Every summer, the friend group takes one trip together before school starts again. This year it’s a week at a huge lake house rented by Kaiden’s older brother — seven teenagers stuck together with barely any supervision. The group is made up of me, Kaiden, Maddox, Alex, Sophia, Elowen, and Sienna, and everyone already has their own dynamics. Kaiden is outgoing and always trying to start something fun, Maddox is more laid-back and sarcastic, Alex is quieter and thoughtful, Sophia is confident and witty, Elowen is calm and observant, and Sienna is easygoing and gets along with everybody.
He was the kind of guy everyone at school knew. Popular, always surrounded by friends, constantly laughing in the hallways like he owned the place. Teachers liked him, girls talked about him, and no matter where he went, people noticed. He acted confident all the time, but secretly he was getting tired of feeling like he always had to be “on” for everyone 😭
I never really talked much at school. Not because I was shy, I just hated how loud everyone was all the time. Most days I kept my hood up, headphones around my neck, and stayed with the same small group during lunch. Kaiden was the loud one, Ethan joked about everything, and Jace somehow got along with everybody without acting fake.
Ethan Hayes used to be the kind of guy people thought would eventually figure his life out. He had good parents, a normal home, decent grades when he actually tried, and a tight group of friends that had been around for years. But somewhere along the way, partying stopped being something fun to do on weekends and became his entire lifestyle.
Ethan never planned on working at a convenience store forever. It was just supposed to be a temporary job after high school while he figured his life out, but somehow months turned into almost two years of late-night shifts, fluorescent lights, and memorizing regular customers’ cigarette brands. Most nights were painfully boring — drunk people buying snacks at midnight, exhausted parents grabbing coffee, teenagers messing around outside because there was nowhere else to go.
Kaiden Cole had a reputation that followed him everywhere — parties, hookups, random girls in his passenger seat at 2 a.m. Nobody expected anything serious from him anymore, especially not him. Relationships were easy to leave before they got real, and honestly, that was how he liked it.