Before the Storm

I awoke the next morning around 11:30 in the afternoon. I didn't have to work today, which I was very thankful for and didn't bother with setting my alarm last night. I uncovered myself and slipped out of bed, heading straight for the bathroom so that I could shower and get myself ready for the day.

Thoughts of last night had begun filling up my mind and I remembered that my brother had in fact shown up earlier than expected last night, and it wasn't just a dream. I hurried up and got myself undressed and hopped into the shower, the cool water feeling refreshing on my warm skin. I had remembered what Madisen had told me yesterday about wanting Zack to come to her birthday party, which was the day after tomorrow, and figured that going out to lunch with him would have been the perfect time to ask him. Hopefully he'd accept.

Once I was finished, I dried myself off and got dressed into my clothes for the day before wrapping my wet hair up in a towel and heading downstairs to see if Zack was even awake or not. He had a busy day yesterday and it wouldn't have surprised me in the slightest if he had slept in longer than I did.

"Morning, kiddo." Came my mom's voice from the living room as I walked down the stairs. I smiled over at her and walked over to sit next to her on the couch.

"Morning, is Zack awake yet?" I asked, glancing over at the tv momentarily before looking back at her.

"I'm not too sure, haven't seen him up and around yet so I'm guessing not." She replied, and grabbed a mug full of coffee off of the coffee table and taking a few sips.

My mother had shoulder length light brown hair with a slight tinge of red undertones. Probably where I got my own auburn hair from. Her face was thin, and she had glimmering green eyes. We had a pretty good relationship with one another, which I was happy for. Not many people these days could say that about their parents, unfortunately.

"He said we were going out for lunch today. Looks like I'm gonna have to wake him myself." I nodded my head towards his bedroom upstairs where he most likely was.

"You know he doesn't like being woken up." She stated with a grin.

"He'll get over it."

"Yeah, you have fun with that." She took another drink of her coffee. "How was work last night?"

"It was alright. Tim was an asshole, as usual." I said and rolled my eyes. She completely understood what I was talking about. She had seen the way Tim treated me a few times when she had come in for lunch with a few of her friends on her lunch break.

"Things will get better, honey." She said soothingly. I smiled and nodded, although I knew that wouldn't happen any time soon. She always said that when I came home complaining of Tim, but it never happened.

"I hope so," I bit down on my lower lip momentarily. "What do you and Dad have planned for today?" I looked around me briefly before knitting my brows together. "Where is Dad, anyway?"

"Just got a few errands to run, and he got called in for an 'emergency' at the store." She said, and rolled her eyes. My father was the owner of a successful restaurant in downtown Atlanta, and his co-workers always called him in for the smallest of things that could easily be handled by themselves. "I was thinkin' we could all go out to dinner if you'd want, spend some quality family tome together?" She offered. Going out for lunch and dinner in one day? I was totally up for that!

"Sure thing, sounds like a plan!" I smiled, and grabbed her coffee off of the table, taking a small sip for myself. "Well, I'm gonna go wake up the bum now." I said, and dismissed myself up to Zack's room.

Once I had climbed the stairs again and opened his door, I saw that he was laying face down on his bed, blankets covering his lower half and he was completely passed out cold. I smiled devilishly to myself and decided that I could either wake him up one of two ways. I could either walk over to him and wake him up nice and gently like a good younger sister would have done. Or, I could get a good running start from here and jump on him, screaming my head off to wake him up that way. I personally liked the second option best.

I took about two large strides before I was next to his bed and I jumped up, landing smack on the mattress next to him and began violently shaking him. He was going to be upset weather I woke him up gently or not, so there was no reason I couldn't have had a little bit of fun with it myself.

"Wake up! The enemy is right outside the door, we need your assistance Private Schmidt!" I yelled at him, beginning to laugh loudly.

He jolted awake and began looking around wildly, his eyes as wide as saucers. The moment he saw me lying on his bed beside him, clutching my sides from laughing so hard at him, he glared at me and flopped back down in bed and covered himself back up with his blanket.

"For fuck's sake," He groaned into his pillow. "You are such a damn pest."

"C'mon, bro, ya know ya missed this." I chirped, pushing myself up and glancing down at him again. I could sense that he wasn't going to move and he was trying desperately to get back to sleep, but I wasn't about to let that happen.

I grabbed hold of his blankets and began tugging on them. "Zack! You said we'd go to Zanetti's today!" I whined just like a small child.

"Can't ya just give me like, ten more minutes?" He whined back. You would have never thought we were actually responsible adults just by listening to us half the time.

"I gave ya ten extra minutes when I was down talkin' with Mom. C'mon, it's after noon already 'nd I'm starving .." I prodded.

"Okay, okay," He began, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "I'll be ready in a few."

I smiled and jumped off his bed quickly, heading for the door and closing it behind me so that he could get dressed, himself. I stood leaning against the wall next to his door for about ten minutes. At one point I just got bored and started picking at the sides of my nails and twiddling my thumbs.

"Well, are ya ready?" He asked, walking out of his room and nudging me in the shoulder. I nudged him back just a little bit harder than he had done to me.

"I've been ready!"

He scoffed humorously, and we both began down the stairs and towards the front door. "Bye, Mom. We'll be back a bit later today." Zack announced to her as he grabbed the keys to my car from the table.

She waved a quick good bye, not really seeming to take note of entirely what he had said, and we were both out the door.



We had gotten a couple blocks down the street and had arrived at the diner about ten minutes later. The diner itself was on the small side, nuzzled tightly in between the Starr Movie Theater and The Dug Out, which was a little trinket store that sold all types of collectibles.

Zanetti's didn't always used to be a diner. Before the current owners bought it out, it actually used to be a mechanic shop. But they were able to completely transform it into something that you'd see fresh out of the 80's, complete with red and white tiled floors, red and silver bar stools surrounding the counter of a small malt section, bright neon signs flashing on the walls, and a jukebox that played all the classics.

Once we were seated and had ordered our food, I had decided to take this time to ask him weather or not he'd want to come to Madisen's party with me. Of course I'd be going, I was her best friend, after all.

"Hey," I started, getting his attention. He glanced up at me from his double chocolate milk shake with his deep, brown eyes and waited for me to continue. "What do you have planned for Saturday?"

He shrugged his shoulders, swallowing what milk shake he already had in his mouth. "I donno, why?"

"Well, I mean, there's this party that's gonna be goin' on ... You don't have to go, but I jus' thought it'd be a fun thing to do." I had that feeling deep in my stomach. That feeling where you just know someone is going to say no to your question.

"This isn't for your friend's birthday party, is it?" He asked, having a look of 'You can't be serious' plastered on his face.

"Yes? But wait, how did you know that's what I was talkin' about?"

"Jay, she's wanted me to come to her stupid birthday party for the past three years now. Even when she know's I'm not here, she still asks you to ask me." He replied, taking another drink of his shake.

"I just figured I'd be nice. She's really looking forward to seeing you." By this time, our waitress was bringing our food out to us. One reason I always loved this place; The food was always quick to be delivered. "Besides, ya can't spend all of your time here indoors." I said, picking up a fry and sticking it in my mouth.

"I'm not, I'm out of the house now, aren't I?" He asked smugly.

"Besides now! I mean, what do you have against Madisen, anyway?"

He took a huge bite of his ginormous burger, chewing for a few seconds before answering me with a half full mouth. "I don't have anything against her," He shrugged. "I jus' know she has a thing for me and I'd rather not have the whole thing be awkward."

"That obvious, huh?" I asked with a grimace, knowing full well the answer to that. He nodded his head and I saw him slightly roll his eyes.

We were quiet for a few minutes as we began to eat our food. I heard on the news playing on the tv in the background and turned my head slightly to look up at it, sitting on a stand that was attached to the upper part of the wall.

" ... And we have just received word that the high speed pursuit involving a silver car and King County Police Department has been brought to an end. Shots were fired and all three occupants of the vehicle were killed on scene, and one officer was severely wounded, having to be taken into emergency care. More details to come ..."

"Jesus, if it's not one thing it's another, huh?" I asked, turning back around to face Zack. "People are beginning to go crazy."

"What do ya mean 'beginning' to? Things like this have always happened." He responded.

"Yeah, but it seems like ever since this mysterious sickness was announced, it's gotten worse 'nd people are just beginning to act out even more."

"It's jus' another one of those things, Jay."

I felt really sorry for the police officer that had gotten shot, and I had hoped that he would be okay. His family must be so worried about him. Maybe it was just me over thinking like I normally did, but I couldn't help but feel like things around this neck of the woods were beginning to spiral more and more out of control.

"You okay?" Zack asked me, waving his hand in front of my face and snapping me from my thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I was jus' thinkin' is all." I cleared my throat and put a couple more french fries into my mouth. "So, about that party ..."

He was silent for a few seconds, considering weather or not he wanted to go or not. "If you can get it to where she's not up my ass the entire time, I'll think about going." He finally concluded.

"Hey, that's better than nothing. I'll talk to her about it." I smiled inwardly to myself.

This was a bigger accomplishment than it probably seemed to others. I full on expected him to just say no and that be the end of it. But instead, we was coming! Or at least he would if I could just get Madisen to slow her roll. However, that was going to be a completely new challenge.