I walk into my room with Ethan trailing behind me and fall onto my bed, back first. "What's wrong?" he asks, concerned.
I sit up and look at him. "Nothing," I reply with a smile. "I'm just tired."
Ethan crawls onto the bed and lays down beside me, so we're both on our sides, facing each other. He lightly caresses my arm, and I lean in to kiss him.
He pulls back and says, "Sey, I know something's wrong. Was it those girls?"
I hesitate for a moment before sitting up and facing him, and he turns over to his back and continues looking at me. "Honestly? Yeah. It's not even like I'm upset that they called Sam a murderer. I'm upset that they didn't call me one."
Ethan looks at me confused. "You want to be known as a murderer?"
"No! God no," I quickly respond. "I just mean, I'm sad Sam has to go through this alone. We both killed someone, and yet she gets all the blame."
He looks at me with a sad expression in his eyes. "You know, we've never talked about it. Amber, I mean."
"What is there to talk about?" I ask, a bit defensively. "She was my best friend, betrayed me for no reason, and then her pedophile of a boyfriend tried to kill me even though I literally had never spoken to him. So Sam killed him, and I stabbed Amber to death. You know the worst part about it? I don't feel bad in the slightest. Sure, I'm sad she betrayed me, but I stabbed her 16 times. And each time it just felt... better. Like it felt... good." I stop, immediately regretting saying that. He probably thinks I'm insane or something.
"Do you think I'm crazy?" I ask, putting my hands over my face in embarrassment.
Ethan sits up and smiles while taking my hands off my face and holding them. "Maybe just a little," he teases, and then kisses me.
I kiss him back and then shove him away, swatting him with a pillow playfully. "You are not making me feel better!" I joke.
I straddle him and start kissing him again, wrapping my arms around his neck. He puts his hands on my waist and begins to take my shirt off before we're interrupted.
Chad barges into the room, and I roll off Ethan. Chad covers his eyes. "Oh my god! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but you guys need to get out here right now!"
I sit up and look at Ethan, confused, before looking back at Chad, who still has his eyes covered. "Why? What's wrong?"
"The news," he says, and immediately my heart drops. I jump out of bed, adjusting my shirt and hair, and Ethan follows close behind me.
We speed walk into the living room and sit down next to each other, looking at the TV. Chad goes out the front door and yells for Sam to get up here.
"I'm standing in front of the apartment building-" the news guy is cut off by Sam returning.
"What's going on?!" she runs in with the cute guy from the neighboring apartment building.
"-where the mutilated bodies of two students were discovered. Their names have just been released by police: Jason Carvey and Greg Bruckner."
"Holy shit, that's that chode from our film studies class! The one obsessed with Argento!" Mindy exclaims. Immediately, I start to shake, and Ethan snakes his arms around me. I look at him, scared, before looking back at the TV.
"Also found at the scene were various Ghostface costumes, a character popularized by the Stab movie franchise."
I jolt up. "I swear I will kill them as many times as I have to," I say, knowing full well that if one comes charging at me, I'm running.
Ethan pulls me back down to the couch, and I am so entranced by the TV that I don't even look at him, but I can feel his eyes on me.
"Pack a bag. We leave in ten," Sam says, running into the kitchen.
"Sam, wait, Sam!" Tara goes after her.
"We're getting out of the city," Sam says.
"Thank you, suspicious new guy, but we got it from here," Chad says, escorting the cute guy out of the room. "Have a good night. Get home safe! Go, go, go, go-" he says while shooing him away.
Sam starts grabbing knives. "Sam!" Tara yells at her. "Sam, wha- h-hold on!"
"Come on!" Sam yells at Tara.
"No, wait! Let's talk about this for a second! 'Cause this might not have anything to do with us!"
"Are you serious?!"
"It's a big city! It's Halloween, everybody's wearing masks! You don't know!"
"Tara, this isn't a coincidence. You knew him!"
"Barely."
"Chad, Mindy, Sey, back me up!" Sam looks over at us. I look at Ethan, not knowing what to say.
"It is a little bit..." Chad is cut off by Mindy finishing his sentence, "close to home."
"See?!" Sam says, looking back at Tara.
"Quinn, your dad's a cop, right?! Can you call him and find out what's going on?!" Tara looks over to Quinn. "Before you make the unilateral decision to abandon my college education and flee the fucking state!" Tara looks back at Sam.
"I'm... calling him now..." Quinn says quietly.
Suddenly, Sam's phone starts to ring. I whip my head in the direction of the phone and stand up, slowly walking towards it to see who it is.
"Who is it?" Tara asks.
Thank God, it's just Gale. My heart slows down. Sam grabs the phone and declines the call.
"Why did everyone just freak out when her phone rang?" Ethan asks, looking confused.
"You gotta keep up, my dude," Anika says, shaking her head.
"Ethan, how does everyone Stab movie start?" I turn around to look at him.
"Uhh... with a phone call?" he suddenly gets it. "Oh."
"Yeah," I smile and shake my head.
"Sam? My dad wants to talk to you," Quinn says, handing the phone to Sam.
Sam takes the phone and starts talking to him.
I walk back over to Ethan and sit down next to him, laying my head in his lap. He plays with my hair, and for the first time this night, I actually feel relaxed.
That is until Sam hangs up the phone and blurts out, "They found my ID at the murder scene..." and she and Tara run out the door.
