Not the Average Fairy Tale (on hold i guess. writing other stuff)

Chapter 8: Awkward moments

Chase's POV

Apparently to Travis, being normal meant sitting on the couch not saying a word for a couple hours. For Travis, this is impossible. We hadn't been there long, and were just about to leave, but it looked like he would implode at this point. During the first 10 minutes, he started getting anxious. Typical impatient symptoms such as bouncing and squirming around were clearly visible. This kept going on until we reached the hour mark. Now his eye started to twitch. Just his left eye, and this happened almost every 20 seconds exactly. I knew because I was bored enough to count. His ability to cope with the nothingness didn't improve at all as the evening progressed. If anything, it went into a complete downward spiral after that. It had been almost an hour and a half. I had expected we'd only stay for another 30 minutes. Travis's upper lip started to twitch just as his eye seemed to stop. 15 minutes left before I make Travis's condition an official issue and point it out to Madison. Travis started to give out choppy sighs and held his head in his hands. Will sat next to him the entire time and didn't even seem to notice. Or he just didn't care. 5 minutes... Screw that. Travis couldn't handle another 5 minutes of silence. Well, nobody else was silent, except for maybe Will, but he couldn't stand not talking for this long.

“Hey Madison...”

“Yeah?”

“I think Travis is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I should probably get him home.”

“Oh. Well if you guys are leaving, I should go too. Elliot, what time is it?” My heart seemed to stop even before Elliot told us the time. Curfew had completely slipped my mind.

“It's 6:40.” Elliot said slowly, realizing what that small statement actually meant just after saying it. The three of us sprang up quickly and headed for the door without a word.

“Guys, wait!” Elliot called back to us, “you know you won't make it!”

“We can run.”

“No! You'll barely make it out of the mall in time.”

“Where are we supposed to go then, Elliot?” I asked, becoming just the slightest bit irritated with him.

“You can stay here. We'll all have to stay here. Nobody else even know where this place is, so we'll be fine until morning. It's the weekend anyways, right?” All of his friends nodded this off as if it happens all the time, and Madison and Travis didn't seem to mind either. But I did. I minded a lot. I didn't show it on my face, or disagree, because honestly, what other options were there? And I guess spending the night in his zombie hunting base thing isn't as bad as being caught by the police and being punished. I chose not to argue at all. There was no point in it.

“Elliot, can you please tell Travis he can speak again, if we're going to stay? He's about to die.”

“Yeah. Travis, you have proven your worth. Just don't start screaming or anything. Will has migraines.”

Travis gave a dramatic gasp, as if he'd been holding his breath the entire time.

“Thank god!” Everybody seemed to raise an eyebrow at the same time. “I thought I was going to die. I started holding my breath.”

“Technically,” Greg finally spoke up, “it's impossible to die by holding your breath. You'd eventually pass out, and when you pass out, your body would automatically start breathing again. You'd just loose a few brain cells...” Then Greg did something that surprised everyone. He attempted to make a joke. “but I'm guessing that happens all the time to you, doesn't it?” Now he was giggling. At his own. Joke. How pathetic!

“Oh my god, Greg...” John put his face in his palm, obviously disappointed or embarrassed. Or both.

“What? What John? You have something to say to me?! SAY IT TO MY FACE!” Greg attempted to size John up, but it didn't appear to be working. John was probably the biggest one of the four, the tallest, and so far, the most calm. This meant he was going to explode soon. I could see it in his eyes. Just moments away...