"Alright Zac, you're in charge tonight. Isaac and Taylor went to that party and Jessie and Avery are sleeping over at Jen's house. So you've got Mackie and Zoë. You know where all of the emergency numbers are. Call next door if you need anything. Taylor's got his beeper if you need him or Ike..." Diana's voice trailed off.

"Don't worry mom, I'll be fine," Zac assured her.

"You know your father and I are only going to Oklahoma city. We'll be back tomorrow." She kissed his forehead and shut the door.

Zac locked the door and plopped down on the hide-a-bed with a bowl of popcorn and a two litre of pepsi. The cordless rang and he picked it up

"'llo?"

"Zac, it's Aura's mom."

"Oh, hey Mrs. Taylor."

"Zac has Aura come to see you? She was quite upset awhile ago and she went for a walk. She hasn't been back since and that was at four thirty."

Zac glanced at his watch. It read ten thirty. "No, I haven't seen her since yesterday. I'll call you if I hear from her."

"Alright thank you Zac." The dialtone rang in his ear.

"She's been gone for six hours, where could she be?" Zac thought. He shrugged and unpaused the movie.

I couldn't walk anymore. My feet were aching and I could feel my leg muscles throbbing. I had to find somewhere to go. Somewhere that wasn't my house. I walked aimlessly around downtown. A car horn honked and a car pulled over to me.

"Aura what are you doing out here?" Isaac asked.

Taylor opened the door for me. "Hop in," he said.

I looked in the car. The backseat was full of people.

"You can sit on my knee," Taylor said.

I sat down on his lap, shivering.

"You're soaked. Here." Taylor offered me his warmup jacket and I accepted it greatfully. "We'll take you home."

"No, please don't take me home," I begged.

"Ok, where do you want to go then?" Taylor asked.

"I don't know, just not home," I knew that one thing for sure.

Isaac pulled the car into a driveway.

I looked up to find us at the Hanson house. "Great," I thought. "Just the place I wanted to be." I opened the car door and got out. "Thank's guys," I mumbled.

"Yeah, no problem Aura. Make sure you get some warm, dry clothes." Taylor smiled at me, waved and shut the door.

I watched them drive off and turned towards the house, wondering to keep running or to knock at the door.

Zac heard a car pull out of the driveway. He got up and looked out the window. Isaac's car had just pulled out of the driveway and Aura was standing there, looking lost. He rush out of the house to her. "Aura where were you?"

"Oh hey Zac," I mumbled. "I'm gonna go... somewhere."

"No, you're going to come inside. You're soaked. You're going to catch pnuemonia," he stated firmly. I nodded meekly and followed him into the house.

"I'll get you some dry clothes and then we'll call your mom. She's been worried sick about you," Zac explained.

"No. We're not calling my mom. She'll just make me come home, and that's is the one place I don't want to be, next to here," I mumbled.

"Look, I know that things aren't the best between us right now, but if things were like before you would be here pouring your heart out to me. So for a minute, let's just forget about how I screwed everything up and you tell me what's wrong," Zac suggested.

"My dad.. he left," I said.

"What?" Zac asked in surprise. "When?"

"This afternoon."

"Wow, this is..."

I nodded in understanding.

"I'm sorry. You want to talk about it?"

"Not right now. How 'bout that dry clothes?" I asked.

Zac nodded. "Try to be quiet. Zoë and Mackie are asleep." He handed me a pair of sweatpants and a huge sweatshirt.

"Turn around," I said.

Zac turned around and I pulled on the dry clothes. "Ok," I said.

"I have to make you call your mom, but you don't need to tell her you're here. Just block the call." Zac dialed and handed me a phone.

"Hello?" my mother's frantic voice filled the phone.

"Hi mom," I said softly.

"Aura where are you?"

"I'm at a hotel." I lied. "I'll be home tomorrow morning. Bye" I hung up the phone.

"You can crash here tonight," Zac said. "My parents won't call your mom. They're not home."

I nodded and sat down on the hide-a-bed. "What are we watching?"

"Scream 2," Zac said. He looked over at Aura a few minutes later. She was fast asleep, her chest rising and falling rhythmically. He smiled to himself and pushed the hair out of her eyes.

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