18 and Over

Ryder eyes her reflection in the rearview mirror as she drives past the 3 acre park that divides her block from Austin's. The desert terrain turning from dead gold to burnt orange with the crisp August air. This would be the first time they hung out in awhile. Austin seems to always be busy lately. With what, hard to tell. She felt so alone with out Austin. The past few week they seemed to had drifted apart.

She pulled into the dead end street and parked infront of the blue one story house that had served as a home away from home for the past 5 years. A honk from Helga. Two minutes later, Austin's long legs step out the door, Mommy D at her heels. "Hey, Mom! I like the new hair!" Ryder calls out the window as Austin climbs in to the passenger seat. Mommy D, as Ryder called her, had a different hairstyle every month. Today, cornrows down her back.

" Have fun! " She calls out in her thick Jamaican accent.

"You're mom looks awesome. How far along is she now?"

" Six months. " Austin smiles warmly. She's not only an only child, but a miracle one as well. Mommy D's uterus curves; making her chances of pregnancy very unlikely. Now, she'd have two miracles. "Where we going? Mall?"

"I thought we could go hang out downtown. Kind of miss it."

A shrill scream comes form Austin's lips. " Holy fuck! What's that?"

"What's what?" Ryder asks panicking. Austin responds with swatting in the air and more screaming. Ryder gets a jolt of adrenaline from flight or fight instinct. Time slows down. Her vision is in slow motion. Her eyes widen and triple zoom to the giant wasp on the passenger window. "Ahhhh!" The girls scream in unison.Ryder puts the car in park in the middle of the residential street, and goes for the door. Even slower tempo than before, she feels Austin's deadly grip on her fore arm. Her words come all together, yet hauntingly slow, "DONT LEAVE ME." Ryder snaps out of her panic trance. The world begins to rotate on beat again.

"Ok. Ok." She chants calmly. With as little motion as possible, she reaches for the automatic window button. The wasp squeezes through the window and out into the open air. The girls burst in to laughter, still unmoving from the middle of the street..

This past summer had been the hottest on record. Austin and Ryder had made it a point to head downtown and soak near the passing river every day. Out of habit, Ryder parks Helga across the street from Headquaters, where Tyler, Jay and Doug lived. They had spent most of their summer at HQ. On weekend nights, the studio apartment housed around twenty 16-19 year olds. Ryder looked up at the building that held so many memories and ran her tongue on her bottom lip where her snake bites had been. Tyler had pierced both sides of her lip with a dull, frog head,earring during one of the many sleep overs they had had. She thought back to how they had gotten here when just three months ago they were all the best of friends. She guessed the downfall came when Doug stole from Jay in order to buy ecstasy; they all shunned him. Then Tyler and Austin hooked up, making things instantly awkward. Tyler and Jay lived together for awhile longer, but ultimately went their separate ways. Now, the two closest out of the whole group barely on speaking terms. Distance is a bitch, she thought.

They made the familiar walk to the heart of the town, past the Greyhound station that had served as a bathroom because the boys never had toilet paper.

"So." Austin begun as they took a seat on the patio of The Jungle, a coffee shop they used to come to on a daily. "How are things?"

"Good. You know. The usual... I can't stop thinking about Chris, though."

"You always torture your self over guys. Just breath."

"I know. I just... I just felt such a strong connection to him. "

"You feel a strong connection to everyone." Austin rolled her eye. This would've been aggravating if it had been anyone else. Ryder was a dreamer, and as her best friend, it was Austin's job to put her feet back on the ground.

"So, I forgot to tell you. I did a dance with this girl I knew back in middle school. It was so funny! This guy- "

" I don't want to know. "

"Ook..? What's wrong?"

"I just don't want to talk about your job, ok? "

"Ok."

"Wanna go check out the new store that just opened on Main? I need new outfit for the first day of class."

The store was decorated with posters of sunkissed blondes on the beach modeling the new BCBG Max Azria line. " First day of college." Ryder says while pushing through the clothes rack. "Do you want to go with 'Smart'- " She holds up a grey collard pull over. " or ' I'm here to party' ?" Now an above the knee, day-to-night-, flowy, long sleeve cotton dress draped over the front of her torso.

"Umm. I think I want to go with 'in my budget' I should've just gone to GAP."

"I made- like- two thousand the other night. I can pay and you can pay me back! What are best friends for?" Austin reluctantly grabbed the dress and made her way into the fitting room. "Hey! I'm going to see if there's anything I like." Ryder calls on the other side of the door.

"OK."

Less than ten minutes later, Ryder and Austin meet up at the register. "Did it fit?" Ryder asks behind a tower of clothes almost her size. She set the pile on the register, finally able to see.

"Did you try any of that on?" Austin asks quizzically.

"It's fine. I'm sure."

" Nine fourty six and eighty one cents." The cashier states. Ryder hands her a debit card.

As soon as they step out on to the street, Austin says "Uumm. You just spent almost a thousand dollars in fourty five minutes."

"Its fine. Seriously. This sweater, " She points at her pink Cashmere cardigan, " was 300 alone. I figured it's time to step up my wardrobe." A car passes by blaring "Make it Nasty" by Tyga. "Oh my god! I love dancing to this song. It's so raunchy!" The guy in the car waves.

Austin lets out an exhausted gush of air. "You're such a stripper!"

"What?"

"All you do is talk about the club, or how much money you make. You've changed. You act like a stripper now."

"How would you know? It's not like you've been around. I hit you up to hang out and you're always busy. You. Not me!"

"I'm going to take the bus home."

"Do whatever the fuck you want!"