Kenzie awakens from the heat of the sunlight grazing the side of her face, Turning her body the other way to face Mark, Seeing him already looking at her as she smiles and places a soft peck on his lips.
She whispers, Lacing their fingers together, "I had the best night with you, But I think i'm gonna go back now, I'm gonna have to face them sooner than later." The girl sighs as she sits up and gets off the bed, Picking up her skirt from last night, Sliding into it.
"Look at me." Mark gently grabs her wrist as she turns to face him, locking eyes with him."Everything will be okay." He reassured the worried girl as a small smile appears on her face, As she responded by hugging Mark tightly, A hug that she desperately needed.
"See you very soon." She turns back at him smiling as she begins walking out of his door downstairs to be met with the entirety of the Michigan hockey team.
"Oh hey!" Ethan says from sitting at the island in the kitchen, Taking a bite of his cereal, Smiling at Kenzie sarcastically. "Fun night?" He smiles even harder, Wriggling his brows jokingly.
"So fun." Kenzie says back laughing as the boys join in knowing exactly what happened, All excited for their best friend to get the girl he's been raving on about for years.
"Bye Kenzieeeeee!" The group of boys say in unison as she waves to them all and heads out the door, Shutting it behind her.
Kenzie slowly walks down a few houses and she's met looking at the lake house in which she's dreading to walk into for the first time EVER. A feeling of both anger and anxiety pooling at the pit of her stomach to walk through those two wooden doors.
She takes a deep breath, Walking up the long brick driveway of her lake house, Quietly opening the front door, As she's met with EVERYONE in the kitchen. Her worst fear came true.
All of their heads spring up to the door, Immediately stopping whatever they were doing prior, Standing completely frozen watching Kenzie with wide eyes as if Beyoncé just stepped through the front door.
Kenzie glances at them in silence with no expression on her face, Bolting upstairs, And slamming her room door in the eery silence of the house, The sound of the door loudly echoing through the entire house, Jolting the group.
They all look at each other with wide eyes with a semi scared look on their face not saying a word as Jack is the only one looking down at the floor in dread thinking about what he's done and he is the only reason she's acting this way.
Kenzie flings her over night bag into a corner of her room as she plops down onto her bed, Pulling out her phone and scrolling through instagram, Which she ultimately planned on doing all day because seeing Jack's face today would probably make her punch a hole through the wall, or his face.
"It's Me and Liv, Kenzie." She hears Tate say through her door. Kenzie groans standing up, Cracking the door and letting the two girls in, Immediately locking it back up as they walk in and sit on her bed.
"Kenzie, What even happened?" Liv automatically asks, While getting comfortable on her bed knowing she was probably in for a long story.
Kenzie crosses her legs on the bed and looks at her best friends sitting in front of her with worried looks on their face and she begins to speak.
"So yesterday at the party, Me and Mark hooked up in Ethan's house, In the kitchen and Jack walked in because he needed to use the bathroom and he saw us. After we went back out to the beach, I saw Jack sitting on a bench alone looking so upset, so I went to ask him what was wrong, Like a good friend, and he fucking FLIPPED on me." She explains the situation to the girls seething with anger.
"What the fuck?" Tate says with a both confused and disgusted look on her face hearing about Jack's actions towards her best friend.
"What the hell was his problem?" Liv adds, Furrowing her eyebrows, Reacting similarly to Tate.
"Exactly! I have no idea. I just asked him what was wrong and he completely lost his shit on me. I saw his ex Melanie was there so maybe it had something to do with her but still, Don't fucking flip on me. That's your fucking problem." Kenzie says with a sharp tone in her voice.
"Girl, Don't even stress it. Fuck him. I know you've been in love with him since you guys were kids but you've been over him for years now. I mean you even dated Joe, So he has no right now to act the way he's acting. We have the whole summer and all your best friends are here. I know Jack is supposed to be your best friend and you both wanted to spend time with each other but don't let that ruin our amazing summer." Tate says to Kenzie holding her hand which brightens her up, Smiling up at both of her best friends, Happy she has those two girls by her side.
"Pool?" Kenzie suggests agreeing with the girls that it's not worth her time and energy to be figuring out what Jacks issue is.
"Definitely!" They both say as they all change quickly into their baiting suits. They run downstairs past the boys in the kitchen, Grabbing a pack of high noons and running outside.
"UH HELLO? WAIT FOR US?" Cole shouts as the boys run up the stairs to change as well, The girls ignoring them, Continuing to run to the pool.
The three girls grab the best floats from the huge pile and lay on them trying to inherit the UV rays from the hot June sun while they can.
A few minutes pass and as Kenzie turns her head towards the deck as she notices the boys plotting something in a group, Seconds later she sees Alex running full speed at her, Trying to peacefully tan as he jumps right next to her causing the water to splash up and splash all over her as she immediately gasps and pushes herself up.
"ALEX! I'M GOING TO FUCKING HURT YOU! " She shouts jumping off the raft and jumping onto Alex's back trying to drown him as everyone else is dying of laughter seeing her struggle to take Alex down.
With no effort, Alex picks Kenzie up with one arm as she's still trying to fight him and he places her on the ground above the pool.
"Not fair!" she says to Alex as he smiles at her cockily.
The rest of the boys get into the pool with drinks in their hand and we spend the rest of the afternoon in the pool.
"Ouuu! Should we play a drinking game?" Liv suggests to the group a few hours in to everyone just drinking and tanning.
"Let's do it." Trevor swims over as we all group up in a corner of the pool.
"Never have I ever?" Cole asks
"Obviously, It's a classic Zegras lake house tradition" Kenzie says back. "I'll start"
"Hmmmm never Have I ever got with a friends sibling?" Kenzie asks the group as Alex, Jack, Quinn, Trevor, Tate and Kenzie take a sip as everyone looks around at each other and laughs.
"Wait i'm your only sibling, Who the fuck have you gotten with?" Trevor snaps his head, Squinting his eyes towards Kenzie.
"Don't worry about it." I laugh. "Wait i'm your only sibling too, You drank. Who have YOU gotten with?" She asks him the same thing.
"Don't worry about it." He shrugs and smiles, Obviously reciprocating my same energy.
"Alright, Alright, Never have I ever gotten with someone at the bonfire yesterday?" Cole says letting out a slight laugh afterwards, Curious to who drinks from their cups.
Kenzie, Alex, Tate, Quinn and Trevor all take a sip as Kenzie glances over to see Jack looking at her with those same fiery eyes from yesterday. Jack picks up his cup and drinks too, A few seconds too late to everyone, As the group shoots a suspicious face towards him.
"For real Jack? Who?" Alex says to him confused just learning about this as Jack's usually very vocal about hookups and girls and those sorts of things.
"Melanie." He replies looking over at Kenzie to see if she has any reaction, To which she just stares at the girls while they make a crooked face back at her. "Told youuuu", Kenzie sings under her breath turning her head to Tate and Liv slightly.
"No wayyyyy! " The boys say laughing and bumping him in the arm. I guess the men's way of saying "good shit".
the game goes on for a few more rounds and they all decide to leave the pool for the day since they've spent the past 5 hours in it and they've all had enough for the day.
"Should we throw a party tonight?" Kenzie suggests as they walk into the kitchen, Patting her hair down with a towel.
"SHOULD WE?" Cole lights up immediately as he does, Whenever someone mentions the words party, alcohol or getting drunk.
"Fuck it." Trevor says pulling out his phone, Sending texts to everyone with invites as the group cheers and begins to pregame.
"Wait dinner. I'm fucking hungry." Alex says looking through our drawers finding a menu from a nearby pizzeria, Dialing the number into his phone ordering a bunch of Pizza's to our house.
"Good idea" Kenzie tells him "Gotta eat so we don't all die tonight."
Alex points to her in agreement while lifting the phone up to his ear, Placing an order.
"Liv, Tate wanna go start getting ready?" Kenzie asks the girls.
"Yeah let's go." As the girls take their usual box of high noons upstairs and layout all their makeup on the floor and vanity, Beginning to do their makeup and hair listening to music and talking about girl things.
"Tate, just fucking do ittttttt." Kenzie groans convincing her to get with one of the plethora of boys attending their party tonight, Looking at her through her vanity mirror as Tate's curling her hair and Kenzie's blending out her bronzer.
"Alright, fine. MAYBEEE" Tate laughs back as Liv claps and Kenzie gives her a smirk.
The door slightly opens and the three girls look up at the door seeing Luke stand there staring directly at Kenzie.
"Come in Lukey bear" Kenzie turns as Luke steps over the piles of the girls' potential outfits and the layout of three of girls makeup scattered on the floor, Making his way to her vanity, Taking a seat on the edge of the bed next to her.
"Is Mark coming?" He asks kind of quietly, Making Kenzie furrow her eyebrows at him in confusion.
"Uh yeah I think so? Why wouldn't he be?" She says back to Luke, Keeping that same puzzled look on her face as she continues her makeup.
"So are you two like a thing?" He questions again.
"No we're not a thing. At least not yet. I don't even know. I guess just hooking up for now, But yeah i like him. What's with all the questions? Are you with the FBI?" She laughs and replies, Patting her makeup brush into more bronzer.
"Just asking Kenzie, Just asking." Luke sighs standing up placing a hand on Kenzie's shoulder before making his way back out of the room.
"Weird." Liv says as he shuts the door behind him.
"So weird." Tate adds and Kenzie finishes it off with a "Very weird."
Luke walks into his brother's room, As he's lying on the bed playing with the strings of his sweatshirt. "He's coming bro sorry."
"Of course." Jack says looking up at the ceiling of the room groaning and throwing his hands on his face and sliding them down slowly.
"Did you ask if they were a thing?" He asks his younger brother who was pulling out clothes for his shower.
"Yeah, All i got was a 'I don't know'. She said they're just hooking up for now." He adds
"FUCK" Jack yells from frustration from the not so good news Luke brought back to him.
"Dude, Why the fuck did you say you got with Melanie last night during Never have I ever, When you actually blew her off." Luke asks
"Because i don't wanna seem like I'm waiting for her or something. She obviously doesn't give a fuck about any of this while i've been beating myself up for the entire fucking day" Jack replies
"Dude she cares. You guys are best friends. You guys have been connected at the hip since you were like fucking toddlers. Don't say she doesn't care because you and I both know damn well, She cares. If she didn't, She wouldn't have reacted the way she did last night and to be honest Jack, She had every reason to." Luke smacks some sense into his older brother for once in their life.
Jack lets out a deep breath and only gets out a plain "Yeah."
Kenzie puts on a two piece black set, Consisting of a tiny little black top and mini skirt, With gold jewelry and loosely curled hair, Tate's wearing a tight baby blue strapless dress and Liv's wearing a red corset with some mom jeans.
"Let's take a picture. I'll send it to my mom" Kenzie says to the girls as they pose for a mirror picture as she sends it to her mom.
Mom: My favorite girls ❤️❤️ Have fun today! 😘😘😘 Tell your brother, Jack and all the boys I said hello :)
Kenzie shows the girls the message her mom sent as she laughs and puts her phone in the waistband of her skirt.
Kenzie's parents LOVE Jack. They think he is such a perfect boy and he can do no wrong in this world, Just as Jim and Ellen Hughes think of Kenzie. Of course they love all the kids but Jack is definitely their favorite from the bunch.
Kenzie texts back with a simple "I will, Love you guys❤️ Have fun in the Bahamas!!"
The girls hear a loud thud that shook the entire house come from downstairs followed by laughter of grown men as the three girls stand in place looking at each other terrified.
Kenzie runs out of her room to check out what that sound was and looks down the stairs to see Trevor groaning on the living room floor.
"What the fuck are you guys doing?" Kenzie asks with a worried look on her face seeing her brother laughing and groaning at the same time laid out on the hardwood floor.
"Trevor wanted to show us he can do a backflip." Quinn laughs not being able to breathe.
"You guys are idiots." Kenzie says shaking her head laughing making her way to the kitchen as she pulls out a cup to make a drink.
"My favorite girl." Quinn approaches Kenzie, Grabbing her shoulders, Shaking her while standing behind her. "What are you making?" He asks letting go and peeking over her.
"Just a Tito's with pineapple." She says stirring the drink with a straw. "Here" she hands the drink to Quinn and makes another one for herself.
"You're the best." He says to her placing a kiss on the side of her head.
At this point all of them are downstairs at the kitchen table eating dinner and drinking before anyone comes and the party begins.
They all turn as they hear the first knock on the door.
"I'll get it." Kenzie springs up from her seat and opens the door wide to see Mark standing there.
"Hey beautiful." He says to the girl pulling her in and kissing her as the rest of them watch from the kitchen with wide eyes and shaking their heads in confusion.
"What The Fu-" quickly out of Trevor's mouth, Looking around at the group to make sure he's not hallucinating at the scene in front of him.
"Yeah, What the fuck is right. When did that happen?" Alex says still looking at the two in the doorframe, Then immediately looking at Jack's reaction.
"Yeah definitely just hooking up." Jack laughs to himself shaking his head as Luke looks at him in distress while on the other hand, Tate and Liv are smiling ear to ear, Looking at their best friend and Mark, Happy that she's happy.
The two of them walk back into the kitchen as Mark goes around dapping everyone up and giving Liv and Tate a hug. He reaches Jack and their greet has some obvious tension between it as everyone seems to notice including Kenzie, Leaving her to scan the rest of the boys faces, As they immediately look down so she doesn't notice the faces their making at the awkward interaction.
The house starts filling up minute by minute with loud music blaring through the family
lake house, Couples making out everywhere, People throwing back shots in every corner inside and outside the house. You know, The usual lake house party.
"Wanna go outside?" Mark drunkingly asks Kenzie as she nods and takes his hand as they push through herds of people finally making it outside as they sit at the edge of the dock down by the lake.
"You look beautiful tonight." Mark says to the girl intertwining her fingers with her's.
"Thank you Mark, You're the sweetest." She says placing a soft kiss on his lip.
"Did you notice the tension when you said hi to Jack?" She turns and asks him
"Yes! It was so fucking weird he kept a straight face on the entire time" Mark exclaims. "I don't think he likes me very much." He laughs.
"Yeah,So weird. I don't know what the fuck his issue is we haven't talked all day" Kenzie says back to him
"He seems jealous. I know that kind of behavior from anywhere" Mark says
"Yeah, No way. I used to be in love with the kid and he never looked at me that way" Kenzie replies back to Mark laughing "No wayyy he's jealous." She shakes her head, Looking straight ahead of her.
Mark looks into the distance of the water without saying anything else, Bringing her into him just enjoying each others company.
Kenzie feels a shadow approach them from behind, Causing her to turn around to be faced with Jack who seems to be a little drunk as well.
"Kenzie" he says in a low and subtle voice, He sounded visibly upset. "Can we please talk?" He looks like he's almost begging, As Kenzie looks at Mark, Pulling her lips to the left, Silently asking him if she should go.
"Go. Talk to him." Mark tells her as Kenzie stands up leaning down to give Mark a kiss on the cheek before walking away with Jack.
"Let's go to my room. I don't wanna do this with everyone watching. " She strictly tells Jack, Still being upset about what happened at the bonfire, As the two walk back inside, Kenzie locking eyes with Tate and Liv, As they shoot wide eyes back at her.
Cole spots the two as well, As he begins nudging Trevor and Alex to look at the two sliding through the party walking upstairs.
"This can go one of two ways." Luke says sipping on his beer next to his oldest brother who replies with a "Oh god."
The two walk into her room as she shuts the door behind her standing there looking at Jack with a blank look on her face waiting for him to start speaking.
"Kenzie, I am so sorry." He lets out "I'm sorry for flipping on you last night for no reason."
Kenzie scoffs at him "No reason? Come on Jack. I've known you my entire life and I can read you like a book."
Jacks face quickly turns tense not knowing what to say "Yeah I- I just had a talk with Melanie and it didn't go good. I asked her why she cheated on me and everything." Jack lies completely to her face not telling her the exact reason he flipped out on her that way.
"Yeah, I thought it was something about Melanie." Kenzie says back to him, Completely believing it.
"I never meant to hurt you, Kenz . I just was in a bad mood and took it out on you. I'm so sorry Kenz. I've been beating myself up all day about it." He says to the girl with a frown drawn on his lips.
"It's all good Jack, I'm glad you pulled me to talk. I've missed you and our friendship and I was so excited to spend this summer with you." She cracks a tiny smile on her face.
"I missed you so much." Jack says pulling her into a hug but instantly regretting lying to her, And not telling her what he really felt but he ultimately decided it's for the best since shes happy with Mark and that's all he ever wants for her, To be happy.
"So we're good?" she asks Jack looking up at him.
"Better than ever." Jack replies throwing on a fake smile through his feelings for the girl.
The pair walk downstairs back to the party, walking up to Trevor and Alex in the kitchen.
"THEY'RE BACK?" Alex shouts at the sight of the two of us walking up to them together.
"They're back." Kenzie replies as the two of them bring both Kenzie and Jack in for a tight hug.
"Thank fucking god. I don't think i've ever seen you two go that long without talking." Trevor says shaking his head in relief.
Jack watches Kenzie walk to Mark as he brings her in for a hug with open arms and a smile on his face kissing the top of her head.
"She's happy." Luke notices his brother watching Kenzie and Mark.
"I know" Jack says back disappointed "I wish I told her sooner." As Luke throws his arm around his older brother trying to comfort him through his pain.
"You know she was in love with you practically all her life and when she saw you go back to Melanie than one night you broke her heart" Luke reminds him
"I was so young and dumb i had no idea. I always loved her so much too." Jack replies
"Cmon let's get another drink." Luke pulls his brother away from watching the girl he's in love with falling in love with another guy.
"So how'd it go?" Mark asks Kenzie
"It went good, We made up. He said he was upset over a conversation with Melanie" Kenzie reply's back standing up against his chest
"Hmmm" Mark says back, "That's great babe." Knowing exactly what Jack was hiding from Kenzie but just choosing to ignore it and hoped he was wrong.
- Song starts playing-
"Jack!" Kenzie yells across the house, Hearing their favorite song ever play.
Jack quickly smiles pulling the girl into him singing and dancing immediately to the song
The two get lost in the moment and stop for a moment and look at each other and smile. The world stops for the both of them.
Kenzie looks at the boy who's always had a big piece of her heart and always will. All the memories of all these years begin to flood the girls mind. The memories of the two brings a fire to her heart and fills her with happiness and joy she could never get rid of no matter how hard she tried.
Jack looks at the beautiful redhead standing in front of him, heart full of regret. Regret of not ever telling her his true feelings. Regret of not telling her how much of an angel she is to him. Regret letting her slide past him when he could've had her all these years.
Both Mark and Melanie watch the pair in their moment, Noticing the undeniable tension and chemistry between them that they both haven't figured out how to make it work yet.
The song ends and they both snap out of their thoughts of each other giving each other a long hug before going their separate ways.
"Ready for bed?" Kenzie skips up to Mark grabbing his hand leading him up to her room both drunk
He nods, Intertwining their fingers and guiding them up the stairs into her room.
Mark sits on the bed looking at Kenzie as she starts removing her makeup and doing her night time routine.
"You and Jack? You guys never dated or anything?" He questions the girl after watching them tonight.
"Oh no." She scoffs like it was the dumbest question in the world. "I was in love with Jack practically my entire life but i guess he just never felt the same way." She says pulling out another makeup wipe.
Being a boy, And knowing how boys act and think, He knew that wasn't completely right and after watching Kenzie and Jack tonight and how they act next to each other, Jack indeed felt the same way about Kenzie. They just never got the timing right.
Mark decides to shake the thought out of his head and lays on the bed waiting for Kenzie to finish.
"Come on pretty girl, Come cuddle me." He says turning his head as Kenzie steps out of her vanity chair smiling at the boy and sliding into bed and into Mark's arm.
Mark places a kiss on her cheek and looks at her in his arm running his hands across her hair as the two fall asleep intertwined in each other.