A/N: sorry it took me so long to write this, guys. I promise I will try to start writing more often! I have an idea where this is going so it will kind of be easier to write – I'm hoping. Just stay patient with me please! And review! :)

I ran as fast as my legs would take me to the ocean, trying to outrun Mr. Track-Star behind me. I was a few inches from the first wave when I suddenly jerked to the side and took off in the other direction. I never looked back but I could tell by the sound of the big splash behind me that Jet had fallen for my trick – or at least let me win. When I was about three yards away I turned back to see him sitting on his butt, soaking wet, with the waves crashing all around him.

Try as I might, I couldn't help but laugh. I knew he would give me hell for it but right now I couldn't bring myself to feel guilty. He just glared at me and shook his head.

"That was a dirty trick. You do know that, right?" Jet called to me from where he sat. He started to smirk at me and then just abruptly flopped onto his back in the water. Only a little bit of his face was above the water and some of the waves were submerging even those parts.

"Get up, looser, you're going to drown! Also, I wouldn't have done it if it was no dirty," I half-yelled from my distance away from him.

"You dirty girl. You are absolutely filthy, you know that right?" He asked, laughing. I just rolled my eyes and started walking back to the discarded juice containers. After a few minutes Jet followed me back and sat down next to me.

I just stared at Jet and wondered if I should tell him about my repeating nightmare. It's not that I don't trust him, I do, but I just didn't want to worry him about a stupid dream. It wasn't like he could do anything about it anyways. The most he could do is say how it was just a dream or give me some kind of herbal rose tea or whatever to "chase the bad dreams away". I loved Jet like he was my brother but his love of herbal remedies just made me think he was a nut sometimes. He only recently got into that kind of stuff and I kind of wished he'd stop with it already and just prescribe Tylenol or something instead of his yucky concoctions. Since I knew he'd understand, I decided to just come out with it already. He'd just badger me about it later though because he could always tell how I'm feeling.

"I had that nightmare again. Don't bother asking what it was about because I told you I don't remember. The only thing I know was that I was drowning in the dream because I remember water and I woke up choking on water. Does that make me a freak? I mean who does that?" Towards the end of my little speech I started to panic. I knew Jet was too nice to actually call me a freak but I couldn't control myself. That dream just tripped me out. No one ever talks about waking up from a dream and having that dream carry over to real-life.

"Calm down. Are you absolutely sure? I mean, if you nearly died you'd think you would remember something. You couldn't have just been swimming in a pool or at the beach and then just casually drowned. You are the best swimmer in the state! Hell, Olympic trainers probably want to ask for your hand!" Jet ranted. He hated seeing me upset. He cared about me just as much as I cared about him. The fact that I wake up with actual water choking me didn't help matters much anyways.

The bad part was that I couldn't comfort him because I had no answers. I have never sleepwalked in my life and even if I had been lately my parents surely would have heard me clumping around the house – it's not like people are careful when they sleepwalk. The whole thing about me being a great swimmer was completely true. I actually had been contacted by an Olympic trainer recently. I would actually start training with him after this summer's games, provided I didn't drown in my dreams first.

I just bit my lip and avoided looking at him by staring around the beach. It was then that I realized there was a guy on the boardwalk watching us. I couldn't make out what he looked like but from his frame he was very tall and buff, definitely male. When he saw me looking he started walking towards us.

"Jet, there's some guy coming this way. He was watching us. He looks really tough," I whispered. I wasn't too worried since Jet was a boxing champ but there was a little part of me that worried about weapons or something that would give the strange guy some unfair advantage.

As soon as I whispered that to Jet, he shot up and glared at the stranger. The stranger paused for a minute under our stares before walking towards us even faster. I leapt up and moved behind Jet. What if this stranger wanted to harm us? Jet just squinted at him for a while. He broke into a small smile though when a moon beam shed some light on the guy's appearance a few steps away from us.

He was gorgeous. He was so tall! He had to be at least 6'4 or taller. I had to tilt my head all the way back to look at him. If I talked to him for a while my neck would start to hurt. He was wearing a plain, white t-shirt and a pair of tight-fitting black jeans. I was immediately turned on. That was the sexiest outfit a guy could wear in my opinion. What made my arousal grow though was the fact that this guy was buff! His biceps looked like they were as big as my head. His pecks stood out prominently against his shirt. The way those jeans hugged his legs made me sure that he was just as muscular below the waist as on top. He had to work out constantly to get a body that looked that good.

He had hair as black as midnight and skin that was like snow. His lips were full and sensuous and bright pink. That perfect shade of pink that most people need lipstick for and few people possess naturally. The first thought that popped into my head when I saw him was of Snow White. He looked like he could be her brother with such a stark contrast between his hair and skin. When I looked harder, I discovered he had light purple eyes.

So strange, I thought to myself.

"Hey man, stop looking so damn creepy! You are scaring the hell out of Am!" Jet called with a smirk on his face. I relaxed a little because he knew the guy but I got confused too. We hardly ever hung out with anybody else this late at night so I didn't get why he was bringing someone completely knew to hang out with us this late. No matter how hot the guy is, it still made me feel weird.

I then realized what he had called me.

"Hey! You know I hate it when you call me that! My name is Amaranth! Am sounds so stupid."

"Payback. Now stop fussing and meet Poe. Poe, this is Amaranth. Amaranth, Poe." Jet motioned between us and Poe came closer to me and extended his hand. Nervously I took his offered hand and shook it.

When our skin met, tingles shot up my arm and my mouth actually started to water. I was actually drooling over the guy! It was so embarrassing that I nearly dropped his hand right then. I didn't though because I didn't want him to think I was some weird person to be avoided.

"Hello. If Jet would have told me such a beautiful lady was going to be here I would have left the DVDs in the car," he said with a sexy smirk and a twinkle in his eyes – which I now saw were an icy, glittery grey color.

"The DVDs?" For a second I was confused, and then I realized I was dealing with teenage boys. I felt stupidly embarrassed for a few moments. I was hardly the blushing virgin, though I was a virgin. I just wasn't embarrassed by it like most people were. I was actually proud my virginity, even if Jet teased me about it a lot.

I tossed away my embarrassment, though. I just rolled my eyes and kind of shook my head. I was used to that kind of talk hanging out with mostly guys all the time but that didn't mean I had to like it or be ok with it. I thought it was disgusting personally but to each his own.

"You probably should have. Do your dealings out by the car. It's not like you can watch them right now anyways," I quipped. I said it with a slight smirk to take some of the sting out of my words though. I didn't want to sound too mean to someone I didn't even know.

"You're a feisty little thing, aren't you? No wonder J likes you." J was a nick-name some of Jet's guy friends had given him since middle school. I thought it sucked but Jet didn't seem to mind. I like his name and didn't really think it needed to be shortened anymore than it already was. Jet said he didn't mind nick-names because it wasn't him that had to say the name all the time.

Poe's little comment about me being feisty hadn't escaped my notice either. A little thrill had run through me when he had said that. For some strange reason I liked this stranger praising me. It made me feel bolder somehow, like a shot of whiskey – not that I had ever tried whiskey before.

"Jet likes me because I'm his best friend; he has no other option but to like me. Thank you for your complement though."

While our little banter was going on Jet had taken the DVDs out of Poe's hand and started studying their contents. After smiling a bit, he tucked the DVDs into the loose part at the back of his jeans. I always thought that place was where hot cops but their guns but maybe I was a tad biased. I really didn't think it mattered either way but still.

"Friend, huh? Interesting. I have to make you mine then, don't I?" Poe said seductively.

He took a step toward me and bit down on that sexy lower lip of his. He tipped his down and then looked at me from under his lashes. It would have melted me to a pool of lusting nothing if it hadn't looked so ridiculous with his giant height and my munchkin height. Still, those eyes were pretty powerful.

"You can't make her yours. She is too stubborn for that. Don't talk that way about her either. I may not want her in that way but she is my best friend." Jet scolded. I thought it was sweet of him to protect me like that but I was a big girl. I could fight my own battles.

"If you want me then you are going to have to put in some work. I'm not some easy little slut, you know. I have standards." I put my hand on my hip and tried my best to look confident. It was a little hard with his smirk melting all my thought processes in my brain.

He only had two words to say to that:

"Challenge accepted."