Phoenix had incredibly forgiving winters, temperatures usually wavering somewhere in the 50s to 60s. It was a particularly brisk March night  when Liz was up on her roof and saw the lights in the sky that they would be talking about in the papers the next day.

She had pulled her knees up to her chest and watched as Toby struggled to lift himself up over the tile and scoot to sit next to her. He was breathing a little heavier but smiled.

“Hey lizard.”

The wind tousled his hair and the night was clear but moonless. Being so far out from the city meant almost a complete night sky full of stars. They twinkled on the lenses of his glasses as he looked around. This was a weekly a affair between the two, Toby usually brought the snacks and Liz provided the blankets and pillows to buffer the roof from there butts. She pulled one of these blankets tighter around her shoulders and her best friend unzipped his battered backpack. A moment later he produced a family sized pack of oreos and some bottled drinks, one of which he tossed to her. She caught it easily and rolled her eyes.

“You’ve been climbing up here for years. Is it still really that hard”

“Look at these noodle arms dude.” he held them out in front of her, “Im a skater. I have skater calves!”

“Roller-skater”

“It’s all the same”

“Not really, you’re way lamer”

He shoved her shoulder and she laughed maniacally as she collapsed back in the blankets.

“Roller skating is superior!”

“Where do you even go to skate in freaking Arizona!” she grinned at him.

“The rink!”

This send her into another fit of laughter and she held her stomach as he angrily ate one of his oreo cookies. Peeling them apart, cream first. She wiped at her eyes and looked out over their view of the desert. She was still catching her breath when she saw a very bright light off in the distance just… floating.

It felt like it was looking at her.

“Toby?”

He hummed in question, demolishing another oreo.

“Do you see that?” she sat up and pointed. Toby looked over and his brows furrowed as his eyes landed on the distant orb.

“Huh, is that like a plane or something?”

“I just saw it pop up. Planes don’t stay still--” another one appeared adjacent to it before she could finish her sentence. Her eyes widened. Toby paused in his eating, “..whoa what”

“Did you see that??’

“As evidenced by the ‘whoa, what’ I’d say yeah dude.”

Another one appeared, and then another. All stationary and distant. They kept appearing in a sequence until they formed a v-shaped pattern in the sky. The two friends watched this happen in a strange solemn silence. The air was electric around them and the wind picked up. Then the lights began to move across the sky, so quickly that Liz was a little startled. Then they disappeared from view and she stood up, craning her neck to see where they had gone.

“....ok I’m just gonna say it. That was weird.” Toby commented, now looking up at her.

“Yeah?? I’d say so?? What the heck! Come on” she grabbed her blankets and started towards the edge of the roof to climb down.

“Hey-wait!” he stuffed his food back in his bag and slung it over his shoulders before following her quickly, “Liz where are you going?”

“To check the news!” she yanked open her sliding glass back door and rushed inside. Toby sighed heavily but eventually caught up to her and closed the door behind himself. She already had the tv on and newscasters were sitting primly in front of grainy photos and videos of lights like the ones they had just seen in the sky.

“Look” she murmured, still clutching the remote tightly in her hand as she stared at the screen.

“...holy cow. UFOs? Like aliens?”

“Or government experiments” she said, “but yeah, maybe aliens”

They both ended up sitting on the couch as the news story progressed. More lights were seen, different ones . All disappearing within moments of appearing.

“I’ll be right back” she darted upstairs. Her room was decked out with news articles pasted up on the walls and string-lights hung around the room. She snatched her notebook from the desk in the corner piled with papers and rushed downstairs with that and a pen in hand.

‘So….what’s this” toby asked. She had sat down immediately at the coffee table and flipped to a fresh page, she was already furiously scribbling.

“This is a story toby! I can feel it! It’s going somewhere. I wanna make sure I remember.”

“You’re freaking out”

“I’m a journalist.”

“Same difference” he slumped on the couch but kept his eyes trained on the tv. This whole situation didn’t sit right with him. His chest felt a little tight, especially as he glanced down and saw his friend scratching away at the paper in front of her. The news eventually carried on to something else but kept the main story in the background. It was lurking.

“We have to go check this out” liz said finally, looking up from her little book.

“What? Check what out?”

“The area it flew over!”

“...Liz no way. Nuh uh.”

She glared up at him, “dude come on, this is like, some next level stuff. We have to!”

“We really don’t.”

“I’m gonna go with or without you” She stated firmly, standing up and gathering her things.

“Wait, Liz--”

She ignored him and headed upstairs to grab her backpack, a dangerous and determined glint in her eyes. Toby recognized that look all too well. If he didn’t go he’d never forgive himself if she got hurt doing something stupid. He steeled  himself and followed her up grumbling.

She was shoving things into her bag when he came up, mumbling to herself about this and that. She looked up and put her hands on her hips, “so, are you coming?”

He sighed, “yeah whatever. I don’t want you dying or something stupid”

She grinned, “alright, let’s go.”