One Week in June | ONC2020

June 7th 11:34 AM

"Sereia, you really shouldn't be at the lake this year." Mom's nervous voice blasts through my phone's speaker as I throw together the last few ingredients into my pasta salad. Everyone else rushed off to the docks right when we pulled into the driveway of my family's lake house, but I decided to stay behind to unpack my belongings in the master bedroom and make a picnic for our lunch by the lake. There's definitely a reason my friends call me the mom of our group.

"Honey, it's not safe to be there this year." My mom persists and I roll my eyes. I finish packing everything into an adorable picnic basket I bought last week and throw on my flip flops by the door.

"Mom, you really don't need to worry." I say a little more annoyed than I intend. She's been hounding me for the last four months that I can't use the lake house this year; however, once I mentioned to Grandma that I wanted to spend a few weeks with my friends after graduation the conversation was over. Once Grandma gave her approval on the trip there was nothing that my mother could do to oppose her decision. "We're going to be safe on the water and I'll personally make sure that no one gets too crazy while we're on our mini vacation."

"Sereia, I can't emphasize enough how crucial it is that you and the gang hang out here for this summer. Or at least wait until the end of summer? August is a great time to visit the lake, there's less tourists!" I take her off speaker phone and balance my phone between my shoulder and ear.

"I understand that you're going through classic empty-nester feelings since I'll be moving at the end of summer, but it was inevitable that I'd get a grown up job in a big city." I tease her and I know she's furrowing her eyebrows from frustration. At the New Years party my parent's put on, I told the whole family that I'd be moving across the country for the company I've been interning for since my sophomore year at university. Mom was not thrilled to say the least, but I promised I'd visit every holiday that I could get off.

"Reia, that's not what's going on-" She starts to defend herself but as I walk out the back door of the lake house my reception starts to cut off.

"Sorry Mom! Gotta go, reception's shot. Love you, bye!" I yell into the phone, hoping she'll be able to make out some of what I've said as I hang up the phone. I jog down to the docks with my picnic basket in hand. I glimpse Keenan as he dives into the crystal clear water of Kepnick Lake. Riley is the only one not in the water and she's seated on the edge of the main dock with her feet dangling off into the water as she leads back to soak in the sunlight. Marcus, Kellsie, and Marsha are all in the water playing near the floating docks that make up a loose barrier, sectioning off our little cove from the rest of the lake. Keenan pops up for air just behind Marsha and I watch him slink through the water until he's close enough to pick Marsha up and throw her over his shoulder.

"I brought food!" I exclaim and plop down next to Riley who eagerly grabs at one of the sandwiches from my basket. She chows into the deli-meat delight that I created and can see from Riley's face that it's going to be a hit with the rest of the gang.

"Reia, get your butt in the water!" Kellsie exclaims as she muscles her way onto one of the floating docks near the main boat dock. Her skinny body can't weigh more than a hundred pounds, but the way she's wiggling out of the water makes it look as if she's got ankle weights that are trying to drag her down to the bottom of the lake.

"I'm too hungry to go in right now." I yell back at her. "Come get some food. We haven't eaten since breakfast!" I take a spoonful of pasta salad and shovel it into my face. After having driven two hours from my parent's house while wrangling in the crazy beasts that are my best friends, all I want to do is swim and relax on my last summer vacation before real life hits.

Everyone slowly makes their way back to the main dock, unhappy that the water fun is being put on hold, but I know that they'll be thanking me later when they're exhausted, but not starving, from swimming all day.

An hour later, after being forced to wait the obligatory thirty minutes before swimming, everyone is back in the water. I glide through the cool mountain water keeping more towards the surface of the water since it's being heated up by the powerful summer sun. The snow runoff from the surrounding peaks keeping Lake Kepnick filed to the brim every year and making this a prime vacation location for tourists and locals alike.

I've made it a habit since grade school to bring the gang here at least once a summer. Once I was old enough to drive, we didn't need parent chaperones to tag along, so the summers became infinitely more fun with the limited restrictions. However, this summer is a bit different. Now that we've all graduated from our respected universities, real adult life is imminent and this will probably be the last time that we can all do this together before work, future spouses, and kids come into the picture.

"Reia," Marcus waves his hand in front of my face. "You're doing the thing again." I sigh, leaning into the water to float on my back. "Girl, you really need to learn to relax. At this rate you're going to have an aneurysm by the time you turn twenty-four." Marcus scoops me up in his arms and lifts me out of the water. "Live a little!" He yells as he throws me over his head and backwards into the water. I giggle under the water, Marcus hasn't done that since we were little and I forgot how fun it feels to be thrown. I stay submerged for a little longer, enjoying the feeling of the water hugging against my body and hoping to stress Marcus out a little for throwing me under.

When I surface I expect to hear Marcus laughing and the rest of the gang splashing around in the water, but instead I'm met with a deafening silence. I rub the water out of my eyes as a chill from the wind washes over me. I shutter and open my eyes to see the world has completely changed. The once sun-bleached, sandy beaches bordering the lake are now coated with a thick layer of snow; the water has dropped at least ten degrees in the last minute and I can see ice starting to crust over the surface of the water near the shore. I'm about to call out to my friends, hoping this all is some sort of elaborate prank, when I feel something stiff and cold bump into me. Slowly, I turn around to see Marcus floating face up, his body a deep blue color and his grey, waterlogged face is frozen in a horrifying silent scream.

I kick away from him, screaming out to the empty winter beach for help as I collide with another frozen body. This one is Riley, her long blonde hair frozen in hardened, icicle-like tendrils from the lake water and her face is in the same silent scream that Marcus had. I scan the water hoping to find at least one of my friends alive, but I'm only met with more frozen bodies. I stop flailing in the water as the sinking realization washes over me that everyone I love is dead. They're all dead and I was the one that brought them here to die.