Chapter Two

Unexpected Events

It was Morgan and his constant reminding about the concert in Dallas that finally got us out of the stream and heading back toward the van. The heat dried the water off our bathing suits as Erin and I headed back toward the woods to change, shivering despite the heat.

"So," Erin began with the hint of a smile on her features. "I saw you and Andy together."

I smiled and felt like I was back in high school, crushing over a guy and gossiping about it with my best girlfriends. "Well...you know, I've only known him for a couple of hours." I answered from behind a tree as I pulled by nearly dry suit over my head and dropped it to the ground.

By the time Erin and I returned to the van, Andy and Morgan were already inside and Kemper was waiting impatiently beside Erin's suitcase, which was still flipped open the way she had left it. "Erin, hurry up, we're gonna be late." He prodded as she knelt in front of the suitcase.

I got down beside her and tried to help Erin pack her stuff back up; she smiled appreciatively but repacked everything herself, zipping the suitcase back up and tossing it into the back of the van.

I dropped down next to Andy in the backseat of the van and wasn't surprised when he wrapped his arms around my waist and started kissing me as soon as I sat down. I returned the kiss, running my fingers along his tanned skin and tight muscles. Morgan mumbled something but I didn't pay any attention to what he was saying; Andy was the only thing I was concentrating on.

In the front seat, Erin pushed another cassette tape into the deck and a guitar riff echoed through the van. Andy ran his hands down my thighs as we continued to kiss and I let him, enjoying the way his fingers felt against my still slightly damp skin.

"Big wheels keep on turning." Erin sang from the front seat, giving her words a false accent in better hopes of matching the male singer's words. If you asked me, it made the whole thing sound even worse.

Morgan seemed to think so too. "Can somebody please make her stop singing?" He looked over at Andy and I, but saw that we would be of no help in his plight to get Erin to stop butchering the song.

"Carry me home to see my kin." Erin continued, louder now to make Morgan suffer more then he always was.

"I think you have a beautiful voice baby." Kemper told her and smiled.

"Thank you." Erin smiled back.

Andy and I remained neutral on the whole subject, preferring love over war. Finally, I pulled away from him, taking deep breaths as I smiled at him. "Can you believe that we didn't even know each other yesterday?" I questioned, trying to make sense of it myself. The world would be happier place if everyone felt the way I felt about Andy right that minute after only just meeting someone, if you asked me.

"I know," Andy agreed huskily, pulling me to him again. "It's just amazing." He started kissing my neck before kissing my lips again, running his fingers through my hair.

Morgan cleared his throat. "You know what else is amazing?" He waited for an answer. Neither of us were prepared to give him one. "Is there a pause? Or a half time?" He questioned and finally Andy turned to glare at him, looking like he was ready to throw Morgan out onto the road. "The fact that seventeen thousand Americans each day are effected with a sexually transmitted disease and two thirds of them are just about your age." He smiled innocently.

Where did he come up with that stuff? But, maybe he had a point; I scooted away from Andy, straightening my skirt and wondering how it was possible for one person to kill a mood so fast.

Erin rolled down the window a little farther, looking slightly pale as she rummaged through the tapes in a box on her lap; she pulled one out and studied it. "Oh baby, they gotta play 'Free bird.'" She said and looked over at Kemper. That was the song we had been listening to earlier and Erin had informed everyone in the van, whether they cared or not, that it was her favorite song and always would be.

Andy let his fingers trail down my leg lightly and I forget all about what Morgan had said, I turned to kiss him again. Kemper assured Erin that they'd play her song because the tickets had been so expensive. I was slightly surprised when Andy pulled away from me and turned his head in Kemper's direction. "Hey Kemp, can you do something about the A/C back here? I'm melting." He snapped, wiping sweat off his forehead again.

Kemper banged against a miniature fan that had somehow been secured to the dashboard and when nothing happened he said, "No."

In high spirits, despite the heat, both Andy and I laughed and even Erin rolled her eyes. I guess it's just something about being young, with your friends, having a great time and just happy to be alive that makes every situation small in the scheme of things.

"But," Kemper continued, "If you and Pepper get too hot, you can always take your clothes off."

I giggled, only because I wasn't sure of what else to do; Kemper did have an interesting sense of humor. Andy glared at him. "You'd like that wouldn't you?" It couldn't tell if he was really mad or not, which was sort of endearing.

"You are such a perv." Erin chastised before she turned around to face me. "Don't listen to him Pepper." She told me.

"Why not?" I questioned. "I think he's funny." I smiled slightly and snuggled closer to Andy.

Kemper looked at Erin and gave an 'see, someone thinks I'm funny' look and Erin rolled her eyes. "That's 'cause she's only known you for nineteen hours." She snapped at him and turned to look at me again. "I've lived with him for three years and trust me, he's not funny."

I laughed again, though inside I was yearning for the sort of loving romance Erin and Kemper seemed to have. They loved each other, in spite of whatever happened in Mexico and had happened in the past three years; love like that was hard to find. Andy leaned over to whisper someone to Morgan the other boy smiled and they both looked over at the donkey shaped piñata that they had brought back from Mexico with them; I had asked Andy earlier why they had bothered to bring back such a silly souvenir and he had told me that it wasn't just any souvenir. It was filled with pot and only Erin didn't know about the real reason they had gone down to Mexico.

As Morgan started to role another joint, I pulled a plastic jar of bubbles out of my backpack and blew some at Andy, who smiled and swatted them away. Bubbles had always been one of my favorite things when I was a kid and that was one thing that hadn't changed; something about bubbles, who they were just so light and free, seemed to brighten up every mood. I blew some in Erin's direction, hoping to brighten up her mood but the bubbles popped before they could reach her.

Morgan took a drag on the joint and smiled happily; he was already stoned but that didn't seem to keep him from puffing again. After a minute, he passed the joint up to Kemper, who took a drag and coughed, eyes watering. "Erin." He said and handed the joint in her direction.

Erin waved her hand dismissively and stuck her head out the window, holding onto her cowboy hat to keep it from blowing off. "No thank you, I'm nauseous." She told him. Come to think of it, she had been looking rather pale lately, but I had never seen her smoke or take a drink since I had known her. Which, granted, wasn't very long.

"Montezuma's revenge." Morgan spoke up from the back. I was interested in who Montezuma was, since I had never heard of him, but Andy had other things in mind that took my mind off Montezuma and his revenge. "I was like, Erin don't drink the water down there."

"I didn't." Erin snapped, clearly fed up with Morgan. I had noticed they didn't get along very well and Andy said that was because, when she and Kemper had first started going out, Morgan had gotten her drunk and tried to sleep with her. Kemper had forgiven Morgan after a couple of months but Erin clearly never had; I understood where she was coming from, it wasn't a nice feeling to be taken advantage of.

Kemper smiled. "And she didn't drink the tequila. Didn't drink the weed," he corrected himself, "Smoke the weed." Clearly he had been smoking the weed too much.

I smiled slightly at his slip up and blew more bubbles into the van, watching them float through the dry air only to pop seconds later.

Erin wrinkled her nose. "Well, maybe I didn't go to Mexico to watch you get shit faced for four days." She snapped and suddenly was upset at Kemper instead of Morgan.

"Baby, that is what you do in Mexico." Kemper defended. "What did you expect?"

"Well, maybe a tear-cut diamond ring," Her frown turned into a coy smile. "That goes right here," she held up her hand, "on my beautiful little finger."

The marriage thing again. I wondered if Kemper really wanted to get married as much as Erin thought he did.

"We're gonna get you that ring someday." Maybe he did want to marry her as much as she wanted to marry him.

Erin didn't look convinced. "I've heard that one before." She snapped and turned away from him, crossing her arms over her chest.

Kemper held the joint out to her again. "Peace offering." He said with a smile.

Erin looked at him and a sly smile formed at the corners of her lips; she took the joint, raised it to her mouth and then flicked it out the window. "Oops." She said with faux innocence and I laughed, both at the look on her face and the look on Kemper's. He looked too surprised to be really upset.

"That was not cool." He remarked and Morgan looked over at him with a look of surprise on his face.

"Guys, relax." Morgan said, words coming out slow before of his current state. "It's not like we don't have two pounds of-" Andy pulled away from me so fast that I nearly fell off the seat and slammed his fist into Morgan's shoulder, stopping the boy from finishing his sentence. Andy had made it perfectly clear to me earlier that if Erin found out that they had smuggled pot across the border, the out come wouldn't be pleasant.

I looked over at Erin and it was clear that she'd heard exactly what Morgan was planning on saying. "What did you say?" She snapped. Morgan shook his head, trying to look lost and confused. "Two pounds of pot? Does that refresh your memory?"

Kemper looked panicked. "Baby, don't listen to me." He said, trying to sound soothing and in control. "He's baked and stupid." He spat the last words at Morgan, who cringed slightly, rubbing his arm where Andy had hit him. I wrapped my arms around Andy's shoulders and tried to get his attention on me once again and leave the fighting to the others but he was too focused on what Erin was going to do.

"Baby," Erin said firmly. "Please tell me that we did not go to Mexico to buy pot." She glared at him.

I looked over at Kemper. It was like watching a tennis match. "We did not go to Mexico to buy pot." He repeated. Even though he was doing to it to keep Erin from getting more pissed off then she already was, his lying just reaffirmed my idea that all guys were liars, no matter what they said. Erin continued to glare at him. "C'mon, baby, I am not a dope smuggler." Erin smiled slightly, looking reassured and I felt bad for her; she was so in love with him that she would believe anything he said and he was taking advantage of that fact. Kemper smiled as well. "Tell me how much you love me."

Erin held up her thumb and index finger, so close they were almost touching. "This much." She told me.

I laughed and Andy joined in too, those his laughter sounded a little forced, as though he wanted desperately to get back into the mood he had been in earlier. Kemper held up the same fingers, though his were held farther apart. "How 'bout this much?" He questioned.

Erin wrinkled her nose. "No. That's it, that's it." She said and held up her hands and shrugged her shoulders.

"Give me a kiss." Kemper commanded and Erin leaned over and kissed him. I smiled, glad to see that their differences had been put aside for the time being; I guess at times, people who be right to call me a hippy or free-spirited because I was happy when other people were happy and preferred love to war. Not that I'd make signs that proclaimed these facts but for a philosophy in the back of a van, it wasn't too shabby.

I saw the girl walking in the middle of the road before anyone else, but Erin was the first to find her voice and shout out a warning to Kemper. He slammed on the breaks just in time and swerved to avoid running the girl over, who didn't even flinch when the van hurtled past her. I was nearly thrown forward, into the back of Erin's seat, by the sudden stop and would have been if Andy hadn't been holding onto my shoulders.

"You almost hit her!" I cried and Andy glared at me. He seemed to believe that I had misplaced the blame in the situation.

"What was she doing walking in the middle of the road?" He snapped I saw he was more shaken then upset.

When Kemper had swerved to avoid the girl, the piñata filled with pot had broken open and now Morgan was scrambling to shove it all back inside; Erin turned around to look at the girl, who was still heading down the road, and saw the bags before he could hide them again. She looked at Kemper, hurt and betrayal showing in her eyes. "Asshole." She whispered.

Wordlessly, Kemper backed the van up until we were alongside the girl again. I peeked out the window and watched her; she was moving slowly and she didn't have any shoes on. Her feet were bloody and cut but she didn't seem to care as she kept walking.

"Hey, are you okay?" Erin called out the window. There was no response.

I saw that the girl was crying, her lips were chapped and her face was streaked with dirt and tears. But what bothered me the most were her eyes: how they seemed to look so blank, so lifeless. "Dude, that is a bad acid trip right there." Morgan mumbled.

I shook my head; not everything had to do with drugs. She could have been raped, or beaten, or lost; she looked so young, so lost, so dead. Erin told Kemper to stop the car and he did so; she jumped out of the van and I followed after her. As we got closer to the girl, I saw that she was mumbling something to herself. "Gotta get away. I've gotta get away." She was repeating over and over again. The sight of her jerked my heart; what happened to his poor girl?

Erin looked over at me. "We can't leave her out here like this." She said and I nodded. The girl stopped walking only when Erin and I took hold of her arms and steered her back toward the van. There was something sticky on her wrist but I couldn't tell what it was; I wiped my hand on my skirt.

"It's okay man." I assured her.

"We'll give you a ride." Erin added. "Wherever you wanna go."

The girl allowed us to herd back toward the van. "I just wanna go home." She whimpered, fresh tears cutting lines through the dirt on her face.

"Okay." Erin agreed. "We can take you home."

Andy was waiting by the door when we returned with the girl and helped her inside and onto the backseat. I got inside and pulled the door shut behind him; I moved to sit next to her but Andy grabbed me by the waist and pulled me into his lap, where he was sitting with his back against Erin's seat. "She could be dangerous." He whispered in my ear and I realized he was right. There was no telling how long that girl had been wandering around out there and the heat does strange things to people.

The girl stared down at her feet with her lifeless eyes and started to cry again; I wondered what she was really seeing and was certain that I didn't want to know. Whatever had happened to this poor girl was bad and I prayed that I never had to experience something like it.

Erin turned in her seat. "So, what's your name?" She questioned, a friendly smile on her face. If anyone could get through to this girl, it would be Erin, who seemed to have the ability to make friends with everyone.

The girl continued to cry as we all watched her, even Kemper through the rearview mirror. "They're all dead." She choked out and seemed crumble. I felt my eyes widen; dead? It seemed almost impossible.

"God, I am way too stoned for this!" Morgan cried and rubbed his eyes with his hands. Erin told Kemper they needed to find a hospital and Kemper agreed, except for the fact that he had no idea of where to find a hospital. I hadn't realized until that moment just how far away we were from anyone else, any houses or police stations. What if there was some crazy killer on the lose that had killed this girl's family or friends and almost killed her? If there was and we stumbled upon him, we'd have no way to protect ourselves; Andy was pretty strong but he wasn't going to be strong enough against a gun or other device of heinous torture. I shuddered and pressed closer to Andy, who wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

"Um, who's dead?" I questioned, a confused half-smile on my face. Maybe I'd heard wrong.

The girl started to cry again and didn't answer. She looked up, peering through the rearview mirror and obliviously didn't like what she saw. We were passing a meat plant, which snuck of blood and death but I didn't think it was just the building that made her react. "No." She muttered. "Stop." When Kemper didn't do as she said, she got even more worked up. "No, stop you're going to wrong way!" She cried and lunched herself toward Kemper.

Andy attempted to stop her but she was quicker; she kneed me in the mouth but didn't seem to even notice, she was too focused on grabbing at Kemper. "You're going to wrong way!" She screamed before Andy managed to grab her by the waist and throw her back into the seat.

Kemper slammed on the breaks. I reached up to press a finger against my lips, which throbbed but didn't show any evidence of blood, of which I was glad for. The sight of blood, no matter who's, always made me dizzy to sick to my stomach.

"He's a bad man." The girl sobbed and clutched her head in hands. "He's a very bad man." Her thighs parted slightly and I saw that the insides were coated with blood. I recoiled and turned away. "He's a very bad man. You can't make me go back." She reached in between her legs; Andy wrinkled his nose. "I won't go back there."

I chanced a glance back at her in time to see her pull a gun out from between her legs; I felt my heart skip a beat. "Oh God." I whimpered. Andy moved so that he was slightly in front of me and I was grateful for his act of protection.

The girl looked up from the gun. "You're all gonna die." She informed us before lifting the gun. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the end to come but nothing happened; I opened one eye and saw that she had turned the gun on herself.

"Grab it!" Kemper cried as the girl put the muzzle in her mouth. Andy moved forward but it was too late. She pulled the trigger and the bullet tore through the back of her skull, shattering it into hundreds of pieces and sending blood and gore splattering around the van.

Someone started screaming and I realized that it was me; Erin screamed as well but her screams were wordless, helpless. "Let me out of here!" I cried and crawled over Andy, scampering for the door. "I gotta get out! Let me out of here!" I finally found the handle and threw the door open, my vision blurry because of the tears in my eyes. My head was spinning, I couldn't seem to stand up straight; I couldn't see, I couldn't think.

I stumbled to the back of the van, clutched my stomach as I doubled over and vomited.