Ten years. It made sense and then it didn’t. It couldn’t have been ten years since they were all together, but then again college seemed like a million years ago.

Madison slowed, looking for the turn her GPS app said was coming up. The exhaust popped as the car downshifted.

Yes, the car was obnoxious, but she loved it. It was one of the first things she bought once she started making ‘real’ money and taking the time to drive it cross country was a good call. This was the first time she had really taken time off in a very long time. Her career was an eight year overnight success. College had been mostly a nod to her parent’s wishes. A fallback. A fail-safe in the event her dreams didn’t pan out. Madison wanted to be an actor for as long as she remembered. Summer Stock while she was in school, the move to LA after graduation and endless auditions and a few walk-ons earned her a SAG card. Lots of Cashier Number 1, and Girl at Bar, parts landed her some juicy roles in a couple of (very) low budget indie flicks. Some modeling and a lot of waitressing kept food on the table and paid the rent (barely). She garnered good notices from the indie roles which she parlayed into a Best Friend role in a romcom that turned into a summer sleeper. It was a break-out part for her. From there, she followed up as the girl-friend role in an action flick and then a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) in a romcom of her own. It was definitely a B grade movie, but it paid for the car. She was currently waiting to see if a pilot she had shot got picked up by Netflix. Things were going quite well for her.

She saw the turn, hidden by some overgrowth, and braked hard. The guy behind her beeped so she flipped him off, turning left into the long driveway.

Renting the house was a good idea, all the people she really gave a shit about seeing again would be staying there. She had seen some of them off and on, sure, but this was going to be the first time that everyone was together since graduation. Well, everyone except Tim. Timmy went to Afghanistan and never came back, victim of an IED on a dusty road near Kandahar, but the rest of the group all said yes, even Bobby.

Even Bobby. She quickly redirected that line of thinking. They had all lived together, off campus, their senior year. Her, Gina, Kitty, Timmy, Derek and Bobby. It was all more-or-less innocent friends living together in an old multi-family building, boys on one floor, girls on the other with a shared kitchen. The boys had a galley kitchen in their unit, but they all six shared the full sized one on the girl’s floor. Two bathrooms and everyone with their own bedroom and they had luxury compared to many. Sure it was in a really bad part of town, but no one ever bothered them. It didn’t hurt that the guys were large, two ROTC candidates and a lacrosse player, but Bobby always claimed it was because they had hookers working the street out front and the pimps didn’t want police attention in their neighborhood, so they kept the crime down. He was always smart like that.

Lotta water under that bridge, Madison thought to herself as she turned the corner of the drive and the house came into view. They’d come a long way from college. The property was a sprawling, multibedroom monstrosity on a lake. It had looked obscenely large on VRBO and, if anything, it was worse in person. Madison got embarrassed for a second and then pushed that aside too. Fuck it, she was here to have fun.

She pulled up to one of the open bays of the garage and parked inside, shutting off her car and popping the trunk. She just had time to haul her suitcase out when she heard Gina screaming.

“MADDDDDDYYYYYYYYY!” the shorter girl howled, running up to her.

Madison grinned, Gina had been her bestie in college and they did their best to stay in touch since. It was hard with them both living very different lives and on different coasts but they made it work.

“Gina Beana!” Madison yelled, throwing her arms around her friend. “You look good girl!”

“Shut up, I’m fat as a cow,” Gina said, squeezing her, “But look at you!”

Gina stepped back, holding her at arms length and looking her in the face, “Maddy! Are you really sleeping with Leo?”

Madison laughed. “Ew! No! At least not anymore.”

Both girls howled.

“This place is gorgeous!” Gina enthused, grabbing Madison’s arm. “Come on and I’ll show you to your bedroom. We saved the master suite for you.”

“You didn’t need to do that,” Madison said, getting her suitcase and pulling it along behind her as the other girl practically towed her to the house.

“Well you’re paying for this pile so it’s the least we could do,” Gina said.

“Who’s here?” Madison asked.

“Everyone except Bobby,” Gina said. “They’re out on the patio, come say hi!”

“Let me pee and put away my shit first,” Madison said. “So, er, is Bobby not coming?”

She tried to hide the disappointment in her voice but Gina caught it and smiled. “No, he texted Derek that he got caught in traffic on the way up so he’s running late.”

“Oh good,” Madison said. “Derek will be happy. I’d hate for him to be the only guy.”

“Yeah sure,” Gina agreed. “Derek will be happy.”

“What?” Madison asked.

“Nothing, oh look here’s your room,” Gina said.

“Jesus, this is huge,” Madison said.

“Well we wanted you to feel at home,” Gina said.

“Beana, you’ve stayed at my condo,” Madison laughed. “My bedroom would fit in this walk-in. I rented this place as it was the only place that would sleep five that wasn’t booked this week.”

“Girl, you need to upgrade. Isn’t it time to get one of those mansions in Malibu?”

“For what?” Madison said, unpacking. “I’m on the road eight or nine months of the year, filming. I live in hotels. My condo is fine.”

“Yes I’ve stayed at your condo, now I wanna stay at your beachfront mansion! What’s the point of having a bestie who’s famous if you can’t be part of her entourage?” Gina laughed.

“OK, I promise, if I ever have an entourage you will be part of it. What the hell, I need someone to make tea for me.”

“To hell with tea,” Gina said. “Derek made a booze run and he got the good stuff. Hurry your ass up here and let’s drink.”

“Oh my God, do you remember Timmy jumping into the pool from the second floor balcony bare-assed nekkid?” Kitty shrieked with laughter.

The group was out on a balcony, overlooking the front of the house. Bobby had texted that he was about thirty minutes out so they were holding off on dinner until he got there, waiting for him. Madison thought that may not have been the best idea as she sipped her bourbon and watched Kitty take another pull off of her beer.

Kitty was very tall and very thin and quickly becoming very drunk. She was an elementary school teacher, which amused Madison to no end. She wasn’t sure about the idea of Kitty as a role model for the youth of tomorrow, but supposed that a purple haired Third Grade teacher had to be infinitely better than the nuns she had.

“He had a giant dick!” Gina agreed.

“The proper term, in this context, is ‘cock’ dear. Remember, I’m an expert,” Derek added.

Gina was short, dark and just on the right side of ‘rounded’. She had been the first (and so far only) of the group to get married. It was to her High School sweetheart, and she became the first to get divorced two years later. She clinked drinks with Derek who was a tall, well-built man of Asian ancestry. He was also, as he liked to point out, ‘way queer’.

“And yes, he had a giant cock. Sigh,” Derek said, laughing.

“Did he know you’re gay?” Madison asked him.

“Oh God no, in those days I was deep in the closet and with him and Bobby all military macho ROTC boys there was no way I was going to tell them. I liked them too much to risk it.”

“Did you ever come out to them?” she continued.

“Not to Timmy, no,” Derek said, soberly. “He died before I could. I came out to Bobby not long after the funeral.”

“Really?” Gina asked. “How did he react? He’s such a straight arrow.”

“Tell me about it!” Derek agreed. “I was literally shaking. He got mad…that I hadn’t told him before. I swear I was blown away. He was most upset that I didn’t trust him enough to be honest with him. Then he got really upset with himself over all the gay jokes he and Timmy used to make when we were in college. He apologized to me.”

“Wow,” Kitty said.

“I know! Not the reaction I expected even in my wildest dreams,” Derek said. “Well, no, scratch that. In my wildest dreams we would have wound up in bed together, but this was a good second best.”

They all laughed.

“Maddy, speaking of ‘in bed together’, didn’t you get some Bobby graduation week?” Derek said, turning to her.

Madison blushed, “No, no nothing happened.”

“Well,” Derek said, “Maybe my dream isn’t so far-fetched after all. I could have sworn you two spent the night together.”

“We did,” Madison confirmed. "But nothing much happened beyond sleeping, though I can confirm that he’s not gay,” she smiled.

“BUT, I know that Kitty did Timmy that same weekend ‘cause I saw her ridin’ him,” Madison said, ricking her hips back and forth comically, changing the subject.

“It was all very classy,” Kitty said.

“Girl, I’ve seen porn that was less explicit than what you two were doing!” Madison laughed.

“Well next time knock first!” Kitty said and they laughed some more.

The sound of a motorcycle coming down the drive interrupted them. Bobby had finally made it to the party.