A week had creeped by since Ashley left for home warm in her parents' arms, the girls not cracking more than a dozen smiles combined in this desolate time. Jessa's eyes bored against the road as they headed for one of the boys' last tour dates in Virginia, her face emotionless and heart cold from even Greg's melting touch, her lips taunt with inner thoughts ailing her mental health as Taryn plunged herself in the one CD salavged from the bugulary, Good Charlotte, "Screamer" echoing in one ear and out the other, her brain not even acknowledging the words, the words all too familiar as she felt lost in a storm without her savior. Celeste distracted herself to an old activity book covered with gleeful grey elephants that magically snuck into her bags while she was packing, her legs acting as the tabletop as she supported them against the table with a forceful hold, the scratching of the pencil against the paper like jackhammers at the nerves of her tourmented sleep, her eyelids fatigued as they tried to close her away from finishing her crossword puzzle. "A 7 letter word expressing grief and sorrow," she muttered to herself, gnawing on the eraser lightly, the strange taste of rubber not displeasing her senses. "How about Celeste?"

The three girls were ready to pack up and drive home in a heartbeat, both them and Ashley arriving at their houses simultaneously, the extra days Ashley would spend in the hospital and the extra driving days equaling out to that hypothesis, in their houses where they all grew older and what they thought was wiser, together, congregated in the only neighborhood where ice didn't shoot from people's eyes and voices like venom. Loyalty is what these girls had for each other. Even if they did had cat fights 24/7 and hated the ways some of them did things, loyalty was the glue bonding them together, loyalty and resentment toward life. Ashley desisted their plan, her blonde hair shaking slightly in the stifled wind, the smell of dispair almost noticable in the air, her cheeky smile pushing though discomfort, the girls practically locking themselves to her bedside the past two days with droopy eyes. "Please stay," Ashley said fraily, leaning foward as far as pain would allow her, grasping their hands in her own as is she was a preacher coaching the three girls to embrace the Lord on their trip to the golden gates of Heaven, "Finish the trip. Finish the adventure. Finish your dreams. Don't let fate fool you." With one last heartwrenching hug and a promise to call every day, the girls saddled up and rode back onto the road, all three of them assured the homestretch of the trip wouldn't be the same, wouldn't be right to continue, without the peacemaker, Ashley.

"Boys got a concert tonight?" Jessa threw the question into the suppressing air as a general statement, not needing or expecting an answer.

"I don't think so," Celeste responded doubtfully, her tounge sneaking to the corner of her lips in determination as she completed her 7th crossword puzzle of the day, her voice derailed from happiness, "Chris told me their concert was tomorrow in Greensburg."

"Oh," Jessa said barely audibly, the RV bustling into a dense thicket of fog, Jessa flipping on the headlights as they drove through the cloudiness harassing the last bit of sanity they had, their willpower and patience tested immaculously this summer, so much that it almost killed one of them...or more.

"Put on the radio or something," Taryn snapped vitriolicly, her mind questoning her motives, her body healing from her creed to ditch the drugs painfully slow, her fingers tapping against her temples as her black and red stockened feet drove into the dashboard, "I'm tired of hearing myself think."

With a sigh, Jessa turned on the dial, a classic rock station called 95.7 WRCK broadcasting Led Zepplin's "Pour Some Sugar On Me," Jessa breaking a forced smile as the smooth melodies guided her fruitfully through the smog, the van in front of her barely visable except for it's cherry red brakelights, nothing but sunshine leaking and waiting on the other side.

As if clairvoyant, Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" circulated with remembrance through the gloomy atmosphere, smiles slipping onto Taryn and Celeste's faces with dilatory responce, their heads pivoting with delay to Jessa as if their memory had a lapse of that day. Celeste dropped her activity book and crawled like a dog across the floor to the front seat, launching her head against Jessa's shoulder, Jessa glancing down with a simulance of peace as her free hand twirled around her curls, Taryn looking over with brows furrowed before reaching for Celeste's arm, Celeste appreciative of Taryn's concious effort to change.

"Let's finish the summer with a bang," Celeste suggested with a head nod, her eyes augmenting with the shower of sun crowding over the RV as the fog lifted like a blanket does from the ground.

"Ashley would have wanted it like that," Taryn agreed, all 3 of them sharing the same smile of rejuvinated purpose in life as they belted out one more chorus, the last chorus of the summer.........

Celeste scampered to the door as the other two girls finished their elegant primping, the girls determined to make one of the last nights together enjoyable, incredable, and memorable, the three girls dolling up in their best gear with some crazy hats to hit town, ready to be entertained by the bizzare looks they'll receive from pedestrians as if the girls walked off the runway of the unfashion awards moments before. Celeste opened the door to see Jesse, Jesse's eyes aggrandizing as Celeste's beautiful image of her in a knee-lenght, silky light purple tube top dress, her curves brought out so much that even the blind could notice, a purple cowboy had dazzled in sequences clutched by her side. "You gonna stand there all night and gawk or tell me why you're here?" Celeste asked playfully, swinging the door open wider as the hat slipped from her hand, Taryn peeking from behind Celeste's shoulder, her black leather pants skin tight around her legs, her maroon halter sparkling like covered in diamonds as an intrigued smile slipped on her austere face, her leopard-print bowler hat the most notible accessory to her outfit.

"Uhh...We have a surprise for you guys,"Jesse announced with a shy smile, Taryn hopping down the stairs in anticipation as the hat swooped from her head back into the RV, Jessa appearing from thin air with the pink number Ashley wore to dinner with Uncle Dan back in California, deliverately leaving the fuzzy black bucket hat Taryn picked out for her on her bed and slipping on her cork wedgies as Celeste leaned against the doorframe with her elbow, Taryn shouting, "Their surprises rock. Let's go!"

"There goes night-crawling," Celeste stated glumly, putting on a guise that she'd rather be entertained by strangers than close friends. "Let's go, Hottie," Celeste called behind her as she grappled her black pocketbook and headed down the stairs, Jessa limping foward, her cork wedgies more like obstacles than fashion.

"I got to give these to you," Jesse informed them as he pulled 3 hankerchiefs, blue, green, and orange, from his yellow UFO's pockets, the darkening night capeing them in the mystery.

"Those don't go with my outfit!" Taryn desisted like she actually cared about that stuff, pulling at her shirt while Jesse laughed, tying the green one around Taryn's eyes, his knot driving into the back of Taryn's head like a bullet, Taryn winching and her nose scrunching up in suspicion. "What are you doing?"

"It's a surprise, isn't it?" Jesse responded craftily as he tied the other girls's eyes shut, leading them toward their tour bus where the other boys waited anxiously, their plan assured to pick the girls up from their plummet toward depression...........

The girls were beginning to grow frightened as they felt dirt road slide beneth the car, the boys mute on purpose to leave them caught and deep in suspense, the blaring noise of the radio downing out the little conversation between the boys in praise for this brilliant plan. Wind tossed all around them, the supposition that they were in a convertible arising in the girls' minds. The car stopped at a sudden jerk, Celeste bounced away from sleep while Taryn and Jessa bobbed their heads about as if taking in the surroundings with their eyes. The girls felt the car lift up, the slamming confirming that they boys slipped from the car.

"Don't leave us!" Celeste shouted, feeling vulnerable in the...dark unknown.

"Wherever you took us, I'm sure there's horny or weird guys around!" Jessa agreed, feeling her hairs prickle up into the air as the night wind's howled closer.

"We'll be back in a jiff," she heard Matt's voice call before the crackling of what sounded to be a fire lit up the darkness between the girls' eyes and hankerchief.

Chris, Frankie, and Greg escorted the girls out of the car, Jessa tripping climsily over the seat belt, falling into Greg's arms in hyserics, his familiar smell of colonge and familiar feel of his muscles underneath his beater assuring it was Greg she was clinging on to, her face snuggling into his jacket as Frankie and Chris lead Taryn and Celeste toward the warmth floating toward their faces, Chris carrying a portable CD player in is left hand as his right hand clamped onto Celeste's left wrist to guide her effectively, all girls amused at the big deal the boys were portraying the surprise to be. "Take off the blind folds!" Matt and Jesse shouted, the girls giggling as they tore the hankercheifs from their faces, their hearts aggrandizing with every pump of blood as they drunk in the exquiset view.

They were stnding atop of the outskirts of the Applianchain mountains, the jagged outline of the mountains trying to block out the hundreds of large stars piercing the midnight blue sky like its own little galaxy at a hand's reach. Tiny yellow and white sprinkles of the city of Charleston blinked in the ravine below, lights shutting off sparactically to signafy the close of another day. Trees surrounded them from the sides, the trees tall and burly like policemen looking after them. A large fire crackled and sizzled against the tranquility of the clearing, elements to create delicious S'Mores lined on a folding table, the layout of blankets and food sending them all back to July 4th, the girls smittened as they tried to grasp for words, Jessa's eyes laying on three boxes neatly wrapped in white paper by the S'Mores with their names printed on cards on top of each of them.

"We get presents, too?" Jessa asked curiously, entangling her hand in Gregs as she dragged him over to the boxes, everyone crowding around them like they would around a new baby.

"You guys spoil us!" Celeste insisted, nudging Chris in the side.

"Well, go ahead," Chris told them, scooting them along like a father does to his children on the first day of school, "Open them."

Taryn, Jessa, and Celeste dashed and opened them as fast as possible, Taryn inhibiting Tomboy qualities and planting into the dirt as Celeste and Jessa ripped the paper in an upright position, a white Baby Tee displayed in front of them with "DS Cutie Quad" in red lettering enscribed in a circle on the right side, Celeste shrieking in delight as Jessa and Taryn took the shirts from the boxes as scrutinized them with obliged smiles and awed eyes, their names plated boldly above the numbers "02."

"We already gave Ashley hers before we left for North Carolina," Frankie informed then quietly, Ashley's face glowing with gratefulness from the supressed state it was moments before their visit flickering through his mind.

"You girls really have entertained us this summer," Jesse began with all-honesty, the girls still wrapped in surprise at their genial gifts to comment.

"It's been crazy," Matt agreed, shoving his fingertips into the waistband of his jeans, "You girls are so much fun to be around."

"Especially that time when Greg realized you stole his underwear and were using it as a flag," Frankie added, Greg rolling his eyes in response as the rest of them laughed, recolelctions of the summer blasting in their heads like fireworks.

"Or when Uncle Dan told us about his...conquests," Chris reminded them with a cheesy smile at his audacity.

"Don't remind me," Matt groaned, shaking his head as the night wind jumped through it, his eyes closed in disguist, knowing that wasn't how one should hear an Uncle speak.

"I'm surprised you still aren't red," Celeste admitted, cloaking her arms around Chris's neck, Chris smiling at how close him and her became after their afternoon together.

"Let's play the Family Feud," Jessa chimed in with an announcer voice, noticing Celeste and Chris's amcable behavior towards one another and wanting to capitalize on it, flashes of fire blazing the ground like in a disco, Jessa pacing in front of the crew with invisable yellow cards shuffling through her fingers, "Top answer for 'cutest moment of the summer' on the board. Survey says..."

"Taryn and Greg on stage!" Jesse guessed in a loud voice, bouncing around with his hand waving in the air, assured he would win, Taryn smacking him in the arm for that wrong answer.

"NO!" Jessa replied with a slash of her arm downward through the air, her face all smile and teeth. "Chance to steal, Taryn."

"Chris and Celeste's bed cuddling!" Taryn shouted, jumping up and down like she won the $25,000 Big Money, the boys laughing and claping as Celeste and Chris gaped with wide eyes in the distance, unaware anyone knew about that day. Jessa nodding in confirmation, her stomach aching like she did a thousand situps so she couldn't speak.

"We've also learned a lot this summer," Frankie agreed, ambling to the blankets and plopping down next to the S'Mores, the rest of the gang following him as if Frankie initiated a game of "Follow The Leader", everyone settling down on the thin layer of comfort between gravel and skin, "Like how music brings people together, like it did with you girls."

"Yeah," Jessa agreed, wriggling in the small hole between his legs as Greg enveloped his hands around her waist, Jessa poised and ready to tell Greg what he wanted to hear.

"Like how not to wear embarassing sleepwear when girls eat breakfast on the bus," Jesse moaned with an amsed smile, slapping his hand against his forehead in his stupidness.

"Very true," Taryn agreed, patting Jesse genially on the shoulder, Jesse's blue eyes twinkling in unison with the same stars in the sky. "Purple is your color though, Jess."

"Thank you," Jesse replied with a bow of his head, everyone at ease.

"Like how to be tolerant of other people's differences, even if you don't know about them," Chris admitted solemly, dragging his fingers slowly through the dirt before glancing to his right at Celeste, Celeste cupping her hand around Chris's finger and smiling sweetly, Chris raising his thumb to caress her hand.

"Like how no matter where you run to, the past is always by your side, whether you want it to be or not," Celeste continued with regret, her eyes speckled in climbing tears, her newly-acquired nerves of steel wedging them behind an invisable gate of will-power, the group looking at her with pride, the fire skipping toward the sky.

"Well, I learned...." Matt began, scrunching up his nose and gazing up at the pale moon gazing back at him, "My favorite item to sign is a 100% cotton white Gap thong. It feels nice between your fingers."

Laughter bubbled like soap into the air, Matt always thinking of random and uplifting things to say. Jessa, Frankie, Matt, Jesse, Celeste, and Chris shifted their attention to Taryn, Taryn next to Matt and the next person of this unofficial inquizition of what was learned this summer.

"Well," Taryn started, biting at her bottom lip, pulling her legs into a pretzel, every watching her with eager eyes and ears. "I learned more about myself than I ever had during my past 18 years on this earth. I learned tolerance is a nice attribute to have." Taryn looked to her left at Celeste and Celeste agreed with a smile and wink, Taryn and her having as much passion for each other when they were amicable as when they were screaming down each other's throats. "Friends are forever. Period. No one should forget that. I also learned...what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, and trust me, I could have been killed or could have murdered Celeste this trip." Jessa and Greg giggled in harmony, Greg's hands clasped directly over her belly button giving her stomach a jolt. "Finally, I learned this past week or two that I can...be strong," Taryn's eyes batted back valiant tears yearning to surge down her cheek, "I can be strong without alcohol, without drugs. I can be happy without them...I can live without them...As long as I'm with my friends, everything else doesn't matter..." Her voice shattered into tears as they leaked down her cheek with the sensation of glass raping her skin, raking at them with the back of her hand, propeling a refelective smile across the red smearing her face as the gang gazed in awe, "and that, Ashley saved me, saved me from...a terrible life I would be falling into if I didn't stop." Driving her hands into her face, Matt cloaked her with his arm, Taryn peering at him through the corner of her eye, the fire vexing her world finally dying out.

"Sorry," Taryn aplogiesed with quivering lips, Matt patting her back as she ran her hands over her eyes and cheeks.

"It's Okay," Chris assured her, Chris and Taryn sharing a defiant moment of understanding that night.

"What about you, Greg?" Jesse asked anxiously, feeling blessed and honored to have so many wonderful people open up to him like a book, the summer definatly as big chapter in the book of his life.

"I learned that..." Greg responded with an elongated, pensive pause, that question surprisingly never surfacing in his mind this summer, Jessa glancing back at him over her shoulder with her cat eyes, a look plastered on her face that was neither lustful like it used to be, or depressing, which it would be in the weeks following their departure. "I learned that the phrase 'Love comes when you least expect it' is absolutely true." Jessa's eyes brightened with appreciation, leaving a pixie kiss on the corner of his mouth as everyone awwed.

"Greg, you're so adorable," Celeste informed him with a wave of her hand and cheeky smile, Greg puffing out his chest with righteousness as Jessa giggled.

"Your turn, Cupcake," Taryn told Jessa, Taryn's face subsiding back to a normal tanned hue.

A crafty smile slid onto her face, Jessa lifting her eyebrows at Taryn and Celeste, the two girls eyes' aggrandizing in realization of what she was about to reveal, the boys eyes' constricting in utter lostness. Jessa soiled her dress by kneeling on her knees facing Greg, soft moon and fire light dazzling Greg's befuddled face, Jessa taking his hand in hers, her fingers dancing across his knuckles in a teasing manner, Greg shaking his head as if to rattle the matter of normal logic back in place to figure out what she was going to say. "Jessa?"

"I learned that I, Jessa Marie Bellefore, totally, hopelessly, deeply, utterly, completely..." Anticipation jumpstarted his heart and enlarged his dark eyes, his hands growing tighter around Jessa's as she prolonged the suspense, the rest of the guys cocking foward as if to topple over to hear what she was going to say as Taryn and Celeste looked at her with pride, smiles happy for Jessa jumping onto their faces, their eyes peacefully open. Jessa's words moved smoothly like butter over her ruby lips, Greg ready to tackle her if she wouldn't spit it out, "love Gregory Franklin Raposo, capture of my heart and dreams."

A wave of cheers and hoots crashed over the two lovebirds, Greg pulling her under the tide of excitement to his addictive lips, Jessa's hand pressed firmly against his chest as steam sliced between their embrace, Greg's back against the sand of the summer, that moment the perfect ending of a summer of pent-up love and anxiety, that moment as sweet as it was would come folding down over them like a house rampaged by a tornado with as much potency, a night consisiting of the revealance of a bet and a few surprising twists approaching closer in their unforseen future.