14AN: From the little bit of searching I did, I'm relatively certain that Zombies Eat Your Brains is not a real game. That being the case, I took a LOT of liberties with the gameplay. And please keep in mind that my gaming knowledge is somewhat limited, so if you see any glaring errors that I've made, feel free to point them out to me so I can fix them.
Disclaimer: I don't own Girl Meets World or any of its characters.
Unlocking the apartment door, Lucas swung it inward, then held it open for Riley. "My mom should be home in about half an hour, so we won't be bothered until then."
Accepting the news with a nod, Riley entered the apartment, her fingers locked a little nervously around the strap of the bedazzled backpack hanging over her shoulder. They hadn't been completely alone like this since they'd all come back from Texas. They'd all adjusted to the changes in their relationships in the months since then, so it wasn't like she was afraid to be alone with Lucas or anything, they were only friends. But somehow they weren't exactly the same as they'd been before their unofficial thing became officially over. Their one-on-one interactions didn't seem to be as easy as before.
Which might make the history project her dad had assigned them a little awkward. That's what they were at Lucas's house to work on. Their presentation was due the next week, and they hadn't spent much time working on it at all.
"Do you want something to drink before we get started?" he offered politely. "We have water, juice, and I think we probably have some Sprite," he listed, naming her favorite kind of soda last.
"Yeah, Sprite would be good if you have it," she replied amenably.
He disappeared into the kitchen for a minute and when he came back he had two cans of soda in his hands. Handing her the green can, he tilted his head toward the hallway. "We can work back in my room," he told her, taking a step in that direction. Then he paused and added somewhat questioningly, "If that's okay."
"It's fine," she assured him, falling into step behind him as he continued on down the hall and led the way into his bedroom.
It wasn't the first time she'd been in his room, they'd hung out there several times before, usually with varying combinations of their friends, but she still found herself looking around and briefly taking in their surroundings. The color scheme was blue with touches of red, and there were posters of horses and sports figures on the walls. The headboard of his bed was made up of shelves that held books, memorabilia, and trophies, and the wall adjacent to the bed contained a built-in desk and bookshelves that held more of the same. It was an eclectic mix of sports, animals, and scholarly pursuits that was all uniquely Lucas.
A small t.v. sat against the wall at the end of the bed and, for the first time, she noticed a connected game console there that immediately caught her interest.
"So, you have the same kind of game thing that Farkle has?" she asked nonchalantly as she slid her backpack off her shoulder to set it on the bed.
Lucas was pulling the encircling strap of his own book bag over his head and, at her question, looked over to see the direction of her gaze. "What, the gaming system? Well, mine's about five years old and Farkle has the latest one, but yeah, they're both PlayStations. Why?"
With a shrug, she opened her backpack and said dismissively, "Just curious."
As she pulled out a few reference books and the notes they'd made for their project so far, her eyes kept straying to his collection of video games.
Laying out his own notebook and history text on the desk, he asked, "What did you want to start with? I was sort of thinking—" Turning to look at her, he broke off when he found her over by the t.v. rifling through a handful of video games. "What are you doing?"
She looked up and guiltily laid the game cases back where she'd found them. "Nothing. Just looking at your games."
A look of confused inquiry creasing his features, he questioned, "Why are you suddenly so interested in...?" In that moment understanding dawned, and his face brightened with a knowing grin. "You want to play 'Zombies Eat Your Brains' again, don't you?"
"No," she denied immediately. "That game was horrible. All the blood and brains everywhere, and the zombies with the... " she gestured outward from her stomach with her hand, "stuff oozing, and the..." she made the same gesture at her head, "ick hanging out of their heads. It was horrible is what it was," she repeated emphatically. And after a beat, "Do you have it?"
Chuckling, he went over to join her by the t.v. Going down to his knee to pull one of the games out from the row lined up on the shelf below the t.v., he answered, "I don't have the one Farkle had, but I have version 3. It's basically the same, it's just a different setting and you don't have all the same weapons." He held up the case, wiggling it slightly back and forth. "So do you wanna play?"
Biting her lip, Riley looked at the books laying out in readiness for them to get to work. "We should really get going on our project."
"We can play for a little while first, and then we'll work on the project until you go home," he compromised.
She held out for another second or two, but then she readily gave in and joined him on the floor. "Okay, just for a little while. And then we work," she reiterated.
"Definitely," he agreed, turning on the game system and loading up the game.
Two hours later they were still glued to the screen, shooting and hacking their way through the zombie hordes.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon..." Riley worked the buttons on the controller frantically, trying to herd a group of zombies with the slashing of her saber. When she'd gotten them where she wanted them, the bomb Lucas had set up in a nearby building exploded, sending zombie parts flying everywhere. "Yes! Die!" she crowed in triumph.
"I thought you were sorry for treating them so bad," Lucas said teasingly, not taking his eyes from the screen as he used his controller to shoot the zombies that had come pouring from an adjacent building.
"I was. But now... not so much," she replied. "Now, they just need to die!" The proclamation had risen in urgency as their targets increased in number to surround them and she jabbed at alternate buttons to make her character kick them away and hack them up with her weapon.
Sneaking a look at her, Lucas laughed silently. He was getting such a kick out of watching her play. If they'd been playing against each other she might have been winning because he was spending just as much time watching her reactions as he was focused on the action on the screen. She was just so into it and was so vocal about it. He never would have imagined that sweet little sunshiney Riley had such a vicious streak hidden inside. It cracked him up. And if he was completely honest, it stirred up the same kind of feelings he'd had when she'd ranted to him about the Knicks.
"I'm getting killed, here," she exclaimed, sending his attention back to the screen. "Lucas! What do I do?"
"Use your med kit, your health's getting too low," he instructed. "And get out your pistol. You can use that and the saber at the same time."
He was helping her fight off the horde that had gathered around her when his mom poked her head inside the open doorway.
"Dinner's almost ready, Lucas," she announced with her soft southern accent. "Riley, are you staying to eat with us, hon?"
Startled back to reality, Riley looked up at the woman's friendly, inquiring face. When her words registered, she hastily reached across Lucas to bring up the arm wearing his watch so she could see it. Seeing that it was nearly 6:00 o'clock, she was aghast.
"Thanks, Mrs. Friar, but I should be getting home," she replied.
"Now, Riley, I've told you to call me Lindsey," she scolded good-naturedly. "Mrs. Friar makes me sound so stodgy."
Riley laughed a little, even though that wasn't the first time she'd said that. "Right. Sorry. Lindsey," she corrected herself a bit shyly. "I didn't realize it was getting this late. I'll just go home and let you guys eat," she said, climbing to her feet.
"Alright, but there's no rush. Your dad won't be home for dinner, so we can start whenever you want," she directed to Lucas.
"Okay, thanks, Mama," he acknowledged, still on the floor as he saved the progress on their game.
She nodded in return, and after sending Riley another smile, she withdrew from the room.
Lucas got to his feet after shutting down the game and Riley put her controller in his waiting hand. "I can't believe we played so long. We didn't get anything done on our project at all, Lucas," she said guiltily.
"Yeah, I guess we kinda lost track of time," he replied a little wincingly. "But it's not due till Monday. We still have a few more days. And we can work on it all weekend if we have to."
Comforted slightly, Riley nodded. "You're right. We should be able to get it done in four days. We just have to buckle down. And no more zombies," she declared sternly.
"No more zombies," he agreed.
################
"Get over here and die, you sorry brain suckers!" Riley wielded her game controller with undue force as she knocked off the multitude of zombies Lucas was leading into their trap. "Lucas, I'm almost out of ammo for my magnum. How do I get more?" she said anxiously.
"You have to wait until you level up. Just use the basic pistol. It never runs out, but you're gonna have to use a lot more shots," he advised, working his own controller skillfully.
They'd come to his house again to work on their project after school the next afternoon, and after working for an hour they'd decided they deserved a break. According to Riley they also deserved a reward. And killing zombies was rewarding. So here they were.
"There's too many of them. We're never gonna get across this freeway." The action on the screen was taking place on a desolate stretch of interstate. Eight lanes of cracked and broken highway were divided by a swath of overgrown grass, and there were abandoned vehicles in varying stages of deterioration sitting motionless on the road as far as you could see.
"Yeah we will," Lucas replied encouragingly. "Just try and use the cars for cover. I'll clear a path in front of us and you just watch our backs."
Following his plan, they both clicked away on their controllers to try and work their way to the other side of the derelict highway. Riley was leaning forward intently as she tried to do her part. When one of their targets edged into view from around the side of an abandoned camper trailer, it turned out to be the first of many. "Oh no you don't!" she said fiercely. "You're not ganging up on me. Keep coming, I dare you!" She shot round after round with her pistol while trying to stay close behind Lucas's character.
"Riley, watch out. There's one in that car ahead of you," he cautioned, and she jerked her attention from her camper buddies to find one straining to reach her through the broken window of the car she was skirting around. Six shots put it down.
"Ha! That's what you get!" she exulted.
They'd made it across four lanes and the median, and were shooting their way through the obstacles on the adjoining road when the alarm on Riley's phone went off. She'd set it so they wouldn't lose track of time the way they had the day before.
Slowly reaching with one hand, she blindly groped for her phone on the floor beside her while doing her best to continue manipulating her controller with the other. When she had hold of the cell she brought it up near her face and spared it a glance to shut off the alarm as she carried on playing.
They continued for another minute or so and then Lucas cast a quick look over at her. "We should stop. We said thirty minutes."
"I know. But let's at least get across the highway first," she entreated, and Lucas gave in easily.
Twenty minutes later they were across the road and well into the woods on the other side of it.
"We should really stop," Lucas said again as they hiked through the trees onscreen and swung their swords at any zombies that snuck up on them through the foliage.
"No, wait. I wanted to see if we could find the camp that was on that sign back there," she protested. "You said we could get new stuff there."
"But we need to get back to work. Project, remember? We still have a lot to do." His tone was reminiscent of one who was bargaining with a child to get him to go to bed. "Come on, this is a good place to stop. There's not that much action going on." Suiting his words to actions, he brought the game to a stop.
"But the camp," Riley pouted sadly.
Laughing, Lucas said soothingly, "The camp will be there later, I promise. Right now we need to get some more work done."
Riley sighed discontentedly. "Okay, you slave driver. But I say if we work for another hour, we deserve another break."
"Deal," he laughingly agreed.
################
"Did you know there's an online version of 'Zombies Eat Your Brains'?"
As soon as Riley saw Lucas at school the next morning she accosted him in the hall.
Lips curling in amusement, Lucas replied, "Good morning, Riley. Nice to see you, too."
"Oh, sorry," she said sheepishly. "Hi, Lucas. So, did you?"
"Yeah, Farkle and I have teamed up and played it online before. Zay, too sometimes. Why? Were you thinking about getting it?"
"I've got some allowance saved up. I can't believe I'm thinking about spending it on that, but I thought I might."
"I thought it was just a horrible game," he teased, reminding her of her earlier words.
"It is," she upheld her stance. And then wryly added, "But apparently I'm into horrible. I haven't decided whether I should be disturbed by that yet," she ended on a light note with her face creased in a pondering expression.
Lucas laughed. "Well, the online version is a little different from the one for the console. Farkle would probably let you borrow his if you wanted to check it out first. Maybe we could play together sometime this weekend."
"That would be fun. I'll ask him," she agreed, and they turned to walk to class.
###################
That afternoon they stopped at Farkle's house on their way to Lucas's. They didn't even have to discuss whether they'd be working on their project at his house anymore, it had become a given. And it was also a given that they'd be playing the game.
"Get it, get it, get it! Lucas, don't let it get away!"
"I'm trying," he replied as his fingers furiously worked the controller.
They'd spotted a zombie wearing a pendant in the overrun warehouse they were currently playing in, and according to Lucas, the pendant would give them power boosts if they could get it for themselves. It was proving to be a difficult task though. The warehouse was a maze of shelves, piled high with dusty boxes, and the term 'overrun' was an apt description. Zombies kept lurching out at them from around every corner, and they had to fight their way through them to keep up with the moving treasure zombie.
"Keep your eye on him, but don't try to get him yourself. It'll take both of us to kill him," he told her.
Riley held her own controller in a tight grip, unconsciously moving it this way and that as she followed the action onscreen, and feverishly working the buttons in response. "Get out of my way, you- annoying..." the pause was filled with a flurry of button-pushing, "undead...gore-heads!"
Lucas erupted in laughter. "Gore-heads?"
"Shut up. My brain is too busy to think about what my mouth says." Her smile was chagrined and she spared a hand for a brief moment to push at his shoulder in retaliation.
Swaying sideways as he allowed himself to be pushed, Lucas laughed again. They were in their usual playing position, sitting side by side on the floor with their backs leaning against the end of his bed. When he was upright again, he gave her a playful nudge back with his shoulder.
"You're cute when you're trying to be vicious."
His fingers faltered on his control pad when he realized what he'd said, and Riley was startled into a moment of inattention as well. That hadn't exactly seemed like something a boy would say to a girl who was just a friend. There was a pause filled with awkwardness as they both looked stoically ahead and tried to figure out what to do next. Their attention was swiftly reclaimed by the action onscreen when a group of zombies spilled out of an alcove in front of them and converged on their game characters. Thankful for the reprieve, they fell upon them with renewed vigor.
And snuck glances at one another when they thought the other wasn't looking.
########################
"Why can't we go into the crumbling-down mall?" Riley asked poutingly. "You said there was so much treasure in there," she bemoaned.
"I also said there's a pet store in there and the animals have turned into monsters. You're not ready for that," Lucas said indulgently for the second time.
Riley had retreated to her room with Farkle's game the minute she'd finished dinner. And after she'd gotten it queued up on her laptop she'd immediately called Lucas. They'd both put their cellphones on speaker so they could talk while they played together.
"Well, when will I be ready?" she continued to pout, really wanting to explore the dilapidated structure.
"I don't know, you should level up a few times, gain some more skill," he advised. "And you should wait until you're a little more comfortable with the controls, too. Playing on a keyboard is a lot different than using a game controller. You need to get used to it."
"I am used to it. We've been playing for nearly an hour," she reminded him.
"Yeah, but it's different when things get intense. It's easy to get confused when you're not really familiar with which key controls what. Just level up first and then you can get a better weapon. You'll need that, too."
"Okay, fine," she sighed, abandoning the mall and sending her character running to catch up with Lucas's. "So where are you taking me then?"
"Outside the city limits there's an old poultry farm, and the chickens have all been turned."
"Zombie chickens? You're making that up," she accused him, her tone entirely skeptical.
"No, I'm not, I promise," Lucas laughed. "They're not that hard to kill and it's an easy way to build your experience up really fast."
"Ookay," Riley assented, still sounding a bit dubious. "Zombie chickens it is."
For the next little while their game characters were mostly just running through the empty streets of the decaying city. They engaged in a few small skirmishes, and Lucas had them stop a couple of times to pick up things of value, but they stayed on their course, heading out of the city. Lucas also used the time to teach her how to use the map to find new locations to explore.
When they made it to the farm, Lucas led her past a several small outbuildings to a long structure with tiny windows. A few small creatures listlessly roamed around outside, and when they got close she could see that sure enough, they were chickens-turned-zombies. Feathery tufts covered their bodies in patches, with their skin showing through in others. The area all around their eyes were red, and their beaks were black and curved at the end.
"Aww, look at their little chicken faces," Riley cooed. "They're so ugly they're cute. Lucas, I can't shoot these. They look like helpless little barnyard animals with a skin condition."
"You think so? Get a little closer," he challenged.
She moved forward until she was practically in the midst of them. As soon as they noticed her presence they converged on her, flying at her with low, hissing squawks. Their little chicken faces had contorted to look like demon birds with hugely gaping beaks, and she suddenly had no compunction about shooting them.
"Okay, chicken or not, you're clearly zombies. And all zombies must die," she declared, firing at them in the air and on the ground.
The shots brought more pouring out of the large building and she started pounding the key frenziedly to make her pistol fire. "Die, chickens, die!"
Lucas's chuckle poured through the speaker of her phone. "Go get 'em, tiger," he teasingly encouraged, and his character on the screen stood back and watched her go.
######################
"Lucas, hey. I made it to the abandoned bunker on the other side of the Dead Zone. But I can't..." A button clicked rapidly and repeatedly for a few seconds, "get past these..." there was more clicking, "soldier zombies to get inside. I've tried the silver-tipped saber, and the machete, and even a..." *click-click-click* *click-click* "level4 magnum. What do I need to kill these guys?"
"Riley?" On the other end of the phone, Lucas let his head fall back to his pillow, and his voice was gritty with sleep.
"Yeah," Riley answered, making a face and laughing a little in question of the strange reply. "Who did you think?"
"Uh- I didn't...actually."
She wasn't able to make any sense of what he was saying, so she just moved on. "So, do I need to get a new weapon before I take these guys on or something? Because nothing I've got seems to be working."
Still a little fuzzy-headed, Lucas wiped the sleep from his eyes as he asked, "You're still playing?"
"Yeah," she replied a bit impatiently. Her mind was almost wholly focused on the zombie fight taking place on her screen and she couldn't figure out why she was having such a hard time getting an answer from him. "How do I get past these soldier zombies guarding the entrance?"
Lips closing on the end of a long yawn, Lucas gave his head a jarring shake and attempted to get with the program. "Where did you say you were?"
"The abandoned bunker on the other side of the Dead Zone," she repeated absently, fingers still jabbing away at her keyboard. "The one with the giant silver bullet thingies outside."
"I think those are probably fuel tanks," he corrected her.
"Oh," she nodded, taking that in. "Gotcha."
"And I'm not sure how you get inside. I've never been out there. How did you get so far out?"
"I don't know," Riley shrugged negligibly. "I picked a spot on the map and kept going." *click-click-click-click*
"Well, I don't know which weapon you need, sorry. Maybe Farkle would know."
"Okay, thanks anyway. I'll just call him."
"I wouldn't call him right now," he dissuaded her drily. He had to smile at the obliviousness of her reply when she asked why not. "Riley, do you have any idea what time it is?"
She didn't say anything for a moment, as she presumably checked the clock, then the sound of clicking stopped altogether. "Oh my gosh, is it really 1:30? Lucas, I'm so sorry. I had no idea."
He laughed as she apologized profusely
"I never would've called if I'd known it was so late. I woke you up," she realized now, finally understanding why his replies had been so muddled when she'd first called. "I'm so, so sorry. Just pretend this was all a dream- a crazy, this-would-never-happen-in-real-life kind of dream- and go back to sleep."
He started to say something to assure her it was alright, but she'd already ended the call. Shaking his head laughingly, he turned over on his side and burrowed under the covers to get back to sleep.
And later he dreamed- an amazing, wish-this-could-happen-in-real-life kind of dream- about a certain quirky brunette who made him happy and didn't think of him at all like a brother.
######################
Sunday afternoon found them both back at Lucas's house doing the same thing they'd spent a large part of Saturday doing. They were both playing the online version of the game on their laptops now so they could've played at Riley's house, but somehow, Lucas's had become their go-to place to play/work on their project. Lucas was sitting against the pillows on his bed, socked feet flat on the bed, with his laptop propped on his bent knees, and Riley had her computer open at his desk. She was leaning far forward in the chair, working the keys on her keyboard with her usual intensity.
"You better run, suckers!" she said with fierce satisfaction while spewing bullets into the moaning crowd that was shambling away. "My assault rifle wants to have you for breakfast and I'm inclined to give it what it wants." She gave a tip of her head as she spoke to the screen, and a savage little smile was curling her lips as she continued to chase them away.
"Easy, tiger," Lucas drawled in amusement, glancing over at her from behind his own screen. "You're gonna use up all your ammo and you just got that gun." He turned his attention back to the game, where he was throwing grenades from the roof to help get them in the clear. "You might want to try and conserve a little 'cause I'm not sure how long it'll be till we find the next supply post."
"But look how many I can take out with this thing." She demonstrated with another hail of bullets. "It's so much better than the pistol."
"Yeah. And it can take out things that are a lot harder to kill. If you have any ammo left when we come up on them," he told her in smiling admonishment, his eyes not wavering from the action on his computer.
"Alright, alright. Killjoy," she muttered, putting the rifle back into her inventory and getting her katana sword out instead. Using it to kill the remaining zombies between her and the door, she went inside the defunct power plant they were currently scoping out. "What are we looking for in here?"
"There should be a lot of components hidden all over the place that we can use in our defenses and to modify our weapons. Check anything that seems out of place and see if you can pick it up and add it to your inventory."
"Ooo, it's like an Easter egg hunt." She straightened excitedly and gave a little bounce in her seat, a wide smile wreathing her face.
"Sort of, yeah," he agreed with a grin, tickled by her response.
They spent awhile exploring the darkened building and searching for the items Lucas had spoken of. The exploration was often interrupted when they encountered small bands of zombies that had to be dispensed with before they could move on. At one point during their search Riley discovered a small object on the floor that was spewing small sparks that lit the area around it.
"Hey, Lucas. What is this?" She turned her screen so he could see it. "It looks like it's ready to explode or something."
"No, it's okay. It's just an electrical component. When you get to level 35 you can modify some of the weapons into plasma rifles and laser guns. That's just one of the parts you need to do that."
"Oh, cool." She picked the harmless item up and added it to her stash, then continued to forage around.
They were still at it when Lucas's mom looked in on them. "You kids havin' fun?" she asked, leaning inside the doorway. When they both replied that they were, she said questioningly, "So you got through with your project?"
Riley and Lucas looked at each other guiltily.
"Not quite," he had to admit.
"We're just taking a break," Riley added in support. "I set my alarm so we wouldn't play too long." She lifted her phone from the desk to show her.
"Alright, well...I'll leave you to it then," Lindsey told them.
As she was leaving, Riley glanced at her phone to see how much time they had left to play. Seeing the time displayed there, her eyes widened and she took a closer look. "Lucas, my alarm didn't go off. It's 4:30," she exclaimed, thrusting her phone's screen in his direction.
"What? We can't have been playing that long," he argued.
"Well...look at your watch. Maybe my phone's wrong," she suggested.
"You know your phone's not wrong," he replied chidingly, but he looked at his watch anyway.
"Maybe I was resetting the time when I thought I was setting my alarm," she came up with the explanation desperately.
"If you did, I somehow reset my watch, too. 4:30," he confirmed, holding out his wrist as if she could see his watch from there. "Y'know, if we'd spent half as much time working on this project as we had coming up with excuses for us to play, we'd probably be finished with it by now," he said wryly.
"I know," Riley sighed. "This game is kind of addicting. Why didn't you tell me?"
Lucas shrugged smilingly. "I've never gotten as caught up in it as I have been since you started playing it with me."
"You're saying I'm a bad influence on you?" Her expression became one of delight as a smile of intrigue spread across her face. "I've never been a bad influence before. I think I like it."
He laughed. "You might not like it so much when we only have half a project to present tomorrow."
Riley made a face. "We're not gonna get a very good grade on it, are we?"
"Probably not," he agreed.
"We need to get to work. And no more breaks," she declared. "Seriously, Lucas. Absolutely, positively no more zombies until we're through," she insisted, even though most of the time it had been she, herself who'd instigated the play time.
Lucas didn't hold it against her though. He merely nodded in agreement. And they worked on their project until she had to go home.
####################
The next morning in class, they reluctantly gave their presentation, knowing that it wasn't up to their usual standards. It took them three minutes to present the whole thing. They knew because they'd timed it. And the only reason it took that long was because they'd reworded a few things so they could say them twice, and they went off on a tangent a couple of times that sort of strayed from the subject (courtesy of Riley, who was fluent in tangent-speak).
When they were through, Mr. Matthews let their last word hang in the air as if he was waiting for them to say something else.
When nothing else was forthcoming he said, "That's all ya got?"
Lucas's brows lifted slightly and Riley's lips were rolled inward as they exchanged a silent look with one another. Looking back at their teacher, they nodded meekly.
"I can tell you how many seconds it takes for a room to fill up with zombies in an attack," Riley offered with a hopeful smile.
His face screwed up in confusion, Cory asked, "What do zombies have to do with anything?"
More than he knew, Riley thought darkly. But out loud she said feebly, "They sort of ate the rest of our project." Though he didn't know it, that was completely true. Their project time had been eaten up with playing Zombies.
"Really?" he said disbelievingly. "You're giving me the dog ate my homework excuses?" He shook his head in disappointment. "I really expect more from you two."
"Sorry, sir."
"Sorry, Daddy," they said simultaneously, twin looks of contrition on their faces as their eyes fell to the floor.
"Ah, go sit down, botha ya." He waved them away and they both escaped to their desks gratefully.
When they were seated they exchanged another look, this one rueful and relieved. Class continued on as Mr. Matthews called the next pair to the front of the room to give their presentation.
It wasn't until classes were nearly over for the day that the subject of afternoon plans came up. Lucas and Riley had Algebra together sixth period, and he usually walked her to her last class since his was just a few doors down the hall.
"Sooo, what are you doing after school today?" he broached the subject as they walked together through the busy hallway. She'd been going to his house every day for the past five days, but now that their history project was over, she didn't have a legitimate reason for going. Now if she went, it couldn't be considered as anything other than them hanging out, just the two of them. Feeling a little unsure of where they stood on that front, he asked tentatively, "Did you want to come over and play the video game?"
Equally aware that things were different now with the conclusion of their project, Riley shot him an uncertain look. "Oh.. well, actually I was thinking that I would spend some time with Maya today. I've sort of been neglecting her lately," she explained.
"Yeah, okay," he nodded quickly in acceptance. "I haven't been hanging out with Zay and Farkle much lately either, so..." he left the sentence dangling, the implication clear that he would just hang out with them.
She nodded and they looked away from each other. For a short distance they were quiet, both of them feeling the loss of a routine that they'd really taken pleasure in for the past several days.
"But maybe...I mean, what about tomorrow?" she asked hesitantly. "I'm giving Farkle his game back today and I thought maybe tomorrow after school I'd go out and get my own. Would you want to come with me and help me pick it out? 'Cause, you know, I wouldn't want to get the wrong one or anything."
Lucas instantly brightened at the suggestion, a smile stretching across his face. "Sure. I could do that," he agreed.
"And maybe, after we got it, I could come over and we could play?"
They came to a stop at the door of her classroom and Lucas turned to look at her. His smile had softened and his expression was warm as he replied, "I'd really like that."
"Good," she said happily, giving him a bright smile of her own. "So tomorrow it'll be you, me, and the zombies."
"Sounds like a plan," he laughed.
They parted ways with a wave and she entered her health class feeling a warm, happy glow. Her relationship with Lucas over the past several months had felt off in some way that she couldn't define. She'd hated the distance that had appeared between them since she'd told him she wanted him to be her brother, she just hadn't been able to figure out how to fix it.
But things definitely felt different now. Better. Somehow, that game had eased the way between them. Playing it with him over the past several days, she'd been the most comfortable she'd ever felt with him.
It was a testament to how crazy her world was that she had zombies to thank for that.
The End