Four

The rest of the day had went rather smoothly. Cas and Lexi had finished moving the furniture upstairs around in a matter of minutes, allowing them to go back downstairs and unpack all the clothes and personal items that Cas had brought along with her. Thus leaving them with literally the whole rest of the day to sit around and do nothing, which Cas did exceedingly perfect at. As soon as they had finished, she plopped herself smack dab in the middle of the couch and turned the t.v. on.

Lexi, on the other hand, had other plans. Tying her long hair back into a ponytail on top of her head, she walked around the house in her pajamas and picked up any stray clothing that did not belong where it was up and threw it into the hamper that was in Hope’s room. By one o’clock, she had started at about ten in the morning, Lexi had picked up all the clothing strewn about the house and picked up any trash that had not been thrown away properly. She went as far as doing the dishes and scrubbing down the bathroom, organizing the shampoo bottle as well of course. To finish it all off she swept, vacuumed, and mopped where needed as well as sorting anything out of place on bookshelves.

Satisfied with her work, Lexi stood in the open foyer room with her hands on her hips and a triumphant smile on her face as she looked around the gleaming room.

“I’m gonna go take a shower, you should take one after me.” Lexi mentioned as she turned out of the room and made her way to the bathroom, Cas only grunted in response.

Lexi let out a content sigh as she placed her head under the steaming water, embracing the boiling warmth that she had long since felt. She wrapped her fingers delicately around the coconut scented shampoo bottle and poured a small dollop into her open palm. The smell filtered into her nose and she closed her eyes as she imagined being on a resort, sitting underneath a small waterfall and letting the water beat down on her head.

“Coconuts,” She muttered, “you’re very gross but you smell wonderful.”

After rinsing her head and soaping down her body, Lexi stepped out of the warm cocoon of the shower. Steam had fogged up the glass, making her splotchy red skin blurry in the mirror as she dried off and wrapped the fuzzy towel around her. She held the towel to her chest as she opened the door, her wet hair plastered to her face and back and pesky droplets or water gliding down her legs as she walked across the hall to the attic door. She hurried up the stairs, goosebumps quickly rising onto her skin, and scampered into her room.

“God damn attic having no heat.” She muttered as she pulled out her clothes for the day. She laid her clothes out on the bed after removing the towel and slid into a pair of undergarments, making her way to her desk to put on her makeup.

Cas leaned over the edge of the couch to watch her sister run up the stairs. With a sigh, she stood up and strolled lazily into the bathroom for her shower. As one could imagine, it was as seemingly uneventful as the last girls shower. Just a simple turn on the water, lather up the body, and clean on the oils in the hair. Cas didn’t take nearly as long though; she never like the feeling of being all nice and warm and then stepping out into the freezing cold, so she cuts the warm and calming feeling out. A quick ten minute freezing cold shower always gets her out not ever needing to run around the house in an attempt to return her body to a temperature achieved in the shower.

Satisfied with her over the top drying skills, Cas wrapped the towel around her chest and went to the next room over to change into some clothes. Feeling extra lazy today, she opts out of her usual makeup routine and and skips right to throwing on a baggy tank top of some band and a pair of ripped skinny jeans. With a quick in the mirror hanging on the door and a brief finger combing of the hair, she steps out of the room and makes her way back to the couch and plops down as if she had never moved from her initial spot on the couch. Lexi came clicking down fifteen minutes later decked out in full makeup, wig, and over the top clothing, as usual, and sat down next to Cas with a book and opened it up to read.

Cas lowered the volume to allow a better reading atmosphere for the younger and eventually settled on the news station as a means of entertainment. Lexi simply crossed her legs and rested her book against the arm of the couch as Cas drew her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Apart from the usual politics and traffic news, there wasn’t much going on and Cas was growing bored. Lexi had made it around halfway through her book, granted she’s a fast reader, by the time Cas had stood up to go to the kitchen and find a nice snack food to entertain her stomach with. She had dug out a granola bar from the mostly empty pantry when she heard the front door open and faint familiar voices.

“Hope! Turn on the news! You wo-where’s Hope?” Aiden stumbled into the living room, Ethan trailing behind, to not find Hope-but a startled Lexi closed up on the couch.

Cas came running out of the kitchen, half a granola bar shoved into her mouth as she flung into the unexpecting boy. Cas closed her eyes and nuzzled her nose into the crook of his neck as she stood on her tiptoes to pull him down into a suffocating hug. Aiden had somehow managed to keep his balance and upon realizing who he was hugging, wrapped his arms around the much shorter girl as tightly as he could and lifted her up into the hug before settling her back down on the ground. Cas stepped over and gave Ethan as big of a hug as she had given Aiden before pulling her granola bar out of her mouth and swallowing her bite.

“Good god, have you guy’s gotten taller?” She couldn’t back her smile as she crossed her arms.

“I think you’ve just gotten shorter..” Aiden commented with a smirk.

“Keep up those short jokes and we’ll see who’s really smaller real soon.” Her eyes went wide at remembrance, “Holy s**t guys, I almost forgot! Congratulations, I’ve been waiting years for you two to finally make it official.”

“Make what official?” All three of them turned to Lexi.

“Oh sorry, this is Ethan and Aiden. The twins I told you about.”

Lexi’s lips suddenly went small, “They look different than the pictures.”

“That’s because the pictures are from five or six years ago-Oh guys, this is my little sister Lexi.” She held her hand out to the girl.

“She’s… quite interesting looking.” Ethan suggested, moving to the chair.

“Thanks, I try.” Lexi stood up from the couch and went up to her room, the air stiff until the door at the top of the stairs closed.

“I don’t think she likes us very much.”

“She doesn’t.”

“Hm.” Aiden leaned against the edge of the chair. “So where’s Hope?”

“Scool. Or work. I can’t remember.”

“I told you.” Ethan lightly punched Aiden's hand, who slunked away and went over to plop down on the couch with Cas following next to him.

“Call Hope and tell her to get home right away.”

“Why?”

“We read something online and we think that it’s true, she needs to be here to see it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“A potential zombie-apocalypse.”

Cas let out a spitty laugh and hit Aiden's arm, “Don’t be shitting me like that. Come on, you know she’s a diehard believer of that stuff.”

“Well, so are we.”

“Yeah but, she’s like… extreme about it. Don’t get her hopes up.”

“Cas, we drove an hour to get here and to tell her about the news. We think it’s true, the article said they were going to talk about it on the news at three, and if you haven’t noticed that’s in twenty minutes.”

Cas sighed and stood up to get her phone from her room, “If this is another hoax, she’s gonna kill you two.”

“We know.” Cas came back out as she punched the numbers into her phone and plopped down on the couch, anxiously listening to phone ring.

Just when Cas thought she was going to be sent to voicemail, Hope answered with a hurried hello.

“Excuse me,” Hope jumped from where she was seated at the wiry metal table upon feeling someone tapping on her shoulder, she turned around to find a girl she had waited on earlier that day, “You’re Hope, right? The girl who took my order?”

This girl was gorgeous, she had beautiful nutmeg skin and long wavy peanut colored hair that swung in her face. From halfway down and to her tips, the girls hair ambres from a baby pink to a robins egg blue. She has a round face with soft features and warm brown eyes that draw your attention.

Taken aback from the tall girls beauty, Hope pauses a second before answering, “Uh, y-yes. Did I mess up your order?”

The girl looked puzzled for a second before shaking her head and laughing lightly, “Oh, no. I just wanted to give you you this.” The girl held her hand out to the other.

Hope hesitantly plucked the folded up piece of paper from the girls seafoam green nails and delicately unfolded it. Her face turned a faint red color as she read over the note, glancing up to find the suddenly bashful girl pushing her hair behind her ear, “Th-thank you,” Hope folded the paper back up and put it in her pocket, “I will gladly put that in my phone tonight.”

The girl smiled as much as Hope has been and then extended her hand, “I’m Grace.”

Hope stared at her hand for a brief second before shaking it, “Hope.”

The girl giggled, “I know.”

“Ahh, right. Right. Sorry. It’s just you’re-no I’m… no. You’re really cute.” The girl giggled more.

“You go to CU, right?”

“Yes.”

“I thought I had seen you before.” Grace let go of Hopes hand so she could make a fist and tap it on her open palm.

“We have a class together?”

“No, I don’t attend the school. The photography teacher is my dad and sometimes I’m in the classroom.

“You’re Mr. Poppy’s child?”

“Yep.”

“Oh wow, you look much different compared to when you’re sitting at the back of the room reading.”

“Thank you?”

“A good-!a good different. A good one. I mean, like, different as in you look good now-don’t get me wrong. You were-are beautiful in the classroom, but I only ever see you when walking into the room as opposed to now when I’m looking at your beau-your face.” Hope couldn’t decide if she should look at the ground or the girl’s face.

Grace only giggled and shook her head, “I understand. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Just as Grace risked looking at the other girl her phone started to go off.

A few seconds had gone by and Hope still hadn’t answered, worried that if she did the girl would leave, “You gonna get that?”

“Get what?” Ah yes, just play the oblivious card. Because that’s an attractive move.

“Your phone?”

“Oh, right.” Hope pulled out her phone and answered it quickly, “Hello?”

“Get home now.” She head Cas say urgently, a few other voices faint on the other end.

“What? Why?”

“There's something on the news that you need to see, come on.”

“What? No, I can’t just leave work to go home and watch a news segment.” Hope glanced over at Grace who was mouthing that she had to go and would hopefully hear from her later.

“Hope. Get back here now. It’s something important. The segment comes on in twenty minutes and you need to hear it. Just come back.” This was someone else now. Hope sighed and waved goodbye to the girl as she started putting her things away.

“Fine. Fine. I’m on my way. Be lucky that you live an hour away. I wouldn’t be doing this if I knew you guys didn’t drive so far to share urgent news with me.” Hope slung her laptop bag over her shoulder and made her way back into the shop.

“Thank you. We love you! See you in fifteen.” Hope hung up on them as she made her way to her bosses office to explain that something urgent had come up and she had to leave early, throwing in that the news of the tragic loss of her grandmother would prohibit her from doing quality work for the rest of the day.

Without a second thought, her boss let her leave early and Hope rushed out to her car, thankful that she had been running late that morning. She checked the time on her phone as she climbed into the car and made the short drive back to where she lived to find three people sitting on her couch anxiously staring at her as she stepped into the door and switching back to the t.v. Cas ushered Hope into the living room with her hand as she crossed her legs, resting each knee on both of the other boys knees. Hope stepped into the room, throwing a weird look in their direction as she slid into the chair.

“If I’m late to school because of this, yall are gonna get it.”

“Sh. I know. Just pay attention.” Cas hissed impatiently.

Hope rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the neatly put together new-woman.

“Thank you, John.” She glanced down at her papers as she straightened them out, “This next segment is a little shocking as it’s something that doctors and scientists are both having trouble figuring out.”

This station flips over to footage of a man lying in a hospital bed. “Henry Jacob’s was a victim to a disease that doctors had never seen before after returning from a trip in Guatemala. He was pronounced dead two days ago. Yesterday morning; however,” The camera flipped to another clip of the same man now attacking a nurse in his room, “He was not only up and moving, but attacking any person who entered his room and would fling himself against the door whenever someone would walk by.” The screen flipped back to news-woman, “They don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but they believe that this is something to be on the lookout and to avoid traveling to other countries until they figure out exactly what is going on. Anyone who has left the country in the last two weeks is asked to come get a check up. That is all we know now, we will release more information when it is available. Now for our hourly traffic report.”

The four bodies in the room went completely still as the two anchormen joked about a potential zombie-apocalypse happening, leaving them in utter disbelief. The three on the couch looked over at Hope who was staring at the t.v. screen still, completely unmoved from when she had sat down apart from her nails gripping tightly on the arm of the chair. She slowly turned her head to the three sitting on the couch, a smile twerking up on her lips.

Author's Note

SO SORRY I HAVEN'T BEEN UPDATING!! I have had a lot going on the last couple of weeks and have just not found any time to write. I don't know how I feel about this chapter but oh well, it's what I got so please enjoy.

Pleas please please leave comments! It helps motivate and I could use to helpful critiques!