It's Complicated: A Zombie Romance Novel

Something Borrowed

I know that it was wrong to take something without asking. Really, my mom did teach me that much. But in this case I couldn't help it. Taking that piece of flesh from Lee Ann's purse was a necessity. I couldn't run the risk of asking her for it and getting a no.

I'd borrowed Lee Ann's cell at lunch to call Brian. I used some excuse about needing to get ahold of my mom. It was a total lie. Mom didn't have a cell and I had no idea where she was staying, let alone the number.

I typed in Brian's number and waited for the appropriate ringing to start. Something went click and I heard a female voice on the line. Weird, Brian hadn't mentioned a girlfriend. I listened harder, trying to make out what she was saying.

"The person you are trying to reach is unavailable. If you would like to leave a voicemail please press 1. Otherwise please hang up the phone," she said. It was just an answering machine. His phone had never gone straight to voicemail like that before. Maybe Brian had turned it off for the party and forgot to turn it back on. Or maybe the two of them were lying dead in a ditch somewhere together, him and his phone. I shook my head to get rid of the picture that thought had formed there.

Brian wasn't dead. He was my big brother and there was no way that I was going to let him get away with dying on me, or disappearing for that matter. He was too important to my family, even if Mom was denying his existence. Shouldn't the woman that went through labor to bring him into this world remember him? All of this was just too weird.

I spent the rest of the day trying to come up with a plan. Brian would know what was going on with this the piece of flesh I'd borrowed from Lee Ann. If only I could find Brian. I racked my brain. Classes at this point had nothing to offer. Two of them were end of year parties. Everyone here was in count down mode but me. My mind was on finding my brother.

As soon as I got out of school I hopped onto a bus and headed to the U district. My brother would have the answers to why Mom and Lee Ann seemed to have forgotten him. Maybe I could catch him at home. Not our home obviously, but the place he'd been crashing for the last four years, the University of Washington campus dormitories.

If his Sunday had been anything like mine, maybe he was just nursing a very bad hangover. I could hope. I couldn't think of the alternative. Right now I needed a little bit of luck.