quarantine // h.s.

part 1 // breaking news

*disclaimer: hellloooo even though I may not publish this here is a disclaimer! i dont mean to offend/upset anybody! I know covid-19 is a huge problem that has affected every single person in the world in one way or another. Ive been quarantined for over a month now and am taking the right precautions. pls stay inside lol. this is how I cope

*for the sake of the plot of the fic, some aspects of the coronavirus pandemic will be exaggerated and not completely accurate to what is happening in america currently. again, no intentions to offend!!

"wren! wake up!" a voice jolts me out of my slumber before a pillow is thrown at my head.

"what the fuck, it's not even that late." i groan and roll over, shoving a pillow over my head. the clock read 10:48am.

"wren, i'm serious. you need to come see this." jess says and remains in the doorway until i get up. i groan and sigh until my whole body is out of the bed and my feet plant on the cold hardwood floor. as i walk out of my room, i see a few other of my friends coming out of their rooms, most likely being woken up by their friends as well. 

"what's going on?" i ask my friend, michael who came out of the room next to mine.

"i have no idea. luke hasn't told me anything. he just woke me up and told me to come out here. he seems freaked out." he whispers and stands next to me in the living room. all twenty of us are crammed into chairs and couches in the main living room and the news is paused.

"fox news? really?" i mutter to michael and jess, both of them giggling.

"can someone tell me what's going on?" my friend penelope asks anxiously. i agree and let out a quick yeah. alex presses play on the remote and sits down in his saved space on the leather couch. i didn't realize how many people were actually on this vacation until we were all together in one room.

breaking news this morning as president trump instills a mandated lockdown effect at 10pm pst tonight. new guidelines from the WHO prohibit travel across state and country borders, exempting essential workers with the proper paperwork. for those who are displaced out of their home and cannot manage to get home before 10pm pst tonight, a claim must be filed through each states government before state to state or country to country travel.

my stomach drops. "fuck, dude." michael says to me under his breath. throughout the remainder of the segment, the room stayed quiet other than a few gasps or sighs. after the news changed over to commercials, alex pauses the tv again and stands up. almost as if we flipped a switch, it went from complete silence to an eruption of screaming questions.

"hey, hey, hey! everyone quiet down, alright!" alex shouts and gestures for everyone to relax. "i know this is weird and it sucks and we don't know what to do. i think for now lets have someone look for flights. contact all of your parents and ill contact mine. if worse comes to worse, well stay here for as long as we need. this is my family's house, and no one should be coming here since people are hesitant to travel so we can most-likely stay here for as long as we need."

"yeah but that's like last resort, right?" jess asks.

"i guess we'll see. if it's our best option, then we'll stay."

"shit." jess says and rubs both of her hands over her face.

"wanna drink?"

"at 11 in the morning?" jess questions.

"happy vacation." i respond and purse my lips into a thin line and make my way to the kitchen.  i grab a bottle of vodka off the counter that was already sitting there with its cap off.

hmm, convenient. i think and pour a bit of liquor into a shot glass. i pour it down my throat and place the shot glass back on the table to pour another shot.

"why did we come here, michael? i know we were all torn about it since the virus has been spreading and we decided to come anyway but we should've just stayed home." i reflect.

"yeah, we were pretty stupid for coming here." he laughs and i try to force out a laugh for him. "hey, it's okay. we don't know what's going to happen quite yet. hopefully we will soon, but if we end up staying it wouldn't be the end of the world."

"i'm pretty sure this is already the end of the world." i chuckle and he pulls bagels out of the fridge for us.

~~~

over the next hour or so i packed together my things and tried not to have a meltdown in front of jess. i tried to pull myself together enough to wash my face, brush my teeth, and apply a bit of makeup to distract myself from the fact that i may be stranded in florida for the next month and had straight vodka for breakfast.

"hey everybody! can everyone come out here for a second?" i hear alex scream from the living room. jess and i look at each other nervously and i cross my fingers. we meet everyone in the living room and alex is once again standing in front of all of us.

"alright guys," he starts and sighs. "luis, sam, and i have all been researching flights for today. unfortunately, all airports in florida except for one are closed. we checked high and low for a flight. none into oregon, or even into washington for that matter due to the number of cases. i talked to my family, and it is completely okay for us to stay here until were able to travel."

"so we're just supposed to stay here, and be okay with it like our lives didn't stop?" a friend named renee asks.

"what else are we supposed to do? walk back to washington?" alex says with a slight smirk. after his comment, the room was silent with awkwardness. people were looking to their friends with a confused, possibly hopeless look. the tension hung heavy in the air so thick that i could feel it in my throat.

"so who wants to party to forget about it?" a boy named harry says and a soft wave of laughter fills the room.