A special thank you to sunflowerin for trailer! It's so flipping amazing! I love it!

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Zeya's POV

Zeya made an extremely sharp turn into the Wilkerson's parking lot. She hopped the curb and almost side-swiped a shopping cart before she sailed into the parking spot directly next to Sadie.

As usual, Zeya's reigning skill was the fact that she could leave thirty minutes early and still somehow manage to be late. Sadie had been resting against her car, wearing one of her signature Sadie outfits (low cut top, uncomfortably short shorts, and a highly noticeable bra).

"It's about damn time," Sadie chuckled as soon as Zeya opened her door.

"I'm sorry!" Zeya frowned. "I kid you not I hit every single red light."

"Mhm," she tsked.

"I did!" Zeya defended. "I even left early. You should be proud."

"Oh I am," Sadie grinned as the two began strolling towards the store.

"Alright," Zeya sighed, attempting to steer their conversation away from her constant tardiness. "What do you think we even need?"

"We, of course, need to get snacks. I was thinking a couple bags of chips because everyone likes chips. Maybe a few smaller deserts? Ryker and Jonas are handling the booze so- "

"Wait wait," Zeya interjected, coming to a halt. Sadie stopped as well, peering over her shoulder at her friend with a high level of annoyance.

"What?" Sadie moaned, clearly unhappy with the disruption.

"Why are Ryker and Jonas coming?" Instead of offering a verbal response, Sadie gave her shoulders a small shrug and relocated her concentration onto the task at hand. As Sadie started to wander off Zeya rushed to catch up. "Sadie, there's only going to be us, Raquel, Madilyn, Dustin, Jacob, and Harrison . . . right?"

"Mhm." Sadie gave one of her disinterested "I'm only half paying attention" responses.

"You do know this is an end of the year honors club meeting right? Meaning only members of the actual club are coming."

"Look, I don't know who told everyone," she broke her stride in front of the market entrance and turned to face Zeya with her eyebrow raised. "Actually, my moneys on Madilyn. I never trusted her after she let Dustin into the club. No way that morons an honors kid. In fact, I bet you he doesn't even know how to spell the word honors- "

"Sadie!" Zeya cut her off. "Told everyone what?"

"Well everyone seems to think that you're . . . you know, throwing a party tonight."

"Are you freaking kidding me!?" Zeya knew if her mother ever found so much as a beer cap in the house she'd be six feet under.

"You'll be fine," Sadie made an effort to comfort her. Sadie was used to little to no parenting in her home. Therefore, the idea of a party didn't faze her at all. "Your house was practically made for a party."

"What?"

"Think about it . . . You have no neighbors, you can see any cars coming down the road from your bedroom, you have a giant backyard, AND the woods are right there." Sadie had a good point.

Zeya's house was the only one on her street due to the first construction company going bankrupt after building her home. Another one bought the land but hadn't yet started building. The nearest neighbor was on the next street over but, even with the music at full volume, it couldn't be heard from there.

And if for reason someone phoned a parent and/or the police they would be able to see them from the house and everyone could take off into the woods, follow the multitude of hiking trails, and wait them out.

Everyone except Zeya of course who would quite literally go down with the ship.

"Zeya, we live in the smallest most boring town imaginable. I could get a new cat and everyone would know about it by the end of the day. There's nothing we could do it stop it so why not throw the best one this town's ever seen." Zeya was tremendously upset about the small gathering turning into a raging party but she managed a slight smile.

"I don't want to- "

"Oh come on," Sadie wailed. "Graduation is in less than a month. The summer kids will be leaving after that and the college kids have like a month left together before we all venture on to bigger and better things."

All Zeya could see was her mother screaming so loudly at her that her ears would literally explode.

"Plus Christian is going to be there," Sadie said in a sing-song voice, nudging Zeya. "And a little birdy told me he's been asking about you."

Zeya had had the biggest crush on Christian Johns ever since she was in the ninth grade. Back then, someone had made a comment about Zeya's oral presentation (more the dorky clothes she was wearing and her nervous stutter) and he had leapt in to defend her.

Christian had graduated last year and, when he left for college, Zeya had virtually spent the entire day locked in her room. Luckily something hadn't worked out and Christian had ended up returning to their dreary little town which had given Zeya's uninteresting little life something to enjoy.

Sadie interlocked her fingers and pouted her lip. "Please."

Zeya inhaled deeply. She had never really stood out at her school; she was just Sadie's friend. If she did this maybe she'd be able to do something memorable. Her mother had always had a tight leash on Zeya and this would be the single chance she got to unlock her grip and have fun.

". . . Fine."

"Yes!" Sadie praised and Zeya leered. "Alright, now can we get back to the fun part?" Zeya bobbed her head.

Sadie seized a shopping cart and the two crossed into the market. The duo weaved through the herds of soccer moms and confused fathers before traveling into the snacks aisle.

"So I was thinking about grabbing a ton of chips. I mean you can't go wrong with them." Sadie said, more talking out loud than sharing her idea with Zeya. "Then we should grab some deserts for our heftier friends and some sodas for the kids who just want to seem cool but don't want to actually drink."

Sadie skidded to a halt in the middle of the aisle and proceeded to snatch bag after bag of chips off of the shelf, flinging them over her shoulder and into the cart.

"How many people do you think are coming?" Zeya inquired as Sadie hurled her twentieth bag into the cart.

"I have no clue." Sadie grabbed three more bags and started towards a new aisle. "But I do know guys will be there and they eat like absolute pigs."

"Should we grab more?" Zeya said with a dash of amusement in her tone.

"We could empty the whole store out and it still wouldn't be enough," Sadie hooted, glancing at her friend from over her shoulder before moving to the soda.

The pair ended up circling around the grocery store for an hour. When they had finally reached the checkout line, Zeya filled the conveyor belt with twenty-three bags of chips, twelve bottles of soda, three packs of brownies, four packs of cookies, and a bag of candy.

Sadie didn't even bat an eye when the total popped up on the screen nor did she care that the total was over one hundred dollars. She merely reached into her back pocket and swiped her parents credit card. She had been given it for emergencies only but her parents neither monitored it nor would they ever confront her about it.

After paying, they rolled the cart outside and began loading all of their groceries into Sadie's Fiat. Her trunk was unpredictably spacious yet it was clear that a couple bags weren't going to make it. The extra bags were thrown into Zeya's car and the two headed for Zeya's.

After unpacking the groceries and enveloping the kitchen in a sea of plastic bags, they journeyed into the attic and dug around for their outdoor lights. Zeya pretended she didn't see the box labeled "Dad's things" in the back corner.

In the end, they found them and began stringing up the multiple boxes of string lights in her backyard. The boxes, as well as the lights, were enclosed in a plethora of dust. The last time they'd been used was when her father had still been around.

Zeya reminisced; she thought about the time she spent watching her dad from the kitchen table. She laughed uproariously as he nearly fell off the ladder four separate times, struggling to pry them off of the tops of the giant orange tree's in their backyard.

That had been at their old house, though. It almost felt like another lifetime ago.

"Zeya," Sadie pulled her from her memories. "I'm going to go get a drink . . . want anything?" She gestured towards the house.

"No thanks." Sadie vanished inside and Zeya continued working. She attached the current string of lights to the gutter and draped them across the frame. She made it halfway across the back of the house before she ran out of pins.

Zeya soared off the ladder and preceded inside, not stunned to find that Sadie had been gone for nearly fifteen minutes. She had figured she'd find Sadie either

a. Inside on the telephone with a boy or

b. speaking to a boy at the door.

However, she wasn't doing either.

Sadie's eyes were glued to the television. She sat on the edge of the leather cushion, eyes as wide as an owl's. Zeya glimpsed at the TV herself.

The news was currently on. An intoxicatingly beautiful woman was on the screen. She was doing a report about Tenebrae, a research lab a few states over. Though her physical appearance effortlessly clarified her presence at the station, her ability to report was mediocre at best.

She was very bland. Her voice was painfully monotone and she kept reiterating the same sentences over and over.

"Tenebrae is good. Tenebrae is doing everything it can to help you. Tenebrae is searching for a cure. Tenebrae is good. Tenebrae is doing everything it can to help you. Tenebrae is searching for a cure . . ."

"Why are you watching this?" Zeya inquired; Sadie didn't answer. In fact, she didn't even move an inch. Zeya wasn't even sure Sadie had blinked. She was fully enthralled in the reporter. "Sadie?"

Still nothing.

"Sadie!"

"That is all." The reporter beamed as Zeya grasped the remote and clicked off the TV.

"Sadie!" Zeya screamed another time. This time Sadie reacted. She practically flew two feet in the air.

"What the hell!" Sadie screeched, clutching her chest. "You scared the crap out of me." Sadie got off the couch and shuffled past Zeya, grabbing herself a water from the fridge.

"Are you alright?" Zeya wondered. Sadie twisted to face her, eyebrow elevated.

"What do you mean?" She took a sip from her water and shrugged as if nothing weird had transpired.

"Are you serious?" Zeya scoffed. "I'm talking about the zombie moment you just had while watching the news." Sadie responded with a blank expression. "It was the story about Tena . . . Tenebrae I think."

"Oh Tenebrae? The research lab? They're searching for a cure." Zeya almost let out a hardy chuckle but she didn't see a hint of humor in her face.

"A cure for what?" Zeya quizzed. She was waiting for Sadie to break and laugh. She was anticipating her to give some sort of sign that she had been faking it and, at no point, had been hypnotized by the reporter.

Sadie stood still for a moment.

"I don't know . . . but they're doing everything they can to help." And with that Sadie disappeared outside.