𝐌𝐘 𝐁𝐎𝐘 | 𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘀 !

v. turtles

THE SUN SHONE brightly down onto the pathway as Stan and I made our way towards the quarry, the breeze whistling in our ears as we sped along. I was beginning to get tired, but Stan was trailing me with only a few feet to spare, and I knew I had to keep pedaling if I wanted to win.

"Try and keep up loser!" I yelled over my shoulder, taunting him.

"Shut up Violet!" He screamed back, obviously as tired as I was.

We finally arrived at the quarry, drenched in sweat, and gasping for air. The rest of the gang, who seemed to have been there for a while, looked up in confusion , wondering why we looked as though we had been hit by a bus.

"I win," I replied sassily, as I winked at Stanley and turned to the rest of the group.

Beverly was the only person who had yet to arrive, and I was quite disappointed. I didn't know her that well, but anything beat hanging out with the guys alone again. They were crazy separately, but together, they were insane.

I sat down in the little circle already formed by the group, and smiled. Their conversation, oddly enough, had ceased the moment Stanley and I had arrived, and I couldn't help but wonder what they could have been talking about.

Stan made his way over to the circle, and sat to my right, still breathing heavily after our race.

"Geez Stan," Eddie asked, chuckling, "need my inhaler?"

Stanley turned to Eddie, giving him what seemed to be a death stare, before he suggested to the group a contest that involved loogies. Automatically, I walked over to my bike and reached for my sketch pad, not wanting to participate in the contest.

I flipped past the last page I had drawn in, with my sister and the balloon, and began a new sketch. I decided to draw the scenery , and began to sketch out the woods surrounding the quarry. The whole area was so peaceful, the birds chirping to each other scattered throughout the trees, and the tall grasses swaying in the breeze. The waters, although not visible from my seat in the grass, could be heard running down below. The only thing breaking the peace at that current moment was Eddie and Richie arguing over who's loogie won the contest.

Richie, shaking his head began to mock Eddie. "You see my loogie, it went the farthest!"

Eddie cried out, "It doesn't matter how far it goes! It's how cool it looks, and if it's green or it's white!"

I rolled my eyes, chuckling to myself, as the group continued to argue over who would jump off the edge first. None of them wanted to be the first, but none of them wished to admit it either. Finally, I noticed Beverly arrived, and rushed to meet her.

We looked at each other, and both stopped them mid sentence, replying "sissies," as we quickly stripped to our underwear and ran towards the ledge, jumping off together, as the guy watched, shocked that they had just been shown up by two girls.

As I hit the water, and came back up for air, the rest of the group had begun jumping off the edge. The water was cool, and felt good in the heat of the summer day. I floated around, occasionally swimming underwater to look at the floor of the quarry.

Beverly started to climb on Bill's shoulders, as Richie climbed on Ben's, as the two began to fight above water, and the rest of the group, including Stanley and I, gathered around to watch.

I felt arms snake around my waist, as I was picked up and thrown by Stan. I felt myself hit the water, and turned around, flipping him off as I began to swim towards him. I reached for his feet underwater to pull them out from underneath him. He laughed, as he continued to run away, until I eventually caught him, pulling him under the water with ease.

Suddenly, Richie shrieked, "ah fuck! what was that?" Causing everyone around him to tense up and search the area around them.

Bill came to the rescue, exclaiming "it's a turtle," as the group began to laugh.

We continued to swim around the quarry for hours, until we finally decided to return to our bikes to dry off.

Beverly and I laid out in the sun as Bust a Move came on the boombox. The sun was warm, and the water was slowly drying as we sat out in the sun. The boys had grown oddly quiet, and as I peered over my sunglasses, they seemed to be gawking at Bev and I.

"Close your mouths losers, you'll catch flies," I said, knocking them out of their trance. I made eye contact with Stan, but he looked away almost immediately, causing me to smirk.

Richie began to raid Ben'a backpack, as he started to joke, "News flash, Ben, School's out for summa."

Ben, obviously nervous about something, mumbled "oh that, that's not school stuff," peering over Richies shoulder, as he searched Ben's backpack.

Richie, pulling out a postcard began to ask,"who sent you this?". He was cut off by Ben, who snatched the card from Richie's hand, mumbling something about no one sending it to him.

Richie, not phased by the recent situation, continued to search Ben's bag, this time producing a folder. Opening the folder, he smirked and asked, "What's with the history project?"

My eyes began to close slowly on their own, completely disobeying my brain's orders, as I drifted off into a light sleep. The night before had been tiring, leaving me with barely any sleep to account for, and I needed to close my eyes for a few minutes.

The world around me was completely drowned out by the sound of my breathing until I heard Ben talking about missing kids.

My eyes snapped open, and I sat up as quickly as possible, trying to figure out what had just been said. The thought reminded me of my sister, who, I began to realize once again, was considered to be missing. I began to try to hold back the tears welling up in my eyes, hoping that I wouldn't start to cry in front of my new friends.

I stepped away from the group, rushing as far as I could before the tears began to fall down my face. I sunk to the ground, covering my face with my hands, and trying to stay quiet as the sobs racked my body. I heard footsteps, and looked up to find Stan staring back at me. His eyes showed sympathy, as he sat down beside me and pulled me into a hug, not even pressing the topic of why I was crying in the first place.

I wrapped my arms around him, holding on for dear life, glad that I no longer felt alone in the situation.

I tried to take deep breaths, and calm myself down enough to speak, while Stan continued to hold me tightly, running his fingers through my hair.

As I finally found my words, I sniffled and said,

"Peyton went missing."