Versus

Finally, Emma felt like she was having the college life that she had hoped for. Classes, studying, ballgames, friends, and more studying. She was busy and loved every second of it. None of her hallmates had schedules exactly like hers, so it wasn’t very easy to plan things. It was extremely spontaneous really.

It was almost daily that one of them was studying in the common area and in passing, one of the others would just take a seat. If just for the company. A smile exchanged, and the last one there would plop down and began studies of their own.

Emma would give Aala a curious side-eye glance often to let her know that she was being watched after her last scare stunt. That became their weekly joke. Emma was watching out for round two.

A whisper was spoken when hunger took over and off they’d all go together. If all four of them weren’t around, one of them would stick their head inside the room and invite whoever was missing.

At least once a week, the girls didn’t allow Emma’s excuses and drug her to the gym to learn volleyball. It was clear that Kelly and Abby had been playing for years. They took pity on the other two and teamed up two on two without staying on the same team. Everyone knew that they would slaughter the new players and they wouldn’t keep coming back for lessons. The college had no volleyball team, but that didn’t stop Kelly and Abby from trying to form a team just for fun.

“Look, fog!” Abby yelled.

The girls took off, running towards it. Laughing and cheering.

It had encompassed the path on their way back to the castle. Abby grabbed Kelly and swung her around through it, causing it to swirl around them.

“It’s so pretty,” Emma said, laughing at the girls.

“If it were much thicker, we could play hide and seek.” Emma teased.

“Exactly!” Abby stopped swinging Kelly to agree and tucked her arm through Kelly’s to walk arm and arm. Both holding an arm out, as if to fly through it, their fingers caressing the whimsical cloud.

“That would be so much fun!” Aala cheered.

Several evenings a week after showers the four girls would continue their fun escapades. Playing cards, board games, and often just kicking back on chairs and talking. They would talk about family and the occasional cute guy, but they noticed that Emma never volunteered information. An understanding glance or shoulder shrug amongst the others and someone would change the subject to something she would talk about. She would come around in time.

Emma rode her bike to her mom’s for supper at least once a week. Macy never asked but always welcomed it when she had time. Emma sometimes brought her books, just to hang out and even study there. Both with their books or computers and a cup of coffee. It was perfect.

She often thought it would be nice to ask the girls to go with her to her mom’s one day. She just felt hesitant in inviting them into her mom’s life. Almost like she was still protecting her. She so wanted that feeling to pass.

Friday afternoon. The last class for the day was over and Emma mentioned that she needed to go to the car wash, very close to the campus gate. “My bike is looking grungy. I’m leaving DC for a bit.” (The Darby residents were very proud that they had a castle in their small town. When residents or students spoke of the University with all its buildings and grounds, it was stated “Dion University.” But if someone was referring to the castle alone, it was referred to as Darby’s Castle, DC for short.)

“Ooo, I’m going,” Aala announced.

“Me, too,” Abby cheered.

“Ooo..can we go to the coffee shop after? We haven’t been in forever.” Kelly reminded them. The coffee shop is small, but tons of tables are packed into the cozy space. There are bar stools and cute servers (that they all acknowledged on their last trip there).

Emma liked that asking was no longer their norm. The four of them would’ve smushed four beds in one dorm room if rules would’ve allowed it. It was now an understanding that you were likely to see those four together most everywhere.

Almost every single student, and most teachers, rode bikes to get around on campus. But most of them used campus bikes or scooters. They were free but Emma preferred her own. Her friends argued that it was easier to just borrow one whenever needed without worries if something happened to it. They had a good point. She often thought about leaving hers at her mom’s, but she rode it so much that no other bike rode quite as well as hers.

The campus had trails and narrow roads all over the vast forest. Students had some favorite trails, her included but she’d never really heard if anyone had seen them all.

But today, the bikes weren’t trail riding, they were heading out of their quaint “village-like of a campus” and into the little town of Darby.

The row of four girls heading out of the front gate gave the appearance of an ant colony. Single file and orderly. They took a right out of the campus and once at the next intersection, they waited for the green light to go across to the car wash.

For the small town, it seemed oddly busy today at this intersection. The girls gave some confused glances at one another, everyone was obviously aware of the peculiar increase in activity.

The light finally turned green and Emma headed up the group. She stood on the pedal to get a quicker start through the intersection and was almost halfway through when the three girls behind her began screaming her name. She saw something to her right and turned to glance as a black SUV was heading right for her.

“Tell it to stop!”

“Emma, hurry!”

“Tell it to STOP.” The final yell began to register but it didn’t make any sense. “Why would she tell a huge moving piece of metal to stop?” “What good would that do?” She found herself scared but also confused within the second it took for the yells to take place.

Suddenly, she knew she heard another voice. It didn’t belong to her friends. It was almost right in her ear. “Tell it to stop. NOW!” It yelled the command.

“Stop!” Emma yelled but almost too late.

As the SUV slammed on its brakes, instead of hitting her full force, it clipped the corner of her back wheel and sent her soaring into the air.

Everything went black.