Alex's POV

In the morning, I wake up much less violently than I had last night. In fact, I wake up to something warm nudging me in the side, and I open my eyes to see Lucy's head snuggled under my arm, eyes closed peacefully. I smile and touch her soft hair, watching the rise and fall of her breathing.

I look around and see that everyone else is here, all of them as unconscious as a rock. When we drink, we always drink too much.

Then everything that happened last night comes rushing back at me from the back of my mind. Mostly what happened between Lucy and I. How her lips had tasted, how it had felt to have her hands tugging at my hair, and the rush I'd felt at just being with her. I also remember her bolting to the bathroom and I look down at her sympathetically. Then another thing comes back to me vaguely; Jack hitting on Lucy last night. I grind my teeth slightly, which is stupid of me to do considering how drunk Jack probably was when it happened. I bet he wouldn't even remember he did it, I shouldn't feel jealous. Especially considering Lucy isn't even my girlfriend or anything.

"Why don't you just kiss her already, dude?" I look up and see Jack peering over at me groggily with a slight smirk on his face. "It's obvious that you want to."

Little to his knowledge, I already have. I feel my smile being replaced with a frown. "Yea, I'm totally gonna do that while she's sleeping." I whisper. Jack shrugs and I look back down at Lucy, feeling my cheeks start to warm from getting caught staring at her. I'm strongly reminded of last night again and try not to think about how nice it had felt to kiss her.

"That's not really what I meant. I can tell you're into her though." Jack says, his voice barely a whisper. "I mean look at her, she's hot. I know I'd kiss her!"

"Shh! You'll wake her up!" I glare at Jack and feel Lucy shifting beside me. I look down to see her eyes fluttering open, only to squeeze back shut. She groans miserably and reaches up to cradle her head.

"Good morning sunshine!" Jack coos. "Got a hangover huh?"

Lucy nods her head weakly. "Uh huh. What time is it?"

Jack checks his watch. "About noon." Lucy just groans again.

"Hold on, I'll find you some Gatorade and something to eat." I say, patting her hand and getting up, my own head starting to throb dully.

"I'll come with you, I'm starving." Jack says, standing up wobbly and walking ahead. I smile down at Lucy before following Jack.

Once we're out of sight and out of earshot, I grab Jack's shoulder to stop him. The dark haired boy turns and gives me a confused look. I clear my throat.

"Look, I don't really like what you said about Lucy, okay? I-"

Jack scoffs and gives me the look, cutting me off effectively. "What are you going on about? It's not like I said anything bad or untrue about her. She's hot dude." He says, shrugging his shoulders.

My eyebrows scrunch together and I sigh. "Can you not be like that? She's not just an object to look at, Lucy's different, she's one of us now. And you're right, I do like her. So I really don't like hearing you talk about her like that. Do you really have to diss girls all the time?"

Jack looks at me like I've just sprouted a second head. "Dude, are you serious? Since when do you have a problem with me calling girls hot and all that? You do it too, all the time! Don't take me so seriously Alex. " Jack huffs frustratedly, fighting a grin.

I finally look away from him and bite the inside of my cheek. "Lucy is different." Is all I say.

Jack just rolls his eyes and laughs. "If you wanted dibs on her all you had to do was say so! I won't talk about her inappropriately anymore," He pats me on the shoulder and adds quietly but purposefully, "Not in front of you at least.."

I reach out to smack his head halfheartedly but he just skips away with a goofy grin on his face, I can't help but smile. I decide to leave the subject where it's at, on a good note.

We head for the soda aisle where the Gatorade is at and I pick out a few of my favorites, Jack doing the same.

"Which do you think she'd like more, lemon lime or strawberry kiwi?" I ask him, inspecting the bottles closely.

He shrugs. "I don't know, grab both. It's not like you have to pay for it." This makes us laugh a little and I tuck both bottles under my arm.

After picking up some water and things to eat, we head back to the poor hungover girl with an arm slung across her eyes. I poke her shoulder and she moves her arm a tiny bit so I see a grey bloodshot eye looking up at me. I smile and hold up my quarry for her to see.

"Thanks.." Lucy mumbles, reaching for one of the Gatorade bottles. Jack and I sit down on either side of her once more.

"Sure. Oh, don't forget these." I pull out the bottle of ibuprofen and pour out four of the dull red pills. She pops them in her mouth gracefully.

"I think you should just go back to sleep for a little while, kid. You're not looking so hot." Jack says with a wink in my direction, an audible smile in his voice.

I just shake my head as Lucy mumbles something unintelligible and reaches out to smack Jack's leg.

"Hey, it was just a suggestion." He says with a laugh.

* * *
Jack ditched me once some of the guys started to wake up, which was when Lucy fell back asleep. I decided to just lay down next to her and take it easy, since I wasn't feeling all that great either.

The solitude gave me some time to think about things, a few of which I would've preferred not bring up. Like of course, our current situation. Barricaded inside a store to avoid the zombie apocalypse happening right outside. Another thing obviously being the fact that I'd lost a good friend yesterday, the pain still fresh in my mind. I also thought briefly about my parents, where they were and if they were alive, and where the hell we are going to go once we eventually leave the store. Then another thought flashes itself; most of us don't know how to properly use our guns.

All I can manage to do at the moment is stare at the ceiling in discontent as the discouraging thoughts buzz through my head. I fidget back and forth between folding my hands on my chest and crossing them behind my head.

I must've laid like that for a couple hours because when I look up at the skylight in the ceiling, I can tell the sun has moved a decent amount. I also hear Lucy stirring beside me, groaning softly as she stretches her arms behind her head. I turn to face her, smiling when I see that her face seems brighter.

"Hey sleepyhead, how you feeling?"

She smiles sheepishly. "A lot better actually. Pretty hungry though." As she says the words her stomach growls right on queue.

She blushes and we both laugh. "I bet you are, considering how much came out of you last night."

Lucy scrunches her nose distastefully at the memory. "Yea..throwing up is definitely not on my favorite-things-to-do list.."

"It's my fault, I shouldn't have let you drink so much so fast." I say, averting my eyes to the food Jack and I had brought over earlier. I dig through the snacks and find some granola bars, handing them to the starving girl beside me. Lucy takes them graciously but shakes her head softly.

"It's not your fault Alex..you were grieving and you were just trying to get it off your mind a little. I'm not your responsibility.." She says, looking me in the eyes as she sits up slowly. "I'm the one who should've known better. But don't worry about it, okay?" She gives me a small smile and starts to eat.

I shrug my shoulders and smile back. "If you say so." I reach for a box of s'mores Pop-tarts and open it eagerly, my own stomach starting to growl. That's when I start to realize that Lucy isn't acting like anything happened between us last night. So she either doesn't remember us kissing, or she's choosing to pretend it didn't happen, which I don't really understand. Maybe I should pretend like it didn't happen either, or at least wait and see if she brings it up.

"Where's everyone else?" Lucy asks around a bite of granola, pulling me from my thoughts.

I take a quick look around and see we're the only ones around. They must've left while I was spaced out.

"Hmm, maybe they went back to the electronics to clean up a little, trying to fight off their hangovers." I say with a shrug. "Don't worry about it yet, eat first. It'll make you feel better."

Lucy rolls her eyes fondly. "Yes Mom." She says in a teasing voice.

After Lucy eats and assures me that she's not hungry anymore, we go looking for the others.

"Does your head still hurt?" I ask her.

She shakes her head. "Not really now. That was the worst headache I've ever had."

I laugh softly and give her a sympathetic squeeze on the shoulder. "Yea, hangover headaches are real ass kickers."

As we walk, an earlier thought tugs at the back of my mind. "You know, I was kinda thinking.." I let my words trail off quietly, looking at the floor.

"Hm?" Lucy looks up at me expectantly, eyes hopeful.

"None of us are really good with our guns. Well, except Zack I guess, and-" I glance at her and her gaze flicks to the floor. "Anyways, I think we should spend a day or two practicing with them, you know?"

She looks back up at me again and nods, something like disappointment briefly flashing over her expression. "Yea, we should. We can't stay here and avoid what's going on out there forever.." The electronics section comes within sight, as do some of the guys. "You should say something to them, I'm sure you're not the only one who would agree with you."

I consider this thoughtfully, and decide that she's right. When we approach the guys, I see that they have almost the whole area cleaned up from last night. I also see more than a few painful grimaces, Lucy and I aren't the only ones with hangovers. Everyone's tone is mostly subdued, yesterday's events evidently still vivid in their minds. I myself try not to think about what happened to Grieco, because I know that if I do I'll never be able to move on. And in the back of my mind, I know that that's what I have to do.

I guess I must've spaced out a little because I'm suddenly looking down at Lucy after hearing my name a few times.

"Geez looks like someone's finally home." She smiles, and looks over at the others, her eyes softening. "You going to say anything about practicing today, or wait?"

I look at the faces of my friends, the withdrawn expressions and dragging feet. I take a deep breath and exhale with a sigh.

"Yea I guess I'll say something." I lower my voice a little as we draw closer, and I look down at Lucy. "But there's something else that needs to be taken care of first." Lucy's eyes grow sad with understanding.

The first to notice us is Jack, he looks up and gives us a forced half smile. Rian sees us next and nods to us in acknowledgement, that brilliant of his smile hidden behind a frown.

"Hey sleepyheads, nice to see you've finally joined us." Rian says, a sad smile forming on his lips.

I shrug my shoulders heavily and sigh. "Can't avoid what has to be done."

Rian briefly raises an eyebrow but then it dawns on him, and the frown returns. "Oh..right." He says, and looks down at the floor.

Everyone else seems to have heard our exchange, they too are either looking down at the floor or off into space. I decide so just rip the metaphorical band-aid off.

"Let's go bury our friend."