The Road Trip

7

"Calm down Lauren. You're real tight right now." Normani said.

"Fuck you Zendaya! You know I hate that shit! Fuck you bitch!" Lauren yelled, jumping out the car.

"Fuck you too Lauren! How dare you put our lives in danger, you asshole!?" Zendaya yelled out the window.

"Calm down Z-"

"No, I'm just gonna talk to her." Zendaya said, jumping out of the car too.

"Say it to my fuckin face Coleman!" Lauren said, getting in Z's face. Zendaya just looked at her and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, my friend. You know I don't like-" And that was all Zendaya could get out before Lauren's fist collided with her face.

"Damm!" (Lisa, laughing )

"Oh shit!" (China)

"Z!" (Mani)

The three women hopped out of the car while Lauren was on top of Zendaya,  her fist connecting with anything it could. Mani and Lisa grabbed Lauren and pulled her back, making all three of them fall. China helped a cursing and bloody faced Zendaya up. Lauren was glaring at the taller girl. Like a switch went off, she had realized what she'd done and started to cry.

"Zendaya! Oh my God! My buddy! I'm so sorry!" She said, sobbing into her hands.

"No worries. This is just a shell. My true self lies within. However, my shell has a broken nose, a loose tooth and a cut lip. Assistance please." She said, falling to the ground, out cold.

"Z! Oh God." Mani said, letting go of Lauren and going to Zendaya.
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The ladies eventually managed to get Zendaya in the car and clean her cuts with some alcohol pads while she was knocked out. Lauren sat in the passenger seat and cried herself to sleep, letting Normani drive.

"Ladies, I gotta spit, can we stop?" Zendaya said, waking up.

"Sure. I see a gas station up ahead." Mani said, pulling off the dirt road they'd been on for hours. She pulled into the gas station and Z hopped out of the car and spit up blood.

"Well, shit." She said. Lauren got out and looked at the blood on the ground and started crying again.

"Z-"

"Calm down Jauregui." Zendaya said, leaned over, still spitting.

"I hurt you. You're one of my best friends Z. I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me." She explained. Zendaya wiped her mouth and leaned up to look at the girl.

"I'm surprised you didn't black my eye to be honest." She said with a smile.

"I love you Z." Lauren said. Zendaya held her arms out.

"Bring it in green eyes." She said, engulfing the shorter woman into a hug. Lisa and China got out of the car and went inside the gas station. There was no clerk at the counter and the store was eerily quiet. China stuck close by Lisa, who saw nothing weird in the fact that  nothing could be heard except the humming of the fridges the drinks were in.

"You ever get drunk before, Chi?" Lisa asked.

"Huh?"

"You know you heard me." Lisa said, looking through the selection of candy.

"Lisa, did you realize there isn't anyone in here?" China asked the dim witted woman.

"That means we can steal." She said with a chuckle.

"I'm going back to the car. You can get some candy somewhere else. Come on Lisa." China said, grabbing the woman by the arm. Lisa shook her off.

"China, you're always being so procrastinating. Calm down." She said.

"Procrastinating is- you know what? Never mind. I'm out." China said, leaving the store quickly. Mani, Zendaya and Lauren were leaning against the car, laughing at something.

"Where's Lisa?" Mani asked.

"Being an idiot." China responded, getting back in the car.

"Well we need gas, I guess I'll-"

"AHHHHHHHHH!" A high pitched scream could be heard coming from the store. Lauren and Zendaya booked it for the store. Mani tried to, but Lauren told her to stay with China. Lisa was yanking on the door handle from the inside, but it wouldn't budge.

"What the fuck?! Let me out guys! Help!" Lisa yelled. Zendaya laughed.

"Stop playing Cim." Zendaya said, stuffing her hands in her pocket.

"I'm not! Please something's coming!" She cried. She was actually crying.

"She's not kidding. Help me Z." Lauren said, pulling at the door. The two girls tried with all their might but the door wouldn't budge. Suddenly, the lights began to go out, one by one in the store, and Zendaya saw a shadow behind Lisa.

"Oh my-" Z started but was cut off.

"Fuck it! Lisa watch out!" Lauren yelled, kicking the glass out of the window just as the last light went out. Lisa crawled out of the door quickly and ran to the car. Lauren did the same but Zendaya kept looking into the darkness.

"Zendaya! Let's get the fuck outta here!" Lauren yelled to the girl.

"I'm coming!" She said, turning and running to the car as well. After they got back onto a highway, Mani asked them what they saw.

"I didn't see shit but Lisa crying and lights going out." Lauren said, shrugging it off as if she didn't get creeped out.

"Lisa... what'd you see?" China asked the girl, who was now sitting in between her and Zendaya, clutching onto Zendaya's hand tightly and fidgeting around.

"I don't.. I don't know what she was. I don't... I've never seen anything like that before." She said, her voice in a serious tone they'd never heard her speak in before.

"She?" China asked.

"It was something in there. Something evil. I can still feel the... the... I don't know. It's like it had not a bit of good in it whatsoever. I felt its aura." Zendaya said.

"It's aura? Why are you calling it a she? It was probably just someone playing a prank on us." Lauren said, trying to make sense of it.

"No... it wasn't a person. But it was a she. I was browsing the candy after China left, but couldn't find the one I wanted. I heard someone shuffling around so I thought it was the clerk coming back so I looked up and she was in front of me, floating, staring down at me with a smile on her face. That's when I yelled and ran to the door." Lisa explained.

"You're saying you saw a ghost?" Mani asked, tapping the steering wheel.

"No. That was no ghost. It wasn't a ghost." Lisa said. Zendaya started going through her bag and took out her sage.

"Oh come on Z. Not now." Lauren said.

"I have to do it now or she'll latch onto Lisa. That was a demon she saw, I have to drive it out!" Zendaya said seriously.

"Whatever." Lauren said. Z lit the sage and waved it around the van, Lisa especially, who was now holding herself tightly.

"Be gone evil spirit..." Zendaya whispered to herself, rolling down the window.

"You're so full of shi-"

"Just let her do it Laur!" Normani said. Lauren huffed and kicked the glove compartment, putting her feet up. Z threw the last of the little bit of burning sage out of the window and patted Lisa's shoulder.

"You're okay Lise. It's okay now." Zendaya said. Lisa just nodded, staring blankly out the windshield at the light traffic on the highway ahead.
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