Warning: RWB spoilers ahead.
Some say the best love stories often take time.
Emery Chernychevsky has had a crush on Cameron Brooks since he can remember. Watching him date different girls all throughout high school was nothing if not pure torture...
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By the time he was close to the shore enough to make out everyone's faces, all Emery could hear was the incomprehensible yelling. No words, no context, just... yelling.
A zoo full of hormonal chimpanzees would be a walk in a park compared to this.
Ian and Cameron led the way while Emery followed closely behind in his fashionable robe, in contrast to all the shorts and exposed skin that surrounded him.
The first full sentence Emery managed to hear from afar came from Asher's mouth.
"Not even if the Kraken crawled out of my ass."
He was sitting on his surfboard a few feet away from the shoreline with Blake, who seemed to be persistent on whatever it was that Asher wasn't willing to do. He'd probably end up doing it anyway, just for the sake of shutting Blake up, just like he always does.
Emery could never figure out the deal with those two. He couldn't quite explain it, but they act like his two weird uncles he hasn't heard from in a while, who'd moved to the mountains when he was nine. He wished he was joking.
"Come on!" Blake simply wouldn't take no for an answer. Thankfully he doesn't do that to strangers, or else Emery would be friends with someone who has a pile of restraining orders on his desk.
Asher definitely wasn't having the best day of his life listening to Blake's ceaseless whining, that's for sure. "No, I am not letting you stand on my shoulder while we're riding a surfboard, Blake this conversation is over," he protested.
"Fine if you insist," Blake sighed, his exasperated expression quickly turning into hopeful glee. "You can stand on my shoulder."
Seeing as there was no way around this discussion, Asher paddled away with his surfboard, the sight making Emery chuckle. He turned slowly from his friends towards Allison, who was struggling to balance herself on her hot pink surfboard with Lucas spotting her by her feet, muttering words of encouragement.
"Oh my god, I'm actually standing," Allison beamed, arms held up high while her knees buckled with the waves. "I'm standing! Yeah!"
A few feet away from them, Cate yelled, "That's great, Allison!"
Even from afar, Emery could make Cameron's sister out in her backless one-piece, effortlessly forging through the hoops of waves without so much as a break of sweat. Her usually drawn blonde hair was now tied up in a half ponytail above her head, making way to brandish her piercings. Everyone but Emery collectively screamed, "Show off!" while Cate just laughed in return before disappearing into the waves.
They looked like they were having fun, and Emery had no plans of missing watching Asher thwack Blake across the face by spending the entire day holed up in his room.
Cameron's voice beside him drew the redhead back from his thoughts. "Hey, guys!"
"Hey! Where've you two been?" Bryce was the only one sitting on the picnic blanket Ian had laid out for everyone earlier, the glass of pineapple juice disappearing from his grip when his boyfriend took a mighty interest in it. He made no complaints and simply looked up, squinting at the sun as he leaned back with his elbows, waiting for Emery and Cam to answer his question.
