If you are one of our Boys,
We're chilling at the pool on this beautiful Wednesday morning. Come by for a chat or dip.
~CQ~

Frankie slowly creeps in to the nearly vacant pool area, the light blue tiles free of moisture, the blue and white booeys marking off safe swimming distances and bopping in the pool, sunrise shattering through the glass windows, the thunderous bang of the glass door jolting the four girls lounging at the poolside to attention.

"Are you always up before dawn?" Jessa asked with a smile, her scanty light purple bikini drawn tight over her tanned body, lowering her sunglasses and sitting up from her white lawn chair as Frankie walked around the small inground pool, Celeste lifting herself from the water with her powerful arms, her raindow-striped tankini glistening as if by morning dew and slowly crawling onto Taryn's legs, Taryn abruptly woken up by Frankie's clumsy entrance.

"It's annoying," Frankie began, Jessa swiping her legs to the side to leave Frankie some sitting room, Ashley drying off with a teal towel behind Jessa, "but a natural habit."

"Admit it," Celeste began with a chuckle, pushing playfully at his shoulder, "You just like being with us."

"Who wouldn't?" Frankie replied earnestly with a cheesy smile.

"Now that's the smile to get the girls going," Jessa laughed, pinching his cheek gently before pushing her glasses back onto her nose and dropping against the back of the lawn chair.

"Anyway, on to business," Frankie initiated his intentions, standing up as if he was about to give an oral presentation. "Matt's Uncle Dan asked us to meet him at Bridecliff, a fancy restaurant downtown for dinner tonight. He said, and this is a direct quote, 'if you have any lady friends, feel free to bring them along.' So Louie said it would be OK if you guys wanted to come with us tonight..."

"What an invitation," Taryn rolled her eyes as Ashley gave her a sharp elbow in her rib.

"We'd love to!" Ashley shouted involuntarily before discussing this with the other girls. Jessa and Celeste nodded in harmony, knowing that was the perfect way to end their California adventure.......

Matt and Chris arrived at the girls' door, custom made italian suits crowning their figures, Chris's hair standing on end as usual and Matt's hair parted kemptly at the side, his customary baseball hat left on his bed. They could hear Jessa yell to Ashley behind closed door, "Ash, you'll look great in that! Don't be so selfconscience."

"You try being a size 7 squishing into a size -5 dress, skinny," Ashley spatted to her, the slam of the bathroom door shaking like an earthquake through the room.

"Exaggerate, much?" Jessa said in a low tone, glancing over at Taryn, Taryn placing sparky black butterfly clips strategically in her hair with the help of the large mirror atop the dresser. Matt knocked, Chris glanced about the hallway in a nervous manner. After a few giggles, the door swung open, Celeste standing before them, her hair curled and pulled back in a brown claw clip, a light blue low-back sundress flapping at her knees, her eyes sparkling like sapphires.

"Whoa baby," Chris said without thought, Celeste laughing in response as Jessa strolled to the door, her black tube top dress squeezing her body like a straightjacket, her hair flying behind her like a horse's mane. Taryn slipped on her black Hot Topic platform sandals and stumbled foward, her leopard-print spagetti strap dress twisting against her large steps. Ashley then stormed from the bathroom, Jessa's pink Ariel dress floating around her like a fluffy cloud, Ashley's eyes in tight slits at Jessa as she brusquely walked past her toward Jesse, Matt, and Frankie's room.

"Excuse her," Jessa apologiesed with a Miss America smile, shutting the door and slipping the key in her polo bag. "She doesn't know how beautiful she is.........."

The friends peered at the large cobblestone building in awe, it's large front windows giving them a glimpse at the amicable people joking and chatting up a storm like old women and the scrumptious foods filling their stomachs, definately not your trypical high class eating facility.

"I suddenly got really hungry," Jesse confessed, rubbing his stomach over his blue dress shirt as the gang loaded out of the 15 passanger van, the rising moon watching over them with a soft glow.

"Take me to the desserts," Taryn demanded, binding her hand to Matt's wrists as laughter pushed her and Matt into the revolving golden-plated doors, Taryn looking fully entertained as her and Matt spun around it three times like a carousel, laughing like easily entertained children, until the others arrived at the doors.

The lagging friends stepped onto the bashe marble floor, it extending to the kitchen in the back, gazing about the two dining areas stocked with circular and rectangular tables cloaked with white tablecloths and underlined with royal blue carpeting, the small performance stage in the back left corner where a grand piano, violin, and cello waited to entertain the masses, the grand stalwart chandellier hanging above them, the crystals sparkling like light off a blue lake.

"May I have your name, please?" a tall and lean frenchman asked, his beady eyes and pencil scanning the brown leather reservation book.

"Oh, it's Matt," Matt responded, looking up at the Goliah standing before him.

"He means your last name, Genious," Greg responded, resting his hand on Jessa's hip as Jessa beamed in awe at Matt's brain fart.

"Ballinger," Matt told him sheepishly, suddenly placing a look of dignity on his face.

The man scratched off the name and grabbed some leather menus from under the podium. "This way, please." They were lead through the maze of tables and carts to a long rectangular table to the left, a jolly man sitting at the head of the table sipping on some white wine, his rosy cheeks induced by alcohol and white, fluffy hair decorating his temples giving him the look of Santa Clause. His congenial eyes locked on Matt and a pleased smile diffused through the liquor. His brown jacket rose up as he did, revealing a white button-down shirt suffering from wrinklage at the bottom. He clasped his hands together like a fly, eager to reunite with his nephew he hadn't seen in a few years.

"Matt!" Uncle Dan shouted, his tone raspy like his voice box was scrambled with nuts and bolts. He enguled the tiny in comparison Matt lovingly, Matt's face dissapearing in his belly. "Wow...you sure have changed. Got rid of those braces I see...and that ridiculious bowl haircut."

"Yes, Uncle Dan," Matt responded past gritted teeth, his uncle always having a proclivity at embarassment, the girls giggling softly in the backround.

"Boys," Uncle Dan glowed, shaking each of their hands professionally, appearing as if he could break the guys' arms like twigs if they moved too swiftly. "How are you all? You're looking well."

"We're good, Uncle Dan," Frankie responded with a meek smile, him and Taryn shifting to the other side of the table for cover.

"And who are these sweet girls?" Uncle Dan asked curiously, taking Ashley's hand and laying his large lips atop it, Ashley's cheeks simulating his rosy complexion.

"These are our girlies," Chris took over, motioning toward each one when he said their name. "Ashley...Jessa...Celeste...and Taryn."

"A pleasure, girls," Uncle Dan smiled sincerely, bowing down to them slightly from his back. Jessa and Celeste peered at each other from the corners of their eyes, assured this would be an interesting night.......

Uncle Dan was joyful, entertaining company in such an ironical ritsy place where talking above a whisper would be looked down upon. His eyes departed from view behind his wrinkles whenever he blasted out laughter from his own jokes. Stories of his past as an aspiring actor and countless blonde jokes were scuttled about the table, Ashley not offended easily like other curly heads and read heads she knew of, until dinner arrived.

"I've been craving Boeuf a la Grange for so long," Uncle Dan began, his eyes spearing with hunger into his perfectly grilled slab of beef trimmed with mashed potatoes and sprinkles of corn as if he could shear it to mouthwatering bits with his glare, "You'd think I was a girl craving chocolate."

"Nice one, Uncle Dan," Celeste responded with a light chuckle, the girls warming up to the boisterious Uncle Dan almost instantly.

"What's this I ordered?" Ashley whispered to Jesse, her eyes scowering the pinkish meat that was slapped onto her plate with mashed potatoes.

"Hmmm..." Jesse began, reaching over and probing it with his fork, assuring it wouldn't move. "It looks like chicken."

"They really should have English menus for the cultured-impared," Taryn jumped into conversation, her eyes scanning the jibberish she assumed was French. "I picked..." Taryn fingered her choice, printed in script, "Le boeuf avec les oignons a pie because I knew Pie was american."

"Did I tell you kids about the time I went to France to shoot 'Ride Again'?'" Uncle Dan called down the table, taking a sip of wine to dampen his throat before continuing, tapping his stomach as his shaky mind traveled back down memory lane. "What a trip. It was one of the last nights of shooting and we all got throttled, trashed, absolutely wasted. Then I met this sweet, cute, little french girl, her legs went on for miles, and her tits were out to here...." Uncle Dan gave them a demonstration with his hands as they all gazed at him so astounded, so shocked the whole resteraunt didn't pause conversation and turn at Uncle Dan's audacity and filthy mouth with disguitsed grimaces and threw them all out like vagrants. Their food would have plopped out of their mouths if their mouths weren't numb from comment. Matt turned as red as a tomatoe and sank below the horizon of the table, Taryn glancing over at him and smiling amused.

"Well lemme tell you," Uncle Dan began, smacking Frankie in the shoulder with his rough knuckes, a hearty chuckle creeping from his throat. "We went back to my hotel room and after a few glasses of that world-class red wine, we hopped in the bed and had the most amazing, arousing, incredable...."

"Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, to Bridecliff," a short, rotund man shouted into the microphone, sweat holding onto the little patches of blonde hair surrounding his head, "The evening is growing late, so we've decided to provide you with a little musical entertainment." With that, three musicians marched on stage, polite clapping following them to their seats as they began to play a delicate, soft waltz.

"May I have this dance?" Chris asked Celeste with a courteous hand, bending down like a well-bred gentleman. Celeste batted her eyes cordially and enveloped her hand in his.

"Wait...Chris, Celeste..." Uncle Dan shouted, his lips drawn toward the scant remains of his devoured beef, "You're gonna miss the best part of the story, what we had for breakfast."

"I can just imagine," Chris whispered to himself. Taryn and Frankie, Jessa and Greg, and Ashley and Jesse all rose from the table hastily, finding Chris's plan ingenious. "Sorry Uncle D," Chris apologiesed as Celeste joined him at his side, her hand linked on his arm, "You know us guys, gotta kick it with the ladies." Jesse and Frankie moaned at Chris's lame attempt at being cool.

"Quite understandable," Uncle Dan chuckled as the pairs swifted away to the dance floor, leaving an embarassed Matt to hear about his uncle's conquests........

"I don't know how to do this, Jesse," Ashley shyly confided to him as skilled adults twirled around them like ballerinas, feeling herself shrink smaller and smaller until she would be squashed by their talent.

"You gotta be confident, Ash, It's easy," Jesse assured her, pulling her body close to his and latching his fingers onto hers, his left hand neatly placed on her hip. "Just follow the beat. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Ashley glanced down at her feet, making sure they wouldn't trample over Jesse's, the world spinning around her like she was on a rollercoaster.

"I haven't mentioned this yet," Jesse began, looking down into her fair eyes, a wholehearted smile contoring his face to look silly, "But you look beautiful tonight."

"Oh, Jesse," Ashley responded uncomfortably, never believing the truth even if it bit her in the ass.

"I mean it, Ashley," Jesse assured her, lifting her chin to his, showing the sincerety and truth twinkling in his eyes. Ashley peered into them, their dancing ceased as he continued, "I know your friends are gorgeous, but you are purely beautiful, even your faults that you think you have, which you don't, are beautiful, something a guy would be lucky to have."

"Jesse," Ashley's voice wavered, truly touched, wrapping her arms around his neck as they began to dance again........

"How cute they all look," Jessa told Greg as the pairs engaged in personal conversation, everyone surrounding them looking as if they were at a ball, Jessa feeling like a princess, an expression never before beating in her hallow and shallow heart.

"Yeah," Greg agreed, leaning his chin on her shoulder as Jessa left a pixie kiss on his neck, "But they can't hook up."

"Why not?" Jessa asked curiously, rubbing her hand in smooth circles against his black suit.

"Then we'd have to put up with them being all lovey like us," Greg responded goofily, leaving his kiss on her cheek, that phrase catching her off guard.

"'Lovey like us'," Jessa repeated skeptically, stopping dead in her tracks, fear immediately surfacing in Greg's eyes, "When do we show our affection in public?"

"Never," Greg admitted sadly, dropping his head with that revelation, wrapping his hands around her back as she held on to his chest, the music shifting them from side to side. His heart plsating against her ear, she felt a strange shiver knife down her back, as if he was going off to war and she was left attached to his memory and mailbox for words of his fate, like this was their last dance, their last moment together.

"Maybe we should change that," Jessa suggested, digging her heels into the hard floor and peered into his heavenly eyes, the world blurring like it was out of focus. An appreciative smile replaced his frown as he leaned down and made contact, the kiss sensual, Greg's hand rustling through her hair like in a dramatic scene, the taste of her strawberry lip gloss making Greg want their lips to be unite for the rest of the night, if not forever, both of them truly content with the way the summer was going. Little did Jessa knew their perfect summer would slowly begin to come crashing down like an old building with a phone call.

"Jessa," Taryn interrupted unwillingly, her cellphone lowered to her hip, both Jessa and Greg glaring at her vexedly. As soon as Taryn's eyes began to shrink with intent of firing words, Greg and Jessa anger floated away into the air as they let go of each other.

"Yes," Jessa sighed adversely, turning toward her friend as Greg rubbed her shoulders, the back of her head sinking deep into his chest like a pillow.

"It's your mother..."