The Death of Bea Stockwoods

Present Day, Six Months After Bea's Death, March 4th

Vi was sitting on her bed, in her room. Their parents removed everything that had Bea in it. Her bed, her desk, her clothes. Except, Vi stole Bea's clothes before her parents could get to it.

She sat on the same spot on her bed since Bea's death. They always hung out right there, having their monthly movie nights. Now, their annual movie nights couldn't happen.

For the first month of Bea's death, she couldn't even memorize the first few lines of her new play, and Vi never couldn't memorize her lines. Byrson came over every week, just trying to get Vi to memorize them since that was her favorite thing in the world, other than Bea.

"Vi, Hannah's here to see you." her mother yelled from downstairs. She quickly changed out of her pajama shorts and tank top and put on a character tee with a pair of black shorts on. Walking down the stairs, Vi found herself at the front door. Suddenly she remembered that she promised Hannah to go to the Geyser Willows Festival. She opened the door, saying, "I'm so sorry, Hannah! I forgot about the festival, and I'll make it up to you! What about tomorrow? We can go down to the beach after school with every other friend that wants to go!" Hannah's hands were still crossed, telling her, "Bea's death was over five months ago. I thought you would cope by now."

Those words were like the crumbling wall falling on her. Except, she didn't want anyone to know that. She now acted like she was fine, even if she wasn't. "No, I did cope Hannah. Just let me make it up to you. Are you up for it tomorrow?" Vi asked. "Fine. I'll bring a beach bag with all my stuff tomorrow, and we can put them in your car. If we ask Andrew, he'll probably just say lets go to his beach house." she said groaning, hugging her.

Hannah soon left, making Vi walk to the kitchen to grab a slice of cheesecake. "Vi, honey, you're going out of the house today. If you don't, you can come out with me to Santa Cruz to my shop. I'm taking the three o'clock shift today. Couldn't go earlier. You could wander around or help me at the shop." her mother said. "I'll just go wander out at Geyser Willows today." Bea replied. "But why can't I stay alone?" Her mother quickly replied, saying, "I want you to go out. You barely go out on weekends unless it's important."

That was enough to make Vi go out. She changed out of her clothes into a thin strapped neck white crop top with a see through blouse and the same shorts she had on earlier. She did her hairstyle like normal. Her iconic two mini buns with most of her hair flowing. She packed a bag with Bea's beautiful swimsuit. The top of the swimsuit was a black ripped on the side one, and the bottom was black too, but it had the prettiest tied ribbons. I mean, Bea was the fashionista of the family.

-

After a short walk to the Hilterway Beach, she found her favorite spot in all of Geyser Willows, Hilterway Cave. No one actually came to the cave, for it was at the end of the beach, making everyone stay away from that part. The waves splashed in, and the two stones were perfect for sitting. Vi added a few new accessories. The land in the living room sized cave was enough to fit the two rocks, a couple of rocks that were carved into a straight shelf like form, a huge wooden box that Bryson and Vi put in, and little lights that they took home every time they left to charge. To get to the cave, you'd have to cross this little rock bridge. You'd get wet most of the times if the waves were rough, but if they were lucky, the waves wouldn't hit them.

As Vi crossed the rock bridge, she found her way into her safe spot. She took out her phone and called Bryson. He picked up on the second ring. "Vi? Is there anything wrong?" he asked on the other side of the phone.

Bryson was the only person who knew Vi's secret. She still wasn't over Bea's death.

"Can you come to the cave? I need someone to talk to." she asked, her tears ready to come. "I'll be there in a second." he said.