*Chapter One*
"Nothing Good Ever Happens After Midnight"
It was a quiet night in the idyllic town of Rosewood, Pennslyvania and Kourtany Vaughn, the new IT girl of Rosewood Day is about to spend it with her four friends. Kourtany is the epitome of an IT girl, she keeps up with the latest trends, spends hours at the salon getting her naturally wavy blonde hair done, her nails shaped and perfected, everything she can do to stay on fleek. She's standing in her family's guest house where she's throwing a sleepover waiting for her friends to show, lighting candles to cover up the marijuana smoke she just smoked to loosen up for the night. As she lit the last candle, she thought about the fun she's about to have with her friends. Brighton Landry walks in carrying her backpack in her hand, wearing jean shorts and a loose plaid shirt and her messy light brown hair up in a messy bun; she looks at Kourtany as they both sit down on the couch. "How long do you think until everyone else shows up?" she asks her friend. "How the hell would I know? I only know you're here now is because you live a few houses down," she says with a slight bitchy attitude. "Well, I say we get some music on, and some popcorn popped," Brighton adds trying to take control of the situation.
She stands up and starts doing what she said, as she puts a bag of popcorn in the microwave Amari and Tatum walk in. "Sup ladies," Tatum says drawing the attention to her. "Look what I stole from the liquor store," she adds holding up two bottles of vodka and puts a smile on Kourtany's face. "Yas, bitch," she gets excited. "Let's do shots," she adds. Tatum pulls out the shot glasses from the drawer under the TV stand and places them on the coffee table; they're five glasses. "Where's Harlo?" Amari asks realizing that one friend is missing. "Who the hell cares?" Tatum says as she pours the vodka into the five glasses, "Everyone in?" she asks as Amari and Kourtany pick up a glass. "I'm out," Brighton says opening the popcorn and begins to snack on that. "More for us," Tatum says taking a shot with her friends, and then the second shot with Kourtany of the extra glasses. A few minutes and two more shots later, the girl's phones beep, everyone looks at their phones, it's Harlo. "Meet me out front, bitches," Amari says reading the text message out loud. The girls all head outside, Kourtany leading the way. They see Harlo Hathaway, a beautiful redhead leaning against a 2016 blue Hyundai Sonata SE on the curb by Kourtany's house. "Look at my birthday gift, bitches," she announces to her friends, who are all looking the car over. "Daddy sent me this and a card apologizing that he couldn't be here for my sixteenth," she tells her friends, Kourtany replies with. "This is too big to fit in a card," she says with a bitchy attitude. "Let's go for a drive," she adds, snatching the keys out of her friend's hand, ready to get in the driver's seat. "You don't have your license," Harlo tells her friend, Kourtany plans on getting her way on this. "Um, it's a permit, and I got one, two days ago," she looks at her friend. "C'mon I wanna go to Wawa," Kourtany adds. "Yes, that sounds perfect," Tatum says waiting for the opportunity to get into the car. "You can flirt with Rider," Amari tells her friend, she gives in to Kourtany. "Fine, but you have to take the back roads," she tells her heading to the passenger side and getting in as her other friends get into the backseat, Kourtany into the driver's and starting up the car. "Don't make me regret this," Harlo adds.
Kourtany begins to drive to Wawa, which is a convenience store near the outskirts of Rosewood, she's taking the back roads which leads down an empty forest road. "Watch the road carefully," Harlo says as they enter the wooded area. "I am," Kourtany says rolling her eyes. "Well, I've ridden with you before you got your permit and you get distracted easily," she adds. "Shut the fuck up, Harlo, I got this," she tells her friend getting pissed off. "I just texted Rider to let him know we're on our way," Brighton says. "Turn the radio on," Tatum says. "Wait you got Rider's number?" Harlo says turning her head to look at Brighton, who's sitting behind Kourtany. Kourtany looks down to turn the radio up, and as she does someone comes out of nowhere, and she hits them. "Oh My God, what was that?" Harlo says all her attention to what just happened. The car has come to a halt, and all the girls are getting a little shaken up. "Did anyone see anything?" Harlo asks. "I'm on my phone," Amari tells her friend. "It's probably just a deer, let's go," Kourtany says trying to get out of the situation. She says trying to start the car again. "Don't," Harlo says getting their attention. "I felt something; we need to see what it was," Harlo takes over this situation. "I'll go," she says getting out of the car and slowly walking around to the front of the car. She screams when she sees that it's a person all of the girls get out of the car and rush to see what it is, everyone begins to freak out. Kourtany is alarmingly calm. "I can't believe I hit her," she's slowly freaking out. The person she hit was a classmate. "Oh My God, it's Shay Bellisario," Amari says noticing through the blood on her face. "We have to do something, we have to call the cops," Brighton says pulling out her phone. "No! We can't," Kourtany tells her friends. "All we have to say it was an accident, Kourtany, everything will be fine," Harlo tells her. Kourtany begins pacing, looking at the blood splatter on the head lights of the car. "I'll go to jail, prison, for manslaughter," she tells them. "It was an accident," Tatum says. "I'm fucking high right now. I have alcohol in my system. Besides, you'll all be in jail as well, accessories." she tells them trying to get them to agree with her. She begins to think as she hears them talking.
"If we don't report this, we'll still be wanted," one girl says. "I'm too pretty to go to prison," another says. "What the hell are we going to do then, huh, Kourtany, do you have a plan?" Brighton looks at her friend. Tatum starts crying. "Did anyone even see if she was breathing?" she asks, through her tears. "What the fuck was she even doing out here?" Harlo asks, everyone is freaking out, not knowing what to do. "We're going to bury her," Kourtany says. "With what Kourt, our fucking hands?" Harlo adds. "We can't be too suspicious," Amari says as she sits with Tatum on the side of the empty road. "There's a tool shed at the gas station, someone will distract Rider and someone else will grab whatever digging tools they can get," Kourtany says but Amari interrupts. "What about security cameras?" she asks. "They don't work," Brighton begins to say. "Rider told me they are only up for a scare, all of them," she adds. Harlo looks at Brighton, "What the fuck's going on with you and Rider?" she asks her friend. "We're just friends, besides we have other issues we need to focus on right now, Lo," she tells her friend. "I'll go with Tatum and Amari, we'll walk, it's not that far from here," Brighton says. "We'll clean the car and move the body," Kourtany says. "Shay, you'll move Shay," Tatum says with tear stained cheeks. "She's not Shay anymore," Amari comforts her friend.
About ten minutes later the three friends heading towards Wawa arrive at an empty parking lot, Rider Ryan; the college freshman is sitting behind the counter reading a magazine. "Alright, I'll go in, you two head to the shed, it's never locked," Brighton tells them as she walks in and gets Rider's attention. "Oh hey, Bri," he says smiling at her. "Where's your friends?" He asks her when he doesn't notice them coming in; she looks at him. "They ditched me," she tells him as she waits for the signal outside. "Those bitches," he says, looking at her. "I can't believe they did that," he adds. They begin to flirt a little.
At the scene of the crime, Harlo and Kourtany moved Shay's body to the side of the road and are now wiping the headlights and bumper with bleach and paper towels they found in the trunk. They're throwing it away in a plastic bag they found as well. "I can't believe she's been talking to Rider behind my back," Harlo tells Kourtany. "Let it go," she tells her friend. "You're overreacting, Lo, Brighton wouldn't do that, she knows you like him," she adds. "Besides that's something I would do," she says and looks at the clean headlight and bumper. "I'm so glad your a clean freak," she says and then waits for her friends to come back. The girls get comfortable and sit against the bumper, thinking. "What was she doing out here?" Kourtany asks her friend as they sit and wait. "It was like she running away from something because she came out of nowhere," she adds, looking around for signs of any more life in the wooded area. A few minutes later they see Brighton, Amari and Tatum walking down the road with two shovels. "I can't believe we're stuck doing this shit," Brighton says as they walk closer to their friends.
Kourtany looks at her friends, "C'mon, I found the perfect spot," she tells her friends and leads them towards Shay's body. "Grab her," she says with no life in her voice, Brighton and Harlo grab Shay's body and follows Kourtany as she leads them at least a 20 feet into the woods where there's nothing but dirt, and she stops. "Here," she says as her friends drop the body and start digging. "Shouldn't we like, say something?" Tatum asks, with a little emotion in her voice. "No one knew her," Kourtany begins to say. "I did," Tatum says. "She was in my Economics class, and she lived across the street from me," she tells her friends. "We were friends in elementary school," she adds. "Well then say something," Amari says. Tatum walks by her dead former friend and looks at her body. "You were a good a person, and you don't deserve this," she says and walks away. "Start shoveling," Kourtany commands.
After they buried the body and arrived back at Kourtany's house, they all sat in the living room of the guest house and just sat in silence. "We're going to act like things are normal," Kourtany begins to tell them. "We're going to act like regular teenagers enjoying their summer vacation, we're going to start our junior year of high school normally, everything will be ok," she tells them, trying to make them understand. "This never happened," she tells them, with a commanding tone in her voice.
Two Days Later...
As the sun came in Brighton Landry's window, putting a glow on her already golden brown hair hanging loosely down her shoulders. She opened her eyes and turned over on her side, looking at the open door her older brother Maz standing at, she looks at him. "What do you want?" she asks him. "Mrs. Vaughn called, she wants you and your friends over as soon as your up," he tells her, she sits up in her bed. "Did she say what she wants?" she asks her brother, he looks puzzled. "No, but she mentioned she was calling your friends just to make sure everyone knows," he tells her, then looks at her. "You guys didn't break anything the other night, did you?" he asks with concern in his voice. "No..." she tells him, then realizes she needs to get dressed. "You can go now, I need to get dressed," she tells him and watches him walk away. Brighton gets out of bed and heads to her closet, she pulls out a pair of her ripped up jean shorts and throws them on over her underwear, takes off her night shirt, picks up the bra that was on the floor of her closet puts that on and then throws on a black tank and one of her oversized shirts. She heads to her dresser spritz herself with some body spray and looks herself over. Her hair looks decent enough without brushing it, and her face is clear today. She does grab her favorite pair of sunglasses and her purse as she walks out of her bedroom door. The whole time she can't stop wondering what her friend's mother wants to see and her friends for.
When Tatum got the call from Mrs. Vaughn that she needed to talk to her, she dreaded getting out of bed, she laid in bed covering up her face and wanted to disappear. She couldn't stop thinking about Shay. It was all over the news now, Shay went missing and was last seen at a friends house the day before the accident. Well, the accident that she was a part of, she had tried to erase all memories of that night, but it was hard. She knew Shay, and she was good friends with Shay. As she walked passed the Bellisario house she watched as Shay's little brother, Shaun played with his toys on the lawn with his parents watching him, Mrs. Bellisario waved, Tatum took a moment but waved back. She held back tears knowing that their daughter was never coming back and walked on to Kourtany's house, which was a few blocks away. The only person who lived far was Harlo; she was literally on the other side of town. When Tatum got to Amari's yard, she stopped and waited for her friend as she walked down the lawn to the street. "So she called all of us?" Amari asks her friend. "I guess..." she begins to theorize a little. "Do you think she knows?" she hates feeling this way, but she's trying to forget it happened. "What are you talking about? We didn't do anything, someone probably just threw up and messed up her prized tulips or something, you know how Mrs. Vaughn gets about her flower garden," Amari tries to make the situation better.
As Harlo pulled up to the curb of the Vaughn house, she saw her friends walking to the yard. Brighton's already on the curb waiting for her friends; she looks at them as they all walk by her. "I was waiting for you guys," she tells them the obvious. They all look at her, they all were thinking the same thing and were scared. They walked to the front door and eye down Mrs. Vaughn's flower beds on the way up the steps. Harlo walked up front and knocked on the door; they waited patiently for the door to open. Kassandra Vaughn, the middle sister, opened the door in her pajamas and messy hair. "Mom, it's Kourt's friends," she announces and guides the girls in the house. "C'mon, she's in the dining room," she walks behind the group after shutting the door. "Are you guys hungry? Do you want any coffee? Juice?" she asks them as they all sit around the dining room table with Mrs. Vaughn sitting on the end seat. "Kass, the girls are fine, please go..." she says softly to her daughter trying to stay calm. Mr. Vaughn walks by his wife, looks at her, "Honey, Kelle's on her way home, she'll be here soon," he tells his wife then walks to the other room as Kass leaves. The girls are confused now.
Ilyssa Vaughn has never worn her hair messy, it was always brushed and always into a nice up do, she never NEVER wore a robe around the house when the girls were around. This morning her hair wasn't brushed, and she was dressed in a black house robe. "Girls, when was the last time you saw or spoke to Kourtany?" The girls look at each other; now it was a time for concern. Everyone begins to think about that, when was the last time they saw her. "Yesterday we hung out at my house," Harlo announces through the silent air. "That was in the afternoon, right?" Ilyssa asks Harlo, who softly nods her head in agreement. "Did anyone see or speak to her last night? Kourtany never came home, and her bed wasn't slept in," she asks them with tears in her eyes. The girls didn't know this part of Kourtany; they knew she would sometimes lie and say she was going to one of their houses and go out with some older senior friends from school but other than that she always came home. "Nothing... No one doesn't know a thing?" she asks in an upsetting tone. "I'm sorry, she never said anything, to any of us," Brighton tells her friends mom, besides being in shock, the girls are scared. Ilyssa calms down and looks at the girls. "I'm sorry. This isn't like Kourtany; she won't answer her phone, and I'm scared since that Bellisario girl went missing a few days ago. Just let me know if you girls hear anything from her, please," she tells them. The girls stand up and walk pass Mrs. Vaughn to leave, Tatum stops and looks at her. "We will," she says and leaves with her friends.
Outside of the Vaughn household the girls walk towards Harlo's car and get in, everyone in the same spot they were in the other night, except Harlo's in the driver side, she turns around and looks at them. "Was everyone telling the truth?" she asks her friends. They all agree in unison, "Yeah," they all say. "I haven't talked to her since the other night," Tatum says. "I texted her yesterday," Amari informs her friends. "No reply," she adds. "Nothing," Brighton says. "Agree than, we don't know anything," Harlo says. "We go on with our normal lives," she adds readily to leave. "Do you think she would tell, make it seem like she wasn't involved?" Tatum asks what everyone else was thinking. "She wouldn't do that, we outnumber her, we could just go right now and tell her," Brighton tells her friends. "Well, should we?" Amari says knowing it's the right thing to do. "Kourt's not here for all we know, she ran off to another country just to get out of this shit," she adds looking at them. The girls are split, some want to forget, and some want to go to the cops. "We go back to normal," Harlo takes over the situation, over the Kourtany spot. "Like she said, this never happened," she finishes off her statement. The girls then get out of the car leaving Harlo by herself, then they all go their separate ways home.
So this is chapter one... I'm working on chapter two...
what do you guys think?
I hope you like it.
Also for fans of mine sorry if I'm taking too long on new chapters I get a little distracted with new ideas and loose track of my old stories but if there is one story that you want me to really finish and wrap up, let me know and which ever one is popular I'll work on that.
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