It's Complicated: A Zombie Romance Novel

Zombiefied

"You aren't turning into a zombie," asked Lee Ann. "Are you?"

"No," I yawned, "why are you even asking?"

She shrugged. "One night sleeping at my house and you're like this." She pushed me in front of the school bathroom mirror. They hadn't been replaced since my mother attended, so you can imagine how non-reflective the surface was. A very tired, very distorted person looked back at me. Her eyes were blood shot, her cheeks were white, and her outfit was more put together than it had ever been in her life.

"I thought you liked how you dressed me this morning," I said. "You were the one that said I should look more goth; guess one party and you got your wish."

I was homeless. I had been abandoned by my family. Plus, it wasn't like I was recovered from the party. Any of those things would put bags under anyone's eyes.

If it wasn't for Lee Ann I'd probably had spent last night sleeping on the park benches by school. It couldn't really be called sleeping, since you don't get any. I'd call it "walking around half dead all night," but I don't think that would go viral.

I spent half the night thanking God for Lee Ann. Her couch and her makeup were the only reasons I didn't look more than half dead. And what she'd done to the clothes I'd brought with me. Well, I should have packed my entire wardrobe into a bag and brought it over to her house long before now. I might even have been able to get Gideon's attention in this outfit, if it wasn't the last week of our senior year.

Lee Ann nodded. "Yeah, but I still think you need more concealer." She took a tube of something out of her purse that looked like lipstick and started applying it to my baggy eyes. If it was the stick of passion red she carried around for emergencies I really would look like an undead thing.

If living at Lee Ann's had a bad side effect, it was that my personal style was lost, gobbled up by Lee Ann. She had totally taken over my life in just a few hours. I couldn't tell if I was her latest project or if she was taking the role of big sister way too far.

"Just a reminder," Lee Ann said as she finished up applying the makeup, cream colored like my skin should have been, "Mom and Dad agreed to let you stay the week, but you're on your own this weekend."

"Yeah, yeah," I said back, pulling away as she tried to use a finger she'd just licked to even out a nonexistent smugde on my face. "They are going out of town and don't trust me. I got it. Homeless people are scary and stuff."

"Even newly homeless," Lee Ann chimed in. We both laughed.

Lee Ann had gotten her dad to come and pick me up from my house only after she'd relayed my sad sob story twice. Once to her mother and then once to both her parents. That was two times too many for me personally, but if it got me a ride and a place to stay I couldn't complain. I didn't even have bus fare in my pocket, and Mom hadn't given me anything when she'd left me at the house.

Then Lee Ann spent the night consoling me with rants about how stupid my uncle must be to do something like this to his only living sibling. There had been popcorn, chick flicks (with guys that weren't total jerks), and snide comments about the stupidity of adults.

The reality of first period was about to hit home. I'd been in a dream world with people that really cared about me for like, five minutes. Now it was time to face the music. I wouldn't be eighteen for another five months, without mom who would sign for an apartment for me? Plus there was the whole price of rent in Bellevue. I didn't think my part-time job working weekends at Bed, Bath, and Beyond would pay for much.

"Coming?" Lee Ann asked once we'd recovered from our laughing fit. The bell rang the start of first period.

"I have a place to stay," I said to myself.

"You would think Brian would have let me stay with him," I said to Lee Ann.

"Brian who?" she asked, as we walked further towards our first class.

"Brain the Brain," I said. This was the first time Brian's name had come up since the conversation about him I'd had with Mom on the porch. In the stress of things and without a cell phone I'd kind of forgotten to call and tell him the family home was in jeopardy. "My older brother."

Lee Ann was giving me a confused look. Not her usual 'playing blonde' look. This was real confusion.

"Mae, you're an only, like me," she said back. "That's why I couldn't believe your mom would be so harsh on you."

"No, I'm not," I stopped in the middle of the walk way, people passing me on either side trying to get to class on time. "I have an older brother. His name is Brian. He even drove us to the party last Saturday."

"Silly, we took the bus," Lee Ann said.

"He was hosting it!" I was yelling but I really didn't care; my best friend was denying that my brother even existed. There was something very wrong and I needed to get to the bottom of it right that minute. "He got us on the list."

"That new meathead that wanted to date me got us in," Lee Ann looked worried at me. "Are you ok?"

I was crying. Tears messed up the concealing job she'd just done. My body started to shake under the pressure. No, I wanted to say. No, I was definitely not ok. But nothing came out of my mouth. Lee Ann put her arm around me.

"Hey, it's going to be fine," Lee Ann said. She was trying to be encouraging. I could tell that she was being as sincere as Lee Ann gets. "I'll talk to my parents. By the weekend they'll let you stay the whole summer. Really, it won't be a problem." She handed me a tissue to mop my face from her magical purse for all occasions.

"It's just this homeless thing that's got you all confused," she said. "Trust me, everything will work out just fine. We'll graduate, get jobs, and go to school together. You and me." She gave me one of her best smiles. We were moving again down the hall. I tried to smile back through the Kleenex. It was kind of hard to do.

As we entered class just before the bell rang I couldn't stop thinking about Brian. First Mom, now Lee Ann didn't remember him. There was something going on here. I just couldn't put my finger on it. I sat down in my seat and leaned over to put my books away as the teacher started class. Why didn't the two most important people in my life and his not remember him?

That was when I saw it. The piece of mutilated flesh hanging out of Lee Ann's purse. In that moment, I knew: something was definitely wrong.