A R I A

"Holy shit, Shortcake. What happened?" Miles bends down, helping me stand back up.

I don't let myself look anywhere besides the figure, and I try not to blink, because I know the moment I do, the person will be gone.

That's what happens in movies, right? "There's someone in my room."

"What?" In the corner of my eye, I see him trying to look at what I'm seeing.

"Pass me my phone," I tell him. He hands it over, but by the time I open the camera, the silhouette has vanished. "Shit."

I turn away from the window and run my fingers through my hair, trying to remain calm. I know for sure that there was someone in my room. There's no way my eyes were playing tricks on me, or my brain. A person was there, standing in the middle of my room, and I have a feeling they were there for a while.

"Are you sure you saw someone?"

"Yes, Miles. I'm positive." I say through gritted teeth. Does he think I've gone crazy?

"We should call the cops." He says.

I scoff. When have they ever done anything? "No. They're practically useless."

"Unfortunetly, that is true." He nods. "And if we tell anyone else, they'll just call them."

"Exactly." I sigh. 

When will this end? 

●●●

"Hi, Ashley." I greet Hunter's mom, smiling as she pulls me into a hug.

"Aria! Wow, you grew. How are you doing?" She pulls away, giving both my hands a squeeze.

Worse. "Better. You?"

Ashley and I have met several times before, since she was one of Mom's best friends. She's how I met Hunter, but we were never close. I haven't met Hunt's dad, since he disappeared before he was even born. Ashley had came to my parent's funeral—along with Hunter—trying not to bawl her eyes out as she gave a heartwarming speech about Mom and Dad.

"Well, my life has been full of attempts to scold this troublemaker of mine, but he's just that type of person you can never get angry at. Look at him! Don't you just want to pinch his cheeks all day?" She grins at a beetred Hunter.

"Mom," He groans. Miles snickers at him, enjoying his best friend's mom continue to humiliate him in front of all of his friends. Hunt throws some sort of orange object at him, but he quickly dodges. It hits Zoe instead, who was standing behind Miles and chatting with Liz before the orange thing crashed against her shoulder. She lets out a string of colourful words, rubbing her shoulder and glaring at Hunter.

He's so dead.

"Shit! I didn't mean to throw it at you, Zoe, I swear!" Hunter hides behind the couch, as if that will do him any good.

"Did you just hit me with a freaking pineapple?!" She exclaims.

"Apparently, they are very good weapons. One of my friends recommended them to me. She's weird. Really weird," He pauses to think. "I wonder what happened to her. I haven't seen her and her sister in a long time."

Some people are just crazy.

Zoe rolls her eyes.

"Anyways, there's some brownies on the table if anyone wants them. A friend delivered them." Ashley smiles and retreats back into her bedroom when we all nod.

"Um, what do people do at sleepovers, again?" Liz asks, grabbing the tray full of brownies and placing it on her lap.

"Uh, watch movies?" Miles suggests.

Zoe shakes her head. "Ew, no. That's what normal people do."

"We're not normal?" Ryan gasps.

"We're anything but normal." Hunter says.

That is true.

"I have an idea," I grin. "How about a game of Hide and Seek?" Afterall, Hunter's house is massive.

"Lame," Miles says.

"Because you said that, you're automatically it." I say. "Count to one hundred. Really slowly."

Without looking at his reaction, I twirl around once he starts counting and gesture for everyone to follow me. When I'm sure we're too far for Miles to hear us, I ask Hunter, "Where's your room?"

He lifts an eyebrow in question. "Um, third floor. Why?"

I smirk. "Because we're going to play a little prank on our fellow friend."

"What kind of prank?" Ryan asks. We travel upstairs as quiet as possible until we reach Hunt's room.

"So, you know how Miles is extremely superstitious, right?"

Zoe narrows her eyes and gives me a mischievous smile. "I see where you're going with this."

"Oh, no. No, no, no. We are not going through with this!" Ryan exclaims, throwing his hands up.

"You too, Ryan?" I frown.

"If you want to go ahead and conjure some demon, that's fine. But just leave me out of this."

Liz rolls her eyes. "We're not actually doing something like that. It's just a prank. Plus, don't you want to get back at Miles for squirting glue up your nose?"

What the f—

"Miles is stupid, but not that stupid. Hunter was the one who did that, not him." Ryan deadpans, sending an ice cold glare his way.

Hunter grins sheepishly. "I didn't know that was glue!"

"How do you not know what glue is, if it's in a freaking glue bottle?" Ryan argues.

"And why would you squirt anything up his nose, anyway?" I add, cringing at the thought of glue in my nose.

"Uh, no argument there. Let's get on with this prank." Hunter says, flushing bright red. 

"Liz and Zoe, hide yourself under the covers. Hunt, go hide in the closet. Ryan, sit on the edge of the bed and hang your head low and act like you are possessed." They all get into action and I switch off the lights so that it's pitch black.

I sit on the floor, my legs crossed. I rock back and forth, all my hair coverings my face. I drag my nails over the hardwood floor to create a scratching sound, biting my lip to stop myself from smirking when I hear footsteps outside the door. The knob twists and it opens, revealing a confused Miles. He steps into the room, holding a . . . toy lightsaber?

He still hasn't noticed me yet, so I watch his reactions. "If there are any demons in this room, I swear, I will slice you in half with this lightsaber! I'm not scared of you! Show yourself!"

Oh my god, this is gold.

That's when I start making growling sounds and shake my head violently. Miles' whirls around and stares at me in horror while I twitch on the floor, shaking my legs and arms abnormally. Ryan starts doing the same, with Zoe and Liz creating strange sounds and Hunter banging the walls and doors of the closet.

Miles lets out such a high pitched shriek, I could have sworn a girl had made that noise.

"How dare you demons take over my Shortcake? I won't let you do this. Take Cockroach instead! Aria is not innocent, but she doesn't deserve this. Please don't take her, she's already been through so much."

This is not what I was expecting.

I'm so thrown off guard that I forget about the acting and make eye contact with Miles. As soon as he notices me looking, he drops onto his knees and pulls me into a hug.

"Thank god you're okay." His voice is muffled by my hair.

I regret this.

Do you? Do you, really? You earned yourself a hug from Miles.

Oh, yeah. That reminds me . . .

"Ew, what are you doing?" I pull away, only to see everyone else creating a circle around us.

"Wait. Was this a prank?" Miles turns the lights back on. I get to my feet and nod.

"I thought we were done with those." He gives me a pointed look.

I shrug. "You really thought I would stop with my pranks just because you're on my good list now? Never."

"Just you wait, Shortcake." He mutters.

"You should have seen your face! You looked so confident and scared at the same time. Oh my gosh, we need to do this more often." Hunter laughs.

"Hopefully not too often." Miles grumbles.

"'I'm not scared of you! Show yourself!'" Zoe mimics, making everyone laugh except Miles.

"I'm going to go eat the brownies." He mumbles, leaving the room with a huff.

I suddenly regret pulling away from his hug.

●●●

Hello gummies!

I need to pee, so I'm gonna keep this short. If you see any mistakes, point them out!

Don't forget to vote and comment!

❤ Chloe