Living Dead (iZombie: Livwell)

Part 6

It was nearly sunset when we sat down in our camping chairs and opened the boxes of pizza. We were so hungry that none of us cared that it was cold. I had a small bottle of tabasco in my pocket and just kept pouring it over my pizza. I planned to sneak in a few mouthfuls of brain later, while everyone was getting ready for the night hike.

The others had taken to the idea surprisingly quickly and I only had to mention it once to make it part of the plans for the night. Ren mentioned that there was a spring nearby and Carson immediately dared himself to skinny dip in it.

The pizza was accompanied by large amounts of alcohol. I assumed Carson had supplied it, since he was always bragging about his fake ID. I tried to mention to them that drinking at this age was, indeed, illegal, but Eliza just rolled her eyes and cracked open another beer.

I had one too, just to be polite. It didn't have much of an effect on me - I wasn't sure if this was a pro or con of being a zombie - but the others were giggling non-stop. Even Lowell was slurring and laughing just a little too loudly. I was glad that there weren't many other campers around, or we'd definitely have had things thrown at us.

Holly had her arm around Eliza and was playing with her friend's dark hair. "You're such a great friend," she said and burst into a fit of giggles.

She looks so vulnerable. The thought was involuntary and it scared me.

"Hey, Liv?" Lowell said and bumped another open packet of chilli chips against my shoulder. I took out a handful and popped them into my mouth one by one, not caring about how much I resembled a pig.

"You seem to really like hot food," he observed.

I shrugged. "I guess. It's good."

We sat in silence for a while after that, just munching and staring at the fire. He shuffled closer very slowly. As if I wouldn't notice when his thigh touched mine.

When he put his arm around me, I leaned my head on his shoulder. Major's face popped into my head and for a moment I wished it was him who had his arm around me, but I pushed that image away. He was far away at that moment. Besides, I was starting to get tired of just staring at him, wishing he would make some kind of move.
Maybe it was just because he wasn't there, but as I leaned into Lowell, I let myself forget about Major.

"You know," he said quietly, "we did lose the tent-setting-up contest."
I glanced at the pile of pizza boxes. "Dishes."

When his arm slipped away from me, I had to stop myself from asking him to stay. I stood up begrudgingly and followed Lowell to the pile of boxes. He picked up the whole pile and began carrying it towards some nearby trashcans and protested when I tried to take some from him. "Holly and I were on the losing team too," I pointed out and glanced at Holly. She raised a bottle of beer and promptly dropped it. "Although I think she should skip the washing up this evening."

"Agreed."

There was some stumbling before we found the trashcans and some swearing from Lowell when he tried to shove the boxes in. I couldn't help giggling at his tall, lean silhouette struggling with the trashcan. When they were finally in, we stepped back to admire our accomplishment.

Lowell brushed his hands together. "Now I need to find a sink."

"Me too." My hands were sticky from the pizza and from where the beer spilled when Carson handed it to me.

"You ever been here before?" he asked as we trudged up the slight incline to the ablutions block.

"Nope. I don't go camping often. I think it's quite boring." Then, realising what I'd said, I added, "but I'd always gone with my family."

He laughed. "Camping with friends is a lot more fun," he agreed.

We reached the ablutions block and washed our hands. I was drying mine on my tank top when I emerged from the ladies' room and found Lowell with his hands in his pockets, staring up at the sky.

"That looks uncomfortable." I stood beside him, following his lead and letting my head fall back. "It is beautiful though."

He said nothing. Instead, he found my hand and threaded his fingers through mine. The hairs at the base of my neck stood on end, but in a good way. It became hard to focus on the stars when he was standing so very close.

"Liv?" he said quietly.

I lowered my chin and saw that he was looking at me. I wondered how long he'd been standing like that. I felt self-conscious. He was used to sporty girls with tanned skin and perfect abs. I was the weird smart girl who was (supposedly) going through some type of emo phase.

With a shock I realised that there could be another reason why he was looking at me. He already knew I ate a lot of spicy food. Couple that with the paper-white skin, matching white hair and dark, sunken eyes...

Maybe he knew. Maybe he knew what I was. Blaine had mentioned zombie hunters, but I'd always assumed he was just telling me that to scare me.

I could just kill him right now. The thought was too powerful to ignore. With my bare hands. Make it look like he slipped in the bathroom.

And he chose that moment, that very moment when I was thinking about how I could position his body to look like he'd fallen and hit his head on the sink, to kiss me.