UNDER EDITING 𝐺𝑅𝐴𝑉𝐸 𝐷𝐴𝑁𝐺𝐸𝑅 | 𝐴𝑃𝑂𝐶𝐴𝐿𝑌𝑃𝑆𝐸 ✔︎

The Get Together

(Noah's POV)

My eyes slowly open, the sun shining through my window. I sit up slowly and rub the sleep from my eyes. How did I end up in my bed?

I make my way towards a dresser in the room. "I wonder if the previous owner left their clothes behind.." I mumble. I open the drawer and see a combination of things. The clothes weren't folded, they were just scrunched up and messy. I can see flannels, jeans, band t-shirts, socks, and hoodies.

The weather is slowly getting colder. It should be about September by now. I grab a hoodie, jeans, and socks. I try them on quickly and am satisfied when I see they fit perfectly. I look around for any different shoes. The shoes I'm wearing are pretty torn up. I've had them since before day one.

I see a pair of converse, not the best looking but they're still better than what I have now. I put them on as well and walk out of my room and into the kitchen. Cooper stands there reading a flyer and drinks water.

"G'morning Cooper." I groggle. He looks up to me and nods. "Morning. This was taped to our front door."

I walk up beside Cooper and read the big words. 'TONIGHT- Town get together to get to know our new arrivals better! Dress your best!'

"Are we going?" I question. Cooper doesn't seem like the type to like public events. "We don't really have a choice. It is for us after all." He laughs.

Subconsciously, I glance to the fridge and see a calendar. "Oh. I didn't realize we knew what the date was anymore."

Cooper nods. "Yeah, well Jeanine dropped it by a little while ago with the previous days marked off. Helpful I guess."

Looking further at the calendar, I see a little star on today's date. "So it's September 25th? Is that what the star means?"

"Well, no. I mean yes it's the 25th but it's also..."

"What?" I laugh a bit, in anticipation.

Cooper smiles. "Jasper's seventeen today. And he doesn't even know it."

I feel a smile spread across my face. "He's- wow. Are you gonna tell him? Are we having a party or—"

"Actually I thought maybe you could help me out." The former police man shrugs. I nod. "Uh, sure? I'm not the best at party planning though."

"No, no. I just thought... you guys are pretty much best friends. Or something like that." He eyes me, and I avert my gaze immediately. "So?"

"So maybe you distract him for the day while we set something up at home. I know there's a get together, but we can just leave early. Gives us time to maybe scrounge up a present. The kid deserves it."

"Yeah, he does." I smile with a nod.

"So..." Cooper trails off. I nod quickly. "Yes, yeah. I'll help. I'm on it."

The sound of footsteps get closer and Jasper appears in the kitchen.

"Morning Jasp." Cooper chuckles, laughing at his bed head. "Shut up man." Jasper looks at me for a second but looks away quickly. I wonder if something's wrong? Jasper grabs for a cereal bar out of a basket on a counter. "What's that?" Jasper points at the flyer. Cooper shows him, long enough for him to read. "Oh... so we're going?" Jasper groans.

"Yeah." Cooper groans as well. He takes a sip of his water. "Do you guys... find this place suspicious as well?" Now that I think about it... this town is way too perfect for an apocalypse. "Uh... yeah. Kind of at least. Part of me wants to hope that this is a safe haven." I mumble.

Cooper nods. "It's always good to have hope. We just need to be extra cautious, okay?" Jasper and I both nod in sync.

"Where's Lexi?" Jasper states. Cooper sighs. "We had an argument about something this morning. I'm sure she'll be fine by the time the get together happens." I play with my hands. "What was it about? The argument?"

Cooper just shrugs. "It doesn't matter. It was stupid if I'm being completely honest. There's nothing to worry about." I nod slowly. "So where did she go?"

"She said she was gonna go meet some townspeople." I open a granola bar. "All you guys have to worry about is dressing nice tonight. Noah obviously found some nice clothes so there should be more." Jasper groans. "Ugh is this like a suit and tie kind of deal? Because no thanks."

"I doubt you'll even be able to find a suit and tie here, Jasp." I laugh. "Yeah, Noah's right. Just dress nicely. Not formal." Cooper says.

Time skip to the get together~

(Cooper's POV)

Lexi hasn't talked to me since the argument, I hope she's not too mad. We don't want to give a bad impression to the townspeople.

Despite my thoughts, we actually managed to find nice clothes in our closets. Well... a tad bit more than nice.

Noah is wearing a simple blue sweater with a pair of black jeans. His collar is popping out by his neck but not in a messy way.

I simply wore a button up shirt and some blue jeans with my steel toe boots.

Jasper, on the other hand, is struggling quite a bit. He wears a something similar to Noah. A black sweater with dark gray jeans. And, no, he doesn't usually dress like this.

He yanks on his collar and runs his fingers through his combed hair. "I can't stand this. This sweater is itchy."

Noah laughs a bit and fixes Jaspers hair for the millionth time in a row. "Can you stop messing it up every two seconds? We're almost there."

Before long, we start to see tons of nicely dressed people walk into what looks like a community center. Suddenly, Jeanine runs up to us from out of the double doors.

"Ah! Hello hello! You are just in time! Lexi's already inside greeting everyone! Please help yourself to snacks and pitch into conversations! Also-"

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks Jeanine." I groan as I walks into the social. Jasper and Noah catch up to me after Noah says a small sorry to Jeanine.

(Noah's POV)

The gathering was rather big. There were way more people than I expected. There was one room where everyone was making conversation and another room, or gym, filled with food. The place was lit with lanterns hung everywhere, leaving no darkness.

Music plays in the background of all the commotion. Old married couples are dancing and laughing like there's nothing in the world to worry about.

Jasper finally clears his throat and looks around. After a bit, he points to the gym where a few kids around our age are playing basketball.

"Let's go introduce ourselves. They look cool." He shrugs and starts towards them, obviously in a rush to get out of this situation.

We walk over to them and introduce ourselves.

(Lexi's POV)

I noticed the trio walk in a bit ago. I'm still mad at Cooper but I'm gonna keep my cool for the sake of the party.

Suddenly Carlos steps on a chair to make an announcement. "Excuse me everyone? I really hope everyone is having a good time!" Everyone gives a short applause. "Good to hear. We wanted to say that food is ready! You can grab a plate from a table in the gym and dig in." He hops off the chair and everyone makes their way towards the food.

"Dig in?" I jump at the sudden voice. I turn to see Cooper and roll my eyes. "What now?" I scoff. "Look, I'm sorry. We can talk later about it. But why are they telling everyone to dig in. We need to save as much food as possible." Cooper questions.

"I'm not sure. Maybe they have more than enough already and they're just doing it once because it's a party." Cooper sighs. "Yeah, alright. Let's just go get food. I'm starving."

We make our way towards the crowded buffet.