I hesitated and instantly wished I wouldn’t have. It was just that we hadn’t really talked about anything like that. Do I call him my boyfriend? It just seemed so weird… so unnecessary.
Bradley chuckled. “Are you embarrassed by him or something?”
“What? No,” I said feeling the tension in my brow.
“Well, you know, I’m here. That has to be bringing back all kinds of feelings,” Bradley said without looking at me.
I turned sharply and stared into his eyes. The amount of disgust that bubbled up inside of me like a pot about to boil over surprised me.
“You being here has nothing to do with anything. You and your fiancé barged in and made yourselves comfortable in my family’s home,” I said so sharply he jerked back ever so slightly. “We didn’t invite you to stay.”
“Your mom said it was okay,” Bradley said defensively before pulling back his shoulders and tensing his jaw. I knew he didn’t like to feel unwelcome. He thought everyone loved him and everyone always wanted to be by him. “If you wanted us to leave, you could have kicked us out at any time.” He summoned his inner tough guy and leaned forward. “But you didn’t.”
Marty cleared his throat as he approached. It seemed as though he could feel the lack of oxygen in the area surrounding Bradley and me. That was something Bradley had a way of doing… sucking the life out of things.
“Where should I put this stuff?” Marty asked looking anxious to get away.
“Let’s make a pile here,” I said pointing near my feet as I kept my eyes glued to Bradley’s. I wasn’t finished with him but I needed Marty to leave before I could continue. “Go get more.”
“So, I’m the only one that’s going to do any actual work?” Marty asked.
My chest rose with anger. “Please?”
“Yes, boss,” Marty said and I swallowed down my growl. It wasn’t like I was mad at Marty but it was hard to stop the anger from radiating outward to anyone who stepped within a ten-foot radius.
After Marty walked back across the road, I chucked my smaller piece of wood onto the small pile.
“No one kicked you out because we don’t want your blood on our hands,” I said trying to regain my composure.
“Sounds to me like you still care what happens to me then,” Bradley said with a smirk.
“No,” I said throwing my hands into the air.
He squinted at me as if the sun had suddenly become too bright for his eyes. “Are you sure about that?”
“I’m positive. Beyond positive,” I said confidently.
“I still care about you,” Bradley said stepping around me to drop his pieces of wood onto the pile.
I let the bigger piece of wood drop heavily from my hand. “Bradley,” I said with a soft chuckle, “you’ve never cared about anyone but yourself.”
“That isn’t true. I made a mistake. I knew you wouldn’t ever understand, so I just left. Yeah, I’m a coward for that. I shouldn’t have ever hurt you like I did,” Bradley said. “It was a stupid mistake. I’ll never forgive myself.”
I snorted as I pointed across the road. “Fiancé. A fiancé,” I repeated the word as if it were a punchline to a joke he wasn’t getting. “Stop talking like that to me. You don’t get to do that when you have a fiancé.”
“Why? Is it bringing up unresolved feelings you have for me?” Bradley asked taking a step closer to me. His confidence was oozing out of his pores and dripping onto the ground. It made me want to vomit.
“I have absolutely no unresolved feelings for you whatsoever. Trust me, I’ve resolved them,” I said crossing my arms as if that would somehow keep him from coming any closer. “Honestly, I have no idea why you’re doing this. Why now? I have no interest in you. None.”
Bradley chuckled. “I don’t believe that. Not even for a second. I don’t forget that easily. We were good together.”
It felt like hundreds of creepy crawly bugs were under my shirt crawling all over my skin.
“Well, believe it.” I exhaled slowly. “I didn’t know it at the time but you and I had been a mistake since day one. There wasn’t anything that good about it.”
He shook his head wearing a sideways grin. “I just don’t get it. Austin? I don’t see it. He’s not your type.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that?” I muttered to myself. “I don’t have a type.”
Bradley took another step toward me and this time he was way too close. I took a large step back and held up my hand.
“Yes, he’s my boyfriend,” I said heat instantly filling my cheeks. I didn’t care. “Now, kindly back off.”
“Am I making you nervous?”
“No, you’re creeping me out,” I said.
“Okay, okay,” he said holding up both palms. “You’ll see, though.”
I didn’t want to ask what I’d see. All I wanted was to get more debris and fill the hole so we could get back to Mallory. The sooner we were back to her, the sooner he’d stop looking at me as if I were a popsicle on a hot summer day.
We started to walk back toward the barn. I kept my distance behind him but he turned and looked at me as he walked backward.
“You’ll see you’re making a mistake and when you do, I’ll be there with open arms welcoming you back,” Bradley said.
And the three of us would live happily ever after. Of course, I didn’t want to actually say that out loud because he’d probably take me seriously.
I couldn’t help but look at Mallory as I walked by. She was so completely oblivious and innocent. There was a part of me that wanted to walk over to her and tell her what had just happened.
She smiled at me before closing her eyes and stretching her limbs out as if she were trying to get a tan. A bigger part of me just wanted to keep the peace. There was no reason to upset her. She was alone. Bradley was all she had.
If I told her, it would be a big dramatic scene that I didn’t want to be a part of. We had enough to worry about and there was no reason to create more.
I wasn’t even sure if I should bother to tell Austin. It would just piss him off and really there was no reason to upset him either. I wasn’t interested in Bradley and hopefully, he’d gotten that message.
After we hauled over a bunch of wood, we stood there nervously staring down the hole. There weren’t any noises coming from below and there weren’t glowing eyes staring back up at us.
“Now what?” Marty asked.
“Now, we start dropping it down there,” I said picking up the sharp long piece I’d dragged over.
I let the long piece fall hoping it would impale one of the creatures on the way down. It took longer than I had expected for it to hit the bottom. The thud was soft by the time it had bounced back up to my ears.
We dropped pieces in one after the other until the hole was nearly filled.
“Guess we should have collected more,” Marty said.
“Hmm, yeah. It’s deeper than I thought,” I said with my hands on my hips.
Based on the suns position, it was sometime just after noon. None of us had gotten much sleep and Mallory was frequently looking over at us. There was so much anxiety and boredom on her face that I could see it even at our distance.
“Finish tomorrow?” Bradley asked.
“Yeah, sure,” I said even though it would probably be cleared out by morning.
All three of us looked up as Austin’s truck barreled down the road as if he were competing in a race.
“Oh-oh,” Bradley said with a smirk. “You’re going to be in trouble.
I wanted to tell him he was an idiot, but I couldn’t. He was probably right. Austin wasn’t going to be thrilled that we were hanging out at the hole.
Chapter Three
Austin slowed his truck and pulled into the driveway. He wasn’t looking in our direction but I knew he’d seen us.
Both Austin and Noah hopped out of the pickup truck, walked to the back, and lowered the tailgate. They both stood there staring at whatever they’d collected
.
I jogged ahead of Marty and Bradley and slowed my pace when I approached. Austin looked at me. There was a dark shadow from the brim of his hat that darkened his already dark eyes.
“We were filling the hole,” I said as if I were compelled to explain.
“I figured,” Austin said.
“Are you mad?” I asked keeping my voice low.
There was a pause that had felt like it had taken an eternity. “No. I wish you would have waited for me, though.”
“You left on your adventure,” I said with a grimace.
“The hole is dangerous,” Austin said.
My stomach sank lower. He was mad even though he probably wouldn’t admit it.
“Heading out is dangerous, too,” I said weakly.
He turned slowly but he stopped before his eyes had a chance to connect with mine.
“This is what we found,” he said raising his voice as everyone gathered around the back of the truck.
My shoulders sagged. Maybe I should have waited for him. It wasn’t like I had meant to do something that would piss him off. I’d only wanted to do something instead of sitting around and worrying.
“Wow,” Bradley said reaching into the bed of the truck and pulling out a gun longer than his arm. “What’s this?”
“A sniper rifle,” Noah said.
“Why did your dad have a sniper rifle?” I asked.
Noah shrugged. “Just part of his collection. Might be fun to play with while wearing the night vision goggles.”
Austin shook his head. “We brought it because it wasn’t doing any good back at the house. Might as well bring what we could find here.”
“I like this one,” Mallory said picking up the smallest one. She held it between her thumb and index finger as if the gun were long strands of hair she’d pulled out of a drain.
Austin gingerly took the gun from her and set it back down on the bed of the truck. “Let’s just leave them all here for now… until we’ve all had some training.”
Mallory shrugged before grabbing Bradley’s bicep. She rested her head on his shoulder lovingly.
Bradley’s eyes moved. He flashed me a satisfied grin when his eyes locked with mine. He couldn’t have been more thrilled at having caught me watching them.
I rolled my eyes and looked away from him, turning back to Austin. He closed the tailgate and brushed his hands on his pants. Dust billowed up around him.
“Did you crawl around in the dirt?” I asked as we walked over to the SUV and away from the others. He was probably gearing up for his afternoon nap… the only time he slept and it never was for long.
“A little,” he said. “Found a change of clothes too.”
“Oh,” I said noticing he hadn’t changed into them. My eyes darted up to the second story of the house wishing I could go into my room and get myself a change of my own clothing.
He followed my gaze. “We can find stuff in town.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said fighting off the sadness I felt at having lost all of my things.
It wasn’t like I had anything that I’d been particularly attached too but that hadn’t meant I liked that it was all inaccessible. Losing my mom and dad was far worse than losing my things… they were just things and for the most part, they were all useless now.
“What are we going to do?” I asked clutching my mom’s wedding ring that I kept tied to a piece of string around my neck. “Are we going to stay here forever?”
“I don’t know,” Austin said. “What do you think we should do?”
“You’re asking me to decide?”
Austin scratched the back of his neck. “Why not? This is your home.”
I glanced at Marty. He looked like he was about to fall asleep in one of the lawn chairs as Mallory blabbed on and on about something related to her fingernails.
“It’s not just my decision. I want to do whatever is the safest and smartest thing to do,” I said.
Austin nodded. “That might be staying here with the lights.” He turned and stared at the field where we’d found the hole. “Or that might be leaving.”
“Helpful,” I teased with wide eyes.
“We could take a vote,” Austin suggested.
My forehead wrinkled. “We could but that gives both Bradley and Mallory a say in our future and I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.”
I made sure I didn’t look in Bradley’s direction. It was bad enough that what he’d said to me had still been fresh in my mind. Truthfully, I was feeling a bit angry with myself for not telling Austin about it but his eyelids were drooping lower and lower. I knew he needed his rest.
If I told him what had happened, he’d most certainly overreact. And it wasn’t like I needed Austin to protect me from Bradley. I could take care of him all by myself.
“Think about it and we’ll talk about it later,” Austin said with an enormous yawn.
“I’m not exactly sure what to think about,” I mumbled and Austin gave me a quick squeeze.
“I need to lay down before I fall down,” he said.
I cocked my head to the side. “Do I need to worry about you?”
“Only if people die from a lack of sleep,” Austin said and I narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t think they do. I haven’t even started hallucinating yet. Unless you’re not here.”
Austin reached out and touched my head with both hands as if trying to decide if I were real or not. He thought he was hilarious.
I scrunched up my face at him and he chuckled.
“Stop wearing that face,” he said lightly bumping his elbow into me.
“It’s my ‘you’re not very funny’ face,” I said and he laughed harder.
“Okay, okay,” he said holding up his palms. “I’ll stop trying to be funny. Especially, when I’m this tired.”
The small smile that had curled the sides of my lips vanished the instant I noticed Bradley watching us. I rolled my eyes and sighed a bit too loudly.
“Hey,” Austin said looking into my eyes. My insides were like melted butter when my eyes connected with his soft, dark chocolate eyes. “I’m just teasing you. Everything is fine. I’m not even that tired.”
“No,” I said shaking my head and forcing a smile back onto my face. “It’s not you. I guess maybe I’m tired, too.”
“Maybe we should both take a rest in the SUV then,” Austin said.
I shook my head even though the idea was tempting. The others might get ideas about what was going on and the idea of them all thinking that we were… no, it was perfect.
Austin shrugged and turned away from me but I grabbed his hand before he was able to get inside the SUV. He looked like he was fighting off another yawn.
“I changed my mind. Just let me tell Marty he’s in charge,” I said.
“You don’t need to,” Austin said dragging me along. “Noah’s staying up for a few hours. He’ll keep an eye on things.”
I wanted to turn and see if Bradley was still watching us make our way inside the van hand in hand but I also didn’t want him to know that I would check first. He’d just twist everything so it would seem like the reason I’d been looking at him was because I was wishing it was him climbing into the SUV with me instead of Austin and I most definitely did not wish that.
Bradley was a thorn in my side. It was small but painful and there wasn’t anything I could do to get the annoying thing out.
We’d only just made it inside the SUV as Mallory let out a scream that shot through the air like a fighter jet. I turned sharply expecting to see a creature clawing at her throat but there wasn’t anything there. It was just Mallory standing there with her hands balled up at her sides shrieking for help.
Marty was down on his knees looking at something. As I blinked away my tiredness, I saw someone lying flat on the ground.
Chapter Four
Mallory stepped up to me with her mouth hanging open like she was about to let out another horrifying scream. But nothing came out of her mouth.
“He just collapsed,” Marty said shaking his head. “He was standing there and then all of a sudden he was on the ground. I think he’s breathing.”
I lowered myself to Bradley’s other side and held his wrist lightly. It was hard to feel a pulse but only because Mallory’s rhythmic whimpers were covering each beat.
“His pulse seems perfectly normal,” I said shaking my head.
“Why would he just fall like that then? And why won’t he wake up?” Mallory asked. “Is he going to die?”
I shook my head. “He’s not going to die.”
“How do you know?” Mallory said before muttering something that sounded a lot like her stating that I wouldn’t even care if he did. What had he said to her about me?
“Bradley,” Austin said lightly rocking his body back and forth.
Bradley didn’t open his eyes. Marty tapped his palm on Bradley’s cheek. “Hey, man. Wake up, okay?”
“Get him some water,” Austin said over his shoulder to Noah who was standing there watching from a short distance.
Noah appeared in a few seconds handing the bottle of water to Austin. Austin glanced at me and I wasn’t sure if he was considering splashing him with it or if he was going to attempt to get him to take a drink.
Something took over and I reached over and grabbed the bottle from him. I hastily unscrewed the cap and poured the water on his face. I didn’t have to look around to know that everyone had their eyes on me.
Bradley sat up abruptly. “Wh—what the hell?”
“See, he’s fine,” I said screwing the cap back on so tightly I didn’t think anyone would be able to get it off again. I set it down next to him and got back to my feet.
Mallory stared at me wearing a look that was something between anger and thankfulness. She’d wanted to be mad at me but with having just brought Bradley back to life she didn’t have any desire to care what I’d done to save him.
“What happened?” Marty asked Bradley as I made my way back toward the SUV.
“I’m not sure,” Bradley said speaking louder than necessary. He wanted to make sure I could hear him. “Maybe I didn’t eat enough today. I’ve been careful to eat only a little to make sure everyone else has enough.”
Desolation - An Apocalyptic Novel (From Below Book 2) Page 2
