“Overflowing? Really?”

“Is it that chemistry thing you mentioned?”

“I hate chemistry,” Cooper said.

Abby laughed. “The other kind of chemistry.”

“Oh, I take back my statement, then.” Cooper squeezed Abby’s hand, and she made the slightest movement toward him, their shoulders brushing.

Speaking of chemistry, they’d had more in the last ten minutes than I’d had with Grant in two weeks.

“Is there someone else you’d rather be kissing? Is that the problem?” Abby asked.

“What? No!” I knew my mistake the second I’d spoken it. I’d been too quick and adamant in my response. I should’ve just rolled my eyes or waved it off. After all, there wasn’t someone I’d rather be kissing, but I’d just made it seem like that wasn’t the case.

“Spill,” Abby said.

“There’s nothing to tell. I live, eat, and breathe my script and zombies. Who would I kiss?”

“For an actress, you aren’t a very good liar,” Cooper said.

“I take offense to that statement.”

“You want to be a good liar?” Abby asked.

“Absolutely. But I wasn’t lying, so that means I wasn’t acting, so your statement was false anyway.” I waved my hand. “Enough about me. Tell me everything about you.”

“Everything?” Abby said. “That would take forever.”

“At least tell her about the float at homecoming.”

Abby laughed, and Cooper followed suit. “It’s a long story,” she said after a minute.

“I like long stories,” I said.

“Abby jumped on the float and lip-synched.”

“You what?” I said, surprised.

“That was a very condensed version of the real story, but basically the girl who was supposed to lip-synch vomited in the end field and—”

“That’s a condensed version too,” Cooper interrupted with a laugh.

“True, but it was an important detail.” They went back and forth sharing other details that made zero sense. Details that I wished I could’ve seen, been part of. It sounded like my kind of night.

Abby finally turned back to me and said, “So I had no other choice but to jump on the float.”

“No other choice,” I said, and I could hear the hollowness in my voice.

Cooper and Abby met eyes and laughed again.

I repacked the clothes I had taken out back into their boxes and pushed them into my closet. Then I got down on all fours and looked under my bed. It was too dark under there to see much, but no glowing pair of eyes shone back at me. I pointed my phone flashlight all around. Nothing. “Mom!”

She came to my open doorway. “Yes?”

“Are you sure you actually still own a cat? Maybe it escaped.”

“I’m sure.” She looked around. “Wait, are you leaving?”

I sat back on my heels. “Yes, I want to be back before it gets dark. I have an early call tomorrow.” Plus, I hoped getting home early would make up for the fact that I hadn’t responded to my dad’s texts. Technically, I didn’t think they’d required a response. The first one had read, Long-distance trips are something we should discuss before they happen in the future. The second had read, I talked to your teacher, she said your last packet wasn’t your best work. Statements did not require answers.

I climbed to my feet, picked up my bag, and gave my mom a hug. “You should come with me, see the set, meet Grant and Amanda and my director. It would be fun.”

She nodded slowly. “It would be fun. But . . .” Her eyes looked around my room as if searching for the invisible cat.

“You can’t,” I finished for her.

“I’ll find the time. Just not this week.”

“Okay. Soon though.”

“Soon.”

I hugged her, then found my siblings in the kitchen. They sat at barstools eating frosting on graham crackers. I squished them each into a hug and assaulted their cheeks with multiple kisses. “Try not to have too much of a life without me.”

I made it all the way to the door before I realized I’d forgotten my charger on my nightstand. I turned to tell my mom as much but she hadn’t followed me to the door like she always used to do when I left the house. I backtracked to where she had joined my siblings at a barstool of her own and was spreading pink frosting onto a cracker.

“Tonight, we should have a movie night in your room,” Sydney said to Mom.

“Absolutely,” Mom responded.

“Can I pick the movie?” Colby asked.

“We’ll do the hat trick,” Mom said, and they both laughed. The hat trick? I had no idea what that was. I swallowed a lump that wanted to form in my throat and quickly retrieved my charger before leaving.

I walked through the door after my four-hour drive, not feeling at all how I’d hoped I would after my visit home. I hadn’t anticipated feeling like such an outsider in my own house. Like life worked perfectly fine, if not better, without me. Dad stood at the counter, and we locked eyes. I was too emotionally drained for a fight tonight.

“Next time I’ll tell you before I go to mom’s,” I said, defeated.

He pulled a plate out of the fridge that was covered in plastic wrap. “You hungry?”

I nodded, and he removed the plastic and put it in the microwave.

I plopped onto a barstool at the counter. “Thanks.”

“I’m not trying to hover, Lacey. I want what’s best for you.”

“Have you ever thought that maybe this is what’s best for me?”

The microwave beeped, and he placed the plate of pasta in front of me. I took a few bites.

He sighed. “I’m worried about you.”

“Why? I’m fine.”

“I’m worried something is going to happen that will shatter your spirit. Call it a gut instinct or a—”

“Overprotective father.”

“Sure, you can call it that. I just want to make sure you have a life to go back to if this experience ends badly for you.”

“This experience? Meaning, starring in a movie?”

“Yes.”

“What’s the worst that can happen, Dad? Bad reviews?” I asked, thinking about Donavan and his viral smackdown on Grant.

“I don’t know.”

“Even if the worst happened, I wouldn’t give this up. I’d try again. I’m tough.”

“I know you are.”

“This is what I’m supposed to be doing.” Now I just had to prove that was true. Maybe when this was all over, when my dad saw the results, he’d finally realize I could do this.

He shook his head, indicating that I was searching in the wrong place for the support I needed. It was never going to come from him.

Dancing Graves

EXT. FOREST BEYOND THE MANSION—NIGHT.

SCARLETT leads a group of zombies to a cave near the mountains, where she is hoping to gather them all and barricade them to keep them and the humans safe while her father works on a cure. She feels like she belongs with the zombies but still understands that she shouldn’t feel that way. She has moments where she is more aware than others and this is one of those moments. BENJAMIN follows her and waits until he can speak with her alone.