The Explosion

Chapter 4

In all, it took around five minutes for the girls to get changed. Quicker than most girls, Max noticed. He had never waited for a girl to get changed before but everyone knew that girls took around ten minutes deciding what to wear, and then half an hour slapping on way too much make-up. Neither of the girls were wearing any make-up; thank goodness. Zoe chose a white, flowy dress with sunflowers on, that ended at her knees. It was the kind of dress that would spin around you if you twirled in a circle. Lily came out wearing black denim shorts that had purposely frayed ends with a black top that had a white cat nose, whiskers and ears printed on the front. It hung beautifully from her and was a crop top so her perfectly flat belly was on show. Max had to look down at his boring, grey trainers to keep himself from staring at Lily. Why was he being like this? He had never felt feelings like this for a girl before. He'd had the odd crush before, sure, but he had never had feelings this strong. You've known her for a few hours, Max. Stop being a creep.

Max forced himself to look up at the girls. "Shall we be on our way then?" Zoe implied with a jolly tone. Gosh, her mood changed. Max thought. Max decided that Zoe seemed nice and had just been in shock before so he decided to make some conversation with her. "So, Zoe." He started. "How long have you and Lily known each other?"

"Forever." Zoe replied. "I can't remember a time that I didn't know Lily. We're like soulmates; but the best friend version."

"Nice. I wish I had a friend as close as that." Max said, not quite sadly but with a tiny hint of negativity in his tone.

"Oh, my gosh! I didn't even think about that. Were you with your friends when you- well, you know? Joined us?" Lily realised, looking startled and concerned.

Max laughed. "No, flower, I was on my own really. Heading towards someone's house. I have a few close friends; the couple at our school I couldn't find through all the commotion so I was going to Joseph's who was at home sick today."

"Oh gosh. I'm so sorry!"

"What are you sorry for? You'd rather get squashed by a douche on a motorcycle? I'm glad I arrived when I did."

Lily smiled at that.

"Actually, there was something weird about that whole thing." Zoe said.

"What?" Max asked. He was going to make a joke but was warded off by the seriousness in her voice.

"When you reached Lily, you hit her hard. Real hard."

"Well that's what happens when you run at someone with all the force you can summon." Max mentioned, but he knew she wasn't finished.

"Max. There was a car right to Lily's left. Forwards for you seeing as you came from the right-hand side of the road."

"Ah..." Max said, catching on to what Zoe was saying.

"No human being I know of can run and jump over a car with only three-quarters of a road as a run up. Let alone with a girl in their arms."

"Yeah, that's pretty weird." Max said thoughtfully.

"Maybe there is more to this whole thing than we know." Lily chimed in.

"Well, we don't really know anything. But yeah, there's more to this than the mass death of, supposedly, all adults and some children that's been caused by some weird, rippling explosion of light." Zoe stated.

"Insightful." Max said plainly.

Lily let out a small laugh at that. Max liked the sound of her laugh; it was melodic in a way. It was such a lovely sound. He sent a smile her way, happy to have made her feel some form of happiness; even if it was only for a second. Her face soon turned blank again though at the memory of the fact that her mum was dead. Dead.