FINAL GIRL GOSSIP

Sidney cleared her throat, pulling her coat tighter around her. "Uh, yeah, Billy was in jail, he was my boyfriend. He got his, uh, best friend? Stu? In on it, so it was Stu that called me while Billy was in jail, I think. Or..." she took a shuddering breath. "Or it could have been the other, underlying Ghostface that was going around town, who killed Casey and my mom. I was never... sure, on that." Sidney felt a strange comfort, finally getting to talk about it all, and talk about the party without people looking at her like a basket case or a kitten left on a church's doorstep. "I could have sworn it was Billy or Stu, though, but I--" she exhaled. "I don't know."

She held a hand in front of her and looked at it, curling her fingers in toward her palm. "Billy, uh, was really upset my mom was sleeping with his dad, so he just... tried to kill me for it. He killed a lot of my friends, and my best friend--" her throat caught on a lump and she swallowed. "They didn't get my friend Randy. He claims it's because he's a virgin." She let out a short nervous laugh, shifting. "But I thought they got him. They were trying to kill me, but Billy and Stu got... caught up with each other. In a weird way. They were kind of, uh, stabbing each other, it was really really weird."

She looked toward Laurie. "You said, uh, it was your brother? Did he just, like, crack, or...?"

Sidney felt the stiffness, swallowing as the thought you aren't welcome here, too close passed through her mind. Sidney twirled her hair around a finger, shaking her head imperceptibly, as if that itself could get rid of the thought. Sid forced herself to nod, to continue the conversation so she could push past. "Right, sorry. I, uh, don't mean to pry." She swallowed back another 'sorry'. She looked at Laurie's hand, bringing her own up and placing it in Laurie's own with another swallow, grateful for the reassurance.

"I think," she started up, softly, feeling the grief of losing Tatum press on her. It was an old ache.

"I think the hardest part... was losing Tatum, my best friend, in the middle of it all." She bit her lip, her eyes empty as she kept her gaze on the ground. "She wouldn't have believed the entirety of it all, and she would have pitched in that she knew Billy was bad news."

The ache of Tatum's now-empty space felt ever-present. She told Tatum everything, and now that Tatum was gone, the other side of the phone was quiet. Sidney used to pick up the receiver for hours, listening to the dial tone that came after she dialed Tatum's now-canceled phone. So far, Sidney hadn't been able to find a telephone. Guess that habit got cured for good. Sidney felt tears well in her eyes, pressing her free hand to her face to disguise it best she could. "Never too late to start over, I guess," she joked weakly, shaking her head to push her hair to hide her face.