A group of friends tries to piece itself back together after losing its glue.
*****
It's a quiet October morning in Palo Alto, California, when the news break out--June Beaumont was...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
SOFIA
The lake house was even more breathtaking than I had imagined—literally.
Even though it was even bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, where it was concealed by the woods in the park, it was easy to render me nearly unable to breathe. The place looked like it hadn't been touched in months by anyone willing to stay for more than a few hours; the cleaning staff had ensured it was immaculate by the time we got there, but it still smelled of abandonment.
Meridian pushed open the curtains, filling the hallway with light, and I was blinded by the sudden brightness for a brief moment. It was the first time he'd left my side and was quick to return, knowing I was the only one who saw how badly he was shaking. Everyone else was focusing on the infamous lake house, the cryptic house June wanted us to be in, and I wanted so badly to be able to worry about that, too.
Yet, he was my biggest priority. I had nothing else, no one else to turn to.
"This is a big ass house, indeed," Grace commented. Everything was so massive, so quiet her voice easily echoed around us. Even she seemed slightly startled by that fact. "Why doesn't anyone come here? If I owned this place, I don't think I'd ever leave."
Meridian shrugged. "It's secluded. My family is very sociable."
She threw him a skeptical look. "Guess there's always an exception for everything." He replied with a tight-lipped smile and said nothing else, but she wasn't expecting anything. She was already distracted, pacing around the huge living room, swinging her arms back and forth. "Where are we sleeping?"
Such an innocent question was more than enough to make me feel lightheaded. According to my mental math, there should be two king-sized beds in the house—belonging to Meridian's parents and grandparents—along with Meridian and June's rooms. There ought to be guest rooms in a house this big, but I doubted any of us wanted to be the one to stay in June's bedroom.
Back in Palo Alto, both Meridian and June had single beds in their house. I wasn't sure whether I should expect things to be different here or not, but I didn't want to get my hopes up; if I didn't get to stay with Meridian, if the guest rooms were occupied, I'd gladly take a couch, but I refused to sleep in June's bed.
"I got you covered," Meridian replied. "Sof stays with me, obviously, and you two"—he gestured towards Grace and Christina—"can take my parents' bedroom. Everyone else gets split between the two guest bedrooms. There are four free beds." I dared to breathe with relief. "I could let you"—he pointed to Felix and Xena—"take my grandparents' bedroom, but it wouldn't be exactly fair for Pinkie over there."
