She wondered if she could scale the fence, if it came to that. Alicia Yu could feel it—her thoughts shifting into high gear again. On the surface, she looked like everyone else grabbing drinks on the patio of a Los Angeles brewery that day, just a recent college grad chatting with her new coworkers. In Alicia's mind, though, the familiar what ifs were rising: What if a shooter shows up? What if we all need to escape? The fence between the patio and street was too tall to climb, she decided, and there were no windows to shatter like last time. She looked around at the crowd: baseball fans in jerseys celebrating the Dodgers' victory over the Giants, friend groups petting cute dogs sprawled underfoot. She was vigilant. She knew terrible things could happen. Four years earlier, she had survived one, then another, in the very same week.
The night of November 7, 2018, started like pretty much any other Wednesday. As usual, Alicia's close friend and suitemate Alaina Housley was taking forever to figure out what to wear. Alaina was the kind of person who believed there was a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and styling her blue flannel shirt and denim shorts for College Country Night at the Borderline Bar & Grill was no exception. The girls' six other suitemates were losing patience (in a fun way) and trying to shoo Alicia and Alaina out the door. "Go!" they said. "You look amazing!"
Weekly line dancing at Borderline was a long-standing tradition for the students of Pepperdine University, a midsize Christian school overlooking the ocean in Malibu, California. Alicia had spent her life pouring all her energy into church and her studies, so College Country Night felt like her gateway to the exciting world of "going out." Most places around Pepperdine close early, but not Borderline. In a beige stucco building next to a varicose-vein clinic in the nearby suburb of Thousand Oaks, it was the closest thing to a nightclub most of the students had.
Alicia, Alaina, and five other girls from the DeBell House freshman dorm—including Jordyn Regier and their senior RA Josie Utz—arrived at the bar a little before 10 p.m.
She wondered if she could scale the fence, if it came to that. Alicia Yu could feel it—her thoughts shifting into high gear again. On the surface, she looked like everyone else grabbing drinks on the patio of a Los Angeles brewery that day, just a recent college grad chatting with her new coworkers. In Alicia's mind, though, the familiar what ifs were rising: What if a shooter shows up? What if we all need to escape? The fence between the patio and street was too tall to climb, she decided, and there were no windows to shatter like last time. She looked around at the crowd: baseball fans in jerseys celebrating the Dodgers' victory over the Giants, friend groups petting cute dogs sprawled underfoot. She was vigilant. She knew terrible things could happen. Four years earlier, she had survived one, then another, in the very same week.
The night of November 7, 2018, started like pretty much any other Wednesday. As usual, Alicia's close friend and suitemate Alaina Housley was taking forever to figure out what to wear. Alaina was the kind of person who believed there was a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and styling her blue flannel shirt and denim shorts for College Country Night at the Borderline Bar & Grill was no exception. The girls' six other suitemates were losing patience (in a fun way) and trying to shoo Alicia and Alaina out the door. "Go!" they said. "You look amazing!"
Weekly line dancing at Borderline was a long-standing tradition for the students of Pepperdine University, a midsize Christian school overlooking the ocean in Malibu, California. Alicia had spent her life pouring all her energy into church and her studies, so College Country Night felt like her gateway to the exciting world of "going out." Most places around Pepperdine close early, but not Borderline. In a beige stucco building next to a varicose-vein clinic in the nearby suburb of Thousand Oaks, it was the closest thing to a nightclub most of the students had.
Alicia, Alaina, and five other girls from the DeBell House freshman dorm—including Jordyn Regier and their senior RA Josie Utz—arrived at the bar a little before 10 p.m. |
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