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not beta'd

storyline - Heart (Crystal Beachin')

word prompt - unused

Alice loaded the dishwasher while Rose made mimosas, courtesy of the welcome champagne Aunt Claire had left in the fridge.

Yeah, the girls were a little under-aged but that's what summer was all about – living it up as inappropriately as possible! Or so Rose said when Bella expressed concern.

Secretly, Bella couldn't wait to get her drank on. She'd always been a lightweight when it came to alcohol, so it didn't take much for her to get the warm n' tinglies. Maybe she'd even loosen up enough to take a spin around the pole later.

"You got towels?" Rose asked, twisting shut the tops of the thermoses.

Bella nodded, patting the ginormous beach bag to her right. "Yup."

"Awesome sauce. Let's go!"

As the girls made their way outside, they noticed that Genesis had now been replaced by Top 40 type tuneage.

Rose frowned, adjusting her sunglasses. "That's weird."

"What?" Alice asked.

"The old farts are listening to like, our kind of music."

Alice lowered her sunglasses on to her face and locked the door. "So?"

"So… it's random. Maybe another shift took over or something," mused Rose.

"At ten a.m?" Bella asked. Well damn, if they were switching shifts already, how early did these guys start work?

The girls crossed the street and made their way, single file, down the wooden boardwalk leading to the beach.

A long, low whistle sounded from somewhere above. "Daaaaaamn, girl…" someone called.

Bella looked up, searching for the catcallers.

"Can we come too?" the voice asked teasingly.

There they were: two young guys about 5 stories up. One of them, the lankier one, was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, but the other one was shirtless and in a hard hat. He was seriously diesel, but his get up made him look like a stripper. Or one of the Village People.

Bella smothered a laugh and continued walking, only to run right in to Rose, who'd slowed down and put an extra swagger to her step.

"Oh jeez, just move it Rose," groaned Bella, anxious to get to the damn beach already. Between Rose's lower landscaping, Alice's dancercise, and then never-ending breakfast, it had taken them forever and a day to get out of the house.

"I am moving," Rose breathed, obviously still putting on a show for the construction workers.

Alice reached back and grabbed Bella's hand, hurrying past Rose. "Okay, well, we'll see you there then."

The beach was blindingly bright and beautiful, unlike anything Bella had ever seen. The water was the most brilliant blue, as was the sky, and the sand was so white that she had to shield her eyes. Several oversized beach umbrellas were scattered around the beach, and children ran up and down the shore, shrieking and playing.

"Wow," Bella whispered, stunned.

"No kidding," Alice sighed, taking her shoes off as she jumped down to the sand. "It's even better than the websites said."

Even as they walked across the sand, more and more people were showing up. Destin was, after all, quite a popular vacation destination. Rose finally caught up and they picked their way to a prime spot near the water.

As Alice and Rose spread the beach blanket, Bella couldn't help but notice a dark figure to her left. There, on a ratty old towel, lay a boy in a black hoodie and board shorts. He was curled in fetal position, his arms and legs tucked close to his body.

Bella was about to go make sure he was breathing when he groaned audibly and began patting the towel, running his fingers over the threadbare material.

"Ok, that's disturbing," hissed Rose, glaring at the spectacle beside them. "What, is he on drugs or something?"

Bella bit her lip. "Maybe he's just –"

"Who wears a hoodie – a black hoodie – in ninety degree weather?" Alice muttered, rolling her eyes. "He's probably a crack head. Or meth. Do they have a bad meth problem over here? I was watching this show…"

Bella checked out of the conversation. She felt concerned for the strange emo boy, but he didn't look like he wanted to be bothered.

And besides, the weather was way too excellent to be all sad. With that thought, she stripped out of her shorts and tank top.

Something cold touched her arm. "Here's yours, B," Rose said, handing her a mimosa.

"Thanks," Bella said, accepting it gratefully.

It was gonna be a snazzy day.

"It squeaks!" cried Alice, mashing her foot down in to the sand. She just gone for a dip and was now returning to the blanket, dripping wet. "It squeaks!"

"Whaddya mean, 'it squeaks'?" Rose asked, making a face.

Alice shrugged, picking up a towel. "It just does."

"Didn't squeak for me," Rose argued.

"You probably need to be wet," Bella said.

"That's what she said," chortled Rose. She was finished with her mammoth mimosa and was now tipsy.

Emo Boy had left about a half an hour before. Bella hadn't even noticed him get up until he was half way back to the boardwalk.

"Well, I'm going in one last time," Bella said, bringing her thermos with her. The others joined her – even though Ali had just gotten out - and they splashed around until they were wrinkled and gross.

"Oh. My. Gosh," Rose said lowly, pinching Bella.

"Ow!"

"There are the guys."

Alice looked lazily toward shore. "What guys?"

"The construction guys, duh!"

There were three of them now. As they got closer, Bella recognized the third as Emo Boy, sans the black hoodie. As she watched, the blond lanky one clapped Emo on the back; he appeared to be comforting him. Diesel shed his jeans and ran toward the water in a pair of boxer briefs.

"I know he's not going swimming like that," Alice giggled, covering her mouth.

"He is so going swimming like that," Rose said. "Can't wait till he gets out; it'll be all wet and molded to his –"

Bella jumped out of the water, not interested in hearing Rose's filthy fantasies. "I'm starving."

"Me too," Alice said, adjusting her bikini bottoms as she joined Bella.

"I wanna staaay," whined Rose. Her cheeks were bright pink, despite repeated applications of sunscreen.

"We'll have lunch and come back," coaxed Alice, knowing full well Rose would probably pass out at the house.

Rose shrugged, standing up with a wobble. "Mkay."

After lunch, Rose fell asleep on the couch, as predicted.

"I think I'm gonna check my email," Alice said, giving the counter one last swipe before tossing the rag in to the sink.

Bella nodded. "I'm going to read by the pool. I'm so making cookies later, though."

"Nutella?"

"I'll have to go to the store for that," Bella said. "But I can do regular chocolate chip."

"Sounds good."

Alice went upstairs to her laptop and Bella grabbed her book and an unused towel from the neatly stacked pile near the patio doors.

She'd only been reading for about five minutes when the squeak of the old access gate leading to the street startled her.

"Hello?" Bella called out, standing up.

A head of shiny, brownish blond hair appeared through the leaves surrounding their gate. He stepped up on to the patio and paused.

Emo Boy?

"Hey, uh… sorry to bother you, um…" He paused, frowning at his feet. "You forgot this at the beach."

He finally looked at her, and her stomach dropped to her feet. Holy cow, he was hot.

Bella stared.

"These… are yours, right?" he asked, holding out a pair of sunglasses.

Greenest. Eyes. In the universe.

"I knew it," he mumbled, starting to retreat.

That moved Bella to action. She focused on the sunglasses – they were Rose's.

"Oh! Oh, yeah, they're uh, they're my friend's. Thanks," she stammered, stepping forward to take them.

He nodded, his gaze burning in to her with the fiery blaze of a zillion passionate suns.

They stood awkwardly for a moment, pheromones and hormones and subtle horniness passing mutually between them.

"Well, thanks," Bella said again, gripping the glasses.

"You're welcome," he said, turning to leave.

"I'm Bella," she blurted.

"Edward," he said, smiling a tiny bit.

Bella nodded. Edward turned to go again.

"Um… Edward?"

He stopped, glancing over his shoulder.

"How'd you know we were staying here?"

"The guys saw your friends here earlier," he said, smirking.

"Oh, ok. Cool." Bella smiled, a little in love already.

"See you around…"

Edward crossed the street, feeling a little funny after his encounter with the Brunette.

The sun was still pretty high in the sky, despite the fact it was already three. Gotta love summertime, baby.

He felt like dancin'. Felt like singin'.

He recognized this feeling.

Bye-bye Tanya, hello Bella.