The End Of Our World

Marissa and I arrived late, just as we always did. To my regular annoyance, and despite my best efforts, Mari couldn't seem to get anywhere on schedule. I thought even our wedding day would be delayed until she showed up right on time with a smile that gently mocked, "told you I'd make it."

This wasn't our wedding, though; this was a vacation. Specifically, a Labor Day weekend spent at our friend's lake house, or, more accurately, his family's lake house. And since it was a vacation, and since only our friends awaited us, and since they'd long since grown resigned to Mari's lack of punctuality, she didn't feel anything like the urgency she had five years before on the day we said, "I do."

Our friends from our college days loitered on the dock, each whiling away the time in their preferred manner. Kyle and Heather, inseparable high school sweethearts still together almost fifteen years after they met, laughed at something as they watched together on a single tablet. Tyler, former college athlete but eternal jock, argued heatedly with his girlfriend of the moment, although I couldn't make out the bone of contention between them. Lakshmi, the brains of our college circle and a literal nuclear physicist, frowned at her phone, body language radiating misery as she jabbed at the touchscreen rapid-fire.

Rounding out the group were two faces, one familiar and one new. The handsome couple leaned in close and smiled as they engaged in quiet conversation, before Blake turned to greet our approach. "Dale! Mari! So glad you could make it!" Mari hugged Blake. "And this..." He gestured, "... is my fiancée, Gina. We're going to announce on Insta this week." The newcomer gave a shy wave.

"Fiancée?" Mari gushed, bringing the dark-haired beauty into a bearhug. "Oh, my God! That's wonderful! I can't believe it!"

That made two of us. The last time we'd gotten together there, three years prior, Blake was just pulling himself out of the wreckage of his disastrous divorce. I couldn't believe that, either. Yeah, he and Jen had partied like mad in college, but we all thought they'd both settled down. She sure as hell had plenty of good reasons to, given her rich, handsome, charming, and funny husband; who would cheat on a guy like Blake? His ex had, though, and it completely shattered the guy.

We all missed the next two theoretically annual trips for unrelated reasons. The first year, Kyle and Heather got COVID. Then, the onset of the war in Ukraine kept Lakshmi from attending; her wife, Olivia, worked in some nebulous department at the Pentagon, and it was all hands on deck. While Liv wasn't part of our core group, Lakshmi was, and she wanted to stay in D.C., too. It sucked, but we all knew the weekend wouldn't be the same without Shmi, so everyone penciled it in for the following year.

Truth be told, I had doubted that we'd all make it this time, either, and I suspected this trip might be our last hurrah. After college, we'd all scattered to the winds. Blake took a cushy position at his father's firm in L.A. and brought Tyler along for the ride, as he had since they were kids. Shmi finished her masters, then moved to D.C. and met her wife. Mari and I migrated to Dallas, where she worked as a nurse, while I found employment at a telecom company. Kyle, after finishing up his J.D., moved back to the Midwest with Heather, where the two of them settled in quite nicely as lawyer and stay-at-home wife.

Adult responsibilities had crowded out free time for all of us, and Kyle and Heather had two young kids on top of that. Add in the kind of drift that almost always occurs after college as people grow into their adult selves, and I'd seen the cracks starting to form when we'd last met three years previous. Shmi and I had shared similar thoughts on late night Discord chats, although Mari told me we were being too pessimistic.

Still, if this would likely be our last weekend together, I wanted to make the most of it. Grabbing Blake's hand in a firm handshake and slapping him on the back, I gave my congratulations.

They certainly were in order, if looks were anything to go by. Gina worked as a model, and she looked it: long legs, slim, great tits, a ready smile, and stunning green eyes. Mari, with her athletic body, red hair, and pale blue eyes, had been one of the hottest girls on campus when she and I started dating, and my wife still turned heads. Gina, though? Gina was sex on a stick.

"I'm the lucky one," she enthused, "and I'm so glad to meet all of you. Blake keeps telling me about his wonderful college friends and how he misses them so much. We're going to have so much fun together this weekend!" For just a moment, while looking at me, I would have sworn she licked her lips as she said this last bit. Then, however, her gaze returned to him, and I chalked it up to my imagination.

Excusing myself as Mari and Gina got to know each other, I made my way to Kyle and Heather. We repeated a variation of the hug/handshake/good-to-see-you dance one performs on reuniting with old friends. The pair could have almost passed for brother and sister, both blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and pale-skinned, and both epitomizing "young Midwestern mom and dad." Heather played further into that stereotype when she immediately opened up the photo app on her tablet to show me page after page of her kids' pics. I oohed and ahhed as appropriate, before extricating myself a few minutes later.

I don't mean to sell them short; I was very fond of Kyle and Heather, both individually and as a couple. However, I also had little in common with them other than our shared pasts, and I didn't want to exhaust my small talk options in the first half hour. I moved on, and they headed towards Mari, Gina, and Blake, all of us promising to catch up more once we reached the lake house.

Tyler and... I'm just going to call her Candy. I know I heard her name, but I can't remember it. She was almost certainly a Candy or a Traci or a Topaz or somesuch; while Tyler didn't have a physical type, he sure as hell had one when it came to their personality, and that type was "bold Comic Sans." Their heated discussion had turned nasty, and I wanted nothing to do with it.

Of all our group, Tyler had changed the least. That's not a compliment; the former linebacker had helped Blake get through middle school intact, back when his family's wealth only invited scorn and wedgies, before he'd come into his good looks and charm. The lunk had earned himself a friend for life, whether he deserved it or not, and he'd been coasting on that association for years.

Tyler and Candy's animated discussion gave me the perfect excuse to slip past them and on toward the main reason--other than Mari's insistence--that I'd agreed to one more year at the lake house. "Hey, nerd."

My adorably tiny friend craned her neck to look up at me, her furrowed brow relaxing as she realized backup had arrived. "Hey, dork." Her arms encircled me in a tight, heartfelt hug. "I would have killed you if you hadn't made it."

"Such love!" Pulling away and looking down, I asked, "Everything okay, Shmi? Where's Liv?"

She tried to smile, but her heart wasn't in it. "Work. Again. I flew in last night, and she was supposed to get here this morning. But with everything going on in the world..." Lakshmi shrugged and waved her phone.

Shmi had a gift for understatement. Every major geopolitical hotspot seemed like it had heated up in the previous few months. With the election only a couple of months away, even North Korea had reentered the conversation, rattling its saber with new ballistic missile tests that lobbed a dummy warhead far enough to upset the talking heads.

"Anyways," she continued, in the clipped Indian accent she'd inherited from her parents, "She's not going to make it but told me to go ahead without her." With a snort, Shmi groused, "Just like her. I'm sure she'd already decided to... Eh, whatever. I'm here now, you're here now. Let's try to have fun."

"Sorry, hon. C'mon, let's go--"

"Dale! Bro!" Fuck. It had spotted me, and here it came. "I want to introduce you to--"

"Why does she have a phone?" Candy squawked. "You said I couldn't have one! Why does she get to have hers and I don't?"

One of the original rules at the lake house was that we were supposed to disconnect: no TVs in the bedrooms, no phones, no laptops. Kyle and Heather would have to leave their tablet in their car before we embarked, too. The lake house had a radio for emergencies, a TV with a Blu-ray player in the living room, and an expensive sound system complete with an impressive vinyl collection, but the point was for us to hang out together without the distractions of the outside world. That had shifted slightly since college--no way would Kyle and Heather have joined us if they couldn't be reached once they had kids--but the spirit of the agreement remained intact.

"Babe, I told you. Shmi does government shit, so she has to have her phone if there's, like, an emergency or something." Candy rolled her eyes and stalked off in a huff. "Sorry, bro. She gets like that sometimes. Eh, whatever. It's awesome you could make it!" The big lug dragged me into a crushing bearhug. That's a pretty impressive feat; I'm not a small guy at just over six foot and around 200 pounds, but he picked me up like I weighed nothing at all. I'd asked him not to, but he never listened. He pretty much never listened to anyone except Blake.

"Put him down, Ty." His best friend's tone sounded a little different than it had back in the day. Before, I remembered a certain resigned amusement, a 'boys will be boys' spirit behind the chiding. Now, though, I heard a bit of an edge there. A tiredness, maybe.

Tyler set me back down with a mumbled, unhappy, "Sorry." That was new, too. The Ty from college, or even the one from three years before, would have obeyed, but his manner would have been, at most, that of a slightly chagrined schoolboy who'd gotten his knuckles rapped with a ruler. This Tyler seemed more like a whipped dog.

Blake slapped him on the shoulder and turned his charm towards me. "No harm done, right?" Tyler seemed mollified when I shrugged, and that was enough for Blake to turn his back on both of us. With his shout of, "Come on, everyone! Time to go!" the assembled throng began moving our luggage to the pontoon boat docked nearest the parking lot.

Blake's grandparents had built the lake house back in the early 70s, the first of a planned luxury resort development. His family had made their money in timber, and the land had originally been slated for harvesting, but the gorgeous clear blue water of the lake and the temperate summer weather made the switch a no-brainer.

Unfortunately for them, the Endangered Species Act passed just after the first spacious house went up, and three nearly extinct birds were found to live in the surrounding forest, putting an end to the planned development. Since then, one had come off the endangered species list and another had gone extinct, but the third stayed firmly in limbo.

The town we parked at, founded decades before the EPA and with a population in the hundreds, had a little more leeway in their observance of the act. Its inhabitants could still fish and boat to a limited extent, and a few of the folks that lived in the town had cabins lining the banks of the lake, but they all reached them by water. The forest had largely reclaimed the logging road that had brought the materials for the first-and-only luxury lake resort home, so Blake's family followed suit, contracting with a local man to ferry their family back and forth to the house, as well as keeping it stocked in the summer months and checking on it during the offseason.

Once we'd stowed everything we'd brought for the weekend, the captain cast off from the dock and began the twenty-minute journey to our destination at the far side of the lake. Most of us socialized, catching up on the events in our lives that hadn't made it onto social media, with two exceptions. Lakshmi kept looking at her phone, occasionally poking at it or angrily scrolling, and Candy, arms crossed, glared in turns at her and at Tyler.

I felt a bit bad for Candy, honestly. It sucks to be the odd man out, and I tried to bring her into the conversation. After she answered in monosyllables the first two times, though, I gave up. I think my attempts might have made her angrier, especially since Tyler didn't bother at all. Instead, he focused on the reunion and--less subtly than he believed--Blake's hot fiancée.

To be fair, he was not alone in that; I stole a glance now and again, as did Kyle, Shmi, and, surprisingly to me, Heather. This apparently pissed Candy off even more; she seemed like the type of girl used to being the center of attention. By the time we reached our destination, she looked ready to explode, and, as the group disembarked with our luggage, a spark caught.

"Mom says Dylan and Thea are fine," Heather remarked, looking up from the phone she'd pulled out of her purse. "They miss us, but--"

"What the fuck?" We all turned to look at Candy, who launched into a tirade. "She gets to bring her phone, too? I swear to God, you son of a--"

"Babe--" Tyler began, but she cut him short.

"No, fuck you! I didn't want to come here in the first place, hanging out with your stupid friends at some stupid lake! You've spent the whole trip here staring at her tits, and I'm supposed to want to do this all weekend? Without TikTok? No. No. Not just hell no, but fuck no!" Candy turned to the local that had brought us across. "Can I go back with you?"

"Babe! Come on!"

The helmsman looked at Blake; he was paying, after all. Blake just shrugged. It's not like this was the first time one of Ty's girlfriends left in a huff, although it was the first time she required a watercraft to do so. The local, taking that as assent, helped Candy load her bags back into the boat, all while Tyler fumed.

The rest of us, Gina excepted, shared a concerned look; we'd been here plenty of times, but only once when Tyler didn't have a girl to keep him happy, and that trip had been miserable. He acted like a spoiled brat the whole time, growing increasingly unpleasant until we left at the end of the weekend. I sure as hell didn't look forward to a repeat.

Blake tried to console his friend as the boat pulled away, but I could see his heart wasn't really in it, that same tiredness I'd noticed in town returning in new form. I understood, having tired of Ty's antics years ago. Looking around at the group, I think we all had. With a collective shrug, we grabbed our luggage and headed to our rooms.

By the time Mari and I unpacked and freshened up, the sun had started to dip below the horizon, and my stomach was rumbling. We made our way downstairs, ready to help cook, but Heather had beaten us to it, already wearing an apron and puttering about the kitchen. She'd always acted as the mom of the group, even when we were just a bunch of drunken idiots; it was nice to know some things hadn't changed. Since she clearly wasn't going to let us help cook, we instead set the table.

The meal, as always, was delicious. Heather and Kyle had always had a plan for their lives, and her choice of majoring in home economics was part of that plan. Blake, Tyler, and Mari all gave them a bit of ribbing from time to time back in the day, but deep down, I think we all respected the dedication they had to building a future together.

At a lull in the conversation, Gina asked, "So, Blake has told me his story about how he met all of you, but I want to hear it direct from y'all."

"Checking up on me?" Blake asked.

"No! No, I just..." She shrugged. "People have different recollections, you know? Like, I've talked with Tyler already, so I know that story, but..." She smiled at Kyle, "I know you were one of the first of the 'inner circle.' How did that happen?"

Kyle chuckled. "Well, Blake and I got in an argument in philosophy class. Don't remember what about now, but I know he was wrong." Blake snorted. "We ended up clicking. Him and me and Tyler all hung out, and Heather wanted to meet them. Then there were four." He put his hand on his wife's, and they shared a smile.

Gina shifted her focus. "Heather, did you ever feel like the odd woman out, because it was the three of them and you?"

Heather thought about it for a moment. "Maybe every once in a while. I know I mothered them, which was what Blake and Ty needed in their lives; Kyle and I are only a year older than them, but..." She shrugged. We all knew who the most mature ones in the room were. "Besides, it wasn't too long before Lakshmi and Mari were hanging out with us, too."

Blake's fiancée turned her face towards Shmi, who was still fiddling with her phone at the dinner table. "You tutored Blake?" She paused, waiting for a response. "Lakshmi?"

Our friend, startled, almost shouted, "What?" Noticing we were all looking at her, she apologized. "Sorry. Sorry. What was the question?"

"You tutored Blake?"

"Uh. Um, yeah. Him, then Tyler." With a self-deprecating laugh, she continued, "Blake always said he kept me around because they needed a smart person in the room. I don't know about that, but--"

Mari chided, "Oh, hush. God knows half of us wouldn't have made it through school without you. We partied way too hard." She turned to Gina. "That's how I met Blake. Partying, that is. Well, Tyler first, then Blake, at a frat party. Like Kyle said, we just clicked. All of us, I mean. That was... mmm, end of sophomore year."

Gina grinned conspiratorially at my wife. "You're gorgeous, and Tyler told me Blake used to be a bit of a player. Did you and he ever hook up?" Mari's jaw dropped. "Hey, I'm not-- No jealousy or anything. But looking at you, if he didn't at least try..." She winked at her fiancé.

With a shake of her head and a rueful grin, Mari laughed. "No. I mean, yes, Blake did get around a bit, but no."

"He didn't try, or you didn't say yes?"

Marissa laughed again, louder this time. "He tried, once, but that was early. I had a boyfriend then, and once I told him that, he backed off. That's probably why we were able to stay friends, honestly, the fact that we never hooked up."

She ran her fingers through my hair, smiling at me as she said, "And then Shmi brought Dale to that party junior year, and that was that." She giggled at me, "I still can't believe you thought the two of you were on a date. How did you not figure out Shmi was gay?" Returning her gaze to Gina, she concluded, "Anyways, that was that. Completely love-at-first-sight smitten with this guy, and no looking back."

I took Mari's hand and kissed it, and she beamed. Gina giggled, "Yeah, I can see why you wouldn't want to take a chance messing things up with Dale. You two look really happy together, and he's..." She laughed, "Well, would it offend you if I said your husband's hot?"

"As long as talking's all you do, sure. Don't make me cut you, bitch!" The two girls shared a laugh, and the whole table joined in. In that moment, it almost felt like old times. I remembered the playful flirtations amongst the seven of us, backed up by the fierce loyalty we had for each other. None of us ever crossed the line, partly because we cared for each other but also because we knew the others did, too, and they wouldn't hesitate to let one of us know if our significant other cheated.

Every friend group has their own energy, and Gina seemed like she synced up with ours. In particular, she and Mari got on like a house on fire, but everyone appeared to enjoy her company. Even Tyler and Shmi, each in their doldrums for different reasons, seemed buoyed. Still chuckling, the four guys headed for the living room with Shmi trailing, eyes glued to her phone, while Mari, Heather, and Gina cleared the table.

The good mood didn't last long. Tyler flopped down on the couch next to Blake and called out, "Nerd! What are you doing on that thing? Got a game of Candy Crush you can't put down?" The 'nerd' comment set my teeth on edge. She and I called each other 'nerd' and 'dork' as terms of affection; Tyler didn't. He hadn't called Shmi 'nerd' since the disastrous trip our senior year when he didn't have a girl along to distract him and decided to take it out on her, at least until Blake and I got him to back off.