See You Later by Bookworm18 (best beach reads of all time TXT) 📕

*Beep* *Beep* my alarm sounds waking me from my wonderful sleep. Ugh! I do not want to get up right now. I roll over in bed and fling my arm around trying to find the button to shut the alarm off. I finally find it and shut it off. Just as I am rolling back over to go back to sleep, my phone rings.

“I cannot have one moment's peace while trying to sleep!” I groan and grab my phone. “What?” I ask, not bothering to check the caller ID.

“Hey Asher! You wanna skip school with me?” Karter asks.

“Hey Karter.” I sigh. “Sure. School is boring anyway. Plus it’s Friday. Who all is skipping?”

“Um... Miles,” Silent groan, “Axton,” sigh of relief, “Honey,” audible groan, “ and anyone you want.” He finishes. Great people choices. Just who I wanted to spend my whole Friday with.

“Hmmm. I think… I’ll invite… Rosalina.” I say, smug and smiling. He hates her. The six of us have a very weird friendship. I hate Honey, and she hates me. Everyone but me hates Rosalina. I dislike Miles, well actually I kind of like him and I just act like I don’t, but he likes me, and he makes it known to the entire word every chance he gets. Axton, Karter and I are okay friends.

*Flashback*

“Hey Asher!” 3rd grade Miles calls to me at recess.

“What?” my 3rd grade self calls back.

“I LOOOOOOVE YOU!!! Will you be my girlfriend?”

“No. I don’t want a boyfriend. My momma says I’m too little. She says boys have cooties.”

That was the first time he proclaimed his love for me. There was also this one time in 8th grade. It was the first dance of the school year.

“Asher, will you dance with me?” Miles asked me.

“Sure.” I replied, not knowing what I was getting myself into.

He led me onto the dance floor and we danced for that song. When that song was over, I tried to leave, but he wouldn’t let me. Another song came on and he whispered something in my ear.

“I picked this song just for you.” He whispered. Louder he said, “I love you Asher. I always have, and I always will.” It was so embarrassing.

Then there was Homecoming our Freshman year of high school, which was last year.

He got to school early and decorated my locker. When I got to school, I opened my locker and a bunch of balloons came falling out at me. I screamed and fell. Everyone thought it was funny, but I was embarrassed. Then Miles came up to me at lunch with a box of chocolates in his hands.

“Asher, will you go to Homecoming with me?” He asked, handing me the box.

“Sure.” I said, because he went through all of the trouble of asking me, and I didn’t want to be mean. For the rest of the week, until the Homecoming dance, he followed me around like a little lost puppy. He kept saying that I was his girlfriend and that he loved me. I had to keep reminding him that we weren’t dating and that I was only going with him as a friend.

*End of flashback*

“Ugh! You know how much everyone doesn’t like her. She’s so whiny and she is always compl-” Karter starts.

“I know. You also know I don’t like Honey, but you get to bring her along. It’s only fair.” I cut him off.

“Ugh,” he sighs into the phone, “Whatever. Just meet us at the edge of town in our spot in 20.” He hangs up.

I climb out of bed and get dressed while calling Rosalina. We are ready and get to our spot right on time.

“Took you long enough! Come on. It’ll be dark by the time we find anything cool. Let’s get the adventure started!” Miles says, winking at me. I roll my eyes and start toward the forest. We all run around and mess with things just having fun until Honey trips over something.

“Hey guys! Come check this out.” she frantically waves us over. We run over to see what she found.

“It’s a clump of dirt.” Rosalina states, dumbly.

“Clean it off. It’s not just dirt.” Axton says, giving her a duh look. We clean it off and find a cart.

“Wow. A cart. Cool.” I say sarcastically.

“Look under it. I think it leads to somewhere scary. It looks like it hasn’t been used in forever.” Miles says, trying to get a rise out of one of us girls.

“Let’s take it and see where it leads.” Karter says, hopping in.

“Let’s not. What if one of us gets killed or taken? What even is it?” Rosalina asks.

“It’s an old abandoned mining track. Stop being such a baby and get in. If anyone is going to get taken it would be you.” Honey says, getting in the cart.

“What are we going to use to push it?” I ask, looking around.

“This. Duh.” Honey says holding up a paddle. I roll my eyes and hop in. Might as well because we are going with or without the whole group.

“Listen Rosalina. If you don’t want to go, then you can go back to school and be the boring person everyone thinks you are. OR you can come with us and have some fun. Maybe we will find a secret graveyard or something spooky.” Miles says, getting in. Axton gets in as well. We all stare expectantly at Rosalina. Sighing, she gets in and we take off.

“Woohoo!” We all shout, laughing and having fun. Even Rosalina seems to be enjoying herself.

“Hey! Stop a second. What is that?” Rosalina asks, pointing below us, through the trees. We stop and look. It’s a car graveyard!

“Let’s check it out!” Miles yells, trying to get out of the cart.

“NO! Someone could get killed down there. It’s too dangerous! Plus it’s getting darker. We should be heading back now.” I say, pulling him back into the cart.

“You’re starting to sound like Rosalina.” He whispers in my ear. I glare and push him away from me.

“Shut up. It’s going to be dark soon anyway.” I say, crossing my arms.

“Ooh. Is someone afraid of the dark?” He teases me.

“No. I just don’t want to be stuck in a cart in the middle of a forest with idiot boys at night. Sue me.” I say, sticking my tongue out like a child.

“Come on babe. I’ll protect you.” He waggles his eyebrows and winks at me. I roll my eyes and shake my head.

“I’ll pass. Let’s just go home.” I huff. We push off again and head home. By the time we get home it’s really late.

“Meet back here early tomorrow. We’ll check that place out. Tell your parents we’re going camping or something. That way we have the entire weekend to explore.” Axton says before we go our separate ways. We all nod and leave. Unfortunately I go the same way as Miles, so I have to deal with his torture longer.

“I’ll walk you home like a gentleman, so nobody can hurt you.” He says trying to link arms with me. I pull my arm away and walk faster. “Come on. Why are you so grumpy? I’m just trying to be nice.” He huffs, running to catch up with me.

“I don’t like you. Leave me alone.” I cross my arms. “Please.” I add when I see the hurt look on his face.

“Fine.” He says, going left to his house. “See you tomorrow.”
“Unfortunately.” I mutter walking up my front steps.

As soon as I got home my mom started yelling at me.

“Where have you been young lady? It’s past your curfew.”

“Relax. I was out with some friends. No big deal. Oh hey. I’m going camping with them tomorrow. I won’t be back until Monday.” I shrug and walk upstairs.

“Okay. Just be safe and stay out of the woods. Remember a couple years ago some kids went into the woods, and one of them died.” Mom hollers at me. Right.. because one of us is totally going to die.

The next day I pack my stuff and meet my friends at our spot on the edge of town.

“Ready to go?” I ask. They nod and we head back into the woods with the sun rising behind us. We all pile into the cart and away we go.

“I hope we find death and destruction.” Miles says, smiling evilly.

“I hope we find unicorns and rainbows.” I say sarcastically, giving him an Are you dumb? look.

“Way to be a party pooper Asher. Hope you fall and break something.” He says playfully. I stick my tongue out and glare at him. Yes, I am mature. I know. “ Remember. No backing out now. We stay until Monday. If you have a problem with that, then go home now.” He says giving me a pointed look. I roll my eyes. Whatever.

“Let’s go.” I say, ignoring his look. We get to the car graveyard just as the sun is reaching the treetops. Everybody piles out of the cart and we start exploring.

“Single file so nobody is shoving anybody off cars.. Cough Cough… Miles.” I say glancing at him. He pretends to look hurt, clutching at his heart.

“Ouch baby. That hurts. I would never push you off a car.” He winks and we line up in single file. Karter braves the front, with Honey behind him. I stand behind Honey, with Miles behind me and Axton behind him. Rosalina takes up the rear. We are just walking along when I hear Axton calling out to me.

“Asher! Watch your step.” he hollers, just as I step off the edge of the car. Miles catches me before I fall.

“Thanks guys.” I say, smiling at Miles.

“No problem.” He says, putting me down. I watch my steps with more care as we continue walking. Out of nowhere we hear a scream come from behind us. We all whip around, well 5 of us anyway. Rosalina is gone. We all look around, but we don’t find her. I see movement in the bushes a little way down from the cars we are on. I point and we take off, not watching where we step, or where we’re going. We lose the movement for a little bit, but we eventually find it again. We chase after it until we lose it completely.

After looking around for a little while longer, we see an opening in the dense brush. We run toward it, but stop when we almost fall off the cliffside. We turn back around, to go home, but we have no idea where we are.

“Anyone remember which direction we came from? I think we got lost.” Axton says, pointing out the obvious.

“No.” we all say at the same time. It takes us all night, and we have to pull out our flashlights, but we finally find our way back to the starting point. We didn’t end up finding Rosalina.

“Hey! What’s that?” I ask, pointing to a light ahead of us. We look at each other and shrug. We head toward it. The light is wrapped into a piece of wire sticking out of the car. The car has some writing on it as well. It reads: I’m back. Did you miss me?

I take a step back, appalled.

“Asher careful!” Karter yells, just as I fall off the car. Nobody catches me this time. I land on something with a crunch. I look down and scream. I’m standing on Rosalina.

“Get me up! Get me up!” I sob. Hands reach down and pull me up. I’m shaking and sobbing.

“Come here.” Miles says, pulling me into his chest. I sob into his shoulder, soaking his shirt, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

“What was that?” Honey asks.

“Rosalina.” I let out in a shaky breath. Karter and Axton hop down and lift Rosalina’s body onto the car. Honey gasps and I start crying again.

“Let’s get them home.” Karter says, gesturing toward me and