Sorry for the late update (hey that rhymes), but the life-sphere is rather demanding. If you try to deny the life-sphere anything, it will promptly proceed to beat the living crap out of you (amongst other things) until finally (after much pain and humiliation I might add) you give in to its wholly unreasonable demands. Anyway, not much happening in this chapter, just some more interaction between Mike and Matt, hope you like my characterisation of the two of them. Read and review constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

Glee is the property of someone else.


Matt kept a watchful eye on the limping Mike Chang as the they made their way to the school parking lot. During football practice most, if not all of the tackles, kicks and headbutts had been focused entirely on Mike,

"How you feeling?" Matt asked.

"I'll live," Mike said as he rubbed his sides gingerly.

"You sure?" Matt asked, "I mean Finn headbutted you in the balls more than once, you should really see a doctor or something."

"I was wearing a cup," Mike replied, giving Matt a thumb's up to emphasise his point. "I'll be fine."

"If you're sure..."

Matt decided that it was probably better to drop the subject, Mike wasn't coughing up blood so he was probably going to be OK, though he seriously doubted the prospects of Mike having kids in the future.

The two of them continued their walk in silence, which Matt found somewhat disconcerting. Utter silence combined with an empty school reminded Matt of those teenage slasher movies and it was usually around this time that the psycho killer decides to show themselves so they can eviscerate the sexy teenagers. Even though "sexy" wasn't the word that Matt would use to describe either Mike or himself, it still didn't change the fact that he half expected Jason Vorhees to jump out from around the corner and kill them both.

Matt immediately started to focus on sunshine, puppies and rainbows to try to take his mind off psycho killers. As he was trying to picture an idyllic scene full of bright colours and singing puppies, he noticed Mike staring intently at the noticeboard.

"What are you looking at?" Matt asked, peering over Mike's shoulder.

Mike turned around and said, "Just seeing if there's anything important on there."

"Is there?"

Mike shook his head.

"OK," Matt said.

Suddenly, for an unknown reason, Matt was stricken by a strange urge to race to his car.

"Dude, race you to my car."

"Why?"

"I dunno, because we can?"

"Dude, I'm in no position to race."

"Pain is just weakness leaving the body," Matt said, putting on his best drill sergeant impression. "So if you don't race, you are an idiot and you hate America."

Without any warning Matt broke into a sprint and was halfway down the corridor before Mike even had a chance to react.

ooooo

"I win," Matt proclaimed triumphantly when Mike finally arrived.

Mike raised an eyebrow and said, "Yeah, not much of an accomplishment, winning a race against an injured guy."

"You're just jealous that you didn't win."

Mike responded by promptly raising his middle finger at him.

"You're jealous," Matt repeated with a smirk. "Anyway, you ready for some zombie killing action?"

"Dude," Mike said, "you sprinted all the way here, how are you not puffed?"

"I'm like the Terminator," Matt said brightly as he pulled his keys by the disco ball key chain (he couldn't resist, he just had to have one) out of his pocket. "Except I run a lot, instead of, you know, killing people."

Matt picked picked out the key to his car amongst all of his other keys, some of which belonged to locks that no longer existed and unlocked the driver's side door. Getting on his hands and knees Matt crawled over to the other passenger side and lifted the protruding knob before sitting back down and starting his car. While he waited for Mike to sit down Matt reached forwards and switched on the radio

"What are you in the mood for?" Matt asked as he scrolled through the channels.

"Anything," Mike said as he struggled with the seatbelt, the one on the passenger side had a habit of jamming and refusing to budge.

"Don't hurt yourself."

Matt quickly flipped through the various radio stations, trying to find a good song. He recognised most of the song snippets that was being played while scrolling through the stations, Icky Thump, Feel Good Inc. and The Rock Show amongst others. Matt eventually decided to stop at a random station, Matt didn't recognise the song that was just finishing, however, the song that started immediately afterwards Matt knew very well.

"Fuck yeah!" Matt exclaimed enthusiastically as he pulled out of his parking spot. "Breaking Benjamin."

If I had to

I would put myself right beside you

So let me ask

Would you like that?

Would you like that?

"Come on," Matt said, elbowing Mike in the side in an attempt to get Mike to join him.

Mike shrugged and after taking a deep breath he started to belt out the lyrics at the top of his lungs with Matt.

And I don't mind

If you say this love is the last time

So now I'll ask

Do you like that?

Do you like that?

No!

Matt raised his eyebrows in surprise, he didn't know Mike could produce such a guttural roar.

Something's getting in the way.

Something's just about to break.

I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane.

So tell me how it should be.

Try to find out what makes you tick.

As I lie down

Sore and sick.

Do you like that?

Do you like that?

People driving by gave the two of them odd looks, but Matt couldn't care less, and from the way Mike continued to sing with him, neither did he.

There's a fine line between love and hate.

And I don't mind.

Just let me say that

I like that

I like that

Something's getting in the way.

Something's just about to break.

I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane.

As I burn another page,

As I look the other way.

I still try to find my place in the diary of Jane.

So tell me how it should be.

Matt decided to stop singing and Mike quickly followed suit, Matt guessed he was also out of breath. The two of them sat in silence, listening to the rest of the song while waiting for their breath to come back.

"That was some growl," Matt said, once his breathing had become regular. "You should try out for a death metal band or something."

"Somehow, I just can't picture it," Mike replied.

The traffic light turned red and Matt slowed to a halt.

"You," Matt pointed at Mike to emphasise the word. "Have no imagination, you know that?"

"Whatever," Mike said dismissively. "The light changed by the way."

Matt looked up and indeed the light had changed. Releasing his foot from the brake, Matt made a gentle right turn into his street. Nothing was said as the two of them passed the generic, two storey houses that looked like they were mass produced in a factory in China.

The fact that the houses all looked so similar never bothered Matt until recently. Now, it felt like all the similar-looking houses were preparing him of a life of conformation and sameness. Matt really regretted watching Edward Scissorhands.

Matt came to a halt by the curb outside his house, killed the engine and said, "Are you ready to go kill some zombies?"

"They're not zombies, they're humans infected with a rabies-like pathogen," Mike said as he opened his door.

"Dude who cares?" Matt asked as he followed suit.

"I do," Mike replied.

"And that's why you'll never get laid," Matt replied as he pushed down the knob and slammed the car door shut. "Could you lock it?"

Mike, after locking the door, proceeded to flip Matt off once more.


I don't know if cars that required you to lock and unlock each door manually even existed. Anyway, try to spot all the references here, of course you don't have to if you don't want to.