Jenny and Noah and Elijah had been the three most inseparable friends all throughout high school.
They’d grown up on the same cul-de-sac and their shared geography soon determined an easy grouping all throughout the following years.
In high school, they each stood out in different but complimentary ways. Elijah filled the role of the three-sport athlete that plastered activities over every inch of his Letterman’s jacket. He was jovial, well liked, and generally involved in most things worth being involved in.
Noah was brilliant. And not just book smart. Noah could seduce you with words or force you into brilliant conversation in a way that might leave you feeling startlingly awake. He captained debate team and was perpetually successful with the girls he chased.
Jenny was popular, not because she was terrible to other people, but because she oozed a sort of warmth and genuine connection that allowed her to get her way in almost every situation imaginable. She was the ASB events planner, dance team choreographer, Spanish Club Secretary, Yearbook Editor, and so many other things. She cruised through AP classes like they were merely suggestions. When something at the school needed to get done, she usually got it done. Bureaucracy folded neatly into her back pocket. She was, with eye-rolling accuracy, a classic Americana author’s version of the girl next door, which only made you want to please her even more.
Growing up, her house was directly in between both Noah’s and Elijah’s.
From childhood scraped knees to the eventual early pangs of first crushes the three had gotten to know each other more and more over the years
There had been a couple of close calls as they grew up together, but over time the simple truth was that the friendship was far stronger than any romantic inclinations.
This was for the best though. While some people had cycled three times through their various friend groups as they aged, these three had found ways of evolving together, still finding shared zones of their expanding life-interest Venn diagrams to keep each other always entertained.
When graduation came and it was time to apply for different schools, they all ended up in the same city, both Noah and Jenny had been accepted to a prestigious private university studying slightly different disciplines, while Elijah followed in his father’s footsteps to study business downtown at the family alma mater.
They saw each other when they could, usually over quick lunches or on the weekends. Jenny’s on-campus dorm was walking distance from Noah’s apartment so they occasionally found themselves catching a movie during a cancelled class or just generally wasting away the occasional lazy Sunday in the service of bad background television while they worked on various homework projects and upcoming projects.
One of the biggest things that had kept all three friends connected over the years was the music festivals they enjoyed attending. It was perhaps because they grew up together that the one thing they always shared was a love for a similar style of music.
In high school it had been skater punk and hip hop, and then came the alternative and the underground hip hop, and then clubs and house music and DJ’s and dancing. There was weekend festival visits and the occasional insane house party where the three would let loose and catch up like old times.
It was Jenny’s idea to celebrate their third full year of college with a weekend in Vegas. All three had recently celebrated their 21st birthdays and Vegas was a right of passage at this age. Both boys had gotten the group text during the last weeks of the semester and both had enthusiastically agreed.