MIAMI BEACH, MIAMI FLORIDA

MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2017

7:45 PM LOCAL TIME

The beautiful Miami skyline was tinted in a warm orange glow as the sun set far to the east, out over the ocean . This friendly orange glow steadily faded as only the very top of the sun peeked over the horizon out across the ocean and the beach.

Of those on the crowded beach itself, few noticed the beauty above and afar, as they were way too engulfed within the wild scene that stretched across the charming golden sanded beach.

A large set of speakers that sat in the back of a massive black pickup truck blared away loud, thumping Pop music. The lyrics of the song itself were nearly drowned by the combined sound chorus of cheering, laughter, poor sing-alongs, and revving engines from several large trucks parked further up the beach.

This beach party scene was made up of at least a thousand people, all college students out for spring break. Everyone from freshmen to seniors were here partying hard at the first of spring break.
For some this was the highlight event of their break, while for others this was only one of a string of parties they would attend during their break from college.

Aside from people, the beach contained a wide array of items that one would expect to find at a college beach party. Beer bottles and cans were strewn across the yellow sand, both in piles and lying about individually, only to be tromped on and kicked about by the party-goers.
Coolers, cases of beer, and small amounts of fast food sat all about.

Small tents, canvases, and vehicles also dotted the beach.
The canvases stood over picnic tables which held food, cases after cases of beer, and in one instance, a drunken young man sprawled out across it, on the verge of unconscious from an over indulgence of alcohol.
Many of the tents were empty, and would later be occupied by drunken partygoers who intended to sleep off tonight's enjoyment. Some however contained young couples who already had their fill of enjoyment and were satisfying the lust that was burning deeply within.

Most of the people danced about blindly to the blasting music, swaying about in many cases as the beer they rapidly consumed began to take its affect.
Some however stood around, drinking and chatting with their friends, while some sat around small blazing campfires, talking and laughing away as the party raged on.

The "wardrobe" of the attendees spanned everything from baggy, tacky looking swimming trunks to small, tight bikinis to T-shirts and khaki shorts. While most were barefooted, some wore sandals or tennis shoes.

For Charlie White, his clothing consisted of perfectly fitting blue swimming trunks and a sleeveless white shirt.
His hair, recently cut, was neat and combed forward and slightly gelled, giving it a nice look.
His handsome face was clean shaven and his gym-toned arms and legs were well noticeable, though he did not make a point of this when choosing what he would wear back at the hotel. He just wished to be comfortable.

He stood at the edge of the beach close to the parking lot, leaned back against a light pole that highlighted his figure as he stood beneath the glaring light above, staring down at his phone.

He was waiting for none other than his girlfriend, Josie, whom he had texted earlier, giving her directions to the party and telling her where he would be waiting for her, which was beneath the light pole at the edge of the beach where it met the parking lot, where he stood now.

His friends were all awaiting him back at their "camp circle", where they had set up tents for the night and had built a small fire. They had arranged the tents into a small circle at the edge of the party, Charlie could in fact see it from where he was.

He stared out at the intense and wild scene from where he was.
He and "the group" had come here last year, though the party itself and the crowd seemed far bigger this year, which suited he and his friends just fine.

He looked away from the beach at back down at his phone, half-heartedly scrolling about on social media as he waited for Josie to arrive in the parking lot.

“Shit.” Another wrong turn, the roads were so tight inside the city and Josie still was getting used to navigating them. The sun was beginning to set, the street lights turned on and the small beach shops began to close down. Josie was officially running late, something that she never liked to do.

Josie was the type of person to show up 10 minutes before the event was planned to start, just in case the host needed some help. She rarely is ever late, but now she is panicking which is only making it more difficult to concentrate on the directions her GPS is giving her.

Suddenly in the midst of her panic, the GPS spoke the next turn “Turn right on Cass Street.” Josie, of course, darted her eyes back to her phone to see how close Cass Street was. Of course by the time she looked back up she had missed the turn and the GPS started to reroute. It seemed like she was never going to make it to the beach. If this was nearly any other even Josie probably would have given up trying to get there by now, but she was determined and she owed Charlie this one.

Just three days ago was Josie’s 22nd birthday, and of course, Charlie was there. It was really awesome for Charlie to show up since at that point they had only been dating 10 days, he defiantly did not need to go. It ended up being a pretty stressful night for him, with having to meet all of Josie’s friends who were all excited to meet the guy that stole their drinking buddy. So when Charlie had asked her to meet his friends and go to the big beach party she could not refuse.

Back in the car, Josie seemed to finally calm down and was making the correct turns when the GPS blurted them out. Eventually, she was pulling up to the beach and could see Charlie, reasonably anxious, waiting for her.

Josie quickly pulled into an empty spot, shutting her car off as she placed it in the park. Quickly she unbuckled herself and grabbed her phone before jumping out the side of her open door Jeep. Her bare feet hit the ground only to get poked by tiny sharp rocks that sat on the ground. She winced with pain as she continued to make her way to the back of her Jeep grabbing her large back pack, filled with random items that she may need for the rest of the night, and a lukewarm 6 pack.

Josie wore a plain gray tank top, a jean jacket which was wrapped around her waist, and some jean shorts which had some natural tears in it already. Her hair fell down a few inches past her shoulders and was a dark brown shade, which matched her eyes perfectly.

A large smile crossed her face as she made her way to Charlie. After placing her bag and the beer on the ground she gave him a large hug. “I’m sorry it took so long. I am really bad with directions.” As she released the hug her face seemed genuinely sorry about her tardiness. “Did I miss anything?”

Josie quickly picked her bag and her six pack back up, her smile quickly returning back to her face as she looked at Charlie. Sure she did not know him that well, but he was sweet and that was all that truly mattered. “Alright, where should I put my crap?”

Charlie had watched as Josie's jeep had come wheeling into the parking lot and came to a calm stop, followed by Josie turning it off and sliding out of the drivers' side.

He had continued to watch as she hurriedly gathered her personal belongings and her "evening beverages" and came briskly hurrying over to where he was.

As she drew close he tucked his phone into his swimming trunks' pocket and returned her smile and hug with a warm grin and a firm embrace of his own.

After she was finished hugging and speaking he quickly responded.
"It's alright, no big deal. The evening is still young and there is still plenty of party to be had, and there will be all the way to about three in the morning. I'm just happy your here. Come on, I'll take you to our 'camp site'."
He made quotation symbols with his fingers as he said "camp site" and turned and began walking towards the circle of tents that belonged to he and his friends, motioning for her to follow as he did so.

He looked back and said,"You can put your things in my tent, I'll show you which one it is once we get over there."

His gaze drifted across her outfit and with a rather silly looking grin he said,"No bikini? Ah, dang."
His ridiculous grin growing wider as he looked away and continued to walk toward the circle of tents.

Josie followed alongside Charlie as he leads her through the sad towards a group of tents all placed in a circle. Though it was getting dark out the tempter was still warm, which was definitely refreshing compared to the cold and rainy Aprils she is used to far up north.

As Charlie made a comment about not wearing a swimsuit Josie shot him a glare and rolled her eyes with a smile. She maneuvered her bag onto her shoulder, then reach down the back of her shirt to pull out a thin blue and white striped fabric. She let go and it snapped back under her shirt. “I’m wearing it under my clothes, you dork.” She smiled up towards the tall boy with a smug facial expression. “I was thinking of trying to make a good impression, so a bikini at a college party doesn’t scream out ‘get to know my personality!’ At least in my opinion.”

As they approached the tents, Josie began to slow down and let Charlie take the lead so that way he can introduce her. At least that was how she was hoping it would go.

Charlie laughed as Josie finished her statement and raised his hands in front of him in a mocking defensive way.

"Whoa," he said,"relax, I was just joking. Kind of."

He ridiculous grin widened again, but soon faded as they closed in on the circle of tents.

In the middle of the tent circle was a small beach blanket which lay on the ground, and in the middle of the blanket sat a large, blue Yeti cooler which was opened at the top.
The cooler was piled full of beers of several different brands such as Bud Light, Miller Lite, Budweiser, and Corona to name a few.

Sitting around the cooler of beer were five people, three girls and two guys.

The five people looked around at Charlie and Josie as they entered the tent circle.

One of the guys said,"About time you got back."
He had dark brown hair and a young fresh face, he wore a sleeveless T-shirt and Bermuda shorts, while his feet were bare.

"Chill out," Charlie said in a casual tone,"Josie just arrived, she had trouble getting here."

"Oh, sorry." The guy said slightly waving his hand.

The five people now had all eyes on Josie, looking her over intently, though not rudely at all.

Charlie turned to look at Josie and spoke,"Alright Josie, so this is my friends group. This is Kaylee, Shawn, Dylan, Riley, and Jade."
His finger darted from person to person as he identified them all for Josie.

Kaylee was an average sized, pale girl with dark brown hair and a large tattoo of a musical note on her right ribs. She wore a red bikini and white sandals.
Her face held a firm expression though she waved politely at Josie.

Shawn was the dark haired guy who had first adressed Charlie, and he too gave Josie a friendly wave and a short nod.

Dylan was a muscular guy with broad shoulders and thick meaty arms, a strong jawline and a firm face which was slightly scruffed by a five o'clock shadow facial hair. He wore lime green swimming trunks yet had no shirt on whatsoever, which revealed a broad chest and a rather chiseled stomach.
He gave Josie a smile and a polite nod.

Riley was a petite light haired girl with a slim frame with lightly tanned skin. She wore khaki shorts with yellow tank top and blue sandals.
She gave Josie a big warm smile and a short wave.

Jade had brunette hair and piercing eyes that were set into a pretty yet firm face. She appeared to be the tallest of all the girls.
She wore a white one piece bathing suit and had a large towel wrapped around her as she sat cross legged.
She too gave Josie a friendly wave and small, her firm face turned warm and sweet as she smiled.

"Hey,"Charlie suddenly said,"where's Mark at?"

"Passed out in the tent."Kaylee replied, cutting her gaze back to Charlie.

"Already?"Charlie asked, sounding both surprised and disheartened.

"You know how my brother is."Jade said matter-of-factly.

Charlie nodded slightly,"Yeah, true."
He turned back to Josie and said,"Well, you'll just have to meet Mark later. Whenever later will be of course. As for everyone else, you've met."

Josie approached the group a little more reserved than her usual self. She forced a small wave as she was being introduced to the rest of the group. It wasn’t like Josie to get nervous but something about meeting her new boyfriend's friends made her feel uncomfortable. She felt like she was an outside force pushing in on what was a close group of friends.

“It’s super nice to meet you all.” Josie gave a large smile towards the group. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I brought some beer, it’s really popular from where I’m from.” She lifted up on of her hands to show a six pack of New Glarus’s Spotted Cow. “It was hard to come by here so please enjoy it.” Josie handed it to the nearest person in the group and nodded approvingly for the rest of the group to try it.

She looked back at Charlie after clearing on of her hands. “Could you please put my bag in the tent?” Josie looked at Charlie with a pleading face, as she reached out her bag to him.

As she leaned back from handing off her bag she looked over towards one of the girls, she did not seem that interested in meeting Josie at first. “Kaylee, right?” Josie gestured toward the girl in the red bikini. “I really like your tattoo. It looks cool.” Everyone loves being complimented on their tattoos or at least it could get a conversation started.

“Could I ask why music notes?”