"You mumble in your sleep." I mutter to Joel, watching his eyes flutter open.
"I've never been on the other side of the wall." Ellie states, looking out of the window in a memorised manner.
"Look how dark it is." She adds in awe.
"Yeah but it's peaceful if you get far enough away from everything, apart from the occasional infected." I say with a nod.
"You guys go out there a lot?" Ellie asks with a slight curious tone, titling her head and awaiting an answer.
"I guess." Joel replies sitting up and rubbing his eyes in a tired voice.
"I don't really anymore, I'm more focused on shit going on inside of here but I used to go out loads." I shrug.
"So when was the last time you've been out there?" She asks with a bit distrust and concern on her face.
"Maybe a year. What's it matter?" Joel says with a bit of anxiety in his voice that I could barely pick up on but I still did.
"But you know where to go? So we're gonna be okay?" She questions.
"We'll be fine Ellie. I promise." I say with a nod and a light shrug, although I don't totally mean it.
But whatever happens happens I guess.
She gives me a nod and Joel says "Yeah we'll be okay."
Where's your girlfriend anyways? She's been gone for ages." I ask with a slight glare and scoff.
Ellie looks like she's about to say a joke but I give her a warning look not to and luckily for me she doesn't say anything else.
"Do you mean Tess?" He says with shock and a bit of disgust of his face.
"No, Marlene." I reply with a sarcastic tone and an eye roll.
But what's up with him and Tess? Are they just like two partners in crime or something more? Well It's not like I care at all or anything.
"But where is she?" I ask again with a serious look in my face.
"First of us to get things straight she is sure as hell not my girlfriend." He says raising his voice a bit and leaning forwards slightly. "And I'm sure she'll be back soon."
The room was filled with silence for a minute when Joel speaks up once again and asks, "So what's the deal with you?" While pointing a finger at me.
"None of your business." I reply.
He looks me up and down then drops his head and goes back to looking at the floor while smirking a little bit.
Me and Ellie starts chatting again and I see Joel zone out looking out the window with his legs spread slightly. I look at him and he looks very peaceful when he's not arguing and picking fights with someone. I continue to stare at him as he stares off into the distance out of the window while I half listen to Ellie's rant.
"(Y/N)? I'm talking to you." Ellie says laughing slightly.
"It seems you've found something more interesting." She adds with a suggestive smirk, gesturing to Joel.
Joel turns back around to me and we lock eyes for a second and I turn away trying extremely hard to not blush. His face fills with intrigue and I just ignore them both while looking out to the horizon.
"Oh and the radio came on while you were sleeping." Ellie's lies.
"What?" Joel asks, suddenly a lot more curious and focused on the conversation
"Mhm" I nod still looking out the window, feeding into Ellie's lies.
"What was the song?" Joel questions with a hint of anxiety in her voice.
"He kept saying, like, wake me up before you go-go?" She lies again.
"Shit." He mutters with a panicked expression on his face and his head in his hands.
"Gotcha." She says and cracks a smile while high-fiving me.
"80's means trouble." I say turning back round to him smirking.
"Code broken." She smiles smugly to herself.
He stood up and was clearly about to shout at us when the door opened up.
Tess steps back inside and Joel says nothing once more.
"You two got a jacket with you?" Tess questions both of us.
"Yeah." Ellie replies simply.
You just nod at her and she says. "Okay get it. It's time to go."
"FINALLY." You yell out from being bored as hell when I relise how loud and a bit rude that was. "Sorry." You say slowly and give a guilty smile.
We grab all our stuff and exit the building. "Okay let's gooo~" I say smiling and punching Joel's arm slightly. "Lighten up." I say to him as we all walk out of the door.
But seriously, he needs to lighten up. "This might as well be fun at the same time." I say to Ellie.
Date finished- 17/4/23
Date rewritten- 8/8/23
Word count- 819 words