Astro-Zombies

The rain pelted harder against the oversized brick apartment building. The collision of each raindrop hitting the solid material was loud and concerning. The crackling of the sky and the shadows danced majestically across the bare off white walls. Shae wished she had a pet now, one that could cower with her during natures fury, nestle itself into her side using her as a shield from the storm. What could have possibly made mother nature so angry? Shae could only hope that it was mother nature's equal loathe for the attractive green-eyed boy from across the hall. At least, she had thought, it would be mutual. 

Hate and loathing are incredibly strong words. Words her fourth grade teacher would constantly correct her whilst pushing her reading glasses up her face. 
"Now Shae," she'd say, using her index finger to push the glasses up her face. "Hate is not a nice word, you dislike something." Shae had already decided hate was in her vocabulary and it was named Frank. Frank the musician. Loathing, loathing made her skin feel hot and sticky, red and patchy. Loathing made her feel possessed by one of the demons from Buffy the Vampire Slayer but Shae didn't have cable or a tv, just her brain and incoherent jumbled thoughts. But that not so new brown sofa sat in the empty space between the kitchen and bedroom. Shae couldn't peel her eyes off of it, the small cigarette burn in the arm rest, the fresh scent of lysol  from where she spent six hours scrubbing the past away from the unknown fabric cushions. 

The three-seater made her insides warm and fuzzy. Part of her wanted to drape her small body across the germ infested cushions, her head hanging off the edge of the seat like she'd down as a child while being captivated in a book. But the couch was another line in her list. Another line closer to normality and another slash through her past. She couldn't spend her time dancing around in her head suppressing the past events she did not create but only take part of. 

The rumble and crackling of the storm brought her back to Earth back to the brown sofa. The dull sirens zipping through her shady neighborhood and the reigniting sounds of helicopters. This was reality and this was now. 

&&

Pulling the door with such great force echoed through the cemented corridor. The turning of the key seemed to reverberate off the walls as Shae pulled it out of the lock. She gripped the thin slice of metal tightly in her hand until zipping it away in a pocket she knew it would not get lost in. Shae almost felt obligated to give the key back to Frank, after she'd make a couple copies first to keep in her car, bag, apartment, shoe etc. Whatever to prevent the past event from ever occurring again but as she tugged that zipper shut sealing away her key to escape he had to appear. The way his stupid oversized beanie would cover his stupid smelly dreads and that completely as well as utterly smug look on his face as if he's always up to no good. 

"I hope you haven't locked yourself out, that's the only key I had." Frank told her, nudging her shoulder in a soft friendly way. 
Shae's cheeks turned a bright pink as if she'd been standing far too long out in the cold. She tried to speak, but her cheeks continued to betray her strict mindset. Her mouth opened but closed again, a student being too nervous to read the poem they'd written about their dead fish in class. Embarrassed, was this embarrassment? Shae did what she thought was the only logical thing to do, turn and walk away. Frank was not having that. 
He chased after her, ice queen slipping through his lips echoing through those empty halls and that stupid no good smug expression. 

The ice queen. Fucking perfect, that was her Buffy super demon name. Like Jack Frost from the Christmas Chris Kringle movies, she'd blow cold air upon her victims forcing them into a solid block of ice and eternal frostbite.  (Better than Warren's freeze-ray, naturally of course, because hello, actual human being, not a Buffybot.)

"Get coffee with me, you owe me." he told her, his murky green eyes pleading. 

Shae felt weird and uncomfortable. Her knees felt like they were sweating, her cheeks hot and flushed. Her hands became moistened and shaky. Gnawing her lip nervously, she shrugged hiding her gaze from him. Sure, she did maybe in fact owe him a little but he didn't have to sit outside the door with her, easily he could have just given her the damn key. 

"Okay." she finally let out, her mouth betraying everything she had planned out in her head. He wore black fitted jeans and a white black flag shirt. His psychology and sociology textbooks displaying the small amount of muscle in his forearms. He gave her a toothy grin. 

"Perfect." he had said shoving his hand into his pocket "Let me put these inside real quick." 

He gestured Shae to follow him through his apartment door into the foyer. That sickening feeling returning to her stomach once more, but the friendly boy she had passed in the hallway was there, his black framed glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose as his face pressed closer to the pages of Catcher in the Rye never bothering to look up. Shae's bourbon colored eyes danced around the shoebox that nearly mirrored hers, theirs was spacious and furnished yet hers was small and had a sofa (finally.) The "eggshell" walls mirrored hers but there's had posters and pictures. The glass coffee table littered with music magazines and an overly filled ashtray. The cubby hole reeked of smoke and pot, two scents that Shae wasn't familiar with, two scents she had prayed wouldn't cling to her clothes either. 

"Ready?" he reappeared. That same silly grin swallowing his face. It was almost contagious, almost.