Kill All Your Friends

"Okay so who wants to go first as to what they've been doing?" I asked as the four of us settled onto the bed in Beckie's hotel room with our food.

We had opted for the four of us to head to the hotel in Robyn's car. Caige and Nate would drive my parents car back to the house and Anthony would follow them and drive them to the hotel, Jen and I's guys bringing us clothes. We swung by Robyn's mom's place where she was staying and grabbed some stuff for her before going to whatever places we wanted food from.

An hour later here we sat in pajamas eating an assortment of fast food just like it was old times.

"Well we all know what happened with you Ms.Bestselling Author." Robyn smirked as she bit into her Chic-Fil-A.

"Yes but did you know that I met my baby daddy at an Avenged Sevenfold concert?" I replied.

"No but now I do. Beckie you next." she said pointing in Beckie's direction.

Beckie smiled and sat down her Taco bell, wiping her hands off on her Mario Bros. pajama pants.

"Well Anthony and I live in New York, he owns an auto body shop and I'm a medical assistant. We have a dog named Doodles and we've been married for two years." she said smiling.

"So no spawn?" Jen asked.

"Nope. Not yet at least." Beckie replied.

"Okay Robyn it's your turn. What have you been doing?" I asked digging into my Big Mac.

"Well I'm teaching Art at Wyoming State. I've dated a couple of guys but right now I'm single." She replied.

"You still have Raz?" I asked referring to her beast of a dog that stood higher than a coffee table and outweighed a kindergartner. It was more of a horse and less of a dog.

"Yep. He's staying with my dad right now." she replied.

“Oh lord I bet your dad loves that.” Jen smiled.

“Totally.” she smirked.

“Okay Jen what’s going on with you?” Beckie asked.

“Well Gague and I have been together for a few years and we work together a lot on different independent films. He does sets and costumes and I direct.” she replied.

“Wow that’s awesome that you found someone who’s into the same thing you are.” Robyn smiled.

“I know! He’s everything I ever wanted.” Jen grinned.

“Oh speaking of what we wanted I brought something along.” Robyn replied and before we could ask what she was doing she had bounded off the bed and over to her suitcase returning with something wrapped in a bright green pillow case.

“What’s that?” Beckie asked.

Without a word Robyn unwrapped it revealing a brown faux leather book. It was thick and had obviously been torn apart and rebound to add more pages several times by the straining spine. Across the front read ‘Our Memories’ it was the scrapbook we’d kept when we were in high school.

“Oh shit! I thought this was long gone!” Jen said taking it from Robyn’s hands.

“Nope..I’ve had it since that night we spent at Loran’s for graduation.” Robyn replied.

“Thief.” I smirked at her and she just smiled.

“This is incredible. I haven’t thought about this thing in years!” Beckie said flipping through the book.

There were pictures from all the way back to when we’d met at 15.

It was at our first sleep over and we were all smiling at the camera. We were young and the walls behind us showed the time. The bands that we loved were just as young as we were and we were just getting to know them. The music wasn’t yet engraved in our memories like it was now. It was still fresh and new.

The last picture was taken at Jen’s graduation party. It was in the park that we frequented almost every night that we could. The five of us were perched on the hill that over looked the lake. We were in tank tops and shorts in the humid June weather. Jen’s mom had snapped the picture as the sun was going down and we were laughing at some random thing that Jen had said just at that moment.

“Jesus this thing is full.” I said as we turned the pages.

“I know. Wait…what’s this? What’s in here?” she asked.

“What’s what in where?” Robyn asked.

Jen took the book in her lap and lifted up a page that looked much thicker than the other ones. We watched as she took hold of it and pulled it apart. Wedged inbetween the pages was another sheet that was folded tight.

“Oh my god I remember this!” Jen gasped as she unfolded it.

“Me too!” Robyn added.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Yeah because I don’t remember this either.” Beckie said looking at me.

“You don’t remember the map? The one we planned out that trip we were going to take the summer after our senior year?” Jen asked.

“Wait! Yeah! We didn’t get to go because our parents freaked out about us being five girls driving alone across the country.” I replied.

“God I was so pissed about that.” Beckie sighed.

I looked at the map. We had planned out every last day of the trip which would last 7 days total. Blue lines we’d carefully drawn out with sharpies went over all sorts of places and for months we‘d saved every last penny. We had been so excited to go and were heartbroken when our parents had stopped us.

“God I wish that we had been able to do this.” Robyn said gazing at the map.

“Why can’t we?” Jen asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well this starts here in Myrtle Beach and ends in LA right? I mean our parents can’t exactly tell us that we can’t do it. It would just be Loran and I driving home and then Beckie could fly home and Wyoming’s like a couple hours away right? Robyn can like drive home from there. We can use her car. Well if you’re up for it that is.” Jen said looking at Robyn.

“Are you shitting me? Of course I’m up for it! It’s summer. I have no school to teach and a shit load in the bank. I’m in.” Robyn smiled.

“Then so am I.” Beckie replied.

“Me too.” I grinned.

“Wait…is it safe for you?” Robyn asked.

“I’m pregnant for Gerard’s sake! It’s not like I’m going to just up a keel over! The worst thing I could do is go into labor and that’s like 2 months off. So I’m in. We need to do this. For Eden.” I replied.

“Then we’re doing this?” Jen asked.

“Fuck yeah!” Beckie and I yelled in unison.

“I just hope the united states knows what’s coming for them.” Robyn laughed.

“Well ready or not. Here we come.” I smiled.

I couldn’t wait to get started.