The Apocalypse: The First Year

The Ties That Bind

"Glen I swear to God if you point to my vagina... I will kill you." I tell him through gritted teeth and he grins and pulls his hand back.

"Well hello there children." My dad says as he and my mom walk up beside us.

"Hey." Glen and I say in unison.

"Glen can I ask you something?" My mother says.

"Sure mom." Glen says and steals one of my skittles from my bag as I take them out of my pocket.

"Hey!" I shriek. He shrugs and turns to our mom.

"That Aiden fellow, you and him having relations?" She asks him and he almost chokes on the skittle he was eating.

"Wh...what?" He asks once he swallows properly.

Ha!

See what I did there?

"Are you and that strapping young man back there having relations?" She asks again and my dad looks like he's in pain at the thought.

"Mom!" Glen says embarrassed.

"No need to be embarrassed son, your mother and I are aware of your lifestyle. We've known for some time now." My dad says.

"How did you-"

"Well..." My mom starts, interrupting him. "...you've never once talked about a girlfriend and you had a poster of David Beckham and Ricky Martin on your wall son." My mother finishes and I stifle a laugh.

Honestly, how was I so oblivious to what was right in front of me?

"Why didn't you just tell us yourself?" My dad asks Glen.

"I think I'm to blame for that." I pipe up.

"Spence you don't have to-"

"Glen was gonna come out before me but I beat him to it and being the awesome big brother he is..." I pause and give my brother a smile. Cause let's face it... he is pretty awesome. "...he decided not to steal my shine." I finish and Glen pulls me into a one armed hug.

"Shine?" My mother asks with a smile.

"You know what I mean." I shake my head and say.

"Glen you still didn't answer my question." My mother turns back to Glen and says.

"Um...uh..." I don't know why I find this so hilarious right now.

"Yes. Him and Aiden are..." I stop when Glen gives me a look. Oops guess he didn't want our parents to know. "...you know what I'm gonna go over there." I tell my family, pointing in no particular direction.

"Thanks Spencer." Glen says sarcastically and shakes his head. As I'm walking away I hear my mother asking Glen about using protection and I cringe at the thought.

But sidenote: Really mom? You think Glen and Aiden just have a stash of condoms somewhere. This is an apocalypse for goodness sake.

"I'm sorry about Kyla." Ashley says coming up beside me.

"It's no biggie." I say and shrug.

"She has that protective little sister thing going on. There's no stopping her once she makes her mind up to do something." Ashley continues.

"Really, it's no problem." I say not turning to look at her.

"Okay." Ashley replies softly.

"I think we should break for lunch." Tim announces to the group. You see how even though my dad is at least ten years older than Tim everyone still respects him as the leader of this group? Tim just has that way about him.

"Good idea." My dad agrees.

"An hour break everyone. We still have a pretty long way til we make it to the highway. We wanna get there before night fall." Tim instructs us and everyone nods and mumbles their 'okays' as we settle down for lunch. Jayden, Jo and my mom decided to be the cooks for this afternoon while, Glen, Aiden, my dad and Tim went to look for firewood and to see if they could hunt some small animals to cook.

"Are you mad at me?" Ashley asks me as I stand guard a few feet away from camp. Owen and Jackie are standing guard behind me on the other side of camp while Carmen is standing guard to my right.

"You're supposed to be guarding camp." I tell her nonchalantly.

Honestly, I'm a bit bitter right now. She hasn't spoken to me all morning and now she wants to have a conversation when it's convenient for her.

I know...very teenagerish of me... so what?

"Spencer, tell me what's wrong with you" She steps in front of me and says.

"Nothing." I shake my head and avoid her eyes at all cost.

"You're lying." She says simply.

"And how would you know?" I question with a raised brow.

"Your forehead gets this little line right here." She says and brushes a thumb over the spot she was referring to.

Okay no fair!

She's using unfair tactics right now.

"Um..." I mumble.

"Are you gonna tell me what's wrong?" She leans forward and whispers in my ear.

I regain my composure and clear my throat. "You should really get back on your post. We could get overrun with zombies with you standing over here." I tell her.

She studies my face for a moment. I'm still doing my best to look everywhere but at her.

"Are you angry about earlier?" She questions.

"No." I shake my head.

"You're lying." Is her reply as she smirks.

"You don't know anything."

"Right." She smiles.

–

Earlier that day...

"We should head out. We've got a long morning ahead of us." Tim tells everyone as we pack up.

"Hey." I walk up to Ashley and say as the group starts to walk. She turns and looks at me before mumbling a hey.

Okaaaay?

I don't know what that's about.

"So...did you sleep good last night? Me personally, I got some really good sleep. I mean sleeping in a tent with my mom and dad wasn't ideal, I much rather would have slept in a tent with-"

"I should probably catch up to Kyla." She says cutting me off, without so much as a second glance and walks off.

"Ashley." I call after her, but she keeps walking.

Did I do something wrong?

–

"Why would I be upset about that? I don't care Ashley. You're your own person and you can do wha-" Yeah I'm not talking anymore... for two reasons...everything I was just thinking is completely gone from my brain and two, well... you probably guessed or maybe you didn't I don't know what you're thinking but clearly Ashley's lips are on mine.

I'm honestly not sure whether to push her away or kiss her back. For one I don't really know this girl and I don't even know if I like her yet. I mean, yeah she's extremely sexy but I've ever only looked at one girl that way so there's not really much to compare with.

I can just feel my mother's eyes on us right now.

But Ashley isn't letting up. I'm guessing she's gonna kiss me until I kiss back so... I give in and kiss her back.

"I'm sorry." She says once she pulls back. "I'm sorry for blowing you off this morning but more than that I'm sorry if I led you to believe that I don't have feelings for you because I do." She takes her bottom lip between her teeth and smiles. It takes everything in me not to moan right now. I stare at her lips, wanting them on mine again, but I don't say a word. "You're something else Spencer Carlin." She says before walking away back to her post.

Yeah... I'm done talking...