The In Between

Chapter eighteen

• SHARK! •

James

• November 9 •

I woke up to Ricky's face, still asleep. To say it surprised me was an understatement. I yelped and scrambled back, blinking furiously. Ricky yawned and his eyes fluttered open. He locked eyes with me, while I was sitting on the cave floor, well, sitting wasn't the word for it. More like crab-walking, still blinking like crazy, staring at Ricky with a shocked expression.

"Good morning..?" Ricky asked, rubbing his eye with his wrist.

"hEyyyy..." I said slowly, my voice cracking. He opened his mouth and then closed it again.

"What are you doing..?

"Uhhh, I don't know." Ricky looked me up and down, looking slightly concerned.

"Okay..." his eyebrows were furrowed. We packed up our stuff and walked on. Through a forest and into a field. I didn't know why we had kept on going back into the forest, instead of staying in the fields, because they were obviously more helpful to us. Well, not exactly. Since every time we found a field, we almost died. Birds, demons, bees and wolves.

Ricky shook his legs vigorously. I glanced at him.

 "What the hecking heck are you doing."

"My legs hurt."

"Well, you did fall from cloud level onto them, so yeah that is expected."

"And we've been walking for like, two weeks straight. How are we not even dead yet? Like, I fell from cloud-level. I should be dead-dead by now." I shrugged.

"I dunno. I guess this god-forsaken world wants to keep us alive so that we can endure more pain."

"Isn't that just earth?" I blinked, and thought for a moment.

"Yeah, that's basically earth. Tamir is much better, by the way."

"What's Tamir even like?" Ricky asked, "you haven't told me that yet,"

"Uhh like, Tamir, or my life-death?"

"Let's start with your life," Ricky tilted his head the slightest bit.

"Well— uh, I live in an apartment with like, two other people, there's Asja and Taylor, uh--"

"You're dead and you live in an apartment. And you have roommates."

"Did I stutter? Where else would I live? Anyways, i go to college--"

"You're in eleventh grade."

"My brain isn't. And since I had to take you here, I didn't get to study for my test,"

"How is it my fault that i died!?"

"It isn't, it's your fault that you're wasting my time. Okay, anyway, i do training with this person who basically locks me in rooms with demons and says 'good luck, hope you don't die, Jamie!'" Ricky furrowed his eyebrows. "U-uh, yeah that's basically it. That's been my life for the past month."

"Where am I going to live when we get there?" Ricky asked.

"I mean, we do have an extra room in our apartment..." I started, shrugging. Ricky blinked, and looked at me.

"I can live with you?" He asked.

"Well, yeah, I mean, if it's not occupied by now," he smiled. I found myself smiling back, for some reason. Ricky started to blush and smile harder, I did the same. He suddenly burst into giggles and covered his mouth, still laughing. I laughed too, unable to help myself. He stared at me, still smiling.