Out of Place (3 page)

“Where’d she go to school?”

“I think ASU, but I’m not sure what she’s doing now. Last I heard she was going back to get her master’s or something. They don’t talk about her much.”

“
I looked at ASU, big party school.”

Emily nodded.
“It’s apparently the most popular plan-B school in the country. Or so they said on the news the other day.”

“
Plan-B for you, maybe, but you’re a genius.”

Emily rolled her eyes.
“I’m not a genius.”

“You got good grades.”

“You don’t need to be a genius to get good grades in high school. You just need to show up, pay attention and do the work.”

Ren turned a frown.
“I showed up, I sort of paid attention, I kinda did the work. Sometimes.”

“You need to try
harder than that.”

“I tr
ied hard.”

Emily put her hands on her hips and directed a scowl at Ren. “Renner, you tried to get by.”

Ren pointed at her and opened her mouth wide. “I knew it. You were talking about me in your speech.”

“You were paying attention.”

“Uh-yeah, of course I was. My best friend was speaking in front of the whole class.”

“You could
’ve gotten better grades—you’re really smart, too.”

R
en twisted her lips to the side and stuck her tongue out. “Maybe I like being a punk.”

Emily laughed. “Dork.”

Ren played air guitar and made the universal heavy metal sign with her hand.

Chapter 4

Emily was a little upset her little brother Adam didn’t even stick around to say goodbye. He still had
three years left of high school and was in that phase where family didn’t mean anything and you just wanted to get away from them. That phase was short-lived for Emily. In fact, it almost didn’t exist.

She brought the SUV to a stop
in front of the small green ranch-style house and honked the horn. Tyler, a curvy long-haired brunette with brown eyes, came bounding down the steps with a scream and a fist pumped into the air.

“What did she yell?” Emily asked.

Ren laughed. “I think she said ‘VB here we come.’ But maybe it was ‘PB with some rum.’”

Kat
ie, a tiny honey-blonde with a purple streak of hair followed Tyler, and finally there was Rachel, an auburn-haired scowl-faced girl who stood at a statuesque six-feet. She was the tallest girl in the group, towering over Ren and Emily by a good five inches.

The girls piled into the SUV and Emily headed to the highway.
While the chatter spilled and the music played, Emily kind of zoned out a bit on the road. It wasn’t uncommon for her to spend time in her head and her friends recognized the mood.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to take part in the fun, it was just that for some reason she was being introspective. Maybe it was the long miles of road ahead of her, both literally and figuratively. She was so excited about her future that impatience to get started was making her a bit edgy.
As much as she wanted to go to college, part of her just wanted to get it over with.

Taking a few deep breaths, she pulled herself back into the moment. It was time to enjoy it. The future was coming no matter what
, so there was no reason to hurry it. Maybe Harry had a point there. If it was one thing he was good at, it was enjoying life. He was always the first to suggest a party and when they put their pool in, he made it known that his pool was their pool. He said he hoped it would spawn a party every weekend, and it usually did.

First thing to do was enjoy this week, starting now. T
he drive would take a lot less time with these four lunatics distracting her. She glanced around at her friends.

Kat
ie was quiet, but could crack up an entire room with a subtle comment. She was a cute petite little thing, barely a hundred pounds, that guys just seemed to fall all over. She and Ren were friends going back many years as Katie’s mom and Ren’s mom both worked at the same law office. Katie wasn’t going away to college right away. She was staying home, working, and taking a few classes at the county college for now. She said she didn’t want to waste money on a degree when she didn’t even know what she wanted to study yet.

Tyler
was a short and curvy Italian, but she was larger than life, always the center of attention and the first one to rile up the group. She was captain of the softball team and was heading off to Florida State University in a few weeks.

Rachel was the only other girl who was on Emily’s hockey team. She was also the biggest player on the team and played a mean defense. Emily might have been the fastest skater on the team
, but Rachel had a slap-shot that could scare the boy’s team goalie into the fetal position. She wasn’t much of a talker, but she was a real nice person who would always stand up for her friends. Unfortunately for her, she seemed to be one of those girls that the guys usually ignored, maybe because she was taller than most of them, or maybe because of the permanent scowl that seemed to always be on her face. She was neither as mean nor uncomfortable as her face indicated.

They were a pretty cool group of girls
, but none of them had the bond that Emily and Ren shared. They were sisters in every sense of the word.

“You okay?” Ren asked.

Emily nodded. “Just thinking.”

“Oh no!”
Tyler said from the backseat. “Em is thinking again, we’re all in trouble.”

Emily smiled at her in the mirror.
“No fear, Ty, I’m all done thinking.”

“Then blast that funky music
, white girl!” Tyler yelled.

Emily turned the dial on the stereo and just enjoyed the moment.

**
*

After a long drive and a night filled with typical talk and not enough sleep, Emily waited for the right moment. The sun was already beaming through the large hotel room window, but the heavy shades were blocking most of it. She took hold of the plastic stick hanging down from the drapes, and yanked them open, flooding the room with millions of watts of sunlight.

“Wake up
, chicas, the beach is calling us.”

Ren was already awake
. She rolled off the bed and yelled, “Get up, sand whores, time to move.” She dug right into her bag. The others started to stir and Emily went over to her luggage and sifted through the wardrobe she’d brought. She put on a light blue bikini and pulled out a pair of denim cut-offs to wear over the bottoms, and a small white T-shirt with a black Reebok logo on the sleeve to wear over the top.

“You’re not going to wear that
,” Ren told Tyler.

Tyler
tilted her head. “What?”

“A thong? Seriously?”

“It’s not a full thong, it’s a partial. And why not?” Tyler twisted her brown hair up into a ponytail.

Ren made a face. “It’s just kinda slutty
.”

Tyler
stuck out her tongue. “I’m kinda slutty.”

Rachel offered
, “At least she owns it.”

“What can I say?”
Tyler smacked her own ass. “If you got it, flaunt it.”

Emily smiled as she looked in the mirror at her own bikini. She was flaunting it, but not in a thong.
That was definitely not her style. They left nothing to the imagination. Her bottoms were more traditional and small enough, but a thong was just ridiculous.

Tyler
stepped in behind her. “Damn, girlie, you’re smokin’. Sometimes I forget what’s going on under those clothes. Sweet Jesus, do you live at that gym? Look at those abs.” She slapped Emily on the stomach. “Damn, that’s shmexy. I want those. How do I get those?”

Emily smi
led and waved a hand. “You work hard and eat right.”

Tyler
huffed. “So you eat tasteless trash and you live at the gym. I got it.

Emily shrugged. “
I kinda do live at the gym.”

Ren stepped in
to the mirror. “You’re an obsessive freak, you know that, right?”

Emily pursed her lips. “
I do.”

Ren turned to inspect her butt in the mirror. “Well, as long as you know.”

“Oh, I know. I’m a completely obsessed lunatic. I need therapy.”

Ren
took off the black bottoms and slipped on a neon green bikini with tube-style top. “Oh, yeah, there we go.”

True to form, Kat
ie rocked an American flag bikini. Her older brother was away in the Marines and she was on a full-time support America campaign. All the soldiers cruising Virginia Beach were going to love that. Rachel slipped into a one-piece in black, with cutouts on both sides.

After inspecting their beachwear, they
covered up with shorts and T-shirts, grabbed some towels, and headed out to get some breakfast.

The hotel wasn’t a five star accommodation
, but it was decent enough. Most of these big chain hotels were the same. In general, they were all nice enough for a bunch of college girls. Emily smiled at the thought of being a college girl. It felt good.

No one was going to load up on a big meal before stripping down at the beach
, so they raided the fruit bar at the continental breakfast nook. Once everyone had their fill, they headed down the boardwalk to the beach.

The ocean was perfect. Waves curled and rolled into the sand at a leisurely pace as they headed down the steps.
Emily kicked off her sneakers and let her bare feet sink into the sand. It was so soft and warm. It felt great. They searched for a good spot and found one just near the water.

After picking their spots
, a cute group of guys walked by and gave them a long look. The guys kept going, and Tyler waited about ten seconds before she started slowly trolling behind them. Katie and Rachel were not far behind. Ren and Emily waved them on and settled into the sand.

Emily
slid out of her jean shorts and started spraying some sun block. Ren spread a towel next to her and flopped down. Neither of them were interested in meeting any guys on this trip, they just wanted this to be an easy, relaxing trip with no drama. Guys always brought drama with them. Emily had been single for a while now and was fine with it.

“Oh
, brother,” Ren said. “Dugger just sent me a text. He called me a bitch and a whore and hopes I catch syphilis.”

“What?”

Ren laughed. “I know, right?”

“He’s the jerk. He cheated on you like three times.”

Ren nodded slightly. “True colors. Now that I’m the one who won’t run back to him, he’s feeling it.”

Emily sighed.
“Guys refuse to grow up, they’re all children. They always want what they can’t have. You take away their candy and they’ll tell you they don’t want it anyway because it’s too sour.”

Ren stuffed her phone
into her shoes near her towel. “Well, screw him; screw them all. I’m just going to sit here and suck up this sunlight until my skin turns brown.”

“Right on
, babe. This is our weekend to enjoy life.”

“Your
parents are the coolest,” Ren said.

Emily looked over at her. “Where’d that come from?”

“I was just thinking. They’ve trusted you to make your own choices since you were like twelve.”

“No.”

“Well, maybe not twelve, but pretty young.”

Emily
sat yoga-style and looked out to the ocean. “I guess I’ve never given them a reason not to trust me.”

Ren shook her head. “I’m not buying it. How’d you pull that off
?”

“There’s really no secret to it, Ren.”

“I’ve envied you all these years. I mean we’re talking about all our newfound freedom, but with me the moment I turned eighteen back in January, that was it for me. That was my taste of freedom. My parents were always so desperate to keep me under their thumbs, you know. I went a little crazy.”

“
New adult rebellion. It’s pretty normal.”

“But see, that’s what I mean. You didn’t rebel.”

Emily shrugged. “I never wanted to.”

“Yeah, because you didn’t have anything to rebel against.
You’re not like a normal teen. You’re like my older sister and we’re exactly the same age.”

“I’m
almost four months older.” Emily smiled.

Ren looked at her with a
comical glance. “Why I ought to slap you.”

Emily held her arms out in a defensive fighting stance.
“Make your move, rubber legs.”

Ren laughed. “O
-M-G. I can’t believe you remember that.”

“Of course I remember it.”

“That’s probably the most embarrassing moment of my entire life.”

“
I wish I’d gotten that on video, but I was laughing too hard to get my phone out of my purse. The way your legs were bending was freaking hysterical.”

“I didn’t wear heels to school again for like three months.”

“A welcome mission of mercy for your ankles.”

Ren reached over and hugged Emily. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

“Oh, don’t make me cry.” But Emily did cry a little bit. At least she didn’t have on any eye makeup to ruin.

***

After hours of lounging around at the beach, they headed back to their room. Emily felt great, it was exactly the unwind she needed. While deciding what they were going to do for the evening, there was a knock on the door.

“I got it
,” Rachel said and moved down the small hall.

Emily was just about to take off her shorts when a loud crack scared her
. She turned but another crack pierced her ears, followed by another and another. Exactly what was happening didn’t register. It didn’t make sense. Screams of terror and a blur of bodies flying took over.

She saw Rachel crumpled on the ground, she watched Katie fall and
Tyler drop after the shots hit her. Emily didn’t know where to run.

Ren ran at her
, staggering from the impact, but managed to tackle Emily to the floor between the beds.

Finally the silence came.
Emily could only hear her own frantic breathing. Ren was lying lifeless on top of her.