"Elizabeth.." A male voice softly calls to me. It was probably Lance, he's always on my case about everything. I was so tired, I didn't want to wake up. I just wanted a moment of peace to relax and not think.
Something lightly grazes the skin on my shoulder making the rest of it crawl with goosebumps. I let out a quiet moan of annoyance, hinting to be left alone for at least another minute. The fingers to a strong, mildly rough hand, close in on my shoulder with a gentle grip and then it gradually tightens.
I try jerking my arm away and I push my body out further onto the table I was leaned against, suddenly getting very aggravated. I was seconds away from pulling my head from my arms that my face was buried in when fingers lock around my hair and rip it back. My head shoots back in response and suddenly my eyes are met with Chase's. He has the most frightening look on his face.
He leans in agonizingly close to my ear, I could feel his breath on the side of my face. If all the hairs weren't already standing up on my skin, they'd be soaring right now.
He stares down at me coldly, an emotionless half smile playing at his lips, "did you really think you could hide from me?"
Metal rattles in my ears pulling me from my sleep. I groan groggily and lift my head. My eyes connect with the gun I had laid out on the table in front of me. I fell asleep at the table. I couldn't sleep after last night, I was too anxious. I couldn't get my mind to settle so to feel a little more secure I brought out one of the guns and sat here with it.
My gaze shifts to the floor where I heard the metal sound the loudest. It was the can of beans from last night. The contents were stretched out on the floor, a tad bit splattered on my ankle. "Shit," I curse under my breath and pick it up.
I set it down on the table when Effy emerges from the room, "fall asleep at the table again?"
"Yeah," I give her a small smile.
Kaleb
I awake to the feeling of soft slender fingers stroking the side of my face. I crack an eye open and see Lacey smiling down at me, her half naked form laying next to me in bed. She bites her lower lip and in a soft voice says, "hey."
I crack my other eye open and smile big before closing them again, "hey babe." I reach over and pull her closer to me and she nuzzles her face in my chest.
We just lay there in silence until she states, "it's weird. Nothing feels different. There's all this shit going on in the world" she pauses and props herself up on her elbows, thoughtfully, "but in this very moment everything feels normal. It's almost as if we could just run away." At that moment I hear a quiet buzz come from my phone lying on the floor in my jeans. She falls silent.
Lacey smiles sadly as I lean over the side of the bed and dig my phone out. I swipe the screen to see 17 missed calls and about 15 texts in total from Lance, Ethan, and Shelly. I open one of the texts from Shelly and the words 'COME HOME NOW. Urgent!' come onto the screen.
"What does it say?" Lacey asks knowingly, a worried look on her face.
I hesitate uncertainly, "it's just from Shelly. She says I need to come home now, that it's urgent." I couldn't decide if I wanted to or not.
The worried look on Lacey's face deepens, "are you?"
"I don't know" I scratch the back of my head and set my phone down. I roll over pulling Lacey into my arms and I rest my head on her chest closing my eyes for a moment. "I kind of just want to stay in bed with you all day."
"Then do it. Don't leave me." She says seriously, a glint of desperation in her eyes.
I lift my head and furrow my eyebrows at her, "I'm not going to leave you."
"Promise?" She searches my eyes and runs her fingers through my hair.
"Of course, what's gotten into you?"
"Nothing" she says and lowers her eyes. "It's just, my parents aren't back yet and I don't want to be alone. Not with everything that's happening and I'm scared you won't come back and I can't stop worrying about my mom and dad. I haven't thought about it once with you here."
I cut her off pressing my finger to her lips to get her to be quiet for a moment, "baby, nothing's going to happen, I promise, and it won't be long. I'll be back as soon as possible and stay with you every minute between then and when your parents get back." I assure her, "you seriously don't have to worry about me I can take care of myself. It's you I'll be more worried about."
She smiles against my finger.
"Okay?" I question, tucking her hair behind her ear.
She takes my hand and kisses the back of it.
"Good." I give her my most charming smile that always gets her to blush, and she does.
I get out of bed and get dressed, grabbing my keys off the nightstand and I run downstairs and out the door to my motorcycle that my dad got me for my 16th birthday. It was eerily quiet in this neighbourhood for it being daytime. I get the bike started and text Shelly 'be right there' before I start driving down Aberdeen.
Traffic is extra busy today. "Any day now.." I huff under my breath as a swarm of cars jam in front of the mall. Two girls come running out of the mall in a panic. It strikes me as odd, then again what wasn't odd these days? This kind of weird shit was happening on a daily.
I check my phone and the time says 3:04 in the afternoon. Finally after another lengthy 10 minutes, traffic starts moving and I'm on my way to the house. I shoot Lance a text right before I get there to let him know I'm here and as I pull up in front of the house, I see him sitting on the porch steps with his head in his hands. Ethan's on the porch too, leaning against the railing deep in thought.
I don't think they even noticed me pull up. I cut the engine warily, and just sit there for a minute until I decide to get off my bike and start walking towards the house. Lance looks up at the same time Ethan does, but Ethan looks more alarmed since Lance is getting up and now marching towards me with the most pissed off look on his face.
I slow down but Lance doesn't. He speeds up, Ethan chasing behind him.
"Where were you?!" He growls, shoving me back hard.
I stumble back but stand my ground, "whoa, what was that for?" I spit back.
"Answer the question!" He shoves me again, hitting a nerve but I compose myself.
"I was with Lacey-"
He cuts me off before I could finish, "so let me get this straight- you were out getting laid all night while Ethan, Shelly, and I spent the night burying our dead sister and driving Liz to the hospital?"
"Wait, what the fuck?" Did he just say dead sister?
"And you couldn't answer one fucking text!" He seethes.
From the corner of my eye I could see Shelly pull back the living room curtain a bit to peek outside. She has a distraught look on her face.
Lance looks like he's about to hit me until Ethan pulls him back, trying to calm him down but he shoves him also, "don't touch me!" Lance snaps and gives me one last disappointed look before turning his back on me and stating, "Serenity's dead." He storms into the house, slamming the door shut behind him.
Ethan stays silent until I speak up and ask what the fuck is going on.
Ethan gives me a sad look laced with anger too, "you should have been here man. Why didn't you answer any of your texts?"
I was getting annoyed with all the interrogating. I'm sorry for trying to be there for my scared girlfriend! It's not like I knew any of this was going to happen while I was gone for a night. "You know what? Fuck it! I shouldn't have come home."
I go to my bike.
"So that's it? You're just going to leave? Your sister died man!" Ethan calls after me.
I whirl around, "you don't think I realize that? I'm not deaf! I heard Lance. It's not exactly going to fix anything being here now is it?" I snap.
"No, but being an asshole isn't going to fix anything either. Think about your family, Kaleb. You should be with them, they need you."
I ignore Ethan's comment and just get on my bike and start the engine.
"You know what? Fuck off then! It's not like you ever give a shit about anyone but yourself. Just don't come back." Ethan walks away.
I watch him walk away and just shake my head, aggravated. I drive off back to Lacey's place. Once I get through the door I drop down on the couch as all of my bottled up emotions come sprawling out and I'm sitting there crying with my head in my hands.
Lacey comes down the stairs but stops at the second last step once she sees the state I'm in. She comes over to me and sits next to me, pulling me into her arms, pressing my head into her chest and rubbing my back.
We sit there in silence and a few hours later we're back to where we started the day off. I thought maybe all I needed was to sleep it off so I could think with a more clear head but I'm still laying in bed wide awake with a raging headache.
The phone starts ringing downstairs echoing throughout the entire house. It was all you could hear since the house was so empty and quiet. Lacey sits up and slides off the bed, "I'll be right back." She says.
She rushes out of the room and down the stairs. The ringing stops so I know she's answered the phone.
"Mhmm..." I could hear her from up here. "What? What are you saying? Are they okay?" I get up and make my way towards the stairs and sit down on the middle step, watching her pace around in the hallway. She places a hand over her mouth and I watch a tear slide down her face. "Okay..." Her voice breaks.
She hangs the phone up and stands there in silence, her lips quivering.
"What's up?" I ask, startling her.
She quickly wipes her tears away as if I didn't notice, "nothing." She sets a hand on her hip.
I come meet her downstairs.
"Let's leave!"
"What?" I ask, slightly confused.
"Let's go, let's just get out of here. Let's run away together. We've got your bike and I have my college funds. We could use it for gas and motel rooms." How eager she is frightens me.
"Babe, what's up? What did that person say?"
She just shakes her head, biting her lip but I know she's about to break out in tears.
"Lacey."
"Let's just go, please!" She presses, and then takes a step towards me and takes my face in her hands. "For me, please?"
It was hard to say no to her. I never could. Serenity ran through my mind, and then Elizabeth, and everyone else. "I don't know if I can. Elizabeth's in the hospital. I told you that. I should be here for her. And my little sister, she just-" I couldn't get the word out because it hasn't even registered to me yet.
"Don't you get it Kaleb? It's just even more reason for us to go! We could leave tonight. We could leave all of our problems behind. Start fresh in a different city that's infection free."
"We don't even know if that's possible. They're probably quarantining the city. They're doing it with others."
"That's not a problem," she says, and pulls open the drawer to the stand next to us revealing a gun.
"Whoa, what the fuck?" I race out, beginning to think that my girlfriend's lost it.
"Oh don't act like you've never seen a gun before. I'm sure Lance is carrying one." That was actually true. I seen it. It was one of the reasons I felt uncomfortable being at home. She moves in closer to me, pushing her chest into mine and then she kisses me. "Let's go...come with me," she says between passionate kisses.
I slide my tongue into her mouth and then I'm grabbing her face and pushing her into the wall as she wraps her arms around my neck and she kisses me back harder. But I stop myself, beginning to see a pattern. I've told her about every aspect of my life and when it came to her and life got tough, she'd isolate her thoughts and hide it with sex. I was her escape, except not in the way I wanted to be.
I grab a hold of her wrists and break the kiss, pinning them above her head, "stop." I tell her.
She keeps her eyes locked with mine and then a playful grin makes its way onto her face. She searches my eyes and makes herself taller rubbing her body against mine. She leans in and I don't protest when her lips touch mine again after flashing me a sexy smirk.
She slowly kisses me as I clench my jaw, "I'm serious..." I let out but she continues to kiss me anyway. I let it go on longer than intended until I finally pull away and my face hardens, "Lacey, we can't do this every time something's bothering you."
"But you need it...and so do I..." she bites her lip seductively and leans her face into mine again. "Love me...fuck me...come with me..." she says brushing her lips against mine, and then she bites onto my lower lip knowing that's one of my biggest turn ons. Her hand reaches down unbuttoning my jeans and grabs a hold of my hard on, massaging it.
"Fuck..." I groan.
She slowly nods, knowing she's getting to me. She unbuttons her shorts and wriggles them off, sliding her underwear off too and kicking them to the side.
She helps me take my shirt off and I grab her hips. She hops up wrapping her legs tightly around me. I press her more into the wall and start kissing her neck and gently biting onto it, causing her to let out a quiet moan. Then I insert myself inside her and she gasps like she always does. I start pumping into her more until she's moaning louder and telling me to go harder, her nails digging into my skin and clawing down my back. We keep at this for awhile until we're both on the ground panting.
Lacey rolls over onto her side to face me and props herself up on her elbow, "so, are we gonna go?"
It takes me awhile to answer before I'm getting to my feet and putting my shirt back on, "Lace I don't know. I don't think I can."
She gets up right after, "what is that supposed to mean?" She questions, sounding infuriated.
I turn to face her, "it means I just don't know." I honestly tell her.
She smacks me. I didn't see it coming and she's never done it before but she smacked me. I could feel the spot where she hit me heat up. "Get out!" She says and doesn't even look at me. She just points to the door expectantly.
"What?" I question. "You don't mean that."
"I do Kaleb. Get out, get the fuck out!" She screams, pushing me towards the door.
"Fine!" I say and throw my hands up in annoyance. "I'm going, chill."
I go and get my shoes on and then run upstairs to the bedroom to get my jacket since my keys were in there. She follows me, "so that's it then? You're just going to leave me?"
"I don't know Lacey!" I snap. "Isn't that what you want?"
"No." She stops me in the doorway, her arm blocking my way. "I want you to come with me."
"I can't."
"Fuck you."
"Get out of my way." I fling her arm out of the way and jog downstairs.
"Just leave then and don't come back, I never want to see you again. It's over!" She yells after me.
"Great!" I yank the outside door open. "It's exhausting being with someone who's so fucking needy!" I yell back on my way out, and then I slam the door shut.
Heated, I march down the walkway to my bike that's parked on the curb and I can hear the door open a few seconds later.
"Asshole!"
I flip her the finger once I'm seated on my bike and rev the engine, racing down the road.
Ironically I receive a text from Shelly telling me to come back home, then I get a text from Lace also telling me to come back to her place but I needed space. She didn't know what I was going through. I don't even understand it. I can't just up and leave my family. She doesn't get that. Most of the time she doesn't get me.
It starts pouring down hard once I'm halfway home. When I pull up, this time Shelly's standing outside waiting for me, her arms hugging her shivering body.
I park.
"Kaleb!" She calls out over the sound of the pouring rain.
"Hey." I say back and get off my bike going to her. She stands there with open arms and envelopes me in a hug. Her body starts trembling and I realize she's crying.
"I'm glad you came back."
"Me too." I say back, and hold her comfortingly.
"Everything's so fucked!"
"I know," I say absently and I feel a tear slide down my face too. The lady across the street just stares at us, not even bothering to hide it and then she goes back into her house.