Z is for Zombie

The hallway was silent. Ryan stood in the doorway with his suitcase. He didn’t like leaving all the time, but he didn’t want to hurt anyone. He had been comfortable with Z, but it was getting worse. And he was running out of options. He was going to the only place he could think of. It’d only be for a few days.

“It’ll be safe for a day or two.” Ryan mumbled extra quietly so he didn’t disturb the stillness of the house.

Sarah stirred pasta boiling in an old beat up red pot on the stove, while Brendon set the table. The murmur of the TV was in the background and every once and a while Brendon would cough.

“You’ve had that cough for a while hun,” Sarah said without taking her gaze from the spinning whirl of noodles.

“It’s fine.” Brendon set down the last fork, walked over, and kissed Sarah’s cheek. It had been getting worse, but he was too lazy do anything about it. NyQuil helped, even if he ended up sleepwalking and sleep talking.

“Im going to go watch some TV.”

“Ok, don’t get too comfortable.”

He heard a honk. Ryan swallowed hard and realized he hadn’t left note. He set down his brown and yellow flower printed suitcase with a hollow thud and searched his pockets fro a pen. He found a grocery list on the table and flipped it over. It was dark in the house, the paper appeared greyer than his hands. Ryan scribbled a note, stuck it the fridge with on of the many magnetic stolen letter Z’s--

“Z is for...” He muttered and tried not to think of the word.

Ryan then made his way to the cab.

“Bren,” Sarah peered over Brendon’s shoulder, “Dinner’s ready.”

“The next commercial.” He muttered and turned his head to give her puppy dog eyes.

“It’ll get cold.” She pecked his neck.

“We have a microwave.”

“Brendon!” Sarah whined.

Brendon let his head drop to the back of the couch and puckered his lips. Sarah tapped her foot and then leaned in to kiss him. He gripped the back of her head and she laughed. The TV became incredibly loud as the show cut to commercial, but there was no effort to stop kissing. It was so loud they almost missed the doorbell.

Sarah finally attempted to pull away, “Bear--” it was muffled between Brendon’s lips.

The door bell dinged again. Sarah walked away and a coughing fit took over Brendon. The two plates sat perfectly next to the folded napkins on the parallel place mates. This pleased her as she went by.

This was it. He didn’t know why this was his initial thought, but he was there, it was getting late and he didn’t have too many ideas lately. There was no answer at first ding, but there was lights and noise in the house. He could tell there were people inside, it wasn’t unattended like Z’s house. Ryan had his hand up to the door ready to knock. He stood frozen when the door opened a crack, the chain was still locked.

“Hi.” He squeaked out.

“Ryan?” She held up a finger and shut the door. There was a moment of fiddling and then the door was reopened. “Hold- hold on. Let me get Brendon.”

Ryan nodded and felt her looking him up and down. He knew it was getting worse, he was starting to get that reaction from everybody. Brendon was back to concentrating on the TV when he heard Sarah shouting for him. He wasn’t alarmed and slowly made his way to the door.

Sarah let go of the door handle and her hand hit her side with a slap. Brendon’s eyebrows were knitted together as he approached the doorway.

“Ry!” Brendon breathed and smiled.

Sarah stared hard at Brendon, “I’ll be in the kitchen.”

Brendon brushed some hair back and mouthed ‘ok’ then brought his hands to his back pockets. Ryan shifted weight on his feet. The two stood for a moment with the door wide open. Brendon stepped forward and raised his arms ready for a hug. Ryan flinched back at the sound of a floorboard creaking, but after some contemplation went to return the gesture.

“So,” Brendon chuckled and mentally slapped himself for sounding so dumb, “Come in.”

“Ok.”

A corner of Ryan’s mouth raised making that side of his already defined jaw look like it could cut glass, but quickly faded. He stepped in. Brendon was startled as the movement of Ryan’s bowed legs. Ryan could tell Brendon was watching him and he could tell Sarah was in the kitchen holding her breath. He didn’t like the stares he was getting, but they weren’t the harshest he’d ever gotten.

“We were about to sit down to dinner,” He listened for Sarah to make a noise, but there was nothing. Not even the TV, “You can join us.”

“What brings you here?” Sarah her jabbed fork at some broccoli.

Ryan picked at red mess of noodles on his plate, “I just wanted to visit.”

“You could have called.” She said with a mouthful.

“I...” Ryan brought his hands into his lap, “I know.”

“How is Z?” Brendon asked quickly and began coughing.

“She’s fine.” Ryan replied barely loud enough over the coughing.

A glass of water spilled as Brendon violently stood up from his chair and left the room. Sarah utter curse words and lunged for the glass. No one could believe this was happening for many different reasons.

Ryan sat back, but kept his hands moving with small awkward movements. Sarah kept shooing him and when she left with glass in hand to the kitchen she didn’t return. Ryan blinked and continued to pick at his food.

“There’s a bathroom down the hall,” Brendon fluffed some pillows and glanced at Ryan’s shoes behind him. “Do you need to borrow some clothes?”

“No I’m fine...” Ryan stood clutching his suitcase tightly, “Can I stay a few days?”

“Yeah,” Brendon turned quickly and emitted a small cough, “Is there something up between you and Z?”

“Z is for-- um, we’re just having some problems.”

Brendon rubbed over his face, “Ry, don’t run from her. She’s good for you.”

Ryan felt a pang go through him. He hunched and gripped his stomach with his free hand. Brendon patted Ryan’s shoulder and walked past silently. Brendon slowly walked to his bedroom and went to his bathroom. Sarah greeted him grimly with her mouth full of toothpaste. He hopped up onto the counter.

She stood with her hands on her hips with a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth.

“It’ll be fine.” He pulled her in by the waist and kissed her forehead.

The room was nice. The tan walls were lit nicely and the pictures were all hung straight. There was a book shelf that served as a headboard. He looked over the selection of books, old CD’s and VHS’s, and nic-nacks.

Ryan shook his head and gently set his suitcase on the single bed. Like every time he moved the left clasp gave him problems, but with a small jiggled and press it opened. Just like every time he moved the hinges of the suitcase creaked and felt like they had sand in them. He scanned everything over, then carefully started to lay them out.

An pair of extra socks, Sir Fig Newton- his childhood bear, a small bong, his first notebook, two bottles of medication, an old water stained family photo, and a select few old ticket stubs in a small wooden box. They were all in a line. A shaky hand hovered over the objects. His hand went over the perfectly placed items, but stopped above the ticket stubs.

He delicately picked through the box and held up a thin piece of paper. It was the first concert he and Brendon went to together. They were late in their teen years, but still had slim undeveloped muscles and sun bleached hair. He tilted his head and he smiled. The sensation of his lips sliding over and revealing his teeth felt strange. It slowly faded.

Ryan scanned over them one more time with water coating his eyes. He carefully put the items back in and slid the suitcase under the bed.