Jesse Eisenberg Imagines

Fortune Cookie ~~~ Columbus

Columbus and I had been together since the beginning of Z-Land. I lived on the floor below him and as everyone was scurrying, we ran into each other. From then on, I guess we just decided to stick together. Before everything went down, we had only one conversation.

"Uh, do you need some help with those? They look a little heavy." Apartment 410 asked as I lugged over 10 bags of groceries through the hall. He appeared to be coming back from a jog.

"Oh, these? Nah I'm just making it in one trip, it's not too-" I replied as I tripped over my own feet, dragging all of the bags with me. I huffed and closed my eyes. "Well yeah, actually maybe I need your help." I smiled innocently up at him from the floor. He smiled and gladly grabbed some of the bags from me and helped me up. I hadn't known this man very much besides the few times we smiled that smile that white people do you know? The white person smile? When you don't know someone. Anyways the point is I didn't know this guy but I was pleasantly surprised by his manners.

"Hey I mean, you did make it one trip ya know?" He joked as I unlocked my apartment. I laughed at his horrible pun.

"That was awful, I appreciate it; the joke and the help." He set down my stuff and shot me some finger guns.

"Anytime 395." He said with a light wave, shutting my door behind him.

He was so kind and adorable. I really hope I see him more often.

This conversation happened about a week before z-land started, and when it did start, our first conversation was about poor little apartment 406. Then we began with the names of where we were headed. I was in no rush to get to my destination, New York City. I didn't have much family left there, so I wasn't exactly thinking of them first when shit hit the fan. And if we're being honest, it was probably completely infested by zombies, with it being a huge city and all. So we headed to Columbus. We drove my car until it, unfortunately, broke down. I was then appreciative of Columbus's rule #7, travel light. Seeing as we were currently tracking on an abandoned highway in a general direction.

We had been walking for around for about 2 miles when a big black car came revving down the road. Columbus grabbed my hand quickly and pulled us behind a motorcycle. I blushed slightly as we sat shoulder to shoulder. He shook profusely as he held a gun to the car. A gruff and quite redneck looking man stepped out of the car unafraid and pulled a gun on Columbus, who stood and continued to shake. They had an apparent staring contest until Columbus shot out his hand with a thumbs up. To which I burst into laughter. And slapped his arm down, using it to hold me up as tears brimmed my eyes. The new man motioned to his car and I headed to the back.

"Thank you." Columbus sat his gun on the floor of the passenger seat. He looked back at where I was sitting, plus the floor and looked up at me.

"You lookin' for something?"

"Uh well, I have this list." He was talking about rule #31 Check the back seat.

"Don't worry C, I already checked. Trust me, I am not wishing for death that much." I smiled and winked at him. He smiled back with a slight flush to his cheeks.

I reached my hand toward cowboy, "I'm New York, by the way, that's Columbus. And you are?"

He nodded as he poured us both shots and one for himself. "I'm Tallahassee." I grabbed one cup and Columbus seemed perfectly fine as Tallahassee threw his head back with the swing and C threw it out the window. "More?"

"No no, one and done for me. That's what I say, or have said before."

"Weak." I leaned my hand for the bottle and took another swig. It's something you need during the apocalypse, whether you *want* it or not.

Soon it was dark and Tallahassee pulled over, locking the doors and rolling up the windows. Columbus leaned his seat back right onto my head as I giggled. "Hey dumbass I'm trying to sleep here."

"Oh, shit I-I'm sorry." He leaned back forward. "But hey, you get the whole seat back there I got this little single passenger seat." He gestured to my sprawled out body laying under a blanket, one of the only things I carried, #7.

"I can switch you if ya really want."

"No no no it's perfectly fine, I'll be fine." He spoke in a hushed tone, as Tal was already asleep.

"Okay fine."

A few seconds passed, which turned into a few minutes, which turned into an hour. It was normal for me not to get sleep in Z-Land. But usually, it only took me around 30 minutes, this was just excessive. I rolled over to see Columbus sleeping peacefully in his 'little single passenger seat'. I honestly didn't know how he wasn't cold. But he looked so cute when he slept. Little breaths coming from his nose, and very small, but visible smiles that crossed his lips. I had liked Columbus. He was the cutest kind of awkward. The 'Goes to Smoothly Lean on the Wall but Misses ™️' kind of awkward. And I saw it as endearing. And I truly didn't want to wake him, but if I didn't, I'm not sure I would get any sleep.

He stirred a bit before sitting up on his elbow a little bit and looking into my eyes, squinting to adjust to the darkness. "Are you okay?" He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah yeah, well kinda, not really. I can't sleep. At all. I'm kind of cold, and I just, I don't know."

"Do you, do you want me to come back there, and sleep with you? Like sleep with you, literally, not in the biblical sense, you know what I mean." It was dark, but I could still see how red his face was, endearing.

As he climbed back, I pulled out my wallet and looked through some of my pictures to calm me. He laid next to me ever so softly. "Who is that? If you don't mind me slightly impeding on your personal life." He asked pointing to one of the pictures.

"That's my mom. Or my best friend, same difference."

"You look just like her." He smiled, looking at me.

"That's a huge compliment, thank-" I stopped as a small slip of paper slid from the top pocket of my wallet. He picked it up and furrowed his eyebrows at me. "Oh, I use to keep some of my fortunes from fortune cookies. I liked this one the best so I kept it in my wallet. So I look at it every once in a while. Because it reminds me of what's going on in the world right now." It read *Take the chance while you still have the choice*. I turned it to him so he could read it. "Ya know, because you don't get a choice to be a flesh-eating-zombie." He nodded slightly. Just looking at me.

And then I came to a realization. This was my choice, and this was my chance. I took a deep breath and leaned in quickly to connect my lips to his. He gasped in surprise but soon grabbed my face and kissed back.

He laughed a little, pulling away. "What?"

"I was just doing what the fortune cookie said. Who am I to stand in the way of fate." I said with a fake swoon. He shook his head and brought me in for another kiss.

That was the first time since Z-Land started that I got a decent amount of sleep, and boy was I grateful.

God am I glad for my past clumsiness.

Word count ~ 1,360

Published ~ January 6th, 2020