She had been so lost in thought that when Cam finally spoke up, she actually jumped. She turned a wide eye to him, feeling a smile pull at her lips with his words, and squinted her eyes shut when he reached over and gave her a quick hug.

"Should I be nervous?" she replied, putting an arm around his waist as she slid from the chair and tugged him toward the door of the diner. Allie wasn't around, so at the very least she knew that he wasn't scheming with his wonder twin.

As they exited the diner without waiting for word on Chelsea, Cameron stared down the street for a moment with his tongue jutting out partially between his lips, the tell-tale Ellis sign of absolute concentration in a moment. It was one that many had seen on the free-throw line of a basketball court, among many other places.

"Why would you be nervous?" He asked, looking over at her across the hood of the truck with a smirk and shrug of his shoulders. "When have I ever done anything? Now hurry up, get it. We're gonna have to work fast if we're going to get away with this."

With that, he jumped into the truck, fired up the engine and pointed it down the street, back toward the drive-in.

"Yessir." Lexi replied quickly, shaking her head as a smile grew on her face. Pulling the passenger door open, she slipped inside, slamming the door closed as Cam pulled off down the street.

There was silence again, but a different kind of silence. She could practically feel Cam's excitement rippling through the heated interior of the truck.

"So, no hints? No disclaimers? I don't need to sign a waiver or anything?" she teased, giving him a sideways glance and lifting a brow.

"No, I'm pretty sure that you already signed your soul away just by stepping off that bus the other day. Tough luck," he said as they made the drive out of town proper and back around the hill that eventually led to the site of the drive-in. The place was started to look a little cleaner, at least, although nothing like the social hub it had been for decades. The screen itself was competely torn off the railings, just metal framing left.

"There it is," he said as he pumped the brakes and pulled them to a quick stop in front of the old storage shed, the one they'd been dodging in and out of for days, the same one that had yielded all the home movies.

"I, well, yeah, but still...." she said as she watched the drive-in come into view. When they pulled to a stop, she tore off her hat, pulling her hair up and out of her way with a hairband before climbing out of the cab. She scanned over the drive-in theater, eyes fixated on a mess of broken-up concrete.

"Did...someone take the jackhammer?" she asked with a lift to her brow.

Cam's response was slightly less than one might expect from a grand mastermind attempting to weave an intricate thread of delicate pieces to recreate their collection history.

"We have a jackhammer? How the hell did we end up with a jac--" he allowed his voice to trail off as he ducked into the storage shed. If there was any semblance of organization in the work that had been done lately, it was all being undone in a matter of seconds as Cameron tore through, eventually calling out in success as his body reappeared though the door, this time dragging a heavy and massive tarp out that extended several times long than his own body.

"Found it!"

"Are we burying a body?" Lexi asked as she rushed forward to help him drag the massive piece of construction fabric out of the shed. With a grunt, she gave a final tug, pulling the tarp free, and fixed Cam with a quizzical look.

"I'm running out of ideas here, Cam, and creative guesses. What's got in you?"

Not that she minded. This was far nicer than mopey Cam.

The final force of the heavy tarp coming loose actually caused the boy to lose his balance and fall backward, landing on the cleared dirt beneath them.

"We," he said with a very matter-of-fact tone, as if Lexi should have somehow been in his head so much to this point that she would have been able to read the boy's thoughts, "are going to screen a movie. Here. Tonight."

It would have made for a good joke except for the fact that Cameron was already back in the shed, muttering something about rope.

There was a beat of silence.

"I, Cam?" she called after him, following him into the shed and standing rather precariously on the threshold. She didn't do spiders, and other creepy crawlies that liked to live in dark spaces such as this shed. That's what boys were for.

"You mean to tell me that we're going to hang the tarp? The two of us? You want my help for that?" she asked with wide eyes.

It was a recipe for disaster.

Outside of Alex, Lexi was about the last person that he would have asked for help for the simple reason that she was exactly the type that wouldn't want to get her hands dirty. Still, he didn't have a lot of options and it felt too damn good to have a plan not to take advantage of the situation now. He wasn't going to sit around and think anymore. That hadn't gotten him anywhere with anyone except saying good-bye.

"It's easy. I promise," he said with a coil of rope thrown over his shoulder as he emerged again. "All we've got to do is get this rope up and through the guideholes at the top of the metal frame and then string the rest of the tarp through it. You just...umm...call someone if I fall and break my neck."

"I, well, here." she looked around for a second rope. "If we do both sides at the same time it'll be easier right?"

So long as she didn't fall and break her neck, they'd be okay. Gripping the tarp, she laced her fingers around a large bundle and started to tug, making a hero's effort to get the tarp closer to the drive-in. Much to her surprise, it slid pretty well, even if it was slow going.

But dammitall, she was going to try her best.

“Howy thit! Ah faw oo eft!”

Geez, she'd only been gone overnight, and already Allie was looking back at her as if she was seeing a ghost. What did Cam tell her? Enough to make her and everyone else think that she wouldn't come back? Ugh, it didn't matter. She didn't want to dwell on it anymore, or relive last night. Could she completely avoid it and pretend it never happened? Of course not. She'd have to face that annoyingly stubborn boy again eventually. She had to, if she wanted to work things out and at least put their friendship at peace. And if she didn't want to truly work things out, she wouldn't have come back at all.

"Thanks, Allie. That means a lot. I'm sorry I didn't really...say goodbye to anyone. Rough night." She left it at, but it seemed she wasn't the only one with personal issues going on at the moment. She'd just been so involved in her own to really open her eyes and see it.

God, she couldn't believe how quiet it was in that big house, and they were only missing a few people. But she wasn't about to stand in that kitchen with Gabe and Allie, and just awkwardly stare at them while they all tried to force conversation. No, she needed to do something. They were all here for a purpose, right? Might as well get to work. And she could tell that she wasn't the only one who needed the distraction. Her, Allie, Gabe...they were all a mess. It was clear, when neither of them could look the other in the eyes for longer than a second.

"C'mon, let's get out of here. We can get some more work done at the drive-in." She felt Gabe looking back at her, questionably. "Okay, Gabe can get some more work done, while we watch." Brooke's lips curled in a smirk, and she jabbed him playfully before stepping deeper into the kitchen to grab a granola bar and an apple, and a large bottle of water. She was slowly starting to feel a little more like herself again, and she urged the others to hurry and follow so they get out of that stuffy, but beautiful house.


Upon arrival to the drive-in, Brooke would have had to be completely blind not to see Cameron's truck parked lazily between two spaces. Not that it mattered. But that truck parked there meant something completely different to her, than it did to Allie and Gabe. To her; It meant telling Cam that she was back. To them; It meant Lexi was here. She didn't know the significance of Lexi's presence around those two in particular, but again, she wasn't the only one with issues.

They all seemed to hesitate as they sat in the rental car and Gabe turned off the ignition. And Brooke was the first to let out a heavy breath of air, before she reached for the door. "We're already here, no turning back now, kids."

From her vantage point on the ground, Lexi had one of the ropes clasped tightly in her hands, making sure the length of it didn’t drag against the ground as Cam climbed the ladder, prepping to tie the corners of the tarp to the mounts for the theater screen. Biting her lip, she squinted through the curls of her bangs, feeling tendrils of sweat slip down her temples, on down her neck and beneath the collar of her blouse.

The work was making it easy for her to forget about the events of that morning. In fact, she stamped them down with her characteristic enthusiasm, focusing instead on the task at hand, hoping to God that Cam didn’t fall off that ladder, leaving her alone to contend with the other half that would surely end up spiting her in the end.

The sound of a truck pulling into the drive had her looking back over her shoulder, rising on her tiptoes in an attempt to see who it was. Allie maybe? Or Gabe? What were they planning on doing over here anyway?

She was about to turn to warn Cam, when a sudden flash of blonde hair behind the glare of the windshield had Lexi riveted to the scene as the car parked, dust floating around the tires in an ominous cloud.

It couldn’t be.

“Cam…” she said, still facing the trio as they began to unload out of the truck. She tugged on the rope once, to get his attention.

“Cam, look…”

It appeared as though Brooke was…back!