Page 95 of A Second Chance At Forever

We laughed even harder.

Our loud laughing woke Sarah and all of a sudden she jumped up. “Dane!” she yelled and jumped for him. Dane jumped up and ran around the island.

I didn’t know if Sarah was still drunk or if she couldn’t see in that thing or what, but she was slipping and falling all over the place. She tripped over her giant beaver feet and tackled Dane, taking him to the floor.

She started hitting him and yelling something none of us could catch. Finally, Trent pulled Sarah off Dane.

Once all our laughter died down, I had to ask. “Sarah, what were you thinking?”

She turned her big beaver head to me, “I was thinking that I was the best at beer pong!”

“So, you ended up in this thing because you lost a game of beer pong?” I pushed my laughter down.

“No!” Dane yelled pointing at me. “She’s in that thing because she wouldn’t stop.”

“Stop what?” Lennox asked with her smile still in place.

“We played a game of beer pong. She lost, I didn’t gloat, but then she wanted a rematch which I gladly accepted. When I won again, she wanted another rematch, I was bored by that time and told her no. But she begged and begged until I finally gave in, with one little stipulation.”

“Sarah.” I shook my head.

“Well, in my defense I’d never lost that many games before.”

“Did you not realize that this asshole kills everyone in beer pong once a week at the bar?” I asked her.

Sarah was quiet. “The bar has beer pong?” Her giant beaver head turned from me, to Lennox, and then to Trent.

“Yeah, every Tuesday.” Dane spoke up from across the room.

Sarah didn’t even say anything, she just took off after Dane again.

We all shook our heads and laughed quietly to ourselves while Sarah chased Dane outside in her giant beaver costume.

Lennox and I both poured a cup of coffee and joined Alissa at the island.

Trent poured himself a cup and came to stand across from us. “So, what happened with Ashley last night. I heard she crashed the party and you had to throw her out, again.”

I let my head fall, “She died.”

I heard Alissa’s sudden intake of breath. “What? How?”

Lennox rubbed my back. “She admitted everything and Mason called the cops. She took off driving like crazy, so Mason and I chased after her. She lost control of the car. We followed behind them to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.”

“Fuck,” Trent whispered to himself.

We all sat quietly for a moment, not knowing what to say.

My eyes drifted to the window where I saw Sarah still chasing Dane around the yard. “Well, what do you guys say about getting started on this mess?”

“Yeah, I’ll help out man. Just let me try and get Sarah off of Dane.” Trent sat down his coffee cup before heading outside.

We all pushed away from the island and spent the rest of the day cleaning up after the party.

Lennoxand I stayed in the house for a few days, not wanting to face the real world. We didn’t talk a lot, I think she knew what had happened with Ashley was bothering me. Alissa decided she was going to stay with Dane until everything with Chris was taken care of, leaving Lennox and I to ourselves.

Finally, on the third day, we left the house and headed for Ashley’s funeral.

We made the drive quietly, heaviness sat over us as I parked the car in the empty cemetery. We walked through the grass until we found the blue tent that was set up over Ashley’s grave. The only other person there was her mother.

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