A Flash of Red

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Harry

"Sweetheart, come on. Up and at 'em. Need to give your ribs a check really quick." I blinked open my eyes and saw Mrs. Hain shaking me gently. "How do you feel?"

I stretched slightly and yawned, not feeling too much pain.

"Better. Just a bit sore."

"Alright. Well, you look okay. Bruise is healing nicely."

"Thanks, Mrs. Hain." She smiled and I sat up.

"Morning." I looked and saw Tara climbing down the ladder and walking towards me. I smiled.

"Morning." I said back. She stood next to me, almost awkwardly, and smiled back. Usually I would kiss her in the morning, but I didn't want to push her. I know that she needed her space and I was willing to give it to her. She noticed the change in my behavior and nodded slightly, mostly to herself, before turning and helping Mr. Andrews pack some of the food up. 

Once everything was packed up, Mr. Andrews established a game plan. 

"Kelly and I are going to head to this bunker," he said while pointing to a map. "Jackson and Noah will head here. Harry and Tara, you two can hit this one." At that moment, I stretched and felt the pull in my abdomen, letting outa large exhale. Tara looked at me out of the corner of her eye and then looked down to her feet.

Everyone picked a spot to meet up and then we all climbed out of the bunker, going on our way.

The walk with Tara was silent. She looked straight ahead, not saying anything. I looked down at her hand, tempted to grab it, but looked away. She saw but said nothing.

"How'd you sleep?" I asked, internally wincing at the level of awkwardness that hung in the air.

"I slept alright."

"Did you have a-."

"Yeah, but it wasn't a big one."

"Oh."

We continued walking for a few minutes before Tara pointed to a street. We turned down it without talking. 

"It should be right around here." She had said the same thing eight months ago.

I pointed.

"There." I had done the same thing eight months ago.

She nodded. I walked ahead and opened it, hoping that what we had found in one eight months wasn't down there again. I walked down the ladder and saw her climbing after me. I reached my hands out to help her down, then realized it might hurt so I pulled them away. I saw her draw her lips in a tight line. 

I walked deeper into the shelter and started stuffing as much as I could into the two bags I had. Once I had packed them as much as I could and saw Tara had done the same, I began walking to the ladder.

"Let's head back."

"Did I do something wrong?" She asked. I turned to look at her, seeing her back to me and she closed her sack. 

"What?"

"You've hardly looked at me, let alone touched me, in the last 36 hours. Why?"

"It's nothing, Tara."

"So you don't deny that you're avoiding me."

"Tara-."

"Did I-. Did I do something wrong the other night? Like was it not good? Because that's really shallow, Harry. You should at least talk to me about that even though-."