Sunday afternoon, Mia met Anna, Zev, and Luke at the movie theater. Of course, Carmine and Conner had decided to skip it. Carmine didn't like to go on things she considered "group dates", especially since last year. Zev had gotten it into his head that she and Conner were secretly dating. Mia was never quite sure why – maybe it was because they were the only two members of the group who were still single. But whatever the reason, they tended to bail as often as not, especially if it was a movie.

She had to admit, she was a little nervous. She'd been out on double dates with Anna before, of course. But she knew she'd been acting a little weird lately. And even though she'd been out with her friends just two nights ago, she still didn't feel quite as good as she should. She just hoped she could hide that fact, especially from Zev and Luke. Luke probably wouldn't approve, and she knew Zev would just feel bad for her. She didn't want to have to worry about any of that if she could help it. As she walked the two blocks from the bus stop to the theater, she took the time to compose herself. When she got to the front of the theater, Zev was waiting outside.

"Hi." she said, hoping she didn't sound too hyper. She might be feeling a lot better, but she was still having a little trouble really concentrating.

"Hey." he said. Then nodding towards the doors, he added, "Luke and Anna are inside."

Mia nodded as she started to get in line for her own ticket.

"I got it." Zev told her.

"Thanks." Mia beamed. "Sorry I didn't take the earlier bus – I didn't think you'd be here yet."

Mia felt like she might be starting to ramble, and she stopped herself. Zev didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, I dragged Luke out early today." Zev told her as they headed towards the doors.

"Yeah?"

Mia kind of wondered why, but she decided not to ask. Keep it short, she told herself.

"Thought it might be nice to be on time for once."

Mia nodded, following him into the lobby. Anna and Luke were waiting just inside the doors. Of course, Luke had already bought a huge box of popcorn for himself. Mia tried to ignore it – thinking about food just reminded her of how hungry she still was.

She glanced across the lobby and saw a girl on the other side. She was all alone, obviously waiting for someone. Mia tried not to think about how easy it would be to get that girl someplace secluded. If only Mia wasn't surrounded by her own friends!

"Everybody ready?" Luke asked.

"What?" Mia asked, quickly dragging her attention away from that girl and back to her own group. "Of course. Why?"

Luke looked at her a little strangely, but didn't say anything. Instead, he turned back to Zev.

"Are you going to get anything to eat?"

Zev thought about it for a second, and Mia found herself looking back towards that girl again.

"I think I'm ok." Zev said.

"Then let's go."

Mia watched as the girl turned the corner. The bathrooms were just barely visible from where Mia was standing, and she watched as the girl pushed open the door. The opportunity was too good to pass up.

"I'll be right back." she said.

"Where you going?" Zev asked.

"I just thought I saw someone." Mia said, thinking quickly. Why were they making this so difficult? "I just need to check."

"Rudi?" Anna asked quietly. Next to her, Zev straightened but didn't say anything. Mia just shook her head.

"No, it's not her – don't worry." Mia told them. "I'll be right back."

Once she'd finally satisfied her friends, Mia hurried down the hall. She took off, going almost as fast as she could. Not that it was really all that fast at this point – she'd been starving too long to have a lot of energy. But she figured her friends would probably think she was trying to be subtle instead of guessing what was really happening to her.

Mia turned the corner, heading straight into the bathroom as soon as she was out of sight of her friends. She stared at herself in the mirror, pretending to fix her makeup as she scanned to see who all was in here with her. Amazingly, it was just the one girl. Mia grinned – that was always the best part about going to the movies in the middle of the day.

She turned to the girl as casually as she could.

"Do you know what time it is?" she asked.

"One forty-seven." the girl said after glancing down at her phone.

"Thanks." Mia said. "I'm supposed to meet some friends here, but they haven't shown up yet."

"Well, hopefully they come soon." the girl said politely. She looked at Mia a little sympathetically, and that was all she needed.

Mia instantly set about getting the girl to relax, and it only took a few minutes before she was on the ground. Mia picked her up carefully and took her to the handicapped stall. That way, if someone else did come in, they wouldn't see what Mia was going to do.

She bit into the girl's neck with ease. She would have thought she'd be nervous about it, especially in broad daylight like this. But she really wasn't. Knowing that Rudi wasn't around just made it so much easier. And as soon as she tasted the girl's blood, the only thing on her mind was how hungry she was. She didn't actually even realize it was that bad until she'd started.

When Mia was finally done, she stood up. The girl was a little more pale than Mia would have liked to see. Actually, she looked pretty bad. Mia felt guilty about that, but there was nothing she could do about it now. She really was going to have to find a more permanent solution to this whole Rudi thing. She went to the sink, leaving the girl where she was. It would take a little extra time for someone to find her, and at this point, that meant Mia would have more time to get away. She checked to make sure she didn't have blood anywhere and that she looked composed. Then, she turned and hurried out of the bathroom as fast as she could to meet up with her friends.

"Is everything all right?" Zev asked when she joined them

"Of course." Mia told him.

She wondered if she had blood on her that she'd missed. But she'd checked that before she left the bathroom. She almost wiped her face, but stopped herself. That would be a dead giveaway that she'd just attacked someone. Besides, if she had some telltale sign like that, he wouldn't be asking anything.

"You just seem a lot better suddenly." he said. Mia couldn't tell if he was suspicious or not. She decided to pretend she didn't notice.

"There was never anything wrong in the first place." she told him shrugging. "I think you're just imagining things."

Zev stared at her for a minute, obviously unconvinced. Mia felt kind of bad lying to him like that, but what could she do? Even if she did come clean about Rudi, there was absolutely no way she could ever admit to any of her friends what she'd just done – and especially not to Zev.

Zev continued to stare, but she met his gaze head on. Finally, he relented.

"Movie's starting soon." he told her.

Mia just nodded, following him inside.

The movie was great, and it turned out to be an excellent way for Mia to forget her problems. But as she looked across the lobby afterwards, she thought she saw an ambulance leaving the parking lot. She wondered what happened, and really hoped it hadn't been because of what she'd done.