Four (Their Dead Lives,1) (29 page)

Kelsey leaned to Scot. “Who is Lexington Gunn?”

He glanced away, suddenly flustered. “Yeah, never mind, I’m mistaken.”
 

“I told you, man.”
 

CJ clapped his hands in excitement. “Wait. Lexington Gunn? That name
is
familiar. I know you too!”
 

Scot clenched his lips. “Drop it, kid,” he said tersely.
 

“No no. Lexington Gunn is the most famous male porn star
ever
.”
 

Defeated, Lexington sank back in his chair. “
Was
. I was.”
 

“What happened?” Sadie recognized the name and wondered why people were acting awkward about talking about porn.
Nothing wrong with it, kiddies.
 

“I gave it up and went to law school. Got my JD last year. Passed the bar. Got a job with a large firm—”

“That’s not all that’s large and firm.” CJ winked at Jacky, who rolled her eyes. Sadie smiled inside.
His immaturity is somewhat delicious.
 

“Continue your story, Mr. Gunn,” insisted Jacky.
 

“I got a job as an attorney, but I missed the sets. I missed the action.”
 

“And the girls,” added Scot.
 

I bet he admires him.
 

Lexington shrugged. “Yeah, some of them. But most of all I missed the performance.”
 

“So did you stay a lawyer or go back?”
 

“I went back to it. Directed and starred in my own porn parodies of legal films. First,
The Firm Erection
, followed by
Legally Boned
.”
 

“Hey, let’s not forget
A Civil Action,
” interjected Talon.
 

Lexington tilted his head with a quizzical look. “Yeah, that’s not one of mine.”
 

Talon stared with a blank expression then cocked his head back. “Oh, my bad! That’s the John Travolta vehicle.”

As the group laughed, Sadie caught a glimpse of Kelsey touching Scot’s thigh. She leaned over and whispered something to him. Scot immediately hopped off his chair and made his way to the bar. Before Kelsey followed him, Sadie grabbed her arm. “Where are you going?”
 

“I need to speak with him; it’ll take a second.”

Sadie didn’t say anything, and let her go.
 

CJ leaned to Jacky. “What’s the deal with that Oderly fellow?”
 

Oderly poked his head up from tables away. “Did someone say me name?”
 

“No, Oderly!” Talon and Jacky both snapped this time. The hippy lowered his head sadly and strummed his beloved guitar, Moonjava. Jacky then whispered to the group, “He’s so weird. It really creeps me out.”
 

“You know what else is weird?” CJ asked her.
 

“What?”
 

“You’re the girl of my dreams.”

Jacky spat water from her mouth and choked on laughter a couple times. Talon and Lexington also seemed amused. Sadie was astonished he’d actually said that. Then again, he had been talking about the whole belt thing.
Way to treat us like objects.
 

“How old are you?” Jacky asked CJ after she finished choking.
 

“Old enough.” He winked.
 

Sadie gave herself a mental face palm.
 

“You’re funny.” Jacky smiled. Her eyes wandered past Sadie to the bar where Scot and Kelsey were talking. “Those two are in love, aren’t they?”
 

“No,” Sadie found herself saying quickly. “They broke up years ago.”
 

“Years ago? No way. You can see it in their eyes. You can see it in how they stand next to each other. I used to have that. I miss that. It’s love.”
 

CJ stared at her in admiration. “Marry me.”
 

Sadie couldn’t believe it but Jacky was actually blushing.
Nice work, kid.
 

But all this talk about love made Sadie stand up; she had to stop Kelsey, who was letting herself fall for Scot’s tricks. Unacceptable.
He’s pure asshole and pure asshole never cleans.
So she went to them.
 

“Please, one second, Sadie,” Kelsey called out to her before she reached the bar. “We’re almost done.”
 

“We’re done
now
.” Scot shoved past them, went around the bar, grabbed a whiskey bottle and slammed a glass down next to it. Something Kelsey said had irritated him, and an irritated Scot was quite predictable. An irritated Scot went drinking.
 

“What are you doing?” Kelsey asked.
 

Scot smirked,
that vastly annoying smirk,
after pouring himself a full glass.
“Only thing we should do right now.”

SCOT
 

Drink.

She had to bring it up. She just had to. The conversation with Kelsey was what made him pour the whiskey in the glass. At least Scot wanted to blame her. But in all truth, he’d been ready to grab a bottle the moment he stepped in the restaurant.
 

Kelsey had pulled him aside moments earlier. She made her point clear very quickly. “I wanted to let you know, Jeff was the one who brought you to the food mart. He found you in the wreckage and saved you.”
 

“I know this already. You told me,” he had replied. “And?”
 

“And, well he told me he would return after finding Alec and Kale.”
 

“Where are you going with this?”
 

“He never came back, Scot. I’m afraid he might be—”
 

“You don’t know Jeff. He’s fine. Trust me.”
 

“How can you be sure?”
 

“Things have happened to us. Things I can’t explain.”
 

“What things?”
 

“I can’t explain, Kelsey. Something happened back in high school. But please trust me; Jeff is fine.”
 

“Okay, now you’ve said too much without explaining more.”
 

Scot had cursed himself. He never wanted to explain any of it to her. He had a hard time believing the truth himself. Why would anyone else take him seriously?
 

 
He hedged. “I don’t know. I can’t. You wouldn’t believe me, but I can tell you this: those guys are more than likely fine.”
 

“Don’t you wonder where they are?”
 

“No.”

“But look, I know about the well, but that’s all I know. What exactly happened to the four of you?”
 

“It doesn’t matter.”
 

“I know something bigger happened to you guys. You weren’t just thrown in a well. I could tell by all your little secret meetings.”
 

“I don’t know what to say.”
 

“I want you to say you worry about them. Obviously something big happened. Fate might have brought you guys back—”
 

“No. Nothing
big
happened. We got really lucky. Luck is what keeps us going. Not fate. Not destiny. Pure damn luck.” And with Sadie’s gracious interruption, he was ready to pour his glass.
 

Whiskey slid smoothly down Scot’s throat. He wiped his lips and slammed a glass on the bar. Kelsey and Sadie left him. Seconds later, Jacky and CJ joined, sitting on stools, facing him.
 

“I’ll take a whiskey, too, bartender.” Jacky smiled at him. Her front tooth had a slight crook but it somehow made her cuter.
 

“And you kid?”
 

CJ eyed all the bottles. “How about a vodka cranberry?”
 

Jacky erupted with laughter, her chuckles raspy.
Not so cute.
 

Scot poured Jacky a whiskey glass and slid it between her hands. He looked at CJ again. “You sure you want that?”
 

CJ took his baseball cap off, revealing all of his shaggy brown hair. He mussed his hair. “Well, not now.”
 

“You ever drink before?” Jacky poked at him, smiling again.
 

CJ leaned back, almost falling off the stool. “Yeah, of course! Of course I have! Fine, I’ll have a rum and coke.”
 

“That’s not much better.”
 

“Well,”–CJ slouched, a bit despondent, but then sat straight–“the man makes the drink, the drink doesn’t make the man.”
 

Fair enough.
CJ got his rum and coke.
 

“I
really
shouldn’t let you drink right now,” Jacky quipped.
 

“Why? Because of zombies?” CJ slowly brought the glass to his lips.
 

“No, silly, because of your age.”
 

That should be irrelevant.
“Zombies are a bigger deal than underage drinking.”
 

“I know that.” Jacky sipped at her whiskey. “But what if this all passes today or tomorrow and I get busted?”
 

“A zombie apocalypse won’t end in a few days. Something like this will take months or even yea—” CJ crouched and choked on his drink. Scot had put quite a bit more rum than coke in it.
 

Jacky helpfully rubbed his back.
 

“Well, I figure with all the time we have,”–Scot glanced at the rows of alcohol bottles–“we can get through this in a couple of days?”
 

Jacky laughed. “Come on now, we have to make it last at least a week.”
 

Scot smirked. “Lasting is overrated.”
 

The direct look Jacky gave him made her naughty inner thoughts clear. Scot liked to call those looks ‘do-me eyes’ but even
he
found that term degrading.

Not much time passed before some of the others joined them. The porn star, Lexington Gunn, pulled a stool up next to CJ.
 

“What can I get you?” Scot asked him.

Lexington ordered vodka on the rocks. Scot had never liked the taste of it, but if he had no other choice, down the vodka would go. “So who was your favorite co-worker?”
 

Lexington shook the drink by his lips. “Honestly, hard to pick. Probably a three-way tie.”
 

“Three way,” giggled CJ, his face flushed from the alcohol.
 

“Okay.” Scot sipped. “What about your favorite movie?”
 

“Easy.
The Pelican Queef.”

CJ clapped, laughing, smacking his glass and knocking it over in the process.
 

Talon and Kelsey finally joined them. Scot hated the fact she’d been flirting with another man, but he would never admit it. She was doing it to get his attention, he knew.
You have it.
“I’ll take a whiskey neat,” she said to him, sitting at the bar’s corner, close to Jacky. Talon sat on her other side.
 

“Ah, a whiskey girl. My kind of girl.” Scot blushed after he realized what he’d said.
Silly
. He poured the drink and gave it to Kelsey. Her hands touched his around the glass.

Scot caught Jacky staring at their hands; the touch only lasted a few seconds but felt longer. CJ stole Jacky’s attention by burping and slurring, “Hi.”
 

Jacky smiled. “So what were you doing before this all started?”
 

“Well, I was at school with my teammates.”

“Teammates? What did you play?”
 

He’s in a baseball uniform.
 

She slapped the bar, pretending to ponder while CJ watched. “Wait, let me guess—”

They shouted “Baseball!” in unison.
 

“Jinx!” they both yelled.
 

This repeated itself several times and Scot found himself getting annoyed. So he lined up shot glasses and filled them all to the rim. Sadie joined them. He had to call Oderly to come. The hippy was excited. Scot then looked for Nasir.
 

Gone
. Scot grew uneasy at that.
Why bring us here and then leave?
He also wondered where those two random other people had gone, but honestly, he didn’t really care.
 

“All right, everyone,” Scot called out and lifted his glass. Sadie, Oderly, Talon, CJ, Lexington, Jacky and Kelsey all did the same. He looked at them, his eyes landing last on her. “Cheers to doing the apocalypse the right way.”
 

The glasses clanked together.
 

One shot became two. Two became three. Night fell. Three became four. Four became five. Then Jacky declared it time for bed.
 

They stumbled around like the dead wandering the world before clearing tables to make room for a large sleeping area. There were two sleeping bags the restaurant’s owner had stored in his office. Why? Scot didn’t care. He was just excited to have one of them. He spread it across himself, Kelsey, and Sadie. Warm inside and warm next to her, he was a happy camper. A few feet away, Jacky and Talon shared the other sleeping bag. CJ had passed out, sprawled across the bar. Lexington and Oderly said they would keep first watch. Nasir still hadn’t returned. Those other two survivors? Still gone. Scot felt he might have imagined them. His mind spun. He craved a bean and cheese burrito. How he loved bean and cheese burritos.
 

Kelsey pressed her back against Scot’s side. He wasn’t sure if she was hinting to cuddle or was pressed to him because the sleeping bag was small. Either way, having her next to him meant the world was good and just. He smiled drunkenly.
Should I turn over? Should I hold her?
They had shared a few laughs over the course of their drinks, but they’d had the perfect buzz going then. Now they were just too drunk, too tired, and too emotional. He didn’t want to risk a good time going sour. But it took all his strength to not turn over and hold her, and kiss her, and show how much he missed her.
Just do it, you pussy.