I stretched, winced as my sore muscles protested and injuries pulled, and grabbed my phone. Three new texts awaited me.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and saw that the first was from Kat, aka Meow. U promised deets!
The second was also from Kat. Where are my deets??
The third was from Justin. Well, I hadn’t stored his number, so the digits were unfamiliar, but I knew it was him because of the question. What time should I pick U up?
He’d once asked me if I was dating Cole, and I’d said no. “No” was still the answer. But. There was always a
“A date?” Pops toyed with the edge of one thick, silver brow. “Where’s he taking you? What time will you be home?”
“What if he wants to have sex with you?” Nana immediately jumped in. “Did your mother talk to you about sex?”
Oh, no. Not the sex talk. Please, not the sex talk. “Yes, Mom talked to me.” Moving on. “A girl from school, Reeve, has a pool and a group of us are going over there to hang out. Kat introduced me to her, and I promise you, I will not be having sex with anyone.” I was beyond embarrassed even saying the word in front of them.
And you know what else? After everything that had happened last night, it was weird, sitting here, eating lunch with my family, having a conversation that thousands of other teens were probably having.
“Reeve.” Pops pursed his lips. “That sounds like a made-up name to me. What exactly will be crackalackin at this party? Will her parents be there?”
Again with the horrible slang, the adorable man. “We’ll swim, talk, probably play video games and Ping-Pong,” I said, sidestepping the parents portion of his interrogation. I hadn’t heard one way or the other, but I suspected a big fat no.
Pops gave me the evil eye. “You’re not going to get chewed, are you?”
I…had no idea how to respond to that. “Chewed?”
“Don’t pretend to misunderstand, young lady,” Nana said. “Chewed. Cranked. Trashed.”
“You mean drunk?” Please, let them mean drunk. This discussion had already taken too many horrendous turns.
My grandparents nodded in unison, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“No,” I said. “I promise. No drinking.”
I silently added. Who knew what the other kids would be doing—after taking shots of tequila off of each other’s bellies.
“All right, then. We’ll trust you. Unless and until you give us reason not to,” Nana added in that stern, motherly tone of hers. “But we’ll want to meet this boy, talk to him before you leave with him, that kind of thing.”
I did not allow myself to gulp guiltily, even though I wanted to. “Thank you. He’s nice, I promise. But we’re not interested in each other that way.”
“Then why are you going out with him?” Nana asked, clearly exasperated with my continued insistence.
“Because he asked me.”
“Are you leading him on?” Pops demanded.
“No!”
“We ask because we care.” Nana brushed her hands together, and crumbs went flying in every direction. “Now, then. Do you need a few dead presidents?”
Took me a minute to decipher that one, too. “Maybe a few…Washingtons,” I said, giving the slang a shot just to make them happy. They were such good people. They’d taken me in, given me a home, food and even personal space to mourn in my own way.
Pops pulled out his wallet. “What if there’s an emergency, and this boy leaves you alone in the restaurant? He
“Uh, we’re not going out to eat.”
“What kind of boy takes a girl to a party without feeding her first? Not one I’d want to date, that’s for sure,” Nana said.
“We’re not dating!”
They had a few more questions about the party—was I planning to skinny-dip, play strip
I liked that they cared enough about me to be concerned, but, oh, wow, this was painful. I’d never had this experience with my parents because I’d never gone out. Too bad I hadn’t realized what a blessing that was until too late.
Back in my room, I finally had the opportunity to research zombies without falling asleep. Most of the info I found stemmed from movies, fictional books, a magazine about dating the undead, and role-playing that icked me out big-time, especially with images of naked Ping-Pong running through my mind. There was nothing I could take seriously, but I did find a few forums where people speculated about were-zombies-real-or-weren’t-they, what to do if you actually found one and the possibility of an uprising.
Nothing mirrored what Cole and Frosty had told me, and that proved one of two things. Either we were the best-kept secret in the world, or I just hadn’t found the right sites. I was leaning toward option two. Even my dad had managed to find a site with tidbits of correct information. He’d read that guns wouldn’t hurt the zombies; he just hadn’t believed.
As I was closing the laptop, I spotted Emma’s photo and the journal I’d left on my closet floor. Nana must have done some cleaning and placed the items on my desk. I blew Emma a kiss before picking up the journal.
How could I have forgotten it, even for a moment? It was the reason I’d known about spirit, soul and body
.
“Check, maybe check, can’t check yet,” I muttered.
Cole had already told me about the speaking thing, and though I’d first doubted him, this acted as confirmation. I’d have to be more open-minded about this stuff.
Maybe Cole would have an idea, but then again, maybe he wouldn’t. I wasn’t going to ask him.
He and his friends had not yet given me their full trust, and I wasn’t sure what they’d think of my find. Decide it was a fraud? A way to trick them? A way to distract them? Also, I had to wonder if they’d try to take it away from me.
Okay, so I didn’t trust them fully, either.
Kat: U enjoy torture, I think. TELL ME NOW!
I’d missed an earlier text, I saw.
Justin: Sounds good. C U then.
I dealt with Kat first. I told her that Cole and I had spent the night together, yes, but we hadn’t done more than talk. Now that was the full truth and nothing but the truth. She was disappointed to say the least. And when I told her that Cole had had car trouble and that Frosty had to come to our rescue, she stopped texting.
I told Justin I was excited to see him, which was also true, but then I had to pray that he wouldn’t take the words the wrong way. My grandparents had me paranoid about leading him on.
Then I had to ponder what Cole and his hell-razing boys and girls would think of my association with Justin. They were such an exclusive group. Outsiders were not welcome, and everyone knew it. Including me! By joining them, I would probably have to shove everyone else from my life. Justin I liked but wouldn’t cry about losing. But what about Kat? Would she eventually fade from my life? She had from Frosty’s.
I really really liked her. She was fun and fresh and exciting. She knew her worth and wasn’t afraid to tell others all about it.
Here’s how it went down:
Pops: Plans for the future?
Justin: Not sure yet.
Pops: Well, why not? You don’t got much longer in school, boy. Now’s the time to figure things out, not later. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that you can’t spell
Pops: “Doing my best” is a phrase failures use. Why don’t you buy a man card and finish figuring?
Me: Pops! That’s so rude. Justin, I’m so sorry.
I knew this was for my benefit, for my protection, that my grandparents were concerned about me, and didn’t want me to end up with a guy like my dad, that they wanted Justin to be so intimidated by them that he wouldn’t try anything he shouldn’t, but oh, my goodness, it was too much.
Pops: What? How is a valid question rude? But all right, fine, I’ll move on since baby boy can’t take the heat. How about you finish this sentence for me, Jason? When a girl says no, she means…
Justin, looking desperately at me: No?
Nana: Are you not sure?
Justin, shifting uncomfortably: I’m sure. No means no.
Nana: Well, look at you. You got one right. Now here’s another, even tougher sentence for you to finish. Premarital sex is…
Me: Nana! I’m so sorry, Justin.
Nana: Unlike Pops, I’m not moving on. Justin?
Pops: His name is Jason.
Justin: Uh…uh…
Pops: While you think about that, why don’t you tell me how you feel about drinking and driving?
Justin: I’m totally against it, I swear!