Brianna's POV

I walk into my room- well, the room I share with Jade- and take my suitcase out of the corner. I plop it on the bed and put in the code on the lock. The lock clicks open and I search for a bathing suit in my bag. I know I packed it with me, I just don't know where.

I check all the crooks and crannies of my suitcase when I finally found one. Well, two. I have one teal colored two piece and one black colored two piece. I go with the teal bathing suit just because I need some color in my life.

I take the bathing suit into the hallway bathroom to get changed. I just wear a loose top over it along with some shorts.

"Ready?" I ask once I'm ready.

"Yep," everyone says.

"About time," Jade says, "I've been here for like 10 minutes."

"I've packed food," Bailey says as she holds up a picnic basket.

"Sweet!" I say. "Where'd you get the food though?"

"I went to the store while you were getting ready," she replies.

"Oh come on, I didn't take that long, did I?"

"Yeah," everyone responds.

"Whatever, who brought the towels?"

"The boys are bringing them," Jade says, "Shawn told me on the phone just now."

"Aww," I say.

"Do you want to be stabbed with my pocket knife?" she says through gritted teeth.

"No!" I shriek.

"Ha, I'm just kidding! I'm gonna use the machete."

I scream in return. "We should get going. Now, don't you think?" I say quickly and walk out the door after grabbing the apartment keys.

~•~

It's still pretty bright by the time we get to the beach, around 4:45. "Let's take a picture for Twitter!" Shawn suggests.

"I don't like pictures," Jade says.

"Too bad!" he says and pulls Jade into the group we've formed for our picture. "Hold her down," he tells Katelyn.

"Ugh," she rolls her eyes and puts pressure on Jade's shoulders.

Shawn goes up to a couple strolling the beach and asks for them to take our photo. The guy agrees and says, "Three, two, one. Smile!"

"Thanks," Shawn says and takes his phone back. "I'll send it to everyone," he says as he looks at the photo.

I received the photo. It was really cute. We were all actually smiling, would you believe that? Shawn was holding Jade down in the picture instead of Katelyn holding her down. My ship has raised its anchors!

I set up an umbrella and lay a towel the boys brought from their apartment on the sandy ground. I take out my phone and check my Twitter feed. Looks like Jade posted the picture of us at the beach.

@Jade_Don't_Mess: At the beach with my friends *insert picture here*
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@Shawn's_Lawn: And I'm sitting next to her right now
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@Bri_Bri123: @Shawn's_Lawn Stop flirting with @Jade_Don't_Mess . This is Twitter, not eHarmony. And why is your name still Shawn's Lawn? It doesn't even make sense.
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@Shawn's_Lawn: I happen to like my username. And if anything, this is match.com. And I'm not flirting
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@Bri_Bri123: @Shawn's_Lawn yeah, sure... I got my eyes on you...

Cue eye roll. I look to my right and Jade and Shawn are both on their phones on a towel. I look to me left and Arsenic and Katelyn are on their phones on a towel. The boys, Heather, and Bailey are the only ones in the water. Everyone else is being antisocial, not that I'm complaining.

~•~

About half an hour passes. We've all combined our towels io the ultimate towel layout to sit on to eat our dinner, basically pre made sandwiches and bags of potato chips.

I take a bite of my sandwich and look around at my surroundings. People swimming? Check. People walking their dogs? Check. People playing in the sand? Check. Girl that looks our age staring at us while we eat? Check. Wait, WHAT?! She must've caught me watching because she quickly puts her head down and walked away. She doesn't look familiar. Maybe someone else knows her.

"Hey, did anyone else see that chick staring at us eating?" I ask, opening up my bag of chips.

A variety of "Nope"s and "No"s are heard within my group of friends.

"What did she look like?" Chris asks.

"Well..." I think for a moment. "She had like long brown hair, and black clothes. Oh, and she had black combat boots I think."

"I'll keep an eye out for her," Arsenic says. "Sounds familiar, but I'll keep an eye out for her."

~•~

We finish dinner at about 6:30 and we continue to do as we wish.

I sit on my beach towel and go on my phone again. Bailey joins me and lays down on the towel as well.

"So how's life?" she asks after a minute of uncomfortable silence.

"Life-ish," I reply.

"That isn't a word, smart one," she jokes.

"I know," I say and look back at my phone. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the mysterious girl again. I get up and walk over to Arsenic who is on the towel next to me. "Psst," I say, "That's the girl."

"Oh my god!" she gasps when she looks at her. She gets up and runs over to her. I follow her slowly behind. "Lilly! It's been so long!" Arsenic exclaims while hugging Lilly- I assume.

"You too, Ari," Lilly says and hugs her back.

"Ari, huh?" I ask, finally discovering a nickname to call her by.

"Yeah, gotta problem with that?" she asks, tightening up.

"No, no." I walk away back to my towel to leave them be but I say, "It was nice to meet you, Lilly," first.

"So who was that?" Bailey asks.

"One of Arsenic's old friends I guess," I reply and go back on my phone.

~•~

Back at the apartments, Arsenic exclaims, "WE HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE BEACH TOMORROW!"

"Haven't we had enough of the beach?" Heather asks, clearly exhausted from her time at the shore.

"But Lilly said she goes there every evening. WE MUST GO! Pleeeeaaaase?" she begs and gives a pity lip and puppy eyes.

"I'm not handling this, it's Jade's turn," Heather says and walks to her and Bailey's room.

"Take me with you!" I call after her.

"Please, Jade?" Arsenic pleads.

"I... Ugh, fine. We'll come with you tomorrow, but the other days you're going by yourself," Jade finally gives in.

"YES! THANK YOU!" Arsenic cries and runs up to hug Jade. She puts up her hand before she can and says, "No."

"You're no fun," Arsenic says and walks over to her room.

Hey guys. Yay! It's over 900 words! I was so tempted to say, "It's OVER 9000!!" See ya all in the next chapter!

Till then,
~Orchid