zach lewis

                 If she wasn’t quick enough to check who the hell was the person to give her a heart attack that way, Kenna would have ended up punching him in the throat. “What the hell, you scared me.” She exclaimed, rolling her eyes at him. He could have waited until she walked down the street or something, “Huh? Are you in a mood today?” She questioned, cracking a smile at last. “No, I haven’t eaten yet. Where do you want to go? I’m exhausted, Zach.” 

“Kenna, become alive. I’m taking you out.” Rolling his eyes before she could say anything, he held up a hand. “Not out out. Let’s get grilled cheese or something. I want fries. And beer. Definitely beer.” He didn’t wait for her to respond but started to walk the opposite direction. “Come on,” He called back to her. “Car is this way.”

James couldn’t help but chuckle at Zach. He shook his head and heaved a sigh. “I’m sorry dude, but as you can see, I’m pretty backed up,” he said as he beckoned to the papers strewn about the table. He raised an eyebrow. “You do realize this is my job, right? I don’t go to you and say we should take a walk when you’re in the middle of a fire.”

“Well, that’s impossible. Chief gives us orders and I only hear his voice when I’m out on the job. So, technically speaking, I’d never hear you ask.” Zach picked up a paper and read the title. “Huh. I’d say give Ms. Hailey here an A+ and let’s get out of here. Besides, your work can be put on pause and picked up later. Fires kill people. Grades? They can wait.”

for @lewiszach

“I told you I didn’t want to do anything,” Veronica grumbled, moving quickly passed Zach through her front door, living room and only stopping once she’d reached the kitchen. “Not really in the mood to celebrate another year of life at the moment.” Or ever again, the blonde thought bitterly to herself. The past few weeks the only two things Ronnie seemed capable of were working and drinking, in that order. Spending time with her father never failed to be the catalyst that began a Veronica Spencer downward spiral. “You can stay and hang out if you want, I don’t care,” Ronnie spoke, already at work making herself a mixed drink of whatever she felt like pouring from her liquor cabinet. “I’m just saying that I’m probably not going to be the best company.”

This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. Though, she hadn’t been paying attention. He kept his body in front of her, blocking her vision from anything else. Ideally, vision away from the living room. Every year she said she didn’t want a big deal made of her birthday and every year, Zach ignored that request. It was tradition by now. Given the events that happened recently, he assumed she’d be down and out but not this much. “Hey, hey...” Pulling the bottle away from her, he set it out of reach and grabbed her shoulders, flipping her around so she was stood in front of him, back facing his chest. “You didn’t even notice…” He trailed off, leading her to the living room.

A (badly wrapped) gift sat on the table and a banner hung above. A cheesy ‘Happy Birthday!’ one with bad font and ugly metallic colors. Next to the box, a bottle of tequila with a bow sat. He thought about the room dimly lit with candles but he didn’t want to be that obvious. He knew she knew that he cared but maybe not to the degree he often wished. This day wasn’t about his wishes, though. “You can drink. Just not any of that cheap shit. I got the good stuff. Limes are in the fridge.” He released her shoulders, a bit of a shy edge to him. He’d throw a party for anyone but this party of two seemed more personal, even with the lack of decoration. “If you even need them…” Zach muttered under his breath with a roll of his eyes.

Matty watched from where he sat parked behind the table, Echo at his feet and with no intentions of getting up any time soon. It was no trouble to be asked to man the table and tickets rather than try the selling himself, if Zach was anything to go by. If he couldn’t sell more than a few, Matt held little to no hope for himself. Unable to resist, he called out towards his friend. “Try showing some skin, Lewis! Objectifying yourself for the cause and all that.”

“I’m used to picking up the slack for both of us!” He yelled back at the stranger in question passed him with an annoyed look on their face. Meeting him back at the booth, he placed two hands on the table. “Naturally, you would ask me to take off my shirt. Which, seems like a thing I’d do in high school but even with Boyz II Men playing in the background, I don’t think I’d do that currently.”

                   Reading a disturbingly passive aggressive email from a grownup who happened to be working on the show, Giselle took a couple of deep breaths, totally unaware of her surroundings until a voice called out to her. 

If anything, she needed a distraction then more than ever, and having it in the form of Zach Lewis and haunted house tickets was a pretty good one— or at least it worked. 

“Not really,” She deadpanned, but after a second, a slight smile pulled a curve in her lips, “But I guess… for a good cause, I could like them. What’s the cause exactly? And how many would I have to buy to make you look really good?” She joked, though only half joked.

A small frown hit his face but only for a second until she smiled. “Knock it off.” Starting his pitch, he wiggled the tickets in front of her face. “You would be helping families for Thanksgiving. Come on, who doesn’t want to do that? I was poor once, you know. And still kind of am.” He walked with her, leaving behind his crew members for a moment. “Gorgeous... You don’t have to do that. One would suffice. It’d be better than the sales we’ve been getting.”

James had been clocking hours yet again at the coffee shop. He never liked taking work home and wanted as much as possible to finish it outside, but he was getting too fazed about the papers he had to grade, the lectures he had to prep, and the lesson plans he had to do. He took a sip of his coffee and sighed, dipping back into his laptop and typing away. He was pretty engrossed with what he was doing when someone called his attention. It took him a solid effort to pry his eyes away from the screen.

“Sorry, you called?” he said as he looked up.

“Yeah, I called.” Zach said with a laugh, sitting across from James and propping his feet up on the chair next to him. “Like, eight times. You were supposed to meet me across the street an hour ago. I’m lucky I found you here.” Papers lingered around his friend and of course, his laptop and coffee were a sure sign he was lost in work. “I’m breaking you away from this, man. Let’s go. Get up. We’re going for a walk, at least. Let me grab a coffee. If all this stuff isn’t put away by the time I get back, I’ll have words.”

October always was a bittersweet month for Samuel. Today marked the third day after he had returned from his yearly trip to Maryland, and unsurprisingly, he found himself in an awful funk. While his therapist had advised him to slow down with his smoking, Sam found it quite difficult. So instead of smoking half a pack, he took his comfort dog out for a walk. Strangely enough, it didn’t seem to help. The deeper he walked into the park, the more antsy he became to reach into his pocket for the unopened pack. Fortunately, a voice snapped him out of his thoughts, forcing the man to return to Earth. “Haunted houses?” He chuckled. “Hold on, for a good cause?” The realization caused him to stop walking. His dog, as nicely trained as he was, sat down immediately, right next to him. “What’s the cause?”

“Yeah!” He said excitedly, happy the person he’d run into had been Sam of all people. “The fire and police department are doing it up and all the money goes to families for Thanksgiving.” Next time they did something like this, they’d have to invest in some flyers because it seemed like nobody knew of the town’s festivities. “If anything, you could just buy a ticket or two and hand them off to someone who’d find it more interesting.” Eyes darted to the dog who was now Zach’s focus of attention. “Or I’m going to be scaring people so who knows? Maybe you want to see me in a full face of make up and blood.”

“No need for the guilt trip with me,” Nick laughed, diverting from his path through the park to pull out two ten dollar bills to hand over for tickets. Whether or nor he brought his girlfriend with him would be up to her, but he’d jump at the opportunity to help out anyone. “What’s the cause, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Always can count on you.” He took the bills and in return, handed over two tickets. “Fire and police station are working together so we can give the proceeds to the youth center and low income families. Thanksgiving stuff. So weird to think the holidays are right around the corner.” He mused. “But thanks. Even if you end up not going, it at least helps them out. It should be fun, though. Take Gabs, if not for fun, but so I can see her face when she screams bloody murder.”

“Not really,” Avaleigh answered with a slight wrinkle of her nose, although the man stayed persistent, “How about I just give you the ten bucks and not go through it? I’m not a Halloween person.” She finally stopped, turning toward him so she could dig in her back, “What’s the cause?” 

Brows furrowed at her detest for Halloween. “I mean, you can do whatever you want. It’s a slightly free country. You could burn the ticket for all I care but we’re more so just looking for sales. The proceeds go to low income families. So, you’d at least be doing them a solid.” He offered a polite smile, hiding his face behind the tickets in hopes to encourage her more.

              “Blondie? So you tip me but you don’t read the name tag?” She replied with a laugh, “It’s Kenna. With a K.” The blonde responded, looking at some of the flyers spread on the booth. “Oh, so it’s a kids thing? I was hoping for an adult scare but since this is for a good cause…” She paused, “Can I have three tickets?” 

“I never said that. I just coined you a nickname.” Likewise, he shook his head. “I mean, not really. It was meant to be an all ages sort of thing but it seems like mostly middle schoolers are wanting to go so we may have to dial it back. Depends if they’re assholes or not.” He was joking, of course. It’s not like he personally was scaring the poor kids. “Three? You have siblings?” Zach asked curiously, handing over three tickets to her.

She should have been heading back to the office ten minutes ago, but there was something so mesmerizing about this park when the leaves started to yellow, air becoming crisp. Still, she didn’t want another earful about lunch breaks and how there’s a certain length she’s allotted for a reason and how when she’s late the clients can’t get through to anyone and god Arabella had to stop herself from recalling the last time she came back from lunch late. She jumps – only slightly, mind you, but nevertheless is startled by the male pointing right at her. “I like my coffee. Your pitch could use some work. Just how good is this cause?”

Noticing her jump, he took a small step back and added a polite, closed-mouth smile. “Pretty good, actually. All the proceeds go to the local youth center and a drive to provide low income families with Thanksgiving meals. The fire and police department is hosting it and...” He pointed to himself. “I fight fires so that’s me.” Even if she decided to just walk away, he couldn’t say he really blamed her but he was bored of just standing around. “And besides, I didn’t say I was good at pitches. I just said you should go to a haunted house. Get in the spirit, man.”