Surviving the Plague 4

Andy narrowed his eyes slightly but didn't think much of it. It seemed everyone in this world had a secret, and he did not want to go digging into anyone’s closet for their respective skeletons. He opened the door to the room he and Jay would be sharing, stepping into it and looking around. In the corner he saw some barrels and boxes that must’ve held various miscellaneous items. It did have a few mattresses on the floor and some blankets and pillows, though they looked sort of dusty.

Andy glanced over his shoulder at Jay. "What one do you want?" He asked her and he stepped out of her way slightly. He didn't care much. It had been a while since he actually had slept on a real bed, be it on the floor or not.

Jay stepped in and took the one by the wall, closest to the door. She turned toward him though and she seemed to hesitate. “You gotta go shower, I can smell you.” She said honestly and she chuckled, throwing her backpack down. Jay crawled down to her bed and stretched along the whole mattress. She looked up at Andy. “Leave the door cracked, though... OH! There’s zero warm water.” She held her frozen, white hand up. “Feel.”

Andy blushed. Did he stink? Well, he had been sleeping in the woods for days. He sheepishly looked at her hand, hesitating. Very quickly, he reached over and squeezed her hand, but pulled away. "Yeah." He flashed her a little smile before he turned to leave. "I'm sure I'll be okay." He said over his shoulder. He pulled the door closed, but left it open a crack like she had asked.

Afterwards, he stomped up the stairs. He took his still-wet shirt off even before he made it to the bathroom. It was freezing already and he had goosebumps on his skin, he was sure he'd be fine in cold water. He shut the bathroom door and walked over to the shower, slapping his shirt onto the floor as he leaned over to turn on the water. Jay was right, it was pretty cold. But at least he would get the dirt off of his skin, the apparent smell. With that he undid his pants, trying not to think of the way that Jay said she could smell him. That was… sort of embarrassing. He sighed dejectedly and dropped his boxers to the floor.

Jay smiled and set her head on the molting pillow. Even though it smelled horribly musty, she was happy. She sat up, running her fingers through her hair. It was still damp, which irritated her. It would dry oddly if she slept on it… With a pang of pain, however, her attention diverted from her wet hair. Damn. She moved her hands instead to her side, where she poked and prodded gently. There was a giant bruise. She lifted her shirt up and traced it, wishing it hadn’t looked as purple and yellow as it did. “Jesus.” She muttered.

In the same moment, she heard footsteps. The thought of Andy made her turn to look at the door, where she saw that a shadow walking by the door had stopped. The door creaked open just slightly. Andy couldn’t have been done already, she realized with a frown.
It was David, who was currently without a shirt. Keeping eye contact, Jay glared up at him, a sneer pasted on her lips. He smiled though as he looked in at her. “I have room if you want to come with me. My bed is way better than these...” His hand came through the crack in the door and gestured to the dusty mattresses.

Jay clenched her jaw at him, extremely irritated and disgusted by his way of flirting. Bed, with him? Next to him? Not in his life. “Uh, no.” She shot him down quickly and she didn’t dare look away from him. She didn’t say anything else, she didn’t have to explain herself.

David’s face twisted into that of anger. He stared at her through the darkness for a long moment before he replied to her. “Fine.” He snapped and he quickly walked away, not bothering to return the door to its former placement.

The girl waited until he was gone before she shuddered deeply. “Freaking... creep.” Jay growled to herself and quickly clambered off of her mattress. She reached for her bag, digging through it to find a bottle perfume before she abruptly sprayed it everywhere.

Okay, so Jay was right.

The shower was definitely freezing, but it didn’t bother Andy much. He had scrubbed at his skin so hard that he had red marks anywhere that he could reach. At least he felt clean, even though the stinging pain was evident. Sighing, he pulled on a pair of boxers and his pants. Back to feeling dirty. He rolled his eyes at that thought and walked out to the kitchen with his wet shirt, rummaging through his bag for a dry one.

He pulled one on, a dark brown. It definitely felt comfier, softer, less stiff. He shoved everything back in his bag with his inhaler placed on top, and zipped it up before throwing it over shoulder and stomping back downstairs. He opened the door again, dropped his bag, and flopped into his chosen mattress. He couldn’t tell if Jay was still awake… It had been a while, and it was dark. “Jay…?” He whispered in the darkness.

“Yeah, I’m up.” Jay piped up from the dark. “How could I sleep? Being harassed and hearing everyone talk in the other room.” Jay smiled though. The hallway candle light streamed into the room and she could see Andy slightly. Brushing her hair behind her ear, she laid her hand against her cheek. Her stomach rumbled. “That food was so good, but I wish we had more.” She admitted with a laugh, but frowned soon after because she could hear the girls giggling together. “God, I hate girls with a passion.”

Andy shrugged slightly and rolled onto his side to face her, looking for her face in the darkness. His green eyes had to adjust to it. “Just don’t listen to them. Listen to me instead.” He told her. His voice was quiet, but definitely more soothing than the brats in the other room. He let out a long breath and settled all up in his mattress, trying to get comfortable. It’d been too long since he’d been in a mattress… He pulled one of the many excess blankets over his arms, the only skin that was bare to the coolness of the basement.

Jay took in a breath like she was going to speak, but she paused. She could feel warmth rise to her cheeks, blushing. “Why are you so nice?” Jay smiled and she rolled over to her side, putting her hand on her hip. “For real.” She really adored Andy in the short time they had known each other. He never ever got angry and he was so kind. The giggling in the next room continued and Jay cringed, but she said nothing.

Andy blocked out the obnoxious noise from the other room in his head, but he could sense Jay tense again as she heard it too. He sighed a bit at her question, wondering just how exactly she expected him to really answer. “I don’t know.” He told her and then he waited for a moment, his fingers fiddling with the threads of his blanket. “I don’t think I’m nice.” He admitted, and then before she could interject, he added, “I’m just not expressing my anger.” He admitted with a roll of his shoulders and a heave of his chest. Raking a hand through his dark hair, he rolled onto his back again and looked up at the ceiling. If he didn’t focus, he almost thought that he could see the stars in the darkness up above. “I don’t know.” He said again, at a loss of what to tell her.

Jay chuckled lightly at his response, amused though she didn’t know why. Perhaps it was because Andy was the opposite of her. She smiled as she watched him in the dark. She broke her gaze however as she yawned loudly. “When are we going to leave tomorrow?” She asked. “I don’t like it here very much.” Jay sat up a little bit, looking at Andy and his brown wet hair. It was messy. She liked that. She liked everything... Her stomach turned over and she opened her mouth. Don’t. You just met him. She just looked at his dimly-lit face and her insides smiled. “I fell in the shower.” She laughed.

Andy nodded slightly, almost absently. “Yeah, we can leave tomorrow… Why would we want to stay more than one day for anything other than the food...” He murmured a bit and he glanced her. Suddenly his face became concerned, and a pang of guilt hit his chest as he looked toward her dark shape in the candlelight. “Did you hurt yourself? I heard…” He stopped. He felt bad about it; he had heard her, but hadn’t even checked to see if she was okay. He was too busy with his inhaler… But he figured Jay did not want him bursting into the bathroom while she was in the shower, just to check on her.

“I slipped and hit the toilet.” She told him as if it were nothing. “Then the creepy girls grabbed me and thrashed me around.” She felt her side gently beneath her shirt, pausing. “You’ll see the bruise tomorrow. It’ll be big.” She yawned again, a noise that seemed to echo in the room. “I have to sleep, I’ll get really cranky…” She seemed to shift her weight for a second. “Worse than normal.” She told him with a small laugh.

A smile flitted across Andy's lips again. "Worse? That's possible?" He teased lightly, but he hushed and got quiet so that she could focus on sleep. He threw the blankets off of his now dry body and curled up on his side, still facing her, but laying his head against the mattress. Andy was never one to say 'good night' or 'sweet dreams,' but he was tempted to say it anyway. For a long moment the words sat on his tongue, but he didn't. He licked his lips thoughtfully and then sighed tiredly, shutting his eyes tightly.

“Yeah, it’s possible,” She laughed, putting her head down on the mattress and closing her eyes. She knew that she would be safe with Andy around. He seemed good at keeping her sane, and that was wonderful, a wonderful feeling. She felt like she actually did something right for once, like she was important, or possibly liked. Maybe even loved? Who knew? She snuggled her arm, smiling as she drifted into the dream world.

Hours passed.

Andy's eyes blinked open. It was dark, no light… He guessed it was still night time. He sat up slowly, trying not to make a sound, and he silently cursed his luck. Insomnia frequently raided his sleep, making it hard for him to get any rest whatsoever. He cleared his throat quietly and he climbed up to his feet, standing up and running a half-asleep hand through his messy, bed-heady, quite normal-looking hair. He scrambled for his bag, fumbling with his hands before he found it. He picked it up and grabbed the door handle, pulling the door open.

It was quiet. He was positively glad for it. He glanced over his shoulder at Jay and slowly shut the door. It was quiet out here, too, no one was moving or anything… Everyone was still asleep. Andy let out a small breath as he made his way up the stairs. There was barely a creak on every other step. The only problem, however, was the door up at the top of the stairs. He reached for the huge handle, going to turn it. He was glad that it wasn’t locked. He pushed it open, slipped out, and closed it again. He needed some fresh air. Andy quickly and quietly left the premises, not leaving a trace.

No one heard him leave.

Jay slept hard with her left side completely numb on the ground. Cracking her eyes open slightly, she breathed deeply, and rolled to her back. She had lots of dreams, some were nice and others were bad. Jay groaned loudly and stretched. She sat up and looked at the empty sheets. She frowned, pulled herself up, and tip toed out the door.. Her still-tired eyes looked down the hallway it was dimly lit, vision fuzzy.

Curiosity haunted her in her dreams last night. What was in that far door? She crept over and put her ear to the door, she heard some kind of breathing. It was heavy and sounded like it was gasping. “Andy?” She called in a whisper. She knocked faintly, “Hello?” She crouched down to look in the keyhole. The room was completely dark indeed. “Andy, is that you?” she said louder. There was a loud thump inside the door. Her hand gripped the handle and jerked at it making quite a racket. Jay hit the door with her shoulder, and then with her bare foot she kicked the door. Breaking the door open, she saw what was inside. She let out a horrific high-pitched scream as she ran backwards into the hallway.