the Emerald Isle area of North Carolina well. Hardly any research has been necessary and everything is legit. We promise. Mucho thanks to MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen for their beta help. They rock.

We don't own Twilight or it's characters. CPW did get to meet Jackson Rathbone and several wonderful fanfic ladies last night at the 100 Monkeys concert in Toronto. She says he's a million times hotter in person. CPW was also sad Risbee wasn't there.

Chapter Song: Itsy Bisty Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

BPOV

"So, what are we going to do today? I could deal with some beach time." Charlotte sat cross-legged on my bed, braiding and unbraiding my hair while Kate thumbed through the latest issue of People magazine.

For the past few days, the atmosphere had improved from blatant animosity and utter hatred to one of ambivalence. Though it was probably due to the fact that we'd spent a tremendous time away from the house and not because of any acceptance on Kate's part. She'd taken on the role of camp director in an effort to keep us busy and away from Garrett and his endless stream of 'floozies'. Her word, not mine; but if I was basing judgment strictly on appearances, she was right.

"I could deal with a lazy day too. That was the whole point of this summer, right? Because we will have to start real life next summer…assuming we get jobs anyway." I rolled my eyes at that because both girls knew the grief I'd endured since declaring my studio art major. The number of times I'd been asked 'what are you going to do once you graduate' was countless and annoying.

"Sure. We can load up a few coolers, drive down to the public access and just hang. There are always some boys trying to surf near the pier. It could be fun, I guess."

Kate was on a mission to stay away from the house and I looked wistfully out the sliding glass door and at the wooden walkway that led to the beachfront right…there. "You know, I heard that the guys were driving over to Greenville for the day. Something about Peter wanting to look at ECU's med school since he needed to start working on applications. It takes about an hour to get there, so they could be gone all day if they eat some lunch or Garrett finds something, I mean someone, he likes."

I could see the wheels turning in Kate's head as she did the math and both Charlotte and I turned on the puppy dog eyes. The idea of not driving to a beach and having drinks, bathrooms and food at our fingertips whenever we wanted it was so appealing. "Please?"

Charlotte shoved my head out of her lap and nuzzled over to Kate. "Please Kate?"

I crawled over to her other side and rested my head on her shoulder. "Come on. You know you wanna."

"I want you to," said a voice that certainly didn't belong to any of us. The three of us turned to the doorway where Garrett stood, leaning against the door frame waggling his eyebrows and looking more than a little bit amused. "Don't move. No, wait. Start moving, but take your clothes off first." He pulled his iPhone out of his pocket and held it in front of him as if he were recording.

"You are such a fucking pig!" Kate lunged, flinging Charlotte off the far side of the bed and, even though I managed to grab her around the waist, it was all I could do to keep her from going airborne. Kate was freakishly strong.

"And you are completely psycho. Good lord woman, I was kidding. The last thing I want is to see you naked."

"It worked for Greg and Marcia." Charlotte chimed in from the floor. "And Greg and Mrs. Brady for that matter."

"Not helping." I whispered harshly but inside I was fighting the urge to giggle and vomit because honestly, that was a little bit disgusting and a lot of bad hair. I had pinned Kate down by lying across her waist but that didn't stop her from hurling whatever she could reach in Garrett's direction. Pillows, magazines, and the plastic cup of water I kept by my bed…

"Garrett, just go. Find Edward and Peter and get out of here. Please." I don't know if it was the desperation in my voice, or the fact that Kate had grabbed the lamp and he knew that it was going to be the next thing hurled at his head, but he put his hands up in defeat and backed away from the door. "Whatever. It's not like I can't get other girls to go at it for me."

The lamp crashed at his feet and he stormed off as Kate started screaming about how much she hated him and that she was going to get him out of the house if it was the last thing she did.

So much for ambivalence.

"Can one of you toss me the sunscreen; I'm starting to sizzle over here." I didn't even open my eyes as I made my request because the combination of the sun and the steady lull of the waves were making me soooo sleepy.

After the excitement from this morning had died down, we finally convinced Kate that leaving the house wasn't inconveniencing Garrett at all. He didn't care whether we were here or not and that if she wanted him gone, she had to make him want to leave. After a tearful and frantic phone call to her dad, and then her mom in New York who threatened to take legal action against Garrett for harassment, she came upstairs and said that we weren't going anywhere. Oh. Gee. Damn. More time near Edward. I hoped the sacrifice would be worth it.

But back to the more pressing issue, I was caught somewhere between being in a state of consciousness and dreamland and even more of a concern was not the sunscreen as much as how I was going to apply it without moving, because I did not want to move. At all.

There was no response from my friends and I wanted to cry because I was that comfortable and didn't want to move to get sunscreen on. I had spent fifteen minutes once we got down to the beach raking away the shells and smoothing out a comfortable surface so I could lie on my stomach. I needed to balance the sun I'd managed to get on my front, because I was starting to look like I had a mom tan.

I knew my days of front only tans and bathing suits with skirts would come, but for now, I was quite happy to be able to wear my itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. I had spent weeks drooling over it online and finally decided to treat myself after surviving finals. Hell, every time I looked at it online I would break into song. The problem was, was that this particular shade of yellow didn't look as good when my skin was red.

"Come on y'all…" I giggled to myself as I realized that, after spending three years in North Carolina, I was starting to pick up the vernacular and a bit of an accent. "Seriously, I need it."

"Yeah, you do. Maybe Edward can help you out since you two seemed so chummy the other night. I'm assuming you liked what you saw in the shower, which you still haven't spilled about by the way." I turned my head slowly and opened one eye to see Kate grinning mischievously at me and I tried to give her the stink eye, but with only the one eye open, I think I looked more like Popeye than a threat. So I flipped her off.

"If you want the sunscreen, you'll start talking, and speak slowly. Don't leave out any details either."

"It really wasn't a big deal." I turned over and sat up on my elbows, squinting at the sun in my eyes. It was so beautiful here.

"Interesting choice of words and honestly, it makes me a little sad for him."

"No! That's not what I was saying…"

"So what were you saying? That it was a big deal?" She started waving the bottle in front of me and I lunged for it, but she pulled it back before I could grab it.

"I'm not saying anything. I thought it was Charlotte in the shower since we couldn't find her, then Edward poked his head out from around the curtain…" Kate snorted. "No, not that head, perv."

"It's a reasonable assumption since you saw it."

"You have tunnel vision. Anyway, he poked his head around the curtain and I guess the water turned cold or something, but he sorta slipped out of the shower and fell on his ass. Then you came in and started screaming about how unfair everything was and that was it."

She folded her arms across her chest, and for a second, I was afraid a boob was going to come flying out of the top of her suit, but thankfully those things were strapped in there like Fort Knox. Not that I hadn't thought about girls before, who hadn't had a quick thought about experimenting in college, but Kate was a bit high maintenance for me and really, all I could think about lately was Edward.

"That was so anticlimactic, Bella. Really, I'm honestly bored now." She tossed me the sunscreen and I reluctantly sat up and started to spray it on my arms and legs.

"I told you it wasn't anything huge." We both grinned and things were good again. Well, it was certainly a decent size, but I wasn't going to tell her that. The less she knew about Edward's junk, the more secure I felt.

"Whatever." I handed her back the sunscreen and she tossed it in the bag by her side. "I'm going to go into the house and refill my margarita. Anybody need anything?"

"Fill me up please." I handed her my insulated water bottle and winked before looking at Charlotte. "You're a genius, by the way." I don't know why we hadn't thought of using them before, but I had a feeling this would be a repeat venture. Kate started walking up the beach back towards the house and I blew her a kiss before moving to her chair, next to Charlotte.

"Whatcha looking at?" She was staring over to her left at the water and looked amused.

"I'm not sure exactly. There are three guys over there pretending to surf. One looks frustrated, one looks bored and the other looks like he's so excited that he can't stand it." I followed her gaze to the three figures I saw paddling in the water.

"Um, don't you need waves to surf?" I asked sarcastically because really, you could hardly call the waves here, well, waves. The water was ridiculously calm and only during major storms or hurricanes did the waves get big enough to surf on.

"Just watch. It really is kind of funny. Here comes a swell now."

Swell was being generous, but at least there was a bit of a something moving towards them. One of the surfers kept paddling through it waiting, the other sat up on his board and the third…well, he stood up and rode that bad boy all of about three feet before plunging off the side. I waited for him to resurface, but he didn't.

And didn't.

And didn't.

By this point the one sitting on his board started yelling at the third and started to frantically paddle over to the abandoned board which had drifted closer to the shore.

I was about to start running towards them to see if they wanted me to call 911 when, all of a sudden, the missing surfer shot out of the water, whooping and hollering about how he was 'just like Kelly Fucking Slater' fist pumping and flailing around like an absolute idiot. The other two joined in until the entire scene was very reminiscent of Lord of the Flies and you could almost feel the testosterone roll down the beach.

I sat up straighter in Kate's chair, shielding my eyes from the sun and hoping that what I thought I was seeing, was not, in fact, what I was seeing. But it was.

"Damn it." I mumbled and started looking back up at the house to see if Kate was returning with our drinks. Thankfully no.

"What?" Charlotte asked, still staring at the water.

"I think that might be Peter, Garrett and Edward. Maybe."

"Really? Which one is Peter?" She stood up and I grabbed her hand pulling her back down.

"Don't let them see you. If they do, Garrett will come over here, Kate will react and…fuck, I was really hoping to have a day off from the refereeing their constant battles. It's like American Gladiators without the fun Nerf guns or sticks with foam ends." Though she was coming with refills, maybe she'd get drunk and just not realize that the boys were still here.

"He looks hot."

I watched as the three boys continued to horse around in the water, slowly getting closer to our position on the beach. Now that I knew that they were indeed who I thought they were, it was easy to pick out the individuals. Which meant my eyes were focused on shirtless Edward. Shirtless, soaking wet Edward. God bless his skinny hot body.

"Yes he does." I didn't care that we weren't talking about the same one. I'd seen how Peter and Charlotte had peeked at each other over the past few days, so her comment hardly came as a surprise. It was really cute though.

I knew Kate would be back down from the house soon, so I resituated myself on my towel draped over the lounge chair, but this time my head was towards the water instead of the dunes. With my sunglasses on, I could watch without being seen.

The sun reflected off his hair and the drops of water made it look like his skin sparkled. I swear my top tried to untie itself, but that would have been completely inappropriate, so I reached behind myself and double knotted it. Just in case.

With a margarita on the way, the sun on my skin and a boy in my sights, I fell in love with today.

EPOV

When Garrett told us that the girls were staying at the house for the day, under the misconception that we were going out, Peter and I were suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to stay behind. Any chance either of us had to stay and either gawk or talk to the girls, we were on it.

Garrett convinced us that if we were going to stay, we had to at least look busy and this is what led us to attempting to surf. Garrett had it in his little pea-sized brain that the waves on the North Carolina coast would be big enough for us, but they weren't. However, Peter didn't care. He loved every single thing to do with surfing and, even though he couldn't do it and almost drowned, he was in love with the sport of surfing and was vowing to move to Hawaii to perfect his technique.

Of course, it only made the situation ten times better for him that Charlotte was on the beach watching his every move. The boy had it bad…for surfing and the blonde.

I, however, couldn't take my eyes off Bella. She was sprawled out on a lounger, now on her stomach and she had her sunglasses down over her eyes trying to act like she wasn't watching us, but I knew she was. It was pretty funny how incognito we were both trying to be, but we both just wanted to know the other more. At least I think that was what was going on. I hoped I wasn't wrong.

The one thing I wasn't wrong about was that bikini she was wearing was evil.

It was a creation of the devil himself. It was tiny...and I mean fucking minuscule. In fact, it should barely be considered fabric it was so small, but I couldn't take my eyes off of Bella. It didn't help that her arms were propped up on the lounge chair and the scene between her forearms was like every one of my wet dreams come true since I had first laid eyes on her.

Jesus, her cleavage was enticing.

I was positive I would be whacking off to it later tonight.

Garrett grabbed my arm and we decided that seeing Peter almost drown was enough for one day and we headed back to the shore. The closer I got to Bella, the harder it was to breathe. It was all sorts of fucked up. As we put our surfboards back into the storage shed, I heard laughter coming from the direction of the girls.

"Let's just go and see what they are up to. It can't hurt, right?" Peter suggested, and I knew he just wanted to see Charlotte up close. Garrett just shrugged his shoulders in indifference and we headed towards the giggling. As we approached, I was trying to act all casual but then I noticed the ruffles that covered her ass. Jesus fuck. This bikini was a modern day torture device.

"Uh, earth to Edward," Peter stated as he snapped his fingers in front of my face and I shook my head again, trying to rid my mind of the thoughts currently swirling around. Suddenly I had a vision of Austin Powers chanting 'Margaret Thatcher naked on a cold day' and after repeating the mantra to myself a few times, things in my lower half seemed to calm down a bit.

"So ladies…having an interesting day?" Garrett asked as he sat down on the end of Charlotte's chair and Kate suddenly made her way down the stairs with drinks in her hands.

"Oh no…no, no, just no. You guys aren't supposed to be here right now!"

"I'm not even supposed to be here today," Peter stated as everyone looked at him curiously, not sure what the heck he was going on about. "You know...it's a quote from that movie Clerks. Oh come on, it was funny shit."

"Anyways, you need to calm the fuck down, Kate. Take some Xanax or something, maybe a whole bottle full."

"You are such an asshole, Garrett," Kate stated firmly as she handed both of the drinks to Bella and then clenched her fist, pretending to reach out and punch Garrett, I was actually shocked when he flinched. "And one who is scared of a girl apparently."

"Well at least I don't run the other way constantly," Garrett replied snidely as I looked over at Bella and she was rolling her eyes. "This is going to be a long summer if you are repeatedly trying to hide from me."

"At least you realize it's just you we are trying to hide from," Kate snapped back as Bella held up her hands in self defense.

"For the record, I am not trying to hide from anyone. I'd actually like it we could all get along and spend time together," Bella explained as Charlotte nodded her head eagerly and Peter and I both agreed. "See, so it's just the two of you who are having issues. Perhaps you need to sit down and hash it out."

"There's nothing to discuss," Kate stated firmly as she took one of the drinks from Bella and proceeded to take a huge gulp of the contents. "His trashy, gold-digging sister married a defenseless older man who was clearly not in his right mind, taking complete advantage of him and his generosity."

"Don't call my sister a gold-digger; you don't know the first thing about Tanya and I," Garrett declared, and I was actually surprised to see him get so worked up. "Perhaps I should be more concerned about how your dad, a man over twenty years older than her, was hitting on her when she was a mere twenty-two years old. I mean, fuck…that's just gross."

"At least we agree on one thing…it is fucking disturbing." Garrett gave a small smile, which Kate surprisingly returned and then the oddest thing happened…the arguing stopped. Although, from the looks of surprise on the faces of my friends, no one expected the cease fire to end; it was just on a brief hiatus.

We all sat around on the beach and the girls drank whatever the hell was in their cups, and they ragged on us about our complete lack of surfing skills. It was fun and casual, and even though Kate and Garrett completely ignored the others presence, it was almost normal.

As dinnertime approached, Charlotte and Peter volunteered to grill some chicken on the barbecue and Kate and Garrett both decided to head inside for a bit before we ate. I was positively thrilled with the chance to spend a little time with Bella.

A few minutes later, Bella and I found ourselves sitting alone on the loungers as all our friends disappeared. I had to admit, it was kind of nice to just be able to sit with her, and now that she had put on a t-shirt, I was a little less distracted by all the skin. Of course, it didn't help matters that she was wearing my shirt and I may have been giddy like a schoolgirl at the whole idea.

"So...Wake Forest huh? What made you go there?" Bella questioned as she rolled onto her side and stared at me. I moved and copied her position, my head resting on my forearm as I felt the urge to tell her everything - my entire life story.

"I needed a change of scenery."

"From where?"

"Chicago," I stated simply as Bella's eyes grew a bit wide. "My dad is a rather successful surgeon and my mother is his high school sweetheart. I had a pretty great life back in Illinois, but to be honest, I felt like my life was rather sheltered. I just wanted to see a bit more of the country, ya know?"

"So you came to North Carolina? I would think you would want to go somewhere more worldly like New York , London or Los Angeles."

"I've done the big city thing. I wanted something smaller."

"And 400,000 is small to you?"

"Smaller than the three million in Chicago, yeah. What about you?"

"My town had like four thousand people. Chapel Hill is a huge metropolis to me, even though it's not that big in the grand scheme of things." I nodded my head in understanding and listened intently as Bella described life back in rural Forks, Washington, with her police chief father and librarian mother. It was from spending her afternoons at the library with her mother that Bella developed a love of books, but she couldn't help the draw she felt to art, which is why she was a studio art major at UNC.

She didn't come off like the usual nut job art majors I had met in my past, but as I listened to Bella discuss her love of mixed media and how much she enjoyed combining various materials to create a work of art, it was clear she lived for what she did. "How did your parents feel about you doing art for a living?"

"My dad was the usual…kinda gruff and worried I wouldn't be able to make a living. I think he thought I would end up at a Holiday Inn on weekends selling my paintings for less than it cost to make them or something like that. My mother encouraged it all. She was one of those flighty types who was always signing us up for different classes so we could learn something new. Thanks to her I learned how to watercolor paint, throw pottery and I even took a water aerobics class. She didn't see that it was just for seniors and well…they were just too sweet to us to stop going."

I grinned happily at Bella, but her next question caught me a bit off guard. "Your dad wanted you to be a doctor, didn't he?"

"How did you know?"

"Don't most parents want their kids to follow in their footsteps?"

"Did your dad want you to be a cop?"

"No, he wanted me to become a professional fisherman. That's where his heart truly lies…in his sixteen foot fishing boat that he has docked out on Lake Pleasant near Beaver…"

"Woah…wait. There's a town named Beaver near you?"

"Yeah, but there's apparently a town in Canada named Dildo, so I figure Beaver isn't that bad, right?"

"Ugh, could you imagine living in a place named Dildo? I mean, who the fuck thought that was a good idea?"

"You are dodging the question…did your parents want you to be a doctor?" I paused for a moment, thinking hard about Bella's question, because I didn't want to paint a bad picture of my father. Sure, he had dreams, but he was proud of me and my accomplishments regardless of what he initially wanted for me.

"My dad may have had pipe dreams at one point, but since my mom spent most of her time shuttling me between music lessons, it didn't take him long to realize that I loved music more than medicine. I began tutoring in my final year of high school and education just fell into place. I'll never play the guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughan or Slash, but I can teach someone to play that well, I think."

"That's awesome," Bella declared as I noticed a few strands of hair fall down in front of her face, and though my fingers twitched, I withheld the urge to push them behind her ear. It was actually kinda sexy the way it looked, but this urge to touch her thing was becoming a regular occurrence. "So, what made you come to Emerald Isle?"

"It was supposed to be a last hurrah of sorts before senior year kicked in and we had to become adults," I replied with a groan as Bella sat up quickly and looked at me with a huge, adorable smile that stretched across her entire face.

"Oh my god, that is exactly why we are here. Kate was bound and determined for us to have the best summer ever, and I just wanted to relax. I've been sketching some new ideas in my free time and sleeping in, well…sorta.

Bella's hesitance in her last statement made me very curious. "Why only sorta?"

"Well uh…there's kinda this cute guy who likes to run on the beach every morning, and sometimes, or every day, I might wake up and watch him like a stalker." My heart fell in my chest at her words and I suddenly wished I hadn't gotten my hopes up about Bella. Of course she would have wanted to talk to me, her friend, about the guy she was crushing on.

I sat up and rested my back against the slats of the lounge chair, cringing inwardly as Bella continued on. "Yeah, he's just…I've been attracted to him basically since the moment I laid eyes on him, but he's kinda...forbidden." Great…he was forbidden. This probably meant he was old as fuck. I should have known someone as cool as Bella would want some guy with a shit load of experience. Sadly, that was not me.

Don't get me wrong, I've been with my fair share of women in my day, well three, but I wasn't any match for some older guy who knew every trick in the book.

I didn't quite know what to say in response to her, so I kept my mouth shut. However, Bella's hand on my arm pulled me out of my depressing thoughts which involved throwing myself off the roof of the house so I didn't have to spend the summer watching her with some other guy. "I'm sure he's great guy…"

"You do realize I'm talking about you right?"

"You will probably be…wait…what?"

"I was talking about you. In the morning you always go for a run on the beach and I usually grab a coffee and sit on the balcony outside of my room, watching as much as I can. I know I'm a stalker." Bella shoved her head into my t-shirt, not unlike a turtle who was hiding, and it was completely adorable.

I moved from my lounger and sat beside her, pulling the shirt down until her head was back out again. This time, I didn't hesitate in pushing a few stray hairs behind her ears as I cupped her cheek in my anxious hand.

"I'd really like to kiss you right now," I admitted unashamed as Bella smiled and leaned forward slightly, only for both of us to suddenly cry out as cold water was dumped on us from above. Bella jumped off of the chair and was screaming in frustration and when I looked up, I saw Garrett standing there with an empty bucket and a dumb grin on his face.

"That was totally worth it."