kept stinking worse and worse the longer he was indoors, killing my urge to hand out friendly snuggles. That windy night must have been helping air him out while he was still in the doorway.
“But you were planning to . . .” I prodded gently. I felt way bad for the guy, but the clock was ticking. Two minutes if Josh was on time!
“I was planning to tell my girlfriend that I still loved her. And to tell Monica to go back to the Gap and leave me alone, you know?”
Well, well, if it wasn’t old home night at the Berry residence. There was only one skank named Monica who worked at the Gap—my fellow Settler, Monica “I put the psycho in psycho hose beast” Parsons.
How ironic would it have been if he’d ended up on her doorstep instead of mine? Maybe that was why the powers had summoned me back into service for the night, to spare William the agony of seeing Monica after death. And now everything would go back to normal and I would be spared Settler service until another of the Monicster’s victims needed to come get some post-burial business off his chest.
Riigghht . . . and Josh is going to show up with flowers and kneel down on one knee before he asks you to homecoming.
As if summoned by my slavishly devoted thoughts, the doorbell rang.
He was here! One minute early!
“Wha?” William jumped, clearly startled by the noise. He stumbled forward, knocking into me hard enough that I bounced off the computer hutch and then back into his undead arms. We fell to the ground in a heap, and by the time I untangled myself, Josh was ringing the doorbell again and my dress was covered in grave dirt.
Argh! Now I was going to reek!
“Hey, Josh!” I yelled through the door, hoping he couldn’t hear William groaning as he stood up. “I’ll be right back! I . . . forgot my purse!” Frantic, I ran for my room, mind racing as I tried to figure out what I could throw on that was clean and would be even remotely as cute as the word’s most perfect sundress.
I skidded to a stop among the piles of clothes on the floor and started to strip. I was not going to let my first date with an older, cooler, drop-dead-gorgeous guy—okay, I’ll admit it, my first real date ever , since I hadn’t been allowed to get in cars with boys last year—be ruined by a zombie blast from the past. If Mom was right, if my powers had somehow been reactivated after lying dormant for so many years, then I would deal with it. But I would deal with it later .
I’d struggled into a tightish pair of Seven jeans and was flinging tank tops in ten different directions, searching for something that wasn’t too schoolish looking for date wear, when I heard the crash.
“Crap!” I ran back to the front door, pulling on the shirt I’d had in my hand as I went. A quick look down at my chest revealed I’d had the misfortune to choose the LOOKING FOR A SUGAR DADDY shirt I usually only wore to dance class.
Great, real classy choice. But there was no time to change now. William was careening around the living room like a college freshman at his first kegger, banging into things, knocking Mom’s Lladró porcelain collection to the ground. I was so dead. William was even now crushing beneath his feet the collectible mommy figurine Dad had given Mom when she was pregnant with me.
Of course, if I skipped out now, hoping Josh wouldn’t notice the weird undead person roaming around in my living room when I opened the door, I would be in even deeper monkey-flinging poo than collectible destruction could ever cause. I would never be forgiven for leaving my zombie unattended.
And probably never allowed out of the house either.
Groaning inwardly, I raced back to the door. This was so horribly unfair! I was going to have to tell Josh I couldn’t go out and deal with William. Grr! Couldn’t this déjà zombie action have waited until our second date? Or at least until Josh had already asked
“But you were planning to . . .” I prodded gently. I felt way bad for the guy, but the clock was ticking. Two minutes if Josh was on time!
“I was planning to tell my girlfriend that I still loved her. And to tell Monica to go back to the Gap and leave me alone, you know?”
Well, well, if it wasn’t old home night at the Berry residence. There was only one skank named Monica who worked at the Gap—my fellow Settler, Monica “I put the psycho in psycho hose beast” Parsons.
How ironic would it have been if he’d ended up on her doorstep instead of mine? Maybe that was why the powers had summoned me back into service for the night, to spare William the agony of seeing Monica after death. And now everything would go back to normal and I would be spared Settler service until another of the Monicster’s victims needed to come get some post-burial business off his chest.
Riigghht . . . and Josh is going to show up with flowers and kneel down on one knee before he asks you to homecoming.
As if summoned by my slavishly devoted thoughts, the doorbell rang.
He was here! One minute early!
“Wha?” William jumped, clearly startled by the noise. He stumbled forward, knocking into me hard enough that I bounced off the computer hutch and then back into his undead arms. We fell to the ground in a heap, and by the time I untangled myself, Josh was ringing the doorbell again and my dress was covered in grave dirt.
Argh! Now I was going to reek!
“Hey, Josh!” I yelled through the door, hoping he couldn’t hear William groaning as he stood up. “I’ll be right back! I . . . forgot my purse!” Frantic, I ran for my room, mind racing as I tried to figure out what I could throw on that was clean and would be even remotely as cute as the word’s most perfect sundress.
I skidded to a stop among the piles of clothes on the floor and started to strip. I was not going to let my first date with an older, cooler, drop-dead-gorgeous guy—okay, I’ll admit it, my first real date ever , since I hadn’t been allowed to get in cars with boys last year—be ruined by a zombie blast from the past. If Mom was right, if my powers had somehow been reactivated after lying dormant for so many years, then I would deal with it. But I would deal with it later .
I’d struggled into a tightish pair of Seven jeans and was flinging tank tops in ten different directions, searching for something that wasn’t too schoolish looking for date wear, when I heard the crash.
“Crap!” I ran back to the front door, pulling on the shirt I’d had in my hand as I went. A quick look down at my chest revealed I’d had the misfortune to choose the LOOKING FOR A SUGAR DADDY shirt I usually only wore to dance class.
Great, real classy choice. But there was no time to change now. William was careening around the living room like a college freshman at his first kegger, banging into things, knocking Mom’s Lladró porcelain collection to the ground. I was so dead. William was even now crushing beneath his feet the collectible mommy figurine Dad had given Mom when she was pregnant with me.
Of course, if I skipped out now, hoping Josh wouldn’t notice the weird undead person roaming around in my living room when I opened the door, I would be in even deeper monkey-flinging poo than collectible destruction could ever cause. I would never be forgiven for leaving my zombie unattended.
And probably never allowed out of the house either.
Groaning inwardly, I raced back to the door. This was so horribly unfair! I was going to have to tell Josh I couldn’t go out and deal with William. Grr! Couldn’t this déjà zombie action have waited until our second date? Or at least until Josh had already asked
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