Atlas

Five

Grace

"WE SHOULD GO PARTY TOMORROW!" Dimia exclaimed.

"We should not." I answered.

"I'm with Grace." Reece said.

We were all at Reece's place. The three of us, Reece's flatmate Freddie, and a girl from my class. Sophie, that seemed to be really into Freddie. 

"But there's this Halloween party. And everyone's going... c'monnnnn!"

"Its going to be crowded." Reece argued.

"Okay fine, you don't go. Grace?" Dimia looked at me with her puppy-dog eyes.

"I dunno."

"Soph?"

"Sure, sounds fun." She replied.

"Same I'm in." Freddie said.

Dimia turned to me. "Grace, you're coming." She said. Then she turned to Reece. "You know, I'm gonna find myself a nice boy tomorrow. One with—"

Reece threw her a look. "Who'll carry you home when you get incredibly drunk and put you to bed?"

"Exactly." She grinned. She took the last slice of pizza from the three boxes we had ordered half an hour ago. Another week had gone by, and things were the same.

Halloween, surprisingly, was on Friday – tomorrow – the perfect day for college students to go wild.

Sophie yawned. "Well, I'll see you guys tomorrow."

I looked at the time. It was 10 pm. I guessed I better head home too.

"Dimia you coming?" I said as I got up. Reece looked at Dimia and smirked, and I knew it was a no.

I chuckled as I gave them both a hug. "Bye guys."

As soon as I reached my apartment, I kicked off my shoes and fell onto my bed.

The town, I realized, was pretty boring. It was the people that made all the difference. If I didn't have Reece and Dimia here with me, I would go crazy.

The next morning, I overslept.

When I woke up, Dimia had called me twice and my mom had called just a few short of a dozen.

"GRACE ADELINE MILLER!" she screamed.

"Mom." I groaned, rubbing my eyes. "What's up?"

"It's 3 o'clock is what's up!" she scolded. "Why are you still in bed?"

"Cuz it's a weekend?"

"Honey if you don't get up right now, I swear I will catch the next flight and personally be your alarm clock for the next three months."

"Mom quit overexaggerating." I yawned. "I'm up, I'm up."

"Good." Her voice grew quieter. "How's Reece?"

"Reece?" I frowned. "He's fine. Why?"

"Just asking." She said. "After the whole Caspar thing..."

"Wait, what Caspar thing?"

"Oh." Her voice grew even quieter. "He didn't tell you?"

"No?"

She sighed. "Let him tell you, then. Caspar just has a knack of getting into trouble. His parents are really mad now."

"Ah." This was nothing new. The whole reason Caspar was in boarding school is because of his bad habits. Sometimes I wondered how Reece and his brother could be so different.