The last remaining missing poster of Ingrid Peltman was torn down to pick up dog shit exactly one year to the day after she disappeared. This of course meant it was once again time for Christophe's last party before summer break. And this one was to be the most ludicrous party ever, because it would also be the last. Christophe was graduating and going to Oxford.

Beachwood was empty. There were no seventeen year olds in lux SUV's blaring EDM. No one tanning their midriff on the beach. Everyone was laying low, conserving energy for the night ahead. It would be the party to end all parties.

There was the tiniest whiff of nervous energy too. People had begun to recall what took them a year to forget. The events of last year had lingered in the shadows of the collective consciousness for months. Ingrid, with her shark teeth and blood soaked face pledging in venomous whispers that she would 'kill them all'. On this anniversary, the ugliness began to surface once again.

After it that nightmarish night it was all anyone could talk about. The pleas from the family. The police investigation. The man hunt. The aggressive private investigators. It was eventually agreed that Ingrid had ran away. The theories as to where were endless and never flattering. One rumour was that she was homeless in Venice, California. Another that she was a sex slave under the control of a Russian oligarch. Any way you slice it, she was gone and no one was looking too hard for her. How could she ever show her face in Beachwood again? Even to her own family. She bullied a girl to death.

Life was better for everyone after the evil queen had vanished.

Well, almost everyone.

Sadie Swyft had the shittiest year of her life, which after the past couple of years is really saying something. After Christophe's party all of her best friends ghosted her and she spent the last year of her high school career sitting alone and delivering food for Uber Eats. But now she'd graduated and could put Beachwood and everyone in it behind her. Starting today.

Sadie had planned on skipping the graduation ceremony and Christophe's party. This was going to be a clean break. She just needed to put one last Uber Eats shift in, delivering greasy crap, because in New York City every dollar counts and she didn't have that many of those.

Sadie took in her dingy apartment with her round hazel eyes. Poor light streamed in through a missing blind and put a broken spotlight on a dead rubber plant. She saw the entirely brown and mummified bananas, the fruit flies, the warren of dust bunnies, the not so discrete evidence of prescription abuse.

She slung her duffel bag over her shoulder and inched towards her mom. Sadie's mom, Emma, whose skin used to glow, now had the appearance and texture of a saltine cracker. She lay on the couch, barely watching TV, exactly as she had been for the past two years.

"Ma, this is it."

Sadie's mom scooched into a sit and patted the the seat beside her. This shocked Sadie. She hadn't witness her mom move in months. She hesitated for a moment, but finally found her way across the clutter and sat next to her. The couch radiated a warm body heat that felt gross.

"I filled the fridge and left some Thai that someone sent back." Sadie said.

Her mom gave an incoherent blink and slurred, "Good luck out there, baby. I'll miss you."

Sadie's mom wrapped her papery arms around her daughter, but before Sadie could appreciate the rare moment moment of affection, her mom was already burrowing back into the oblivion of the couch.

Sadie had tried everything to shake her mother out of this catatonic state after her dad was arrested. Pleas, interventions, bribes, and even force, but not even Dr. Frankenstein could've brought her back to life. Both Sadie and her mom knew that if Sadie kept trying, she'd eventually be pulled into that revolting warm incoherence of the couch too. Any lifeguard will tell you that you must never get too close to someone who's drowning. So, not without a great deal of guilt, Sadie was leaving.

"Love you, Ma."

"Kiss you too."

Sadie broke free from the couch and grabbed her duffel, but before she got to the door her mother called out, "Sadie, baby."

"Yeah?"

"Don't marry a hedge fund manager."

And with that last nugget of wisdom, Sadie left.

*

As far as part time jobs went, delivering food wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the smells. The pho, burgers, Italian, boring salmon on rice, and every mystery gunk encased in tin containers left an ever-lasting presence that had bored deep into the marrow of Sadie's black VW Golf. Still, she had gotten used to the solitude and she could listen to her Top 40 playlist, singing as off key as she damn well pleased.

It wasn't what she had imagined for her last year of high school, but her lack of social life meant she had banked a fair bit of coin. It may be just enough to get her across the continent and maybe survive for a month or two in the Big Apple.

After slinging hot slop for a few hours she decided to accept her last order. She stashed a plastic bag loaded with gyros from Athens Grill into her insulated case and followed the app, passing into the gated community of Grand Tide, and pulling up to a mansion.

She inhaled the damp oregano and lamb infused air and said, "I vow to God, Hashem, Vishnu and Dumbledore that this car will never reek of fast food again." She sealed this vow by deleting the Uber Eats App from her phone.

When Sadie rang the bell a familiar face opened the door. Wendy was a bouncy Phish variety hippy girl with dreads.

"Sadie!" Wendy said with an enthusiastic whoop, pushing her dreads from her eyes, "I was wondering if I'd ever get you when I ordered."

"My fame precedes me." Sadie handed her the the take out bag of gyros.

"Gotta carb up for tonight. Absorbs the alcohol."

"Water works better."

Sadie could hear other familiar voices wafting in from the house. As Wendy inspected the bag she asked, "Where have you even been all year? Wait! Are you raging tonight?! Rage with us."

"I don't think so. Heading out to New York actually."

Wendy made a silent excited scream, "Oh my gerd, NYU or Columbia? We have to hang."

"No. Just... going. Figuring it out."

Wendy's cheery demeanour dropped and an awkward fog fell over her green stoned eyes. Then she offered earnestly, "Come on, don't be weird. Party with us. We were lab partners that time in chem and we never chilled. Graduation. Last Christophe party ever. It's the end of an era."

Part of Sadie wanted to accept. She wanted to march right in, rip a bong, and let loose. She wanted to be around people, laughing at the stupidest shit and being weird like she used to before everything went ass-up, but she knew she couldn't.

"Maybe I'll see you in New York." Sadie said as she trotted back to her Golf. Before Wendy closed the door, Sadie called over her shoulder, "And drink water!"

Sadie drove out to the freeway and waited for the light to change. Just a left turn onto the onramp of the I80 and her future unknown. Nothing could stop her now. She cranked Demi Lovato, but it was quickly interrupted when her phone rang. Destiny on cue.