I fiddle with my old keys on my ring. It's Saturday, just after noon, and I'm supposed to be helping Aunt Clara prep for her catering gig tonight. But I'm up in my room, fussing with my keys, replaying what Tristan had said to me on Thursday.

He didn't speak to me on Friday, not so much as a glance in my direction all throughout the day. He had been ignoring me so much that I had begun questioning if him eating tacos in my kitchen had even been real.

Getting frustrated, I throw my key ring down on my bed, old house and car keys still attached, and go downstairs to help Aunt Clara. I have to make sure she's out the door at 4 so she has enough time at the event to actually cook. Uncle Luke is going to some work football thing later, so I invited Nicole over to do homework and watch a movie. I've been getting used to being around people, so a night by myself in an empty house didn't sound appealing to me.

For the next three hours, Aunt Clara and I chopped, spiced, and packed up her ingredients along with chef knives and pans. She kept nervously messing around with stuff, unpacking and repacking the containers. I eventually had to force her upstairs to shower and change so she wouldn't be late.

"Leila, are you sure you don't want to come to my football game? You can watch me tackle a couple of the guys from accounting." Uncle Luke enters the kitchen, his hand deep in a chip bag. He takes out a couple, tilting the bag towards me. I dry my hands on a dish towel and grab a handful.

"I'm sure," I tell him, popping a chip into my mouth. "I already invited Nicole for homework and a movie."

"There aren't any parties going on tonight?"

"If there are, we weren't invited."

"Kiddo, you need to go do something fun. Get out of the house! Go to a party, sneak into the school at night, take a drive to nowhere, be a teenager," he teases. "You're young, not old and dying."

"That means a lot coming from someone with soooo much life experience. A true adult! So old and wise!" I poke back at him.

"Hey! I'm not old," he whimpers. "But seriously, Leila, if you and your friend get bored of doing homework all night, text me and I'll come home and take you guys out somewhere."

"Where would you take us? A club?" I laugh. "Is there even a club or bar in this town? Or the one next over?"

"You would be surprised the type of fun you can have here. You just have to know where to look," Uncle Luke says, handing me a couple more chips before putting the bag away and going upstairs to change.

The next two hours consisted of people walking in and out of the house. Aunt Clara left first, Uncle Luke leaving for his football game shortly after. Around 6, Nicole showed up with Nate in tow.

"I hope you don't mind me crashing your homework night," he says when I let them in. "I need help editing my article for journalism and this one over here is helpless with grammar." Nate playfully shoves his step-sister's shoulder.

"Excuse you," Nicole shoves him back. "I tried to help you, but you kept yelling at me for changing the font."

"Because you were supposed to edit the words, not the font! Leila, do you see what I have to live with?"

I laugh and respond, "I can definitely help you and I promise not to mess with your choice of, I'm guessing Times New Roman?"

"Okay, don't judge me like that," Nate complains, falling back on the living room couch. "It's the default for a reason!"

After arguing about font styles and the sacrifice of creativity for professionalism, the three of us spread out all of our assignments across the coffee table and floor. I start on editing Nate's article while he helps Nicole bookmark pages the two of us would need to complete our English Lit worksheet. We bounced between assignments, taking breaks in between, and by the time 8pm rolls around our stomachs are grumbling.

"I can order us a pizza and when it gets here we can put on a movie," I suggest.

"Oh thank God!" Nicole slams her pink folder shut, causing the few loose pieces of paper on the table to fly off. "I don't think my brain can handle any more thinking."

"I'm surprised it could think at all" Nate laughs. While the two of them continue to take friendly jabs at each other, I place an order for an extra large cheese pizza. After confirming my address and card number, I hang up and grab three sodas from the fridge.

"Here you guys go," I hand them each a can and take a seat on the couch beside Nicole. I switch on the TV and click the built-in Netflix button. "So what movie were you guys thinking?"

"Sex and the City!" Nicole exclaims.

"No way! How many times have you seen that movie?" Nate sighs.

"A lot, but that's besides the point," she replies, crossing her arms defiantly. "It's a classic!"

They both look at me, their faces begging me to take their side. I roll my eyes and say, "As much as I love that movie, maybe we should watch something none of us has seen yet? Or at the very least, something Nate won't complain about the entire time?"

Nicole and Nate agree and we spend the next several minutes scrolling through the Netflix options.

"I have an idea," Nate finally says. "It's supposed to storm really hard tonight, so how about a horror movie?"

"Nathaniel, I swear if you're using this as an excuse to try and hit on Leila," Nicole begins.

"Will you chill? First of all, Leila is my friend and not my type at all. No offense!" he says, leaning over to look at me.

"None taken," I let out a giggle. I never even thought of Nate as anything more than a friend either. Don't get me wrong, he's super cute, but I could never like him in that way.

"Secondly, even if I was trying to make a move, how could I possibly do that with you SITTING BETWEEN US!"

"Point taken," Nicole says, grabbing the remote from me to scroll through the scary movie genre.

We settle on Scream because it's been a while since any of us have watched it. The doorbell rings, signaling the pizza has arrived. I retrieve it from the delivery guy and notice that the rain has already started, lightning striking in the distance.

I get comfortable on the couch again, tossing Nicole and Nate some blankets and big pillows. With the lights off, smell of pizza in the air, and cozied up under blankets, I start the movie.

Despite having watched the movie before, all three of us jump and gasp at appropriate times. Throughout the movie, the rain outside has been progressively getting heavier, rumbling thunder and cracks of lightning shaking the house. Nate was right: with a storm like this happening, it adds a whole new dimension to a scary movie.

Uncle Luke had texted earlier that he and his colleagues were waiting out the rain in a diner so we would be home late and not to expect Aunt Clara until midnight. I told him that we were okay, just watching a movie, and that my friends would also wait until the storm passed to call their parents to pick them up.

A loud crack of lightning makes the three of us scream, me practically jumping into Nicole's lap. We all look at each other in the soft glow of the TV and break out into hysterical laughing, drowning out the movie narrative.

That is until we hear a pounding on the back door, making us all scream and jump closer together in a huddle.

"What the hell was that?" Nicole asked, her voice shaking a little in fear.

"It might have been the house settling in the storm or maybe a branch fell against the door," I say, trying to think rationally while also trying to protect myself by wrapping my body up in the blanket.

"Are you sure?" Nate whispers. "Because that really sounded li-"

The pounding on the back door starts up again.