My Zombie Girlfriend

Chapter 5

Zane woke up feeling like he'd been hit by a bus. He was still in his clothes from last night, and reeked of the Mexican vomit he'd covered them in. How had he even managed to get in his car and find his way home?

He groaned and rolled over, shielding his eyes from the harsh sunlight that streamed through his bedroom window, and just in time too.

"How was your hot date last night?" Mrs. Gibson asked from his bedroom doorway.

"Awesome," he managed to say. He hoped he didn't smell as strongly as he thought he did.

"You came in pretty late," she said after a pause.

"Sorry... Time got away from me," he mumbled into his pillow.

"Just don't let it become a habit."

Her footsteps headed down the stairs. Zane rubbed his face and sat up.

"Whoa, what happened to you?"

In a flash Zane had leapt from bed and pulled Owen into the room, shutting the door tight behind them. "Shut up!" he hissed.

"That's so gross." Owen extracted his arm from Zane's grip and recoiled. "Did she finally look at your face?"

"It's my own vomit, loser," Zane said, unbuttoning the shirt.

"And I believe that is the pot calling the kettle black," Owen retorted. "Seriously, can't you hold your liquor?"

"I didn't drink anything. Have you ever heard of bath salts?"

Owen forehead crinkled. "Like that stuff Mom uses when she needs her 'me' time?"

"No, like the drug. Is it a drug?"

"Dude, I'm twelve. Haven't you ever heard of Google?" Owen reached for the doorknob. "Who was this girl, anyway?"

"Like you'd know her."

"Try me."

"Her name is Harmony."

"Harmony Gutierrez? Zane, are you crazy? Everyone knows that girl is bad news."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?"

Owen gestured to the soiled shirt in Zane's hands. "Really? You have no idea?"

"I like her," Zane said. He had a sudden memory of Harmony in the locker room. "I don't know. Last night was kind of a blur."

"Damn." Owen shook his head. "You are in way over your head."

As soon as Owen left the room, Zane tossed his shirt into his laundry bin and opened up his laptop. "Bath salts," he muttered.

Instead of the first result being some girly body lotion store, the top of the screen began with a link to a place called inhalants.org, and the third result was the Wikipedia page for "Bath salts (drug)." Zane clicked on that one.

"...effects similar to amphetamines and cocaine... users have reported symptoms including headaches, heart palpitations, nausea... hallucinations, paranoia, panic attacks, and violent behavior are also common."

The more Zane read, the more alarmed he became. Of all the drugs he had to go and try, it had to be this crazy shit. Yet this alarm was paired with a definite sense of relief. At least now what he remembered seeing the locker room made sense. Harmony eating the flesh from Coach Thompson's face? Yeah, total hallucination. Probably none of that happened. They'd probably spent all night in the hallway at Levi Marsh's house.