Desolate

They all sat silently in the teachers’ lounge, too scared to go to sleep. You’d think that by now the zombies would just die off without humans to feed on. But they just evolved. They were smarter, stronger, and faster. It wasn’t going to take one shot to kill them and shooting them in the head wasn’t working like it was before.

Alex stood up and walked over to the mini fridge. She opened the door and stuck her head inside.

“Look at what I found!” she shouted as she pulled out a bottle of champagne with a big grin on her face.

“I think we deserve it,” Charlie said with a smile on her face, equally as big as Alex’s. She stood up and began searching through the cabinets until she found glasses to give them.

“And let’s make this fun,” Alex said as she sat down in the circle that had formed, “let’s pretend we’re teenagers again and tell each other one secret, no matter how stupid, dirty, or bad they are.”

Charlie nodded in agreement and looked at Jason, “Jason you go first.”

Jason squinted and rubbed his chin, trying to think of a secret, “I’m a guy so I don’t have many secrets but I do have one…”

“Well spill,” Charlie said. Jason chuckled and smirked as he replied, “I had a thing with Bianca.”

“A thing? What kind of a thing?” Jordan asked as she took a small sip of the champagne.

“Not a romantic thing. It was more of a ‘no string attached’ fun,” he said as he fell back and laughed. His laughter died down and he looked down at his lap, “someone else go.”

“Jordan, you go,” Charlie said, leaning back in her seat. Jordan sighed and tried to think of something.

“Well, my secret is more from my fiancée,” she said softly.

“Well, spill,” Charlie said urgently.

“Well I told him when we got engaged that I didn’t want to…” her voice trailed off and she blushed and everyone automatically understood and nodded, “yeah…that…until we were married,”

“I don’t get it,” Darren said, exchanging a glance at Oliver.

“I shuddered at the thought of him touching me,” she said, shivering and rubbing her arms.

“Why?” Jason said.

“Because, I met him when I was nineteen I knew we didn’t have a future,” she said softly.

“Then why did you accept his proposal?” Alex asked.

“Because when he did, it was what I’d always dreamed of and before I could take it all in, I said yes,” she answered, feeling stupid.

“So basically what you’re saying is, you’re a virgin, you didn’t want to lose it to your future husband, and you plan on giving it away to Zakk later?” Charlie said, with a big smile on her face.

“Yes, yes, and…wait what?!” she snapped, “No!”

Her and Charlie shared a few minutes of laughing before Jordan stood up, taking one last gulp of her drink and putting on the counter.

“I’m going to bed. Try not to get too wasted,” she teased as she turned to leave. Charlie began counting and staring at Zakk.

“What are you doing?” Zakk asked.

“I’m counting the seconds until you go follow Jordan claiming to be tired,” Charlie said with an amused smirk on her face as she continued counting.

“Well, the jokes on you because I’m not going to follow her,” Zakk said, smiling triumphantly at her as he took a sip of his champagne. She continued counting and he got irritated and stood up just to get away from her, “I’m leaving.”

“Ha! I knew it!” she squealed, kicking and laughing. Zakk scoffed and rolled his eyes as he walked into the dorm room he was sharing with Jordan. She sat cross legged on her bed and watched him as he walked in.

“Tell me Zakk, what’s your secret?” she asked.

Zakk stayed silent for a minute and she was about to forget she’d asked when he finally responded, “A few days before the apocalypse, I cheated on my girlfriend,”

“What? Why?” she squeaked.

“She was working late and her best friend had come over. We talked and talked and then…it just…happened,” he said in a low voice.

“So…what happened?” she asked.

“I told her what I did…I think that if those zombies hadn’t broken loose, we would’ve been done anyway. Everything we’d had was lost although we didn’t have it to begin with,”

“How do you know?” she said, scooting over to the end of her bed.

“Because, something just felt different with you and I knew right then that my relationship with her was basically nothing,” he said softly.

“Let me ask you something,” she said. He stood in silence and waited for her to continue, “I want to know why you stay so quiet when we talk with them but when we’re alone, you tell me everything.”

“You can ask any of them what they know about me and all they can say is my first name. But I don’t know. You’re different from the rest, I suppose.”

She smiled at him and neither of them knew what to do or say after that. Jordan sat in silence and she began to forget that there were zombies out there trying to eat her and everyone else. He had this amazing ability to make her forget.