Equinox

Cruel Summer

Another bonus chapter.

This is in the Edward ending universe.

Eleven years in the future and it's from Lauren Mallory's perspective.

This is set in the year 2016.

Lauren didn't really want to go to her high school's ten year reunion. She had a very busy job as prosecuting attorney and the last thing she wanted was to spend her off catching up with people she was glad to never see again after graduation. She kept in touch with Jessica mostly through social media as they lived across the country from each other. Lauren hated Silicon Valley and the few times she went there to visit Jessica had her biting her tongue and wishing she just stayed at home. And Jessica avoided going back home as if she would catch the black plague if she even dared go near Washington again.

Tyler was the only one of their old friend group that was still in Forks. Last she heard, he'd become a deputy. He messaged all of them through any social media they had and when that didn't work, good old-fashioned emails, to attend their school reunion as if it was his job to ensure that people would actually go. Lauren tried to ignore him but kept finding herself re-reading Tyler's messages and feeling guilty.

He was being very nice despite being virtually abandoned. Eric was living in L.A. cause as it turned out Youtube had been a profitable career for him and now he owned a production company. Mike lived in Vermont and owned a sports good shop like his parents did. None of them even bothered to go home for the holidays anymore.

The last time they'd all been together had been the summer after their freshman year of college but that had been so awkward and painful, they never returned for it. A lot had changed in high school for them. The biggest change was still Angela Weber's death. A group didn't recover when the glue that kept everyone together was gone and they fell apart around senior year.

Lauren didn't want to go. She called Jessica and discussed it with her and the other girl didn't want to. She DM-ed Mike on Twitter and he didn't want to go. None of them wanted to go. But they all went because over ten years ago, they promised Angela Weber they'd all be at their ten year reunion.

Maybe they were afraid that lightning would strike them down if they broke this promise or Angela would rise from her grave to chide them all for being liars. They all were there and after an hour of painful catching up in the school gym, Lauren was about done. Tyler was hoping to run for sheriff next year and Mike kept talking about his gap year after high school. Jessica was getting tipsy from the flask of rum she snuck in and Eric kept getting accosted by their former classmates about his fabulous lifestyle in L.A.

All Lauren could think about was the case in Seattle she had to get back to working on and how nothing felt right because Angela Weber wasn't there. She should've been there and talking about her three kids and pretending that her job as nurse didn't exhaust the hell out of her. She would've probably brought those sugar cookies the boys were always so obsessed with. She would've asked sincerely how their lives were going and how they should all meet up again soon and meant it.

Lauren was about to leave when Mike suggested they go to the cemetery. It was summer but it never really got warm enough in Forks so they huddled in their coats over Angela Weber's grave. Engraved on her tombstone was the date she died October 22, 2005. Forever eighteen and never older, she was a faded memory in their heads with freckles and doe eyes.

Somebody had left a big bouquet of wildflowers recently as they hadn't dried up. Lauren supposed it could've been from Angela's parents or maybe her little brothers who visited during their summer breaks from college. Tyler suggested they all tell Angela what had happened to them in ten years. Lauren thought Angela probably knew if she was watching them from the afterlife but bit her tongue. She learned the importance of diplomacy as an adult.