"And you only hit him once?" 

Logan sat on the counter, contently sipping his juicebox when James began recounting the days events after his girlfriend left the room. He had just finished hearing about Emily's brush with Beau, the fight, and then Lucy throwing the necklace at his face. Logan knew all about Emily's experiences. He was there when she got Hawk arrested, but aside from the few conversations they had on the spot, she made it a habit of distracting him and changing the subject anytime he tried to bring it up and talk to her about it. 

"Dude, there was a lot going on, I was in shock," James defended, before leaning in, checking to make sure Emily hadn't come back in the room. "She says she's okay for now, but don't bring it up, and if it is mentioned when you're around her, don't make a big deal about it, okay?"

Putting the thought out of his mind, Logan nodded, "Okay." 

The door swung open, Kendall frantically diving into the room. James smirked, seeing the best friend, "So you get that date with Lucy?" 

Unresponsive, Kendall turned around, burying himself into the tall, yet narrow, locker besides the door, closing himself in. James furrowed his eyebrows, turning to Logan who got up to inspect the situation, also confused. 

Before the boys could question Kendall, the door flew open again, Carlos sprinting in, carrying a large box, with an equally large grin on his face. "Guess what was banned in all 50 states, but I got the last two bottles of!"

"Please don't show up," Logan said. 

"Zom-B-Gon!" 

"Zom-B-Gon?" 

Emily's voice rang through the apartment from the back bedroom. She perked her head up from reorganizing the boy's disguise bucket which included all things costumes, masks, makeup, paint, and any other tools used to disguise yourself. Tree hats were a separate box. 

Carlos had a habit of wanting to talk late at night, unable to fall asleep. A couple of times, he found himself on Emily's couch watching her documentaries she kept recorded on her TV to put him to sleep. The Zom-B-Gon commercials made an appearance every commercial break and Emily and Carlos had memorized the entire thing. 

"From that late night commercial?" She questioned, shouting from her spot on the floor. Emily quickly began throwing the things back in the bucket, a sloppy mess, forgetting all about her ambitions to organize it for the guys and decided she had to see the Zom-B-Gon instead. 

Emily stumbled to her feet, kicking the bucket back under the bed, making her exit from the door back into the main room. 

"Jo?" Her heard the boys say. 

She peeked around the corner, seeing the guys. "Jo?" She repeated, her best friend coming to mind, wondering how she played a part in Zom-B-Gon. Emily followed their gaze, crossing around the kitchen table. "Jo!" 

A loud shriek rang through the entire Palm Woods as Emily sprinted out the door, tackling her best friend in a hug. Jo Taylor stood, smiling at Emily, her stress from the Kendall situation faded for a moment. 

"You're back," Carlos gasped, shutting the top window to the locker where he found Kendall, the guys nervously watching the two girls, realizing why Kendall was in lock down. 

Emily finally let Jo go, retracting her arms from around the girl, stepping back to let her breathe. "I'm looking for Kendall," Jo told them, glancing around the crib. 

"We haven't seen him."

"He's not here."

"We don't know where he is."

"Who cares about Kendall!" 

As the three boys lied to cover for their best friend, Emily remained clueless to their obvious lies, beaming at Jo. Jo choked out a laugh, "Well, if you see him, tell him I'm around."

Emily hopped happily in place as she glued herself to Jo's side, following her down the hallway. 

"Wait, Em!" 

The girl glanced back in the crib, seeing Carlos smiling at her. "Don't you want to share my Zom-B-Gon?" Carlos asked, shaking the bottle in front of her face. 

"Nope!" She told him, disappearing from sight. James and Logan chuckled hearing her from down the hall screaming Jo's name over and over. 

***

"Oh, how the turn tables," Emily smiled sitting on her island counter. 

Jo sighed, taking out her fourth batch of muffins, rolling her eyes. 

"It works, right?" Emily nodded.

Jo took a bite out of a muffin, nodding, "I get it now," she admitted, seeing Emily's attraction to stress-baking. 

Peeling a wrapper off one, "I'm sorry about the movie," Emily told Jo. After the first film, the test audience burned down the theater because they hated it so much and the rest of the sequels were cancelled. 

The girl shrugged, "I'm more upset about what happened when I got back."

Emily couldn't deny Jo was her best friend. She always would be, sorry Carlos. But since she moved in, Emily had gotten close with Lucy too. Kendall was also her best friend. She found herself in her own tornado of problems unsure how to help any of them when she felt inclined to help all of them at once. 

"So," Jo changed the subject, "You put Hawk back in prison, saved the world over tour, and moved to Bel Air..." 

Emily nodded, groaning over the thought of her chaotic life, "I'm tired most of the time," she grumbled, popping a piece in her mouth. "I'm sorry I didn't do a better job of keeping in touch with you."

Jo shook her head, "No, the time was different, and we were both crazy busy," she listed. "I didn't even know you and James were official."

A blushed smile worked its way up Emily's face. True, she hadn't directly reached out to Jo telling her everything about their relationship after she left. But considering her currently doubts about Kendall, Emily wasn't so sure this was the best time. 

"Shouldn't we talk about something that will get your mind off Kendall?"

Jo rolled her eyes, sadly, "Focusing on your relationship, believe it or not, always helps me get my mind off other things. Start after I left."

Emily let out a laugh. shrugging, "There's not much to tell. We gradually became friends again, and our emotions were everywhere in London and I kissed him." Jo gave a flirtatious smile, mocking her friend. Emily threw a muffin at her, laughing it off. "We're good, okay? I'm really happy with him."

***

Jo retreated back to her apartment, unpacking and taking a moment to herself to sort out her feelings. On Emily's way back to the crib to find Kendall, a very irritated Camille stormed down the hallway. 

"Hey-"

"Where's Kendall?" Camille demanded. 

Emily scoffed in amusement, realizing Camille just caught word of the drama. "I was on my way to the crib to find him, if you must know," she told her. 

Camille threw the door to 2J open. "Aha!" Emily walked in to see Camille storming in, and Kendall popping up from under the couch cushions. "I knew you were in here! How could you avoid Jo, who you dated, and Lucy, who you just started dating, but Jo came back and saw you kissing Lucy, who you don't know as well as Jo, who you didn't know was coming back... Wow. No wonder you're avoiding them."

Camille gasped, finishing her rant as she realized how tangled his situation was. Emily strolled in, standing by Logan who found it as amusing as her. 

"And confused," Kendall sighed. "You forgot confused."

"Which is why you need to figure out your problem," Logan told him. "Like does Jo even want to take you back?"

"She does," Emily nodded.

"She does?" Logan repeated. "Uh, well, do you still even like Jo? You guys have been apart for a long time and you really like Lucy."

Kendall shrugged, admittedly, "I hadn't even thought about that. I guess I don't know if I still have feelings for Jo."

Logan nodded, "Then let's figure it out. Take a deep breath-" Emily watched in confusion as her three friends all closed their eyes. "Imagine you and Jo are running through a field of flowe-"

"Yeah, I still like her."

Emily raised her eyebrows in amusement, pleased to hear Kendall also still had feelings for her best friend, but refused to admit it so she wouldn't take sides anywhere in the triangle. 

The door burst open, "There you are!" The girl turned over her shoulder to see her boyfriend rushing in, "I've been calling you."

Emily looked down to verify James had indeed called her eight times. "Sorry, I'm helping Kendall."

James put his hands on her shoulders, shoving her out of the circle into the hallway, "This will just take a second." She stumbled out, gaping at James for an explanation as he shut the door behind him. "As I'm sure you realized, Carlos only has two bottles of Zom-B-Gon."

"I might have noticed that, yes," she nodded, narrowing her gaze in confusion, arms crossing. 

"And you said you didn't want the extra, right?" He confirmed, intensely staring at her. 

She nodded, unsure of his point, "Right."

"So, I just wanted to confirm that you wouldn't be mad at me if I took the extra instead and didn't become a zombie with you."

The girl blankly watched the boy. He gestured for her to give an answer as she remained in shocked silence. "You want to know if I'll be upset with you for remaining human with Carlos during the non-existent zombie apocalypse?" James nodded eagerly, waiting for her response. "No."

He sighed in relieved, silently cheering, "Yes!" He leaned over, kissing the top of her head as he took off in a sprint down the hallway, "You're the best!" The girl stood speechless as he turned around, sprinting back to her. "Please go tell him I can have it."

Emily groaned, "James, all my friends are stuck in a love triangle right now."

Guiding the annoyed girl down the hall into the elevator, "And this will be the perfect break!" 

"Why do you even want Zom-B-Gon?" 

James frowned, "Carlos is going to give it to Bitters." 

The elevator dinged, opening up to the lobby. Emily followed her childish boyfriend out sluggishly. James eagerly tapped her arm, pointing to Carlos who was giddily skipping in from the pool. 

"Carlos," James greeted, the boy bumping into his friend, smiling as he saw him and Emily. "So, Em was thinking and she wants me to have your extra bottle of Zom-B-Gon," he said.

Carlos scoffed, "But you said it was stupid!"

"It probably is, but how dare you give it to Bitters instead of your best friend, who again will probably never need it?"

Emily laughed to herself, "I'm his best friend."

James turned to his girlfriend, "No, you aren't."

"Yes, I am."

Carlos snapped back and forth between the bickering couple, getting dizzy. "Guys!" He shouted, the two shutting up. "Bitters is giving me $50 for it."

Emily nodded in thought, mentally siding with Carlos to give it to Bitters and make a profit off him. "Give it to Bitters then," she shrugged. 

James gasped, elbowing his girlfriend, "Are you kidding me! This will not look good with rotting flesh," he said, pointing to his face. 

Emily rolled her eyes as James bumped into her side, pushing her over. She looked up seeing Bitters collided with them. "I'm back," he gasped, holding up cash. "Give me the bottle."

"Back off, zombie lunch," James said, turning Carlos' outwardly stretched arm to him with the bottle. "It's mine."

"But we had a deal." Carlos turned the bottle back to Bitters, frowning in overwhelming confusion. 

"Deal schmeal," James scoffed. "He's my best friend." Back to James. 

"But I went all the way to the ATM." Bitters. 

"But I went all the way- It's mine!" 

"Give it to me."

"Give it to me."

"Give it to me."

Give it to me. I'm your best friend."

The girl shook her head in disbelief this argument was actually happening and Carlos wasn't going to take the money. Lucky for her, her phone rang, giving her a perfect out of the situation.

"Jo?" Emily answered, walking back to the elevator. 

"Hey, listen. I think I'm going to leave the Palm Woods if I don't hear from him." 

"Jo, this isn't something you can just drop on me over the phone, you know?" Emily exclaimed, her stomach falling at the thought of Jo leaving again. Sure, it wasn't to New Zealand, but she loved having her best friend down the hall. 

"Then come up in a bit and we can talk about it."

Emily sighed as her phone buzzed, another call coming in. "I'll see you later, I have another call." She hung up with Jo, accepting the incoming one from Logan. "Yeah?"

"Please come back. Kendall's hiding in the slide." 

***

"Are you hiding from your problems again?" Emily asked the yellow swirly slide, standing in front of it with Logan and Camille. 

"Yeah, because if I don't make up my mind today, and pick Jo or Lucy, they're both going to leave the Palm Woods," Kendall echoed from inside the slide. 

"Lucy's leaving too!" Emily gasped, face-planting into the couch, her mind exhausted and overwhelmed with emotions from the very long day. 

Camille shrugged, "Just choose you who like better and go knock on her door."

Kendall emerged from the slide, slinking out, "But I don't know which door to knock on." Emily pulled herself up, giving Kendall her full attention now that he left his hiding place. "I mean, Jo is amazing, but she's an actress. Who's to say she's not going to leave again for a big movie? And Lucy's amazing, too, but we've only been dating for 96 minutes."

"Okay, there's only one way to solve this problem," Logan said. "And I didn't want to have to go here because it's a little extreme, but you are going to have to do everything I say because I am the only one who knows how it works."

"Please don't say love science," Emily and Kendall both sighed. 

"Love science!" 

Her head dropped back, groaning in annoyance as Logan fled, pulling Camille behind him, into his room to gather all his equipment. She picked her head back up, seeing Kendall helplessly standing in front of her. 

"Kendall-"

"You don't have to help with this," he assured her. As badly as he'd like to have her there while Logan gradually lost his mind, it wasn't fair of him to ask her to help him choose between two girls she was friends with. 

Emily's mouth twitched into a short smile, "I'll be here no matter how this plays out," she promised.

Kendall nodded, knowing she would be. He glanced over, not seeing Camille or Logan rushing out with his wires anytime soon. "So, you're still feeling, okay? After earlier..." Kendall stuttered, "I know I'm not James, but-"

She ran a hand through her hair, "James is not the only one allowed to ask me how I'm doing," she reminded him, knowing James would say the same thing if he were here and not fitting Bitters for Carlos' last bottle of Zom-B-Gon. Emily had completely forgot her encounter with Beau happened a few hours ago and not days ago. It'd been a long day of twists and surprises for everyone. "But I'm fine, it's not a huge deal."

"Even though something similar has happened before," Kendall told her, "this shouldn't be something you brush off even if it hadn't."

"I'm not brushing it off," she corrected him. Kendall raised his eyebrows, challenging her. "I'm re-prioritizing right now."

The boy rolled his eyes, accepting his momentary defeat as Emily backed up to the door, shrugging at him. 

***

Later in the day, after a much needed nap, Jo and Emily sat in her apartment, Jo's luggage still sitting out.

Jo spotted Kendall watching her and Lucy by the pool in a ploy to figure out who he liked through, love science. It took a good 20 minutes for Emily to explain the origin and perks of love science and how the only person who knows what it is would be Logan. 

"You wouldn't happen to know what he's thinking, would you?" Jo shyly asked. 

Emily gave her a regretful shake of the head, "I really don't." Jo remained silent. Her mood had gone down as the day grew on. She was always upset, but it got harder to hide it as the end of the day neared. "Leaving the Palm Woods wouldn't be the worse thing," she tried to help. 

Jo nodded, half-heartedly, "We'd still be able to see each other all the time," she nodded. Jo sniffled, her eyes growing red with tears she tried to keep in, "It was stupid of me to just show up thinking we'd pick up right where we left off."

Firmly shaking her head, "No, it wasn't. I know he felt that way too after you left, and maybe he still does."

"I just really want to see him."

A small knock came from the door. Emily got off the couch, going towards the door, "I can get it."

"No, it's okay," Jo told her, rising to her feet. "I'm fine," she said, stepping around Emily, composing herself. 

All Emily could see as Jo opened the door was her friend. Her eyes suddenly lit up. She saw all her stress melt away. 

"Hey."

A small gasp came from Emily's mouth, hearing Kendall's voice. "Hey," Jo smiled. Emily pulled the door back further, seeing Kendall smiling at Jo. They both stared at each other in silence, looking as if they could cry. 

"Um," Emily coughed, "I'll see you guys later," she told them, stepping around Jo, giving a subtle nod to Kendall as the girl took two steps, entering her apartment directly across the hall. 

Emily shut the door behind her. 

Kendall picked Jo. 

Jo was staying. 

She felt a stab on guilt interrupt her good mood as Lucy popped in her mind. She was leaving. The girl said goodbye to two guys in one day. The first one cheated on her while winning her back from cheating on her and the second was Emily's best friend who picked her other best friend. Would she even want to hear from her? 

Emily collapsed on her couch, pulling out her phone, the line ringing. 

"Hello?" 

"Hey, are you done with that zombie nonsense?" 

James scoffed over the line, "Yeah, I'm done. How's Kendall?" 

Emily smiled to herself, "He is across the hall talking to Jo." Picking at the threading on her couch, "If you aren't busy, could you come up?" 

"Of course."

One minute later, James was letting himself into 3J. He was back in his sweats, a small towel with him as he dried his wet hair. "Are you okay?" He immediately asked, walking in. 

"Yes," Emily dragged out, feeling him put himself beside her on the couch, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Did you win the Zom-B-Gon?"

James winced, "Yes, and then I dropped it."

Emily sighed, closing her eyes, "You dropped it?"

He nodded, "Then Carlos dropped his. So we're all going to be undead together."

She stiffed a laugh, "That's great news," the girl hummed. 

Looking down at his girlfriend slumped against the couch, his arm around her shook her body, squeezing her in, "What's up?"

She took a deep breath, "So, Lucy's leaving. And I feel bad about it."

"That's her decision. Why would you feel bad?"

"Because Kendall picked Jo, my best friend, and I feel like I'm taking sides, even thought I'm not. I know I want to talk to her and tell her goodbye, but does she want that? Is it insensitive of me to go down there? Plus, her ex kissed me earlier-"

James scoffed, rolling his eyes, feeling himself getting worked out. He sat up, taking his arm out from around her, "Whoa, whoa. First of all, he assaulted you. And that's not your fault." James leaned forward, looking over at Emily who nodded, absentmindedly, not wanting to get back into that conversation. "Second, you guys are friends. If it was Jo that was leaving, you wouldn't feel this way." 

Emily turned her head, looking at James. She nodded thoughtfully, "I'm gonna go find Lucy," she decided, ready to leave. 

"Wait, wait, hang on," James slowed her down, "You do know that what happened is serious right? Kendall told me you said it 'wasn't a big deal-'"

"Snitch," Emily grumbled. 

"But it is a big deal and it never should've happened. No matter how many times you try to minimize it, I'm going to keep asking if you're okay." 

"I'm not trying to be anyone's problem," she said. 

James shrugged, "But I like you as my problem."

Emily tilted her head, giving him an amused smile. "Will you wait here while I go to Lucy's?"

James lounged back, arms stretched over the back of the couch. "No rush. I'm a bit tired from the zombie apoca-lympics."

The girl stared questioningly, because deciding she didn't want to know. Emily crossed down the hall to Lucy's place. She hoped by now Lucy was packing and Emily wouldn't be the one to let her know Kendall was with Jo right now. 

She knocked nervously on the wooden door. "Lucy?" She called. "Hey, Lucy?" Emily opened the door, peering in to let herself in to Lucy's apartment. 

Expect it wasn't Lucy's apartment. Not anyone. 

The room in front of her resembled her friend's home. 

But all Lucy's belongings and furniture was already gone. 

And Lucy was gone. 

***

Sorry this took a while, and sorry it's not very plot involved. 

Hope you enjoyed :)