The Summer of '12

Give me a little faith.

SARAH'S POV

Streaks of sunlight hit my face and I awaken. I roll over and I see my phone beeping.

Message from: Lance

I wanna take you somewhere quiet and beautiful. Come with.

I reply and get ready. I change into my denim long sleeves, white sleeveless shirt and seagreen shorts and put some sandals on. I sense a feeling why I should be with Xavier today, not Lance. Suddenly the honk of Lance's car bursts through the windows. I go down and hop into his car, he kisses me and I give him a smile. "Where to?" i say looking at my feet then at him. "Somewhere, just wait and see." he says rubbing his hand on my knee. I start rubbing my fingers together and get a really anxious feeling. Was I doing this right? To be with Lance, not Xavier? My head was banging with all these thoughts when suddenly I get a phone call from Trevor. "Sarah, have you seen Eric?" "No I haven't. How come?" "Ah shit. Tyler said his dad is looking for him now. It's about the wedding" "Okay I'll try to look for that rascal. Dont worry. We'll find him." Great. Just great. Where did Eric go this time?

(2 days ago)

ERIC'S POV

As I make my way out of the studio, I bump into probably one of Adrianna's friends or a student from this ballet school. She's tall, slim, has wavy brown hair and these big brown eyes that actually caught my attention. What's she doing here this late? "Excuse me, do you need any help?" she says in a British accent. "No I'm fine, thank you" I say glancing at her face again but this time I notice that she looks tired and sad. "Well okay. Goodnight." she says. I was about to ask her something when I heard a car go. That must've been Adrianna and Trevor. "Hey are you okay?" I say trying to stop her from going upstairs. "Why?" she stops and stares at me. Her eyebrows raise and I make a half smile. "Do you wanna grab a cup of coffee?" She looks at me blankly then sighs. "I guess."

"I'm Eric by the way." "I'm Nicole" I stop the car at Starbucks and open her door for her. "You didnt need to do that." She says giving me a nudge on my shoulders. "You're a lady." I tease her. We enter and order 2 vanilla frappes and seat by the window that's away from the other customers. "Why do I feel like we already know each other?" She looks at me, gets a pill from her bag, pops it to her mouth then sips her frappe. I shrug and smile at her again. "What were you doing in the studio?" "I was visiting a friend." "Who?" "Adrianna." She looks at me nodding her head then I laugh and push my hair back. "What were you doing there?" I say sarcastically. "I needed a place to think." "Well you're at one now and I'm here." I say cockily. She laughs and I wink. "Do you wanna go somewhere else?" I ask her as a stand up, ready to go. "As long as it isn't your house nor a hotel." she giggles while standing up as well. "Of course not. I'm not like that."

We both go to my car. We talk about so many things about ourselves and it seemed like we were already bestfriends. I drive her to an open area near the beach. I stop the car and sigh. "Come on." I say getting out of my car. Nicole follows and we both climb up and lay on top of my car. I was thinking to myself, Could this one. Could she be. Will I ever. Nicole looks at me and I look back. "We just clicked didnt we?" Nicole comments. "I'm never like this around girls. I was never comfortable. It was always my twin brother who had the girls in every arm. My brother was the ladies man. I was just waiting." I say looking up. After a few seconds of silence, I blurt out. "You should meet my friends. They're like a bunch of pokemons in a basket." We both laugh. "Well I know Adrianna...but it'll always be a pleasure to meet the rest of the gang."

We talk for hours and hours until it was already 4 in the morning. "Do you wanna crash at my place?" I ask her. "My house is just right over there." Nicole points at a tree, not far from where we are, but if you look closer you can see a baby blue wooden house with 2 oil lamps lit on it. "Oh so then I'll bring you home." We get in the car and in a minute we were in her place. It wasn't the usual beach house I thought it was. This one had a wide, grassy lawn out front, a small guest house that was connected the house, a tree with a tire swing on it and a pavement made out of sand. We enter it and I inhale the pure sea breeze, in and out. I sit on the kitchen table and see a piano on the wall and a bunch of picture frames. "I'll just put you some covers" she says heading towards the guest house. I stood up and check out the pictures. I see Nicole sitting on her dad's lap, her playing the piano and her in a red polka dotted dress and white ribbons. I smiled and wondered what were the pictures we had. All I remember was one picture wherein it was only me and Tyler in a sailor's outift.  I remembered mom and dad were in Spain that day for a business trip. I rub the picture of Nicole and blew the dust away. As I was about to return it, I heard a big thump. I called out to Nicole but she didn't answer. I rush into the guest room. Her body laid there on the wooden floor all pale, full of bruises and cold. She still had a heartbeat. I didnt know what to do. Her breathing grew softer and softer. "Fuck!" I shouted. Panicking, I got her bag and gave her her pills. I counted to 10 and she still didnt wake up.