WHEN YOU FINISH SAVING THE WORLD ✸ Joel Miller

vi. Puppy Love

[ CHAPTER SIX ! ]

puppy love.

WE'VE COME ACROSS THIS run-down building. Joel has to force the door open with his hands and I'm already dreading whatever's inside. I didn't realize I'd go through so much just to get a fucking truck battery. 

Joel is the first to go in, and it's like a swamp. There's green water flooded throughout the entire lobby of this hotel. 

"I'm not walking through that." I state. I truly am disgusted by the thought of even looking at it. The water is dark and I can't see the bottom. Who knows what's at the bottom?

"Are you fucking serious?" Joel looks completely unamused. He's glaring at me like I'm a lunatic and I honestly feel like one with the way he's staring me down. 

I don't move. I just keep looking at him with the same stare. 

"I'm not either." Ellie declared. 

Tess didn't bother hiding her annoyance. She'd clearly wanted to shout at me, and it made me want to laugh. I've seemed to have mastered where to push people's buttons and how to get under people's skin over the years, that's what loneliness seems to do. 

"We've got to get to the staircase on the other side," Theresa explained with a light sigh as Joel began walking through the water. 

"Well, I--I don't know how to swim." Ellie stepped back as fear crept up to her features. 

"Me neither," Hayden croaked, her eyes big and worriful. 

"Me three," I lie, simply not wanting to walk through the swamp water. 

"You did twenty years ago. You forget?" Joel seems totally unamused with me. His brows are furrowed and his lips are turning downward into a frown. Then, he took a step down into the water. Revealing the two-feet-deep water, and leaving me to look like a fool. "Smart-ass." 

"I don't know how we were supposed to know that." Ellie pouts, walking down the steps. 

None of us say anything, but Ellie and I exchange a glance. She mouths the word asshole to me and I nod in agreeance. 

My feet stick to the ground and the water drenches my clothes, leaving my white jeans green. 

"This is so gross," Ellie exclaims with a devilish grin as she chuckles. She goes to the desk of the hotel and there's still a bell on the countertop. In which, Ellie dings. I roll my eyes playfully, unable to contain the small smile forming on my face. "I would like your finest suite, please." 

This makes me laugh, stopping in my tracks as I watch her have a conversation with herself. 

"You're a weird kid," Joel noted. 

Ellie didn't take offense to this. Instead, she began to push the luggage cart and squint her eyes at him. "You're a weird kid." 

Then, Ellie shouts and moves back, banging into the piano in the center of the room. Joel's quick to tighten his grip on his stolen gun and point it at the skeleton that sunk into the water. I clutch my chest and let out a sigh of relief. Ellie does the same, except her chest is heaving up and down and her eyes are temporarily closed. 

I watch as Joel kicks the skeleton's skull, then as he reaches his hand out for Ellie to take. She does, sparing him an apology as she walks around the piano and over to me and Hayden. Joel doesn't hesitate to wipe his palm on the pocket of his jacket and it makes me want to roll my eyes again. Then looks down at his wrapped-up fist. 

Ellie's next to me when I place my hand on the side of her arm. "You okay?" 

She doesn't stop, she just keeps walking to the other side. "Yep. Fucking fabulous." 

Hayden appears to be in utter terror as she looks down at the green muck beneath us. I'm focused on the fungi and vines growing on the walls, though. I like nothing about this. The fear of a clicker grabbing my ankle ad dragging me down is eating me alive and all I want to do is get out of this water. However, Hayden is walking so slowly and I don't want to leave her any further behind than I already am. 

Ellie and Tess have already reached the staircase but Hayden and I have hardly passed the piano. Joel's shoulder pushes against mine and almost knocks me over. "Hurry up," he mutters as he keeps going through the water at a steady pace. 

"Fucking asshole," I reply with a grumble. I wrap my arm around Hayden's shoulder and try to go at a quicker pace but she hardly budges. 

HAYDEN HAD BEEN IN complete panic mode. Her shoulders were shaking up and down as tears streamed down her face and she was gasping for air. And with each tear I wiped, I could feel a piece of my heart shatter with each swipe of my finger. 

I'm kneeled down in front of her and have my hands placed on her knees, rubbing my thumbs back and fourth, attempting to console her with soft words of affirmation. 

"You're okay, sweetheart," I repeat over and over. And I can slowly watch her cries die down and quiet, but just when I think the attack will finish--they speed up and attack worse than before. I feel helpless and all I want to do is cry myself. "Hey, you remember that story about your dad?" 

She sniffles and her bottom lip quivers as she looks up at me. Just a simple shake of her head shatters my heart. 

I attempt to offer her a grin. "When he proposed to me," I don't need to fake a smile when I think of the memory. "he took me to this really nice restaurant that we couldn't afford. And he spent all night complimenting me--which was really unusual--so I knew something was up! And then once it was over, he took me to this pond with lights all around it and it started raining. So I was in a rush to get home, but your dad walked me to the ledge of the dock and got on his knee, and--" I have to pause to let out a laugh. Hayden does too. "He fell over into the pond." 

She lets out a loud laugh at this. One that I can hear is coming from her stomach and it's like she was never crying. 

After feeling his gaze on me, I look up to see Joel staring directly at me and for the first time, his eyes are softened and his brows are completely relaxed. He doesn't look away when my eyes meet his, instead, he smiles.

He smiles because this story wasn't one of Hayden's dad and I. It's the exact engagement story of Joel and I's. 

And for a moment, I've forgotten where I am and it's like I'm twenty-one again, falling in love with Joel for the first time. 

"So are you two a thing, or...?" Ellie questions, looking between us and it completely pulls both of us out of our interaction. 

I don't say anything, just let Joel answer for me. He doesn't say anything, he just shakes his head and I suddenly realize I'm still fifty-one.

BLAKELY SPEAKS ! 

this is a super short chapter but it's valentine's day so i couldn't leave y'all hanging