Everyone Talks

1 - Rumor Has It

The sun beating down on Nellie's skin was just on the verge of being too much. It was that sweet spot. Warm enough that you might just fall asleep, even though the sweat was pretty much coming out of every pore. She was fairly sure she was burning but couldn't quite muster up enough energy to care. She'd get to the sunscreen in a minute.

Her foot, slowly cutting through the crisp water over the edge of the dock, kept her cool enough as she pulled in another deep breath and slowly let it out.

It was the perfect summer day.

"Did ya'll hear the latest on CreekTalk?"

And there it was. The one thing that could put her in a mood faster than anything.

Nellie squinted her eyes open before sitting up and looking over at one of her best friends. Emory sat on a towel next to her, her cat-eye sunglasses up on her forehead as her nose practically grazed the screen of her phone. Her red and white polka-dot bikini reminded Nellie of an old advertisement from the 40s or 50s. She was surprised that even after a few hours at the lake, Emory looked completely flawless from the tip of her red toes, up her sepia body, to her curly hair kept in place with a bright blue scarf.

Nellie reached for her scratched-up sunglasses and pulled them on, scowling when Emory finally looked at her.

"Come on. You're tellin' me ya haven't checked it all summer?"

"Nope." Nellie turned and lay back on her towel, adjusting her plain black two-piece from Walmart. "I don't even have that damn app."

"We all know it's a buncha shit," called out Charlie, the last part of their trio.

"Not always. Remember last year when it said that Tony Wilkins was busted for growin' weed in his barn, and it was true!" Emory protested.

"I knew Tony was gonna get busted before CreekTalk did," Nellie drawled. "The whole town knew he was gonna get busted."

"No fair. Insider info," Emory snapped.

Nellie snorted as she looked over at her friend.

"Dad doesn't tell me anythin'," she replied. "As I said, the whole town knew. He couldn't keep his mouth shut to save his life. Outside that, most of it is just made-up crap that no one really cares about."

"Okay, but what about that party over the summer? The one where someone went to the hospital," Emory pushed.

Nellie looked over, frowning. She hadn't heard anything about that, which was odd. Usually something like that spread all over town and had at least five different versions.

"That was on CreekTalk?" Nellie asked. Emory shrugged and looked back down at her phone.

"Yea, but it was durin' my theater camp in Connecticut, so it was already old news by the time I got back," she replied.

"Doubt it was serious. Ida had an hour-long lecture with Dad if it had been." Nellie huffed and closed her eyes.

Nellie heard the wood of the old dock creak and groan. Then, without warning, there was a loud whoop just before she was completely doused in lake water. Both Nellie and Emory squealed as Nellie shot up and shook her light brown hair out before looking to see Charlie bobbing in the lake, laughing loudly. She swam up and pulled herself up to rest her arms on the dock, her long, tawny legs kicked out behind her.

The two looked over, finding Emory with her arms crossed and an utter look of exasperation on her face. Nellie rolled her eyes.

"Fine. What does it say now?" she asked.