Beach Week

Chapter 11- "How about another bike ride?"*

Sara rose bright and early as always and took a quick shower, after she thoroughly checked the bathroom and locked the door. She had never been able to sleep in past nine in the morning, and was usually out of bed before ten, except for the rare mornings she spent in bed nursing a hangover after a night of drinking with her friends. Though now she worried it wouldn't be a hangover to keep her in bed. She'd been scared after finding messages in the bathroom and realizing it hadn't been her friends, or at least they claimed it was. That's why she had been up so late to hear Taylor and Aaron's conversation. She had been laying in bed awake, fearful of what could be lurking in the shadows. 

She shuddered at the thought despite the scolding water that raced down her back. She wanted to believe Taylor's theory that Amy could be behind it all, but something didn't sit right with her. She had written and read plenty of mystery books, and each time whoever was believed to be the prime suspect was never behind the crime. Besides, she knew that Taylor had a bad history with Amy, and now knew Taylor was after Amy's boyfriend. It would be easy to turn it on Amy, and while she and Amy didn't get along, Sara knew Amy wouldn't do this. They were friends, and Amy wouldn't risk lives by tampering with the car or risk having her bare ass be photographed by friends and put online.

It wasn't Amy, but someone was behind it. Sara just wasn't sure who.

She turned off the water and timidly peeked around the curtain. No messages on the mirrors or window. The door was still shut, and as far as she could tell no one had tried to enter. Despite that, she dressed quickly and raced out of the room to find someone who was awake. Being alone wasn't an option anymore. She felt watched every second of the day, and if every thing was just Amy pulling a joke on her then she owed Amy a round of applause for making her look over her shoulder every time she passed a window.

Her footsteps padded lightly along the carpet toward Avery's room, sneaking a peek into the room across from Amy's room first, and noticing that Amy wasn't in the day bed.

"I wonder if she managed to sneak onto the couch with Aaron." She eyes at the thought before glancing behind her down the hall to where Brett and Aaron should be sleeping, but couldn't see anything. "Whatever."

Crossing the hall, Sara knocked lightly on Avery's closed door before she twisted the door knob and poked her head into the room, only to find Avery already awake. She was sitting up in bed with her body still tucked beneath the covers while intently reading a book. Sara smiled as she noticed that Avery was reading one of the one's Sara had written, Raging Fire. It was the fourth installment of a series Sara had based around spies and the mafia. It had been one of the first series she released, and used her friends and family as characters to keep them alive forever, tightly bound in the pages of a book. Her friends and family had been amazing over the years, and had always been huge supporters of her dreams and writing endeavors. She was grateful to have a team of supporters like  them.

Avery glanced up, closing her book, "What's up, Sara?"

"Nothing, I was just checking to see if you were awake."

Nodding, Avery noticed the bags forming under Sara's eyes. "I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night too, so I woke up pretty early this morning. There's nothing wrong with it. Don't worry though, I won't tell anyone our horror buff is afraid of the dark."

Sara laughed lightly, letting some of the tension evaporate from her shoulders. "How early did you get up? You could have texted me, I would have come down to hang out with you."

Avery furrowed her eyebrows in thought. "Six-ish?" She waved her book in the air. "I didn't want to wake you if you were sleeping. I'm just happy I brought something to read though. Otherwise I would have woken you up."