Chapter Five Hundred and Eighty Five

"Catch a load of this!" Xavier said proudly, throwing himself down on a beach towel and rudely interrupting Ruby and Casey's make out session.

Claire and Hannah were both grateful. So were Dex and April. The friends had gathered on the beach that Saturday afternoon, glad that school was finished for the week and they didn't have to think about it until Monday morning. Apart from all the homework they were trying to ignore. It had been quite a lot of work on Dex's part to get April out but he was glad to have succeeded. She needed a break from her own head. Perhaps some sunshine and time with friends was exactly what the Doctor ordered.

"What's that?" Dex asked.

Xavier proudly presented them with $50.

"Wow," he replied. "That's pretty good."

"Pretty good?" Xavier balked. "A fifty dollar tip for delivering a pizza? Come on!"

Ruby nudged Casey who reluctantly admitted he had just been given $200 as a tip. Xavier frowned and put his money away.

"How did you score that?" he asked.

He shrugged.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I just got sent to this big, posh house and he gave it to me. He was a nice guy. He's some international businessman, always flying in and out of the country. He was just grabbing some lunch before he flew to New York for a few days."

"So… his big, posh house is going to be empty?" Xavier concluded.

Ruby's eyes lit up. Casey glanced between them, realising what they meant. He quickly shook his head.

"No way!" he said. "No!"

"Oh, come on!" Ruby begged. "You said it had a pool!"

"It doesn't matter," Casey said. "We're not breaking into his place."

Hannah and Claire both whispered to each other, confirming that they would not be participating.

"Come on, Case, it'll be so much fun," Ruby pleaded. "It'll just be us. We won't do any damage or anything."

"It's breaking and entering," Dex pointed out. "Your Mum's a cop."

"Exactly," Ruby said naughtily. "I have friends in high places."

She grinned, kissing Casey on the cheek.

"Fine!" Casey said. "But it's just us, okay? Nobody else."

"I have to work," Claire lied.

"Me too," Hannah said.

"I need to study so…" April ventured.

"Oh, come on," Dex said. "You said you'd spend the day with us. Please? I'll be with you the whole time. I promise."

April looked at his sweet face and sighed.

"Fine," she said. "But if you abandon me, I'm going home."

"Deal!"

So, with Hannah and Claire bowing out, Casey, Ruby, Dex, April and Xavier all began planning their party.


Charlie, Joey, Watson and Kerri met for lunch before Charlie and Watson were due to start their afternoon shift at work and into the evening.

"So… this time tomorrow… you'll be breaking bread with the Braxton's…" Watson teased.

She thought it was the funniest thing on earth that Charlie and Joey were going to spend the afternoon with the Braxton family.

"Cut it out!" Charlie scolded. "We're doing it for our kids and that's it. They probably don't want us there any more than we want to be there!"

Watson shook her head.

"You'll be best buddies by the end of the day!" she teased.

"Yeah, we won't be," Joey said flatly. "We'll go. We'll eat. We'll drink soft drinks. We'll keep our food and drink with us at all times. We'll be polite. And we'll go home again."

Charlie put her arm around her.

"I think this officially makes Joey the nicest person on the planet," she said.

Kerri raised her glass.

"To Joey!" she said.


Casey was worried. He was trying to feel relaxed and have a good time but he felt like all the responsibility was on him if things were to go wrong. However, he wanted to be the fun boyfriend that Ruby clearly wanted. He wanted to be everything to her. He wanted to make her happy. And at the moment, what she wanted was this party.

The music was pumping and they had gathered together as much drink and as many snacks at they could. They had resisted raiding the owner's cabinets. They didn't want him to notice anything missing after all. He just hoped they wouldn't break or disturb anything and he wouldn't report a break in after they had left.

"Stop worrying," Ruby said sweetly, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him.

He blushed at having been caught out.

"Sorry," he said. "I just don't want anything to go wrong."

"We'll be fine," Ruby said. "I mean, it's just… us."

She trailed off when Summer, a girl from school appeared and greeted Xavier who had clearly invited her.

"I don't think he liked being the fifth wheel," she concluded.


Their main courses had arrived. Charlie had quite fancied a glass of wine but alas she had a long shift ahead of her. It would have to wait until tonight – if she wasn't so exhausted that she didn't just crawl into bed and fall asleep! She hated it when she got a Saturday shift.

"We were thinking about helping Ruby out with getting a car," she said.

Watson pulled an awkward face.

"We hope we haven't pressured you because of Claire," she said.

"Oh, no," Joey assured her. "Nothing like that. Ruby's just doing so well at the moment. We're trying to be supportive parents. You know the drill…"

Claire appeared, looking a little awkward, as she asked them if they needed anything else with their meal.

"We're fine, thanks, Claire," Joey said kindly.

Claire walked away feeling terribly guilty. There Charlie and Joey were, so proud of their daughter, believing that she was being so grown up and well behaved and Claire knew she had just broken into someone's house and was throwing a party there!

"Spill!" Scott demanded, as soon as she returned to the bar.

She froze, looking panicked.

"I don't know what you mean," she lied.

"You're clearly feeling guilty about something," he accused, a wicked grin on his face as he thirsted for gossip.

Claire looked at Hannah, who had joined her on for her shift. She had only been able to cope with the afternoon if she had legitimately been working. Hannah had been kind enough to understand her anxiety and come along to support her.

"She's worrying about Ruby," Hannah said diplomatically.

"Oh!" Scott said, rolling his eyes. "When are you not worrying about Ruby? Seriously, she's big enough to make her own mistakes. And honestly, she's going to make a lot of them. Let her. Live your lovely life with your lovely girlfriend."

He and Hannah grinned at each other. Claire laughed softly.

"Well, I think that's pretty good advice," Hannah said.

Claire reached out and held her hand across the table.

"I know," she said. "I just… She could get in real trouble this time and she could really disappoint her parents…"

"And those are the decisions that she has made," Hannah reminded her.

Claire nodded.

"I know," she accepted. "I know."


"Um… what is your brother doing here?" Ruby asked, grabbing Casey's arm rather tightly.

Casey looked up, his stomach dropping as Heath and a rowdy gang of mates barged into the party. He had just begun to relax with Ruby, Dex, April, Xavier and Summer, kicking about in the pool and having a laugh. Heath was not a welcome addition to the group.

"I have no idea…" he managed.

"Casey!" Heath called out, waving a crate of beer.

"Did you invite them?" Xavier hissed. "What were you thinking?"

"I'm not an idiot!" Casey snapped. "I know better than anyone that my brother isn't someone to invite to a stranger's house!"

"Um… I invited them!" Summer said awkwardly, raising her hand.

She stood and greeted one of the lads, a couple of years older than them with a kiss that lasted several minutes. Xavier rolled his eyes. He had only invited her because he didn't want to be the only singleton at the party. He wasn't even interested in her. The person he was really interested in was Miranda, the girl he had delivered a pizza to the other day but to win her, he knew it would take quite a lot of work. Initially, he had invited her to the party but unfortunately, she had been too busy to come at the last minute.

"We need to get rid of them, Case," Ruby said worriedly.

"They're not going to leave," Casey said. "They're like a virus. Once they're here, it's like a pandemic - almost impossible to get rid of."


"I mean, even I have to admit that Casey has been good for her," Charlie said. "And I hate admitting that. It's actually galling."

"I can tell!" Kerri laughed.

"Of all the boys in Summer Bay, it had to be him, right?" Charlie said. "But it is him. And he is a nice boy. She's never been settled in all the time we've lived here. When we first arrived, she had this older boyfriend, Pat, who I couldn't stand and he got her kicked out of her school in the city. Then she took up with Xavier, who was eventually fine but at first… no."

She shook her head.

"Then there was Geoff. Then there was that whole fiasco where she had feelings for Liam and she started drinking. The only good thing about that was that she met Claire."

She glanced back at the bar where Claire was serving customers. Hannah was keeping her company. Charlie was sure Ruby had said that a whole group of them, including Claire and Hannah were meant to be hanging out at the beach today. She wondered what had sent Claire back to work. Joey hadn't her to be on shift today.

"Then she's just had one incident after another – crushes that haven't gone anywhere, this whole thing with Romeo… But Casey seems to ground her. He actually seems to keep her out of trouble."

"And that's a very overly complicated justification as to why we are going to this get together tomorrow," Joey said, putting her arm around her fiancée.

Charlie blushed and leaned against her.

"Providing we don't arrest any of them today," Watson added with a grin.


Dex was trying not to panic. This had all seemed like a good idea at the time – just a few mates hanging out at some luxury pad. What was the harm? But now he was holding back Summer's hair while she threw up in a plant pot. There were River Boys sprawling all over the place, most of them half naked and all of them drunk. He hadn't seen April for quite some time. He was worried about her and felt terrible anxious. He had promised they would stick together no matter what. But then he'd seen Summer looking like she was about to pass out and nobody was around to look after her so what could he do?

"I need to go home," she murmured.

"Right," she said. "I uh… I'll find someone…"

"No, I need to go home now," she said urgently.

Dex looked around for April but he couldn't see her anywhere.


Inside the house, April was looking around desperately for Dex. They had become separated and she was beginning to panic. He had promised they would stay together and he had abandoned her. She hadn't even wanted to come to this stupid party. The more she thought about it, the angrier she felt.

"Have you seen Dex?" she asked Ruby and Casey, who were huddled in the kitchen, looking very tense.

The party had clearly spiralled out of their control, not that they were doing a thing about it.

"No," Casey said. "Sorry."

"I can help you look for him," Ruby offered. "Are you okay, April?"

"I just need to find him," April said. "He said he'd stay with me."

Ruby guided April outside, determined to help her friend. She didn't exactly know what was going on with her at the moment but she knew she was very anxious. She also knew that Joey had been going through a lot of anxiety recently and that she would want someone to help her in this situation. She knew she had to be kind.

"Ladies!" Heath cheer jovially. "Welcome to the party!"

"This is actually my party," Ruby told me. "And you and your mates weren't invited."

"Yes, we were," Heath informed her.

He called over to the boy that Summer had been kissing earlier and demanded that he show him his invitation. The boy thrust it in Ruby's face.

'Pool party! Come over now!' it read with the address at the bottom and a lot of emojis. Ruby shook her head in irritation. That was the last time Summer was invited to anything. She could kill Xavier for inviting her without permission too.

"Hey, speaking of it being a pool party," Heath said. "Who wants to take a dip? What about you?"

Before Ruby could do anything to stop him, he and one of his friends had grabbed April and swung her into the water.

"Hey! You bastard!" Ruby yelled, loud enough to be heard over the music.


Casey came running out of the kitchen just in time to see Ruby angrily push his brother into the pool. Most of his mates cheered her on. Xavier rushed over to help Ruby pull April up. She was shaking, clearly panicked.

"Where's Dex?" she kept asked. "He promised he wouldn't leave me! He promised!"

"Summer was puking," Xavier said. "I think he took her home."

"He promised he wouldn't leave me!"

"Look, I'll take you home," Xavier promised. "Everything's going to be okay."

Casey reappeared with a towel, flatly ignoring his brother, as he swam to the edge of the pool and got out.


"So, do you guys have a date yet?" Watson wanted to know.

"Oh, don't even go there!" Joey complained.

Charlie shook her head urgently.

"I mean, the woman proposes to me and then leaves me hanging for how many weeks?"

"Two," Charlie said. "Barely even two."

Watson snorted. Charlie threw a bread roll at her. She caught it and finished it off. Kerri called her a pig in the most affectionate way someone could ever be called such a thing. Watson grinned rather proudly.

"I just want to get started!" Joey said.

"We went to a wedding fayre!" Charlie said.

"Oh yeah and that was so fun!" Joey replied.

"That wasn't my fault!"

"They're not even married yet and look at this!" Watson smirked.

"Maybe we should hold off…" Kerri teased.

"I think you might be right…"

Inside, just the mention of marriage made Watson's heart soar. She had never felt like this about anyone. She had never believed that anyone could love her like this, especially after Monica had broken her heart. But Kerri had healed so much pain in her life and she worshiped her for it.

"We will pin down a date soon," Charlie said firmly. "And you guys will be the first to know. After Ruby, obviously."

"And before Bianca," Watson said.

"Seriously, you need to get over that," Charlie told her.


"Okay, this has gone way too far now!" Casey said to Heath. "You need to go. Now."

"Oh, come on, little bro," his big brother replied. "Don't be such a spoil sport. We're just getting started."

Casey shook his head.

"This is my party and I didn't invite you."

"But you should have!" Heath said. "It was kind of rude of you."

"Yeah, fine, call me rude. Whatever. Just take your mates and get out. Please. Go."

Heath looked around.

"Nah," he said, opening another can. "I like it here. I think I'll stay."


Charlie and Watson had barely arrived at the station when there were multiple phone calls requesting the police to attending an out of control party.

"Bit of a posh neighbourhood," Watson remarked on their way back out.

"Maybe a kid whose parents are out of town?" Charlie suggested.


Claire jumped when Joey approached her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Joey asked worriedly. "You don't seem yourself. Why are you even working today? You're not even mean to be on shift."

Claire shot a worried glanced at Hannah, who looked back helplessly. Claire sighed, aware that her girlfriend had no loyalty at all towards Ruby.

"I'm fine," Claire lied. "And I just swapped shifts as a favour, that's all."

Joey frowned.

"I'm not sure I believe you," she said honestly. "Look, if something's happened or you're worried about something…"

"I'm okay," Claire lied again. "I swear."


With the music off, it was easy to hear the police sirens approaching. Ruby froze, staring at Casey in sheer panic. He looked at frightened as she did as everyone, including his brother began to scatter.


Charlie and Watson were just pulling up outside the large, expensive property when River Boys galore began rushing down the drive and through the gates.

"Here we go," Charlie said, leaping into action.

She broke into a sprint and pinned the first guy she could down on the ground, on his front. He cried out in surprise; the wind knocked out of him. Watson already had another guy in cuffs against the hood of the police car. Charlie cuffed the guy beneath her and yanked him unceremoniously to his feet, only then realising that it was Heath Braxton. Memories of Watson's earlier remark about arresting a Braxton ahead of the family party the next day, flashed through her mind.

"Should have realised you'd be involved," she said.

She pulled out her radio and called for backup, including a couple of vans. Thankfully, they had already sent several officers with them, including Blake, all of whom were making several arrests.

"Something tells me that you're not friendly with the person who owns this house," Charlie said, slinging Heath into the back of her car.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Heath said. "We're best mates. We go way back."

"Bullshit," Charlie said.

She left a junior officer in charge of watching those who had already been arrested and then headed towards the house. She stopped stock still when she saw Blake reluctantly leading Casey down the drive in handcuffs.


Next time… Casey is in big trouble, Ruby is on the edge and Claire feels guilty…