Not Your Average Nerd

Chapter Six

“Well, your father and I are planning on going out for dinner tonight. I decided that I need to kick back a couple of drinks to forget how angry I am at Adrian.” She chuckled. I couldn’t imagine my mother as a drunk. She was either the extremely loud type or the, ugh, touchy-feel kind. “You’re welcome to join us if you’d like. This is your last night in town, after all. Your sister’s at her friend’s house.”

I thought about it for a second. Go with my parents and probably end up the designated driver? A shiver rolled down my back. My parents sitting in the back seat of the Sonata, drunk, doing god-knows-what.  I bit down twice, making click-y noises with my teeth. “I think I’ll stay at home, ma.”

She sighed while walking toward the door. “Are you sure? We can take you to our favorite spot.” Her eyebrows bounced. It made me laugh. I never realized how many things I did that I unknowingly picked up from my mother. She stood with her back against the door frame and her arms crossed in front of her chest.

Oh, I was positive.

“Yeah, I’ll probably order something and relax in the living room. We’ve been running around a lot in the last couple of days. I think a night of resting sounds good.” And avoiding being your driver as you attempt to conceive another sibling in the back of the car sounds better. I did my best to hold back a laugh.

Her shoulders shrugged as she stood on two feet. “If you insist.”

The house was empty, my bags were pack, and I was planted on the recliner, surrounded by chips, ice cream, and other unhealthy things that most people don’t think about consuming at once. Since I was the only one in the house I was free to watch what ever the hell I wanted how ever I wanted. No there one to nag about how stupid zombie movies are and no one to object my choice of DVD.

I shoveled a hearty spoonful of Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked ice cream into my mouth while watching the guy on TV have his guts ripped out by a snarling zombie. Each time blood would gush and splatter I would close my eyes. Since it was a zombie movie, I had my eyes shielded for more than half of the film. Blood, entrails, gore… everywhere.

It was raining outside pretty heavily. I could hear the rain pound against the side of the house each time the movie got quiet. ‘Shit,’ I thought as a loud clap of thunder shook the house. From the window at the far end of the living room I could see lighting flashing. There was one nasty storm going on. I felt bad for anyone and everyone who was out there.

The movie was still playing and I was torn between actually paying attention and getting preoccupied with the action going on outside. I could hear everything that was going on, but I was watching the window. Each time the lightning would flash I couldn’t help but jump. It was actually a more entertaining, in a strange sick way, than watching the bloody guy on TV ooze human-punch.

“Shit,” I hissed, realizing I was out of ice cream. “There must be a ghost. He finished the rest of my Ben and Jerry’s.” The saddest moment of an ice cream addict; the moment when you look down and notice that you can see the bottom of the carton. I reached over and placed the empty carton on the coffee table in front of me. My stomach rumbled, making me squirm. It was sad, really. Ice cream was my weakness, but I was Lactose Intolerant. Each time I wanted to eat anything containing dairy I was forced to swallow a supplement pill that tasted like dry phlegm. Even then, sometimes the supplements didn’t seem to work. I was a hotbed of the most unlucky genes known to man.

I looked back up at the movie and began watching again. The thunder seemed to ease up along with the lightning. It was still pouring rain outside, but that wasn’t a problem. The wild pack of zombies were roaming around the now-empty town looking for something to eat. It seems that they hadn’t planned their tactic out very well because they were out of food. No more humans left in the city and they were in near-desperate need of flesh. I rolled my eyes, watching the zombies begin to attack each other.