"Spacey!" Taryn yelled over to a distracted Ashley, Ashley engrossed in conversation with Jesse over a bowl of piping hot Egg Drop Soup. "Pass the fried rice." Ashley picked up the carton and laggardly reached over the mound of ordered-out chinese food, Taryn impatiently snatching the carton from Ashley's slow hand without a proper 'thank you.' "You're welcome," Ashley muttered to herself, turning back to Jesse, a sympathetic smile displayed on his face.

"This is the life," Jessa claimed musely, dropping the wiggly strips of Chicken Chow Mein into her famished mouth with released pressure on her chopsticks.

"Yeah," Celeste agreed, descending her plate of leftover Beef and Broccoli to the carpet as she surfed her fingers over the texture of her get-well gift from her friends, hiding her purple V-neck tank top behind it.

"Are you ever gonna take that off?" Taryn asked, using a conventional fork to shovel rice into her mouth.

"I don't know," Celeste responded inside a whisper, reaching down for her can of Sprite, "Maybe when I shower."

"Guess she'd making up for the time she lost with it yesterday," Taryn whispered sneakily to Jessa, Celeste unaware of their walk-in on her and Chris's afternoon naptime. Even though Taryn surprisingly sprung a wholehearted apology to Celeste when Celeste returned "from the medical office", that didn't dismiss Taryn from her self-given right to joke behind Celeste's back.

"What are you guys whispering about?" Celeste asked distrustfully, lowering her hands to her hips and spearing a heated glare towards the conspirators.

Greg and Frankie suddenly bursted into the doorway, their stomachs leading the way to a destination unknown, only that it held food knocking air about their stomachs uneasily. They sprinted toward the foreign basket of delicacies calling to them like a good-looking girl. Jessa and Taryn's comparably weak arms stopped them in their ravaging path toward the sensual food.

"Did we invite you guys?" Taryn asked with a hint of forced offense at their nerve, her brows furrowing as a playful smile chiseled its way onto her face.

"I mean," Jessa continued Taryn's accusation, leaving her chopsticks on her plate, her hair swooping behind her back and onto her yellow tube top with a swift turn of her head to the right. "You didn't help us pay for this...delicious food." Jessa quickly rose a spoonful of rice and teased their tastebuds as she slowly devoured the rice with a sinister smile.

Greg and Frankie's fading smiles tugged toward the ground as if their mothers punished them from the TV for bad behavior. "I bet he didn't pay," Frankie insinuated, aiming his finger at Jesse, an innocent expression and drippings from Chicken Chow Mein splashed onto his face.

"That's because he's one of us," Ashley joked, tossing an encouraging arm around his shoulders.

"The newest member of the Cutie Quad," Jesse agreed, puffing his chest out and with pride and batting his eyes like the wings of butterflies as the room exploded into hysterics.

"Did ya ask them?" Matt shouted from the hallway, strolling in casually with his pizza crust.

"The pizza came?" Frankie asked in a tone that was a mixture of surprise and anger as Matt smiled sheepishly, speedily shoving the rest of the crust into the cavern of his mouth.

"You tell them, Matt," Greg awarded him the honor with a pat on the shoulder as the two italians rushed from the room for Italy's famed dinner course.

"Tell us what?" Ashley enquired, whipping her mouth clean with a napkin before chucking it on her styrofoam plate.

Matt swallowed and licked his lips before started. "Since Louie and Brian are confining us to the hotel premises tonight," Matt began, ambling to the dresser and supporting himself with his hands, his body the Leaning Tower of Piza, "We were thinking of Manhunt along the beach."

"Isn't that a bit..." Jessa began thoughtfully, taking a swig of soda before rifling through her vocabulary for the right word, "kiddish?"

"I didn't know we turned 18 already," Taryn retorted with sarcastic surprise, clasping her hands to her mouth, "Oh, wait. I have."

"But I'm injured," Celeste fussed, her shrill voice begging for sympathy, her ankle settled on a washcloth with frigid ice at its core.

"I'm sure you and Chris could...keep each other company," Matt suggested cooly, his eyes diverted toward his dry cuticles before conniving with Jessa and Celeste, sending them a stealthy wink, everyone but the management aware of Celeste and Chris's rendevou.

"I guess..." Celeste responded with strained doubt, not sure if she wanted every one to know about her and Chris' patched-up relationship so quickly.

"Then let's go!" Ashley shouted vivaciously, vaulting to her feet in eagerness.......

The girls weren't too keen on playng manhunt in the risk of colliding with the perilous unseen objects plaguing the beach, and the always possibile clashing of curious hands belonging to teenage boys and the flesh of girls, so flashlights were "borrowed" from the gym, adding light to the situation. It was already 9:30 before teams were made, and arguments arose naturally in the darwinism competition.

"We don't want Chris, his spikes will be very noticable."

"Chris isn't playing, Loser!"

"Greg's too buff, he can't be on your team."

"Taryn will beat me...I want her on my team."

"Ashley's scared, let her be with me."

"I AM NOT!"

"Alright, I'll settle this," Jessa interrupted vexed, grabbing onto Greg's hand and hoisting him onto her side, then pushing Chris and Jesse to the other side. "There. Perfect." The teams were divided as so: Jessa, Greg, Taryn, and Matt vs. Frankie, Jesse, and Ashley. Celeste and Chris took relief on a blue blanket and ice cream, watching the quarrel fully entertained.

"They're just going to go somewhere and make out the whole time!" Jesse accused Jessa and Greg, pouting and leaning his head on Ashley's shoulder.

"They're not on your team, Stupid," Taryn laughed loudly to Jesse, that thought gliding away from Jesse's mind. "That's an advantage. Easy picking."

"That is a good idea, though," Greg agreed with a whisper to Jessa's ear, his warm breath plinking like a bell over Jessa's skin. Jessa nodded negligibly as Frankie took center stage.

"My team will hide first," Frankie ordered as he, Jesse and Ashley ran off into the night, leaving Greg, Matt, Jessa and Taryn spewed with sand.

"Let's go, Matt," Taryn urged, leeching her hand on his wrists as her red plaid bondage pants trudged through the chilled sand.

"We have to count first," Matt replied hushly as if the people in hiding would hear of Taryn's plan.

"Since when do I play by the rules?" Taryn asked with a smirk, their two blobs of light leading their way into the murky darkness.

"Later, love birds," Chris called after Jessa and Greg strolling away hand in hand, Greg shooting him in the eyes with a scolding glare.

"I think yesterday, you talked longer to me when you came to my room than you talked to me the whole trip," Chris observed with a smile of musbelief, spooning himself some vanilla ice cream, their ignoramous bickering finally coming to a close with the consumption of ice cream together.

"I think you're right. Why did we start off so horribly, Chris?" Celeste asked softly, regretting the days they had missed because of silly quarrel, churning her forbidden chocolate ice cream into cold soup, the treat appropriate for the arid atmosphere encircling the two on the blanket.

"Misunderstandings," Chris responded reflectively, leaning back on his hands, the dusty wind swirling around Chris's stiff spikes.

"Misconceptions," Celeste added, folding her legs underneath her as her eyes dropped their intended target in the stars.

"Misinterpretations," Chris challenged childly, Celeste looking over at his confident smirk.

"Misconnections," Celeste fired back, Chris dumbfounded as to what to retaliate with.

"Aww, you win," Chris gave up, flopping his head down to his chest as Celeste giggled in victory, pating his head like he was a sad puppy. His head slowly rose like from the dead, a few minutes of pulsating, theraputic silence wafting along the sea breeze. "I can tell you and Jessa are really close," Chris started on a random tangant, sifting his fingers under the sand.

"And so much alike," Celeste agreed, not sure if that was a positive or negative attribute.

"Like what?" Chris enquired casually, levetating his hand from the embedded sand, a few grains of sand going along for the ride.

"A lot," Celeste resisted, fumbling with her hands over her green khaki shorts, rising her eyes to the simular color of countless stars blazoning dark beauty across the sky.

"Is it a big secret?" Chris asked in a jokingly manner, shoving Celeste's shoulder.

Celeste looked over at him sincerely, the moon cloaking her in a blue glow. "I don't know what secrets we have left from you guys...except for one........."

"Jesse!" Ashley shouted irritated, grabbing Jesse's wrist and peering down at the illuminated time dsplayed on his watch; 10:07, then throwing it back down like a rag doll. "We've been waiting her for over a half hour!"

"Quiet!" Jesse reproved Ashley, peaking from behind their security of wisps of beach grass cutting and jutting like boulders into the stifled air, searching for the enemy as if with X-ray vision, his flashlight lying uselessly at his side, his eyes sharp and extremely perceptive like an eagle's.

"It's not like we're hiding underground," Ashley continued, crossing her arms as Jesse slowly rose to his feet. "What are you doing?"

"You're right," Jesse stated, switching on his flashlight and holding it like a gun, "It's quiet, too quite. We must investigate. Come along." Jesse cupped his hand around hers and dragged her out from behind the dune.

"And you're crazy," Ashley giggled at his lame attempt at a Sherlock Holmes guise, flicking on her flashlight as the two rays of brightness scowered the beach........

Jessa and Greg drifted off with the wind, eventually winding up about a fifth of a mile away from the congregation of manhunters, under a desolate car overpass, every few moments, low rumbles of bustling cars shuttered down into their backs as they took hiding.

"So here we are," Jessa confided, her beautiful face skewed in the darkness, her green eyes glittering in the night, her hands crawling to Greg's neck like spiders.

"Alone," Greg continued, slinging his firm hands around her hips, unable to let go of her soft skin like his hands were super glued onto her body.

"Well...What should we do about it?" Jessa asked suggestively, her lips crouching for the kill, landing sweetly on the target on Greg's neck, his skin tasting like sugar. They hadn't spent much time alone, with the hyjinks and commotion flying about them like bees in a hive, never able to rest. They planned to use this time to the best of their ability.

"Did you hear that?" Jessa questioned suddenly, jerking her head to the right to see what lurked in the dark, Greg's lips meeting with stale air rather than sweet skin, grimancing at whatever caused Jessa to move from his lane of fire. Two flashes of light knifed into the darkness, searching frantically for something unclear.

"It's probably Jesse and Ashley," Greg groaned, upset that Jessa became distracted, hiding it well as he perched his lips in the crook of her neck, the sensation warbling her in her knees.

"Seriously, Greggles," Jessa giggled, running her thumb along her grandmother's wedding band, pushing his head away as they both watch the lights emerge closer towards them like giant fireflies.

"You said they'd be here!" They heard a girl yell, her volume able to smash through beach glass, "Well, where are they?"

"Finding guys like Dream Street is a little more involved than just showing up at their hotel, Dee," Another girl snapped at her whining friend, Jessa and Greg vaguely making out her outline against the dark backdrop drop into the sand about 30 feet ahead of them.

"How will I ever find Greg?" the first girl, Dee, wailed like a child, raising her hands to her watery eyes. "I need to profess my love to him. He's so dreamy." Laughter sprang from Jessa's mouth like a convulsion, Greg's hand silencing her as the two friends searched for intruders sightlessly, Greg pressing her against him as light washed brightly in front of them, their bodies invisable against the bridge.

"You're obsessive comulsive," the second girl scolded her, lowering the flashlight to her side, shooting up from the sand, and retrenching back into the darkness. "Let's check the pool."

"Maybe we'll see Frankie's abs!" Dee squealed happily, clapping her hands as they strolled off. "What I wouldn't give to touch them..."

Sure as the two masked fans were off in their teeny quest, Jessa and Greg dropped onto the cool sand, weighed down by their seizure of laughter, Jessa slinked in between Greg's body and arms, Greg scooting against the back of the overpass for leverage. Jessa felt his heartbeat...in two places, gently throbbing into her back like light kicks from a swollen belly, massaging her soul. Greg inhaled the glorious scent of her Orange shampoo, her hair weaving around his neck by help of a sea breeze like a necklace. There they sat, brought together, unannounced to one because of a moronic bet, feeling as if nothing else mattered, even to the skeptical and frightened Jessa, but two things, being happy and being together, even if one's pleasure will definately cause the other pain.