Dating the Dead • lrh

4. lukey

I remembered that day when Shelby was going around the classroom asking everyone to adopt that, and I quote, 'poor little munchkin'. She literally shoved the baby monster into my face during lunch. It took me a whole lot of effort to say 'get it the fuck away from me' the nicest way I can.

But it somehow ended up in my house. I found my mum that afternoon grading papers in the kitchen and I saw the orange ball of fur and trouble sleeping on the countertop next to her math textbooks.

"Is that..." I had said, planting a kiss on my mother's cheek.

She looked up at me with a smile, "Shelby Lawler gave it to me during last period. I couldn't resist little Lukey."

"Wait, you named it after me?" I slightly raised my voice. The kitten raised its tiny head and blinked its blue eyes at me then went back to sleep.

My mother smiled at it, "He only responds to 'Luke'."

"Luke! When are we leaving the car park?" Shelby snapped her fingers, scoffing as I started the ignition.

We drove in silence until she tossed a notebook back into the box. She insisted the box to stay with her so she could inspect some of the things we collected.

"You can't possibly recycle everything in there, can you?" I asked, giving her a sideway glance.

She bent over and pulled out a plastic bag somewhere, chucking the smiley keychains inside. "No, but I can definitely reuse them. Like these," she tied the bag shut and placed it in the box, "I'm going to hand them out next year."

"Why though?"

Shelby sighed deeply, "Because I didn't want the freshies to feel like they were alone on their first day of highschool."

"You know I'm a junior, right?" I pulled up on our driveway.

"I know, idiot, we even had classes together," her lips curled up, opening the door.

I got out of the car, too, rounding my way to her, "Then why did I get one of your smileys?"

She shouldered both of our backpacks on one side and looked up at me. This time, her smile did not reach her eyes, "You looked sad that day."

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