Chapter Ten - "I Can Be Pretty Cool Sometimes"

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My thumbs danced across the buttons of the controller, my eyes wide and glued to the TV. I drowned out all the sounds of everyone screaming around me and focused on the video game that I was currently trying to beat Caden in.

"Shit shit shit shit," he mumbled to himself.

"Oh my God," I jumped, causing my character to avoid death. I had no idea what game we were even playing, but we were both close to dying and it was a matter of who died first. AKA, loses.

"You almost got it!" Melissa cheered at me as I kept running around frantically. Dylan and Beckett were screaming at Caden and we were in a full blown war it seemed.

"No! Oh my God," I screamed again, dodging a bullet – literally. With a few more minutes of running, avoiding explosions, gunshots and things of that nature, a bomb went off right near Caden's character and he died.

Unfortunate, but that meant I won.

On the TV, the screen turned black. What looked like computerized blood started dripping down it, and Player One - You Lost came up in a bright yellow font.

"Ha! I won!" I jumped up with a grin.

"Wow," Caden slumped back into the cushions of his couch. "I can't believe I just got beat by a girl."

"Told you I'd win," I smirked, ruffling his blonde curls.

"I gotta say, you did pretty good," he shrugged, renewing the game so it could start over. "I'm impressed."

"Hell yeah I did," I gloated. "And you should be."

"Dude, you suck," Dylan chuckled. Caden shot him a deathly glare, as Melissa tore the controller out of my hands and sat down next to Caden.

"My turn," she smirked. Caden looked at her in a bit of shock, but he smiled and started the game, and the two of them were off.

Dylan, Beckett and I were sitting off to the side of them on the couch, with Melissa and Caden on the floor.

"I think your sister and my brother might hit it off," Dylan nudged my shoulder.

"And what if they do?" I smirked, glancing up at him.

"Then we'll both be at the wedding," he joked with his usual smirk back on his lips. I rolled my eyes playfully and turned back to watch our siblings scream at each other. "So I never really got the low-down on who that guy was that rudely tore you away from our conversation."

He was talking about Chase, obviously, and how he was annoyed that I was talking to Dylan at Level 3. I shook my head, leaning back against the couch and crossed my arms.

"That was my stupid boyfriend, Chase," I chuckled. "He's a jealous idiot."

"Hey, he's just doing his job," Dylan shrugged.

"No, his job is not to hover over me and interrupt my conversations," I denied it.

"Well, then he's making sure that you aren't talking to any creeps," he smirked at me.

"Yeah, well, you're hardly a creep," I smirked too, bumping his shoulder with mine.

"How long have you guys been together?" He asked.

"It'll be two years in August," I nodded.

"Wow. That's a long time. For teenagers, at least," he laughed lightly.

"Yeah," I laughed too. "I mean, it's really not. My parents have been together for almost thirty. That's a long time."

He whistled lowly, shaking his head. "Damn, I can't even imagine being with someone for that long."

A loud bang went off in the game as Melissa and Caden both started whining.

"What happened?" I asked.

"We both died," Caden grumbled, restarting the game.

"Kids! Lunch is ready!" Debbie's voice called from the kitchen. We all moaned some sort of answer as a response, then we got up and ate lunch outside on the deck.

Melissa and I had been at their house for most of the day, and it was the day after the Fourth of July. We had gotten to know the Lockwood's really well, and we were all getting along and having a good time together.

This was probably the first time on this vacation that I wasn't spending every second with just my family. Although I had to admit, it was pretty nice.

We still had three more days of vacation since we were leaving on Sunday, and it was already Thursday. We usually would have stayed Sunday to Sunday, but given the fact that my dad was on his business trip, we had to leave two days later, on Tuesday.

I wasn't complaining that much though considering the fact that we were on vacation and my mind had been in a blissful state. It was still upsetting that it wouldn't be for as long as it usually was, but my parents couldn't give up their work. Not even for a couple days to make my sister and I happy.

The Lockwood's, Melissa and I ate our lunch and about an hour after, we all changed into bathing suits and went swimming in the lake. It was a perfect day – really hot with no clouds in the sky – so it was great swimming weather.

"Ready?" I grinned to Melissa. She nodded and grabbed my hand, we counted to three, and then jumped off the dock.

Our bodies collided with the lake water seconds later and I came up for air, pushing my hair out of my face and catching my breath.

"That was awesome," Melissa smiled, resting on her back and floating along in the water.

Caden swam his way over to her and rested his hands under her back, helping her float. A smile came to my face as I watched the two of them. She was smiling like she was in a dream, and he was grinning while holding her up.

And after all the worrying I'd been doing, I knew my sister would be fine. She wasn't anything like me, so she wouldn't head down the same path that I did when I was her age. She was much stronger than me and with the right company, she'd be okay.

I felt a weight come off my shoulders at that thought and for the first time in awhile, my mind was clear. All I could feel was the lake water on my skin, the sun shining on my head and an easy feeling throughout my body as my new friends are swimming and splashing around me.

But breaking my thoughts, a pair of hands came over my head and I was dunked underwater. I screeched, bubbles escaping from my nose, and I came back up to see Dylan and Beckett cracking up at me.

"You guys are going down," I chuckled, swimming over to them and successfully dunking Beckett. But that was the easy part because he was smaller than me, considering he was thirteen.

Dylan, on the other hand, towered over me at probably close to 6 foot.

"Please, like you could even try to dunk me," Dylan smirked, crossing his arms.

"Is that... is that doubt I hear?" I put my hand up to my ear and smirked too.

He chuckled, rolling his eyes and swam away from me. Beckett and I got together and made a plan to dunk him when he least expected it; so I was supposed to distract him and then Beckett would come up from behind and dunk him.

Beckett giggled as I slowly swam over to Dylan and aimlessly floated around.

"So um..." I cleared my throat, trying to think of something to say. Dylan's head perked up as he looked at me with one eye open and an eyebrow raised. "I uh... I see you have a tattoo!" I spat out.

"Oh, yeah," his lips turned up in a smile. He stood and stretched his left arm up, revealing the artwork on the side of his ribs.

"That's awesome. Must have cost a fortune though," I asked, getting closer and looking at it.

"Not really. I have a friend who does them, so he cut me a deal," he explained.

"You have a lot of friends who do a lot of things," I smirked up at him.

"Well I am pretty popular," he smirked back.

"What's it mean?" I raised my eyebrows.

It was beautifully done, and even though I was no expert on tattoos, I think I could at least tell a good one from a bad one. The main piece was a really intricate cross with a snake twirled around it, slithering up towards the top. At the bottom of the cross, there was a rose with a few fallen petals. I wouldn't take him as one to have a tattoo, but it was pretty awesome.

"Well, I grew up religious – seeing as that I go to Judith Moore," he chuckled, noting his private, prestigious high school. "And the snake just seemed like a really cool concept that my friend – who did the tattoo – came up with. I liked it, so I said 'put it on there'. Then the rose is because my grandmother died when I was ten, and she loved roses. She had this amazing rose garden that she'd spend all her time in, and every year on their anniversary, my grand-pop would get her a dozen pink roses."

"Wow, that's really cool," I smiled, nodding my head.

"I can be pretty cool sometimes," he shrugged, leaning back into the water again.

I glanced over at Beckett and motioned for him to come over, so he slowly and quietly swam over to us and stood behind Dylan. "So what-"

But that was the only thing that Dylan could get out before we both jumped on him and dunked him in the water. Beckett and I burst out laughing, unable to contain ourselves when he came back up and scowled at us.

"You guys are good," he smirked, flicking his hair out of his eyes.

"I learn from the best," Beckett chirped with a grin.

"Yo, we should get the paddle boats out," Caden called over from where he was with Melissa. The two of them were sitting on the edge of the deck, dangling their feet over the water and sitting awfully close, might I add.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Beckett chirped.

"Alright, I'll go get them," Dylan volunteered, leaving the lake and going up to where a shed was underneath their upstairs deck.

"Is there anything you guys don't have?" I chuckled, asking Beckett. These people seemed to have everything – then again, they were loaded.

"A helicopter," Beckett sighed. "We used to have one, but my dad sold it. He didn't want it anymore."

"Oh, that's uh... that's sad," I breathed a laugh, not really knowing what to say.

"Yeah, it was always fun. We'd take rides over San Diego when the sun was setting and it was awesome. I miss it," he pouted.

"Well, when you're older, you can buy your own and you won't have to sell it," I smiled, giving him a bit of false hope.

"You bet I'm keeping it," he grinned.

Moments later, Dylan came back with two paddle boats and we split up – Dylan, Beckett and I on one, and Melissa and Caden on the other.

"Alright, let's go," Dylan announced.

The three of us on our paddle boat started paddling out to the middle of the lake, as Melissa and Caden got left behind in our waves. 

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A/N - So what do you think of the Lockwood's that we've gotten to know them a little bit better? Like or dislike? This isn't a really exciting chapter but I felt it was needed because there's a lot that's about to go down very very soon. Just warning you. 

Let me know your thoughts, and thanks for reading! Love ya lots.

Song: Paradise by Coldplay

Photo: trees passing by

xoxo, sabbbycat