Switching out her long white T-shirt, she picked a pink one that matched her navy gym shorts with pink writing. They were her favorite workout shorts with the words BEAST MODE printed on the butt and thigh. They were highly motivating even if somewhat comical.
Coming down the wooden stairs, a few more voices became audible. She turned the corner into the large open kitchen and saw everyone was stirring. Her mother, Erica, a still stunning blue-eyed blonde in her early 40s, reached out to her with open arms.
“Emmy, how’s my new graduate?”
She hugged her mother. “Feeling good.”
Erica stepped back and looked her daughter up and down. “I can’t believe you’re an adult now.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Mom, I’ve been an official adult for almost a year now.”
“Yeah, but now it seems so official.” Erica waved her hand. “Oh, you’re making me feel so old. Before long I’m going to be the mother of a twenty-year-old.”
Her father, Roland, a skinny ginger-head with a reddish-blond goatee that he always kept perfectly trimmed, sipped a glass of orange juice. “Morning, kiddo. Ren was just telling me about your change of plans.”
Emily thought for a second. “Oh, yeah, we might be going to Virginia Beach instead. We’re waiting to hear back from Tyler, but I think she’ll be okay with it.”
“Fer—sho,” Ren replied. “She don’t need to work, being all rich and stuff.”
Roland poured a fresh glass of juice and handed it to Emily. “You’re going to be smart about this, right?”
“Of course, Dad, we’re always smart.” She winked at him.
“I suppose you are.” He took a bite of his breakfast bar. “Why’d you change plans?”
Emily raised her head towards Ren. “It was her idea. But it’s nice there. Remember we were there a couple years ago for that tourney?”
Roland nodded. “Oh yeah, you played at that crappy rink with the horrible ice.”
“The ice was okay until the Zamboni broke during that second game and they couldn’t clear the ice between games.”
“Ugh, that was horrible to watch,” he replied.
“It was worse to play on, trust me. It’s no fun pushing the puck through slush and tripping over ruts for sixty minutes.”
Ren’s phone alerted her and she looked at the screen. “It’s Tyler, she’s in. So we got all three on board.”
“Sweetness,” Emily replied. She looked at her mother. “Mom, can I ask a favor?”
Erica gave her the mother-eye. “You can ask.”
“Well, since we’re going to be there an extra two days, longer drive, we could use some extra space. So, wanna swap cars with me for the week?”
Erica crossed her slender arms and gave Emily that look only a mother can give. But after a few second of Emily using her patented please mommy face, Erica softened. “I suppose, but I expect it to be cleaned and full of gas, just as it is right now, when you’re done with it.”
“Awesome. Thanks, mom. My car has a full tank of gas, so you’ll be set for the week.”
Erica cleared her throat. “And?”
Emily looked at her. “And what?”
Erica raised her brow and tilted her head.
“Oh yeah.” Emily went over to her jacket, and took out a twenty dollar bill, and handed it to her mother. They had a rule. If Emily used her car, she had to not only clean it, but fill it with gas and buy her mother lunch. It was an agreement they made after Emily used their old car, and her friends spilled some food in the back, which she never cleaned up. It eventually attracted a mouse that ran up her mother’s leg one day while she was driving. She nearly crashed off the road. So as punishment, all future uses of her parents’ cars included this agreement.
Erica plucked the twenty from Emily’s hand. “Why thank you. I think I’ll go to the sushi bar with Holly.” She plunged the cash into her jeans pocket and danced out of the room like a true goofball.
Emily rolled her eyes and started digging up something to eat.
After a short breakfast, Emily and Ren headed upstairs to pack. It was a bonus to have such a cool set of parents. Her mother had a brand new Toyota SUV, which would be welcome with five girls packed inside. They would have made it okay in Katie’s Saab wagon, but this way they’d be totally comfortable, and they’d have air conditioning and a fully working stereo, neither of which were fully operational in Katie’s Saab. The old Saab had an FM radio and a CD player that wouldn’t eject the Linkin Park CD that’s been in there for a year. Granted, Emily liked Linkin Park, but how long can you listen to the same CD?
The biggest bonus was Emily would get to drive the whole way, which she loved. Being the driver was always more fun than sitting in the back.
“I don’t need much luggage,” Emily said as she started tossing clothes on her white bedspread. “I’m packing mostly bathing suits and sneakers.
“Uh-ya, I don’t plan on taking my bikini off all week.” Ren tossed a red bikini onto the bed. “I’m so borrowing that one.”
“That top is not going to hide your giant cans.”
“Duh, that’s the point.”
Emily wasn’t exactly small on top. She had enough to make the point. But Ren was a solid cup bigger. Emily was much more athletically built, but oddly, they could swap clothes pretty often. Sometimes a size six was too small for Ren and too big for Emily, but other times they could both wear it.
Trying on a neon orange bikini with yellow stripes, Emily held her blonde hair up on top of her head and posed.
Ren came up behind her. “Oh, I like that one. I may have to buy some new bathing suits. I don’t plan on wearing anything but for the week. Did I already say that?”
“Me either. And yes, you did.”
Ren laughed. “Okay then. I’m going to pack a few nicer things, just in case, maybe like one sundress.”
Emily nodded. “I’m going with jean shorts and T-shirts exclusively.”
Ren gave her a coy smile. “Yeah, who am I kidding?”
“I don’ t know. But anything we do will be on the beach or boardwalk.”
“Oh, this is so dorky,” Ren said, “But I’d like to rent bikes and ride the whole length of the boardwalk.”
Emily nodded. “That’s actually a cool idea. I remember how long that thing is. But we might be on our own with that one. I doubt the girls will want to do that.”
“So be it.”
They finished packing.
***
They dropped their few bags by the front door. Emily was able to get everything into her backpack and her gym bag. She wore a pair of short denim shorts and an orange V-neck T-shirt. On her feet were her favorite orange and white Reebok sneakers.
Her father hated these small T-shirts. “Too tight, too much cleavage, and too much stomach,” he’d said, but the older she got, the less annoyed he was. Or he just learned to accept it over the years. Form-fitting clothes were just more comfortable. If she could live in her gym clothes for the rest of her life, she would. She worked hard on her physique and had no shame about her body. A lot of girls struggled with body image—she used to be one of them a few years ago. But being a total gym-rat had some benefits and being fit was something she took seriously. It was a way of life she’d consciously chosen and keeping her body in peak physical condition was fun. It was a daily challenge against herself. She didn’t go overboard in her eyes, but some people felt otherwise.
Ren wore pretty much the exact same thing, except her T-shirt was black and a bit longer and lower cut; her shorts were a bit shorter, and she opted for pink Nike sneakers.
They headed into the kitchen to get some snacks for the ride. Harry, her father’s best friend and longtime next-door neighbor, stood in the kitchen. “Ladies,” Harry said. “Getting ready for the trip?”
“You bet,” Emily replied.
Roland came into the room with Erica close behind.
“Are you girls almost ready to go?” Erica asked.
“Almost,” Ren replied, “just need some travel snacks.”
“Hey, Harry.” Emily asked. “Is your old Mustang still for sale?”
Harry nodded. “Yeah, it is. I’ve had no good offers. I may just keep it for a while. I’m not going to give it away.”
“Remember when you did that burnout and the cops came right around the corner?” Ren said.
They laughed. Harry just shook his head and said, “Talk about your all-time screw-ups.”
“Yeah,” Roland added. “That cop was so pissed at you. I thought he was going to blow a gasket.”
“I love that car.” Emily picked a green grape off the bunch and popped it into her mouth. “You should buy that for me, Dad, as a graduation gift,” she joked.
“Sure,” Roland replied. “I’ll just ask Yale for the deposit money I sent them. You can have the Mustang instead of a college degree.”
Emily raised a thumb up. “Awesome, I don’t really want to go to college that badly, anyway. Besides, I’ll probably be done with school in three years. A convertible ‘66 Mustang, on the other hand, lasts a lifetime.”
“Three years!” Harry exclaimed. “Geez, kid, take your time, savor it. You’ll appreciate it. Don’t be in such a hurry to grow up.”
Emily shrugged. “I never thought about it like that. But I’ve planned out my curriculum and it maps out in three years. I don’t plan on taking summers off.”
Ren tossed a box of crackers into a plastic bag. “Not me. I’m going to party every summer and drag this sucker out for five or six years if I have to. I might just go to college forever.”
“See?” Harry said. “Renner has the right idea. You’ve got to enjoy these years, Emily, they go by so fast. College is only going to last so long, and before you know it, you’re in some crappy job, or your business is sinking and your wife is divorcing you for everything you’ve got.”
Roland stepped toward Harry. “Harry? Are you kidding me? Arlene is divorcing you?”
Harry nodded. His naturally sad, dark eyes looked even sadder than usual. “She filed a few days ago. She’s packing right now and said she’s moving back to Texas to her sister’s.”
Roland nodded to Erica, who moved over to Harry. “Do you want me to talk to her? I should go talk to her. I’m going to talk to her.” Erica left the kitchen via the back door to the deck. Roland put his arm around Harry and led him out of the room.
“Wow,” Ren said to Emily. “That’s a shocker.”
Emily blew an audible breath. “Seriously. I almost feel a little bad leaving.”
“Yeah, I can imagine.”
“Harry and Arlene are like family. They’ve lived next door for fifteen years.”
Ren propped up the plastic food bag and dropped a few bananas and oranges from the fruit rack on the kitchen island. “How come you were never friends with their daughter?”
“Cheryl?” Emily shrugged. “We were friends a bit when we were real young. Dunno, I guess since she’s a bit older we grew apart quickly.”
“She’s like four years older, right?”
“Yeah, when we were freshman she was a senior, but she missed a year of school for some reason when she was young and was like a year older than her class.”
Ren nodded and made a face. “All I remember is that she was a bitch.”
“Renner, that’s not nice.”
“Might not be nice, but it’s true.”
“We didn’t run in the same groups, anyway.”
“Where’d she go to school?”
“I think ASU, but I’m not sure what she’s doing now. Last I heard she was going back to get her master’s or something. They don’t talk about her much.”
“I looked at ASU, big party school.”
Emily nodded. “It’s apparently the most popular plan-B school in the country. Or so they said on the news the other day.”
“Plan-B for you, maybe, but you’re a genius.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “I’m not a genius.”
“You got good grades.”
“You don’t need to be a genius to get good grades in high school. You just need to show up, pay attention and do the work.”
Ren turned a frown. “I showed up, I sort of paid attention, I kinda did the work. Sometimes.”
“You need to try harder than that.”
“I tried hard.”
Emily put her hands on her hips and directed a scowl at Ren. “Renner, you tried to get by.”
Ren pointed at her and opened her mouth wide. “I knew it. You were talking about me in your speech.”
“You were paying attention.”
“Uh-yeah, of course I was. My best friend was speaking in front of the whole class.”
“You could’ve gotten better grades—you’re really smart, too.”
Ren twisted her lips to the side and stuck her tongue out. “Maybe I like being a punk.”
Emily laughed. “Dork.”
Ren played air guitar and made the universal heavy metal sign with her hand.
Chapter 4
Emily was a little upset her little brother Adam didn’t even stick around to say goodbye. He still had three years left of high school and was in that phase where family didn’t mean anything and you just wanted to get away from them. That phase was short-lived for Emily. In fact, it almost didn’t exist.
She brought the SUV to a stop in front of the small green ranch-style house and honked the horn. Tyler, a curvy long-haired brunette with brown eyes, came bounding down the steps with a scream and a fist pumped into the air.
“What did she yell?” Emily asked.
Ren laughed. “I think she said ‘VB here we come.’ But maybe it was ‘PB with some rum.’”
Katie, a tiny honey-blonde with a purple streak of hair followed Tyler, and finally there was Rachel, an auburn-haired scowl-faced girl who stood at a statuesque six-feet. She was the tallest girl in the group, towering over Ren and Emily by a good five inches.
The girls piled into the SUV and Emily headed to the highway. While the chatter spilled and the music played, Emily kind of zoned out a bit on the road. It wasn’t uncommon for her to spend time in her head and her friends recognized the mood.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to take part in the fun, it was just that for some reason she was being introspective. Maybe it was the long miles of road ahead of her, both literally and figuratively. She was so excited about her future that impatience to get started was making her a bit edgy. As much as she wanted to go to college, part of her just wanted to get it over with.
Taking a few deep breaths, she pulled herself back into the moment. It was time to enjoy it. The future was coming no matter what, so there was no reason to hurry it. Maybe Harry had a point there. If it was one thing he was good at, it was enjoying life. He was always the first to suggest a party and when they put their pool in, he made it known that his pool was their pool. He said he hoped it would spawn a party every weekend, and it usually did.
First thing to do was enjoy this week, starting now. The drive would take a lot less time with these four lunatics distracting her. She glanced around at her friends.
Katie was quiet, but could crack up an entire room with a subtle comment. She was a cute petite little thing, barely a hundred pounds, that guys just seemed to fall all over. She and Ren were friends going back many years as Katie’s mom and Ren’s mom both worked at the same law office. Katie wasn’t going away to college right away. She was staying home, working, and taking a few classes at the county college for now. She said she didn’t want to waste money on a degree when she didn’t even know what she wanted to study yet.
Tyler was a short and curvy Italian, but she was larger than life, always the center of attention and the first one to rile up the group. She was captain of the softball team and was heading off to Florida State University in a few weeks.
Rachel was the only other girl who was on Emily’s hockey team. She was also the biggest player on the team and played a mean defense. E
mily might have been the fastest skater on the team, but Rachel had a slap-shot that could scare the boy’s team goalie into the fetal position. She wasn’t much of a talker, but she was a real nice person who would always stand up for her friends. Unfortunately for her, she seemed to be one of those girls that the guys usually ignored, maybe because she was taller than most of them, or maybe because of the permanent scowl that seemed to always be on her face. She was neither as mean nor uncomfortable as her face indicated.
They were a pretty cool group of girls, but none of them had the bond that Emily and Ren shared. They were sisters in every sense of the word.
“You okay?” Ren asked.
Emily nodded. “Just thinking.”
“Oh no!” Tyler said from the backseat. “Em is thinking again, we’re all in trouble.”
Emily smiled at her in the mirror. “No fear, Ty, I’m all done thinking.”
“Then blast that funky music, white girl!” Tyler yelled.
Emily turned the dial on the stereo and just enjoyed the moment.
***
After a long drive and a night filled with typical talk and not enough sleep, Emily waited for the right moment. The sun was already beaming through the large hotel room window, but the heavy shades were blocking most of it. She took hold of the plastic stick hanging down from the drapes, and yanked them open, flooding the room with millions of watts of sunlight.
“Wake up, chicas, the beach is calling us.”
Ren was already awake. She rolled off the bed and yelled, “Get up, sand whores, time to move.” She dug right into her bag. The others started to stir and Emily went over to her luggage and sifted through the wardrobe she’d brought. She put on a light blue bikini and pulled out a pair of denim cut-offs to wear over the bottoms, and a small white T-shirt with a black Reebok logo on the sleeve to wear over the top.
“You’re not going to wear that,” Ren told Tyler.
Tyler tilted her head. “What?”
“A thong? Seriously?”
“It’s not a full thong, it’s a partial. And why not?” Tyler twisted her brown hair up into a ponytail.
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