𝑯𝑰𝑴 - Chase Graves

fourteen.

14|DANCE

"Hello?" Winter asked slowly, eyes darting between the two men looking at Liv with confusion while Liv made two scorched skulls make out.

"Don't mind her." Ravi stated with a sigh before continuing telling Clive his news. "All of them were from outside of Seattle, all were from wealthy families and all contacted Bruce Holtz through the same message board. So let me show you."

"You discovered who the skulls belong to?" Winter gasped with pride and gathered around the computer with the other three. "I'm so proud of you."

"Ohh!" Liv got excited as she saw her notice pop up on the screen leaving everyone else very confused.

"Liv from The Scratching Post. Tim, my blue crew twinsie. You stole a kiss, then stole my heart." Ravi read the notice out loud, grossed out by how cheesy it was. "Liv, you didn't. You did not post a Missed Connection."

"I believe in feta?"

"Fate." She pushed herself between the two men while Winter stood back, trying to hold in her laughter at how cringy this brain her cousin on was making her. "I was very hungry."

"And I know you felt our soulmate bond. I'll be at human-zombie night again this Tuesday." Clive continued to read the notice while Liv smiled happily to herself. "Meet me there. I wanna spend the rest if my life decomposing with you."

"What?" The baffled woman repeated, not understanding the strange looks everyone sent her. "It's zombie romance."

"No, no, no, no."

"It's desperate."

"Its what someone would point to if you decapitated a stranger at the back of a bus and they were looking for warning signs." Ravi tried to explain to her.

"Speaking of, if Bruce found all of his victims on this message board, we should try to contact him the same way." The detective suggested. "We should make our potential mark sound rich."

"Way ahead of you." Ravi cleared his throat and opened an image of him playing cricket on the computer. "Dr. Alistair Manningham-Chabra. I rowed at Eton, bowled for the Cambridge cricket team. I currently reside at a 1200-acre estate in Basingstoke, though, for my sins, I find myself here on what I presumed would be a brief business trip. Please, you must help me return to England, to my beloved wife, now pregnant with child, no matter what cost." He said dramatically with a posh English accent.

"That was amazing!" Winter cheered, clapping along with Liv.

"I love the new accent." Liv exclaimed. "Very Mark Darcy."

"That was a new accent?" Clive questioned from behind the two cheering women.

"Hi." Ravi was cut off from his comeback by a woman walking into the morgue.

"Hi?"

"You texted me." Michelle started to walk down the stairs towards Clive. "Said you grabbed my coffee mug by mistake?"

"No, I-" Clive started but Winter watched as her cousin shoved a mug with 'nasty woman' on it into Clives hand behind his back. "Thought it was mine. I'm sorry about that."

"Okay." Michelle took her mug back awkwardly and nodded good bye to the three medical examiners and the detective.

"Clive, you nasty woman." Winter gasped after Michelle had left. "Stealing her mug!"

"Was that your attempt at orchestrating a meet cute?" Clive ignored the zombie and turned to her grinning cousin.

"It was more a mug cute." Liv sighed warmly.

"Or a meet cup." Ravi spun around and faced them, a grin on his face as he and Liv stared excitedly at Clive.

"Do not pile onto this parent trap." Clive snapped at Ravi, sending the man a warning look.

"I'm sorry about my coworkers!" Winter called out to the detective as he left the room.

"You're really putting the "no" in Babineaux." Liv also shouted out to the retreating man. Ravi sassily nodded his head as Clive turned around, wanting to explain that there was no "no" in his last name but remained quiet and walked away.

"You two are so childish." Winter laughed, walking over to the skulls and admiring them.

~•~

"Sweater Ravi versus Make-over Ravi." Ravi said as he, Liv, Peyton and Winter all walked down the steps towards The Scratching Post. "Who will win? Who will lose? Or are we living in a computer simulation?"

"Urgh, I forgot that Sweater Ravi came with a Simulation theory." Peyton rolled her eyes as the three women followed after the fast walking man.

"Where's Tim?" Liv questioned for the millionth time that day.

"You gave me wrestler brain!" They all stopped by the door as the found Major talking in a deep voice with a clearly underage boy in a lose head lock with a clearly underage girl giggling and trying to break them a part, terribly. "Well, that makes me so angry!" Then he spotted his friends watching them and walked towards them strangely. "I got dosed with wrestler brain!"

"We heard you. All of New Seattle heard you." Ravi informed him.

"Hey, Liv." Major turned his attention to the pale haired woman. "How's it going with the new boyfriend?"

"If you guys will excuse me, I have free drinks to drink." Winter smiled at them all and squeezed through them into the noisy club, her feet taking her straight to the bar where Tanner was working, like always.

"Winter! What are you wanting to drink tonight?" He greeted her with a friendly smile.

"Three shots of vodka, please." She sent him a small wink and leaned on the wooden counter. Tanner placed three shots of vodka in front of her and laughed as he watched her down all three. "I'm off to dance! Love you like always, Tannzee."

"Don't break a leg!" His eyes watching as she met up with her friends.

"Hello my beautiful humans and wrestler zombie." Winter greeted them, her eyes following theirs as they watched Liv. "Does she need help?"

"She is strong enough." And they were right, Liv ditched the awful man and rejoined her friends on the dance floor.

"Did you find out what he's like?" Major asked her, still speaking in his maniac voice.

"Yeah. He was a creep." Their conversation finished with an air horn going off, everyone turning to face the DJ.

"Time for the human-zombie dance off!" The DJ sang dramatically. "Zombies, you get the side closest to the exit. Humans to the side closest to the kitchen. It's go time!"

Peyton dragged Winter on to the middle of the dance floor, the pair twirling each other before they each broke out into their own moves, hip bumping and dragging the men and Liv into the middle with them.