[July 22]
        "Morning, sunshine!"
        Sarah opened one eye when light flooded the room. "Huh?" she yawned.
        "Tis I!" Jenny leaned over into Sarah’s field of vision.
        "JENNY!" Sarah jumped up and nearly choked Jenny in a hug.
        "Glad to see you too!" Jenny laughed.
        "What the hell are you doing here?!"
        "Two very persuasive people made her travel with them, " Chin spoke up from the door with Kevin beside her.
        "Hey, you two!" Sarah swung an arm around each.
        "Whoa there," Chin slipped out of Sarah’s grip. "Choking me." She rubbed her neck.
        "Cute," Sarah frowned.
        "You’re not choking me," Kevin smiled and gave her a squeeze.
        "Don’t forget you’re taller than us so it would be hard to..." Chin pointed out.
        "You haven’t spoken to us in forever and you’re already poking fun at me?" Sarah whined and grabbed a pillow. "You are SO gonna get it!"
        Chin shrieked and grabbed a pillow from Jenny’s old bed.
        "I have a pillow too!" she declared as Sarah swung at her.
        "HEY! That’s MINE!" Jenny pouted. "Fine!" She grabbed another pillow from her unused bed, when the two girls ignored her, and hit the both of them.
        "JENNY!" Chin and Sarah shrieked and all three fought.
        "What’s going on?" Brian popped up beside his cousin.
        "Not much," Kevin laughed.
        "Brian!" Jenny stopped and ducked as Chin nearly hit her. Without thinking, she ran up to him and hugged him. "I am so sorry about everything. The phone call. Not coming. All stupid," Jenny pulled away a little. "Forgive me?"
Brian smiled and wrapped his arms around her.
        "Always," he held her tight.
        "Jenny!?" Julie popped up. "I thought you weren’t coming!" Julie hugged her and turned to Chin and Sarah. "What the...?"
        "Don’t ask! Just join!" Jenny laughed and rejoined the pillow fight. Julie laughed and grabbed Hannah when she appeared.
        "Here!" Julie tossed a pillow at Hannah and grabbed one for herself and they joined in.
        "Guy-UYS! I’m trying to sleep!" Nick whined and stopped when he saw the girls fighting. "Wait, never mind. I’ll stay awake for this..."
        Kevin and Brian laughed and the guys sat on Jenny’s bed to watch.
        "Don’t just SIT there!" Sarah yelped and smacked Nick with her pillow.
        "HEY!" he grabbed one too and hit her back.
        "You up for it?" Brian asked Kevin, his fingers on the edge of a pillow.
        "Sure," Kevin laughed and Brian hit him.
        "Cheater!" Kevin shot up and grabbed a pillow.
        "GUYS!" Howie and Cathy showed up at the door. A pillow was thrown their way and they both ducked.
        "Alright, who threw that?!" Cathy demanded, picking up the pillow. Everyone stopped and pointed to someone else.
        "What’s going on?" AJ yawned as he and Lance joined the group.
        "Come on, guys! We've got plenty of pillows!" Hannah laughed and Julie sneaked up behind her and hit her. Hannah glared at her and hit her back. Lance laughed and picked up a pillow and nailed Hannah on the stomach. Julie started laughing and Hannah pouted. "No fair! Everyone’s ganging up on me!"
        "I’ll help ya!" Chin picked up her pillow and hit Julie and Lance who were about to hit her back when AJ hit them with a pillow.
        "Alright, you guys are getting it!" Julie whined. Everyone laughed and the pillow fight resumed, this time with everyone participating.

[later, at breakfast]
        "We haven’t had that much fun together since..." Lance paused.
        "A long time," Jenny sighed. She sat at the kitchen table with her bagel.
        "Cereal?" Cathy asked, holding up a bowl. Nick was standing next to her, pouring himself some as Kevin waited behind him.
        "I’d like some..." Howie breezed by her and took the bowl from her.
        "So how are things?" Julie turned to Jenny and Chin.
        "Well, good actually. Sorry I’ve been terrible at keeping in touch," Chin held up her right hand. "I promise to call every day!"
        "I don’t know about everyday, but I’ll call more than I have been. Three times a week...?" Jenny poked Sarah, who shot up and glared at her for the action.
        "Okay, maybe not everyday..." Chin blushed. "But I promise at least every other day!"
        "Hey guys, sorry to break the chain of good times but I just wanted to tell you I’m going to have to leave early," Jenny spoke up. Everyone glanced at Brian.
        "Jenny... that's not fair. Everyone is putting in a week at least. You can’t just go. That was part of the deal." Brian tried to hide the fact that he was upset. Before anyone could speak, he continued. "The deal," he laughed uneasily, "Maybe we shouldn’t even bother...is that it? Is that what you want? Break the deal? Forget meeting with people that somewhere in my past meant something to me? Do you even care? If anyone in this room doesn’t care about everyone else, then just say so!" Everyone’s eyes grew big as Brian plopped down in his seat.
        "I’m sure Jenny is just busy," Lance spoke up from where he had been silently standing. "She did end up coming though she thought she couldn't..." he tried to reason.
        "Fine. Leave. Just leave." Brian got up and stormed out of the room.
        "Man, what’s with him?" Nick took his seat.
        "Nothing is ‘with’ him!" Sarah defended, "He's just as upset as any of you guys would be if your supposed best friend was leaving early!"
        "What do you mean? 'Supposed'?" Jenny spoke up.
        "Are we? Are we really friends anymore? It’s all tension and arguing. It's been that way since the last couple broke up!" Sarah shouted, her anger getting the best of her. Chin bit her lip and AJ looked down.
        "I wouldn’t necessarily say that..." Chin said softly.
        "Fine. When did it start?" Sarah crossed her arms. Chin shifted her eyes to her lap and bit down harder on her lip. "No, wait, maybe it wasn't with the last couple. How's about the first? Or when the guys decided to take a break? Was tension festering even before that!?" Her voice was rising.
        "Sarah, calm down, okay? Everything will be fine." Howie walked up behind Chin put both hands on her shoulders.
        "That’s what everyone says..." Sarah shook her head. "When? When will it happen?"
        "Soon?" Hannah finally spoke up.
        "Guys, let’s all relax," Lance soothed.
        "That’s easy for you to say! You and Hannah are together!" Sarah couldn’t stop now. Everything that she had bottled up was getting the best of her.
        "What’s that supposed to mean!?" Hannah demanded. Lance placed a hand on her back, hoping she wouldn’t shoot up from her seat.
        "It’s true," Nick said slowly. "Everything has fallen apart. No matter what we say, what we pretend is okay... Everything isn’t. There are always the reasons why everyone broke up...and that’s, like, I don’t know... making the air heavy--"
        "And hard to breathe..." AJ glanced at Chin and she looked away.
        "I’m out of here... before I say something I’m really going to regret." Sarah stepped out of the room. A few minutes passed before anyone said anything.
        "Is this why I flew here from Paris?" Chin asked, looking up. "So we can all yell at each other until every single ounce of love is squeezed out of our hearts?" Chin shook her head. "Excuse me..." She walked out of the kitchen and we heard her footsteps run up the stairs.
        "I’ll get her," Howie sighed and went after her.
        "And I’ll get Brian," Julie stifled a sigh and muttered as she left the room. Nick made an attempt to get up and follow Sarah.
        "I got it..." Cathy spoke up, motioning for Nick to stay. Everyone else in the kitchen just sat there, unsure of what they could possibly say to save the day from being swallowed up by awkward moments and glares and of course... hate.

        "Chin?" Howie knocked on the door.
        "Come in," she said from the other side.
        "Hey... you okay?" Howie asked, walking in. Chin nodded; she was at her desk doodling.
        "You know how things are," she shrugged, "Yell and yell until one of us cries and then... next time we see everyone, everything is 'okay'..."
        "You know, AJ still cares about you a lot..." Howie glanced at Chin, figuring the subject was a dead end. "So...What are you drawing?"
        "What am I always drawing?" Chin smiled.
        "AJ?" Howie joked.
        "No!" Chin blushed and showed Howie the paper.
        "Nice dress..." Howie handed it back.

        "Guys... I’m sorry," Brian apologized, once everyone had returned to the kitchen.
        "Yeah...me too." Sarah looked at her feet.
        "Me three." Chin smiled.
        "Yay, everyone’s happy now!" Cathy smiled. Sarah wondered if that was really true...
        "What are we going to do today?" Nick changed the subject.
        "Bowling?" Lance suggested. Everyone in the room groaned and Jenny threw the remainder of her bagel at him.

[Later]
        "...Yeah, baby--I'll be home in a week...I'm sorry, I know you wanted to come...But...yeah...I know...you understand? Ok...look, I gotta go...they're all prolly wondering where I am. Bye, baby," Nick hung up after finishing a small conversation with his present girlfriend. "Present" meaning he had had numerous since breaking up with Julie...no one had met any of them, however--except Brian and Howie, who had run into one of two at the company when the girl-of-the-week had visited Nick. This one had wanted to spend time with Nick and even asked to come along for the reunion, but he had decided against it...no need to bring even more tension and awkwardness into the picture...
        "Was that Alice? No, wait...Mariah?" Brian asked, walking into the room to get something from his bag. Nick whirled around.
        "You scared me, man." Nick put a hand on his chest.
        "Maybe Gina?"  Brian offered. "Or Sally?"
        "It was Anne," Nick grumbled.
        "Sorry...lost track, you know," Brian shrugged, rummaging through his bag. Nick narrowed his eyes.
        "Brian, I never gave you shit when you were being mister Rico Suavé before you finally realized you loved Jenny," Nick hissed. Brian looked up. "So don't make this hell for me."
        "Nick, you're being worse than I was. Face it. And you HAD Julie before this. That's the difference," Brian shot back. Before Nick could respond, Chin opened the door.
        "Do you guys know where AJ is?" she asked; she no longer called him Alex.
        "Why would you care?" Nick snapped, his anger at Brian rerouted to Chin.
        She felt like yelling "What is that supposed to mean?" but opted not to. She looked at him, trying not to glare. "He left his laptop in the kitchen. I was just wondering if he needed it."
        "We don't know where he is. Keep looking," Brian stated and returned to his search.
        Chin thought about giving both of them a piece of her mind, but decided not to. She sighed, shook her head, and left the room. If this was what she had to deal with, she'd have to. Nick and Brian had been cold to her ever since April...Only Howie and Kevin knew why Chin had broken it off with AJ...but she wasn't about to go tell Brian and Nick. She didn't know how to, especially not at this point. If they felt like verbally abusing her, she'd handle it. AJ was safe, and that was all that mattered...

[That evening]
        "Air..." Sarah muttered out of the blue.
        "What about it?"
        "It’s still heavy..."
        "I thought we all dropped it this morning...?"
        "No...Come on, Kevin. You know we didn’t. It’s still in our heads..." Sarah sighed and dangled her feet over the edge of the pool, making ripples in the water with her movement. Both were outside, having finished dinner.  The others were scattered about in the house.
        "You don't think everyone else is feeling better?"
        "No...and I’m afraid of that. There is always this freaking thing in the air. Every fight everyone had... it’s there. Waiting for the day all of us give up..." Sarah bit her lip and stared hard into the water. Silence followed. "Kevin?"  Her eyes didn’t leave the shimmering water.
        "Yeah?"
        "Do you think we’ll ever really be 'okay'? That we will reach the point where it doesn’t matter how much we fight... It’ll never get to us? We’ll never break and fall down? And we’ll finally be happy? ...Together?"
        Kevin glanced at Sarah. How could he try to assure her that it would--it had to--end up okay? ...How could he assure himself?
        "Of course... It’ll just have to be something pretty damn powerful to make us all drop our egos and go running back to that happiness we once thought we’d have forever..." Kevin paused and smiled. Little did he know that it would indeed take a big event to make everyone care again... "Until then, we always have the pool to bring us back to the normal level."  He grinned and shoved Sarah into the pool...but she was ready for him... and he was dragged in too.