Zombie Fieldtrip

22 (Jonah's POV)

I'm sitting on the floor of the nightclub when someone hands me a bottle of water. I look up, my fringe falling into my eyes, and thank West for the bottle. He must have raided the fridges or something, because it was still cool.

Victoria had sat next to me only a few minutes ago and had already started crying again. I didn't know at the moment how I felt about her. I meant, she killed George for starters. I wasn't particularly close with the guy, none of us were really, but you can't just murder someone because they were weighing us down. I guess I can understand why she did it. Maybe it was her twisted way of trying to help, I don't know.

Do I comfort her? I feel like I shouldn't, but I feel like I should? Victoria sits sobbing quietly with her head in her hands, dirty orange hair falling over her face.

Okay, I'll do it. I'll be nice, we are all this girls got and we hate her guts. Be nice, Jonah. Kind.

I brush a strand of her hair behind her ear and she looks over at me. It's honestly the saddest thing I've ever seen. She's a mess.

"I... Um, are you okay?" I choked on my words. "Do you like... want a hug?"

I awkwardly opened up my arms, and Victoria blinked a few times. I was worried she wouldn't hug me and would leave me there looking like a total dweeb.

Thankfully, she did hug me.And she did shed a few tears and I awkwardly consoled her. It was a weird experience but I think I was a better person for doing it.

She pulled away and her arms slinked away from me. Victoria sniffled and rubbed her nose. "T-Thanks Jonah,"

"It's what I’m here for," I shrugged. She smiled and got up, presumably to find some water or something. I stayed where I was and found Lacey staring at me, her head tilted and her less than pink hair tangled in between her fingers.

“Do you have ulterior motives?” she asked way too nonchalantly for my liking.

“What?” I manage to spit out, confused and offended by her comment.

“Are you, like, pretending to be kind so you can stab her in the back or something?”

I narrow my eyes at Lace. Ryder is asleep with his head in her lap while Cleo and West are sitting on the stage. No one else is noticing what Lace is saying to me.

“No! Jesus Lacey, I’m not that horrible. I’m genuinely trying to be nice to the girl because people like you in the group hate her guts!”

Lace contorts her face. “She fucking killed someone!”

 I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. “Did you ever think she was just trying to help? Admittedly in a strange way, but none the less?”

“Killing someone isn’t really helping,”  

“I know, but what I’m trying to say is that she was attempting to help, just in a weird way. Don’t you think George was holding us back?”

Lace scoffs. “So now you’re thinking what she did is good?”

I put my head in my hands and groan. “No, Lace,” I stand up and pull my beanie forwards. “I’m done arguing with you, you’re obviously too stubborn to agree with anything I say,”  

Lace rolls her eyes and turns back around to play with sleeping Ryder’s hair. I stomp away to occupy myself and to make sure I don’t punch Lace or something similarly stupid. I heard someone get up and follow me, I prayed it wasn’t Lace.

I opened up one of the cupboards behind the bar and looked around for food. I was so blinded by anger at the moment I was looking through shelves of wine glasses for food, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to take my mind of things for a while and stare at glassware.

“Hey,”

In my peripheral vision I see Cleo’s blonde mop of hair, and I turn my head slightly. Her eyes are sunken in, like she hasn’t slept in weeks, which doesn’t seem like an impossible feat like it used to.

“You ok?” She asks. Cleo closes her eyes momentarily as she leans her temple on the cool wooden wall before she props herself up on her elbow and looks to me for an answer.

“Sure,” I mumble. I continue staring at the glassware like it actually interests me.

“Hey,” She repeats, but this time her delicate hands grab my chin, which has a smattering of stubble across it, and forces me to look her in the eyes. My jaw loosens, I hadn’t realised I was clenching it the entire time. Cleo’s blue eyes are wide, and are on the verge of being unnerving. “Stop being angry, please,”

“But Lace-“ I try to spill out the words between Cleo’s grip but she cuts me off anyways.

“Ah, ah. I know Lacey is stubborn and I know you two clash, but please stop arguing. It doesn’t help anyone, Jonah. Just avoid her or something, okay?”

I thought about her words for a few moments. “Will you talk to Lace too?”

“I will now,”

Cleo let go of my face and began to walk out from behind the bar. Cleo turns back before walking away. “I don’t like seeing you all angry and frustrated, it’s like you’re not yourself. I like funny, happy Jonah much better,”

I grin half-heartedly. “So do I,”

I decide to give up my staring competition with the wine glasses and actually look for something to eat. I spin around and open up one of the cupboards underneath the bar and find an unopened box of chips and doritos. All the packets are still in date so I grab the box and drop it on the bar, before looking for a knife or something to open it with. But, due to my laziness and the fact I was having a ‘man look’ instead of actually searching for something to open it with, I end up tearing it open with my hands and ripping off a fingernail. I shouted a couple of swear words while jumping up and down shaking my hand. It bloody hurt, and it was looking pretty bloody too.

“Whoa Jonah! Calm yourself!” West says, half laughing through the sentence. He reefs through his bag and pulls out a pack of band aids. He hands them to Cleo, who runs back to me as she’s giggling.

“Aw, Jonah got a booboo!” Ryder says, my outburst must have woken him up. He rubs his eyes as he sits up, Lacey still petting him on the head.

“Shut up,” I grumble back through my gritted teeth. Cleo tears open a band-aid and wraps it around my finger.

“That better?” She says, still giggling.

“Yeah, yeah. Sure hurt like a bitch,”

“What were you doing anyways?” West calls out from the stage.

“I found some junk food!” I announce.

The group hollers and cheers, Victoria reappears and grabs the first packet of salt and vinegar chips. I threw handfuls of the packets at everyone and they all grabbed some and ate. It was nice when we all got excited over something as simple as junk food. I suppose it was just nice when we were all happy and not fighting with each other. 

this sucks sry