Showers

Meteor showers

Prologue

The young science major scowled down at his paper as he stopped scribbling his notes. Somehow he had misspelled the word " Mitochondria" and now had to cross it out and rewrite it. As Henry Hidgens rewrote the long, and quite hard to spell word, he felt a paper airplane crash against his back. He paused and looked back with his brows knit and his eyes narrowed. It was Roxy. Ofcourse it was Roxy. Who else would it be? It couldn't have been Swann, definitely not Dove, and gods forbid it was Crone. He sighed and fully turned around to look at her. She smiled at him with that stupid smile of hers. And her eyes twinkled with that stupid shine. She opened her mouth to say something, and Henry was sure she did, but he wasn't listening. All he could do was stare and nod. Here and there he'd mutter " mhm " or " yea no definitely ". Roxy paused for a moment and pressed her lips together. She seemed to have wanted to say something, but the bell stopped her before she could. Roxy sighed and collected her books, then walked out without even saying anything to Henry. And as everyone left for the day, he sat there wondering what she was going to say. Or if she was going to say anything at all. Her and her stupid smile, her stupid eyes and those stupid sparkles.

~ 50 years later ~

Roger's breath was jagged as he ran through the forest. His daughter trailed behind him and he'd occasionally look back. Why'd Henry have to live this far? And why did he volunteer to do a supply run?? It wasn't like he'd find out he was Roxy! It wasn't like Roger had the biggest crush on Henry fucking Hidgens since freshmen year in college. So why'd he have to volunteer? He and his daughter stopped at the entrance of Hidgens place and quickly slipped in. There were about ten other survivors, all around his daughters age and none of them were to be found. It wasn't that odd, considering the hour of the night they'd returned in. His daughter kissed his cheek and wished him a good night as she too went to join the others. Roger shook his head and placed the food in the pantry. He counted the cans and bottles until he heard a large clang and a large string of curse words. Roger paused and heads over to where the clang was. It was Hidgens. He was bent over the trey of " blue shit" and was feverishly wiping it up and preying it wouldn't infect him. Roger panicked and rushed over, grabbing Hidgens by the arm and pulling him up.

" HEY! What do you think you're doing Roger?"

" stopping you from getting infected, stupid head!"

Henry paused and stared at Roger for a second but shook his head, muttering. He pulled his arm from Roger and went back to collecting the " blue shit". Roger rolled his eyes and helped him pick it up. Hidgen's beadily eyed him for a while. Almost like he was expecting him to throw away the blue goo. Or to shoot him incase he was infected. Roger smiled at him, and a Hidgens paused.

" you have a stupid smile..."

Roger paused and looked confused before snorting a laugh.

" really? I have a stupid smile?"

" mhm. It reminds me of a girl I knew in collage. She had a stupid smile too."

" Did she? Come onnn tell me more!" Roger giggled nudging Hidgens arm. The old professor blushed and looked away.

" Bahh fine! I'll tell you more" He looked back at Roger before sighing. " her name was Roxy. She has...well had I suppose, the stupidest smile ever. "

" Go on!"

" I am! This one time, she stopped me in the halls just to say " He fucked a tigerrrrr". Then she ran off!" Roger laughed at his face, recalling that moment. Hidgen's face got redder and he punched his arm. " I'm not done! "

" okokok "

" she also had the prettiest eyes ever...with the prettiest shine in them.." Hidgens babbled on about Roger, or rather who he was in collage. All the while, Roger stared and smiled at him. He'd never seen Hidgens so animated when talking about someone. Infact, he'd never seen Hidgens talk about him, well Roxy, before either. And he was adorable. His face would get red, and so would his ears. He'd gush and grin, probably too many times in the past five minutes.

" Hey! Roger! Roger are you spacing off?" Hidgens waved a hand in-front of Roger's face. Roger smiled and nodded.

" yea. Just never thought you'd be the type of guy to gush over some person from collage!"

" I'm NOT gushing!"

" YOU so are!"

" Am not! "

" Are too!"

Hidgens paused and looked like he'd say a few things but stopped and shook his head. He tuned to the table and sighed.

" maybe I am gushing over Roxy. But what does it matter? I don't think she's even here anymore!"

"Mmm well what makes you say that?"

" Well Roger, she isn't even Roxy anymore. " He looked over at him sadly. Roger's mouth went dry and he paused.

" wh-what? How long have you known?"

" since this morning. Paul mentioned your last name and it clicked."

"I..I'm sorry- I wanted to tell you, I did but.."

" nono it's fine. It's quite alright Roger. Just- just forget I even said anything tonight! "

Hidgens turned to his table and continued testing. Roger's eyes felt heavy and he paused looking at Hidgens. He sighed and walked behind him and hugged him. Hidgens didn't know how to respond, he let out a harsh sigh and hugged him back.

" I've wanted to do this Hidgens...since freshmen year..."

The old man smiled and laughed lightly.

" have you now?"

" mhm"

He laughed again and pressed his lips to Roger's temple. Roger wished this could last forever. But it couldn't. The ground rumbled and they fell to the floor. The meteor must've landed, just as Hidgens predicted. And they were separated. Roger didn't know if he'd hit this head, but everything was hazy. All he could hear were Hidgens screams and the sickening sound of organs being ripped out of his body. He crawled his way over to the corpse, a sob caught in his throat as he reaches Hidgens. The old man reached for him and he held Hidgen's hand.

" Roger, Roger, Roger," He rushed out, tears welling in his eyes.

" shhh shhh please..Henry..shhh" he hushed the old professor. He sat up and pulled him close. Whispering reassurances and kissing his temple. Eventually he felt Hidgens go limp and all sense of the world around him went numb. He screamed and wailed over the corpse, the sounds of meteors hitting the earth covering his sobs. He begged for Hidgens to come back, and shook him, hoping he'd wake up. But it never worked. He wouldn't wake up.

Epilogue

Roger felt a pair of eyes on him as he raided the convince store. As he was headed to the toiletry section he felt a pair of cold and gooey arms around his waist and a pair of cold lips against the shell of his ear.

" I missed you Roger"