A Storm and a Break In: How to Ruin a Vacation

It was supposed to be the ideal vacation. Reed managed to get a great deal on a house on the beach. It was in a remote enough area that we shouldn’t have seen another person unless we wanted to. I didn’t want to do it, but my friends convinced me it would be fun. A week on the beach, with your three best friends, no phones, just bonding! Finally, I agreed. They wanted it, so I couldn’t say no. 

“Come on, Isa! You’re taking forever!” Ava, my best friend, says, her words softened by the grin on her face. 

“Sorry. You weren’t supposed to show up for another hour.” I can’t keep the smile off my face. Her excitement is contagious. 

“Well, I was too excited! And I… um… just had to get out of my house.” 

I stop my hurried packing and walk over to her, pulling her in for a hug. We’re about the same height-around average. She has dark hair that falls to her waist and brown eyes. 

“It happened again?” I say. 

“Yeah. My mom is mad that I’m leaving. I was worried she would take my car keys if I stayed any longer.” Last time we tried to plan a vacation, Ava’s mom changed her mind about letting her go two minutes before she left. “Anyway, hurry up and finish packing so we can go!”

“We have to wait for Reed and Luke, anyway!”

“Yeah, I guess so…but still hurry.”

I finish packing, and Ava helps me carry my bags into my car. My car is the biggest, so it was the best option for this trip. I help Ava move her stuff from her car to mine. 

Just as we finish that, a small blue car pulls into my driveway. Luke climbs out of his car and grins at me and Ava, sitting on my porch. He has blonde hair and light blue eyes. “Am I late?”

I walk towards him. “Never. Ava’s just early.” He gently kisses me, and I smile. 

Oh, I forgot to mention. I’m dating Luke. 

He moves his bags from his car to mine, and we sit on the porch to wait for Reed. He’s usually a few minutes late, since his mom will usually give him something to do about 5 minutes before he needs to leave. 

Reed finally shows up, and only 10 minutes late. He has dark hair and dark blue eyes. Ava greets him with a kiss on the cheek, then helps him move his bags to my car. I said they could all park in my driveway since my mom and stepdad are gone until September.

The four of us have been best friends since fourth grade. Luke and I started dating in 9th grade, but it took Ava and Reed a bit longer. Two and a half years of waiting for them to realize they were perfect for each other, but they finally got together about six months ago. Now it’s the summer before we go to college, and we’re all going to different colleges. I think that’s why this vacation is so important to them. One last memory before we go. 

The car ride is okay. Six hours of Ava’s karaoke, Reed’s puzzles, and Luke’s writing. He lets me read whatever he writes, and I do the same thing. We’re both going to school for writing, but he wants to be a journalist, and I want to write children’s books. Ava’s going to be a vet, and Reed is going to be a programmer. 

Finally, we get to where we’re staying. It’s a two bedroom, one and a half bathroom house on a private beach. I have no idea how Reed got such a good deal, but that’s just his thing, I guess. 

We carry our stuff in and go to unpack. Me and Ava are sharing a room, and Luke and Reed are sharing. 

“This is so amazing. I can’t believe we’re actually here!” Ava’s excited voice makes me smile. I didn’t make a mistake coming here. I actually did, but I didn’t know that yet. 

We all turn off our phones, but tell our parents first. The next three days go nearly the same. In the mornings, we get up and get breakfast. Or at least, me and Luke, who are early risers, go and get breakfast from a local place, while Ava and Reed sleep in. After Ava and Reed get up and eat, we all go out to the beach. We swim, surf, build sand castles, lay on the beach. At night, we sit by the firepit and roast marshmallows, talking and laughing. 

It’s nice. Spending time with my three favorite people. I see why they wanted to do it. 

The fourth day, we wake up to dark clouds. Luke and I agree that we don’t want to go get breakfast when it looks like it’s going to rain, so we decide to eat something that’s here. Luke makes pancakes, and I sit on a bar stool and watch him. 

“What?” He says. 

“Nothing. I just wish everything was this simple.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Waking up. Sneaking out of the room so I don’t wake up Ava. Watching you make pancakes for breakfast. Spend the whole day at the beach. It’s not real life, but…”

“But you wish it could be.” He smiles. “Me too. I’ve never seen you so relaxed. So happy.” He’s right. I’m always on edge at home, but here there’s nothing to worry about. No memories of hurricanes to run from.

The conversation would have continued, but Reed comes out before I can respond, yawning. 

“Morning.” He pauses, taking in our expression. “Did I interrupt?”

“No,” Luke says. “It’s fine. I’m making pancakes.”

“I see,” Reed says with a grin. “I smelled them.”

“I guess all we have to do to get you out of bed before 9 is make pancakes,” I say with a smile. 

“Now you know my weakness. No!”

Our playful conversation continues. Ava wakes up a little later and joins in. We eat Luke’s pancakes, which are amazing. 

“It’s looking pretty cloudy,” Ava says, frowning at the sky. 

“I think I saw something about a tropical storm coming, but it wasn’t supposed to hit until next week,” Reed says, frowning. “It must just be a storm. I’m going to just use my phone to check the weather.” No one objects, and he goes and gets his phone and powers it back on to check. A few minutes later, he frowns. 

“My mom texted. A hurricane is about to hit, apparently. I can’t get a signal, though, to reply. And the Wi-Fi’s out.”

I feel the anxiety come back. The reason I didn’t want to come. 

Luke and Ava power their phones back on too to check for texts from their parents. I don’t bother- I know there will be none. I haven’t heard anything from either of them since I graduated in May. 

Luke and Ava say they can’t get a signal either. The sky is really dark now, and the waves at the beach are getting higher. I take a deep breath. Luke notices, and gently wraps me in a hug, pressing a kiss on the top of my head. I let myself stay like that for a minute before pulling away, and powering my phone back on to see if there’s anything. I have a couple texts from Luke’s parents, but nothing from mine. No surprise there. I don’t have any signal either. 

“Isa, it’s just category one. It’ll be fine,” Reed says. 

“I know.” I will be fine. Because I have to be. 

That’s when we hear the bang, coming from the bathroom. Luke goes towards it, and opens the door to reveal a man climbing back out the window. He’s not holding anything, but it’s still terrifying. 

Luke runs out the front door, trying to get a better look at the man. He comes back in a minute later. 

“He got away. It’s fine. He shouldn’t be back.”

“We have to call the police,” Ava says. She tries to, but can’t get a signal. She curses. 

“Now what?” Reed asks. 

“We lock everything- doors, windows, everything- we grab flashlights, non-perishable foods, water bottles, a first aid kit, and anything else we’ll need in the next 12 hours, and we go to a windowless room.” Everyone looks at me, surprised I’ve spoken up. I blush under their gaze. “What? I lived in Florida. I’m used to hurricanes.”

“Okay. We do that. I’ll lock everything. You guys gather what we need, and we meet in the living room. It doesn’t have any windows,” Luke says. 

We all work together, and before long, we’re all in the living room, with the light flickering slightly. Luke sits next to me and puts his arm around me. I let him, which I rarely do. 

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I will be. Once this is over.”

“Okay.”

We sit and wait, talking a little bit, but not much. Mostly, we just sit in comfortable silence. I’m starting to calm down, finally, when the power goes completely out and we hear glass shattering. I jump. The window. What I didn’t realize was that the noise came from the bathroom. Luke noticed, though. He grabs a flashlight and heads towards there now, and I follow him. The man from earlier is back, and this time I get a better look at him. 

He’s tall and skinny, with dirty blonde hair that is long, and dark brown eyes. He’s middle aged. Blood stains his hands, possibly from the shattered glass window, with the brick he likely used to break it on the ground. 

He smiles- a creepy smile that sends chills down my back. “Hello. I was just… looking for something. I’ll just leave a young couple like yourselves alone, for now. But I’ll be back.” Before either of us could do anything, he turns and jumps out the window, and runs. I look at Luke. We both go back to the living room, where Reed and Ava wait. 

“He’s gone. Again,” Luke tells them. I can tell he’s beating himself up over it, being unable to protect us. 

“It’s okay. He said he’d be back, so let’s maybe get out of here once the storm clears up. And call the police, for sure, once we can.” I gently put my hand on his shoulder while I say this. 

“Okay. For now, let’s just wait until the power comes back on. And  let’s put something in front of the bathroom door in case he does come back.” No one argues. 

It’s been three weeks. We went home the next day, after contacting the police and answering questions. Luke and I were able to identify him. It turns out he’d escaped from jail. Why he bothered breaking in once, let alone twice, we never found out- just that he was caught a week later and brought back to jail. I feel safer now that he’s been arrested again. 

We’re all packing for college now. I think we’re all ready to be out of here. Although we’re already making plans to meet up over Thanksgiving break. And Christmas break. And weekends- pretty much any time we can. 

I still worry about what the man meant about he’ll be back, but I can ignore that. 

For now, I’m safe. For now, I’m happy. 

That’s all that matters.