Just 6 weeks after the last text message from Z and the revelation that Xavier Tulum was murdered, the town of Fairlake was now plunged into national news headlines. It was now the end of Autumn and moving into much colder temperatures for the tiny town.

            The group of now 6, Dominic, Jennifer, Jonah, Max, Noemi, and Willa were gathered once again in the barn behind Noemi’s house, which was next door to the house that Dominic, Willa, and Willa’s mother Felicity lived in. Dominic still had not moved into a new place, as his family’s old house was now on the market, soon to be sold to a new owner.

            Dominic, now was celebrating his 24th birthday with the group, as he was now ready to come into his own and live with Jonah, who he’d repaired his relationship with. He gleefully started to forget the shocking secret his family, as well as Willa and Noemi’s families had kept about Max’s father for now 20 years to the day.

            The weeks prior to this day had been pretty calm without any texts or weird creepy messages from Z. The group had been able to continue, without threat, to discuss who they had thought was Z.

            ‘Happy birthday!’ said Jonah, to his now, blushing boyfriend. Dominic replied, ‘Thanks babe.’ The boyfriends were so happy to have such a positive event in the midst of the chaos of the past few weeks.

            ‘Felicity brought a cake!’ said Jennifer, now ready to have a sugar rush. She was still missing her friend and colleague, Melisa Park, who died weeks before. ‘I can’t wait to dig in, with your permission, Dom,’ she said. ‘No pressure, Jen,’ he replied. The group went ahead with the celebrations, along with new friends Carston Bankert and Veronica Highland, along with Anna Hoboken, who the group was still on rocky terms with due to her actions in the prior weeks. ‘Welcome to your mid-20s, Dom!’ said a very happy Carston, who had befriended Dominic in some of their classes at the university. ‘I don’t feel any different, though,’ said Dominic. Jonah then butted in, saying, ‘Make a wish, babe. Can’t be simpler than that.’ Dominic replied, ‘I wish for no crazy text stalkers.’ Noemi said, ‘I can agree with that!’ Willa then gathered everyone around the table for a selfie with Dominic in the center of the photo.

            This semester was the last one before Dominic and Jonah graduate, while Willa was just starting her sophomore year. Carston was in his junior year. Noemi, like Jennifer, Max, and Veronica, graduated years earlier instead of going for a break in-between high school and university.

            Veronica, was one of the new people in town, and had befriended Jennifer at the coffee shop, which now had a permanent memorial inside to both Em Wyckstrom, whose disappearance started all the texts from Z, and Melisa. Willa and Jennifer had also, despite their 10-year age gap, started a relationship; agreeing that age was just a number. ‘I’m so happy for him after everything we’ve been through,’ said Willa, who was now holding hands with Jennifer. ‘I know, but now that we’ve got the shitshow behind us, there’s no stopping us,’ replied Jennifer. Veronica was staring daggers at Jennifer for deciding to date someone 10 years her junior instead of someone closer in age like her.

            The group finished their celebrations and prepared to break up the party, however, Dominic’s aunt and uncle surprised them all and showed up last minute. ‘Aunt Sally, Uncle George! You’re here!’ exclaimed Dominic, who was genuinely surprised at their appearance. ‘We couldn’t miss this for the world, especially after what you’ve gone through,’ said George. ‘And we realized that we need to regain our relationship with you, so we decided to move home,’ said Sally. ‘You did?’ asked Dominic, to which Sally replied, ‘Yes, we did. In fact, we decided that we couldn’t have you lose the house. We put an offer in this morning.’ ‘That’s fantastic!’ replied Jonah; now wanting to converse with his boyfriend’s family members. Dominic, feeling uneasy, excused himself from the room, with Willa following him inside Noemi’s house.

            ‘You don’t want them here. I can tell in your body language,’ said Willa. ‘It’s not that I don’t want them here, it’s just that I don’t want to live with them. I’ve never had the best relationship with them, but if they want to actually reach out and be good parental-type figures in my life, now’s the time,’ replied Dominic. Willa shrugged, then hugged him. They went back out to the barn to rejoing the party.

            As the duo went back to the barn, Willa’s phone buzzed with a notifcation. She opened up her phone to see a notification about people liking the group selfie. Anything that wasn’t a text from Z was good thing in her book. The texts from Z were very detrimental to Willa’s mental health, and she had begun going to therapy ever since Melisa’s funeral. The group was extremely supportive in her decision, especially Jennifer, who had also been going to therapy around the same time. Jennifer was still traumatized from seeing her best friend slowly dying in front of her on the way to work that fateful day.

            Noemi had been relatively fine with having to take care of her younger brother, who had just turned 18 a week before. The two of them lived in their house, with Carston becoming their new housemate. The three of them had been very peaceful in the short time they had been living together.

            Carston and Veronica left to go to bed, while the others stayed up a while longer. Felicity had only come out to bring out the cake for the celebration. Max was very happy to have a new blended family made up of people that truly cared for him, especially since he left home at 16. The group was feeling very vibrant and happy on Dominic’s special day.

            As soon as they were inside, Carston and Veronica went up to Carston’s bedroom in the Falton household, and immediately started getting unclothed and in a very steamy mood. The duo were grinding against each other and kissing each other in a very sensual way, with Carston’s green eyes glistening in the moonlight streaming through the windows; Veronica on the other hand was having thoughts of Jennifer. After a while, the duo were found asleep naked by Noemi’s brother, who was now feeling a very surprising mood.

            Noemi and Max were very platonic in their feelings towards each other, only giving each other friendly cheek kisses seen abroad in Europe. The two of them went inside to clean the dishes and soon began talking about Carston. ‘Are you sure about him living here? I worry that he’s a bad influence to your brother,’ said Max. Noemi replied, ‘In the month that he’s been living with us, nothing bad has happened. He’s been pretty civil. Not to mention, my brother actually likes the dude.’ The duo continued to do the dishes until 10:00 that night, when Noemi went to bed and Max went home.

            As the day came to an end, Dominic and Willa, back in her bedroom began discussing Z. ‘I still wanna know who it is,’ said Dominic. He added, ‘That giggle makes Anna seem too suspicious.’ Willa replied, ‘I get that, but again, someone else might be Z or potentially working with them.’ Dominic then asked, ‘Could Carston be Z? As much fun as he is to be around, I get creepy vibes from him.’ Willa told him, ‘At this rate, anyone is a suspect. It’s like in some of those horror movies too, anybody could the person doing everything.’

            In the streetlights outside the house was a hoodied figure whistling a tune and putting on gloves as to start the games back up. Suddenly, a second person walking out of the darkness was seen by the anonymous figure. The new stranger asked them, ‘Ready to start it back up?’ The hooded figure nodded, and was running off into the darkness. The new stranger looked at the Falton and Kerby-Raskin houses and started chuckling. Out of the darkness, glistened both of their green eyes underneath the streetlights. They then walked away to help begin the game once again.

            The following morning, Carston, Dominic, and Willa walked to campus from their houses, meeting up with Jonah in the process. As they were walking, Willa asked Carston a question. She asked him, ‘Were you outside last night? I couldn’t sleep and kept looking out my window.’ He replied to her saying, ‘I was, but it was only for a couple minutes to clear my head. Living with Noemi and her brother can get hectic at times.’ Dominic cringed at the comment. ‘You’ve been living with them for a month. Aren’t you used to it by now?’ asked Dominic. Carston replied to him saying, ‘I’m used to it, and Noemi is fine with me doing laps around the block late at night. Remember, I play soccer, so I have to stay fit.’ Jonah rolled his eyes as they walked onto campus.

            Dominic, Jonah, and Willa walked to one building on campus, while Carston walked to another. They three walking to the dining hall stopped outside to take a breather before grabbing some breakfast. Jonah opened his backpack to find a random nude photo of himself, along with a note on the back. He grabbed the photo and read the note, with Dominic and Willa looking over his shoulders to read it too. The note in question read,

Jonah, gotta love the extra credit! Keep it up, the bonus points are too much to keep IT up.

Love from Z.

            The trio immediately texted Jennifer, Max, and Noemi about the note and photo. Dominic asked his boyfriend, ‘You’ve only shared that photo with me. How did it end up in your backpack?!’ Jonah replied, ‘I have no idea. Not to mention, I keep my dick pics locked private on my phone.’ Willa said, ‘TMI, boys. TMI.’ ‘Sorry, Wilzy, but this is an invasion of my privacy if someone printed this out and slipped it into my backpack,’ said Jonah.

            Noemi texted Willa back, ‘How’d it get in his bag?’ Willa texted back, ‘He doesn’t know how it did. None of us do.’ The questions kept coming for Jonah as the photo was coming back to haunt him. Dominic kept thinking, ‘Could Carston have put it in while we were walking?’ But he kept the thought to himself for the time being.

            Jonah, now embarrassed, put the photo back into his bag and the trio walked into the dining hall, and began talking while in line for food. Jonah said, ‘I don’t know how it got into my bag. Again, all my pictures are private for a reason.’ Willa asked, ‘Could someone have put it in your bag while they were staying at your place?’ Jonah replied, ‘It’s possible, but then again, I’m pretty anal about people aside from friends and family being in my apartment.’ ‘Babe, I was thinking that maybe Carston could’ve put it in your bag while we were walking over,’ said Dominic. ‘Again, it’s possible, but we would’ve heard my bag opening and closing if he did,’ replied Jonah.

            The group of three continued to discuss the photo quietly in the midst of eating breakfast with classmates all around them. At least an eighth of the university’s student body used this particular dining hall, and if someone overheard this conversation, then the news about Jonah’s private nude photo would be known all over campus.

            On the other side of town, Jennifer and Noemi began to discuss how Z could have obtained the photo. ‘He’s so uptight about any private photos, so how could this have happened?’ asked Noemi. Jennifer replied, Noemi, it’s beyond me; but could there have been some secret hacking of his phone? That or Jonah shared it on some of those dating apps before he and Dom started dating.’

            ‘It’s possible, but highly unlikely,’ said Noemi. The duo continued conversing about the photo as well during Jennifer’s shift at the coffee shop. ‘I wonder what Mel would have to say about this,’ Jennifer asked. ‘She’d probably say to go to the police and report it as revenge porn,’ Noemi replied.

            As the hours passed, the conversation about the photo continued, but later transitioned to talking about the possibility of Z having an accomplice. ‘There’s too much going on to think that Z is doing this entirely on their own. They have to have had someone working with them,’ said Noemi. Jennifer then said, ‘It’s highly likely at this point, given how much Z knows about our secrets. Besides, Jonah’s secret and the group secret are already out now. What’s left to hide?’ Noemi replied to Jennifer, ‘I hope you’re not keeping secrets from Willa. After this past month, she’d kill you if you did.’

            Jennifer then said, ‘You’re right. And luckily, I haven’t been keeping any big ones from her.’ The duo continued to talk until Jennifer’s shift at work was over. The two left and then met Dominic, Jonah, and Willa at dinner at one of the restaurants in town. The group continued to talk about why Z targeted Jonah specifically this time around.

            As the group conversed, the thought of Z’s potential accomplice came back to Jennifer and Noemi, who then shared their questions to the group. Jonah then said, ‘It’s entirely possible, but anything can happen. Too much wacky shit has happened in this town in just one month.’

            The group finished their dinner after an hour, and were ready to pay. Their waitress came over to the table and told them, ‘it’s on the house tonight. You five have been through too much over the past month to think clearly. We want to help you all out. Have a good night!’ The group was relieved to know that they didn’t have to pay anything, but Jonah still left a $10 tip for the service they reveived.

            The group then left the restaurant and went back to the barn to hang out with Max for the rest of the night. Upon arrival, Max was waiting on the loveseat playing video games. Veronica was also there, waiting to spring a move Jennifer, despite knowing that the latter was already in a relationship with Willa.

            As the group sat down on the sofas, Willa began to play Alanis Morisette’s “Head Over Feet” off her phone, using her earbuds so only her and Jennifer could hear the song. The two began to lip-sync along with the song as they listened to it. Veronica once again stared daggers towards Willa for being in a relationship with someone 10 years older.

            Still, the group was very reluctant to speak with Veronica, as she was still fairly new to town after moving to Fairlake two weeks earlier. Noemi went over to Veronica and asked her a question, ‘Why do you keep glaring at Willa? She’s not doing anything wrong.’ Veronica replied, ‘It’s just that I keep crushing on Jen, and seeing their age gap just rubs me the wrong way. I can’t help it.’ Noemi then said, ‘If you have an issue with it, just bring it up to them privately. But, look at how happy they are together. They clearly love each other.’ Veronica said, ‘You’re right, but it still feels wrong with the 10-year gap between them.’ ‘Age is just a number, padawan. We’ll get over it eventually,’ replied Noemi.

            Outside the barn, a hoodied figure with green eyes was watching through the windows. Once they got over to the streetlights on the street corner, a face came fully into view for the other hooded stranger. It was Carston, ready to help plot Z’s next move. The mystery figure and Carston both nodded to each other, and giggled their way back into the darkness.