Perfectionism in Pink | A Zombies FanFiction

16

Jaxon was studying abroad this summer which left Josephine alone to fend herself off from her parents. Thankfully, he managed to convince the adults to open up the home gym, but Josephine still refused to conform anymore and her parents refused to listen.

On the last day of school, Josephine and Zed had played on the field for a few hours before calling it quits. Sadly, Zed had five more points than Josephine did and just when Josephine had thought Zed had been bluffing, a knock sounded on her window.

Her eyes opened blearily and immediately looked over at the alarm clock in confusion.

5:00 am

Josephine shot up and looked over at her window where a grinning Zed stood waving his hand. She scowled. Being that happy this early was a crime and she was half ready to beg for anti-monster laws to be reinstated as she tiredly went over to the glass and opened it.

"Ready to go run?"

"Ready for my fist to meet your face?"

"Rrrr-rear." Zed mocked like a cat, his hand pawing at the air in front of him. "Someone is not a morning person."

"No, I'm not a freak who gets off on peering through a girl's windows at five in the morning when-"

"You got five minutes to get dressed and out the front door or I'm coming in and kidnapping you." Zed interrupted, heading away from the window and to the front of the house. Josephine stared with an open mouth as the zombie ignored her and threatened her all in the span of a few seconds. "Tick tock!"

For a solid minute, Josephine heavily considered going back to sleep and calling the zombie on his bluff. He wouldn't dare break into a Z-Patrol officer's home at five in the morning...

Right?

"I knew you'd make it in time!" Zed smiled as the door opened, shoving the lock picking kit behind his back in a hurry. Josephine blinked at the equipment in disbelief before looking at Zed's face accusingly.

"You were actually about to break into my house!"

"I told you that I would!"

"You had a lock picking kit!"

"Again, I did give you five minutes!"

Josephine didn't know wether to impressed, weirded out, or angry... so instead she took a deep breath and chose to settle with annoyance. "Let's just get this over with, morning freak."

"Your nicknames for me have such a variety."

The human scoffed and the two started their run around Seabrook going back and forth with their insults. Eventually the banter turned into them trying to trip the other, but both were agile enough to jump over the quick attempts to break the other's ankle.

Eventually they turned back onto Josephine's street and the human frowned, feeling dread at the familiar pink and black rectangular home. When they arrived at her porch with heavy breaths and sweat dripping down their bodies, Josephine glanced at Zed and cleared her throat.

"Wanna spot me?"

"What?"

Josephine winced at the incredulous sounding question and started clenching her hands nervously. "I, uh, got a home gym... haven't been able to bench in a while because I don't have a spotter... I know the school gym is closed for the summer and well, would you like to lift weights or something?"

Zed scratched the back of his head and looked at his Z-Band unconsciously. He had some weights at home, but it would be nice to get in a proper work out for once during the summer. Swallowing his nerves he put on his cocky attitude and shrugged flippantly.

"Well, if you really need me that bad..."

"Oi, don't get any ideas that I need you, freak." Josephine scowled, opening the front door deliberately slow so her happiness wouldn't be too obvious. She went in first and looked back to see Zed looking inside with wide eyes. "What are you waiting for?"

"I haven't been inside a human house before." Zed said quietly taking a step into the house and looking at the soft pink and white walls. His eyes drifted over to the picture of her brother Jaxon, but frowned when he didn't see a picture of Josephine anywhere near the front. "Addison's parents are still a little... timid about me being a zombie."

"Oh." Josephine replied, unsure of how to respond. She had really assumed that Zed had been accepted into the Wells family without any problem, so she was shocked to hear the truth. "Well, you're not missing much. Everyone has the same boring taste of pink or blue and white."

"Even you?" Zed asked, walking further into the home to follow Josephine to the home gym. They had used the spare room across from hers on the first floor to fill with the equipment, so it wasn't too far. It gave Zed a view though as he looked at the small family photo on the walls and the pictures of Josephine in cheer with gradually diminishing smiles as the years went on.

"Didn't you see my room already?" Josephine asked as she opened the door to the gym. "You were literally at my window an hour ago."

"I may have supernatural abilities as a zombie, but night vision isn't one of them."

"Shame."

Zed only hummed in response and walked into the room. Immediately, Josephine headed over to the plate rack and started pulling off some weights. "Grab a bar from the wall and help me out, lazy."

"If it wasn't for me, you'd still be sleeping." Zed retorted, but complied and grabbed a bar and some clamps. "If anyones lazy here, its you."

"Probably." Josephine admitted, giving the win to the zombie with a sheepish smile. The two worked together to get the weights on and Josephine laid down on the bench. Zed took up the space at her head and held his hands out under the bar. "Alright, this is what I usually bench.. I'm hoping I might can add 10 this time..."

She tried very hard to ignore the thighs inches away from her head.

After the fifth time Zed came to Josephine's house to wake her up, the two were oddly sad. Neither would admit that they were enjoying the time together working out, so at the end of the final work out Zed stood in the foyer looking at anything but the front door.

"Well... that was five days at five am."

"Thank god its over." It was a weak joke that Josephine didn't mean, but she swallowed her thoughts so it wouldn't be awkward.

"Right..." Zed trailed off, scratching the back of his head. The silence was thick between the two and neither knew where to go from there. After a minute or two, both teens opened their mouth.

"You should come work out with me still."

"What if we continued working out?"

They both blinked before grins erupted on their lips and laughs poured out of them merrily. Josephine and Zed were on the same wavelength about spending time together and it was a relief to them both.

"Okay, okay. But I can't do five in the morning every day. That's exhausting." Josephine said seriously, but with a smile threatening to break free. "Tuesdays and Thursdays?"

"Yeah, I can do that." Zed agreed and shoved his hands in his pocket with a full smile. "Gotta get you ready for try outs this year."

Josephine rolled her eyes and started pushing the full back out the door. "Yeah, yeah, you freak. Now get out of my house before you stink up the house any more."

"Are you sure that isn't yourself?" Zed made a show of sniffing Josephine before fake gagging and pinching his nose. "Good god. I think you killed me. Again."

He was met with a scoff and middle finger after being shoved outside. "See you next Tuesday, weirdo."

"See you then, smelly."

The door shut and Zed basically skipped home with a grin plastered onto his face. Working out with Josephine always left him feeling more energized and ready to take on the world. This time, Zed need to get ready for later. He was taking Addison to the movies.

He was one lucky zombie to have an awesome friend and an amazing girlfriend.