Carter stumbled through the hallway, tripping over a pile of dirty clothes on the way, and pushed the door to Zac's bedroom open so hard the handle smashed into the wall. She observed the small round dent in the white paint and chuckled. She then glared at Zac. "Do you want to tell me now why you were pounding on the wall and whispering into the walkie like a creepy kidnapping lunatic at four a.m. in the morning now or would you rather me beat it out of you?"
Zac grinned. "Four a.m. in the morning? Nice. Katie's here."
Carter looked around the room. "Are you imagining pretty girls again?"
"She's in the bathroom brushing her teeth. She brushes her teeth a lot."
Carter made a face and laid down on Zac's bed, pushed him onto the floor, and crawled under the covers. "I want to sleep."
"Nooo. You have to stay awake with us." Zac smacked her arm.
"Ouch! Dammit!" Carter rubbed her arm and closed her eyes. "So why is Katie sleeping here?" She opened her eyes and stared at Zac. "You guys... wait what..."
"No! I had a really bad dream and I made her come over."
"Oh." Carter whispered. Usually whenever Zac had bad dreams, he would call Carter. An overwhelming feeling of abandonment suddenly filled her heart and made her want to throw up.
"I know I usually call you, but it was one of..." He paused, "HER dreams. You know, one of the freaky predicting the future, so real you wanna crawl under a rock and die kinda dreams."
"Oh, one of those. Well what was it about?"
Zac frowned. "I can't tell you. At least not now. I don't want to freak anybody out."
"Did you tell Katie?"
"Yeah. But..." He sighed. "Just trust me on this one ok?"
Carter nodded and pulled his blanket over her face. She jumped suddenly when she heard Katie's scream coming from the bathroom. Zac darted from the bedroom with Carter following close behind and pushed the bathroom door open. Katie was sitting on the floor, staring at the ceiling.
"Uhm, Katie?" Zac walked slowly to her, almost like she was a mental patient and he was afraid that the slightest movement would cause her to have an attack.
"There's a spider." Katie pointed to the ceiling and then covered her head.
Zac looked up to where she was pointing and then jumped. "Holy shit that thing is big!"
"Nooo kidding!" Katie kept her long blonde hair covered. Carter laughed when she noticed that she was still holding her toothbrush. There was now a rather large glob of toothpaste stuck to the back of her head.
"Uh, Katie, you have..." Carter touched Katie's hair lightly and Katie flinched violently, almost hitting Carter in the face. "WHOA! Easy now Batman!"
Katie blushed. "Sorry. But there's a SPIDER!" She pointed again. "Kill it!"
Carter shook her head. "Oh no. We're not going to kill it."
Katie whimpered and then turned to Zac. "Yeah, Carter kind of has this thing with killing bugs. She's convinced that if she kills one, this whole army of it's bug friends will come and attack her. And then it'll bring the birds and..."
Carter screamed. "DUDE DON'T FREAK ME OUT WITH THE BIRDS!"
Zac took Katie's arms and pulled her up. He gently pryed her toothbrush out of her hand and laid it gently on the sink. Then, he peeled the dried toothpaste from her hair. "How about we just go back to my room and watch a movie. Cause I doubt I'm going to sleep tonight. And if you and Carter wanna go to sleep it's ok. You can sleep and I can watch the movie. As long as I have you two there I'll feel better."
Katie whimpered again as they walked down the hallway towards Zac's bedroom. She looked behind her and stopped. "I can't do it."
Zac crinkled his nose and stared at her. "You can't do what?"
"I can't go to sleep when I know there's a spider in the house."
"But it's in the bathroom." Carter shook her head. "And are you aware of how many spiders we have in this house? Have you SEEN Isaac's bedroom? It's like a mating ground up there. Although sadly not for Isaac."
Zac chuckled. "That was a cheap shot."
"Yeah I love it when he's not here to defend himself."
Katie shook her head. "I'm serious guys. I can't function knowing there's a spider the size of a small furry rodent chilling above the toilet." She shivered.
"Fine." Carter yawned and stomped back to the bathroom.
Zac and Katie looked surprised. "I thought she didn't kill bugs?" She asked, and Zac shrugged.
They heard a slight shuffling sound, followed by a screech, a thud, and then a splash.
"DAMN YOU!" They heard another splash before Carter sulked out of the bathroom, both pantlegs completely saturated with toilet water.
"Carter, what did you do?" Zac asked, trying not to laugh.
"I set the little fucker free. Opened the window and blew on him until he scurried his furry little... HUGE ass out."
"And then?" Katie looked genuinely concerned.
"And then I fell into the toilet." Carter grumbled when her two friends started laughing hysterically. She sat back down on Zac's bed and mumbled to herself for a while until they calmed down. "Now, are you done laughing at me? Or do I have to go sleep in Taylor's room?"
"We're done." Zac smiled. "But if you don't wanna stay up with us, you can always just go back home. You don't have to resort to sleeping with Taylor."
Carter blushed at the sexual innuendo directed towards her and her boyfriend. She sighed and laid down on the floor, letting Zac and Katie share the bed. "I'll stay here. I can't go home knowing that I just set the biggest spider on the face of ... Oklahoma free to find my bedroom and hide under my covers... just waiting for me. I bet they like human flesh. I swear I could hear that thing breathing."
Katie laughed. "And I thought I was weird."
"You are weird." Zac smiled and put his arm around her.
"Why thank you."