Resident Evil: Epidemic - 4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

::Calm Before the Storm::

The rest of lunch went fairly well. The jokes at my expense continued for quite a while, annoying me somewhat, but overall they were amusing. The group of us seemed to click together almost instantly, and by the end of the hour, it was almost as if we’d always been together. They’d invaded my little world, but in honesty, I was glad for the company. After all, isolation is dreadfully boring.

Lucas and I ironed out the details of our afternoon, so in between lunch and math I called my mom on the payphone near the cafeteria. She had a free period at this time, so it wasn’t too hard to get through to her at the Junior High.

“Mom?” I asked when she picked up. She was finishing a conversation when she picked up, and I only caught the tail end of it. Something about a janitor having a breakdown and crazily trying to bite people. He was taken into custody after trying to bite the police liason officer at the school. Weird.

“What do you need, Kieran?” she said, slightly annoyed.

“Well, we have an assignment in English that has to be done with a partner,” I began. “I was calling to ask permission to go over to his house to work on it.”

“Kieran, you know you’re grounded,” she said.

“I know, but it needs to be done by Friday, and he’s busy Thursday night,” I said. He wasn’t, really, but we’d come up with that just in case. I didn’t especially like lying to my mom, but it was Lucas for crying out loud. He’s cute.

She sighed, and said, “Fine, but I expect you home by eight.” She hung up without saying goodbye. It’s stupid, I know, but that stung a little.

The rest of the class went by ever so slowly. Nothing too spectacular to report, except that the number of sick kids seemed to outnumber the healthy ones. They seriously need to cancel school.

When the final bell rang, I hurried to my locker, where I found Lucas waiting for me. I gave him a thumbs up when he noticed me approaching, and he smiled like a little kid. Did I mention he’s cute?

“It’s a go!” I said when I got to the locker. He let out a cute little ‘whoop’ of excitement and threw his fist into the air as if he just scored the winning goal.

“Awesome!” he said after a moment. “You normally take the bus? ‘Cause I walk to school.”

“Nah, I usually walk too,” I said. “I don’t live too far away, so it isn’t bad. I sometimes take the activities bus after ‘Dove’.” I opened my locker to get the books I needed out of it. Just math and biology.

I accidently knocked my art portfolio out of the locker, and it popped open, spilling everything that was inside out of it. Of course, the one on top was my “Shining Knight Lucas” picture. I tried to grab it before he saw it, but he was faster. He scooped it up and turned away, so I couldn’t take it from him.

“…Umm…w-wow…” he said. “It’s g-good…”

Damn! Now I’ve embarassed him! I could see the blush in the back of his neck and his ears. It would have been adorable if I wasn’t silently freaking out behind him.

He spun around, with an eyebrow cocked and the faintest grin on his face.

“Tyler wanted to see your artwork?” he giggled slightly. I blushed, probably more red than he did. “So this is why everyone was laughing!”

I sighed, preparing for another round of laughter at my expense. “It wasn’t on purpose,” I explained. “It just came out looking like…”

“Me,” he said. I nodded, and he giggled again. I rolled my eyes, and shook my head at him. He started full out laughing now. When he calmed down a bit, I snatched the drawing out of his hands. This set him off again, but after a few more minutes, we were on our way out the door.

We decided to run to the comic book shop first. There was one near the school, and it was usually fairly busy. Today it was deserted.

We walked in, and I greeted the owner, like I always do.

“Hey, Charlie. Anything new today?” I asked.

“Eh, nothing good,” he said. He scratched his neck and I noticed he looked very pale and sweaty. “Just the new ‘Adventures of Generic Hero-Man’.” He wasn’t kidding, that’s an actual comic. I looked over at Lucas and noticed he was looking at the man strangely.

I started to browse the older issues, while Lucas bought a can of Pepsi from the machine. When we were out of earshot, Lucas said, “He’s got it. The new flu.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” I said. “You think there’s anything to the rumors of it being lethal?”

“No, Umbrella wouldn’t let that happen. They own this whole town, if the people die, they lose all their workers,” he said. It made sense. If it were fatal, they’d do everything they could to stop the disease.

“You’re right,” I said. “Besides, if it were true, we’d be hearing about the deaths by now. All they ever talk about on the news is that damn cannibal cult.”

He nodded in agreement. After wishing the owner well, we headed back outside. We walked side-by-side in a comfortable silence. His hand brushed against mine, and I looked over at him. He blushed a deep crimson, then put his hands in his pockets.

“S-sorry,” he mumbled.

I laughed. “You need to be less shy. It was an accident,” I pulled his hand out of his pocket and held it for a while, swinging our hands back and forth. He blushed even more red and started laughing.

After I relinquished my death grip on his hand, he pulled it back, still giggling.

“Quit making fun of me,” he said after he stopped giggling. He looked a bit uncomfortable, though.

I gave him my best puppy-dog look, “I’m sowwy. I was just kiddin…”

He shoved me playfully and I fell into the grass in someone’s front yard.

“ASSAULT!” I yelled out with a grin. He just gave me another smile. He reached down to give me a hand. When I was on my feet again, I didn’t let go of his hand, I just started swinging it again and he broke down laughing.

We passed the memorial park. It looked completely deserted, and the trash looked like it hadn’t been cleaned up in weeks. There were flyers promoting various events all over the ground, empty pop cans everywhere. Fast food wrappers spilled out of the trash can.

“Gross,” Lucas said. “Who’d wanna visit this place?”

Just as he said that, a man came into view, about fifty yards away from us. It looked as if he heard us, and decided to approach us. From where we stood, we could tell he was obviously a bum, his clothes in tatters, and what looked like dried vomit all over his shirt. He was stumbling drunkenly, and making strange moaning sounds. He reached his arm out towards us, trying to move faster, but stumbling over his drunken feet.

I looked over at lucas, “Probably wants to bum money from us.”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” he said.

I looked back over to the drunk. “There’s a Rehab Center down the street!” I called to him. We took off running, laughing as we went.

We finally made it to Lucas’ house, and I have to say I was impressed. No wonder he always wore the latest fashions. By the look of his house, his parents must have been loaded.

“Wow, Lucas!” I exclaimed. “What do your parents do?” I asked.

“Well…” he got a sudden pained look on his face. “I live with my dad, my mom left about a year ago. Dad’s a psychiatrist, works at the Raccoon City Hospital, in the suicide wing.”

“I’m sorry to hear that about your mom,” I said. “If it makes you feel any better, my dad left when I was five.”

He gave me a sort of half smile, and said, “Life just sucks sometimes.”

I agreed. We walked inside and were greeted by a very tall, handsome man. He was huge! He seemed to have muscles on top of his muscles’ muscles. He looked as if he could break Lucas and I in half. Of course, I got nervous.

He apparently saw the look on my face and smiled disarmingly. “Hello there, I’m Miles Thomas, Lucas’ dad.” He extended his hand for me to shake.

I took his hand, which seemed to almost wrap itself around my slender one like a glove, and shook it. “P-pleased to meet you.” Now apparently I was doing Lucas’ stuttering thing.

Lucas laughed at me. “He’s not going to kill you,” he said when he’d calmed down.

“Right,” I said skeptically. Mr. Thomas smiled at me, giving me a wink. What the hell was that?

“So, do you have a name?” he asked. How rude of me! I didn’t want to piss off Goliath’s larger brother over here, so I told him my name.

“Kieran Johnson, sir,” I squeaked.

“Kieran? Where have I heard that name before?” he scratched his chin, deep in thought. After a moment, “Aha! Weren’t you in the emergency room yesterday? I saw your name on a chart when I was down there with a new patient.”

“Umm…yeah,” I said dumbly. “I had to get stitches, no big deal.”

Lucas was looking at me with wide eyes. “Are you alright? Why didn’t you tell me about it?”

I laughed. “I’m fine, Luke,” he frowned when I called him that. “I was going to tell you later.”

He sighed dramatically. “Fine. But don’t call me Luke. I hate that,” he said.

“Fair enough,” I said with a smile.

We went into the living room, which was the size of half my house. There was a TV in the corner that I swear wouldn’t fit in any room in my house. Hade to be like ten feet across! Enormous!

We sat down and decided to watch a movie. Lucas got up to get us some snacks from the kitchen.

“I’m so glad the two of you have gotten together,” his father said. “It seems all Lucas ever does is talk about you. Heh, the only way to get him to shut up about you is to threaten to take his videogames away!” he laughed. My mind had ground to a halt.

Okay, so I kinda figured he’d be out to his parents. that much was a given, because frankly, he was almost as obvious as me. And I’m pretty damn obvious. But his dad was totally cool with it? This man, who looks like he goes around calling pro wrestlers sissies? Unbelievable!

And he talks about me? Like nonstop? Oh my God…I think I’m going to faint.

“Are you alright?” Mr. Thomas asked me. “You look kind of pale.”

Lucas walked back into the room, and saw the state I was in. he adorably scrunched up his nose and said to his father, “What’d you do to him?”

“I didn’t do anything. I was just telling him how much I’m glad you two found each other. Thought maybe now you wouldn’t bore me to death talking about him so much,” he explained with a grin.

Lucas’ eyes seemed to bug out of his skull. He became more red than I’ve ever seen anyone get before. My concern for him suddenly outweighed my shock at the whole situation.

“You said WHAT?” Lucas yelled. His dad looked back and forth between us, and suddenly realized what he had done.

“You haven’t told him? Oh my God, I’m SO sorry Lucas,” he said, guilt written all over his face. Lucas slumped down on the chair, dropping the bag of chips and cans of pop onto the carpet. One of the cans of pop, Dr. Pepper, rolled over to my feet.

I picked it up, opened it, and took a long drink. I let out a huge nasty burp.

“So, who’s up for the movie?” I asked innocently, with a smile on my face.

Lucas looked up at me, and smiled shyly. “Y-you’re not embarassed? I thought you’d wanna g-go. It got p-pretty awkward…” he stuttered.

“Well, yeah, it’s awkward,” I said and his face fell. “But why would I wanna go? Unless Mr. Tactful over here has anymore secrets to unearth, I say we watch the movie.” I gave his dad a smile to let him know I was kidding. Wouldn’t want him to…mutilate me or something.

Relief flooded Lucas’ face, and after he picked up the snacks and handed his dad a pop, we started the movie.

I got up to use the bathroom, and when I got back, they were whispering. I couldn’t make out what was being said, but judging by Lucas’ tone he was still freaking out. I walked back into the room, and without saying a word, plopped down next to Lucas. He tensed up, but melted when I put my head on his shoulder.

“How sweet,” his dad laughed.

I couldn’t see him, but I could tell Lucas was blushing.

After the movie, we ate a nice dinner that Lucas’ dad prepared. Well, it was take out Chinese, but his dad swore in a joking manner that he prepared it. I went along with it.

All too soon, it was time to go. Didn’t want to be out after curfew.

“I had fun tonight, Lucas,” I said as I stood on his doorstep.

“Me too. We need to do this again,” he said, blushing. He bit his bottom lip, blushing, and looked as if he wanted to say something, or kiss me.

After a few moments, he chickened out and said, “Well, I guess I’ll see you in school tomorrow.” I was a little disappointed.

“You too,” I said as I turned to go. “Night!” I called over my shoulder.

He said goodnight quietly, and I started walking home. He only lived about a block away from me. As I was walking, I noticed a few people were still out. Strange, it was almost time for the curfew the police chief had set up. I saw one man stumble and fall to the ground.

“Another drunk,” I said to myself quietly.

I got a little scared, and decided to run the rest of the way home. That night, as I lay in my bed trying to fall asleep, I pondered the events of today. Lucas likes me. He likes me likes me. Today was so amazing, I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring.