Just Hold Hands

Chapter 13

Theo awoke to pink sunlight from a pink sky. Catherine was still asleep, to Theo's comfort. The room was washed in pink, and Theo relaxed into it. She was distrubed by how quickly she'd grown used to it. She sat up, gazing at the white wall before her.

They hadn't had anything to eat the day before, they were too busy running and crashing. Theo rummaged through her bag, as quietly as she could manage, and withdrew... beans. Yay. She wasn't quite sure what she could do with them without a working stove, so she replaced them, instead reaching for the cereal.

She ate directly from the bag, grabbing handfuls at a time. Theo wandered downstairs as she ate. She got a better look at the house in the fresh daylight, it was tastefully well decorated. She stopped short as she saw a boy sitting at the dining table. He looked about her age, maybe older, but he couldn't have been past twenty. His hair was tousled and he smiled at her when he saw her. She scowled.

"Who the fuck are you?" she asked.

He smirked; Theo wanted to punch him. Her grip tightened on her bag of Cheerios. "Who are you?" he asked in response.

"You first."

"Jonah," he said, standing up. "Some friends of mine are outside, this is our base."

She could barely take him seriously. "Some friends of yours? What the fuck does that mean?"

"This is our base, we're fighting the aliens."

Without even thinking, she laughed. He looked taken aback. "Fighting the aliens? With what?"

"Come find out," he said, brushing his hands through his hair.

"No." Theo turned around to go wake up Catherine. She had a limit to how much insanity she could tolerate, and this was definitely reaching it. Catherine was already sitting up, yawning, when Theo walked in.

"Good morning Catherine, there's a boy in our house who thinks he's Luke Skywalker. If you fall in love with him I'll kill you." Catherine shot her a quizzical look and climbed out of bed as Theo picked up her backpack. She waved Catherine out and they set out to leave.

The boy was still downstairs when Theo and her sister reappeared.

"Nice to see you again," he said.

"Fuck off, it's been three minutes."

He balanced on his right foot, so that he could lean and see Catherine standing behind her. He grinned. "You girls hungry?"

Catherine nodded and his smile grew. Theo turned to give her a dirty look.

"We have food that's a lot better than Cheerios, let me tell you."

"Please," Catherine whispered into her ear.

Theo sighed and nodded with her eyes closed. They followed the boy behind the house, where they joined two black-haired boys who Theo couldn't quite tell apart and a diminutive girl with dark curly hair closely cropped to her head. They were arranged in a circle in the scorched grass behind the brick back wall of the house, a small fire between them.

"Oliver, Jack, and Saiyr," the boy said, pointing at each. Theo immediately forgot their names. Catherine waved.

"So what's this about food?"

The black-haired boy on the right smiled. "We've got beans."

Theo groaned. "Unfortunately, so do we."

His smile didn't drop. "We also have chicken soup."

"That. Please."

Oliver, or maybe Jack, poured the soup into a pot and set it over the fire. The flames weren't particularly strong, Theo assumed it would be some time before the soup would heat up. Both Oliver and Jack looked younger than Jonah, maybe Catherine's age, likely even less. They were in the woods playing camp and entertaining fantasies of saving the world.