Dream woke up to the alarm she set on her phone. It was 5:30 in the morning. For a very short moment, she forgot why she had wanted to wake up so early.

Wait. Right.

Operation A - whatever A stood for - was in place. It started with packing up all her belongings. She was going to find a place to stay.

Dream Cadison was running away from home. If her dad didn't care about her, then what was the difference between living with him, or with anyone else? Or with no one?

Dream sighed as she locked the door to her room. Couldn't risk her dad walking in and finding out what she was up to.

First, she decided to take a shower and get ready. After that, she dumped her soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, toothpaste, and anything else in her bathroom, into her suitcase. She continued by taking all the clothes from her closet, shoving them in her large suitcase. She had plenty of experience packing, and she didn't have many belongings yet. She literally moved from Miami to Brooklyn with all her belongings stuffed in this suitcase and her backpack.

By the time she was done, her bedroom looked...well, clean. Neat. But no one would know that the drawers of her desk, her nightstand, and the inside of her closet were all empty. She stood up, putting her suitcase against the wall.

"Dream! What on earth are you doing?"

Dream jumped, surprised, realizing she had forgotten to close the window and her curtains. "Um...no-nothing, Zac."

"I've been watching you for a good half hour and it doesn't look like you're up to 'nothing.' Why are you packing up everything in your room?"

"I'm running away from home," Dream said in a matter-of-factly way.

For a moment, Zac stared at her. Then, he burst into laughter, bending over and hitting his knee. A moment passed, and Dream was glaring at him.

"Oh. You're serious."

"You think?" Dream said, annoyed.

"Where to?"

"I don't know," Dream admitted.

"You can always stay in the guest room at my place," Zac offered.

"Huh?"

"We have a guest room. It used to be my brother's room, before he went away to college."

"But, it's December. Christmas break is coming up. Won't he come back?"

Zac shrugged. "Nah. He's not really the type to spend Christmas at home with his family. Neither am I, to be honest. Or my parents. I haven't exactly spent Christmas with anyone for a while. You can keep me company, this year," he grinned.

"Your parents won't be mad?"

"I doubt they will notice. I could fly to Paris for a month and they probably won't care."

"Oh."

"Well, you want to move in?"

"Are you sure?" Dream said.

"Of course," Zac said. "You've packed up everything. Just toss the suitcase over. Then jump over. No one in your house will suspect a thing."

"Huh," Dream said. She and Zac both lived on the tenth floor of the apartments, so she was slightly scared at the thought of jumping. But hey, it was still a free offer for a place to stay.

"What are you waiting for? Throw your suitcase over. I'll catch it."

"I'm scared..."

Zac rolled his eyes. "For goodness sake, there's a four feet distance between our windows. Just throw it, I'll catch it, I promise."

Dream paused for a moment, before deciding to not care, and just throw it. As promised, Zac caught it, grinning.

"Good throw," he said. "Now jump."

Dream whimpered.

"You're taller than four feet, right?" Zac huffed. "The distance you have to jump is less than your height. Just jump, it's not that hard."

Feeling scared and nervous, Dream stepped onto the windowsill. Her heart wouldn't stop pounding. What if I die? I'm not ready to die!

"Just jump," she heard Zac's annoying voice. Ugh. Does he ever stop talking?

"It's not that hard," Dream imagined Zac rolling his eyes as he said that. Fine then, Zac, I'll show you.

Dream took a deep breath, then jumped.

---

A/N

Here's Chapter 18! Hope you enjoyed reading about Dream's weirdness and some of Zac's backstory. 

I can't emphasize how much it means to me that y'all are reading my book. It's honestly crazy. We have more than 1.2k reads and we've only been at this for a tad bit longer than a month! 

Please vote if you enjoyed, comment your thoughts, and share this with your friends!!

Next update is going to be on Wednesday, so don't forget to stay tuned for that! Love you all! 💕

💙, Stella Rose