After Midnight - Zoey

“...5, 4, 3, 2, 1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!” Zoey hugged everyone around her, gave her best friend Lyla a celebratory squeeze with a kiss on the cheek and then finished her only flute of champagne. She walked through the living room, ducked just inside the kitchen to toss the plastic flute into the recycle bin, turned out into the hallway and then ran smack into Adam’s chest. He had been looking back over his shoulder and never saw her coming, “I’m so sorry, Zo! Are you OK?” He asked, flustered. She rubbed her nose gently, “Yeah, I’m good. I’ll be all right. Oh, and they’re, uh, looking for you in the living room.”

“Yeah.” Adam said with an air of frustration. “I heard.” He held Zoey by her shoulders and looked carefully at her face, checking for blood or bruising, “No signs of trauma," he reported sheepishly, and then released her shoulders to give her a hug, “Happy New Year, Zo! I think It’s gonna be a great one!” Zoey hugged him back, and then after another quick glance over his shoulder, he hurried towards the living room.

Zoey shook her head and then continued towards the stairs, hoping for a quick escape to the second floor of Adam and Kevin’s condo. When Zoey reached the bottom of the stairs, Dahlia was sitting there, lost in thought, with a tiny smile on her face and a finger pressed gently to her bottom lip. She jumped up, “Happy New Year Sweetie!” she exclaimed and hugged Zoey, “Can you believe it? Graduation year!” “I can’t believe it,” Zoey replied, “I seriously can’t. It’s going to be amazing!” Zoey broke their hug and looked at Dahlia, “Everything OK?”

“Yeah! yeah! Of course! I was just thinking about how everything’s about to change. We’ve all been friends for so long.”

“We’ll still be friends, Silly, just in different places,” Zoey replied, “plus we’ll all stay in touch and visit one another as much as possible.”

“I know. It just won’t be the same...wait, where're you headed?”

“To bed.”

“To bed? Already?” Dahlia pouted. Zoey was usually one of the last to turn in and was always a lot of fun to be around.

“Yeah. Unfortunately. I gotta get ready and leave by six to make it home in time.”

Dahlia hugged her again, saying “I’m gonna miss the shit outta you. After we all graduate and get jobs, someone had better have a place big enough for all of us to visit...”

“...and not have to sleep on the frikkin' floor anymore!” Zoey finished Dahlia’s sentence with a laugh. They had all been friends through college, and some even back through high school, so crashing all over the place at each other’s apartments and condos didn’t always make for comfortable sleeping.

“I’m heading up,” Zoey yawned, “I claimed Kevin’s room as soon as I got here so I’d have someplace comfy to sleep before having to drive all day tomorrow. Night hon,” Zoey said as she reached out her hand.

“Night Zo. Drive safe,” Dahlia said and squeezed Zoey’s hand goodbye. “Hopefully see you for Spring Break.”

Dahlia let go of Zoey’s hand and then turned towards the kitchen with that look on her face again. What the hell was up with her? Zoey thought, spinning around to follow her and ask what the hell was going on, but then she stopped short, whatever it is will have to wait, Zoey thought, turning back towards the stairs. She had a very long day ahead of her.

She felt as if she had just put her head on the pillow when her alarm woke her - she actually looked at the time on her phone and expected to see that she had mistakenly set her alarm for one minute after she had gone to bed. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Zoey shut the alarm off and groaned. Thankfully, she stuck to her plan last night and only had the one flute of champagne to celebrate the New Year as it happened; although she was thankful that she was not hungover, she was still extremely tired. She forced herself to whip off the cozy covers and sit up. As she slowly turned to sit on the edge of the bed, she shivered in the chill of the early morning. She took a very deep breath, released it, reached down to pull on her fuzzy socks and then begrudgingly willed herself to stand. With a wistful glance back at the warm bed, she grabbed her toiletry bag and padded out the door towards the bathroom.

After she brushed her teeth, she took a quick shower, patted herself dry and wrapped herself in the towel. Then Zoey quietly slipped out of the bathroom and ducked back into Kevin's room. She got dressed and hurriedly made his bed, then shoved her sweats and toiletry bag into her overnight bag. After she picked up her shoes, she slung her bag over her shoulder and walked out into the hallway. She then tiptoed past Adam's closed door, crept down the stairs and headed towards the front door.

Zoey was carefully weaving around the couches and chairs where everyone else had landed last night and then realized that she didn't see Dahlia anywhere. She stopped in her tracks and made a very small, very slow and very silent circle in place, peering intently at all of the sleeping faces that surrounded her. No Dahlia. Huh. She didn't mention having to leave early when they spoke last, but maybe something had come up and she had to take off? Zoey shrugged her shoulders and made her way to the front door where she slipped her shoes on and unlocked the door as quietly as she could. Then she opened it, snuck out silently and then very carefully closed the door behind her.

As Zoey shivered in the wintry New England dawn, she wrapped her arms around herself and walked briskly towards towards her car, thinking for the millionth time that she should start looking for a job maybe even just a little south of home. She dug her keys out of her jacket pocket as she walked, pushed the little picture of the car's tailgate on her key fob and then stopped in her tracks. Dahlia's car was still parked behind hers.

Frozen with indecision, she was rooted next to her car. She really, really had to get on the road to home, but she desperately wanted to run back inside and figure out what was going on. Dahlia obviously hadn't had to leave unexpectedly after all, but where the hell was she? After a few seconds, Zoey knew that she couldn't just leave until she knew that Dahlia was OK. She tossed her overnight bag into the back of her car, pushed the button again to close the tailgate and turned around to run back inside. Just as quietly as she had exited, she re-entered the house and slowly wound her way back around the den. No Dahlia. Zoey quietly went back through the living room, studying all of the faces on the bodies strewn about. Still no Dahlia. Completely baffled and frustrated, she wanted to stomp her feet in a temper tantrum right there on the spot. Dahlia, where the fuck are you? And then, a light bulb practically exploded in her brain - Adam acting so weirdly, Dahlia with that dreamy look on her face - no! No frikkin way!

She dashed around the bodies and flew out of the room, silently sprinting past the kitchen (and the spot where Adam had just about run her down) and then sprung up the stairs, remembering the way that Dahlia had been touching her bottom lip. Zoey stopped at the top of the stairs, quickly caught her breath and then laughed quietly to herself as she tiptoed to Adam's door. She slowly turned the knob and peeked into the room - Bingo! Dahlia! She quietly re-closed the door, spun around with a huge smile on her face and dashed back down the stairs. I am going to be so so so late, she thought, but that was totally worth it.

Zoey was still shaking her head and quietly giggling “Oh my God. Oh. My. God.” to herself as she snuck back out of the house for the second time. As she raced to her car, she was still wondering how the hell Dahlia and Adam even ended up together.

After she basically launched herself into her car and got it started, Zoey jacked up the heat and turned the fan up to high (she and Dahlia wholeheartedly agreed that just the sound of the fan and the promise of heat overrode the fact that it was obviously just blowing freezing cold air directly at you). Right before she started to maneuver around Dahlia’s car, Zoey noticed the time and knew that she was going to catch a ton of shit from her sister when she showed up late. “Oh Jesus Christ,” she fumed for the millionth time as she made sure that she also wasn’t going to hit any of the other cars parked all over Adam and Kevin’s property, “Who the fuck gets married on New Year’s Day anyway?”

The whole thing was ridiculous, but completely typical of Jacinda’s lifelong princess persona. Jacinda lived and breathed the idea that the universe revolved around her and that everyone else was only here to do her bidding - even her fiancé.

“I’m not sure why Henry wants to marry her,” Zoey muttered to herself, “He’s only a subplot…maybe even just an accessory,” she mused. In her head, she pictured Jacinda carrying a pink handbag-shaped Henry around, his arms and legs flapping as she walked, and then she broke out in uproarious laughter. Poor Henry.

To offset her frustration with Jacinda’s stupid wedding, Zoey occupied her mind with this morning’s surprise revelation. And the more that she thought about the Adam/Dahlia match, the more it actually made sense to her. I mean, just because Dahlia and Scott dated for almost the entirety of high school didn’t mean that they were lifelong material. They were obviously voted Class Couple, and they were both voted Best Looking, “But honestly?” Zoey said to herself as she navigated towards the highway, “They were never on the same level in anything else.” Dahlia was more mature and future-focused, where Scott was fun and just enjoyed the here-and-now without a care in the world. Zoey remembered them both being upset about their breakup after graduation, of course, but it didn’t make sense to practical Dahlia for them to navigate a long distance relationship when their visions of their futures were so different.

Adam, Zoey was now realizing, was perfect for Dahlia. Well, for anyone, really, but he aligned perfectly with everything that was important to Dahlia. Even more important than that, he was kind and thoughtful. Not to mention completely hot, Zoey thought, remembering the time back in their sophomore year when she had the biggest crush on him. He was even so kind when he confessed to having his own secret crush when Zoey was fishing for info for herself.

The realization hit Zoey like a truck. She screamed aloud while instinctively bringing her hand to her mouth:

“OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!! DAHLIA HAS BEEN HIS RESOLUTION GIRL THIS WHOLE TIME?!?!?”