Friends and Foes

Skylar- 2

I woke up later than I had planned, it was almost 1 in the afternoon, I put my glasses on and stretched as I sat up. I looked over to find Nico standing on the corner of the bed staring at the open bedroom door, he jumped at the sound of my phone indicating a new message. I picked it up and unlocked it only to see that I had messages from Gaege, Ethan, and Zach. I opened the most recent one which was from Ethan, it read, 'We r going to the Cobbe Estate Forest also known as the Enchanted Forest. If u would like to go Coen said we could pick u up!' I smiled then replied:

'Sounds like fun! What time?'

Not even a minute after the message went through Ethan replied:

'9pm'

'See u then:)'

'Great! I'll let Coen know XD'

I slid out of Ethan's contact and tapped on Zach's name, his message read, 'Girl u better be up I'll be over in like 15!' I slid the message to the left looking at the time stamp then towards the top of my screen for the time.

"Shit," I stated out loud, but as soon as my feet hit the floor there was a loud knock at the door. "Shit," I whined as I looked down at my pajamas that showed off a bit too much for other people to see. I threw on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie and started towards the front door. Another knock.

I opened the door, Zach loomed over me with a wide smile. He flipped his head attempting to shake his jet-black hair out of his forest green eyes.

"I didn't wake you, did I?" he asked, looking at me up and down with a laugh.

"I've been up for like 10 minutes, but I did just get out of bed," I replied trying not to sound too groggy as Zach cocked an eyebrow. "Yes, okay, I overslept." I threw my hands up letting them fall back to my side with a smack. I moved slightly letting Zach cross the threshold into my apartment and closing the door behind him.

He shrugged slightly, "I'm not judging, it's just not like you. I mean it's 1:20 in the afternoon Sky."

Though he declared he wasn't judging I still couldn't wash the feeling that he was, and I still felt the need to defend myself while acting like I was joking.

"Ugh, I know," I started, "I didn't mean to sleep in, my alarm didn't go off and I went to Tempest last night—" I saw him roll his eyes slightly from his side profile but continued. "—and I guess I was more tired than I thought."

"Well, that still gives you three hours to get ready." His smile returned.

"Ready? For what?"

"Dinner."

"Dinner?"

"Did I stutter?" he chuckled.

"No, I'm just confused."

"Well, you didn't get to go to Dylan's with us last night, so I thought I'd take you out tonight."

"I thought you guys went to game night with Dylan's parents," I tilted my head.

"Yeah, that's what I meant. We ate there too." Zach glanced at the floor momentarily and then looked back at me still smiling. "Regardless, I'm taking you to dinner tonight, we will have fun, I promise."

I sighed, "I don't know Zach, I already told Ethan that I'd hang out with them tonight and help them film."

"What time?"

"Nine."

"And we will be back by then!" his smile grew with confidence.

I rolled my eye's knowing Zach wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer, "alright, fine. Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

Something felt off. My day started late, and it now felt like Zach and Jessi's stories didn't line up. I had an awful feeling in my gut about the day but decided to ignore it as I started for the bathroom leaving Zach alone in the living room.