Toby and Ella are best friends, they have been since their freshman year of high school. Their senior year has just ended, they've tossed their caps and walked the stage. Now they anxiously await what comes next..
Toby has the chance of a lifetime...
"I'm drunk in the back of the car and I cried like a baby coming home from the bar. Said I'm fine, but it wasn't true..."
-T.S.
Three weeks after the huge graduation party, Ella and her family was heading down to the beach for vacation. They rented out a beach house on the shore in North Carolina. She brought along Lainey, just like she did every year.
Greg happened to be going to the beach the same week, just a different one from the girls. His family owned a beach house down in Florida that his parents planned on moving into once they retired.
Toby
Toby didn't have any vacation plans for the summer, his mom was busy with work so they usually could only go on weekend vacations.
Toby texted his friends in their group chat, wishing them all a safe drive and an enjoyable vacation.
"thanks toby!! will send pics :)" Ella responded. Toby smiled and put his phone in his pocket.
He grabbed the current book he was reading, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Toby was a big reader, especially over summer break. He liked how quickly it passed the time, and how it transported him into another world.
This world was the 1920s, which many people make out to be better than it was. It annoyed Toby that people referred to 2020 as the start of the roaring 20s, if anything that's far from what people want to occur again. Unless you're rich of course.
Toby read a couple chapters before pulling his phone out of his pocket to check his notifications.
"thanks dude, will send surfing videos," said a text message on his screen that was from Greg.
Toby was bored, so he scrolled through the group text for a bit, reliving some old moments.
He began to notice Maurie hadn't said much in the group recently. She should have been back from vacation by now, maybe she'd been busy with summer homework.
Scrolling up a bit more, Toby saw the pictures Ella and Lainey had sent from the graduation party they had thrown. Toby tried not to think about that night, and the huge secret he was keeping for his friend's sake.
He had no clue if he was doing the right thing by not telling Lainey. But Greg was his best friend, and he didn't want to betray his word.
Ella
We had finally made it to North Carolina after a very long and tiring bus ride. I was more than ready to get out of the car and stretch my legs.
The house that was in front of us was perfect. It was a beach house that could sleep ten, with a pool in the back and a path leading right to the beach. It was the perfect summer escape.
Lainey and I grabbed our bags from the trunk of the car and then ran inside, we both had wanted the first pick of a bedroom. We went up to the second floor and found a cute room with pale blue walls. Inside of it was a bunk bed and a loveseat. It was decorated with pictures of sea shells and the ocean.
"I think this is the one!" Lainey said proudly. "It's a lot like when we were young...we were obsessed with bunk beds."
"I love it!" I replied and grabbed Lainey's hand, "it will be just like when we were little!"
We laughed and raced towards the bunk beds. I took the top bunk, while Lainey took the bottom, like always.
Greg
My parents and I got off the plane and instantly we were in sunny Florida, the best place to be in the summer in my opinion.
My dad rushed us through the baggage claim, wanting to get to the house as quickly as possible so he could check his computer for any emails he may have missed on the flight. Fun start to vacation huh?
My dad grabbed the keys to our rental car, a four door Jeep, the usual.
We found our car for the week and loaded all our things into the trunk. Then I hopped in the back and got myself settled for the drive to our beach home.
The house was just as we had left it, except for the one or two things misplaced by the renters we had had throughout the year.
We didn't rent our house much, but it's always nice to have a little income coming from a house we don't use all the time. At least that's what my parents said.
I went up to my room and unpacked my things, while also moving a few things around that had been misplaced.
I looked out my window, and I was people unpacking into the house next to us. We didn't know the people who rented that house, it seemed like they were never there honestly.
I took a closer look at one of the vacationers and saw a familiar face.
It was Ruby Castell.
The girl from my grade, but also, the girl I had kissed at that party.
The kiss Lainey didn't know about, and the kiss I had thought about every day since then.
Fuck.
She waved, apparently she had seen me looking down from my window. I waved back awkwardly, and stepped away from the window on to my bed.
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A/N: this is a short chapter bc i rlly needed to just post it and move on lolz
