The Necklace

1: The Beginning

Aww she's dreaming." 

"More like drooling."

"But she's so cute. We should write on her face. Where's your eyeliner?"                                                    

I hear Sienne start to rustle through her makeup bag and my eyes shoot open. 

"Let's not draw on my face while I sleep", I say while yawning. Sienne smiles at me and slowly lowers the eyeliner. 

"Good morning sleepy head!"

"We weren't doing anything wrong!", Kelly chimes in with her puppy dog pout in full effect.

Normally if someone tried to write on my face with eyeliner, I'd be angry, but Sienne and Kelly are my best friends so I honestly wouldn't expect anything less.

I wipe the sleep from my eyes and look around. We're on the way to Plato Beach and have been driving for hours. My friends and I just graduated college and to celebrate we decided to rent a beach house for the weekend. I'm in the car with Kelly, Sienne, Kelly's boyfriend Carter and my other guy friend Jesse. Sitting in the back between Sienne and Kelly seemed like a safe bet when I got in the car, but I guess 22 is not old enough to have outgrown pranks.

I look out the car window and see the old fruit stand my family used to pass when we'd visit Plato beach back when I was a kid. The first time we stopped there, the old woman that owns it gave me a free piece of watermelon and I begged to stop every time we drove down afterward. My dad would always oblige. The stand looks a lot smaller and older now that I've grown up, but it still has that undeniable country charm and the sweetest watermelon in the state.

"Are we there yet?", Kelly asks Carter, who has graciously agreed to drive.

"Almost babe, We're about 10 miles away."

I guess it wouldn't hurt to do some introduction. My name is Elina Warren. I'm 22 and just graduated from Catlan University. Don't ask me what I want to do because I honestly couldn't tell you at this point. I got my degree in psych because I thought I wanted to be a therapist, but now I'm not so sure. I'm hoping I can take the summer to figure out where I want to go and if I want to get my masters or just find a job. Everyone makes you feel like life has to be this linear process of go to college, find a job, get married, have babies, retire, etc. I did the first step, but is it so wrong to take some time and figure things out?

"We're Heeeere", Carter joyously yells. 

"Ugh, finally! Ellie and I call first dibs on picking a room!", Sienne yells.

Carter parks the car in the gravel driveway of the beautiful house we rented. It's only a block from the ocean, and you can actually see the water from the upstairs deck. We unload our luggage from the car and go inside. Sienne grabs my hand and we run upstairs to find the best room in the house. Each room has it's own little beach theme and we ended up picking the mermaid room, mostly because it had it's own bathroom.

We hear another car pull into the driveway and see that our other friends made it too, which is a relief because Mario was supposed to bring alcohol. Mario, Stephan and Stephan's girlfriend Gina pile out of the car and bring their luggage inside. While Stephan and Gina unpack, Mario unloads what looks like enough liquor to kill an adult rhinoceros into the fridge.

"I hope you guys plan on eating out, because there's no room for groceries" Mario said with a smirk. 

"Dude, we're only going to be here for like 3 days, what'd you bring all that liquor for?" Carter says, laughing.