Mountain Rough

Chapter 1: Mandy

“We won! I can’t believe it! We actually won!” I held my phone in my hand and danced around the room.

“Seriously?” My best friend, Hannah, started jumping up and down with her mouth hanging open in shock. “See, I knew all of my useless trivia knowledge would come in handy one day. You beat all the people rushing to look it up on Google!”

“This is crazy! We’re going to start the summer off at a mountain resort. Look at the website! They have a jacuzzi, a heated pool, a gym, and there are tons of hiking trails with scenic views for picnics. This is going to be awesome!” I pointed at my laptop where I had loaded the Blue Ridge Resort website while waiting on someone to answer the phone at the radio station.

“And the dates don’t interfere with your beach trip. This is going to be the best summer ever!” Hannah smiled as she clicked on a few pictures.

“Oh, hello,” I purred when I saw a picture of several hot guys in a jacuzzi. “Maybe those guys will be there.”

“Like you would do anything with them.” Hannah rolled her eyes. “You’re saving yourself for Mr. Right.”

“One of them could be Mr. Right. I mean, look at them. They’re fucking hot.” I licked drool off my bottom lip.

“I’m sure they’re just models posing for a photograph. Don’t get too excited. I’ve been to these kinds of resorts before. The only single guys are either too young or way too old.”

“Dad-bod old or like old-old?” I raised my eyebrows.

“Like, grandpa-bod old.” She shook her head back and forth. “You can’t even bag that and pretend it’s hot.”

“That’s okay.” I took a seat on my bed. “We can have some girl time, drink some wine, and then we’ll go to the beach where we know we’ll have a good time.”

“Where I’ll have a good time. You’ll just stand in the corner and look pretty.” Hannah giggled. “You know it’s true.”

“Give me a break, I’m trying to be a responsible nineteen year old.” I scoffed at her and shook my head.

“You’re on an island by yourself, because I plan on hooking up with a different guy every night once we get to the beach.” She ran her hand down her stomach and squeezed her crotch. “This girl needs something long and hard between her legs.”

“God, you’re such a slut.” I rolled my eyes. “How in the world are we best friends?”

“Because you’re secretly a lesbian and just waiting on me to get to that phase of college?” She giggled again and dodged a pillow that I threw at her.

“You need to leave. I have to finish my assignment for Professor King’s class.” I glared at her and shook my head. “I know you have no plans of working on it until the last minute.”

“Yeah, yeah. You stay here and be the good girl. I’m going out tonight.” She picked up her purse from the couch. “Besides, I have a nerd doing my assignment for me.”

“I don’t even want to know how you’re paying him.” I moved over to my desk and closed the browser window for the Blue Ridge Resort website.

“A handjob.” She filled me in anyway.

“I said I didn’t want to know!” I opened the document I was working on for my Literature class and waited for her to leave.

I had a lot of work ahead of me and with Hannah gone, it was time to get down to business. There were times when I wished I could be more like her. It didn’t help that my moral compass kept me on a boring path while hers spun out of control. We were exactly the same when we were kids, talking about boys we liked, and eventually sharing the intimate details of our first kiss over Cherry Cokes when we got to high school.

From there, we just kind of went in different directions. She became a cheerleader and started dating football players—sometimes more than one at the same time. I spent my Friday nights in the library, trying to stay ahead of my assignments. Somehow, we both ended up going to the same college. She was on a scholarship to yell from the sidelines during the football games. I was paying my way with a part time job and student loans. How that was fair baffled me.

“Okay, Professor King. Prepare to dazzled by the best paper you’ve ever read.” I put my fingers on the keyboard and started typing.

Professor King’s class was extremely challenging. He expected the best and if it wasn’t absolutely perfect, there was no way he was going to give you an A. I had managed to exceed his expectations for the entire year, until the previous week when I got my first C on one of my papers. He found a flaw in my argument and tore my paper to shreds with red ink along with my chance of keeping my GPA if I didn’t get a perfect grade on the last assignment of the year. The pressure was on and my stomach was in knots as I wrote and rewrote every sentence.

Come on, you can do this. You’ve crushed so many assignments for his class. Don’t let one bad grade ruin it.

I tried to give myself an internal pep-talk as I typed away. I had the whole weekend to work on it, but I wanted a workable first draft before I went to bed on Friday night. I was still typing some hours later when I heard a key in the door. Hannah came in like a bolt of lightning, crashing into the table and laughing uncontrollably. She was drunk or high—possibly both. It seemed that I wasn’t going to be able to get the first draft done, because she was going to need a babysitter if I didn’t want her to break something or set the apartment on fire.

“Mandy, you should have seen the guy I hooked up with tonight at the party!” She started walking towards me, but stumbled sideways and nearly tripped over the chair.

“I’m sure he was great.” I sighed and grabbed her arm. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”

“No, I’m not done drinking yet! What do we have to drink here?” She pulled out of my grasp and walked towards the kitchen.