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flipflop_divaFor this to make any sense, you can find the whole saga in earlier installments.
The prologue.
Chapter 1: Audrey.
Kelley
The sunlight pouring through the wafer-thin blinds wakes her. She blinks her eyes and contemplates going back to sleep, but she knows before she even tries that it’s going to be impossible. Her brain is already whirring to life, and she’s always been the type that when she is up, she is up.
She doesn’t get out of bed right away, though. Instead, she uses the moment to look around her.
At the far end of the room, opposite her, she can see two beds and, on each of them, heaps of blankets that indicate Lizzie and Jenna are still in bed and, by the soft sounds of breathing she can hear, still deep asleep.
The bed next to hers, however, is not only empty but freshly made. Audrey always has been the most morning person of them all.
Kelley stretches her arms above her head and then straightens and stretches her legs before shifting herself into a sitting position.
The beach house they are staying in — the very one she has adored from afar since she was five years old and her grandmother pointed it out to her — has six bedrooms. The master bedroom is huge, with its own equally huge bathroom and a walk-in closet that’s almost bigger than her apartment back home. Four of the other bedrooms are decent sized, with king-sized beds and their own television sets.
But the room they are all in — the room they have all shared since the first year they started coming here — is more like a dormitory room. It’s long and narrow, with two twin beds on one end and two twin beds on the other.
That first year, when they were all just seventeen and eighteen years old and needed Kelley’s grandmother to fill out the rental agreement for them since they weren’t old enough to do it on their own, this room was like a dream come true. They had always talked about living together and sharing a room.
They had happily dropped their stuff on the beds without needing a discussion. And ever since then, they had done the same thing, even picking the exact same beds for each of them, although they probably all could have used their own private space by now.
Kelley is actually surprised everyone even wanted to return here this summer. She feels like she has barely seen Lizzie or Audrey at all in the past year, and even with Jenna, it’s been few and far between.
She’s glad they’re here, though. Maybe this trip can repair the distance between them.
She swings her feet over the side of the bed and stands, then sets about making her bed, being careful not to wake Lizzie or Jenna. She glances down at the shorts and tank top she has slept in and decides she can change into her beach clothes later.
She heads downstairs quietly, past some clothes and shoes scattered on the floor, and laughs to herself as she remembers them tossing everything at a bag of chips on the floor late last night in a strange sort of game Lizzie had made up.
She’d had a lot to drink — more glasses of wine than she probably should have, but not enough that she lost track of herself. All the events of last night still run through her mind, just with that pleasant sort of hazy memory that suggests a lot of fun was had.
Lizzie and Jenna, however, had been on a roll. Kelley wouldn’t be surprised if neither of them popped out of bed until noon.
She makes it downstairs to the kitchen and cringes a little at the mess in here. Her grandmother would say it looks like a tornado came through it, and Kelley can’t help to agree with that.
Audrey is nowhere in sight, so she figures she must be out on the beach somewhere. Perhaps getting her morning run in. Audrey has always been so health conscious.
Kelley opens the refrigerator and pours herself a glass of orange juice and then sets about cleaning up the kitchen. Hopefully she’ll have time to take care of the mess and make breakfast for everyone before the other girls appear. She’s always loved surprising people with her food. It’s her way of expressing her love and gratitude.
She remembers back to those days when her grandmother first taught her to cook, how she could get so lost in mixing dough or cutting vegetables that it allowed her to stop thinking about all the things that were wrong in her life.
Her grandmother, her three friends and cooking — if it weren’t for all of them, Kelley knows she wouldn’t be here today. And not just here in this beach house, but here in this world.
She decides to start with the sink full of dishes, mostly from last night’s dinner. The beach house, for all its modern amenities, somehow doesn’t have a dishwasher, something Lizzie always complains loudly about, but Kelley doesn’t mind. Washing dishes can be as soothing to her as chopping vegetables.
She takes her time, concentrating on making sure each dish is sparkling and perfect before she moves it to the rack to dry.
Once the sink is clear, she works on the dishes piled on the counter and on the large island that takes up most of the room in the kitchen. She then grabs a rag to clean the crumbs and spilled wine off all the surfaces before finding a broom in the laundry room and sweeping up the mess all over the floor.
Finally, all she has left are the wine glasses left abandoned on the kitchen table. She heads over there to grab them, smiling to herself as she notices three of them are still partially full of red wine. Only Jenna’s glass is drained completely, the only sign of her leftover wine the drops dotting the stem.
Kelley picks up Jenna’s glass and swipes the drops with her finger. She doesn’t want them to splatter on the newly swept floor while she’s walking to the sink, but as soon as she touches the liquid, she pauses.
Something isn’t right.
Kelley frowns and puts the glass back down and then looks closer at the drops on her fingers, studies the color and the texture, and then her frown deepens.
That’s not wine.
She lifts her fingers to her nose and sniffs.
Is it water with red food dye? It looks like it, but why would Jenna have that on her glass?
Kelley tries to think back to last night. She remembers Jenna pouring everyone wine, glass after glass after glass. Did she ever pour the wine herself? Did she pour some for Jenna?
Jenna had been so drunk by the end of the night, stumbling over her own feet and slurring. But was she really? Was it an act all along?
Kelley stares at her fingers, her mind reeling, landing on the only logical thing she can come up with.
Is Jenna pregnant? And if she is, why is she hiding it from them?
Fiction.
Thank you for reading! This was written for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
therealljidol: Survivor Idol! We're at the final immunity challenge, so there's no voting. We now are writing two entries every day until only one person is left standing.
That said, if you want to read the entries, you can find them all here.
The prologue.
Chapter 1: Audrey.
The sunlight pouring through the wafer-thin blinds wakes her. She blinks her eyes and contemplates going back to sleep, but she knows before she even tries that it’s going to be impossible. Her brain is already whirring to life, and she’s always been the type that when she is up, she is up.
She doesn’t get out of bed right away, though. Instead, she uses the moment to look around her.
At the far end of the room, opposite her, she can see two beds and, on each of them, heaps of blankets that indicate Lizzie and Jenna are still in bed and, by the soft sounds of breathing she can hear, still deep asleep.
The bed next to hers, however, is not only empty but freshly made. Audrey always has been the most morning person of them all.
Kelley stretches her arms above her head and then straightens and stretches her legs before shifting herself into a sitting position.
The beach house they are staying in — the very one she has adored from afar since she was five years old and her grandmother pointed it out to her — has six bedrooms. The master bedroom is huge, with its own equally huge bathroom and a walk-in closet that’s almost bigger than her apartment back home. Four of the other bedrooms are decent sized, with king-sized beds and their own television sets.
But the room they are all in — the room they have all shared since the first year they started coming here — is more like a dormitory room. It’s long and narrow, with two twin beds on one end and two twin beds on the other.
That first year, when they were all just seventeen and eighteen years old and needed Kelley’s grandmother to fill out the rental agreement for them since they weren’t old enough to do it on their own, this room was like a dream come true. They had always talked about living together and sharing a room.
They had happily dropped their stuff on the beds without needing a discussion. And ever since then, they had done the same thing, even picking the exact same beds for each of them, although they probably all could have used their own private space by now.
Kelley is actually surprised everyone even wanted to return here this summer. She feels like she has barely seen Lizzie or Audrey at all in the past year, and even with Jenna, it’s been few and far between.
She’s glad they’re here, though. Maybe this trip can repair the distance between them.
She swings her feet over the side of the bed and stands, then sets about making her bed, being careful not to wake Lizzie or Jenna. She glances down at the shorts and tank top she has slept in and decides she can change into her beach clothes later.
She heads downstairs quietly, past some clothes and shoes scattered on the floor, and laughs to herself as she remembers them tossing everything at a bag of chips on the floor late last night in a strange sort of game Lizzie had made up.
She’d had a lot to drink — more glasses of wine than she probably should have, but not enough that she lost track of herself. All the events of last night still run through her mind, just with that pleasant sort of hazy memory that suggests a lot of fun was had.
Lizzie and Jenna, however, had been on a roll. Kelley wouldn’t be surprised if neither of them popped out of bed until noon.
She makes it downstairs to the kitchen and cringes a little at the mess in here. Her grandmother would say it looks like a tornado came through it, and Kelley can’t help to agree with that.
Audrey is nowhere in sight, so she figures she must be out on the beach somewhere. Perhaps getting her morning run in. Audrey has always been so health conscious.
Kelley opens the refrigerator and pours herself a glass of orange juice and then sets about cleaning up the kitchen. Hopefully she’ll have time to take care of the mess and make breakfast for everyone before the other girls appear. She’s always loved surprising people with her food. It’s her way of expressing her love and gratitude.
She remembers back to those days when her grandmother first taught her to cook, how she could get so lost in mixing dough or cutting vegetables that it allowed her to stop thinking about all the things that were wrong in her life.
Her grandmother, her three friends and cooking — if it weren’t for all of them, Kelley knows she wouldn’t be here today. And not just here in this beach house, but here in this world.
She decides to start with the sink full of dishes, mostly from last night’s dinner. The beach house, for all its modern amenities, somehow doesn’t have a dishwasher, something Lizzie always complains loudly about, but Kelley doesn’t mind. Washing dishes can be as soothing to her as chopping vegetables.
She takes her time, concentrating on making sure each dish is sparkling and perfect before she moves it to the rack to dry.
Once the sink is clear, she works on the dishes piled on the counter and on the large island that takes up most of the room in the kitchen. She then grabs a rag to clean the crumbs and spilled wine off all the surfaces before finding a broom in the laundry room and sweeping up the mess all over the floor.
Finally, all she has left are the wine glasses left abandoned on the kitchen table. She heads over there to grab them, smiling to herself as she notices three of them are still partially full of red wine. Only Jenna’s glass is drained completely, the only sign of her leftover wine the drops dotting the stem.
Kelley picks up Jenna’s glass and swipes the drops with her finger. She doesn’t want them to splatter on the newly swept floor while she’s walking to the sink, but as soon as she touches the liquid, she pauses.
Something isn’t right.
Kelley frowns and puts the glass back down and then looks closer at the drops on her fingers, studies the color and the texture, and then her frown deepens.
That’s not wine.
She lifts her fingers to her nose and sniffs.
Is it water with red food dye? It looks like it, but why would Jenna have that on her glass?
Kelley tries to think back to last night. She remembers Jenna pouring everyone wine, glass after glass after glass. Did she ever pour the wine herself? Did she pour some for Jenna?
Jenna had been so drunk by the end of the night, stumbling over her own feet and slurring. But was she really? Was it an act all along?
Kelley stares at her fingers, her mind reeling, landing on the only logical thing she can come up with.
Is Jenna pregnant? And if she is, why is she hiding it from them?
Fiction.
Thank you for reading! This was written for
therealljidol: Survivor Idol! We're at the final immunity challenge, so there's no voting. We now are writing two entries every day until only one person is left standing.That said, if you want to read the entries, you can find them all here.
