Netflix and a box of caramel doughnuts can mend most things in the world, even a broken heart.

Jamie, Grace and Zee are snuggled under a blanket on the sofa next to me, our feet propped up on the glass coffee table in front of us. My mom’s always freaking out that we’re going to break it someday, but seriously, it’s the perfect height for a footrest.

We already watched three episodes of Friends, and after it started getting dark the girls got permission from their parents to sleep over, except Jamie, who doesn’t need it. Her mom probably wouldn’t notice if she went missing for a month.

Sometimes I think that Jamie’s attention-craving personality – her love of the limelight, and her desire to be loved and adored, by her friends, her Instagram fans, and the inaccessible hot older guy who she can never have – all stem from her inattentive, constantly absent mother. That’s why I find it hard to stay mad at Jamie, even when she overreacts. Just like everyone else, she has her issues.

Jamie stopped sniffling and blowing her nose ages ago, but I’m still finding it hard to concentrate on the movie. It’s some cheesy high school film that came out earlier this year, starring Mitch Michaels as a loner kid who falls for a cheerleader. It’s the sort of movie I’d usually enjoy, but not tonight.

I have way too much on my mind.

Mrs. Leyton was engaged to Bea’s brother. And Bea blames Mrs. Leyton for his death. Add to that, her slimy boyfriend Robert was wearing a silver ring with some sort of markings on it. There’s a deeper connection somewhere here. And I have no doubt any more that it’s linked to Fable, and the myth of the five princes.

“No, don’t open it, it’s a trap!” Zee screams at the TV, just as the hero opens his locker and a mountain of packing peanuts falls out onto him.

It’s a weird thought that before I met the band, before I became part of their world, on a night like tonight my besties and I would most likely have been in the throes of a Fable marathon. We’d blast out their songs, do each other’s nails, take online quizzes to find out which of the boys is our soulmate, or which Fable song best matches our personality. A lot of the older (and male) fans resent the teen girl portion of the fan base, who they say ruin the whole thing for everyone by being in love with the band rather than with the music.

The truth of it is that we did, and still do, love the music just as much as we loved the people creating it. We knew every chord, every lyric off by heart, and it was a pretty usual Saturday night for us girls to lie together on my bed belting out the words to some obscure Fable song like total dorks. But it would be too weird to do that now, too real. Now that I know them on a first name basis and all. Which is why we’re spending the evening watching a movie where the high point thus far has been some guy getting showered with packing peanuts.

Just as I’m about to reach for another doughnut, my phone vibrates in my pajama pocket. I reach in and take it, feeling a slight rush as I hold the phone up.

All the boys, and Kitty, have my number, and they all know about the spot under the tree with reception. It could be any one of them.

My mood drops slightly as I see that it’s not a text – it’s an email. But my spirits lift again instantly when I see who the sender is.

Rowena Braden, secretary for the Royal University of Ireland.

I open the email.

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From: Rowena Braden < [email protected] >

Dear Ms. Shields,

Thank you for your earlier email with regards interviewing Professor Emeritus Eagla McAuley for your thesis. Prof. McAuley has been sent your details and the subject of your paper, and has expressed interest in speaking with you.

She’ll be in touch via email within the next few days.

Kindest regards,

Rowena

It’s better than nothing, so I type back a brief thank you email. As I press send, Zee shrieks out the last name I want to hear.

“OMG IT’S ZARA QUINN!”

I jump up from the sofa, looking all around the room for her, my eyes fixed on the doorway.

“What? Where? Here?” I say urgently, turning to Zee.

“Umm, no sweetie, in the movie,” Jamie says, hitting pause.

I look at the screen, and I recognize Zara Quinn, with her natural black hair in pigtails, wearing a dark blue cheerleader’s uniform. She’s been paused mid-sentence, and her lips are curved in a seductive ‘O’.

Zara Quinn, the biggest female pop star in the world right now.

Zara Quinn, the girl who every girl wants to be, every guy wants to be with.

Zara Quinn, who Felix has reportedly been in an on-off relationship with for the past two years, if the tabloids and gossip websites are to be believed.

It’s never really crossed my mind before that I might someday meet Zara, but for a second I really, truly believed that she was in my house. And it was terrifying.

“I read she got paid more than a million dollars just for this cameo,” Grace says. “More than the lead actress got paid for the whole movie.”

“Yeah well, when you’re hot shit like she is, you expect special treatment,” Jamie says sourly. “Not that she deserves it.”

“That’s not true,” Zee says, sounding flustered. She’s been a huge Zara fan for years, and it’s been a constant point of contention between her and Jamie. “She only charges so much because she gives half of her money every year to charity.”

“Which charity is that?” Jamie asks. “The Zara Quinn Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too?”

“What?” Asks Zee, clearly perplexed.

“OMG you haven’t seen Zoolander?” Jamie exclaims.

“What’s Zoolander?” Grace asks.

“OMG YOU TOO?!” Jamie is shrieking with excitement now. “Grace I’m not surprised at, what with the fact that your parents have practically tried to raise you Amish, but Zee? C’mon, your parents own a frikkin’ video store. Zoolander’s like, the king of VHS movies. Ashling, tell me you’ve at least seen it.”

I nod my head, already knowing where this is going.

“I need to use your laptop Ashling,” Jamie says. “We’re taking a trip to the Pirate Bay.”

“You do realize that’s illegal?” Grace asks Jamie.

“Oh c’mon, live a little,” Jamie says. “It’s ok, right?” She looks at me pleadingly.

I think for a moment, before shaking my head.

“I heard those sites all have viruses, and you can get caught really easily,” I say, thinking I must sound like a total killjoy, but I can’t help envisioning a SWAT team bursting into my living room and taking me away in cuffs. “Why don’t we just finish this movie? It’s not that bad.”

“Says the girl who’s been staring at her phone the whole way through,” Jamie says. “Any messages from the boys?”

I wish.

“No comment,” I say, clutching my phone to my chest, half expecting Jamie to try swipe it out of my hands.

“Fine, keep your secrets,” Jamie says, hitting play on the movie.

Zara struts around on screen, showing off her cheer moves and her enviable flexibility. Every time she looks at the screen I imagine I can see her dark grey eyes narrow ever so slightly, like she’s staring daggers directly at me.

Did she always look so… evil?

Zara’s cameo ends, and the movie goes back to Mitch Michaels trying to win the heart of his cheerleader crush. I try to focus on the story, but my mind keeps being pulled back into the events of the past few days.

Hearing Mia’s voice in the graveyard yesterday.

Felix biting my neck in the bathroom hours later.

Alastaire telling me about his strange dreams last night.

Seeing Bea fizzle away into nothing this morning, only to find her alive and well in the afternoon.

Robert’s silver ring.

The silver ring. My great-gran and gran were wearing a similar ring in their wedding photos. So was my mom. That’s it.

“Bathroom break,” I say, rising up from the sofa. “You girls watch without me.”

“Bring some more crisps when you come back!” Jamie calls after me.

I don’t answer. I’m too focused on my next task.

I’m going to find out what my mom’s been hiding from me.