Seashells on the beach - Park Jimin FF

Chapter 1 - Mia

“Oh my god! This is huge” Dinara yelled from inside. “I know, right?” I answered her, and shuffled my aching feet toward our room. “I can’t believe he’s giving us the whole place for the whole summer” She squealed, while dragging her suitcase on the marble floor. “Well he had to…” I finally arrived where she was standing. “... you practically begged him”.
After a painful pull, I managed to settle my heavy suitcase on the bed. “I pulled the right strings, and here we are! You should be grateful, Mia” Her mischievous smile was plastered on her lips. 

“Your stepfather must be really rich” I looked around the enormous room. The furniture was reduced to minimal, but the few things cost at least my two month salary. A big king size bed was placed in the center of the room, covered with dark green bed sheets made of silk; on each side there was a night table, with expensive night lights on it; on the walls there were three, large Impressionist style painting, which were giving to the room some kind of royal vibe. In front of us, there was the door directed to the huge balcony, but now it was covered with floor to ceiling length, cream color curtains. 

“He doesn’t work much. I guess, he just inherited this house from his mother” Dinara jumped on the bed and laid on her stomach, wiggling her legs in the air. “Hey, how did you pull the right strings?” I smirked at her. “Oh my god!” She threw a white pillow towards me. “You dirty little girl! He’s my stepfather and very much in love with my mother!”
“What? I never said anything. You just happen to read lots of those taboo books of yours. I just thought, maybe you decided to apply it to reality” I threw back the pillow at her.   

“Mia, this is getting cringe” She made a face. “Let’s go find something to eat” She stood up, showing her 5 years old child’s energy. “And then beach” I held her shoulders, and we both decided to make a quick tour of the house before heading to the kitchen. 
“Bread, eggs, milk, cheese, two tomatoes, some vegetables, meat…” She closed the fridge and opened a cupboard. “... cereals, three types of cereals, marmalade… hmm a lemon one, tea bag-” 

“Okay Dina, you don’t have to make a shopping list. Let’s just eat something super quick, and then we’ll eat dinner once we come back. A sandwich for now?” I already started taking out ham, cheese, and bread, without hearing her answer. 
Our friendship was really balanced: we both were the childish, immature ones, grinning like idiots, laughing too loud in public places; but at the right time, we both knew how to behave ourselves, be mature, and talk about serious discussions. 

After the quick snack, we changed in our bikinis, threw some tropical, large shirts on them, and headed towards the beach. “Sunscreen first” Dinara settled herself under a vacant beach umbrella, and opened her enormous bag. God knows what she had in that gigantic thing. Once I even found two padlocks in it. 
“Sure” I sat near her, and placed the book I brought with me, beside my thigh. We removed our shirts, and helped each other apply the sunscreen on our backs. “I like the weather here” Dinara said.   

“Yeah” I mindlessly mumbled, and grabbed my book. “You’re no fun” She huffed, and got up. “I’m going to dive in the water. Want to come?” She placed her hand on her hips. “I prefer staying here for now. I need to know who killed her wife” I waved my book in front of her. Where Dinara adored dark erotica books, I loved my crime novels. “Good. Then you’ll need to tell me too” She smiled and turned towards the blue sea. 

Opening the book where I left my bookmark, which happened to be the receipt of the service station we stopped by, I engulfed myself in my reading, slowly shutting down the world around me. Okay, so the last time he saw his wife was two nights ago. She went out for grocery shopping and never came back. Kidnapped? No, she was an old lady who suffered from obesity. Robbed and killed? Maybe.