Sweet Reunion Read Free

motto. Of course,
looking back now through adult eyes, she recognized it as typical teenage
hubris - but when they’d pumped their fists in the air and yelled it together:
    “THE FABULOUS FOUR, NOTHING
WE CAN’T ACCOMPLISH!”
    A nd then collapsed in
giggles and hugs...well, dammit, it had felt true! If she was honest, just
remembering it now was enough to make it almost feel true again.
    And, of course, yes. In her
teenage years, there was...her thoughts trailed off into silence.
    Amanda sighed. She couldn’t
even bear to think his name? That was silly. She needed to say it, to take away
its power. His power.
    She closed her eyes and took
a deep breath.
    “Justin,” she said aloud.
“There was Justin.”

Chapter 2
    Just then, a loud knock
startled Amanda out of her reverie. As she moved toward the front door, Teddy
meandering along at her heels, she heard laughter. Not just any laughter,
though. Three very distinct laughs intermingled with one another, and they were
three laughs she hadn’t heard in over a decade. It couldn’t be. Could it?
    Amanda opened the door to
find her three oldest and dearest friends standing on her front porch. She was
immediately transported back to a time when she felt safe, when she felt happy,
when she felt like the world held nothing but glorious possibilities, because
what else could it possibly hold?
    She took a look at her old
friends, drinking in their appearances, reveling in the way that they had
barely changed since all three of them had been teenagers.
    First, there was Lauren,
tall and statuesque, her platinum blonde hair swept back in a chignon, her deep
brown doe-like eyes sparkling with excitement at seeing Amanda. At five foot
eleven, she stood tall – the tallest of the four of them – and elegant, like
some gorgeous and enigmatic Greek goddess statue come to life. She was the most
pragmatic of the four friends, and it showed in her straight-backed bearing,
and the strong and confident way that she held her shoulders back when she
stood, even in the most casual of situations.
    Next was Sam, short and cute
as a button, with a shock of medium length auburn hair and a spray of freckles
dotting her nose and cheeks. When the four were in high school, her hair had
been lighter, more in the neighborhood of strawberry blonde. Now that the color
had deepened into this darker and richer shade, it gave Sam a more mature
appearance. If you looked hard, you could still see shades of the adorable
pixie she had been when the girls had first become friends in high school, but
it was visible through the lens of the strong, capable and athletic woman that
she had grown into.
    Lastly, there was lithe and
lovely Karina, the lone dark beauty among the bunch. Her long glossy black hair
hung down her back in waves, falling nearly all the way to her waist, and her
onyx eyes twinkled in the sunlight, setting off the golden tones in her olive
skin. There was natural grace apparent in her every stance and movement, and of
the four of them, she was the one that could most closely be described as
having a natural dancer's build.
    The minute Amanda saw
Lauren, Karina, and Samantha standing together again on her front porch, she
did something that was a very UN-fabulous four-like thing to do. She burst into
tears. And then immediately began to laugh. And then started to sob again.
    “I think I’m losing my
mind!” was all she could choke out as her friends swarmed around her and
hustled her over to the couch.
    “You probably are!” Karina
intoned with her trademark dry delivery, “But look on the bright side. At least
we’re here to help you find it!”
    Amanda chuckled ruefully,
“True! And it does seem like all I’ve been doing this week is crying. So maybe
laughing and crying at the same time is actually a step in the right
direction.”
    “Well, of course you’ve been
crying. You’ve been through a trauma.” Lauren, always the matter of fact one,
added. “That’s nothing to be