Home Sweet Home

The silver sedan pulled up to the curb cross the street from Mark’s house, that being Nadia’s boyfriend’s Mitch Buchanan’s house.

Nadia barely let the car come to a full stop before she put it in park. “Alright, lovebirds, this is as far as I go,” she muttered, grabbing her bag. “You can walk the rest of the way.”

Katie smiled sweetly. “Will do.”

With a roll of her eyes, Nadia open her door and quickly disappeared into the Buchanan house. As soon as she was gone, Mark looked toward the trunk.

“Let’s move them. Time Stop.”

All around them time froze, Katie as well. Mark decides to do her a favor and takes her body out of the vehicle, standing her next to the trunk.

Katie doesnt protest as he picks her up out of her seat, and straightened her legs so she could actually stand up. His best freind wobbled in place on her heels as he carries her by the waist to the trunk.

He looks his frozen freond up and down, and admires her body. Though she is drressed in winter clothing, even then Katie still looked amazing. His hands reached towards her breats, but he stopped. It would be a betrayl of trust to do that to her, unlike with the three in the trunk. Then again, the way her dark brown almost raven hair shined, and the way her brown eyes looked...

Mark shakes his head and takes a deep breath so as to calm his nerves. “Katie start.”

Katie staggered in place. “Woah, I really need to get used to this." Katie blinked a couple of times. "Did you?”

“No, no,” Mark said defensively, raising his hands in the process.

“Hmmm, shame,” Katie said with a sly smile, quickly moving to open the trunk before Mark could.say anything more.

The warm afternoon light spilled over the trio of frozen girls packed tightly inside. Their bodies were slightly jostled from the drive, Phoebe’s head rested against Gabriella’s shoulder, and Dawn’s hand had slipped down to rest awkwardly on Gabriella's leg.

Katie raised an eyebrow. “You’d think we were hauling mannequins.”

Mark smirked. “Close enough.”

Together, they started the slow task of getting the girls inside Mark’s house. One by one, they carried them up the steps, careful not to let limbs bump into walls or drag along the floor.

Phoebe came first—light and compact. Mark carried her up like a rolled-up sleeping bag over his shoulder and stood her up in the middle of the room, steadying her to make sure the blonde didn't fall over.

Next was Gabriella. It took Katie and Mark working together to bring her in like one would a couch. Her light brown hair with straight-cut bangs draped across her face, still frozen in that bored, distant expression, even as she was placed next to Phoebe.

Dawn was last. Her arms were still half-curled in front of her chest, her face frozen mid-smirk, the picture of someone who thought they were untouchable. She too required both Mark and Katie to carry her to his room. Mark hoped that as he lifted more frozen women, he could start doing this on his own. Dawn soon was in her place of the lineup, standing next to Gabriella.

Once all three were in place, Mark closed the door and pulled the blinds shut. "Time Start."

Suddenly the sounds that normally faded into the background could be heard again. Hot water moving through pupes, birds chriping outside. Yet Phoebe, Gabriella, and Dawn remained standing in Mark's room, completly still.

Katie sat on the edge of the bed and looked over the frozen trio. “They still don’t even look real,” she murmured, before getting up and brushing a finger along Phoebe’s cheek. She then reached in and removed the blonde's glassess from her eyes, setting them down on Mark's desk.

Mark nodded, standing in front of Gabriella. “It’s like hitting pause on a movie. All that stress, that pressure—just gone.”

Gabriella’s posture remained slightly slumped forward from how she’d been sitting in the library. Her white shirt was slightly wrinkled beneath her green sweater, and her fingers still held the tension of someone mid-thought.

He gently raised one of her arms, watching it stay in place.

Katie shifted her gaze to Dawn. “I kinda want to change her expression. She looks too smug.”

Mark laughed. “You can. Its not like she will mind.”

Katie laughed at this, as she got to work, trying to change Dawn's expression.