Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,156

my foot on the gas. Raz curses and jumps out of the way as I reverse away from the Aston Martin and then put Little Bee in drive, heading straight for home.

Once I get there, I make sure to clean the blood off and dry my tears, and then I make my excuses to my moms and lock myself in my room.

A quick search on my phone gives me a whole list of books, movies, and video games with a time loop plot.

Hey, can you find Pearl today and tell her that she can keep the dress; I want her to have it. Also, maybe just keep an eye on her tonight at the party? She's been really down and depressed lately. I've got a thing to deal with, but I'll see you tomorrow. I shoot the text off to Luke and then settle into bed. I turn on the TV that's mounted to the wall next to my closet doors and search for Groundhog Day, the first movie on my list.

And then I hit play.

Even though I know I can't carry items over to the next day, I start making a list of all the things that happen to the main character in the film as he lives the very nightmare that is now my life. One day, on repeat. Only, it looks like Bill Murray—who plays the lead in the film—is stuck in the snowy small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for years. Years’ worth of days pass, and he even manages to master the piano.

My throat gets dry as I wonder if I have the mental fortitude to survive that long. I've been at this a month. One month. A whole year might just destroy me. Every day, I'll wake up a drooling mess, Calix will yank me out of the car, and the boys will dial me into the looney bin. I'll doom the whole town—maybe the world—to living on a script, day after day after day.

The movie ends and I pick up my phone, finding a couple texts from Luke and April.

Are you okay? Calix, Barron, and Raz are being weird as hell today. They even came up to me and asked if I knew what was going on with you. Also, they pretty much destroyed Erina this morning out front of the school. What's that about?

I ignore Luke’s text, pausing as Mama Jane knocks on the door and then gently cracks it open.

“Can I get you some tea?” she asks, and I nod. I'm in for a long day and night, as long as I can manage to stay awake.

“Maybe some coffee?” I ask, making a prayer position with my hands. “I'd love you forever.”

“I hope you'll love me forever regardless,” she says with a smile, “but yes, I'd be happy to make you some coffee.” She steps out and the words I want to say die on my lips. I love you, I always have, I always will, and I'm sorry I've never told you how much I appreciate you and Mama Cathy.

I turn on my next movie of the day, Happy Death Day, pausing only when my mom comes back, giving me a kiss on the forehead, and a steaming hot cup of coffee with cream. She quietly lets herself out, giving my notebook a raised brow before she closes my door behind her.

“At least this isn't my fate,” I murmur, scribbling down some notes as the main character in this particular movie gets murdered over and over and over again. Ugh. I sip my coffee with one hand and rub the bridge of my nose with the other. In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray stops the time loop by helping everyone in town who could use a hand. The thing is, I'm not trapped in such a small area, the way he is. It'd take me a week to help everyone in the Diamond Point Mobile Home Park, let alone Crescent Prep or the town of Devil Springs. In Happy Death Day, on the other hand, the main character has to change and become a better person, at one point committing suicide to save someone she loves. At the end, she has to discover her murderer's identity to break the loop.

I finish that movie and switch to a play-through of a video game instead, searching for meaning in fiction. There's always some truth in fiction anyway, lessons to be learned. The game I decide on is The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, an