Two weeks earlier

***

"Alright," Emily sang out from the darkness. "Open your eyes,"

Adam Trex smiled at the sound of her voice. Then, quickly snapped the pocket knife he'd been playing with closed, and popped one eye open.

He didn't spare the bubblegum pink walls a single glance. Instead, Adam just hung his foot over the side of the bed, rubbing it along the shag carpeting.

The look on his girlfriend's face, as she smiled back at him, was one of pure triumph. If faces had words, this one read: I've got you this time.

Ever since they were just children, Emily would think up games and puzzles, riddles, and mysteries. Hundreds, maybe even thousands by that point. But she'd yet to find a way to conquer his mind.

Until now.

"Come on!" Emily smacked his arm impatiently. "You're making me wait on purpose,"

Critical hit. Adam clutched his arm and keeled over in mock agony. "Ouch! It's broken! You broke my arm. We can't play right now, I need major medical attention,"

Emily rolled her eyes and smacked a pillow across his face, nearly knocking Adam into the floor. "Play dammit!"

Adam burst out laughing but knew better than to make her wait. As soon as curse words entered the equation, he'd learned to quit goofing off. So without further delay, Adam sat up and took a deep breath.

He adjusted his position on the mattress and looked down. Between the two (remarkably, still in place on the sheets, after the war waged above), was an aluminum cookie tray. It sat, stocked full of at least a couple hundred buttons.

Each button was unique. A mixture of various colors, shapes, sizes, and holes. But the trick was: one was missing.

Adam slid his knife back into the pocket of his sweatshirt and sifted through the pile for several minutes. Then he glanced up into Emily's expectant gaze.

"Which one is it?" She asked, leaning slightly forwards.

Adam smiled, noting just how much she looked like a little girl at a circus, diehard on catching the magician in the act.

"It's light blue," Adam's hands retreated deep into his pockets as he described the button aloud. "Five holes, the size of a nickel. Round, plastic, and it has a nick on the side,"

Emily burst out laughing. "That's amazing! Okay now," she grinned, as they were approaching her favorite part of the game. "Now where is it?"

Adam inhaled again. But this time, turned his gaze towards the rest of the bedroom. And within a split second, he had all the information he needed.

The grain of the rug was out of sync with the rest, near the door. Also, one of the drawer handles on the dresser was flipped in the opposite direction as the others. But both of those were merely distractions.

Why? The carpet was shuffled on, not walked across. It held no true order, twisted in a dozen different directions.

The handle on the dresser was flipped on the decorative drawer, beneath the mirror. The drawer didn't even open. Emily had rearranged, trying to throw him off.

Adam's intelligent, blue, eyes, rapidly scanned the walls and ground. He glanced behind the dresser and noticed that the stool still had a spiderweb spun between it and the wall.

And I didn't hear her throw anything, so it can't be on the shelf. He thought, looking back to Emily.

She smiled at him. A cheesy, squinty-eyed, grin. He looked her over and smiled back.

"What?" A look of increasing suspicion immediately replaced Emily's teasing smile. "What's that look?"

Adam crawled across the bed and flopped down next to her, then he pulled Emily up against his side, and shook his head. "You win. You got me,"

Emily's jaw dropped as she stared at him, dumbfounded. "You're kidding!"

"Nope," Adam chuckled, shaking his head again. "I'm not,"

Emily bounced up and down excitedly, and threw her arms around her boyfriend. "Oh my god, I-" she pecked his cheek, feverishly. Then unexpectedly pulled away to laugh in his face. "Haha! Sucker!"

"Alright, alright," Adam rose his hands in surrender. "But now, seriously... where did you put it?"

"It's right here," Emily pulled her phone out of her back pocket, and reached back in, only to find it empty. "Huh? I-"

She looked back at Adam and saw him grinning at her, the button pinched between his teeth.

"I hate you!" Emily cried, her face burning in embarrassment. "You said you weren't kidding!"

"I wasn't kidding. I was lying," Adam snorted. He accidentally spat the button out, in his short fit of laughter.

Emily smacked him up the back of the head, biting her lip in a vain attempt to fight off a smile of her own.

"Alright fine. But now you have to tell me," she insisted. "How did you know?"

"Your flashlight has been on since we got upstairs," he informed her, picking up Emily's phone and holding it up for her to see. "It was in your pocket facing out. But you flipped it around when you put the button in your pocket,"

"Maybe I was talking to a friend while your eyes were closed," Emily pointed out. She took the phone and moodily switched off the light.

"What friends?" Adam scoffed. "You're making out with the only one you've got,"

Emily gasped in mock offense, then stuck her hands into his jacket. She tickled Adam until he screamed and begged for mercy.