A/N: Hey guys! So sorry I haven't updated, school and life in general have kept me pretty busy, but thank you for sticking by me. Enjoy the update and let me know what you think!
"Gabriella!" Martha Cox shouted up the stairs of the Latino's two story home three days later. "How long does it take you to pack one bag?" Martha shook her head with a smile as she heard her best friend groan from above. Gabriella had told her the only bag she had left to pack was the bag that would contain everything she had needed the night before and this morning. Well, an hour later and Martha was beginning to think she needed her entire house.
"I'm coming! Hang on! You know I'm not a morning person!" Gabriella yelled back.
"Gabs, it's 9:30!" was Martha's response before she opened her best friend's refrigerator and pulled out a Starbucks vanilla Frappuccino. She leaned against the granite island in the middle of the kitchen and listened to the bumps and bangs and thuds coming from upstairs as she thought about the last time they had spent their summer in Miami together. It was the summer after their freshman year of high school, so that was about three years ago. She wondered if anything had changed in marvelous Miami and if any of their neighbors would recognize them when they arrived. There was something…enlightening about this being their last summer together before they were college girls and it was going to be amazing.
The house belonged to Gabriella's grandparents on her mother's side, but the elderly couple was vacationing in Europe until almost Christmas and the girls had jumped on the opportunity. They had been best friends since kindergarten and their parents had had no problem when Mimi and Papi Flores had offered the girls free reign of the house once again. Before their last visit, it had almost been like a second home to both girls. With Mrs. Cox divorced and her ex-husband not quite in the picture and Gabriella's father…problems, the two women and their daughters often spent every holiday they could at Casa de Flores to get a break from their hometown of Benson, Florida.
Martha was torn out of her reverie by a clatter at the landing of the stairs. She hurried out of the kitchen and had to bite her lip to hold back her laughter when she saw Gabriella sprawled out with suitcases on top of her delicate figure.
"Would you quit laughing at me and help me get up?" Gabriella hissed as she blew a strand of hair out her face.
"Sorry Gabs, just not something I expect to see at ten in the morning," Martha grinned before obeying her friend's request and moving the suitcases away so she could stand up.
"You know I can be a klutz sometimes!" Gabriella retorted before her features softened and a huge smile crossed her face. "Now let's get packed so we can hit the road!" Martha nodded as she grabbed a few of Gabriella's bags and dragged them out to her sports car.
Everywhere the girls would have to go in Miami was in walking distance of the beach house, so they really only needed a car to get down there and for emergencies. The only problem would be…how were they going to fit enough luggage for three months for two eighteen-year-old girls in a sports car?
"Push harder!" Gabriella groaned as she bounced on top of the pile of suitcases in the trunk, trying to flatten them, while Martha attempted to push in her beach bag and a few evening dresses. The backseat was already filled, as was the floor in the passengers' seat. And the only thing they had to do now was close the trunk.
"Okay," Martha said as she stepped back for a moment and wiped her brow with the back of her hand. "This is it. Jump one more time and get off as fast as you can and I'll try to shut it." Gabriella nodded and the two girls took their positions.
"GO!" Gabriella yelled as she jumped up and landed with her full weight on the pile and rolled off just before Martha snapped the trunk shut.
"Success!" the two girls high-fived as they stood up and surveyed their work.
"You know," Gabriella started as they walked back into her house for a quick breakfast before they set off on the three hour ride. "We could've just packed essentials and went shopping on the Miami Key." Miami Key was the second biggest shopping plaza on the East Coast and the girls' favorite destination every time they went there.
"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Martha winked and Gabriella laughed before opening the refrigerator and tossing a lock-and-lock full of blueberries, two strawberry banana yogurts, a carton of milk, and a bottle of orange juice to Martha.
"Rice Krispies or Special K?" Gabriella asked after she glanced over the cereals in her cupboard and picked which two would go best with blueberries.
"Rice Krispies, duh," Martha answered as she set two bowls and spoons on the table. Gabriella nodded and quickly filled both bowls to the brim while Martha poured the juice and opened the yogurt.
"How silly of me to ask," Gabriella said in a mocking voice. Martha never chose Special K, but Gabriella just knew the first time she didn't ask would be the day Martha didn't want Rice Krispies.
"Gabriella," Martha said before pausing to chew on a blueberry. The brunette watched her silently, waiting for her to continue. "What's going to happen after this summer?"
"What do you mean? I'm supposed to be going to Stanford and I'm pretty sure you're going to the University of Miami," Gabriella answered her friend, a dubious look on her face at the silly question.
"No, Gabs, I'm serious. What- wait, did you just say you're supposed to go to Stanford?" Martha caught on to Gabriella's slip and stared at her friend. Gabriella sighed as she realized what she had said before taking a deep breath.
"Martha, I kind of, maybe, sort of haven't accepted…the scholarship yet?" Gabriella asked more than answered.
"You what? Why?" Martha asked, concern evident in her eyes. Stanford had been Gabriella's dream since she was nine, when her father had walked out on them. Gabriella had sworn to prove him wrong, that she really could make her dreams come true. She had never told Martha what had actually happened, but that was the gist of it. Actually, Martha didn't think Gabriella had ever told anyone.
"I just- Martha, you can't tell my mom yet! Promise me?" Gabriella's eyes went wide and she grabbed Martha by the shoulders. Martha nodded and Gabriella visibly relaxed. "I'm just not sure anymore. I've always had my heart set on Stanford from when I was little, but it just doesn't feel like it's my choice anymore. My mom thinks that pushing me towards it all, the glamour of an Ivy league school, her alma mater, the best law school in the country, she thinks that it's what I want, but what if it's not? That's why I asked my options to give me until the end of the summer to decide and they've all agreed. I need to clear my head and let my heart guide me this summer and that's what I plan to do," Gabriella explained. Martha just nodded before enveloping her friend in a bear hug.
"Well then, I guess we should get these dishes of yours put away and hit the road," Martha suggested as she started clearing the table they were at.
"Hang on, just let me finish my yogurt," Gabriella said, digging her spoon into the carton and frowning when nothing was on the spoon. She stuck it back in and looked into the container suspiciously.
"Gabs, when you talk about your feelings, you eat. Your yogurt has been gone for ten minutes now," Martha grinned at her before Gabriella groaned and followed her to the sink with her own bowl.
EOJEOJEOJEOJEOJ
Half an hour later, after frantic last minute phone calls from their mothers, a double check to make sure all the appliances in Gabriella's house were off, an inventory for what should be in the car, and another bowl of cereal for Martha, the girls shut the car doors with a bang and settled down into their seats.
"Miami beach, here we come!" Gabriella cheered as Martha pulled away from the curb. Gabriella glanced back at the house and sat up straighter in the seat with a start.
She would swear on her life that she had seen those eyes again when she looked back, but when she shook her head and checked again, there was nothing. There had been no body, no other characteristic, just those eyes that had haunted her every night for the past few weeks. I must need this vacation even more than I thought Gabriella said to herself as she faced forward again.
"Miami!"