A group chat and a few times changes later I had my whole itinerary planned. At four Willow, Marissa, Ella, Jess, and Erinn would show up. Pool and pizza people, better known as Jayla, and Sky would show up closer to five with the pizza.

My mother had said that they couldn't stay later than ten, making the perfect time for me to show the tape nine. My mother has also agreed to stay in her room unless she heard screaming or death. I wasn't quite sure how she would hear death, but the arrangement sounded good to me.

I had hyped up the tape a little. Well, maybe a lot more than a little.

"The best thing you guys have ever seen?" I muttered to myself in dismay.

I wasn't an anxious person at all, but this did play on my nerves a bit. I was confident that my parents were playing a joke on me, but what if they weren't?

The doorbell pulled me out of my thoughts sending me rushing down the rug-covered staircase. Glazing at the clock on the oven I could see the person was close to twenty minutes early. This automatically told me that it was Willow that was here. That girl had a habit of being early.

"Hey Wills," I greet opening the door.

She flashed her pearly whites at me and strutted into my house. Before she even said a word back to me she grabbed the Goldfish from my pantry and sat herself down at the counter.

"Okay, now you can talk to me."

I laughed and tried to grab a few crackers only to have my hand viscously swatted away.

"Get your own," Willow said, with a mouth full of food.

"Those are mine," I retorted, forcefully taking the bag away and pouring myself a small pile.

"Give 'em back," she whined. "If I scream you know whose side your mother will take."

Her wide grin made me roll my eyes.

"Not fair. She likes you more."

"Yeah, and my mother likes you better than me. It's because they don't live with us."

I nodded, popping a few crackers in my mouth.

Willow's brown eyes suddenly widened catching my attention. That was a well-known sign that she had gossip.

"¡Oh Dios mío!"

"Oh your God, what?"

Hanging out with Willow at her house had forced me to learn enough Spainsh to roughly communicate. 'Oh Dios mío' was a very popular pharse in her household.

"Did you see that tall, blond, angle-of-a-new-kid today?"

"Archer," I asked. "I didn't know he was your type.

Willow rolled her eyes, "Well, obviously I prefer a certain red-headed cutie, but I swing both ways remember?"

"Of course I remember."

Willow had dated both genders, but I knew she preferred women to men. I could still remember when she came out to me. She was so worried that I wouldn't accept her, but honestly, I couldn't have been more proud of her.

"So," Willow drawled. "Did you invite her?"

"Have I ever left you hanging?"

A grin reappeared on her face, "I'm so glad I have a friend like you. Now I can see my freckled beauty in a bathing suit."

I shook my head, "What were you going to say about Archer?"

Willow shoved some more Goldfish in her mouth, "What?"

I sighed dramatically and flung myself onto the sofa. Willow was a smart girl, but she lacked in common sense which did get irritating.

"You were going to tell me something about Archer but then you got distracted."

Her eyes widened and she tried to swallow quickly to speak. This immediately forced her into a coughing fit.

"Are you good?"

"Yes. Water." Willow said in between hacks.

I laughed at Willow's expression while getting her a glass of water. Serves her right for eating all of my Goldfish.

After recovering from her coughing fit Willow's eyes widened indicating her desire to spill the gossip she earlier acquired.

"Come on! Just tell me."

"Okay, so, I was talking to him in some class and I found out he moved into the house next to you. Isn't that great? You were hoping for a cute new neighbor."

I shrugged, "Yeah, but he doesn't seem to like me much."

Willow rolled her eyes, "Has that ever stopped you before."

I knew the answer she was hoping for would be that it hadn't but in some way it had. I had dated a couple of boys before, but nobody I had ever really liked. Carson proved the point on that. I never had the guts to even speak to him outside of asking for the homework.

"No, it hasn't," I answered smugly. "Expect us to be dating before the end of the month."

"That's my girl," Willow giggled.

She glanced at the clock, "The other girls should be showing up soon. What are we doing first again?"

I shook my head, "I think we were going to use Ella's face masks, but I'm honestly not sure. Those girls love to spam the group chat."

"Tell me about it," Willow groaned.

I laughed and looked at the clock. We did have about five minutes before the girls showed up. I still needed to feed Reggie.

"Hey, I gotta feed Reggie. I'll be back in a minute."

Willow nodded and got up to put the crackers back into the pantry. I grabbed Reggie's food and walked over to his cage. I remind myself to take him out tomorrow. He needed some outside time.

"Hey buddy," I cooed.

I gave him his food and securely shut his cage before returning the food to its spot.

"Ummm, Harp?"

I raised my eyebrows, "What is it?"

"Nothing. I just... I found this creepy... thing on your coffee table."

I knew immediately it was the tape. A chill ran up my spine thinking about it and I wasn't sure why. I had seen and touched it so many times before, so why did hearing a description all of the sudden bring up a weird feeling?

I giggle, "That's the tape I was talking about."

Her eyes widened, "Oh, the one you said was 'the scariest thing ever'."

I winced, "That's the one."

The door flew open unexpectedly, showing a flood of girls starting with Ella.

"You have the masks?" I questioned.

She rolled her eyes and lifted a clear bag full of beauty equipment.

I gave her a fake smile and let her and the rest of the girls in. Everybody immediately started chatting and to my disappointment, the topic of conversation was Julie and Carson.

"Perfect," I whispered under my breath.

"What was that?" Ella questioned.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just so happy that Julie found a guy that would date her."

There was no missing the venom in my voice, just as I intended. I was not in the mood to hear about how cute they were together. They were nauseating at best.

"Oh, come on. You can't tell me Julie's shirt wasn't cute today? I wasn't thinking of getting one just like it," Marissa said.

I raised an eyebrow at Marissa, "Don't bother. It made Julie look disgusting so just imagine how you would look."

Marissa slumped back in her chair and everybody was noticeably silent. At least they weren't talking about the dream team couple.

"Harp," Willow started. "You're kind of being mean."

I narrowed my eyes at her. So Julie could steal my man but when I got mad I was the mean one? I took a deep breath. Playing nice here would be the difference between gaining sympathy and losing friends.

"I'm sorry guys, but I just can't believe Julie would do this to me."

To add effect before I continued, I thought of things to make me cry. Reggie dying, when my grandmother died, my parents getting divorced. Soon enough the tears were flowing.

I sniffled, "She knew I liked Carson! And...and I was going to ask him out today. I can't believe she would do that to me."

I began to sob to add effect and soon all the girls were like putty in my hands.

"I'm so sorry Harper! We didn't know," said Marissa.

"I can't believe she would break The Girl Code like that," Jess screeched.

"I know guys," I sniffled. "She even said I was too ugly to go out with Carson."

"Oh my goodness," Erinn gasped.

Was I lying? I didn't think so. Just stretching the truth for sympathy. If that made me go to Hell, then so be it; I'd be the queen of mean.

In between my show of acting I didn't even realize the other people had shown up. The girls quickly filled Sky and Jayla in on the drama.

"I can't believe she did that. See? This is why I don't associate with gender," Sky said.

Sky discovered they were non-binary just last year. It was a bit challenging to remember their pronouns at first but now it was just nature. The best part was they couldn't be happier with the change. They had since cut their hair short and dyed it black, contrasting with their pale skin. Their style was also impeccable, making me just a bit jealous.

"I finally understand," Jess drawled out, making us all laugh.

I needed to bring a close to my little show now or else it would look like I was searching for attention, which I guess I was, but still.

"I am so sorry for being a bit crabby, but I'm sure you all understand now. So can we please stay off the topic of Julie and Carson?"

"Oh my goodness, of course," Jayla said. "Why don't we have some pizza and do our nails or something?"

"Sounds perfect," I said grinning.

Everything was falling into place. Now all that was left was to suffer through this nonsense and show everybody the tape. First, I had taken down Julie and now I would bust my parents. Tonight really couldn't get much better. As Jess painted my nails bright red, I sat back and smiled as wide as my mouth would allow.

*******************************************

After what seemed like days of listening to who liked who and who had broken up, it was almost time to show everybody the tape.

Inconveniently, I had to move the time up to eight-thirty because Erinn had to leave at nine. Her devil-of-a-sister, Marren, needed the car.

I quickly slipped away and grabbed the tape off of the coffee table. I couldn't miss the shiver I got when I touched it, nor the sudden urge to watch it. Luckily, I would be fulfilling that urge very soon.

I turned on the player and got the sofa prepared for our viewing party. Taking a deep breath I glanced at our baby- blue front door my father and I had painted together.

"Time to bust you, father."

I turned to a picture of my radiant mother on her wedding day.

"And you."

I walked into the kitchen and held up the tape high, "Are you ready?"

"Yes!" Jayla yelled. "I have been waiting all day for this."

Erinn shivered, "I guess so."

"You can squeeze my hand if you're scared," Willow offered.

I chuckled at her admiring eyes and motions to everybody to follow me. I walked slowly into the living room and over to the television. I hear the squeaking of the sofa as I carefully slide the tape in the slot.

"Here we go," I announced. "Watch, I don't even have to rewind it. You usually do with VHS tapes."

"What a chore," Jess said.

I pressed play and I immediately saw a little boy with light blond hair. He was walking over to a crib with a small light-hair little girl. The baby was screaming at the top of her lungs and the boy seemed annoyed.

"Um, Harper? Why are you showing us this?"

"This isn't scary, it's just annoying."

"It's just static."

The last sentence got my attention. How could they possibly see just static?

"What do you mean," I asked. "A baby is crying and there is a little boy."

"No there isn't Harp," Willow laughed. "Stop trying to trick us."

"But..." I trailed off.

My eyes were drawn back to the screen as the boy inched closer to the baby. He had his hands covering his ears and an expression I couldn't read on his face.

"Fine, Harper. We're leaving."

"Weirdo," I heard somebody mutter.

But no matter how hard I tried, I could pull my eyes away from the screen. I knew the girls were gone when I heard shuffling and the door opening and closing, but to me, the tape was more important.

"Stop crying, Jenna," The boy said. "Why don't you ever stop crying?"

My heart started beating faster, what was the boy going to do?

The camera angle changed to over the crib just as the boy's chubby fingers were about to wrap around the small child's wrists.

"I'll make you stop," he whispered.

The front door flew open forcing me to tear my eyes away from the screen.

"I'm home..."

My eyes widened as Archer stood staring at the television. His jaw clenched and he flew across the room and turned it off.

"How did you get that?" he demanded.

"What are you talking about? Why are you in my house?" I questioned back.

He didn't answer and immediately ejected the tape. He read the name on it and turned back to me.

"Where did you get this?"

"I found it in the attic," I answered. "You can see it?"

"Yeah," he scoffed.

"Well nobody else can," I muttered.

His eyes narrowed, "What?"

"Didn't you see the parade of people coming out of my house? Well, none of them could see it so they left. Now I'm considered a weirdo and apparently I'm hallucinating."

Archer shook his head, "What did they see?"

"Static."

Archer moved over and put the tape back in the player.

"What are you doing?" I groaned.

"Seeing if we're crazy."

I waited in anticipation as he pressed play. As soon as he did somebody texting popped up on the screen.

"You should stop, H. She said she's crying."

I listened as a very familiar voice spoke, "No way. I'm going to say she should just kill herself because she is ugly and annoying."

The girl giggled and typed a message that was familiar to my eyes. I watched it in horror as the text was sent. Tears streamed down my face and I stumbled over to the television and hit the off switch.

"What was that," Archer asked, confused. "Why are you crying?"

My chest clenched as I sobbed. There was no way I could explain this to him. There was no way I could explain what happened that day to anybody.

"Get out of my house," I choked out.

"But Harper..."

"Out!" I screamed.

Archer watched me with an unreadable expression before turning and walking out. Only once he left did I realize something I had no way of proving.

Archer was the little boy in the video.

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Hey peeps! What's up?

Don't be afraid to tell me what you think of this chapter. It gave me the chills while writing it , lol.