Undead Friends

A New Friend

     A chill ran down my back as I looked at the undead man in front of me. I started to back away from him but I stopped when my back hit a tree trunk. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest as adrenaline was pumping through my veins. "Get away from me!", I shouted out at him, clenching my fists like I was ready to fight even though I knew I was probably going to lose. He didn't attack me but he just held out his hand to help me up so I was a bit hesitant on taking his hand. He pulled me up into a hug which was weird for a zombie. I heard him groan before hearing what sounded like, "Are you okay?". I just looked at him, speechless as I couldn't believe that I was being hugged by a zombie. He repeated the words again as he pushed me to an arms distance and kept his hands on my shoulders. "I um..I...I'm okay." I was able to choke out my words as I was staring at him. He let out a cough before trying to speak again, "W...Why d..d..did you...jump?" He was staring back at me with his lifeless brown eyes. I looked down as I didn't want to cry in front of him, I didn't want anyone to see me cry. "My life is just some..joke. my parents hate me...my high school life is ruined.." He pulled me back into a hug when I started to do a full-blown sob. He just let me cry into him which was actually pretty nice for once.
     He let go of me when we started to hear footsteps coming towards us pretty rapidly like someone was running. I started to hear someone calling out my name and I checked to see who it was which turned out to be Robin who was barefoot. I ran over to her and hugged her tightly, happy to see her again. She was surprised by the hug but like always, she hugged me back. "Michael! Whoa, you look like shit. What happen?" She was holding me closely with worry in her voice. "I um..I.." I couldn't find the right words to tell her without having her getting upset with me then I felt the presence of the zombie coming up behind me. "He..tried to...kill himself.." He groaned out which caused Robin to jump away from us, probably both startled by his presence and the way he looked. She then just looked at me with concern as she grabbed me again to pull me away from him. "Um, Michael who is this?" She whispered to me while her grip got tight which started to hurt me. "This is um...a zombie?" I looked over at her to see if she was going to believe me. "A zombie? Seriously, Michael? A zom- I stand corrected." She saw his left-hand drop to the ground as a stitch came undone while she was talking. I picked up the hand and looked at her, "Do you mind helping me get him to my house? I don't want others to find out about him. I can't even imagine what others might do to him." My own voice gave away how nervous I was in this situation.
     "I think that will be a bit difficult without a car." She giggled a bit after that sentence, probably because of the current situation. "I wish we could use my car but Derrick has the keys." I sighed, going to put my hand on my face but ended up putting the zombie hand on my face which caused me to jump, dropping the hand. I sighed and picked up the hand again, "Can you just call your mom?" I looked at her, both of us obviously starting to get stressed out. "Well I could try but you need to help him with a disguise." I watched her call her mother and walk off, speaking in what I think was Japanese. I turned back to him, then quickly went after Robin to get her makeup. I grabbed the kit out of her bag and brought it back to him, having him sit down on a tombstone. I handed him his hand then I gulped a bit as I started to apply what I thought was foundation since I couldn't really see what I was picking up. Thankfully I remembered my phone and started to use the flashlight on it to help me see what I was doing. He decided to speak again, "Your..body looks..feminine." He placed his hands on my hips loosely as he said his words. I jumped some as I wasn't expecting him to do that, "Um...Thanks? I think..." I continued with his make up, trying to make him look alive. It was kinda awkward doing the makeup since he didn't move his hands and it got more awkward when Robin came back to us. "She said she'll be here in fifteen minutes. She was confused as to why we were in the cemetery. I just told her that we wanted to pay our respects to my grandfather." She was putting her phone away before just staring at us.
     "And I see you're getting handsy with the undead." She had her hands on her hips as she spoke. "I'm not getting handsy. He just placed them there and I'm busy with his disguise. What story did you give her on him?" I kept working on the makeup, trying to make it realistic and seeing what clothing to use to help with the disguise. "I said a new transfer student had followed us." She walked to be standing next to me, looking at how I was doing. "You really need to blend and maybe some more blush here." She was putting out the cheeks and eyes. I sighed and did as she told me to do since she was better at makeup than I was. "I don't know if a transfer student excuse will do. Do you have any extra clothes to help with his look and any perfume?" I looked at her and got the "Who do you think I am?" look from her. "Alright hand them over then." I held my arm to her as she placed the clothes on my arm like a hanger in a certain way. She proceeded to spray him with her perfume as I finished his makeup. "It just dawned on me that we probably should've done the makeup last." I sighed and set down the makeup kit, looking at him and was generally impressed with my makeup skills. "I guess I'll take him over there and get him changed." I stepped back so he could stand up, thinking that Robin might be grossed with corpse's bodies and that she would feel awkward technically seeing another man's body. I walked out of sight distance with the zombie, taking a deep breath before saying, "Well I guess it's time for you to strip." I turned away to give him some privacy to get undressed. He tapped me on the shoulder which meant I could turn around, seeing a barely decayed body and torn up boxers.
     I sighed softly, "I have to do all of the work." I walked forward to him. "Please put your arms through the sleeves." I slid his arms through the shirt sleeves, coming back to the front to button up the shirt. I helped him into the pants and into the shoes, letting him do the zipper and belt. "Alright, I think this is the best disguise we're going to get." We walked back to Robin and followed her to where we would be meeting her mom. We were waiting by the entrance of the cemetery and I was occasionally looking around to see if a car would come by. I was also kinda batting off the zombie who kept trying to hug me for no reason. Finally, a car came up to us and we piled into Robin's mom's car. I got stuck in the back with the zombie while Robin got the front passenger seat. I kinda used Robin to translate my words to help her mom get to my house. I was staring out of the window to avoid the judgemental eyes of her mother as she thought I was a bad influence and that I was the cause of her son trying to be her daughter. We soon arrived at my house and got out of the car, helping the zombie out of the car and into my house. I helped him up the stairs to my room carefully to make sure that we didn't draw any attention from my parents. I sighed softly as I looked at him while he was sitting on my bed, trying to think of what to do now. I didn't exactly think this through but I will have to follow through with whatever came to mind.
     I started to pace back and forth as I was thinking to myself while the zombie was probably watching me, confused or concerned. My pacing was interrupted by a knock on the door as my brother walked into my room while his face was full of worry. "Michael! Oh my god!" He practically ran to me as he gave me a bear hug and picked me up, crushing me a bit by how tight he was hugging me. "R-Ribs..cracking..." I let out a cough as he dropped me while apologizing to me. Then he turned his attention to the zombie and out of nowhere, he grabbed him by the shirt collar, "Who are you and what are you doing in my little bro's room?!" I could hear both anger and the over-protectiveness in his voice. "Bro, this is a transfer student that I have decided to house for a while till his parents can come back to the city." He slowly let go of his shirt and then looked at me before looking back at him. "You could've at least told me about this before bringing him in." He soon left my room before giving the zombie the stank eye as he was closing the door. "Well that's th-" I was cut off by the zombie hugging me closely, probably thinking that I was upset or scared of my brother. I practically pushed him away as I walked to my desk, "First off stop with the hugging. Second, what do you eat exactly? I can't really go by normal zombie standards as you're not a normal zombie...Am I running off?" I scratched the back of my head as I was thinking about what exactly a zombie might eat. He pointed to his head which I guess meant brains in a way but I wasn't ready to kill anyone to get brains or go to a morgue of some sort to get them. "Um...Not human brains right?" I chuckled a bit nervously as I then realized that I might end up as his meal if he was like the zombies from the movies.
     He shook his head slowly, "Mainly...animals." I was generally shocked by the answer as the only zombies I knew were from the movies and TV shows. "Hm...Ah, I got it." I turned to the laptop on my desk as I started to research local butcher shops that sold brains. I found a location that was just a few blocks away but then I got a call from Robin who was asking to come over so of course, I said yes. I was keeping out of reaching and hugging distance from the zombie as I felt uncomfortable feeling the dead skin on me. After a few minutes, Robin came into my room and was holding a book that looked to be a rather old yearbook. "Well, Michael, I believe I can identify the zombie you're keeping in your room." She set down the book on my desk and started to flip the pages until she found the exact page she wanted to show me. She pointed to a senior picture of what looked to be like the zombie but alive and somewhat attractive. "So his name is Romero...Romero Nightingale. Interestingly ironic." We both giggled at the comment. We then shifted our attention to the undead guy in my room and knew that we had to come up with a plan but, what would it be?