Confessions of a Teenage Zombie

I left the house again. My newfound freedom was amazing, and I just knew I was gonna go places. I was happy I didn’t have to ever worry about my health again; things like hunger always stopped me from doing things like climbing mountains. Also, the fact that I was never near a mountain might have also been the reason.

But still, if I did find a mountain, you bet your ass I’d climb it!

I found myself at Starbucks. I always liked the atmosphere of the place; it made me feel cool just being in one of the coffee houses. I wasn’t a cool kid in school, and I barely had any friends. I was lucky to have Brent. Actually, I think we were better friends because no one really liked either of us.

I looked over at the counter, seeing Jon serving a customer. I kind of wanted to know how he’s been doing, although how I’d find that out, I had no idea. If I was going to masquerade as some guy that happened to look and sound just like me, I couldn’t just go up and start chatting. I’d have to pretend to be disinterested.

And so, I instead decided to look for a table to sit at. There was one in the back near the bathroom, so I sat there. I never actually ever liked sitting near the bathrooms; I didn’t want to risk taking in a bad smell if someone decided to do their business. But that was the live me, and I had to act like I was a totally different person.

I guess this is how Hannah Montana feels.

I heard a chair move, and I looked forward, seeing that guy, the one that was with Jon at the counter yesterday, sitting across from me. He was staring at me, which made me feel self-conscious.

“Yes?” I inquired.

“Well, I was just wondering if you minded company is all. I was sitting here,” the guy answered. He kind of mumbled out the last part, so I guess he felt awkward implying that I took his table. I noticed a coffee cup right in the middle of the table. I probably should’ve been paying more attention when I was looking for a table.

“Nah, you seem cool.” I was just saying things. I actually thought this guy seemed a little shy and weird, but his eyes were nice. Blue was my second favorite color. Red was my first.

“I'm Brendon,” I continued. It came out before I could stop myself. Alex quirked an eyebrow and looked around. He was looking for Jon, probably to tell him I was alive or something. I had to think really fast. “Brendon McMurray.”

“Um… Alex Deleon?” he sounded confused, like he didn’t even know if that was his actual name. The fact that my eyes kept darting around probably wasn’t helping things. I got uncomfortable in tense situations. “Are you okay, dude?”

“Yeah. I got my tetanus shot earlier; I feel a little funny,” I explained. I never actually liked lying; it felt wrong. The more bad situations I ran into, the more I started to figure out why Art didn’t like the idea of us leaving the house.

“Yeah, I understand. It’s like they sit you down, rub alcohol on your arm, and then jab your shoulder immediately. Want a band-aid? I have Hello Kitty ones.” Alex smiled and reached under his chair, where I noticed a bag was. He pulled out a box of band-aids.

“I fucking love Hello Kitty!” I ripped the box out of his hands and pulled out a band-aid. I rolled up my sleeve, stuck on the band-aid, and rolled the sleeve back down. Alex chuckled when I gave him back his box. I realized I was probably being a little too over the top. He probably thought I was retarded or something. “I don't get out that much.”

“No biggie.” Alex draped an arm over the back of his chair. “Were you okay yesterday? You ran out really fast.”

“Yeah. I uh... realized it was later than I thought it was. Had to get home in time for dinner,” I lied. Sounded plausible.

“It was barely even three. Early dinner?” Alex questioned. “Or like, do you live with really old people? My grandpa has to be in bed by five, otherwise he's really crabby.”

“We were going to a movie later, so we ate early,” I stated. “Yeah, we wanted to see The Lovely Bones. Mark Wahlberg is really cute, you know? And we didn't wanna see Avatar. I spit upon that movie!”

“Yeah... it is pretty hyped,” Alex said. I wanted to poke the mark he had on his cheek. I always had this odd compulsion to touch any marks I saw on someone's face. He took a sip of his coffee before handing it to me. “Want some? Herpes free.”

“Sure.” I took the coffee and drank some. It tasted awful, but that wasn't surprising. I gave the cup back to Alex, who took another sip. “Now it's not herpes free.”

“So that's why it tastes so much better.” Alex laughed, as did I. I kind of wondered if Alex would contract some kind of disease from drinking something that a zombie had drunk from. I looked at a wall-clock to my right, seeing that it was nearing four. “Gotta go?”

“Yeah. I have to go see a guy about this thing,” I sounded like I was making an excuse to leave. In actuality, there were a lot of people coming into the place, and it was making me hungry. I had a weird sixth sense for smelling brains or something. “Uh... I'm also really hungry, and I left something in the oven. Um... Bye.”

I got up and ran out. In all my attempts to remain inconspicuous, I've been acting even more suspicious. I really needed to just chill out and go with the flow.