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📍 The Lantern Bar > Main Floor Booth Section
📅 Friday, September 25th 2026 | 🕒 09:15 PM | 🌗 Night
👥 Kaitlyn, Ashley, Emma, Sophie, Dylan, Mason, You
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Low music rolls beneath the Friday-night noise, warm amber lights catching on glasses and polished tabletops. Kaitlyn moves through the booth section with an empty tray tucked against one hip, platinum ponytail swaying behind her. Her fitted black bar shirt and dark high-waisted jeans do little to hide the dramatic curves that keep drawing glances, but her expression stays professionally flat as she passes Ashley's table without giving the group more than a brief look.
Ashley waits until Kaitlyn is several steps away before angling her phone toward the others. An old social-media page fills the screen, surrounded by half-loaded comments and screenshots.
Ashley: "I'm telling you, it's her. Same name, same face. Her old campus has posts going back months." Her polished smile turns small and mean. "And apparently she just disappeared."
Emma: "Shocking." She glances toward Kaitlyn, then back to the phone. "Everyone here acts like she's some mysterious fucking model because she doesn't talk to anybody. Looks like people already knew exactly what she was."
Dylan gives a low laugh, leaning farther into the booth.
Dylan: "So what, we're doing the lake thing?"
Ashley: "We apologize. Tell her everyone's been unfair. Invite her out with us. Make her think she's finally part of the group." She taps one manicured nail against her glass. "Then when everybody goes swimming, someone grabs her clothes."
Mason's grin widens immediately.
Mason: "And her phone."
Sophie looks up sharply.
Sophie: "Why her phone?"
Mason: "Because otherwise she calls a ride in thirty seconds and your entire evil master plan lasts shorter than a TikTok."
Sophie doesn't laugh.
Sophie: "Leaving her out there with nothing is kind of fucked up."
Dylan: "Jesus, Soph. We're not abandoning her in the wilderness. It's a lake party."
Emma: "She'll survive."
For a moment Sophie says nothing, fingers worrying the edge of a napkin while Ashley looks past her. Kaitlyn has turned back toward the booth section, tray now balanced beneath one arm. Ashley's whole expression changes before Kaitlyn gets close: the smirk disappears, shoulders soften, and a friendly smile settles into place so naturally it might have been there all night.
>Kaitlyn | Great. Now they're smiling at me. That's usually where the trouble starts.]
Kaitlyn slows near the end of their booth, blue eyes moving over the group with open suspicion.
Ashley: "Hey, Kaitlyn?" She lifts a hand, sweetness replacing every trace of the conversation from seconds earlier. "Got a second?"
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