A/N: Anything you recognize is not mine. This chapter is pretty easygoing. Shit hasn't hit the fan yet, but it will (naturally).

Enjoy!

XXVIII.

i think that i'm feeling the vibe
i see the love in her eyes

"What's Boardwalk Bangers, anyway?"

The girls were on a city bus—as they had been for part of their trip and on a train from Seattle to Los Angeles for an entire day—and almost in Venice. The excitement had been through the roof, then it had died upon staring out at nothing for miles and miles, and now it was lit again, especially for Leah. She just had a certain thing for palm trees, and now she was seeing lots of them. Southern California could be her new home. She thought she just might stay.

"It's a music festival held over the fourth of July weekend," Emily told Leah. She scrolled through her phone, looking for four VIP passes on Craigslist. "It's kind of a big deal. And it's like Summer Jam, but better since it has way more relevant artists."

Leah didn't know shit about Summer Jam, but because Emily was a music fanatic, Boardwalk Bangers had to be a big deal. Leah would take her cousin's word for it. She was just happy to be in California. She loved it. She loved all the smog and the palm trees and the pretty people. How could she have ever limited herself to just Washington, let alone La Push? She closed her eyes and pressed her face against the window, taking it all in.

All of this is real.

Bella, having been to California only a dozen times before, focused her attention on Kim, whom she sat next to on the hard plastic seat. She'd seen a lot of little Bambi these past few days. Maybe Bella just grew a liking to people the more she saw them. Thing thing is, though, she couldn't see herself getting sick of Kim. They were good friends. Real friends. She had chosen to be friends with Kim, and it had made all the difference.

"What do you wanna see the most here?" she asked.

"I wanna see it all," Kim replied, "but I think most importantly, I wanna see a bed. I'm so tired."

"Me, too."

Kim slumped in her seat and brought her legs up against the seat in front of her. Bella relaxed, too, and they put their heads together. Bella shut her eyes, trying to sleep for the rest of the time, and even though Kim was tired, she didn't want to miss anything.

Bella breathed easy, and she liked the feeling of Kim's hair against her face. This was it. Bliss. She didn't know if she found solace in the atmosphere of Southern California or the girl next to her, but she found it.

She sighed. "Love you long time, baby girl," she whispered to Kim.

After upgrading their wardrobe and replenishing their energy in their Venice Beach motel room, the girls went to the festival ground just a bicycle ride from the beach, ready to be amazed.

Leah, Kim, and Bella waited around while Emily got their tickets and VIP passes, watching the passersby around them. It was now that Kim realized each passerby's life was just as vivid as hers. Why were these people here? The reason had to matter. Had they also robbed a diner around their hometown? In the groups of friends, who was the Bella, the ruthless leader? Who was the Kim, the supportive lancer? Who was the Emily, the smart one who had stayed home? Who was the Leah, who jumped between the personalities?

Kim didn't want to go back to La Push. She could people-watch all day; it was something special when she didn't already know everyone she saw.

Emily returned with the tickets and passes, and the four of them stood in a circle as she passed them around, as well as pamphlets with the weekend's schedule on it.

"Okay, we need to be methodical about this," Emily said, the sun shining bright behind her. "We can't see everybody all at once, so we need to consider what really matters."

"Let's just see all we can see," Leah said. "This will probably be our only time to do this."

"Right."

"We have to see Tupac today," Kim said definitively, almost defensively, as she stared down at the pamphlet. "That's it."

"Why do we have to see Tupac?" Leah asked.

"What do you mean, 'why do we have to see Tupac?' What kinda stupid question is that?"

"Leah has a point," Bella said. "I mean, I'd rather see Lana Del Rey, anyway."

"Tupac's my baby daddy," Kim said as if it were a fact. "And no one cares about Lana Del Rey."

"How can Pac be your baby daddy even though he was killed when you were, like, two years old, Kim?"

Kim just shook her head and squinted her eyes against the sun's brightness. "Bella, he's not really dead. You know that, right?"

"So why do they have a hologram of him here, then, Kim? At least with Lana we know we'll get the real deal."

"Did you not just hear me say Pac is my baby daddy?"

"You guys both sound dumb as hell," Emily said. "Look, Bella, Lana comes to Washington every single year. We can see Pac today, but we're gonna all miss him if you guys don't shut up."

Bella shrugged. "Whatever," she said, trying to sound indifferent. She wasn't going to let being wrong ruin things so quickly.

Bella should have kept her mouth shut—Tupac was incredible. So were Drake and The Weeknd, but in different ways. The music festival was, in a word, massive. Crowds and crowds of people filled the festival grounds—it didn't even matter who was performing—and the girls got lucky enough to get VIP passes, meaning they could see whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted. They even got front row spots. In front of a convincingly real Aaliyah hologram, it didn't matter what they'd done to get here because they had finally made it.

What Kim had always thought was true: it didn't matter where she started, but where she ended up.

She ended up in heaven even though she had committed sins to get there, and she was immortal because of it. She felt like god Herself.

The girls left the festival at some point. It was late, but nobody kept track of time. Here in Venice, time didn't matter. It wasn't real. They had been embraced by the magical, electric city. They just might stay.

The rest of the girls had gone to get food when Leah, slightly tipsy and very at ease with it, found a telephone booth in a corridor outside their room, stuck in a couple quarters, and dialed a number. She got cozy on the bench and propped her feet up against her as she waited for someone in particular to pick up the phone.

Paul's husky voice didn't just sound like home—it felt like it, invading every aspect of her being like he was right there next to her. "Hello?"

"Hey," Leah said softly, as if he hadn't burned so many bridges between them. If she was sober, she wouldn't have called, but for now, she'd act like they were okay. It didn't matter too much, anyway.

"It's me, Leah," she added.

"You think I wouldn't recognize your voice? What's up, Lee?"

She sighed in relief that he didn't hang up. He was ruthless in that way. "Nothing much."

"You and the other girls disappeared," he pointed out. "Where've you been?"

"Everywhere and nowhere," she told him, echoing what he had said so long ago, after Prom. Would he remember? Would he even care to try?

"Okay, okay, I did sound dumb," he said, and she could tell he was smiling. "No, but for real, where are y'all?"

"Where do you think we are?" she challenged.

"I heard something about Seaside, but I feel like you'd only call if you were somewhere exciting."

"We're in Venice," she said. "Venice Beach."

"You're shitting me."

"Real shit," she assured him. "The realest shit. We're having so much fucking fun. I was, like, this close to Drake. He's really cute in person. I even saw Tupac. I love palm trees so much and I love the boardwalk and—"

"You're drunk off your ass." It wasn't a question as much as it was a fact.

"Okay, and?"

"And why the hell didn't you invite the rest of us to Venice?"

She laughed—really hard—and sighed. "Your broke asses are lazy," she explained. "You guys have no money and have made no attempts to get any. We fuckin' won, Paul. I won."

She hung up on him, but she didn't leave the booth once she was done. All that could ring in her head was: I won, I won, I won.

Under the Venice Beach sun, Bella and Kim lazily walked in the soft sand with laced fingers. Leah and Emily walked far behind them, in some deep conversation of their own as the tide came up to their toes.

"Your hands are so cold," Kim observed minutes later as she and Bella had been walking in silence.

"You're here to keep me warm, then, baby girl," Bella said.

Kim didn't know how to feel being called baby girl, but she didn't want her to stop. "I got you."

Bella smiled and looked up, pushing her sunglasses to the top of her head. "Kim, you are so nice. Who taught you how to be that way?"

Nice. The word rose like bile in Kim's throat. "Constantly being walked all over," she told Bella. "But I'm not nice—not anymore."

"How do you know?"

"I beat this guy's ass back in high school. The asshole had it coming."

"What did he do?"

Kim took a deep breath. She had never told anyone the truth about what happened between her, Mike, and Ashley, but she strangely felt like she could trust Bella. "I kind of had a thing with his sister and he got mad about it, so he tried to fight me," she explained. "I kicked his ass."

Bella didn't bat a lash. "He got what he deserved, then."

Kim nodded. "I know."

"I'm glad you don't let people walk all over you anymore. I used to be that way, and it took me forever to stop. I think it's just that we're too forgiving of people's shit that we want them to change."

"Yeah. Especially guys. We say we hate them until they act kind of human and then suddenly they're forgiven, but they shouldn't be."

Bella shook her head in agreement. "No, they shouldn't. We're better than this, Kim."

"How do you know?"

"'Cause we've got each other. I promise." The words didn't sound true, but they were.

Kim was silent.

"So don't you worry about these boys, baby girl," Bella continued, giving her hand a squeeze, "'cause we don't need 'em."

Kim looked up and smiled at Bella, convinced that she was being honest. The craziest thing about them was that they had a lot in common and didn't even know it. They wanted to see the best in the people they trusted, and they were misunderstood without meaning to be because they were too nice—or they used to be. They had both grown and continued to grow now.

They needed each other's presence to survive in the big, scary world they lived in. It was a mere fact; they just should have known it sooner.

Boardwalk Bangers was banging. The greatest time of any of the girls' lives, hand down. None of them could even think about coming home and explaining it all—one would have to have been there to understand.

Somewhere between all the beer and weed, Leah found love at the festival. There was this certain feeling she got somewhere between the stunning Aaliyah hologram and the massive performance that was Kendrick Lamar's when she realized she had fallen in love with the world. She had fallen in love with her life again. Before coming to Venice, she had thought all she would ever know was La Push and Forks and the rest of the badlands, but she had made it out. The feeling she had now made her never want to doubt herself or her abilities again.

Sue called Leah on Emily's phone while they were at the motel that night, and Leah went back to the telephone booth.

"Hey, Mama," she said softly, trying to hide the fact that she was drunk and high and something else, too.

"I miss you, sweetie," Sue told her, her voice not as hard as it could be. "I wish you called me first. You had me bundled up in nerves, you know."

"I miss you, too," Leah said. "And I'm sorry for not calling. It's just that things have been..." She struggled to find the correct word. "Crazy." Or something like that.

"Better not be too crazy. I'll come down and get you."

Leah chuckled. "I know."

"How's Seaside, though? What have you done?"

"Um… It's nice. Real sunny. We fed the seals today. It was a lot of fun."

"Aww, I'm so glad you're enjoying yourself, sweetie."

"Me, too."

"Well, I gotta go now, okay?" Sue said. "Call me tomorrow."

"Of course. Love you."

"Love you, too, Lee."

Sue hung up, and Leah left the telephone booth, padding off to the swimming pool where the rest of her girls were.

"Faded."

"Drank."

"Faded."

"Drank."

Leah rounded the corner and found her girls standing in the more shallow end. She quickly chucked Emily's cell phone onto the poolside lounge chair. Then she stripped off her clothes, revealing a purple bikini, and quickly dipped into the pool. The water was bright blue under the neon lights and very warm. It didn't feel like anything but heaven.

"About time you decided to join the rest of us," Kim said playfully, wading her arms.

"I was busy talking to my mom," Leah said. "Thanks, by the way, Em."

Emily adjusted the bun at the top of her head, careful not to get it wet and wreck her dye job. "No problem."

"What's that 'drank' song you guys were singing?" Leah asked. "I feel like I've heard it before. I like it."

"That one Kendrick Lamar song," Bella replied.

"I thought you weren't feeling Kendrick," Emily accused. "Since you'd rather see Lorde or something."

"I told you I'm adaptable," Bella replied. "And I actually like Kendrick. He's really good."

"God, we've seen everybody," Leah said, her voice reflective, as if they were already back in La Push. "The boys aren't gonna believe us when we go back to tell them."

"Fuck 'em," Kim said. "They didn't come, so they don't need to know."

"They weren't invited," Bella corrected. "I think we did a lot better without them."

Leah shrugged and leaned back against the pool, staring down at the water. "Boys have never given me anything but trouble, anyway."

"Me neither," Bella said sullenly. "Right now's my first summer in a long time without a boyfriend. It's weird, but it feels good."

"I wish I knew that kind of loss, Bells," Leah said.

"You don't wanna know, Lee. It used to be really bad."

"Well, you're better than that. I mean it."

Bella looked over at Leah. "Wow," she breathed.

"What?"

"You don't hate me anymore?"

"I never hated you..."

Emily laughed really loud. "You don't have to lie, Lee."

Leah giggled. "Okay, well, like, I never hated you that much," she explained to Bella. "You just kind of annoyed me, but I didn't know you very well. And I'm a world championship shit-talker—I mean, what can I say?"

Bella smiled sincerely. "You're forgiven."

Leah dipped down until her shoulders got wet. She peered at Bella for a second with her eye level just at the water before she stood up straight again. "Never said I was sorry."

"Now I'm offended."

"Shut up." Leah went over to hug Bella, and the latter girl gave in.

"Only because I don't wanna have bad blood with you anymore," Bella murmured, her fingers rubbing Leah's back.

"Girl, I've got mad love for you," Leah promised as she let the alcohol do the talking. "Real shit."

"Aww, look at you, getting all sappy."

Bella hugged Leah tighter, and she now realized she had never had anything to be afraid of. Yeah, Leah was a jerk-ass most of the time, but she was sweet at the heart and that was what really mattered. Neither of them had a reason to be scared anymore. When Bella and Leah were together, they were unstoppable. It was how they were here in Venice, after all.

The girls fell silent, and everything in the world was at ease. Finally.

Under the neon lights, Kim held her breath and dropped to the bottom of the pool, taking in all the tranquility before it slipped through her fingers.

"Mama? It's me, Leah. I'm calling you just like you wanted me to. Just like I promised.

"I'm sorry for understating my time here. Don't let me be misunderstood: I am having the time of my life.

"There's something about California. I mean, when you take away all the weed and wannabe actors, it really is an amazing place. It's not just earthquakes and starving artists. It's so much more than that. I used to think that there was nothing more than La Push for me, but, Mama, there's way more. Here in California, we can do whatever we want, be whoever we want. We're on top of the world. All of us. Emily and Kim and Bella and me. Yeah, even Bella. I know what you're thinking: I finally stopped hating that girl? It's almost too good to believe.

"Mama, this experience is too good to believe. It's a miracle trip. It fixed everything. It fixed my sense of the world, fixed my vision. I now see the world differently, in more than just black and white. I see the world in more colors and passion. I view people for who they are and who they are trying to become instead of who and what they're running from. But I get who and what they're running from. I really do. And you know why, Mama? Because I know who and what I'm running from, too. And that is the most beautiful thing about this experience: I learned that I don't have to run anymore.

"And I know that this doesn't fix everything back at home. Shit, I know that I still have to go home after all this. But, Mama, I don't ever wanna forget this. I wanna look back on this in a year or ten and be like, 'Damn. I really had the time of my life.' There's no other way to consider it."

The tone on the payphone had already stopped ringing, and Leah realized she hadn't even put in a number. She wondered if there was somebody, somewhere, listening to her. She wondered if they agreed with her.

A/N: Up next: run-ins with the law and a savior of sorts.

Thank you,

HS