𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 // 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝

12. twin sized mattress brings everyone together

——

Paul had made an important discovery.

He found an old, dusty acoustic guitar while exploring around Henry's house- how did he afford such a big house anyway?

It was a Fender Concord and when Deb saw it for the first time she swooned. Alice was excited too- she loved to hear Deb play.

Paul went down to the lab to ask Henry if they could play it, fuck around and write a song about how much the apotheosis sucked. Just like Ted had previously, he shivered as he walked down the metal stairs and regretted not wearing one of his classic suit jackets. He knocked on the door; no answer. He knew Henry was in there, though, so he knocked again. Still nothing. He slowly creaked open the door, peeking through.

"Uh, Professor?"

He stepped in further and looked around more. A rack of test tubes sat on one of the long tables, filled with what Paul could only assume was the blue shit. To his left was a huge storage bin full of books, which he could see were on varying levels of science and its many forms. He even saw a signed Neil DeGrasse Tyson book. Wow.

And then he spotted Henry. His head was rested on the table and Ted was sat next to him. Both were sound asleep. Paul was vaguely annoyed and decided to wake Henry up.

"Hey, Professor? Hey, hey man," He pushed on his back lightly to shake him. He stirred and looked up at Paul, rubbing his eyes.

"What? What's up? Is it done?" He mumbled, completely out of it and groggy as all hell.

"Is what done?"

"The test...Ted put the burner on, right?"

"What?" Paul blinked, confused.

"Eh, whatever. What do you need, Matthews?" Henry yawned and sat up further so he looked a bit more awake.

"Okay. Okay, well I was just wondering, I found an old guitar, and was wondering if we could mess around with it. Deb plays, I know a few songs, and-"

"No music, Paul, we already established that a month ago."

"We haven't left the house in three weeks. Don't you think just a little of it is safe right now?" Paul liked music in itself, just not musicals.

Henry hesitated. He considered it for a moment.

"Fine. I'll come up and watch too, I always had a passion for music. You'd think I'd be more excited for the apocalypse."

Paul smiled gratefully.

"Okay, cool! What're you gonna do about Ted?"

Henry turned around in his chair, looking at the still-snoring Ted. He nudged him in the arm, but nothing. He resorted to kicking him in the legs until he woke up annoyed.

"What the fuck?" He groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Come on, we're having a hootenanny upstairs!" Henry was suddenly excited for this.

"The fuck is a hootenanny?" Ted closed his eyes again, this time resting his head on Henry's shoulder. Paul left the room, deciding to wait for them upstairs.

"It's like...when a bunch of hillbillies get together with guitars and beer and stuff, but we only have the guitars and beer and no hillbillies?" Henry did his best to explain the expression but gave up when Ted only nodded in response, standing up to go upstairs.

"Sounds fun. Come on!" He grabbed Henry's hand and the two went up the cold stairs.

-

Paul shared the answer to the age-long question as soon as he was out of the basement; yes, they could play that beautiful, beautiful Fender Concord.