Taken By The Beast

Chapter 3

"He's always calling you ugly, is passive aggressive in the way that he always slams your textbooks out of your hand and pulls your chair out from underneath you as you're going to sit down, has dated 3 different girls in the span of a week prior to dating you, when he was with his last girlfriend he tried to invite his ex girlfriend from another state to go to prom with him instead of her, is always negative and vying for attention, is always holding the threat of breaking up over your head so that you grovel at his feet begging for him to take you back, tries to get you to rebel against your parents by having sex with him only after a day of dating him, and he's making you stay here with him when you were accepted into the military academy which you have been working your whole school career towards just because he's been too lazy to actually make good grades to get into college! Need I say more?!" At this point I'm gasping for breath after that mouthful. I really didn't want it to come to this but she's forced my hand.

She cocks her hip and crosses her arms, "You're my best friend Ava, and being my best friend you are obligated to like my boyfriend and support me in this. With that being said, it automatically means that you have to invite him to your birthday party or I can't go."

I take a moment to register her words. She's going to let one guy get in between our friendship? The Crystal I knew wouldn't have let that happen but after seeing this new side to her after she started dating Brayden, it makes me wonder if I really even knew her at all and if she only recently started showing her true colors.

"Then don't bother yourself with coming," with that, I spin on my heel and head to class, not once looking behind me to see her reaction. Phew, that felt so much better than I thought it would. Now that I've gotten rid of that unwanted baggage I can move on with my life.

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" Hey mom I'm heading out to go canoeing with the guys, I should be back by dinner but if not don't wait up for me," I yelled to my mother who was somewhere in the house as I slung my gear over my shoulder which contained a first aid kit and some waters and snacks in case we got hungry.

I hear the thundering of footsteps coming down the stairs, "Okay honey! Give me a kiss before you go!"

Next thing I know I'm brought into a bear hug with kisses raining down all over my face, "Mom!" I exclaim as I gently pull away from her vice like hold.

She just laughs and says, "Be safe honey and call us if you need anything. I love you!"

"Okay I will. Love you too mom! Bye" I say to her as I scurry my way to my truck before pulling out of the driveway and head in the direction of the canoe drop off location. I hope Matt remembered to bring the canoes this time. He and his parents own a couple two seater canoes that they let us borrow from time to time on occasions like this.

I arrive 5 minutes earlier than the planned arrival time at the river and waited for the others to show. Everyone showed up on time. Well, except for Zoe. She always has to make sure she's primed to perfection before doing anything. Even when that 'anything' includes going on a canoeing trip where it's inevitable to get wet and dirty, especially when you go with my group of friends.

Once Zoe arrived we unloaded the canoes from Matt's truck and set them in the water. My canoeing partner was Matt who is not the most graceful creature and ended up face planting in the water even before he was able to situate himself in the canoe.

Once everyone loaded into their canoes we set off down the river without a hitch. It wasn't until we were an hour down the river when things got interesting.

Matt, being the 'macho' man that he is, took it upon himself to to sit in the front of the canoe his reason being that he had the most expertise on canoeing because he owned them. Yeah, we saw how well that went when we hit a thick, low laying limb which almost decapitated Matt and sent me flying out of the boat. To say I was mad would be an understatement considering the water was ice cold and I came out looking like a drenched rat to which Zoe laughed. My response to her was just that karma was going to bite her in the butt eventually. Which it did, much to my pleasure.

We were all racing each other when we heard a crash and Savannah shriek, "Man down! We've been hit! Abandon ship!"

We all turned our heads towards the noise to see Savannah clinging to a nearby boulder, attempting to keep herself afloat. A few feet away from her was Zoe who looked like a scared cat, her knuckles turning white with the force of holding onto the side of the canoe as the canoe rapidly takes on water.

"Zoe! Let go of the canoe!" I screamed to her, paddling to her aid. Terrified of the thought of her being dragged under the current and drowning. After all, she couldn't swim.

By the time we reached her she was about to completely submerge. Leaning over the side of the canoe I reach into the water and grab her by the armpits. With the help of Matt, the two of us combined were able to drag her stiff body up into our canoe as we watched the canoe sink farther and farther into the black abyss.

"Crazy woman! I know you can't swim but why didn't you let go of the canoe?!" I yelled at her, still shaken up at the fact that she could have died.

"When the canoe started sinking I panicked and froze up. They only thing running through my head was that I could potentially die and couldn't do anything about it," she ended with a somber expression and began to cry as I wrapped her in my arms.

"Sshh. It's okay now. You're safe"I whisper in her ear, rocking her in a calming manner. Her sobs soon turn into sniffles and just when I begin to think that she is feeling better she freezes.

"What's wrong?!" I exclaim as I pull away from her to try and find the problem but see nothing.

"Are my hair and makeup okay?!" She screams, fussing with herself, looking like she was ready to have a nervous breakdown. You just about gave me a heart attack for that?! If looks could kill...