Archive of Our Own

This was going to be an awesome weekend.

Burly had gone away for the weekend with his girlfriend, which meant that Andy had the whole house to himself. Living with Burly was usually pretty fun. But it could be kind of annoying sometimes when Burly was complaining about messes that Andy made in the house or asking Andy if he was ever going to start paying rent. So Andy was pretty excited to have the place to himself for a few days.

It was Friday night, and Andy was looking to start the weekend off in an awesome way. He figured that he could probably find a cool movie to watch on TV. First, he needed to pick out a good snack that he could eat while watching the movie. Burly would sometimes get annoyed when Andy ate his food. But Burly wasn’t here to get annoyed about it tonight. So Andy opened up the cabinets in the kitchen and smiled as he set his sights on an unopened bag of Doritos.

Andy flopped down onto the couch and kicked his feet up onto it. For the next few days, he didn’t have to worry about Burly complaining about him putting his feet up on the furniture. Admittedly, it was probably a fair complaint since Andy didn’t really wash his feet well enough and they were kind of gross. But Andy was alone tonight, so he could make himself comfortable however he wanted to. He also grabbed the blanket that Burly kept on the back of the couch and spread it out over himself because the house was pretty cold since the heater had been acting up for the last few weeks. Then he stretched out on the couch as he popped open the bag of Doritos and started scrolling through the channels on the TV to see what was on.

A grin spread across Andy’s face when he found a channel where Dead Beats was about to start. This was a movie that he had been wanting to see for a while. It was about a band that played a concert in a graveyard and ended up accidentally waking a bunch of zombies from the dead with their music. It combined two awesome things: music and zombies, so it must be super awesome.

Andy settled in as the movie began and he prepared to start his awesome weekend.

As the credits rolled, Andy simply sat and stared at the TV for a few minutes.

The movie hadn’t been nearly as fun as he thought it would be. It turned out that it was actually super scary.

Andy hadn’t realized that all of the members of the band in the movie were going to end up getting violently killed by the zombies. He thought that they might end up becoming friends with the zombies, and maybe all of them would play a concert together at the end. He probably should have paid more attention to the previews that he had seen for this movie.

The zombies in the movie ended up looking way more realistic than Andy had expected them to look. Usually, the special effects in horror movies were pretty cheesy. But these zombies looked like the kind of thing that he could actually see in real life. Had they found real zombies to use for the movie? Andy hadn’t thought the zombies existed, but now he wasn’t so sure. And it had also looked more realistic than Andy was expecting when the members of the band got killed. The acting and special effects were really good in the death scenes. It was acting and special effects, right? Or did the actors making the movie actually die when they were filming those scenes? Andy should probably look that up online just to be sure.

The other thing that was making Andy uneasy was the fact that the zombies had come after the characters for playing a concert in a graveyard. Andy had never done that before. At least he was smart enough to know better than to do something like that. But he was pretty sure that there had been times when he was singing in his car while driving past a graveyard. What if that counted too? What if there were zombies coming after him right now?

Andy gasped as he looked down at his hands and realized that his fingers were covered in blood. It felt like his heart stopped for a moment before he took a closer look and realized that it wasn’t blood. It was just the orange dust from the Doritos he had been eating. He relaxed a little as he licked his fingers clean. But then he nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a door slowly creaking open. He leapt up from the couch and glanced frantically around the room for a few seconds before he realized that it was just a door opening on TV.

Taking a deep breath, Andy turned off the TV as he tried to calm himself. He was safe. He knew that he was safe. But maybe he could take a look around just to be super certain that he was safe?

Andy made his way around the house, checking each room for any hidden zombies. He was holding the TV remote in his hands like a sword the entire time. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was better than nothing. Every time that Andy opened a door, he braced himself, expecting a zombie to jump out and attack him at any second. But his search determined that there weren’t any zombies hidden in the house right now. Still, he made sure to turn on every light that he could find just to be safe.

Technically, Andy didn’t get to check every room in the house. Burly had locked the door to his room before leaving and took the key with him so that Andy didn’t go through his things while he was gone. But Andy was pretty sure that Burly would have noticed if there were any zombies in his bedroom before he left. So it was probably okay to not check in there.

When Andy walked by the front door, he tried turning the handle to be sure that it was totally locked. The handle was fine, but he noticed that the door chain wasn’t locked. So he slid the door chain into position for an extra level of security.

At least Andy was safe for now. There were no zombies in the house, and the door was securely locked. But the house also had a sliding glass door. If the zombies really wanted to come after him, they would be able to break through the glass at any time. This meant that he couldn’t relax and that he was going to have to stay on guard for the rest of the night.

Ironically, Andy was really wishing that Burly was here right now. It would probably feel a lot less scary if Andy didn’t have to deal with the threat of zombies on his own. But Burly wouldn’t be back for a few more days, so Andy was just going to have to live in fear until then.

Andy was pretty sure that his awesome weekend had now been ruined.

April was alone in her room, lying on her bed and scrolling aimlessly on her laptop.

It was a perfect way to spend her Friday night.

She felt drained after a long and exhausting week. Maybe she shouldn’t feel so tired when she barely ever did any real work at work. In fact, Ron actively encouraged her to do as little work as possible. But even if she wasn’t doing much actual work, it was still draining to spend so much time in an office where she was constantly surrounded by people. So getting to spend her Friday night alone and doing nothing was exactly what she needed to unwind.

April’s blissful solitude was interrupted when her cell phone started vibrating, signaling an incoming call. She glared at her phone for a few seconds, wondering if she could somehow will her phone to stop vibrating if she glared at it angrily enough. But that didn’t work, so she sighed and picked up her phone so that she could press the button to decline the call and stop its vibrating herself. She was tempted to answer the call and pretend to be a serial killer so that she could mess with whatever idiot was calling her and give them what they deserved for daring to try to talk to her. But she really didn’t feel like talking to anybody right now, so it was easier to just decline the call.

Just as April was about to press the button to decline the call, she glanced down at the screen to see who was calling. Her heart did a stupid little leap when she saw the name “Andy Dwyer” on the screen. Suddenly, all of the previous thoughts that she had been having about this call went out the window. She hadn’t even dared to let herself hope that Andy would want to call her this late on a Friday night. Not that she was the kind of person who would ever hope for a phone call. But she could admit to herself that Andy was the one person that she actually enjoyed talking on the phone with.

April quickly answered the call and put her phone up to her ear. “Hey.”

“April! Hey.” Maybe it was just wishful thinking on April’s part, but Andy sounded like he was pretty excited to hear her voice.

April waited for a few seconds to see if Andy would explain what he was calling about. But he didn’t, so she figured that he was probably waiting for her to say something. “So, what’s up?”

“I wanted to ask you something,” Andy said.

“Okay.” April was trying to remain composed, but her mind was running wild with possibilities about what Andy might want to ask her.

Andy hesitated for a few moments before asking his question. “Are zombies real?”

“Oh.” April couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. As much as it was cool to be asked about something awesome like zombies, a part of her had been hoping that Andy had been wanting to ask about something more personal. “I don’t think so. I mean, I wish they were. I’d totally love to have my brains eaten by a zombie. But they probably aren’t real.”

“Are you sure?” Andy asked.

April furrowed her brow. Why was Andy calling to ask her about this? “I’m pretty sure. I’ve never seen any zombies in real life. And besides, we work for the government. If zombies actually existed, the government would probably know about them and we probably would have heard about them by now. If zombies were real, Leslie would definitely have binders full of ideas about things she could do for them. There’s no way that she wouldn’t be planning on having free brain buffets in the parks to make them more inclusive for zombies, or something lame like that.”

“Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.” There was a hint of relief in Andy’s voice.

“Why are you so curious about zombies?” April asked.

“Have you ever seen a movie called Dead Beats?”

April thought about it for a few seconds, but she couldn’t recall ever hearing about that movie. “I don’t think so.”

“It’s about a band that has a concert in a graveyard. Their music wakes some of the dead people up as zombies. And then the zombies spend the rest of the movie tracking the band down and killing them.”

“It sounds pretty awesome.”

“It was pretty awesome.” Andy paused for a moment before continuing. “But it was also really scary too. It turned out to be a lot scarier than I thought it would be. Now that I’ve finished watching it, I’m feeling kind of freaked out and I keep thinking that a zombie’s gonna come attack me or something like that. Burly’s away for the weekend, so I’m here alone. I thought I might feel better if I talked to someone, so I figured I’d give you a call.”

“Why did you pick me?” April asked. Was Andy just wanting reassurance from a friend? Or was this something more?

“Well, you’re really smart and you like creepy things, so I thought that you’d probably know a lot about zombies.”

“Oh. That makes sense.” April shouldn’t feel disappointed. She should be happy that Andy associated her with awesome things like zombies. But she had been hoping that maybe this call meant something more than that.

“Also, I always feel better whenever I’m talking to you.”

There it was. Those words were all that it took to make April feel like she was melting and feel a bunch of stupid, mushy emotions that she would have normally hated but didn’t really hate when Andy was the one making her feel them.

“That’s, um, I feel better when I talk to you too,” April said, hoping that her voice still sounded normal.

Andy didn’t respond, but April could tell that he was grinning on the other side of the phone. And she was still riding the high from Andy’s last comment, so she decided to be bold and take a shot before she could second-guess herself.

“You know, you said that Burly’s away and you have the whole house to yourself. I bet that’s probably part of why you’re feeling a little freaked out. It’s probably scarier since you’re alone. You might feel better if you had someone else there with you. I’m not really doing anything right now. So I could probably come over and keep you company for a little bit, or whatever, if you think that would be a good idea.”

“Really? You would do that?” Andy asked, sounding like April was the one doing him a big favor and like she hadn’t been trying to figure out a way to get invited over to Andy’s house for months now.

“Totally.”

“You’re seriously the best person ever.”

April was pretty sure that she was blushing, and she was suddenly really glad that this was a phone call so that Andy couldn’t see her.

“It’s not a big deal.” April tried to downplay this before she said something truly embarrassing. “I like hanging out with you, and I didn’t have anything better to do anyway. Um, if you text me your address, I can head over right away.”

“Awesome. I’ll text it to you right after we finish this call.”

“Cool. See you soon.”

“See you soon.”

After this, April hung up the call with a smile lingering on her face.

Maybe she was making a mistake. Hadn’t she just been thinking about how glad she was that she could spend the evening alone and doing nothing? But as much as she normally hated spending time with people, Andy was an exception to that rule. Spending time with Andy was somehow more enjoyable than spending time alone. So she wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity, no matter how drained she had been feeling earlier.

And the truth was that April wasn’t really feeling very drained anymore. She was feeling genuine excitement, which was a rare feeling for her. So she waited for Andy’s text and tried not to overthink the fact that she had figured out a way to invite herself over to Andy’s house and that Andy almost seemed like he was just as excited about it as she was.

When Andy finished texting April and put his phone down, he was filled with giddy excitement. April was coming over. April was actually coming over to his house. Well, technically it was Burly’s house and he let Andy stay here too even though he didn’t pay any rent. But still. It was the place where Andy lived. And now April was coming over here to hang out with him. It was going to be so much fun. And April was so awesome for offering to drive over here this late on a Friday night just to help him feel less scared.

The truth was that Andy kind of had a big crush on April. This wasn’t the first time Andy had a crush on a girl. But something about it felt different. April was the most awesome person that he had ever met, and he wanted to spend every single second with her. He didn’t think that he had ever felt quite like that about anyone else. And she seemed to enjoy hanging out with him, so he really wanted to believe that there was a chance that she might feel the same way about him.

April’s birthday was coming up soon, and Andy was writing her a birthday song that would end with him asking her out on a date. He was really excited about it but also really scared about it. The prospect of asking April out might actually be scarier than the movie that he watched earlier tonight. If she said yes, it would be the most awesome thing ever. But if she said no, it would hurt way worse than getting his brains eaten by a zombie.

Andy decided to go to his room and practice the song that he was writing for April to help him pass the time while he waited for her. But when he grabbed his guitar and sat down on his bed, he couldn’t actually play the song right now. He was too excited to focus. So instead, he just spent the time strumming randomly without trying to put together a coherent melody.

While he was strumming his guitar, Andy realized that he wasn’t really even feeling scared anymore. It was hard to think about the zombies that he was supposed to be scared of when all that he could think about right now was April. She hadn’t even come over yet, and she was already making him feel better.

As Andy sat there and waited for April, he felt like he was going to burst from the excitement. Was that possible? Could somebody get so excited about something that they would actually end up popping like a balloon? If it was possible, it was probably going to happen to Andy tonight.

It seemed like Andy’s awesome weekend was back on track, and maybe it was going to be even better than he had expected before.

April shivered as she left her house and headed towards her car. She really should have put on a real jacket instead of just throwing back on the thin cardigan that she had worn to work today. But she was too excited about heading over to Andy’s house to bother checking how cold it was before she left.

However, the temperature wasn’t the only issue with the weather tonight. A few minutes after April started driving, it started raining. It started as a light drizzle, but it didn’t take long for it to turn into a torrential downpour. Even with her windshield wipers at full speed, April could barely see the road through the rain. Maybe Andy was onto something. This weather was starting to feel like something out of a horror movie.

Luckily, April arrived safely at Andy’s house despite the dangerous driving conditions created by the weather. It would have sucked if she had died in a car accident on the way over here. Then she wouldn’t have gotten to hang out with Andy. Also, she would be dead, which would be pretty lame.

As April sat in her car in front of Andy’s house, she debated what to do. The rain hadn’t slowed down at all, and she didn’t have an umbrella in her car. She could wait until the rain stopped before getting out. But she didn’t know how long it was supposed to last. If she did that, she could be waiting out here for hours. The other option was to make a run for it and try to make it to the door as quickly as possible. She would probably get soaked by the rain, but she would be able to dry off once she was inside. Maybe running through the rain wasn’t the best idea. But April was pretty eager to see Andy, so she decided to go for it.

April began to question her decision as soon as she closed her car door. She was totally drenched within seconds. But there was no point in backing out now since the damage was already done. So she dashed to the door as quickly as possible. The journey from the curb to the porch wasn’t a long one. But it wasn’t a pleasant journey with the rain dumping down on April the entire time and the wind blowing rain right into her face.

When April finally reached the porch, she began pounding on the door. The door had a window, but there was a curtain in front of the window on the inside. Luckily, it only took a few seconds before she could see the shape of a figure approaching through the curtain. When Andy reached the door, he pulled the curtain aside. His face lit up when he saw April standing outside.

“Hey!” Andy grinned when he saw April standing outside. But before he could open the door, he hesitated as a more serious expression crossed his face. “Wait. You are the real April, right? You’re not just a zombie in disguise?”

Under normal circumstances, April might have loved trying to come up with some sort of password or secret knock to prove her identity to Andy. But normal circumstances didn’t include standing outside in a rainstorm. So instead she just rolled her eyes. “Andy, it’s pouring rain. Just let me in.”

“Oops, sorry.” Andy’s eyes widened as if he was just now noticing how soaked April was.

Andy unlocked the door and opened it. But it didn’t actually open, since he had forgotten to unlock the door chain.

“My bad,” Andy said as he removed the chain from its track. “I forgot that I locked that to keep out zombies.”

Andy finally got the door open, and April lunged inside.

It wasn’t until April got inside that she realized how cold she was. Between the low temperature outside and the fact that she was soaking wet, she felt like she was about ready to freeze solid. And the temperature inside the house wasn’t much warmer than it was outside.

“Are you okay?” Andy asked, with concern spreading across his face as he watched April shiver and drip water all over his floor.

“I’m f-f-fine,” April said through chattering teeth.

“Sorry it’s a little cold in here. The heater kind of sucks. Burly’s trying to get it fixed, but it doesn’t work that well right now. I can give you a towel so you can dry off a bit. And you can borrow some of my clothes if you want to change into something dry.”

April strangely felt a little warmer already when Andy made that offer. She nodded eagerly. “Y-y-yeah. That’d be awesome.”

“Cool,” Andy gestured towards a door at the end of the hall. “Follow me.”

April followed Andy down the hall to his bedroom. It was a pretty basic bedroom. On the opposite side of the room from the door, there was a desk in one corner and a bed that was probably a bit too small for Andy in the other corner. There were a few posters and pictures that Andy had hanging on the walls. His guitar was propped against the wall next to his bed. Several articles of clothing were scattered around on the floor along with a few discarded candy bar wrappers and empty bags of chips.

Andy opened a door in his room to reveal a closet. None of his clothes were hanging on hangers. Instead, they were all piled up in two piles on the floor.

“You can grab whatever you want.” Andy pointed at the pile on the right. “That’s my clean clothes pile.” Then he pointed at the pile on the left. “And that’s my dirty clothes pile.”

April just wanted to get into dry clothes as quickly as possible, so she grabbed the first two items off of the clean clothes pile: a Mouse Rat t-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants. When she glanced over at the dirty clothes pile, she noticed a familiar red hoodie. It was the same hoodie that April had worn when she and Andy swapped sweaters during Leslie’s picnic in the park. She remembered how comfortable it was, so she decided to grab it as well.

Then Andy led April back down the hall to another door. When he opened the door, April saw that it was the bathroom.

“There’s a towel hanging on the wall in here, so you can use that to dry off,” Andy said. “And I’ll go make some hot chocolate while you’re getting changed.”

April’s lips curled into a smile, even though she was still shivering. “C-c-cool. That sounds good.”

Andy flashed her a grin before turning around and bounding towards the kitchen. Then April went into the bathroom to get changed.

Just being able to peel off her wet clothes and dry off with the towel already made April feel a lot better. And she felt even better once she started putting on Andy’s clothes.

The Mouse Rat t-shirt was way too big for her. But that just meant that it was really loose and baggy, and that made it super comfortable. The sweatpants were also very oversized on April, which proved to be a more difficult problem. But she was able to roll up the bottoms of the legs enough to get them to the right length. And she had to triple-knot the drawstrings, but she was able to tighten the waistband enough to get the pants to stay up. Finally, she put on the hoodie. It was still huge on her, just like it had been when she wore it before. But it was also still one of the coziest items of clothing that she had ever worn. And it was warm enough that April didn’t feel like she was freezing to death anymore. It also kind of smelled like Andy, which made April like it even more. But she wasn’t going to admit that out loud.

In addition to how comfortable the clothes were, the fact that she was actually wearing Andy’s clothes seemed to trigger something in April’s brain. This felt like the most intimate physical contact she had ever had with Andy. Sure, it was just contact with his clothes and not with him. But these were clothes that Andy had worn before, and now April was wearing them too. It wasn’t like before when they had briefly swapped sweaters as a joke. April would actually be wearing Andy’s clothes for a prolonged period of time. And Andy was the one who had suggested the idea. That meant that he actually wanted her to wear his clothes. Sure, it was pretty much the only option. It’s not like he was going to make her sit there in wet clothes all evening. But April still felt like this had to count for something. It was a new level of closeness that she and Andy hadn’t reached before.

Once April finished getting dressed, she wasn’t sure what to do with her wet clothes. So she just balled them up and carried them with her as she emerged from the bathroom.

Andy was waiting out in the hall, and he grinned when he saw April. “Hey. Feeling better?”

April nodded. “A lot better.”

“We can put your other clothes in the dryer to dry them off.”

April followed Andy to the laundry room. When they got into the laundry room, Andy stopped and furrowed his brow as he stared back and forth between the two machines. April would be willing to bet a decent amount of money that this was probably the first time that Andy had set foot in the laundry room since moving in with Burly.

“Um, do you know how to use the dryer?” Andy asked.

One of the benefits of the fact that April still lived with her parents was that she didn’t have to worry about doing her own laundry. But that meant that she didn’t know any more than Andy did about doing laundry. In fact, she couldn’t even tell which machine was the dryer and which one was the washing machine. She was pretty sure that she remembered her parents trying to teach her how to do laundry one time. But it had been so boring and lame that she hadn’t paid attention to anything that they were saying.

April stared at the various buttons and knobs on the machines for a few seconds to see if anything jumped out at her. But nothing did, so she just shook her head. “No idea.”

Andy glanced at one of the shelves on the wall. “Burly has a bottle of clothes soap up there. I think you’re supposed to put that in the dryer, right? But how does that make the clothes dry? Wouldn’t soap just make them wetter?”

April let out a frustrated sigh and dropped her ball of wet clothes onto the top of the machine that she thought was the dryer. “Whatever. Let’s just leave them here and let them air dry.”

“Good call. Let me show you what I made.”

Andy ran towards the kitchen, and April followed along. When they arrived, Andy gestured towards two mugs sitting on the counter. April remembered that Andy said he was going to make hot chocolate. But the liquid inside of these mugs was orange rather than brown.

“So it turned out that we didn’t have any hot chocolate mix,” Andy said. “But this is way better. I made hot orange juice instead. It’s one of my all-time favorite drinks. It’s super delicious.”

April picked up one of the mugs and took a sip. She was still cold even with the multiple layers of clothes that she was wearing, so the feeling of warmth coursing through her body as she drank the hot orange juice was pretty awesome. And it actually tasted pretty good too.

April glanced at Andy and saw that he was watching her in anticipation. So she gave him a small smile and a thumbs up. Andy grinned and pumped his fist in excitement.

“So, what now?” April asked.

“Are you still feeling cold?” Andy asked.

April nodded. “Not as bad as before. But a little bit.”

“I could start a fire in the fireplace so we can sit by the fire while we drink our hot orange juice,” Andy suggested.

“A fire sounds good,” April said.

“I’ve never actually used the fireplace before,” Andy admitted. “But how hard can it be? There’s already some wood in the fireplace. And I bet Burly probably has some gasoline around here somewhere. So I could just dump a bunch of gasoline onto the wood, and then I would just need a flamethrower or some matches or something like that, and I’d be able to make a fire.”

April got the sense that Andy would probably end up burning the whole house down if he tried to set a fire in the fireplace. And as much as that sounded pretty awesome, they’d both be stuck outside in the rain if the house burned down. So it would probably be better to do something else.

“That kind of seems like a lot of work for a fire,” April said. “Do you have, like, a blanket or something? Maybe we could just sit under a blanket and watch TV.”

A big grin spread across Andy’s face. “That sounds awesome! I love watching TV! Also, there’s a blanket that Burly keeps on the couch, and it’s super soft and comfortable.”

April followed Andy over to the couch. He grabbed the blanket and spread it out over the two of them as they took a seat on the couch. Andy turned on the TV and started flipping through the channels to find something to watch. April wasn’t paying much attention to what was on the TV. She was a little too distracted by trying not to freak out about the fact that she and Andy were sharing a blanket and sitting really close together.

April turned her attention to the TV screen when she heard Andy gasp in excitement. “Ooh, have you ever seen this show before? It’s called Extreme Idiots.”

April shook her head. “Never heard of it.”

“I’ve seen a few episodes before. It’s super hilarious. It’s about this group of guys who try to do a bunch of really cool stunts. But they’re really bad at it and always end up hurting themselves instead.”

Getting to watch stupid people injure themselves? April was intrigued. “That sounds cool. Do they ever get seriously injured?”

“On one of the episodes I saw, one of the guys broke his leg. He landed on it wrong, and it just totally snapped.”

“Really?” April was definitely intrigued now. “Could you see the bone?”

Andy grinned and nodded. “You could see the broken bone sticking out of his leg. It was super gross and bloody.”

The corners of April’s mouth lifted into a smile. “Okay. I’m in. Let’s watch it.”

“Awesome!” Andy took a sip from his mug and then paused for a few seconds before speaking again. “Are you warm enough now? If not, you can sit closer to me if you want. I’m super warm.”

April and Andy were already sitting really close to each other. Probably closer to each other than they had ever sat before. Now Andy was giving April a perfect excuse to sit even closer to him. And since he was the one who suggested it, maybe there was a chance that he wanted this just as much as she did. April fought hard against an urge to smile like an idiot.

“Yeah, I think I might do that. For the warmth,” April said, desperately trying to maintain a casual tone.

April scooted over until she was sitting right next to Andy. She decided to press her luck and take it a step further. Instead of stopping when she was sitting next to him, April leaned against Andy and snuggled up against his side.

No. Scratch that. She didn’t snuggle. Snuggling was not something that April Ludgate did.

April leaned against Andy for warmth. If the action happened to resemble snuggling, it was purely coincidental.

The cynical part of April wondered if she was taking this too far and if Andy might recoil away from her. But he did the opposite. The smile on his face got even bigger when she leaned against him. And he leaned against her in return, in a motion that also coincidentally happened to resemble snuggling.

Once they were in position, they returned their attention to the TV. April ended up laughing a lot more than she had expected while watching the show. It turned out that the show was really hilarious. Or maybe April was just in a good mood because everything felt really awesome right now. This might have been the coziest that April had ever felt. She probably would have been happy if she could spend the rest of her life sharing a blanket with Andy while bundled up in his clothes, sipping hot orange juice, watching TV, and totally not snuggling.

Andy felt like he was going to explode. He was cuddling with April. April was actually cuddling with him. When April wasn’t looking, Andy gave himself a quick pinch just to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming.

All that Andy had been hoping to do was to help April warm up a little bit. But if she wanted to cuddle too, that was definitely fine with him. It turned out that April was actually a really good cuddler. Even though April liked to act scary, Andy liked the fact that she was actually really cute and cuddly once you got to know her. And because Andy had gotten to know April, he knew her well enough to know that he should never actually call her cute and cuddly out loud. But he was pretty sure that it was still okay to think it in his head.

Andy didn’t fully follow the show that they were watching since he was a bit distracted by April. But the parts that he did pay attention to were pretty funny. He was hoping that there would be another bloody injury on the show because he knew April would enjoy that. It didn’t happen, but she seemed to be laughing almost as much as he was, so it seemed like she was enjoying the show anyway. They enjoyed the show enough that they watched another episode once the first one was over.

When the second episode was over, Andy was content to stay put and let another episode play. However, April pulled away from him and sat up straight. Then she turned towards him and spoke up.

“Hey, are you feeling better?” April asked.

“Feeling better?” Andy was feeling pretty awesome. Why was April asking him this? Did she think he was sick or something?

“You know, are you still scared about the zombies?”

“Oh.” The truth was that Andy had totally forgotten about the scary zombie movie that he watched earlier. Ever since April had come over, he hadn’t been able to think about anything other than her. “Yeah, I’m feeling way better now. You helped a ton.”

April’s lips curled into a small smile. “Really?”

“Totally.” Andy grinned at April, and her smile seemed to get a little bigger.

“Awesome.” April glanced towards the window, and her smile faded away as she let out a big sigh. “I guess I should probably get going soon. I don’t really want to. I like being here. Also, my clothes probably aren’t even dry yet, and it sounds like it’s still raining really hard. But I guess I should try to get home before it gets too late.”

“Oh. Yeah, that probably makes sense.” Andy knew that he shouldn’t feel disappointed. Obviously April was going to have to go back home at some point. But he wished that she could stay. Suddenly an idea popped into his head, and he decided to say it before he could talk himself out of it. “Hey, if you don’t want to go back out in the rain, you could also just stay here. Like, you could crash here for the night.”

“Really?” April perked up at Andy’s words. “I mean, it probably would be easier for me to just stay here. If that’s cool with you.”

“It’s super cool with me,” Andy said eagerly.

“Cool.” April pressed her lips together like she was trying to hold back a smile.

Andy didn’t make any effort to hold back the big grin that was spreading across his face.

“This is gonna be so awesome.” Andy gasped in excitement. “It’s gonna be like a sleepover! It’s like we get to have a sleepover, but we’re adults.”

“So how should we get the sleepover started?” April asked.

After considering it for a few seconds, Andy thought of the obvious answer. “Snacks!”

April nodded in agreement, so Andy eagerly leapt up from the couch. Then April stood up as well and followed Andy as he bounded towards the kitchen.

This was so exciting. Andy was excited about getting snacks, but he was even more excited about the fact that April was staying. He couldn’t believe that she was actually going to stay here for the whole night. But he could already tell that this was going to be the best sleepover ever.

As April followed Andy to the kitchen, she felt like her head was spinning a little bit. She was spending the night at Andy’s house. And Andy was the one who had suggested it. How was this happening? April wasn’t really sure what she had done to deserve something this awesome. But she wasn’t going to complain about it.

When they got to the kitchen, Andy started looking through the cabinets to see what snacks Burly had stocked up on. While Andy was looking for snacks, April realized that she should probably let her parents know that she was spending the night at Andy’s house. They had probably already gone to bed by now. It wouldn’t be the first time that April stayed out late and didn’t come back until after her parents were already asleep. But they might freak out a bit tomorrow morning when they saw that she still hadn’t come back. So she pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to her mom.

To: Mom
ive been kidnapped by demons and am currently exploring the 9 circles of hell. i probably wont be back home in time for breakfast

That should do the trick. Her parents would know that she wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere, but she didn’t have to share any of the personal details about where she actually was. And she was pretty sure that they understood her sense of humor well enough that they wouldn’t call the police when they saw the text. Well, maybe there was a slight chance that they would end up calling the police. But she would worry about that later.

Andy picked out some of the best items from the cabinets and laid them out on the counter. April surveyed the assortment of chips and candy. When she noticed a bag of jumbo marshmallows, an idea popped into her head.

“Hey, I bet I can fit more marshmallows into my mouth than you,” April said, giving Andy a mischievous smirk.

Andy smirked in response. “Alright. You’re on.”

They took turns placing marshmallows into their mouths. The first couple marshmallows weren’t too hard, but adding more marshmallows soon became tougher than April had anticipated. Though April was finding that the hardest part was resisting the urge to laugh because Andy looked totally ridiculous with his mouth full of marshmallows and his cheeks puffed out. April imagined that she probably looked just as ridiculous since it looked like Andy was struggling to hold back laughter as well.

April wasn’t keeping track of how many marshmallows she had put into her mouth. But at a certain point, she placed another marshmallow into her mouth and was pretty sure that she had reached her limit and wasn’t going to be able to fit another one. Andy placed another marshmallow into his mouth and then tried to say something. But April had no idea what he was trying to say because his words sounded like incoherent gibberish since his mouth was full of marshmallows. April fought hard to stifle a laugh at the hilarious sounds that he was making. Andy furrowed his brow as if he was surprised by the fact that he hadn’t been able to talk properly. Then he tried talking again and somehow managed to sound even more unintelligible. At this point, April couldn’t take it anymore. She burst out laughing and ended up spitting all of her marshmallows out onto the floor. This caused Andy to burst out laughing as well and similarly spit out his marshmallows.

April and Andy started laughing even harder when they made eye contact with each other. For a moment, April was laughing hard enough that it was almost difficult to breathe. It took a little while before they both finally got their laughter under control.

“I think we both lost,” April said as she glanced down at the globs of marshmallows on the kitchen floor.

“It was really awesome though,” Andy said. “I think that means we both won.”

“Fine.”

April extended her hand to offer Andy a handshake. He accepted and shook her hand. His hand was really warm, and it felt like it fit perfectly with hers. April felt her stomach do a little flip like it did every time that she and Andy touched. The handshake ended up lasting way longer than a normal handshake. April didn’t have any desire to let go, and it didn’t seem like Andy did either. So they stood there shaking each other’s hands for about 30 seconds until April’s arm started feeling tired and she let go.

“So,” April turned her head back towards the kitchen counter, trying to ignore the warm feeling in her cheeks and trying to keep her face hidden in case she was blushing. “We should probably pick some snacks to actually eat.”

Andy seemed to be in some sort of daze because it took him a few seconds to answer. “Totally. Let me show you what we have.”

April tried to focus her attention on the snacks, but when she stole a glance at Andy, she noticed that some pinkness seemed to be creeping into his cheeks as well. Maybe that handshake meant something special to him as well? Ugh. April wasn’t supposed to be thinking like this. She pushed these stupid, mushy thoughts out of her head as she picked out a snack.

But regardless of these dumb emotions that she was trying to avoid, April had to admit that this sleepover was getting off to a pretty awesome start.

“…58, 59, 60.”

Once Andy finished counting, he opened his bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway. He was no longer Andy Dwyer. He was now Burt Macklin.

He maintained a firm grip on his gun and held it close to his body as he prowled down the hall. Burt Macklin was on a super important mission from the FBI. A very valuable football had been stolen from the White House by a group of bandits. This football was worth over a billion dollars, and getting it back was the FBI’s top priority. The football was hidden somewhere in this house. But one of the bandits was also hiding somewhere in the house, and she would stop at nothing to prevent Macklin from taking the football back.

A couple of weeks ago, Andy had stopped at a yard sale while driving to the gas station. He saw a pair of really awesome Nerf guns and decided to use the money that he was going to spend on gas to buy the Nerf guns instead. When Andy came back home and revealed his purchase, Burly insisted that he had made a mistake. But Andy didn’t agree. Even though he ended up having to take the bus to work the next day because his car didn’t have any gas, he still thought that it was totally worth it. And now he and April had found a perfect use for those Nerf guns.

When Andy reached the bathroom door, he pushed it open and aimed his gun inside. But a quick scan of the room showed no signs of the football or of April. So he shut the bathroom door and instead crept into the TV room.

Andy looked across the room to the kitchen and saw the football sitting right on the kitchen counter. So he started walking towards the kitchen.

This was easy.

It was almost too easy.

The realization hit Andy too late. A few seconds after Andy started making his way across the room, April popped up from behind the couch, wearing a hand towel that she had wrapped around the lower half of her face like a bandit’s bandana. She let out a triumphant yell as she pulled the trigger of her gun and fired a shot right at Andy.

Burt Macklin hissed as the bullet tore through his skin, lodging itself deep in his shoulder and sending searing pain radiating across his entire body. (In reality, the foam dart bounced harmlessly off of Andy’s shoulder. But it was more fun if he imagined it this way.)

Andy fired a shot in retaliation, but April jumped the side to avoid it. She shot at him again, but he saw it coming this time and ducked down to dodge it. Andy took aim and fired back at April. This time, the bullet just narrowly missed her head. Or so he thought.

April immediately fell to her knees and placed a hand over her eye. “Ow! My eye!”

Andy dropped his gun and went running over. “April! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”

“Just kidding.” April leapt back up to her feet. Andy saw a mischievous glint in her eyes, both of which looked totally fine.

April held down the trigger of her gun and started blasting Andy with foam bullets. Now that he had dropped his gun, he had no way to fight back.

“Hey,” Andy protested, even though he and April were both laughing. “No fair.”

Andy made a decision. Instead of going back for his gun, he ran to the kitchen and grabbed the football.

“I did it,” Andy said as he hoisted the football victoriously over his head. “I recovered the football.”

“Yeah, but I already shot you a million times,” April said as she fired the last few bullets from her gun at him. “So you were dead before you could get the football.”

Andy shook his head. “Burt Macklin can’t be defeated that easily. It’s gonna take more than just bullets to kill him.”

While they were talking, Andy was making his way back over to where his gun lay on the floor.

Andy dropped the football as he grabbed his gun and then quickly aimed it at April and held down the trigger. “My turn.”

“No,” April whined, even though she was laughing as she started running away from Andy.

Both of them laughed as Andy chased April around the house while firing a barrage of foam bullets at her until his gun was empty.

“So I guess you’re the one that’s dead now,” Andy said after he shot his final bullet.

April crossed her arms. “No way. I’m not just a bandit. I’m also half witch. So I cast a spell on myself to make me immune to bullets. You didn’t even hurt me at all.”

Andy grinned despite the fact that his plan had been foiled. “So what now? Neither of us can hurt each other, and we’re both out of ammo.”

April shrugged. “The bandit/witch will allow Burt Macklin to take the football and get away this time. But she’ll be back for revenge some other day.”

“Awesome.” Andy was pretty sure that the game was over now. So he held up his hand, and April high-fived him.

“What now?” April asked.

Andy glanced around the room, taking in the aftermath of their battle. The foam bullets that they had left strewn all around the room made it look like a warzone.

“Let’s pick up all of the bullets so that we can reload the guns. Then let’s do it again, but I’ll be the bandit this time.”

Based on the look in April’s eyes, Andy was pretty sure that she was smiling, even though the towel that she was wearing as a bandana was still covering her mouth. “Fine. But you’re going down this time.”

As they started gathering up the bullets, Andy already couldn’t wait for the next game. He decided that buying the Nerf guns was definitely the right choice.

“This is awesome,” Andy said.

April nodded as she looked around at the results of their work. “It’s pretty cool.”

“I’ve always wanted to build a pillow fort. But this is the first time I’ve actually done it.”

“This is the only pillow fort that matters,” April said. “Every other pillow fort sucks compared to this one.”

April didn’t really know much about pillow forts, but it had turned out that building one was actually really fun. They had gathered all of the cushions from all of the couches and chairs in the house. They also looked in the laundry room and found a spare comforter, which turned out to be pretty comfortable.

Before beginning construction, April and Andy spread the comforter out on the floor so that they would have something soft to sit on in the pillow fort. Then they built up the fort itself on top of the comforter using the cushions. Finally, they took the blanket that they had shared while watching TV earlier and spread it on top of the fort to give it a roof.

Now they were checking out the pillow fort from the inside so that they could enjoy the results of their work. It almost felt like an actual fort. April liked that feeling. It was just her and Andy. They were closed off from all the other annoyances of the world. The space inside the fort was a little small and cramped. But that just meant that they had to sit closer together, which was totally fine with April.

“Tonight’s been so much fun. Sleepovers are the best.” Andy grinned. “I remember when I was 12, me and some friends had a sleepover at my friend David’s house. His parents had a bunch of ice cream in the fridge. So we had a contest to see who could eat the most ice cream. I won it. I ate two full tubs of ice cream. It was super awesome. But then I puked it all up afterwards, so they said it didn’t count.”

April smirked. “It sounds like they were just being sore losers.”

Andy’s grin got bigger. “Totally. What about you? What’s your favorite sleepover memory?”

The smirk suddenly fell off of April’s face. She hadn’t been expecting a question like that. She racked her brain to try to make something up, but she couldn’t come up with any good ideas. So she just stared down at her lap so that she didn’t have to make eye contact with Andy.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Andy asked in a concerned voice.

April pulled herself together and looked back up at Andy. “Nothing. Um, I don’t have any favorite sleepover memories.”

“Oh. That’s a bummer.” Andy furrowed his brow. “You didn’t like going to sleepovers as a kid?”

“I didn’t get invited to them.”

Andy just looked more confused after this. “What? Why not?”

April sighed. She should just stop here and not say anything further. This was a bad idea. She was talking to a guy who she really liked and who she wanted to like her as well. The last thing that she needed to do was to explain how much everyone else hated spending time with her. What if she made him realize that he was making a mistake by hanging out with her? Plus, she hated talking about personal things in general. And this was definitely starting to veer into personal territory.

But for some reason, April felt like she wanted to keep going. Maybe it was the late hour. Maybe it was the fact that she was feeling really safe and cozy here in the pillow fort. Maybe it was the fact that a part of her felt like she could trust Andy with anything. So she responded before she could talk herself out of it.

“Because I didn’t really have any friends growing up. I was the weird kid, and none of the other kids wanted to be friends with me. It’s fine since they were stupid and I hated them and I didn’t want to be friends with them anyway. I just got used to doing things on my own.”

Andy looked at April with a surprising amount of sadness in his eyes. “That really sucks. The other kids were totally missing out.”

April shook her head. “No, they weren’t. I wouldn’t have fit in with them even if they did want to hang out with me. They probably would have just hated me more if they actually got to know me.”

Andy placed his hand on top of April’s. They weren’t officially holding hands, but the physical contact still made April’s stomach do a somersault. “I don’t think anyone who actually got to know you would hate you unless they’re a total idiot. You’re awesome. The other kids missed out on a ton of fun. Seriously, out of all the sleepovers I’ve had, this one’s been the most fun.”

April scoffed. “No, it hasn’t.”

“Yes, it has.”

“You don’t have to make things up just to try to make me feel better.” April frowned. “I know it isn’t true. The other sleepovers that you went to probably had an actual plan and had more than just two people. It’s okay. I know this one isn’t going to compare.”

“But this is the only sleepover that I’ve had with you.” Andy’s expression and tone were so genuine and earnest that April knew that he really meant what he was saying. He wasn’t just saying things to try to cheer her up. Even if the voice in the back of her head was telling her that he couldn’t really mean this, she decided to ignore that voice. “I have more fun with you than I do with anyone else that I’ve ever known. I’ve been to a lot of awesome sleepovers, but this one’s better than all of the others because of you.”

April felt like she was melting on the inside again. She should hate this feeling, but she kind of loved it. This conversation was getting too emotional and mushy. She should tell some sort of dark joke to deflect the conversation in a safer direction. But instead, she decided to look Andy in the eye and be honest.

“I don’t hate you.”

It probably sounded dumb, but it might have been the most intimate and romantic thing that April had ever said to another person. She hated most people. Usually, she actively enjoyed hating people. But Andy was different. He didn’t annoy her or leave her feeling drained after a conversation like everyone else did. She actually looked forward to socializing instead of dreading it when he was the one that she was socializing with. He was different in a good way. She wasn’t really sure how to put all of these feelings into words, and she didn’t think she was ready to share them out loud even if she did find the right words. But she hoped that this was enough for now. Andy had let her know that she was special to him, so she wanted to make sure that he knew that he was special to her as well.

A huge grin spread across Andy’s face when he heard April’s words. He probably didn’t understand everything that those words meant, but hopefully he at least got the general sentiment. April allowed herself to smile a genuine smile in response to Andy’s grin.

April and Andy sat there smiling at each other in silence for a few seconds. In the cramped confines of the pillow fort, their faces were only a few inches apart from each other. It would be so easy for April to just lean over and kiss him. She wanted to do it so badly. But her emotional walls were still strong enough to hold her back in this moment. She knew that it wouldn’t be a good idea. Sure, Andy had just told her that she was special to him. But he probably just saw her as a special friend. She was pretty certain that he still wanted to get back together with Ann. So she wasn’t going to ruin their friendship by becoming the creepy friend who kissed him when he definitely didn’t want it. She should just enjoy this fun moment with Andy instead of making things weird and awkward.

April turned her head away from Andy before her temptations got the better of her. Out of the corner of her eye, she almost thought she saw disappointment briefly flicker across his face. But that was probably just wishful thinking on her part.

“So,” April said. “What if zombies actually were real? We should probably come up with a list of the best strategies for killing zombies so that we have a plan in case they ever come after us.”

Whatever disappointment April thought she had seen on Andy’s face was replaced with a new grin as he embraced the conversation’s new direction. Maybe April would work up the courage to discuss all of her feelings with Andy someday. But for tonight, she was content to just hang out with him and have some fun.

Andy lost track of time as he and April sat talking together in the pillow fort. They talked about both serious topics and silly topics. It was all awesome. Andy could talk to April for hours and not get bored at all. Everything about her was so much fun.

In all honesty, Andy was still thinking about what April had said earlier about not getting invited to sleepovers when she was a kid. It actually made him feel a little angry. How could anybody willingly pass up an opportunity to be friends with someone as awesome as April? Whatever. It was their loss. Because he was the one who got to hang out with her now.

Andy was enjoying every moment of this sleepover and didn’t want the night to end. He would have been happy to pull an all-nighter if April was up for it. But he could tell that April was getting tired and was starting to fade. At one point, during a lull in the conversation, April leaned her head against Andy’s shoulder. He felt like his heart skipped a beat when he felt her head against his shoulder. For a moment, he thought that she had made the choice to put her head on his shoulder. But then he realized that she had just dozed off. He considered whether he should just stay put and let her sleep. But he figured that she would probably be more comfortable in bed rather than leaning against his shoulder, even if he loved having her lean against his shoulder. So he decided to wake her up.

“Hey,” Andy said softly as he put his hand on April’s shoulder and gave it a gentle shake.

“Hmm?” April said as she sat back up and her eyes fluttered open. “Oh, sorry. I think I fell asleep.”

“It’s okay.” Andy gave her a reassuring smile. “Do you wanna call it a night?”

April sighed. “Yeah. I think it’s time. I’d rather stay up longer, but I probably need to get some sleep.”

April crawled out of the pillow fort, and Andy followed her. When they stood up, they turned around to admire their pillow fort one more time from the outside.

“It really turned out awesome,” Andy said. “But cleaning it up and putting all the pillows back is kind of gonna suck.”

April shrugged. “You could just leave them there. Wait until Burly gets back and make him clean it up instead.”

Andy grinned. That sounded way better. “That’s a really good idea. You’re so smart.”

April didn’t respond, but her lips did curl into a little smile.

Andy glanced at the couch and then back at the pillow fort. “I guess I should probably at least put the cushions back on the couch. I’m definitely gonna be more comfortable tonight if they’re back.”

April tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“I need to put the couch cushions back. I don’t think I’m gonna be able to sleep on the couch without them.”

April frowned. “Why would you be sleeping on the couch?”

Now Andy was the one who was starting to feel confused. “Where else would I sleep? Burly locked his room, so we can’t use his bed. There’s only one bed in my room. So if you’re sleeping there, the couch is gonna be the best place for me to sleep.”

“But it’s your bed,” April said. “You should be the one sleeping there. I should be the one sleeping on the couch.”

“But you’re my guest,” Andy said. “I want you to have the bed instead of me.”

April crossed her arms. “I’m not kicking you out of your own bed.”

Based on the stubborn glare on April’s face, Andy wasn’t going to be able to convince her to take his bed, no matter what argument he used. But he really wanted her to have the bed instead of him. April deserved to be treated like a queen. Queens were supposed to sleep in beds, not couches. Andy hated the thought of making April sleep on the couch so that he could have the bed for himself. He had slept in much worse places than a couch before, so taking the couch wouldn’t bother him at all. He cared more about making sure that April was as comfortable as possible.

At the same time, Andy realized that April might be having similar thoughts. She probably didn’t feel good about taking the bed for herself and making him sleep on the couch either. Did that mean that she would actually be more comfortable sleeping on the couch so that she wouldn’t feel guilty? It still didn’t seem right to make her sleep on the couch, but Andy didn’t really know what to do. This whole situation was making his head hurt a little bit.

Luckily, April ended up coming up with a new idea.

“There is another option,” April said.

“What is it?” Andy asked.

April bit her lip and hesitated for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and then responding. “We can both sleep in the bed.”

“Wait. What?”

This idea had briefly crossed Andy’s mind earlier, but he had quickly shut it down. Sharing a bed with April would be really awesome, but he knew that it would probably be super inappropriate for him to even suggest it. But if April was suggesting the same idea herself, maybe it wasn’t inappropriate?

April looked a little uncertain, but she continued. “I mean, it’s kind of the only option, right? Neither of us wants to make the other sleep on the couch. And there’s only one bed. So we can just share the bed. It’s not like we have another choice.”

A grin started to spread across Andy’s face as he realized how much April’s reasoning made sense. “Yeah, you’re totally right. It’s the only good choice. A lot of people share beds. So why can’t we?”

There probably were reasons why they shouldn’t do this. It was probably kind of weird to share a bed with a really close friend, especially when that really close friend was someone who you happened to have a really big crush on. And it was extra weird because April still didn’t know how he really felt about her. But now probably wasn’t the right time to share those feelings. Sharing feelings like that right when they were about to share a bed with each other would probably make her super uncomfortable.

But April didn’t show any signs of discomfort. A smile started to spread across her face as she saw that Andy was receptive to the idea. “Exactly. It doesn’t have to be anything weird. We can just sleep together.”

Andy’s eyes widened when he realized what April had just said. As he looked at her, he saw that her eyes were even wider and that her cheeks were very red.

April stammered a follow-up. “That didn’t— I wasn’t— Um, I didn’t mean sleep together. I just meant that we’d be sleeping. And that we’d be doing it together.”

Andy quickly nodded. “Oh, yeah. Totally. I knew that’s what you meant.”

Andy was glad that they had cleared that up. It had been a little awkward for a moment. The truth was that he had momentarily been unsure of what April meant. He decided to ignore the part of him that felt disappointed when she clarified.

“Anyway,” Andy said. “Should we go to bed now?”

April nodded. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”

April paced back and forth in Andy’s bedroom while he was in the bathroom changing into his pajamas. She didn’t need to change since the clothes that she had borrowed from Andy were already comfortable enough to be pajamas. So now she had some time alone with her thoughts while she waited for him.

It felt like April’s heart was going to beat out of her chest. This whole situation was exciting but also really terrifying. She and Andy were actually going to share a bed with each other. This was by far the most intimate thing they had ever done with each other.

For a moment, April thought that she was going to ruin it when she accidentally suggested that they would be sleeping together. She was pretty sure that she almost literally died from embarrassment when she realized that she had said those words. Just when she had gotten Andy comfortable with the idea of sleeping in the same bed, she had to go and do something to make it weird. It was even weirder because the other version of sleeping together was something that she definitely had thought about doing with Andy. But obviously it wasn’t something that he would want to do with her. So she was glad that he bought her excuse because she really hadn’t meant to say those words out loud.

After a few minutes, Andy popped his head into the bedroom.

“Hey, do you want to brush your teeth or anything?”

April shook her head. “I didn’t bring a toothbrush.”

“You can totally use mine if you want. Or I can show you which one is Burly’s. He brings a different one with him when he travels, so he left his behind. Burly’s toothbrush might be better. His mouth is probably way cleaner than mine.“

April considered this for a moment. The thought of using someone else’s toothbrush was pretty gross. She didn’t want to stick something that had been in someone else’s mouth into her own mouth. But for some reason, the idea of using Andy’s toothbrush didn’t seem that bad.

“I think I’d rather just use your toothbrush, if that’s cool with you.”

Andy grinned. “That’s super cool with me. Come on, I’ll show you which one it is.”

April followed Andy to the bathroom, and he handed her his toothbrush. She also borrowed some of his toothpaste. It was a bubblegum-flavored toothpaste that she was pretty sure was meant for kids, but it actually tasted pretty good. Andy waited until after April was done brushing her teeth to brush his own teeth. Some part of her felt kind of happy about the fact that he didn’t seem bothered by using a toothbrush that had just been in her mouth.

Once they finished brushing their teeth, April and Andy walked back down the hall to Andy’s bedroom together. April approached the bed while Andy hung back towards the light switch. She looked back over her shoulder and saw that he hesitated for a moment before turning off the lights. Was he as nervous about this as she was? No, she knew that wasn’t possible. This wasn’t a big deal to him. He was just sharing a bed with a friend.

April pulled back the covers on Andy’s bed as he made his way over in the dark. Once he reached the bed, they both climbed into it. They both lay on their sides with their bodies pressed up against each other. The bed was barely big enough for Andy, let alone for both of them. So they had no choice but to lie crammed together. Though the position was a little uncomfortable because Andy had his arms tucked awkwardly against his chest and his elbows were digging against April’s back. She chose to believe that this was some stupid attempt at chivalry rather than Andy objecting to touching her. At least, she really hoped that’s what it was.

“You can wrap your arms around me if you want,” April said. “I won’t bite.”

“Yeah, I think that might be more comfortable.” Andy tentatively untucked his arms and wrapped them around April. Then he embraced her and pulled her closer until her back was pressed directly against his chest. “Is this okay?”

“It’s perfect,” April said in a voice that was nearly a purr. She realized that was probably a little too much. “Um, you know, whatever. It’s fine.”

“Cool. Just let me know if you want me to let go.”

“I don’t.”

“Cool.”

April’s initial assessment had been right. This was perfect. She felt so snug and secure in Andy’s embrace. And it didn’t matter how cold the house was because Andy’s body was so warm. Everything felt perfect in this moment. She knew that this was how it was supposed to be. Her and Andy together. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. But at least she would get to live out her fantasy for one night.

As April lay against Andy’s chest, she could feel the beating of his heart. And it was faster than she expected it to be. Maybe this meant more to him than she thought it did?

April would have loved to dwell on that thought for longer. But she was tired. And she was so comfortable and cozy. So as much as she would have loved more time to savor this moment, she quickly drifted off into a happy and peaceful sleep.

Even though it was dark enough that Andy could barely see, he spent several minutes staring at April after they lay down together. He still couldn’t believe that this was really happening. They were actually going to fall asleep together in the same bed. He had his arms wrapped around April. And she was the one who wanted him to wrap his arms around her.

Andy had been expecting that tonight would be a scary night. The truth was that he didn’t think he was going to get much sleep tonight since he knew that he would probably be opening his eyes every five seconds to check for zombies. He had figured that once the lights were off and he was in the dark, the only thing he would be able to think about was the scary movie that he had watched earlier. But in reality, the lights were off and the only thing that Andy could think about was April.

Every sensation that Andy was feeling right now was April. The warmth of her body. The sounds of her gentle breathing. The scent of her shampoo. All of these little sensations provided a constant reminder of April’s presence. It was amazing. She was amazing.

The truth was that Andy didn’t feel scared at all anymore. He knew that he was safe because April was here. She made him feel safe. April was so awesome, and Andy knew that there was no problem that he wouldn’t be able to handle with her around to help him out. And so there was nothing that he had to worry about right now.

After Andy shut his eyes, he didn’t have to bother opening them again to check for zombies. He didn’t care anymore. Even if zombies did come to attack him tonight, he and April would figure out how to deal with them together. So he was able to totally relax.

Andy wished that he could live in this moment forever. When April had first suggested the idea of sharing a bed with each other, Andy had worried that it might feel inappropriate. But nothing about this moment felt inappropriate. Everything about it felt so right. He wished that he could fall asleep with April in his arms every night. Deep down, Andy knew that this was how it was meant to be. And a part of him wondered if there might be a chance that April felt the same way.

It didn’t take long for Andy to drift off into a blissful sleep with his head still full of thoughts about April.

When April woke up the following morning, she was momentarily confused when she sat up in bed and looked at her surroundings. Then she remembered that she had spent the night at Andy’s house. She was in Andy’s bedroom. But Andy was nowhere to be seen.

“Andy?” April called out. She saw that the bedroom door was open and hoped that he was somewhere within earshot.

“Be right there!” Andy yelled back from somewhere else in the house.

April breathed out a sigh of relief. Some small part of her was worried that he had ditched her. She knew that it was dumb to think that he would have left her in his own house. But she was still glad to hear his voice and know that he was coming back.

Andy re-entered the room about a minute later, grinning and carefully carrying a tray.

“I wanted to serve you breakfast in bed,” Andy said as he approached the bed and gently placed the tray on April’s lap.

“Wow,” April said as she stared at the tray in front of her. She couldn’t think of anything better to say. This was a bit of a surprise. Nobody had ever given her breakfast in bed before.

Andy smiled proudly as he started pointing to the items on the tray. “First, you have a bowl of my finest Lucky Charms. With milk from a cow.” Andy gestured towards the bowl in the middle of the tray. “At least, I think the milk comes from a cow. I didn’t actually milk the cow. I just got the milk from the carton in the fridge. And the carton has a picture of a cow on it. Anyway, next you have a piece of toast that I toasted and buttered myself.” Andy pointed towards a slightly burnt piece of toast that was smothered in butter. “And finally, to wash it down, a glass of refreshing orange juice, also from a carton in the fridge.” Andy nodded towards a glass of orange juice that was dangerously full and looked like it might spill everywhere if it received the slightest jolt.

“Thanks. This is really cool.” April flashed Andy a small smile. It wasn’t the fanciest breakfast ever, but it was really awesome that he cared enough to take the time to make it for her.

Andy grinned. “Awesome. I’ll go get my cereal from the kitchen, and then I’ll be right back.”

Andy dashed out of the room and returned shortly afterwards with his own bowl of Lucky Charms. He came to a stop once he was standing next to the bed. As he ate his first spoonful of cereal, April realized that he was planning on standing while eating.

“Hey, you can come sit here too,” April said, patting the spot next to her on the bed.

“You sure?” Andy asked. “It won’t feel too cramped?”

April shook her head. “Nah, it’s fine. Come on. You deserve to eat breakfast in bed too.”

Andy beamed at April. “You’re the best.”

April scooted over to make some room for Andy as he lifted up the covers and slid onto the bed. It was a bit cramped, but that just meant that they had to lean against each other as they sat up in bed and that their shoulders brushed with every movement. That was totally fine with April. Andy didn’t seem to have any objections either.

They didn’t talk much during breakfast because their mouths were busy chewing food. But that was fine. April was perfectly happy to sit there in contented silence and simply enjoy Andy’s presence while she ate her breakfast. And she was pretty sure that Andy was feeling the exact same way.

Eating breakfast with April was pretty awesome. Well, doing anything with April was pretty awesome. But in that particular moment, Andy was having a great time eating breakfast with her. They didn’t even have to talk. He just liked being there with her.

Andy was really glad that April had eaten everything that he made. He didn’t know much about cooking, but he really wanted to make a good breakfast for her. So it made him happy that she seemed to be enjoying the food.

However, Andy was starting to feel a little sad as they finished eating. He knew what was coming next. The rain had stopped, and the sun was shining brightly this morning. April’s clothes were surely dry by now. She would be ready to head home soon.

It’s not like Andy expected April to stay over here forever. She didn’t live here. He knew that she would go back to her own home eventually. But he wished that she could just stay a little longer. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye. It wouldn’t actually be a goodbye since they would see each other again at work on Monday. But even that felt like too much time apart after the awesome night that they just had.

“So do you have any cool plans for today?” Andy asked as April finished her last sip of orange juice.

April shook her head. “Nope. Nothing at all.”

April stared at Andy after she said this, and the look on her face almost seemed expectant. Maybe he was just imagining that, but he decided to take a chance anyway.

“I don’t have any plans today either,” Andy said. “You know, I still have the house to myself for the whole weekend. If neither of us has anything else planned, maybe you could stick around a little longer and we could keep hanging out. We could spend today together too if you want to.”

April grinned. It wasn’t one of the small smiles that she usually gave but rather a big, genuine grin. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

Andy pumped his fist in excitement as a grin spread across his own face. He held his hand up for a high five, and the grin remained on April’s face as she gave him the high five.

It looked like this was going to be a pretty awesome weekend after all.