Hit man

Jess

Six months ago:

It was June seventh. Terry was leaving college so we could go on a secret vacation she had planned. I was waiting in Starbucks while also finishing up something very important on my laptop. It wasn't much, but it was my last shot. An application to work at some dumb kids place that was suppose to be fun, but really just gave kids nightmares.

"You seem distracted," a voice across from me said.

"Well, Dan, I am." I said. He wasn't much, and was even more oblivious than Terry sometimes, but he was mine. We had been dating since eleventh grade which seemed like a lifetime ago, even though it was only a few years.

"It's my fault," he said, "I just have that affect on people." I rolled my eyes at him. He was also an ass, and he ha no respect for something I treasured called personal space.

"Dan, I need to tell you something," I said finally. He looked at me. "We," I sputtered, really not wanting to say what I had to, "we need to break up." His face dropped.

"Why?" Dan asked, his voice small.

"You need to go to college, a good one that you want to go to," I said.

"I don't mind going to Com-" he started.

"Liar," I said. He hated community college, but it's were I was going. Terry, who wasn't the brightest in the conversational world, was a genius at science and got a hell lot of money from this college only sixty miles from our town. She had almost completed her bachelors degree in pediatric nursing, and was a super smart and friendly person, yet she was a barista here at Starbucks. She decided that after this summer she was going to take a break from school because she still lived here, and other day or so, drove over to her college to take her classes and then drove back.

"Jess, you're making a mistake," Dan said. I didn't want to say the real reason I had to dump him.

"I saw you with Alice Penerman," I said quickly, hoping it would hurt less; like a bandaid. His face said otherwise.

"What the hell were you doing by my dorm?" he demanded.

"I was going to surprise you, asshole," I said. He stood up from the table.

"You just made a big mistake, pissing me off," he said as he stormed out of Starbucks. As he left, I saw him almost knock Terry down as she came in.

"Alice Penerman?" she asked as she sat where Dan had just been. I nodded. "Well, he was a bastard, anyways." She said, and I smiled. She was good at making people smile. Maybe I could send her to do my interview... nah, we looked too different, me with long dark hair, her with short blonde hair that came to right above her shoulders. I had brown eyes, she had hazel eyes. Oh, yeah, and the fact that she was about seventy times paler than me. She always said that it was her Irish parent's fault that she couldn't tan. I suggested spray tan, or a machine and she told me no, on account of reasons she didn't want to discuss. But seriously, you could loose her if she fell into a snowbank. She also said that she's not pale, she's porcelain. I'd just roll my eyes at her.

"And," she said smiling, "I have our super-awesome-amazing-fantabulous-slightly-muddy vacation ready to go! Do you have your suitcase?" I nodded, holding up my awkwardly large backpack packed full of stuff I might need for anything that Terry came up with. I always had to give her props on the plans she made because, seriously, behind that wall of blondness, she was a freaking genius.

"Yay," she clapped, "okay. Come on, buy as much coffee as you think you'll need for two days. I'm going to start the car." I nodded and went up to the front counter to buy up most of Starbucks.

After I bought practically my weight in coffee and then climbed into her car.

"So," I said, tapping my knee, "where are we going?"

"Don't kill me," she said, making a left turn out of town.

"Terry, where are we going?" I demanded.

"Not camping," she mumbled.

"Terry," I shouted.

"It'll be fun camping," she promised, "it's a mystery camp. There are, like, cabins and stuff. And there are other people. We go there and are given a persona that we have to follow and stuff and one of the twenty four people is the murderer, and yeah. It'll be cool."

"'Cool' is going to the beach or clubbing or anything but role play camp," I muttered, slumping into my seat.

"It's a good escape from life," she said. "And I paid, like, half my tuition cost on this trip."

"You only had to pay $2,000 Terry," I reminded. Stupid scholarships.

"Yeah, it was five hundred a person. C'mon, Jess, it'll be so fun." She said. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine," I said, "wake me when we get there."