Chapter One

The sun is beating down on the ground, causing the cement to heat up under my bare feet. I suppose that I technically should be wearing shoes, but at the moment I can't seem to care. Nobody's yelled at me yet-not that I expect anyone to-so it's not like it really matters, anyway.

It's a seemingly perfect day out. The grass is green and crisp, the sky a beautiful baby blue with only a few fluffy white clouds scattered here and there. And if I walk far enough, I'll probably be able to catch a view of a pool filled with splashing children and sunbathing adults. If this were any other day, I might even be one of them-assuming I had actually somehow managed to be forced out of my house for more than ten minutes at a time. Yupp, the perfect day...

... for everything except a funeral.

"Babe," a voice calls out, causing me to turn around. My two best friends, Hailey and Zoey are running towards me, their black dresses flowing out behind them.

"You can't wander," Hailey scolds, as she clasps onto my arm, ever the overprotective girl she is. "You're parents will worry."

My mouth drops open slightly, before I nod. "Right. Sorry. I was just-"

"I know," her hand moves up until her arms is wrapped around my shoulders. "Let's get you back. We can have the food now."

She frowns slightly at my bare feet but doesn't say anything, even though it's evident that my shoes are no where to be seen. To be honest, I'm not quite sure where they are. I think they slipped off a couple blocks back, but I can't be too sure.

Her arm tenses, and she forces me forward, back to the funeral home.

MSCSMFK

Fifteen Months Later

"Girl, we have to do Valley Scare this year." Zoey laughs.

I roll my eyes at her and flip onto my back. "That's like, three whole hours away!"

"So?" she shrugs, glancing back down at her nails which she's currently painting. Thanks to the camera angle, I can't see what the color is, but without a doubt it's some freakin sparkly girly shit. Because that's just how she is. "You don't work on Halloween, do you?"

"Well, no-"

"And you don't work the day after, right?"

"No-"

"Sweet!" she laughs and claps her hands together briefly. "Then the three of us are heading up there!"

I raise an eyebrow, "You and Hailey are broke college students. Can you really afford to do that?"

"We can save our money, unlike you." Zoey smirks before holding up her hand for me to view her nails, which have-naturally-been painted a bright pink. "Wadda'ya think?"

I cringe slightly and shake my head. "Don't you have something less fucking girly?"

"Nope," she shakes her head, "Because last I checked, I'm a girl."

"Doesn't mean you have to act like one."

She rolls her eyes again and waves her hand dismissively. "This is why you're a nineteen year-old-virgin."

"I thought I was a nineteen-year-old virgin because I refused to sell it to Degan this summer."

"That too." she blows distractingly on her nails. "Although I never understood why you refused to do that. Warren and I each had eight-hundred bucks ready to pay the both of you."

"Because I'm not gonna sell my virginity, and besides, last I checked, Degan is Hailey's ex. Not to mention, you also slept with him."

"And?"

I roll my eyes. God knows I love the girl to death, but I would never understand how lightly she took this whole virginity thing. I mean, I don't think I'm a prude or anything but god. How the three of them never found it slightly odd that she became friends with benefits with Hailey's ex just weeks after they broke up will always ellude me.

"Don't you think there should be at least one of us he didn't see naked?"

Zoey opens her mouth to respond, but is cut off by some door opening outside frame. I can't see who it is that disturbed our conversation, but there's only one person it could be.

"Talking to Aubrey again?" I hear Hailey ask.

Zoey nods, before her hand covers the camera. "Yeah, but she says she has to-"

The camera goes black, causing me to sigh. I know she does that for me; ever since the funeral, Hailey has been overbearingly protective of me, constantly making sure that I'm not going to hit rock bottom or something, to the point that it's pretty fucking annoying. But still, I don't think Zoey realizes that her trying to protect me from Hailey's protection is growing pretty troublesome as well.

I shut my computer and roll off my bed, hitting the floor painfully. I have no idea how I'm gonna convince my parents to let me go; they've been holding me pretty close to home, as well-but I'm sure I'll be able to manage. If anything, Zoey will convince her somehow. She's very good at that sort of thing.

I push myself up and shuffle towards the door. Without even realizing what I'm doing, I find myself right outside Kiera's room.

The door gives a deafening groan as I slowly push it open to reveal her room, untouched aside from the monthly cleaning by our mother. Her wall is covered with pictures taken over the years, most of us and our friends. She'd wanted to be a photographer ever since she was a little kid.

I walk over to her bedside table and run my hand over a specific picture that sits there. It's of her and her two best friends; Ryan, a girl with hair who always dyed it a bright, Ariel red whom she met back in elementary school, and Matt, a boy with strawberry blonde hair, leaning just enough on the strawberry side to make it almost orange, who transferred here from England back when they had been in middle school. To this day, he still has yet to lose his British accent, something I have trouble making sense of.

For as long as I can remember, Kiera has had a crush on him. Like a major crush. Not creepy, persay, but I'm fairly certain she had a secret picture of him hidden somewhere in this room. My mom might have even found it in her cleaning.

I back away after a second and quickly exit the room. Even after a whole year, it's hard to believe that she's dead. She was supposed to live forever.

My phone is ringing when I get back to my own bedroom. Well, "ringing" is a bad term to use, considering I constantly have it on vibrate, so that it doesn't accidentally go off during work.

"Hello?" I say, holding it up to my ear.

"I ran out as soon as I could." Zoey says, her breath coming out in short little gasps. No doubt when she said "run" she meant it literally. After all, Zoey never does anything halfway.

"Is she mad?" I can't help but wince. It's been weeks since I last spoke with my best friend, and the constant calls have not slowed down one bit.

"She's worried. And I can't blame her." Zoey sighs, before clearing her throat. She has some sort of idea, I can tell, but what it is, I have no idea. "But we're definitely on for Valley Scare on Halloween, right?"

I groan and put a hand to my head. "I don't even have a costume-"

"That doesn't matter. You'll come up with something." we're silent for a second, before she lets out a loud whine. "Aubrey, please! This is going to be so much fun-"

"Alright, alright," I shake my head and rub one of my eyes in frustration. "If you somehow manage to convince my parents, I'll go."

"Deal." she hangs up without so much as a "goodbye" and not even a second later, I can hear my mom's phone ringing from the living room. Wow, that girl wasted no time whatsoever.

"What is that bitch doing now?" I turn to see my younger brother, Earl, leaning up against the doorway to his room.

"Trying to talk mom and dad into letting me go on a road trip with her and Hailey." I reply.

Earl snorts, "Yeah, good luck with that. She'll be lucky if they let you walk down the street by yourself."

"Earl," I hiss over at him. "Stop being so horrible to them."

"It's true," he shrugs before disappearing back into his room. "Also," he pokes his head out for one last word. "I really don't think this is a good idea, either."

If I had known what was going to happen, I probably would've listened to him.