Love and Decay, Boy Meets Girl

by Rachel Higginson

casual shoulder, hoping to make her feel at ease. “It could be a mustache.”

  “Was that a joke?” she looked up at me, distracted suddenly.

  “So what?”

  She laughed a light-hearted, happy sound that made my chest swell and ego inflate. I did that. I made her laugh like that.

  “So,” she said still laughing. “It was almost funny.”

  My head snapped up and I met her gaze again. She was teasing me, but all I could think about was how much she was making me fall for her. And I had known her an hour. I felt out of my mind with this thing.

  I felt dumbstruck.

  I felt like a child seeing the infinity of the stars for the first time.

  But I wasn’t a child. I was a man. And I’d seen the stars lots of times. I should be able to hold my shit together.

  And then she winked at me and I knew I was seconds from doing something I regretted. Like, kissing her after all. So I just went back to work on her knees, focusing on what was causing her pain and taking great strides to make the experience as painless and comfortable as I could.

  As soon as the last bandage was on, she jumped up and moved away from me. I did the same thing. I had to. I needed to think straight again. I needed to get my head right.

  That didn’t stop me from watching her walk away though. She still hobbled a little, but seemed much better than when she tried to walk up the stairs.

  Once she reached her friend, I walked over to Vaughan. We needed to talk. And he stood with all my other brothers who probably had a say in all this too.

  “Hey, we need to talk,” I echoed my thoughts as soon as he was in mumbling range.

  He looked up at me with curious eyes and nodded. “Yes, we do. I thought we had a strict no outsider’s policy, Hendrix. What the hell?”

  “Come on,” I grunted. “I couldn’t leave them down there.”

  Vaughan thought that over, but he knew I was right. “Fine, but now what? What if they want something?”

  “Well?” I gestured over at the girls perched on a register counter, laughing and talking freely. “They might want something. But they should. Look at them, they need a whole lot of somethings.”

  “You want to let them have access to our supplies?”

  “And I’m thinking we let them stay the night here.”

  “You’ve lost your mind,” Nelson commented dryly.

  “No, I think he’s found his heart,” Vaughan joked but then grew serious. “You’re serious about this?”

  I shrugged. “I can’t send them back out there. I would never forgive myself.” For more reasons than one.

  “Fine, then they can stay, yeah?” Vaughan stated but left it in a question- as was his way. Sure, he was our supreme leader, but he always gave us a chance to speak up. “For just tonight.”

  “I think it’s a good idea,” I agreed. “They look like they haven’t slept in a while. At least not straight through the night.”

  “Sure, it’s fine with me,” Nelson nodded. “Anyone have anything against that?”

  Nobody said anything.

  “Alright, go tell them,” Vaughan ordered me with an amused raise of his eyebrows.

  “That’s probably not a good idea,” I tried to remain casual. “She’s a little weirded out by me.”

  “She?” Nelson picked up immediately on my slip. “Not they?”

  “They,” I growled back. “They’re a little weirded out by me.”

  “Why is that?” Harrison asked suspiciously.

  “They have this fear of being raped,” I admitted dryly.

  “By you?” King barked out a laugh and Harrison joined him.

  “What so funny about that?” I demanded. Not that I wanted to be considered a rapist or anything, but I didn’t think the concept was funny.

  “Because you’re like…. you’re like…. asexual. You wouldn’t rape them! You wouldn’t know how!” King explained.

  What the hell? Bastards. All of them.

  “You don’t even know what that word means,” I growled causing them to howl with more laughter. I wasn’t asexual. At least not anymore.

  “I can tell them,” Vaughan cut in. He turned around but not before throwing out, “Since they obviously make Hendrix nervous.”

  I let out a frustrated sigh but followed my idiot brothers over to talk to them.

  Vaughan led with a question, “When’s the last time you’ve had a good night’s sleep?”

  Reagan bit her lip and looked at her friend. “Define good night,” she challenged.

  “When was the last time you slept the entire night through?” he clarified.

  Neither of them responded. They looked at each other and then back at us with blank, lost expressions. And that’s when I knew they hadn’t had a good night sleep since this whole thing began.

  Vaughan drew the same conclusion. “That’s what I thought. You can’t stay with us permanently.” That part was for me, I thought. “But you can spend the night. We will give you a full night’s rest before you move on in the morning.”

  They just kept staring at us and I wondered if their fear of strangers went deeper than they appeared.

  “Explain the raping thing, Vaughan.” I told him.

  A knowing smile stretched across Vaughan’s face and I bristled with irritation. He was going to lord this over my head until the end of time. I knew it. And it was because I was really pushing for the girls to stay. Ever since we embarked on this survival journey, I’d let Vaughan take the lead- for the most part- kept my opinions to myself and gone with the flow as much as I could. Standing up for something, especially something involving outsiders and girls for that matter, was completely out of character for me.

  Even I had to wonder what was going on in my head.

  “Oh, and my little brother would like to assure you that you will not be raped.” And I could have punched him in the face right then. Little brother? Really? Asshole. Vaughan continued, “This happens to be a rape-free zone.”

  Reagan’s friend whispered something in her ear and they both looked down, trying to hide their smiles. Were they making fun of us? Or just happy to have some place safe for the night?

  A nervous laugh bubbled up in Reagan and escaped before she could compose herself. They were definitely making fun of us and now I couldn’t help but feel this obnoxious need to know what was said.

  “We’ll take it,” Reagan said easily. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning, but we will take your offer.”

  “Definitely,” the friend agreed. And then she made proper introductions. “Oh and I’m Haley and this is Reagan.”

  We nodded in return, trying to play it cool. I watched Nelson stiffen though, his whole body went rigid and alert. I followed his gaze to Haley. Maybe I wasn’t the only one feeling the presence of females for the first time in way too long.

  “Nelson,” Vaughan noticed too and did not seem pleased. “Get Page. She’ll be safe from these ones.” Then he turned back to the girls. “I’m Vaughan, you’ve met Hendrix and Nelson. My other two brothers are Harrison and King. Nelson went to get our sister, Page. Best you stay away from her. If anything happens to my little sister, all responsible parties will suffer before they die excruciating deaths, got that?” Vaughan’s warning was a little over the top, but necessary. And I was glad he gave it because somehow I’d forgotten. Page was the only good thing left in our lives and we would protect her until death. Our entire lives revolved around defending that little girl and there were a lot of people in this world, even apart from Feeders, that would try to hurt her. And no matter how pretty Reagan’s smile was or how dark and mysterious her eyes could be, she did not get to hurt my sister. Ever.

  “Sure thing, boss,” Haley walked by, tapping Vaughan on the shoulder. She moved on to King and Harrison and asked about their accommodations for the night. Both boys were completely dumbstruck by a pretty girl talking to them and I needed to remember
this so I could use it later to torture them with.

  I glanced back at Reagan while she talked with Vaughan and realized I didn’t have any room to judge. This girl had done something to me. From the moment I saw her picking through socks, I couldn’t shake the effect she had on me.

  And I didn’t think I wanted to.

  So the best thing to do would be to avoid her until she left.

  I didn’t like all these…. feelings. I wasn’t used to them and they didn’t belong in my world or in my body. I didn’t have room in my life for any other people- especially too-skinny girls, with too big eyes.

  So I avoided her for as long as I could.

  Well, it was kind of easy. The two of them got busy with their packs and took their time in the bathroom. When they emerged after a while, they had clean hair that hung in long, wet strands around their shoulders and made the entire floor smell like girly soap and water. Or maybe I was imaging the fresh, floral smell taking over our entire space.

  No I wasn’t.

  All of my brothers had tuned into the girls. Part of it was because they were girls, that had been in the bathroom together, getting clean. I mean, come on, even I wasn’t above playing out that fantasy.

  On top of that, they were pretty girls. They would have peeked our interest no matter the circumstances.

  But they were also different. We’d been staring at each other for way too long. They brought a new aspect of life with them, turning us inside out and reminding us of every single thing we gave up when Zombies took over the world.

  They were fresh air, light in our dark world, they were the change that would save us from the slow