Party boat.

Sydney walks into the diner ten minutes early and she's hardly surprised when she sees Roman already there, sitting in a booth not that far back. She waves at Jimmy behind the counter before heading to table five. 

"What would you say if I told you I knew you were going to be early?"

His eyes trail over the purple sun dress she decided to wear and the white sandals and she uses the time to scan him as well. He's wearing slacks and a shirt with the first few buttons undone, she always thought he never dressed his age but then remembered he comes from old money.

His tongue darts out to wet his lips as his eyes meet his "How early?"

She tilts her head slightly as she pretends to think "Twenty minutes?"

He smirks slightly "I'd say you knew me too well" he stands up before gesturing "Have a seat, gorgeous"

She smiles tightly as she sits down and he sits back down on the opposite side of the booth and they look through the menu. Sydney already knows it by heart though and tells Roman "I think you'd like the chili cheese burger"

He raises his gray blue eyes to hers "You reckon?"

She nods "But I do recommend a chocolate milkshake with it instead of a cold drink."

He stares at her in silence and her cheeks heat up in embarrassment, she sounds like a little kid telling him to have a milkshake but her embarrassment dies down when Libby comes to get their orders and he gets exactly that. So does she but with a strawberry milkshake. The diner isn't busy like it would usually be in the mornings so they don't have to wait long for their food.

"Thank you for meeting me." she says after a while

"It's not a problem at all"

And that's all he says. She's not sure if he's genuinely uninterested or he's just trying to let her take the lead on things. And for her own sanity, she chooses to believe the latter.

"How have you been liking Faircoast?"

"Amazing, I can't believe I've never been here. I definitely prefer this than my grandfathers"

"Oh, is that where you spend your summers?"

He nods "But like I said this is more…appealing."

"It is" she agrees before saying "The best part is surfing the waves"

"I wish I could agree but I don't surf"

Her mouth falls open "Being here and not surfing is an actual crime"

"You could always teach me" he winks

She smiles and entertains the idea for a moment before saying "We're going back home tomorrow"

He looks surprised "Is it because of…"

"Yeah." she clears her throat before sipping her milkshake "But the surfer store around the corner offers surfing lessons."

He shakes his head "I won't need it if I won't be here."

"Oh, are you leaving too?"

 He hums as he stares at him with a slightly tilted head "Why would I be here if you're not here?" 

So she was right. 

She licks her lips and his eyes zero in on it "Then it's good we're here. I figured we needed to talk before I left."

She knew Roman got an early acceptance at Yale, not because he was bragging but because the school showcasted the early acceptance students like it was a Broadway show.

He nods once then admits "I do quite like you, Sydney. I always did."

She blinks "You did? We literally never saw eye to eye, it was always a competition with us all because of a stupid piano."

His lips twitched "Just admit that you cheated and I should've been the one who played it."

"I did not!" she says in outrage.

She did.

The play for Bluedale needed a pianist and both she and Roman audienced for it, only he didn't make it because he got the dates wrong. Well, she may have used Brenda's computer while she was on lunch to send an email from the school to say his audicance got moved to another day, because of practical issues. That was the start of the competition between them.

He watches her with a crooked grin and she knows without a doubt there's no lying to him, he says "I think the thing I'll miss most about Bluedale is always having to look over my shoulder. I never knew when an angry kitten would try to scratch me"

She huffs out a laugh "I'm sure Yale has tons of women who'll challenge you."

His eyes darted between hers "They won't be you though."

Satisfaction flows through her veins at his words, the tone he used and the look in his eyes.

She bites her bottom lip "We can be in contact if you unblock me from Instagram"

He chuckles "Well if you insist."

She gives him a pointed look and they spend a while at the diner, bantering and retelling the pranks they did on each other and Sydney almost feels guilty for having fun.

Almost.

And at the end of the night when Roman walks her to her house, he asks if he can kiss her. She wants to say yes but figures that would just make things all the more complicated so she says no and he respects that, they hug tightly for the first time ever and he waits until she's safely inside before walking back to his hotel. As she walks past the main house to Woodsford she feels a twinge of regret that she didn't go with him.

*

"Do you think my brother and Daphne are staring at each other a little too much tonight?"

Sydney follows Ivory's eyes to Xavier who's glaring over the rim of his cup as he watches Daphne dance with a guy "They are always staring at each other."

Ivory's eyes snap to her and she slams her mouth shut, already having said too much "Spill. Now."

She brings her cup to her lips and drinks the last bit of her punch then saying "There's nothing to spill, Iv. It's pretty obvious that they share something, it doesn't take a genius to see that."

"Like a bond? I get that, you and him have a bond too because we all grew up together."

"Right but he doesn't look at me like that."

They turn back to Xavier just in time to see him shake his head at Daphne when she beckons him to dance, she ignores his protest and pulls him in either way. Ivory opens her mouth like she's going to say something but chooses to rather drink her bottled water.

"Are you done drinking for the night?" Syd asks her

"Uhhh….no. I just need to pace myself, because by the looks of it I'm going to have to make sure you girls get home safe."

Sydney snorts a laugh, so much for having a wild summer. But when she thinks about it, she hasn't seen Ivory with a beer yet and the time she had a cup in her hand Sydney is sure it was juice and not punch. 

Ivory looks into the far distance of the beach before suddenly saying "I have the most craziest idea ever."

Sydney raises an eyebrow as she watches her "Let me hear it."

Ivory turns to her, her green eyes sparkling with mischief "Why don't you and I head to the party boat?"

"What? No." she immediately says "We agreed we would not, Iv"

"I know, I know but we could just bribe the security to let us in before the people arrive and then we can look around. We won't actually have to go out into the ocean with them, aren't you at least curious to see it? The only boat I've been on is my dad's speed boat and that was tons of fun."

Sydney doesn't try mentioning that they've been on Daphne's dad's catamaran a handful of times too but she can't deny that she would like to see the party boat.

"Fine. Let me get Daphne then"

"No, leave her. She's having so much fun here, we'll be gone and back so quick no one will notice we ever left."

Sydney's eyes dart to Roman, his eyes have been on her the entire night but for once it's actually not. It's on the girl in front of him that he seems to be in a conversation with and she swallows the jealousy that rises. She throws one last look at Daphne who's laughing loudly as she shows Xavier how to wiggle his hips like an Hawaiian dance.

"Alright but we'll be quick"

They clasps their hands together before heading further down the beach until the party and the bonfire fades and the huge party boat comes into view.

The fucking party boat.

*

Daphne lies wide awake and her body is buzzing slightly because of the alcohol in her system -that she stole from her father's office because she couldn't find any in the kitchen- as she scrolls through the pictures on her phone that was thankfully loaded up to her cloud. Her finger paused on the photo from her eight year old birthday, well technically it was their eight year old birthday. She vividly remembers being sad over the fact that Sydney and Ivory were born a week apart from each other while she was born two months after. Seven year old Daphne was so afraid that her best friends would be closer and that they'll cut her off and Sydney and Ivory being the angels that they are, chose not to have parties for their eighth birthday and instead the three of them had a joint party two months later. On Daphne's eighth birthday. It may not seem like a huge deal right now but it meant the absolute world to little her knowing they decided not to celebrate their birthdays just so that they could celebrate it together. They are all leaving Faircoast tomorrow and her parents were surprised when she wasn't opposed to it like they initially thought she would be. She believes it's better this way.

Her lips tip up into a small smile as she looks at the photo of them having the same hairstyle in different colours. Red, brown and blond.

PowerPuff Girls.

She's broken out of her thoughts when she hears the soft sound of knocking and glances at her closed bedroom door, only to realize it's coming from her window and her eyes dart that way only to widen she sees Sydney standing on her balcony waving at her.

She heads over and opens the sliding door for her and closes it again once she's inside "Why the hell are you climbing the balcony?"

"The front door was locked and this couldn't wait until the morning." she let out a heavy breath, looking rather tired from the climb up to her room. 

Daphne frowns and ushers her to the bed "What's wrong?"

"I remember the night of the bonfire" Sydney blurts and Daphne's eyes widen but then Sydney rushes to say "Not everything though, just some fragments of it."

"Tell me" Daphne tugs her feet under herself as she sits next to her.

Sydney lets out a heavy breath "It turns out Ivory and I ditched the bonfire for the party boat" Shock goes through Daphne's body as she stares at her in disbelief and Sydney rushes to say "But we didn't stay on the boat" she pauses "At least I think we didn't. We agreed to just check it out"

Daphne's eyes narrow slightly "But?"

She swallows "I remember Roman said he caught me alone walking home. What…what if Ivory stayed there?"

Daphne blinks "Let's say she stayed at the party boat and went out into the ocean with it and fell overboard, how would it explain her purse being at Silverbrook?"

"I don't know" Sydney rubs a hand down her face "Maybe we should call the cops so that they can investigate it"

She makes a low sound of disapproval "Faircoast has a zero percent crime rate and you can't tell me you didn't see the relief on the police's face when they found out Ivory committed suicide. They don't want to investigate, because they fear the town will go batshit if they can't solve it."

Sydney's lips twist the side as she considers her words "Well what about the dads? We could tell them. They are lawyers, Daph."

"I know but do I need to remind you that one of them is Ivory's father? We don't need to open old wounds. And we could be wrong then we caused a whole lot of damage for nothing." 

She lets out a scoff "Something is definitely not adding up from that night, Daphne."

Daph goes quiet before suddenly saying "Then let's find out."

"What?"

"You heard me. We were with Ivory that night and according to your memories, you could've been the last person to see her alive, Syd. We can find the truth out ourselves"

Sydney stares at her with wide eyes "You're drunk."

"No, I'm not" she says defensively

"You are. I can smell the whiskey on your breath and your eyes are glazed over like it gets when you're tipsy."

She huffs and rolls her eyes "Fine, I may have drank a bit but I still stand by my statement. I highly believe no one knows Ivory better than us and if anyone can come to the bottom of what happened that night then it's you and me."

She shakes her head "We're leaving tomorrow."

"We don't have to." Daphne adds "You and I could stay, tell our parents we don't want to be anywhere else for the rest of summer."

She scoffs "As if they'd let us stay here on our own. Especially not after losing Iv."

Daphne had to agree with that but suddenly an idea pops into her head "We could convince Xavier to stay as well, it's not a secret that everyone finds him the most responsible one."

Sydney's head narrows in consideration "Do you think he will?" 

"For sure" she says without a doubt "It has everything he loves. A pool, a jacuzzi and a beach and I'm sure he'll love it even more when the parents aren't here." she glances at Sydney who is watching her with a small smile "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

She laughs softly and shakes her head "I never noticed before how invested you are in Xav. Christ, I don't even know how he takes his coffee and that is saying something, because I know how everyone takes their coffee."

"Two sugar and no milk." she blurts and her cheeks heat up when Sydney stares at her with her mouth ajap, she tries changing the subject before she makes a fool out of herself "So are we doing this or not?"

"Let's do it. For Ivory."

"For Ivory."