Hector sat down on the end of the couch. “Plenty of time for you to tell me about your new job.” He propped his feet up on the coffee table. “Let’s hear it.”
Miguel flopped down on the middle cushion, his legs folded beneath him. “It’s at the office your friend’s cousin recommended me to. They’ve only been open a year. The dentist is young, and he’s taking on a partner so the office can expand their patient list. I’ll mostly be working with the new partner, Dr. Coker. Apparently, he’s overseas doing humanitarian dental work. I start in three weeks once he’s on board. And the pay is good. Better than I was expecting.” He scrunched up his shoulders and whispered his salary. “Thirty-two thousand a year.”
“Whoa, nice! I knew you’d get something amazing.” Hector freely offered the praise. It was nice to see his friend looking so happy and relieved instead of overwhelmed and stressed.
“Thanks. The office is open Monday thru Friday, but Friday is a half day. I get two weeks’ vacation, an insurance package, and free basic dental care.” Miguel threw his arms up and whooped to the ceiling. “I am so damn happy.”
“You should be. We need to celebrate with more than just pizza. Let’s watch a movie too. You pick.”
Miguel laughed, the sound full of warmth and joy. “You know how to party,” he teased.
He watched as Miguel grabbed the remote and went through the apps on the Roku, choosing a recent zombie flick, Patient 027. “Horror, huh?”
“I love scary movies. Even though I still have to watch them through my fingers,” he said with a grin.
Hector shook his head, remembering teenage Miguel watching horror movies with a hand over his eyes. “It’s your celebration. We can watch whatever you want.”
“Thank you.” Miguel got up and went around turning off all the lights except for the end table lamp. “You have to watch scary movies in the dark. It’s a rule.”
Hector agreed with a shrug, settling down in the corner with one arm on the armrest and the other across the couch back.
Once he was finished turning out the lights, Miguel returned to his spot on the middle cushion, this time sitting with his legs crossed and elbows perched on his knees. They started the movie while they waited for the pizza to arrive. After the beginning credits, a woman’s high-pitched and terrified scream burst from the speakers, followed by the groans and wet chewing noises of what Hector assumed were zombies.
The movie started off with a man in a dress shirt and tie driving through a sunny middle-American town. They saw that the man was a doctor when he arrived at a hospital and went into a dimly lit patient ward with three patients, all strapped to their beds. Two were unresponsive, simply laying there with open eyes staring up at the ceiling. But one was agitated, tugging at his restraints and slowly turning his head back and forth, snapping his teeth at the air. The doctor pulled a mini-recorder from the pocket of his lab coat.
“Patient 027 is showing increased signs of movement. It is too early to determine if the serum has reawakened signs of life in this persistent vegetative patient or if his movements are strictly involuntary.” The doctor stopped, looking over his shoulder at a particularly loud grunt.
The agitated patient yanked hard, and one of his restraints tore free. He sat up, groaning and pulling at the strap on his other arm. The doctor ran over and tried to press him back down on the bed. But the patient lunged toward him and their foreheads crashed together. The doctor was stunned, wavering on his feet while patient 027 got his other arm loose.
The doctor spun and raced to a phone on the wall. He called for assistance just as the patient slipped free of the strap over his legs and tumbled to the floor. Standing, patient 027 vacantly stared at the doctor. He started making his slow, lumbering way over to him just as the screen went black. When the screen lit back up, the scene changed to the hospital’s nurses’ station where a perky blonde was hanging up the phone.
“Dr. Millsap needs assistance in Ward Four. I’ll be right back.” The nurse walked down the hallway. She frowned as muffled sounds of a struggle came from behind the door she was approaching. “Dr. Millsap, is everything okay?” No one answered. The nurse reached her hand out to push the door open—
Knock! Knock! Knock!
“Aaaagh!” Miguel yelled, jumping up out of his cross-legged position and slamming into Hector’s side.
Hector burst out laughing. “Why are we watching this if it scares you so bad?” he asked as he got up.
A quick look through the peep hole showed the expected pizza delivery man. Hector opened the door. After checking the pizza, he signed the charge slip with a tip then accepted the cardboard box and soda. The delivery man thanked him, and Hector closed the door. His stomach growled again as the scent of hot, cheesy pizza hit his nose.
“You want to get us glasses and napkins?”
Miguel hopped up from the couch and went into the kitchen. Hector watched him go, his eyes drawn to Miguel’s tight waist. He liked the jeans Miguel was wearing. The pale blue, almost white material looked soft as it hugged the round curves of his ass. Which Hector couldn’t help staring at as Miguel moved around the kitchen getting glasses and ice, a happy little sway to his hips.
Hector abruptly turned away from the kitchen, setting the pizza on the coffee table. He needed to stop looking at his friend like that. One day Miguel was going to catch him and get the wrong idea. Hector cursed under his breath. Or the right idea.
Miguel came back with napkins and glasses filled with ice for the soda, but they didn’t bother with plates. They ate pizza straight from the box as they resumed the movie. It didn’t take long for the outbreak to spread. Idiot doctor and perky nurse were the first victims, and they quickly infected others on the hospital staff.
As the body count rose, the zombie horde growing larger and larger, Miguel crept closer and closer to Hector. Hector didn’t mind. His masculinity wasn’t so frail that he couldn’t deal with a man sitting close to him on the couch. Besides, he liked it. Miguel was warm and it was nice to be in close contact with—
“Aaaagh!” Miguel squeaked again, ducking his head into Hector’s shoulder as a mass of zombies burst into the shop where the hero and his family were hiding. “How are you not dying at this?” he asked in an agonized voice.
Hector held back a grin at Miguel’s over-the-top reaction. After the things he’d seen on the police force, it would take more than a jump scare to freak him out. “I’m trembling on the inside,” he said.
“You are not,” Miguel answered with a dry laugh. He started to pull away. “Sorry about that.”
Hector stopped him. “You’re just going to jump back on me anyway. Might as well stay here where I can protect you from the zombies.”