A two way street to love.

"Yeah. Except for Shawn. He's the only one that I'm even partially close to." I responded. "But what about you? Do you have a really pathetic family?"

"No. Not at all. My family is all really close. You've already met my aunt. She's really cool for an older woman. She's my dad's sister and my dad, Maddox, is really strict, but I know he's like that because he was in the army when he was younger. You know the whole straight, tidy beds and no war video games. My mom, Cameran, is tough, but only about school and grades. Then I have an older brother, Bryce, who is twenty-three and lives in California. He's in law school, so we don't get to see him much. Then I have a fourteen-year-old brother, Blair, who is really cool. Laid-back and all. My other younger bro though is a pain-in-the-ass. Maddox, after my dad, and he's twelve. Then I've got twin terror sisters. They're ten. Stacia and Stefeny. They can be really cool when they want though. My friends are awesome too. I have like two families."

"Wow. You don't have a pathetic family at all. But, yeah, I guess I do have a pretty amazing family on the island. All of my friends. The gang as we call ourselves."

"Tell me about them." Streeter said. He had somehow totally distracted me again. He was good at that.

"Well, let's see." I thought for a second. "I'm going to start with the guys. There's Owen, Eddie, James, Richie, and Cole. Owen's seventeen and has been on the island for as long as I can remember. He is so funny. He is soooo ticklish too. You can poke him in the stomach and he'll just roll over laughing. It's really funny actually. Owen, he does all this crazy stuff. For example, once he swam out like four hundred feet and pretended to get eaten by a shark. I started screaming and Richie and Gwen and I jumped in a boat and got out there really fast, but he wasn't anywhere around us. Then we see him pop up next to us, grinning. He had held onto a rock onto the bottom of the ocean to trick us. And then I actually saw a shark coming towards us and I screamed shark, but Owen didn't believe us. He got his toe bitten off before Richie pulled him into the boat. It was pretty stupid. Richie's been on the island for a long time too. He's sixteen and really tan. Almost brown. It's insane. But he's really cool. He plans the best barbeques because he tells everyone, and I mean everyone, about them so the entire island is out on the beach and we end up running out of food. It's amazing. He shoved twelve hot dogs in his mouth once. It's huge!"

"Damn. I shoved eleven in mine once, but gagged before I could win the contest. Anyway..." Streeter interrupted.

"Somehow that does not surprise me.”

“It must be a guy thing.”

I couldn’t help it. The way he said that made me crack up laughing. “Anyway, Cole Richards. Where to begin? He is probably the guy that I am closest to. He's gay and that's probably why. I never had to worry about him making a move on me when we're camping out in the woods. Once, I even shared a tent with him. He is so funny though. He's not scrawny at all, although some people take a double take. He likes to gross people out to. Like when someone walks by him, he'll just stand there looking sad and as soon as they stop looking at him, he'll take off his shirt, put his arms up like Hercules, and flex his muscles. Then when the people look back at him, they see this really muscular, tan guy grinning at them. It's so funny. He always gives me the biggest hugs and throws me a party every summer. Then Eddie. He's fifteen. I've only known him for about six years maybe because he lives on the mainland and only comes over on weekends and during the summer. Scott, the ferry operator, actually gives him free rides now because he comes over so often. He and James are always fighting but it's all in good fun. The first time I saw Eddie-"

"You fell in love?" Streeter guessed. He smiled, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. Like he was jealous or something.

"Oh, yes. How did you know?" I said, jokingly, but Streeter just pulled me to him and smothered my lips with his own and muttered a curse.

"Don't even joke about that." He said, releasing me. I marveled at the fact that I made his eyes go dark with jealousy. And I had just met him. God, what a strange past two hours.

"I was just kidding. Don't get your boxers in a twist." I laughed. "The first time I saw Eddie, I almost barfed." I stopped and let Streeter have his laugh. "He was the ugliest kid I'd ever seen and I think, yeah, that was the day that the gang and I were playing truth or dare and someone dared me to go over to him and flirt. So, of course, I can't turn down a dare. What kind of girl would that make me? Stereotypical is what. But anyway, I went over to him and before I could say anything, he said to me 'Wow. The ferry wasn't supposed to take me to heaven.' I know, I know, it's one of the stupidest lines ever, but I was like eleven and thought he was the smoothest talker in the world. Now, he's just a goofy teddy bear that everyone loves. James is different though. While the other guys are all muscular and tan and have that smoothness about them, James is on the chubby side and kind of pale because he only comes over during the summers, and he really is not smooth at all. Speaking of which, we have to plan our lessons again. I teach him how to talk to girls. Kind of fun really. When I first told him to talk to a girl on the ferry, he went over and said 'Do you like cheese?' I was like, what? And he said he saw it in that movie, She's the Man, and thought it was genius."

"He needs some work." Streeter said, and then he broke into a full grin which sent me reeling. Damn. "Hey, Cace, do you like cheese?"

I laughed. "No, actually, unless it's American." We laughed. "So, is that my nickname? Cace?"

"Yeah. Everyone should have a nickname."

"The gang calls me C.C. because my middle name is Cadence."

"Well, then you can call me S.M. because my middle name is Maddox."

"No thanks. I'll call you Stre. Or Street. Which one, hon?"

"Oh, I like hon the best." He said, smiling slyly.

"Funny." I said, trying not to smile. But then his smile slowly coaxed me into grinning.

"Alright, so what about the girls?"

"Shani, Gwen, Ailia, and Ailey. I don't even know how to describe them. Shani is never ever outspoken. She definitely loves to talk and can't stand it when somebody interrupts her. She's really cute and knows it. See... Shani had a hard time when she was younger. She was bulimic, but she's better now. Oh my God, she definitely loves trouble too. It's not like trouble goes out and finds her, she finds it. I remember, this one time, she saw this cooler on the beach right? And she goes over to it and looks in it. There was a bunch of beer in it. She took our soda cans and poured out the soda and then filled the cans with beer. Then she gave us back our soda cans. I think it was Carl, the chief policeman, but I'm not sure. Anyway, a policeman comes over to us, yeah it was Carl, and asked us if we were having a good time. By then, we had refilled our cans like five times, so we were all a little buzzed. Gwen was totally smashed and she went up to Carl, who is like thirty years older than us, and kissed him. His eyes got really big and then when he finally pulled her off of him, she had passed out in the sand. He looked at Shani immediately and before he could scold her and take her off to jail for drinking beer at fifteen, we... This was last summer by the way. She's sixteen now. But, before he could yell at us, she stood up and took off her top. Carl, James, and Eddie's eyes all got really big and then she just dove into the ocean. The rest of us followed suit, except for Gwen and we left our shirts on. Carl just shut his eyes, shook his head, and left. It was really funny."

"Wow." Streeter said.

"That seems to be your favorite word lately." I commented.

"You've only known me lately."

"True, true."

"Go on though."

"No. You're probably bored."

"I'm really not though. I like watching you talk about your friends like this. It's so much different than you talking about your family."

"Okay, fine. Gwen is next.”