nine or nothing

2

"Here's to never growing up."

as the group of friends had finished setting up their spot on the sand, the boys decided to take a walk around, promising to be back. the girls eyed them carefully, taking in what they saw. the upcoming weekend before, they had all decided to match with each other, one pairing of friends getting one colour. Ian and Linda had green, David, Jaxen and Ai had yellow, Ryan and Cindy had Red and Vivian and Johnson had blue. this was the best way to find each other since they all went shopping together, so if they got lost, they'd look for the bright swimsuits. the boys nodded the girls off and started strolling down the beach, then both parties had their, girls meeting and boys circle. Ai laid on her stomach and looked at the rest of the girls, "So?" She asked bouncing her eyebrow, "We digging any studs out here?" she asked which caused all the girls to look around them.

Linda shook her head and opted out of the state down, "I have my own already, why am I looking?" She asked herself which caused them all to laugh. The girls watched as boys would walk past them and stare them down, whistling or nodding their heads at them. Cindy shook her head and sat up, putting her hair up in a ponytail, "Nah, I don't need a man. Anyone got gum?" She asked. "I do." The girls could recognize that voice from anywhere. Their eyes slowly travelled up the figures body and stopped at their face. They had their arm stretched out, with a five pack of bubble gum.

without hesitation, Cindy took the pack of gum and ripped it open, popping a piece into her mouth, "Thanks, June." She smiled at her and the standing female just stood, watching them. June was a old freshmen friend of theirs, they used to hangout and talk but they slowly lost contact as they became seniors. June was the only, confidant, lesbian within the high school. June had been trying to build their relationship but up but they had drifted apart. The girls felt bad so Linda patted a spot on her towel, beside her. June smiled and took a seat between her and Cindy. "What have you guys been up to? Where are the boys?" Ai sat up and stretched her arms, "They went babe hunting. Same old. What's up with you? Still crushing on vivian?" That earned Ai a friendly shove from vivian and she laughed, "fuck off." June winked at her and leaned back, "Of course. Viv is still my babe material." "I may be your babe material but I'm still not gay." She teased June and she grunted in response. June got up and also stretched her body then tied her hair up in a pony tail, "I gotta take a leak, will catch you later!" She waved at the girls and dashed off to the bathroom. As they watched June get up and leave, Linda noticed a dark shadow forming around her.

She pursed her lips and shook her head. Should she go follow her? Just as she was about to stand up to follow, the group of boys came back and sat down around the girls, except for jaxen. Cindy looked around then looked up at Johnson, "Where did he go?" All four of the boys pointed to the left of the group, where jaxen was, flirting with the foreign exchange students. Vivian shook her head and sat up, "Whats with that dude and his yellow fever.." she mumbled and it caused the group to laugh. Ai stood up and stretched her arms, "Well, were all here now, right? Who's down for some beach volleyball?" They all looked at each other with smirks forming on their faces, "I've been waiting to beat your ass." He said as he reached into the backpack to pull out a deflated beach ball. Jaxen turned his head and scoffed, "Excuse me, ladies." He quickly bowed and walked towards the group, "You were about to volley without me? Not cool, bro!"

-

June walked into the bathroom, she went up to the mirror and patted her face. It had become red after the exchange she just had with her old friends, "Ai always knows how to embarrass me.." She huffed and turned the cold water from the bathroom and started to splash the water on her face. She looked in the mirror to see if the redness had died down and she admired herself then winked at the mirror, "Sup, cutie. You come here often?" She suddenly heard the door opened and looked behind her but no one was there. "Huh..that's weird." She turned back to the mirror and saw one of the stall doors opening and turned around again, "Looks like they need to fix that." She bent down and splashed more water onto her face and turned off the tap, shaking her hands then head and looking back up in the mirror.

She stopped moving when she saw something staring back at her. She swallowed as her eyes travelled up the figures body, "What. The. Fuck." She said quietly as she examined it. It was tall, the skin looked like it had all burned off, with various purple splotches. It had no face, just visible, orange teeth. sharp teeth. She could hear the creature breathing heavily and snarling. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "Okay, June. This is all fake. It's just a Dream. You're seein' shit again." She opened her eyes slowly and there it was, it's head cocked to the side with a grim smile on its face. June slowly started to turn around to face the creature, "Look, I'm not scared of some little kids nightmare." She said softly. As she faced the creature, she gasped as it darted it's long, sharp fingers towards her and pierced through her torso, lifting her off the ground. She let out a blood curdling scream and gripped onto the arm of the creature, trying to free herself. As she tried to fight against the grip, her life was slowly leaving her body. Her eyes rolled back slowly and soon, she went limp.

"Linda!" Cindy yelled, and just as Linda was about to hit the ball, she felt a sharp pain in her head and held it, letting out a scream. The others looked at her strangely and quickly rushed to her, "What's wrong?" Vivian asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, trying to calm her down. Linda gripped her hair and shook her head, "something isn't right, I don't feel good." She looked up at them and her eyes were shifting. Suddenly she snapped her head towards the bathroom and felt her heart start to beat quicker. She looked up at them again and whispered,

"it's here."