Return of the dead

Chapter 10: Denial

My head ached and my stomach hurt. Beth was sound asleep with Mary while Matt and Henry looked for wood to start a fire. I stayed with Charlie to make sure nothing bad happened. He refused to talk to me about Beth. I hurt me a lot since I wanted to help.
"Charlie, why are you so quiet?" I asked, scooting closer to him.
"You know what's funny?" He asked, scoffing.
"Um...no what?" I asked.
"That I've been denying everything over and over again. It's funny and ironic how when we deny stuff, it happens. I denied that people were eating people and it spread to our house. I denied that my mom and dad would turn into one of them and they did. I denied that I would have to kill them but I did. I even denied that Beth would go blind and she is. It's like everything I deny it ends up happening." Charlie said.
"Then why did you deny it in the first place? If you knew it would happen?" I asked.
"I'm like most people. When we see something not going our way, we try to make up scenarios. We ignore all the signs and deny the change because we're scared. We don't realize it until later, or for some people never, but if we hadn't denied it in the first place we would still have our perfect little world." Charlie said.
I stared at him and my heart began to hurt. Was this what happened to Henry and me? I had denied all the signs that he was slipping away....and in the end, he ended up with Mary. There was nothing I could do anymore. No matter what happened.
"I'm sorry. It doesn't make sense." Charlie said, sighing.
"No, it makes perfect sense. I guess it only makes sense to the people who have gone through it." I said, putting my hand on his knee.
Charlie looked at me and I blushed. Oh god, was I hitting on him? Charlie smiled at me and scooted closer to me. He began to lean in a bit and he closed his eyes. My whole body burned as I sat perfectly still. Should I lean in? There was no time to think. Charlie was getting closer. I took a breath before closing my eyes and leaned in. Charlie's smooth lips touched mine and I blushed harder. Hey, it wasn't that bad. Charlie broke the kiss and we looked at each other. My heart pounded and he breathed heavily. My god he was a good kisser. I heard a branch snap and heard Matt and Henry talking. We jumped to our feet and walked away from each other.
"Hey, what's up with you two? You guys both look red. What happened? We you guys making out?" Henry asked, laughing.
I made a noise and Charlie cleared his throat. Henry stopped laughing and looked at us. His smirk was wiped right off his face and he looked....well hurt.
"I'll.....go wake up Beth." Charlie said, walking away from us.
They waited until Charlie was out of sight before Matt walked away too. It was just me and Henry now.
"How could you?" He asked me.
"How could I what?" I asked.
"HOW COULD YOU KISS THAT O'L MC DONALD FARM GUY!" Henry shouted.
"Keep your voice down! I can kiss whoever I want. If you haven't noticed, I'm not dating anyone." I said.
"So you can kiss whoever you want even though you like someone else?" Henry asked, stepping closer to me.
"You seem to do it perfectly fine all the time." I said, stepping closer too.
Henry and me were face to face now. I felt angry. How could he say something like that? He had no control over me. I groaned and stomped away from him.
"Where are you going?" He asked me.
"Away from you." I shouted back.
I walked away and sat next to the tent. I punched the dirt and curled my knees up to my chest. He had no right to do that. Mary was walking to Henry and glared at me. Her shoulder sleeve looked weird. Beth came out of the tent rubbing her eyes and she smiled at me.
"I'm still tired." She said.
"So am I. Come on, it's my turn to sleep." I said, walking into the tent.
Charlie was sitting down and I smiled. Beth got into the sleeping bag and I slipped in beside her. The tent flap opened and Mary, Matt and Henry walked in.
"Can you tell me a story?" Beth asked, yawning.
"Sure. Which one would you like to hear?" I asked.
"How did you become a zombie hunter?" Beth asked.
"How did you know I was a-" I began.
"Henry told me." Beth said meekly.
"Go to bed, Beth." I said, frowning and turning around.
"Hey! I want to hear this story too." Mary said.
"No, leave me alone." I said.
"But I-" Beth started.
"GO TO SLEEP!" I said, and felt Beth wince.
Everyone left the tent and left us alone. Beth apologized to me and I heard her sob. I groaned and had to sing twinkle twinkle little star to her five times until she fell asleep. The truth was, I wasn't going to tell anyone how I became a zombie hunter. Usually, you think you just become one when you want to. No, it's not that easy. I had to go through a test and it was painful....but I did it. I was chosen by luck. I hugged Beth and frowned. Maybe I was in denial of how I become one of them. How I had to take on the job that my parent's never finished because they got infected. I fell asleep with tears rolling down my cheeks as I remembered how my mom and dad died.