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Ali couldn’t help but feel bittersweet as Travis led her away from the beach house that night, knowing that she was leaving Patrick very much by himself. She was being honest with him, though, when she admitted that she wished he would have come to her earlier. If he had, just maybe she would be out with him and Travis would be the one sitting alone on the porch watching the sunset. Ali let out a sigh at this, but forced a smile as Travis looked back at her expectantly.

“Shorty, what’s wrong?” he voiced, pausing to let her catch up. Ali shook her head and let his arm wrap around her shoulders.

“I just feel bad for leaving Patrick all by himself,” she answered, somewhat being truthful. Travi raised an eyebrow at her as they continued walking.

“Are you sure nothing is going on between the two of you?” he asked. Ali laughed a little to herself before shaking her head slowly.

“No,” Ali rolled her eyes as Travis still held a curious look on her. “Travi, if there was something going on, I wouldn’t of agreed to go on this date with you,”

“Touché,” Travis chuckled and brought her a little closer as they walked along the beach front. “I’m glad you decided to give me a chance,”

Ali smiled at him and continued to let him lead her to the un-lit bonfire that had obviously been built previously on the sea-front. Travis left her side momentarily and Ali tightened her sweater around her as the wind blew in.

“Are you sure this is going to work with the wind?” she asked. Travis let out a cocky smirk.

“Trust me,”

Ali shook her head and watched as he lit a few matches and after a few failures, managed to get the fire going. As it started up, Ali sat down and kicked off her shoes, letting her toes wiggle into the sand. Travis copied her as he fell next to her and cleared his throat in a lame attempt to start a conversation.

“So,” he started, earning a mocking laugh from Ali. He playfully glared. “Well if you are going to be mean to me,” he joked. Ali shook her head.

“Go on,” she insisted. Travis grinned in her direction and nodded.

“Well, Izzy told me that you are an art major,”

“Yeah,” Ali agreed and tilted her head. “It seems that Izzy tells everybody about my life,” Travis perked his eyebrows up.

“That’s all she told me, I mean, I mentioned I was an art major and she was like, so is Ali,” Travis paused as Ali giggled at his remark.

“So you’re an art major too?” she asked. Travis nodded.

“I’m more of a collage artist,” he explained. Ali was instantly intrigued.

“Really?” she tilted her head to the side in thought. “I tried that out, but I find that I’m better at sketching and abstract watercolor techniques,”

“You must take it seriously, huh?” Travis asked. Ali nodded instantly.

“Art is a huge part of my life,” she quickly spoke.

“Same here,” Travis admitted. Ali let her eyebrows shoot up and couldn’t help but let a genuine smile appear on her face. Maybe there was more they had in common than she originally thought.


*

The moment Izzy and Pete arrived to the beach house from their so called date, the laughter they had been sharing dwindled when they discovered Patrick sitting by himself on the front porch, twiddling his thumbs as he watched the coast-line.

“Yo, Trick, have you been here the entire time?” Pete asked, shifting his eyes from Izzy who was still wringing water out of her hair. Patrick glanced up at them and raised an eyebrow at their soaked appearance.

“Uh, yeah, but I thought you guys were going out on a date?” Patrick asked. Pete laughed to himself while Izzy rolled her eyes and jabbed a thumb back at him.

“We just went out to the boardwalk-”

“And then Izzy threw me into the ocean,” Pete interrupted. Patrick widened his eyes and shook his head in disbelief.

“Well, ok?” he spoke. Izzy just shook her head and left the both of them to go inside. Pete watched her for a moment before moving to sit next to his friend, sliding his drenched shirt off first so that he could throw it over the railing in front of them.

“De Ja Vu?” Pete mentioned and Patrick smirked, making him glance over at his friend. “Dude, I thought you were going to take Ali out, what happened?”

“She’s out with Travi,” Patrick answered quickly. “I was too late, but I don’t really want to talk about it,” Pete rolled his eyes.

“Too bad, you’ve got me for a best friend so there’s no not talking to me,” he insisted. Patrick shifted uncomfortably and crossed his arms over his chest but sighed nonetheless.

“Well, I…” Patrick cleared his throat nervously. “I think I’m just confused,” he admitted.

“Didn’t you guys have sex on Halloween?” Pete asked bluntly. Patrick whipped his head at his friend and rapidly shook his head.

“No!” he shouted, making Pete lean back slightly. “We almost did, but I…” Patrick pulled back his lips in a meek smile. Pete raised an eyebrow and stared flatly at Patrick.

“You pussied out, right?”

Patrick let out a groan before nodding and turning himself so that he was staring back at the ocean in the distance.

“I didn’t want it to happen like that,” he glanced at Pete out of the corner of his eye. “I happen to like to date the girl before I fuck her, thank you very much,” Patrick said, fairly bitterly. Pete laughed it off and stood up again.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about but I don’t fuck,” Pete chuckled as he opened the door and propped it open with the back of his foot. “I make love,” Pete added a little air-trust at the end and before Patrick could reach over to hit him, he disappeared inside.

“What was that all about?” Patrick quickly moved his head to the stairs where he gulped at the sight of a seemingly happy looking Ali walking towards him and the door, Travis behind her. Patrick shook his head and sat back down on the porch swing, looking a head, purely to avoid eye contact. He heard Ali sigh out and watched innocently out of the corner of his eye as the two slowly entered the house. Patrick was left alone, yet again.

Inside, Ali allowed herself to collapse into the bigger couch and sighed out as she was met with the warmth of the fireplace. Looking towards the source of the fire though, she groaned as she saw what she knew to be both Pete and Izzy’s clothes strewn about on the ground. As Travis landed next to her, she sat up and before she could speak, a loud giggle followed by a louder rumble was heard from upstairs and she rolled her eyebrows.

“God, I swear all they’ve done since they’ve gotten together is have sex,” she mumbled. Travis smirked lightly and adjusted himself into the couch, leaning into the corner to make himself comfortable. Ali smiled bashfully and scooted closer and slowly let her head rest on his shoulder, but frowned as Travis didn’t move, let alone budge to hold her back.

“Sorry shorty,” he laughed lightly and shifted again, Ali having to snap her head up to prevent it falling and stared at Travis as he leaned against the side arm of the couch. “I’m not really a big cuddler,” Ali let her ears twitch at the admission and frowned slightly but shrugged and nonchalantly stood up. Travis offered a grin before reaching out to leave a kiss on her hand. “Night?” he questioned. Ali forced her own small smile and glided up the stairs to the bedrooms and ignored the sounds she heard from the only closed door and entered an empty bedroom, making herself comfortable in the bed before sighing out in slight despair. Frowning as she heard the front door open and close again, she turned on her side and almost pathetically grabbed up at the spare pillow and brought it to her chest. It didn’t take long for her to realize that it didn’t beat the real thing.


*

With the holiday almost being over, Grace and Ali decided a little girl to girl gossip time was in order. Ali was fed up of talking to Ashley and Izzy who were (mostly) happy in their relationships, and to Jenn who would constantly change the subject, no matter what they were talking about, to the topic of her potential brother. Even though Grace too, was in a happy relationship, she didn’t talk about it unless Ali asked, and Ali could talk about her Patrick/Travi problems without feeling guilty that she was stealing the drama limelight.

“So I’m thinking maybe I’m going to give Travi a chance, I mean, we both have this thing going on with arty stuff,” She mumbled, and Grace nodded, taking a bite of the ice-cream she had in her hand.

“Well there’s no harm in giving it a go, right?” Ali nodded slowly, not being able to help thinking of Patrick.

“I know, but part of me wishes that Patrick had asked me first,” She looked back at Grace to receive a dirty look, and Ali rolled her eyes, knowing Grace was bitching about her in her head.

“What are you thinking, Grace?” She asked, and Grace shrugged.

“I’m just thinking that it’s not always the guy who has to make the first move, and if you really want him, maybe you should initiate it?” Ali shook her head.
“I don’t do that. Besides, like I said, I’m giving Travi a chance. It’s not fair on him if I just ditch him for no reason. We’ve got art in-” Grace rolled her eyes and interrupted her.

“-Art in common. Yeah you’ve said. Woman, you’re going to have to take control of your life at some point, instead of giving advice to other people and not following it,” Ali smirked, and ignored her remarks as they carried on walking along the seafront. Grace spent the rest of the time pointing out all the funny outfits in the many shop windows, laughing as Ali pulled faces at each of them. They arrived at a little joke boutique and Grace suddenly widened her eyes at seeing one of the pieces in the window.

“Oh my god,” She whispered, pressing her nose against the glass and bursting into laughter. Ali looked confused, and followed her line of vision to where a neon green, Borat style mankini was hanging in the window. Ali smirked and looked to Grace who was having trouble breathing due to laughter.

“What?” She asked, and Grace controlled herself for a second to turn to Ali.

“When Gabe and I dated in school, one of his friends bought him one of those, but he never wore it because he was too much of a pussy, so the friend who bought it wore it and ran around campus,” She laughed again and an idea popped into Ali’s head, and she dragged Grace inside the shop. Grace looked confused as Ali approached the counter, but laughed again as she asked for the mankini from the window. The shop keeper went to fetch it, and Ali turned to Grace, laughing slightly.

“I’m thinking we reminisce, and get Gabe to do that little task of yours after all,” She smirked, and Grace widened her eyes, snorting.

“Use it for Gabe’s pledge?” She asked, and Ali nodded, smiling evilly. The shopkeeper came back with the item and they paid for it, walking out of the shop giggling, both thinking the same thing. Gabe was going to hate them for this.


*

Izzy wasn’t necessarily looking forward to a girl’s day out, and felt somewhat bad for it. All she wanted to do before the vacation was over was spend time with Pete, because she knew that as soon as school started back up the both of them would have only nights to be together. Rolling her eyes from the bathroom as she heard a groan from the bed she peered around the corner to see Pete facedown in the pillow, the sheets conveniently covering his mid-section from the room.

“Sorry babe,” Izzy voiced, crossing over to him and grabbing her purse from the nightstand. “Jenn and Ashley want to go out since Grace and Ali are out as well,” Pete turned his head to her and smiled dreamily.

“But we’ve got some love to make,” he joked. Izzy felt her heart skip a beat and flushed at his comment.

“Wha-”

“Go have fun,” Pete interjected and rolled over onto his back, stretching before closing his eyes. “I’ll be here when you get back,” he mumbled. Izzy nodded and leaned over, placing a small peck on his lips before leaving the room and meeting Ashley and Jenn on the front porch.

“So what are we doing today?” Izzy asked them, shoving her over-sized sunglasses on to fight the sun that was fairly bright this midday. Ashley laughed somewhat evilly.

“Well, Ali just texted me tell us that they have Gabe’s pledge-”

“…and I came up with a way to do Dirty’s pledge at the same time,” Jenn interrupted. Ashley smirked at Izzy’s confused expression and moved so that the three could start walking towards the shops near the beach house.

“Well, they found a mankini for Gabe, so we have to find something equally embarrassing for Dirty,” Ashley continued. Izzy broke out in laughter.

“Oh lord,” she paused. “How embarrassing?” she asked. Jenn paused in her walking as they passed a swim-wear store on the corner. The girls turned to her a few feet away and just as they were going to ask why she stopped, they saw what Jenn was staring at as well.

“It’s perfect,” Jenn whispered and Ashley nodded gleefully, running into the store first. A few moments later, their purchase was made and the girls immediately returned to the house to ambush Dirty.

*

“Whu- no, what are you doing? I don’t understand-” Gabe tried to run away, but Ali and Grace dragged him back to the men’s toilets, standing in the doorway. They turned to Joe and Travis who were with them, and looked innocently at them.

“You two need to go in and make sure he does what we tell him,” Ali smiled, and they both nodded, though slightly confused.

“What’s going on?” Joe asked, and Grace smirked.

“We’re doing a double pledge today,” She laughed, and Joe looked uncomfortable.

“Er,” He began, but Ali waved a hand.

“Don’t worry Joe, it’s not yours,” He breathed a sigh of relief, and smirked.

“So, who is being tortured today then? Gabe and...” Grace put an evil look on her face.

“Dirty. The other girls had a similar idea for his pledge earlier so we thought we would do them together,” She pulled the mankini out of her bag and Joe and Travis both widened their eyes, and they all heard a gasp from inside the toilets.

“No way,” He muttered, leaning out of the doorway and crying out to Grace. “I am NOT putting that on!” He whined, and Grace smiled.

“Well then, you’ll be sleeping in our front garden for the rest of your stay then,” She laughed, making Gabe pull a face.

“Oh man,” He muttered, grabbing the item. “I hate you so much right now,” He ran back into the toilets, Travis and Joe following him in. The girls looked at each other before bursting out into laughter, waiting for Gabe to return. Once he had finished getting ready, Joe and Travis ran out, Joe pretending to throw up.

“That’s something I never wanted to see,” He muttered, and Travis laughed.

“It is a bit more than I wanted to see of that man,” He laughed again and the girls sniggered, before almost collapsing in laughter as Gabe emerged from the toilet, way too much skin showing, the neon green wrapping around his shoulders and down his back, then under places that looked extremely uncomfortable. Grace snorted, watching as her boyfriend folded his arms across his chest self-consciously.

“I look like a fucking idiot,” He muttered, and Ali smiled.

“That’s the general idea,” She sniggered, and Joe and Travis laughed too. Walking him down to the end of the beach, Ali and Grace told the boys what was happening with Dirty and the others.

“So once they’re ready, Izzy is going to text me, and we let the two of you go, and you have to run down the beach-” Ali was cut off by Grace who was getting a little too excited at the prospect of this pledge.

“And you have to find something on the beach, the first one to find it wins,” Gabe widened his eyes, while watching around at the people that were pointing and laughing at him. He rolled his eyes and looked back to the girls.

“What do we have to find?” He asked, and Grace smiled.

“You’re not allowed to know, yet,” Ali grinned and pushed him onto the sand, the four of them sitting on the beach while Gabe was made to stand in all his glory. Ali laughed at the expression on Gabe’s face, and Joe sniggered slightly, pointing at the women on a towel not too far away from them.

“Gabe I think they fancy you,” He muttered, motioning to where the women were pointing and whispering. “Oh no, wait, I think they just think you look ridiculous.” The four of them laughed, and Gabe went a bright shade of red, rolling his eyes as a mother walked by, hurrying her children along when she saw him. He groaned and looked to the other end of the beach.

“Are they ready yet?” He asked, and Grace shrugged, but that second, Ali received a text, signaling that Dirty was ready to go. She smiled evilly and stood, brushing the sand that had found its way onto his shoulder, and looked up at him.

“You’re looking for a pink feather boa,” She sniggered, and Gabe widened his eyes as she pushed him away.

“And once you’ve found it, if you find it before Dirty, you have to put it on and wear it on the walk back to the beach house,” Gabe looked shocked again and repeated her sentence.

“The walk back?!” He asked, and Ali simply nodded.

“That’s right. Now go on, or Dirty is going to win,”

*

On the opposite side of the beech, Dirty stood just as angrily in front of Izzy, Ashley and Jenn. He was pouting, and it seemed like steam would rise off of him every time a passerby would laugh at him. Dirty was just of a sight as Gabe was; dressed in a neon pink mini-bikini that was as much of his size as it could get. Ashley couldn’t handle looking at him and opted to turn her back to him so she could properly talk.

“You know what you are looking for right?” she yelled over the noise of the waves crashing into the shore. Dirty frowned even more and looked at Jenn.

“Do I really have to do this?” he asked. Jenn simply nodded once.

“If you never want me telling your secret about the be-”

“OK!” Dirty yelled and Izzy giggled as he turned around towards the other end of the beach.

“Ready?” Izzy asked. Dirty jumped into a runner’s position and looked back at her for the set-off. “GO!” she yelled and Dirty immediately ran off, causing many screams as he passed various sun-bathing women and leapt over large ice-coolers, making many college frat boys groan in displeasure. Ashley finally turned around, only to burst out laughing as she noticed Gabe running towards them, looking fairly pleased with himself, holding something very pink in his hands. Jenn seemed to look mortified and turned around as Ashley had done earlier. She looked at Jenn.

“What? Is it too funny?” Ashley questioned. Jenn shook her head.

“I feel violated on so many levels,” she muttered. Izzy just laughed at her and moved to meet Gabe as he came up to them, handing the feather boa over before bending over slightly to rest his hands on his knees and breathe out rapidly.

“Oh,” he paused to catch his breath. “That was terrible,” he shook his head to himself. “So, so terrible,” he breathed. Ashley just burst out laughing again before taking the feather boa and wrapping it around his neck and looked at the girls as she walked by them, tugging on the boa so the Gabe would follow her, as if he was on a leash.

“Is he gone?” Jenn asked, turning with her hand over her sunglasses. Izzy laughed before linking arms with her friend and nodding to herself.

“Yeah, go ahead and open your eyes,” Jenn immediately believed her but shrieked as she was faced with a back view of Gabe’s bathing suit. She ran ahead of him and Ashley towards the beach house and Izzy followed, but stopped to walk with the two.

“What’s her problem?” Ashley asked. Gabe just smirked.

“She just can’t handle this,” Gabe paused and pointed down at his crotch, making Izzy rolled her eyes.

“What are you, Pete?” she joked. Gabe laughed lightly and wrapped his arms around the two girl’s shoulders.

“No,” he nodded cockily to himself. “I’m better,”