Dating the Dead • lrh

7. stitch

The pizza man kept knocking when we had a doorbell. I opened to see Lukey in a blue Domino's uniform, holding up a box too big for a pizza. When I lifted the cover, red and yellow smiley keychains sprinkled like pepperonis and pineapples.

I looked up and the pizza cat peeled its face to reveal Shelby Lawler. She smiled at me, showing cat fangs. Her sharp nails suddenly dug on my shoulders. "Luke," she said with a purr as her face slowly inched closer. And just as I closed my eyes in my dream, I abruptly opened them in reality.

Someone was shaking me awake.

"Luke!" hissed Shelby.

My eyes widened and my mouth prepared to shout. She stuffed a pillow on my face and it felt like the piece of bread got stuck in my throat again. I couldn't breathe.

I raised a thumbs up to let her know I'm not making any sound. A puff of fresh air invaded my lungs, making me wheeze. "What are you doing here!" I whispered sharply once I recovered from nearly suffocating.

Shelby was already sitting on the side of my bed, munching on pizza. "I... brought... you... food," she said in between chewing.

My brows furrowed in confusion, anger slowly rising up. "Why?" My voice wasn't particularly low and she took the opportunity to shove a slice of pizza in my open mouth.

"Before you get mad at me, let's finish this pizza then I'll explain, yeah?" She reached to switch my bedside lamp on. That's when I saw her Stitch onesie. "I'll explain this, too." She pulled the hoodie over her head- it even had ears sticking out like stunted devil horns- and crossed her legs at the foot of my bed, across from me.

We ate in silence and in awkwardness. Our eyes couldn't meet even when she left two pieces for me to finish. After I tossed the box to the floor, Shelby pulled out two juice boxes from her bag I only just noticed. It had plenty of patches and various keychain attached to every zip-runner.

I flinched when she tossed one juice box at me. She mouthed a 'sorry' as she tore the straw that was attached to the box while I frowned, doing the same.

Shelby didn't punch a hole to her box until she heard me slurp the last drop of apple juice.

"I'll teach you how."

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