"It's times like this, I really wish one of us had our licence."
The words dully stated by the dripping wet redhead broke the relative silence between the group of three girls, all trekking home with their hoods pulled tight over their head to combat the torrential downpour, arms wrapped around themselves in a vain attempt at maintaining some warmth. The speaker, blue eyes sparking with annoyance, looked around at the two blondes on either side of her.
"I mean, seriously," She continued, impatiently flipping soaked strands of hair away from her face, "How have we all reached eighteen, nineteen in Rosie's case-" She gestured vaguely over toward the taller girl on her right, "-Without gaining the ability to drive? Do you even realise how much time it would save? And how many disasters like this it would stop?"
The other two girls, well used to her grumblings, exchanged vaguely amused glances behind her head, before the aforementioned 'Rosie' spoke up.
"Technically," She remarked, voice as calm as ever, "I can drive. Just not legally."
"Which doesn't help us much I guess, Rosalina," The last girl remarked, shooting a wry grin with perfect white teeth and bordered with lipstick her way before turning back to the ginger, "If it bothers you so much, why don't you learn to drive, Daisy?"
Daisy snorted, "Don't pretend for one minute you'd trust me even if I did, Peach. Besides, I'm flat broke."
She seemed rather unphased about this, switching her heavy bag, bulging from both school books and sports equipment, to her other shoulder, rolling the one that previously bore the weight. Her yellow hoodie, while well suited normally for the mild spring weather, was not doing a particularly good job at protecting her from the infamous April showers, soaked through to the skin on both her top half, and her green skinny jean clad bottom half. Her off-white running shoes squelched in the puddles scattered across the path, looking ragged and out of place next to Peach's immaculate brown ankle boots and Rosalina's neat black slip ons. Peach, goosebumps clear on her uncovered legs due to her fashion choice of a cute but comfortable mini skirt and knitted pink jumper, laughed in agreement. Her similarly pink raincoat was keeping her dry with more success than Daisy's outfit, but it was Rosalina, as per usual, who was best off with warm white leggings and a casual blue dress as well as a sensible white raincoat.
"Well at any rate," Daisy mused at the lack of verbal response from her best friends, "I'll be racing you guys for a stupid shower once we get home."
"I call first dibs," Peach said immediately, "I can't feel my legs."
"And you think we can?" Countered Rosalina wryly, amused smile playing about her lips.
"You two have a barrier against the rain! My legs have nothing to cover them!"
"Yeah well, my barrier is chafing like hell and is gonna be a real pain to peel off," Grumbled Daisy, grimacing as she pulled at the wet denim material which stuck to her legs.
Rosalina sighed, not even bothering to try and put her name in the mix and silently resigning herself to showering last, but then perked up somewhat when their apartment complex came into view.
"We'll only be like five minutes more anyway, almost there," She reassured her friends. She realised her mistake immediately, as Daisy's eyes suddenly glinted, and Peach groaned.
"Oh no, now you've done it Rosie," She groused, "Never give her a time limit."
"Five minutes? Bet I can do it in two," The redhead said quickly, grin in place, the clothing stuck to her skin no longer seeming to bother her.
"Daisy no, that's not a-"
She took off in a sprint, bag bouncing on her shoulders, as Rosalina weakly finished, "…Challenge."
Peach sighed, but it held more amusement than exasperation.
"Guess she'll make the shower first after all," She said, sighing somewhat wistfully as her dreams of a feeling warm and clean were pushed back an hour.
"Don't worry, we can switch on the heating for an hour or so while we wait," Rosalina reassured, watching as Daisy got smaller and smaller as distance formed between them. Peach stretched her arms above her head and hummed in agreement, wrinkling her nose as this shift caused water to drop onto her face, perfectly covered in a light, natural layer of make-up.
"I'll be parking myself right underneath the air duct then," She replied, "But I guess I'll look over my new design while I wait, I've been wondering if maybe I should give it some orange undertones to go with the pink and make a sort of sunset effect, you know? But I'd need to get the shades just right, so they compliment each other and don't clash…"
Peach, perhaps unsurprisingly from looking at her, was a fashion major. Despite being best friends and flatmates, none of the three of them done remotely similar classes, with Daisy majoring in sports science and Rosalina in Psychology. The rest of their classes also did not double over, with Peach, a crazy talented singer and pianist, minoring in music while Rosalina minored in Astrology. Daisy did not currently have any minors that she was undertaking, choosing instead to fill her extra time by working her part time job at a local café. This was due to her family's poorer financial situation, meaning she did not receive as much support as the other two teens in the money department, particularly Peach whose family was admittedly very rich. Rosalina's upbringing was very much middle class and ordinary, with her family being comfortably well off, however she did work a shift a week at a nearby bookshop for the work experience and, Daisy and Peach often speculated, free access to a great number of books.
The three girls were all in their second year of university and had met when they lived in the same hall in their accommodation in first year. Somehow, they had just clicked, and they had decided to flat-share the next year in order to save money and get to live with their best friends. Their flat was a cute, modest three-bedroom place, around a twenty minute walk from their main campus, up on the third floor of a building filled with primarily other students due to the convenient location. They were friendly with many of the other residents, Peach having dated one or two of them as Peach was prone to doing, and would frankly be quite sad to leave it when the semester ended.
Daisy was waiting for them at the entrance, face sour and shivering with cold even as she stood in shelter out of the rain. Rosalina looked at her, confused as to why she would bother waiting, before it clicked.
"You forgot your key, didn't you?"
Daisy simply nodded, scowling as Peach burst out laughing while she fished her own key out of her pocket. The redhead yanked the door open as soon as Peach had twisted it in the lock and bolted into the relative warmth of the hallway. They traipsed up the stairs, dripping water everywhere and receiving a somewhat resigned look from the janitor, Mr Lakitu, who went to fetch his mop.
"Good old Lakitu," Daisy said fondly, watching the bespectacled man, "Always cleaning up after our messes."
"We really lucked out with cleaners, he's the sweetest guy to talk to," Agreed Peach, smiling. Daisy elbowed her lightly with a slight snort, quirking an eyebrow.
"Don't try and date our janitor please Peach."
Peach made a noise halfway between a gasp and a laugh, shoving Daisy away.
"I would never! Talk about age gap, and he's way too cute and sensitive for me," She dismissed easily. Peach was certainly the one out of them who had the most dating experience, and had half the boys on campus in love with her due to her stunning looks and figure. Peach wasn't opposed to dating around, to the point where her flatmates had long since given up even trying to keep track of it, but once she settled with a guy, that would stop in in instant. She just hadn't happened to settle for around six months now, and when asked would simply wrinkle her nose and say, "These guys are fun and all, but they're just not dating material."
"I thought your type was mature guys," Rosalina teased lightly, small amused smile on her lips.
"Yeah, mature in personality, not in their thirties Rosie!"
The three all burst into laughter as they reached their apartment door and opened it. Peach immediately shed her sopping wet jacket, hanging it on the hook and relaxing into the cosy atmosphere of their apartment. Rosalina crouched to pick up the mail, only to yelp as Daisy skilfully managed to vault over her and dash down the hallway to the bathroom, unsettling the mirror hanging on the wall, hollering behind her, "Mine!"
"Oh Daisy, be careful! You could've knocked something over!" Peach called, shaking her head and reaching over to balance the mirror. She frowned suddenly, locking onto a spot on the wall. She turned around to look at it in person, face puzzled. There was an empty spot where a picture of the three of them normally hung. A very quick look around revealed it face down on the floor, and when she crouched to pick it up, she saw it had cracked from the fall.
"That's weird," She commented aloud, looking up at Rosalina who was just now closing the door, "Did you hear this fall when Daisy jumped and ran?"
Rosalina looked down at the photo and shook her head, confused frown twisting onto her lips.
"No, I'd definitely have noticed, especially with it smashed like that," She replied. Peach shrugged, standing up and hanging the photo back up, stepping back to see if it was straight.
"I guess the wind must have knocked it down or something then," She replied, no longer phased as she kicked off her boots. Rosalina was still frowning though, looking at the photo.
"We didn't have any windows open," She said, hint of uncertainty in her voice. Peach laughed, crouching back down to wrestle with the zip on her right boot, which was refusing to come off with as much ease as the left.
"Relax Rosie, don't sound so on edge! It probably just got hit by the draught when we closed the door leaving this morning, Daisy was last to leave and she always has her headphones in so she probably didn't hear it fall. Easy peasy," She said, clear dismissal in her voice. Rosalina shook her head to clear any remnants of uncertainty, and nodded with a slight laugh.
"You're right, I was just being overly cautious. You know there's been reports of burglaries nearby?"
"No kidding? You know I think I heard a guy in my class mention that, have you met Matthew-"
A sudden shrieking yell from Daisy burst forth from down the hall, and Peach cut herself off, looking at Rosalina with horror, a look which was returned. It wasn't a mild cry of surprise, like if she turned the shower on and got blasted with cold water, or a startled yell like she'd pulled back the curtain and seen a massive spider parked on the wall. It was a shout of genuine fear, one that was quickly muffled, and one that almost sounded like some kind of…warning.
The other two girls froze, uncertainty crawling through them, as Peach hesitantly called out, "…Dais? You alright?"
They stepped further into the apartment wearily, Peach suddenly wondering whether she shouldn't have dismissed Rosalina so quickly. The older blonde glanced at her and quietly mumbled, "Do you…think we should call the police?"
A jolt of fear shot through Peach at these words, as she replied, "Surely not. Surely its…I…Surely it's nothing, right Daisy?"
These last two words were called out, and their unease only grew at the lack of response from the resident hothead. They exchanged looks again.
"This is so dumb!" Peach suddenly snapped, startling Rosalina as she started stalking forward faster, "She's probably just playing a prank, right Daisy? Well, very funny!"
"Peach, wait-"
The pink clad girl threw open the bathroom door with only a call of, "Sorry if you're naked in there Daisy," only to stop short in the doorway, eyes widening in horror. Rosalina paused a few feet away, hand hovering over her mobile phone in her pocket.
"Peach? Is it okay? Is Daisy okay?" She asked, hesitantly taking another step. She froze on the spot as a harsh, masculine laugh broke out from behind her, followed by a similar sounding voice.
"Not quite, sweetheart. But then, neither are you."
She began to twist round, frightened expression clear on her face, only for strong arms to grab her roughly and hold her in place. Her heart pounded in terror as she watched another man step out of the bathroom, Peach backing up to the wall, eyes wide, pupils dilated with fear as she feebly pleaded, "Wait…who…why…?" before she too was grabbed by the man. He skilfully held her still with one hand, and Rosalina jumped in fear as she felt a face lean down to her ear to whisper into it.
"Scream, and your friends die."
A choked sob left her throat, and judging from the sudden streams of tears flowing from Peach's eyes, she had received a similar threat. But, obediently, neither of them made a noise beyond that. Rosalina felt the man holding her shift, and there was a sound of fabric rustling as if he was digging through his pockets. When this stopped, Peach's red-rimmed eyes suddenly locked onto hers, wider still, and Rosalina realised too late that the other blonde was trying to warn her of something, as she suddenly felt a sharp sting of what was undoubtedly a needle piercing into the flesh of her neck. Whatever was in the needle was very fast acting, as a sudden wave of nausea and dizziness washed over her, leaving her feeling lightheaded and her vision suddenly wavering. Despite the threat, Rosalina heard Peach scream her name in concern, before a pained yelp indicated she had also felt the prick of a needle and the cold rush of a foreign drug entering her system. After this however, Rosalina didn't have enough situational awareness to register anything more, and all too quickly her consciousness faded out completely, leaving her unaware as all three girls were hoisted up and carried out of the apartment, the door closing with a soft click behind them.
It was as if they hadn't even come home.
