By the time I realized time had actually passed again, it was Friday after school. Alex and I had to rush home, the Twins with us yet again. Shane was supposed to come by before Matt went to school so they could catch up for a while. After all, they hadn't talked in years either. Shane's epic wife, Rachel, would probably hang with my friends and me. So everything was all planned out and going great—until Parker decided to hang out too.

Because of that, everything changed. Not really. Jane and Ziggy still came home with Alex and I. Matt still got up early so he could see Shane. The house was still…somewhat clean. I mean, Matt was kind of OCD about cleaning sometimes, but he kind of figured with four teenagers in the house almost all the time, plus him never being home or awake, plus Shane being only twenty-three, going on twenty-four in a few weeks and Rachel being twenty-one, as of a few weeks previous. So cleanliness wasn't exactly required.

Honestly, the only thing that happened, was Parker saying he would drive by the house later in the day, probably after Matt left, to hang with us. Shane would probably stay for quite a while, not that it mattered, because it was Friday and there wasn't anything going on other than the guys having practice most of the day Saturday. Alex had football around four, until six thirty I though and there was hockey from one-thirty until three. Other than that, we were all free to hang with Shane and Rachel.

The Twins and I went upstairs as soon as we were in the house and dropped off our stuff in my room. I had to change my clothes, as or orders from Matt, so I didn't look like suck a hooligan to Cousin Shane. I didn't see what the big deal was. He was much worse than me. Spending his free time in Vegas, probably getting laid with showgirls, not that I wanted to know. He was even wanted in Maine for something-or-other. I didn't pay attention when Matt was talking about it at the wedding. Not to mention I was like thirteen at the time, so I wouldn't remember even if I had paid attention.

Regardless, I played the good girl that everyone thought I was and no matter what I liked to think, I knew it was true. I shoved Ziggy out of my room, not letting him see anything other than my face and hands skin-wise ever again after the little shower stunt. He sulked and went into Alex's room to talk man-to-man or something. Why do I have a feeling they were talking sex and porn?

Jane sat on my bed as I yanked off my tee shirt and stared into my closet, standing in my tank top. I put my hands on my hips and scowled. I owned jeans, jeans and more jeans. Oh, and then I had more jeans.

"What about that skirt you have?" Jane suggested.

"You mean the red plaid whore skirt? I don't think so…"

She sighed and shook her head. "No! Course not. The other one."

"Ya lost me…"

She smiled, kind of, more of a smirk really. She got to her feet and went into my closet, digging around on the shelves and looking through everything I had hanging. I had a shelf piled from probably shoulder height, almost to the eight-foot ceiling, all of denim. She dug around that mostly until she got halfway through and smiled. She pulled out a tiny piece of fabric and held it up, grinning like…I didn't even want to know.

"I'm not wearing that," I confirmed. I shook my head, hard. "No. Nonononono. Nope. Not gonna happen."

She continued to smile malevolently at me and took a step. "Yes, I believe you are."

Uh-oh…

The doorbell rang and there was a rush of five people down the stairs. Matt first, excited to see one of his best friends after so long. Then Alex, because Ziggy pushed him down before himself. Jane was behind Ziggy, tugging my hand so I wouldn't stay upstairs and A) not see my cousin, and B) so she could show off her handy work with my outfit.

Matt pulled open the door, and Shane wasn't on the porch. Rachel was, standing there and glowing in her goddess-like beauty. She had blond hair that used to be fairly short last time I saw her, but she had no grown it a little past her shoulders, with layered bangs that framed hr nearly flawless face. Her eyes stood out from her pale, creamy skin. They were big, and expressive, but pale gray. She was a bit taller than me, and roughly my size, with a natural glow that made me see why Shane was so head-over-heels in love with her and had been for so long.

Rachel smiled softly and it was almost a smirk that I had been told she always had on her face. "Hey, Matt. Long time, no see."

Before my brother could say anything, we heard, "Hey, babe! I found 'em!"

Shane walked up the porch and we all saw what he had found. His black jeans were over his right shoulder, belt on his pants and everything. But he was standing with his tee shirt on, his black high-tops laced up, and everything perfectly normal, other than his lack of pants. And the fact he was standing in his bright blue boxers with a gray stripe at the top.

He smiled. "What? Do I have something in my teeth…?"

"Dude, put on your pants. No…just, no," two voices said in perfect sync.

Rachel and Jane smiled at each other and I found it slightly weird. Regardless, Shane listened and stepped into his jeans, buckled his belt and came into the house. He was more or less the same as before. Same black hair that was a little thinner than Ziggy's, but swooshed too. He jerked his head to get if out of his face and settled just right over his eyebrows. His eyes that were more or less the shade of dark chocolate were warm but cool and collected and just spelled out cockiness and badass. He was considerably taller than I was, and he made Rachel look even tinier than she was, but in a good way.

"Hey, Matt. Good to see ya again, man," Shane said, taking Matt's hand for a hearty, manly handshake that turned into one of those man-hugs.

"Back at ya. How's LA been?"

Shane shrugged. "Hot, mostly. Nothing new. Life, college. You?"

Matt smirked. "Bout the same."

"Oh, right, you work at the college, don't you? I kinda forgot about that. Heh…"

"I remembered," Rachel said smugly.

Shane elbowed her gently, playfully, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer and kissing her cheek.

"How's teaching?" she asked.

"Way too many people like you for my tastes," Matt joked, directing the jibe at Shane.

"Aw, man, I'm hurt. Wait a sec…who's this?"

He looked straight at Alex, who was standing behind Matt. Jane, Ziggy and I were all hidden more or less, slowly moving our way into the dining room. Alex was standing with his hands in his pockets, head down, shaggy hair hanging in his face. He looked up through his bangs at Shane and nodded once at him.

"Alex Thompson, meet Shane Ozera. Alex…well, he's a long story. But he's staying here for a while."

"Sup," Alex muttered.

"Hey. You're not gonna weasel in on my lil cousin, are ya?" Shane raised an eyebrow at Alex and we all knew he was dead serious.

Alex gave him a very hot look with a smirk. "Course not. Bella's not my type."

"Speaking of Bella…get over here."

Shit. I thought I managed to get away from seeing Shane during this visit, but I didn't. So I took a breath, sighed, and stepped out from the dining room. I bit the right side of my lip as Shane looked me up in down in the way family did when they haven't seen you in a while. Not in a weird way or anything, just trying to figure out how I'd grown up.

"Someone grew up," he teased.

"Shut up," I growled.

I wasn't exactly wearing what I did the last time he saw me. The last time we saw each other, was the wedding. And then, I had been wearing a plum colored bridesmaid dress. He'd seen me in what I wore now still, jeans and a tee shirt, maybe a hoodie, at the rehearsal dinner. Now, however, Jane put me in a jean mini skirt. It was literally, a mini skirt. It went halfway to my knees, maybe a little more. But for one that worse baggy jeans, it was freakishly short. Then she forced me into a white lace cami, over a navy lace one. My black high-tops were laced up, and I crossed my arms a little self-consciously.

"What's your beef?" Shane laughed.

"Nothing," I grumbled. "And as thrilling as this is, I think I'm going back upstairs. You should chill with Matt. Ya'll gotta catch up."

"Babe, I think I'm gonna go with them," Rachel said, tilting her chin up at Shane.

"Okay." He smiled and kissed her quickly before releasing her.

Rachel, Jane, Ziggy, Alex and I went up to my room, that was actually clean for once. Rachel and Jane both sat in the corner of my bed, their knees to their chests. It was weird, them being so alike, but no where near the same. Ziggy went back into the ass-trap beanbag, trying to look cool in front of the new hot girl. I flopped on my bed and hugged a pillow and Alex had disappeared into his room.

"So you been?" Rachel asked. "I haven't seen you since you were thirteen. Then again, I was only eighteen…"

I smiled. "Ya know. High school. How's Harvard?"

She shrugged. "Hard. But, we're living. Shane's going back to be a lawyer again."

"That's great. I totally forgot what you're gonna be…"

"Editor/publisher. Not too much longer, thank freakin god."

I grinned at her jokingly. "Don't like college?"

"Psh. Not at all. It means I have like…zero time to be with Shane."

"That sucks. Boy's hot," Jane added in.

Rachel smirked. "Oh, hell yes, he is."

I shuddered and pretended to cover my ears. "Ya'll, he's my cousin. Let's not talk about him in a kinky way."

"Distant," Rachel reminded me.

"Seriously," Ziggy groaned from the floor. "Do you guys have any idea how awkward this is?!"

"So go sit with Alex," Jane said.

Rachel seemed confused and leaned forward a little bit. "So what's the deal behind him anyway?"

I groaned, not really wanting to explain yet again. But I did anyway. "His Dad is my parents CO, and he got deployed. Alex's eighteen, but he can't really be trusted to live on his own at the base, so his Dad had him come live with us till he gets back in the States."

"Ah, okay. CO?"

"Commanding officer," I explained.

"Oh, right, right…" she mumbled.

"Okay, I'm done. This is boring as fuck. So not worth it…" Ziggy muttered as he forced himself to his feet from the ass-trap.

"What's not worth it, bro?" Jane asked.

"Whoa, wait, bro?" Rachel asked, looking from Jane to Ziggy and back to Jane. "These are the Twins?"

I nodded. "Mhmm. Jane and Zach. Though he kinda goes by Ziggy now."

"Wow. I saw picture of you guys, but they were from when you were like…ten. You both changed… And OMG, you're not blond!"

Jane smiled. "Nope. And Ziggy's not like two feet tall."

"Shut up…!" Ziggy groaned, covering his blushing face.

"And what's not worth it?" Jane asked again, even though she knew exactly what it was. She was just trying to torment her brother. I smiled, knowing what it was too.

"Yeah. What? You know you can't trust me," Rachel cooed.

"That doesn't make me want to tell you. Not exactly comforting…"

Jane and I shared a smile before spilling in unison. "He's crushing on you."

Rachel smiled and she more or less knew he was. Ziggy blushed and looked about ready to die of embarrassment. The three of us laughed at him.

"Ziggy, calm down," Rachel said. "I'm sexy and I know it. People are always crushin on me. Just don't let Shane find out. He'd kill you."

"Doubt it," he scoffed. "Hockey player. He doesn't even hold a candle to alla this."

Ziggy had a look of pure smugness on his face. As if he got blown before Parker. Times ten. Yeah. He was that smug.

"Have you ever seen a pissed Shane?" I asked. "Not pretty."

"Oh, and you have?" he asked, crossed his arms defensively.

"Cuz, remember? I've seen him majorly pissed one time, and it ended very badly."

Rachel nodded in agreement. "Oh, yeah. Never piss him off. He'll kill you, hockey player or not."

"Uh…seriously?" Ziggy gulped.

"Totally," I agreed, nodding.

"Absolutely."

"I kinda wanna see him beat your ass…" Jane added.

"Thanks, sis, love you too…" Ziggy complained.

An awkward silence later and Ziggy decided he was going to go chill with Alex. Jane, Rachel and I all sat around and talked, mostly about guys. What kind of girl talk would it be if there wasn't a guy involved? Jane talked about Parker, who came in the middle of our conversation. He interrupted Rachel as she started bragging on and on about Shane.

"Hey, babe," he said, sitting on my bed next to her.

"Hey," she said, smiling and kissing him.

"So this is Parker, huh?" Rachel looked like she was appraising him for auction and he really didn't mind. "Too short."

"I like my guys short."

Parker smiled and kissed her again. I was tempted to throw something at them before a full-on grope-fest was started on my bed, right next to my cuz-in-law and more importantly, me. But, they pulled apart and he sat behind her, holding her to his chest with his legs around her waist.

Rachel let here eyes swim over him and finally stop on his hands that were clasped around Jane's. Her eyes widened a bit as she smiled softly again, and in a very sexual way.

"He must be big," Rachel decided.

Jane smirked back. "Oh, yeah."

Parker blushed, with a look of pure happiness to his face and I wanted to die. I really didn't need to hear that. Ever. I could have gone my whole freaking life without other knowing anything about Parker's dick.

"I don't even wanna know how you know, man." I shook my head at my best friend.

"Aw, come on, Bells. We've been together for a few months. You know we've done stuff."

"What kind of stuff?!" I nearly yelled.

"Nothing too bad, I swear," Parker promised. "I don't get that much."

"Please. If you value my sanity, say no more," I begged, covering my head with a pillow.

"Don't worry," Jane said. "You don't get to find out what goes on behind closed doors."

My eye twitched and I realized how long of a conversation this was going to turn out to be.