Chapter 24: Chapter 24

I didn't think it would be this warm in September. Kyle and Mark took the cooler out of the trunk and led us down the path to the lake as soon as we got there.

I started to sweat after walking for two minutes. I didn't like the way it looked, and it made me want to swim even more.

We were headed to the beach, but the clones beat us there. Kent said something under his breath as we got closer to the clearing between the trees. I felt better knowing that Abby, Chase, Darren, Ellis, and Sydney had also gone on the trip.

Abby runs up to me with a big smile as soon as I get there.

"Yay! I'm so glad you came,Julianna!" I find it funny when she squeals. ""This is the best thing:"

"I'm glad to see you again. I smile, and so does she.

"Come on, set down your towel, and let's start our day at the beach!" She is very firm. One cooler is from Mark and Kyle's apartment, and the other is from Abby's. People start to set out chairs, beach blankets, and towels.

I sat down next to Abby, took off my sandals, and dug through my bag to find the sunscreen.

"Hey Julianna." I hear that Chase sits next to Abby.

"Hi:' I smile.

"Abby, could you help me carry this?" If I ask her, she gives me a smile.

"Yes, can you also do mine?" She asks me, so I get up from where I was sitting on the towel, take off my hat, and throw it down. She gets up, too, and I take off my t-shirt and shorts.

"Here, hand it to me." She tells me to give it to her, so I do.

When I looked at her, I was a little bit jealous because I wished that was how I looked in a swimsuit. But I had to remind myself that she was an athlete and I didn't have to look like her, even though I kind of wish I did.

"Ugh:' When I hear her grunt, I look over and see Piper pulling her dress over her head. This makes me feel jealous once more. If I wore her bikini, I wouldn't be able to breathe without being afraid that one of my breasts would fall out. Piper, on the other hand, was thin, had a small body, and was narrow. We were as different as could be.

She tells Chloe, "Get up, you know I don't look good like this," and I see Chloe stand up holding her iPhone.

"Every minute, Piper has a photo op." I make a funny face when she tells me. I hear her open the tube of sunscreen and start rubbing it on my back and shoulders.

"Emma, come to this one with me." Piper tells Emma what to do, and I see her skip happily over to her and make a peace sign with her.

"I wish I looked like that." When I say something angry, she laughs.

"How are you, Julia?" As she asks, she laughs. "Here's some bad news: most guys care more about how you look than what you say.

"I thought guys liked skinny girls more, I'll say that. My body has changed since I was in high school. I used to be smaller, but my second and third years of college made me bigger. I finally started using birth control, which made a lot of my problems go away.

I found out I had PCOS a few months ago. Because of the hormones, I was getting a lot more bloated, holding my weight in my stomach, and eating more. My body made more estrogen because of the birth control, which kept the side effects from getting worse. Since then, more of my weight had moved to my hips and breasts, but some of it was still around my stomach.

I didn't think I was big, but I was between a size 8 and a size 10, and I knew my body wasn't what was shown on billboards and magazine covers.

"Julianna, dudes like boobs." I laugh when she tells me I'm wrong. "Only women wish other women were thinner when they see them. That's not how men think." When she tells me something, I roll my eyes. "Okay, maybe some do, but you shouldn't hang out with those kinds of guys anyway."

"On that point, I agree with you." When I shrug, she laughs.

"You're finished, so please help me." She says this, and I smile and give her some sunscreen to help her.

Then I put some on the rest of my body and went back to my towel. I put on my hat again and put my clothes back in my bag.

"We're lucky this year because Julianna is a lifeguard and can save anyone who might drown." Mark tries to start a conversation by saying something.

Everyone in the group seems to be quiet, except Piper and her girls, who are running around the beach and taking pictures. I didn't know why, but everyone looked red, especially Chase and my roommates.

"What's going on?" Abby laughs and tilts her head back when I tell her something.

"Bikinis." I laugh when she says something back.

"You're a lifeguard?" When Chase asks, I tell him "yes." I thought I had told him that, but maybe all I had said was that I worked at the pool.

"Yeah, it's been like that for a while." I shrug. "I like this because it's a lot of fun." No, I don't think I've said that. Do people really forget so much when they wear swimsuits?

"Okay, let's raise a glass to the start of the new school year." Kyle says as he opens the coolers and passes out beers to everyone in the group. Everyone does what I do when I open the can. "Let's all have a drink because we all finished school!" What he says makes me laugh.

We all do it as well as we can at the same time, and I take a sip of the cool beer. When they toast, all of the drivers drink water instead of champagne, which makes me feel bad for them. Kent looks especially mad about it, and I try not to laugh.

"You guys are already drinking?" Piper grumbles as she goes back to the group and sits next to Kent. "Why didn't you wait until we arrived?" She asks as she gets closer, and he clears his throat and moves away.

We didn't want to stop the photo shoot for Vogue. Kent grumbles.

It was really something else to see them together. She was trying to cling to him like a snake. I almost laugh out loud when I think of Kent as a rat or even a hamster.

"What's making you laugh?" Abby asks as she lays down next to me on her towel. I shake my head.

I have to say, "Nothing."

But when I thought about how he always seemed bored when sober, I thought about what people said about him when he was drunk. I thought about how he pushed Piper up against the wall and stuck his tongue down her throat, which made me want to throw up.

"Alright." Mark takes a football out of his bag and says. "Touch football, let's start the game."

"Mark, every time you play football, this day gets worse." Abby sighs, rolls over onto her stomach, and rests her head on her arms. "This is supposed to make you feel better."

"Okay, Abby's leaving." He gives me a shrug and gets up, which makes me laugh. "Who is it?"

"I'm in." Kyle agrees. Both Chase and Darren nod. Ellis and Sydney are already walking down the beach, but Abby won't get up.

"Julianna? Will you do it?" I laugh when he asks me. Because I didn't run and didn't have good hand-eye coordination, this wasn't really my sport.

"Mark, I swim for a good reason." I laugh. "You guys have fun."

"Kent, you in?" He asks, and before Kent can say anything, Piper replies.

Everyone will take part. As she looks at her clones, she smiles, and they all eagerly nod.

I was already sweating from just lying here, so I couldn't imagine trying to run around. Plus, the guys would become very competitive.

They all get up and start talking about their teams, and I sigh as I pull myself up from the towel.

"Abby, do you want to go to the pool?" When I ask her, she laughs.

"Julianna, I was raised in a certain way. I'm going to sleep soon." She tells me this, and I laugh a bit.

"Suit yourself, see you in a bit." I smile and wave at her, and she waves back in a sluggish way.

I went for a walk to the lake. The stones at the bottom of the lake were smooth, so I didn't mind walking into it barefoot. I took one step in, and I could tell it was like bath water. Even this wouldn't give me the relief I needed right away.

I stood up to my waist in water and looked at the calm lake. Overall, it seemed like a pretty private place. I try not to notice when people argue at the beach. Someone is clearly not happy with their team. I put my money on Piper.

I hear someone step into the water behind me, so I quickly turn around and look over my shoulder. Kent did it.

He doesn't say anything as he walks in, which is pretty much how it's always been. Kent was the exact opposite of me when it came to filling awkward silences with words.

"No desire to play?" As he walks up to me, I ask him.

Kent was pretty big. Even though I was pretty tall, it seemed like he was almost a foot taller than me. He worked out at the gym because he had a big chest and big arms.

He says, "We were nine, which is an odd number." I don't look at her, and she doesn't look at me.

I decided to stay out of the way and let the guys play against the girls."

"Oh you didn't do that:" For the first time since he sat down next to me, I laughed and looked up at him. "They are going to kill those girls because of them." He laughs a little and smiles as if he already knows.

"Yes, I meant that." He shrugs his shoulders, and as I look back at the water, I roll my eyes.

"Well, Piper probably would have been happy if you and she could have played as one person. Like a baby harness holding her close to your chest:' I say this in a snarky way with my arms crossed. Kent laughs loudly, which isn't like him, and then quickly puts his hand over his mouth.

"That is an odd picture: When he talks quietly, I chew the inside of my cheek. "You don't like her, do you?"

He said, "She's not a nice person." I just shrug when I answer. "At least not to me."

"No one really likes her: After he says it, he rubs the back of his head.

The question is why Kent slept with her.