Chapter 8

I think it's kind of sweet how Owen is so protective over me. He's like the big brother I never had. Even though I'm older than he is, he's always there to look out for me. I can always count on him to be there when I need him. When we got back to the beach, we all decided just to chill on shore for a while. Adrianna and I were just going to relax and try to tan. I thought the boys were going to go back to their separate things, but they decided to stay. All I wanted to do was just soak in the sunshine and chill. I laid down my towel next to Adrianna and collapsed. Wes was next to roll out his towel. He laid his next to mine, and Owen set up next to Adrianna.

It's good that they get some distance. I'm sensing that something must have happened to them because the air is practically dripping with tension. The boys didn't lie down or anything yet. They were just staring at one another.

Owen finally pulled his shirt off and laid down next to Adrianna. Had he been working out? He looked good, his abs were more defined since the last time I'd seen him. I saw Wesley do the same, like he had something to prove. My eyes widened at the sight. He had been working out too. His body was amazing before, but you could see a well-defined six-pack in the middle of his abdomen. I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging open. Even Adrianna lifted her sunglasses slightly off her eyes so she could stare at him. Wesley lay down on his towel and Owen was kind of glowering at him. I couldn't see Wesley's reaction because he had his sunglasses over his eyes. But the smirk on his face showed that he was proud of himself. 

"So," I said to break the tension, "are we going to that party tonight? I want to meet all your school friends!" I told her excitedly.

"Yeah Vince said he's super stoked to meet you." She said flipping her hair to the left side.

"You mean Vince Carrington?" Wes popped up. "I know Carrie. Me and Drew were gonna swing by later."

Adrianna looked at Wes excitedly. "Yay! This is so cool! We can all go over together!" She clapped her hands, pleased that Drew was going to be there. Owen rolled onto his stomach and brought his arm under his head.

"Hey sis, we can't I told Carrie I'd help him set up. Remember? We were gonna go early." Owen said moodily.

"Oh yeah." Her tone dropped instantly. She seemed really upset.

"Nah it's cool bro. You can go ahead and Drew and I will walk Avery and Adrianna there." Wesley gave him a huge smile. Owen's expression didn't soften up though. He just looked more pissed than before.

"No you don't have to-" Owen started

"Really?! That would be perfect!" Adrianna popped up and looked over at me. "Is that okay with you?" She asked.

"Yeah that's cool." I looked over at Wesley "You and Drew don't mind?" I asked him. I was hoping he would say no. I wanted to walk with him. The more time I spend with him, the more I like him.

"Yeah." He shot a glance in Owen's direction. "No problem at all."

When Drew and Wesley picked us up. My mother and Selene were at the door asking them a million questions. I had to get in there before she said something to embarrass me.

"Okay, bye mom! See you later!" I hurried the boys out the door and shut the door behind Adrianna. That's when they decided to bustle over to the window.

"Bye boys! Nice meeting you!" They called to us. Drew and Wesley waved back at them. Drew turned to me.

"Haha, Avery your mom is so chill." I looked at his expression, but he was being completely serious.

"Oh my god she is not!" I laughed but on the inside I started panicking. Oh my god what did she say to them? How could she possibly come off as "cool"?

The walk to Vince's house was about 15 minutes, but it wasn't too bad. We kept chatting to keep our selves occupied. "So how do you guys know Vince anyway? He goes to school with me." Adrianna asked Wesley and Drew.

"Football." Wes told her. "We play your school all the time, and we know him from the summer programs and stuff. Plus most of the guys that go to Westminster live in Huntington. He's a pretty chill dude."

When we got to his house, I was surprised. It wasn't even 10 o'clock and the front lawn was already trashed. There were a few crushed solo cups scattering the flowerbeds and a bunch of food was lying all over the place. We walked around back. There were cups floating in the pool, along with a giant blow up palm tree that a guy was about to jump onto. He was wearing a blue football jersey along with some pink ray bans, a straw hat, and Hawaiian lei. He saw us walking and called out to the boys.

"Wes! Drew! What's up guys! I haven't seen you in ages." He dismounted the diving board, and left the palm tree for someone else to attempt to jump on. He came up and gave them bro hugs. What is with all the bro-hugging over here anyway? He saw Adrianna and smiled "FISHY!!!!!" He picked her up and lifted her off the ground. This guy was huuuge. He must have been at least 6"4 and 280 pounds. She started laughing and he put her down. "Hey fishy who’s your friend?" He said glancing at me.

"Dave, this is Avery. Avery, Dave Kaptin." We shook hands after the introduction. "Appropriately, he is the captain of the football team." She told me.

"That's right. Captain Kaptin is here to enforce the rules. So no funny business guys." He looked really intimidating. But then he burst out laughing at the same time as Wes and Drew. "Ahahaha! I'm just kidding guys. Go do whatever the hell you want! WOOHOO!" He turned away from us and made a beeline for the pool. He successfully landed a huge belly flop. We all cringed. We could literally hear the water slapping against him.

"Ooh... that's gotta hurt." Drew said.

"Hahaha that guy is crazy." Wes said shaking his head laughing. We all went inside, and we didn't take long to party it up. We met up with Owen and he and Wesley were pretty chill. They were both pretty buzzed, so they didn't try anything with each other. Drew and Wesley went all out. They were crushing can after can of beer and living it up. After the last party, I decided to take it easy. I had a Corona, but that was about it. I started drinking Coke after that.

That's when Owen confronted me. "So, you and Wes huh?" He said slightly irritated. He stood there scowling. "I don't like that guy."

"You don't even know him Owen. You can't just make judgments like that!" I replied. Now it was my turn to be irritated.

"I know enough. I've seen him around, Avery. He just doesn't look like your kind of guy, okay." His expression softened. He was only trying to look out for me. "I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"I'm a big girl, Owen. I can take care of myself. And for your information, we're just friends. He hasn't made a move on me or anything. He might not even see me like that."

"Have you seen the way he looks at you Aves?" He looked at me in disbelief.

"Looks at me? How does he look at me? He looks at every girl like that." 

"Exactly." His words hit me like a slap to the face. Wesley wouldn't do that to me. Would he? He knows that I went out on a limb to trust him. I knew I shouldn't get involved with him. It was only going to end badly. That's when I heard the microphone.

"Uhh hey! Can we get your attention please!" It was Drew standing on Vince's pool table. "If you don't mind, we're going to sing a little song for you. This one's for you babe." he said pointing towards Adrianna. He got down off the pool table and walked right past her and instead went over to a floor lamp. He wrapped his arms around it and everybody was laughing hysterically, even Adrianna. Drew was completely wasted. He got back up on the pool table and was shortly joined by Wesley. "This is one of our originals, Sunset Boulevard. I just wrote it like 2 weeks ago, so yeah. Tell us what you think." Wes plugged his iPhone into a speaker, and a recording of the music filled the room.

Wow. Even when they were on the verge of falling over they can still sing. It was like nothing was wrong. They amaze me sometimes.

When the song was over they jumped off the pool table and got lost in the crowd. We finally found them though, over by the snacks. Wesley was talking to Drew when we reached them, "What I don't get is why we're called Emblem3? There's 5 of us, shouldn't we be Emblem5? That's what I wanna know." Wesley dug his hand into the cheese puffs and started eating a bunch of them. Adrianna and I couldn't help it. We started cackling. Oh man. They were extremely wasted.

"You guys were really good up there." I told him. I felt like I was talking to a bunch of children. They kept laughing at nothing and making faces. Wes went to go take another sip of his beer. "Oh no. I don't think so. You guys have had enough." I snatched away his cup and took Drew's too. They didn't even seem to realize though. 

"Thanks for looking out for me Avery." Wes told me, sloppily throwing his arm over my shoulder. I rolled my eyes. What Owen said really got to me. I know he's a player. Drew tried to convince me that he's changed, but could I trust him?

I tore myself away from Wes before things could get more complicated. "I need to get some air. I'll be back." I was stopped by one of the guys behind Drew.

"No don't go!" He cupped his hands full of air and thrusted them towards me. "Here!" he placed the "air" in my hand. I couldn't help it. I started laughing. He was pretty drunk too. I thanked him and made my way outside. I inhaled the cool air and let it fill my lungs. Adrianna came outside shortly after.

"What happened?" she asked me

"I just needed to get some air. All this stuff with Wesley is freaking me out." I admitted. "Owen came up to me before and told me he's not that Wesley's a complete player and that I shouldn't trust him, so now I don't know if I should."

"Oh. My. God. I'm going to kill him." said Adrianna with hatred in her eyes.

"It's fine Ade. He was just looking out for me." I told her.

"No, not Owen. Wes." she pointed to the small window in the distance. Through it I could see Wesley. Pressed up against the wall on top of a girl with wavy brown hair. Making out. In the bathroom