LONE

IFHY

I fucking hate you
But I love you

Isaiah sat on a log in the courtyard, strumming his guitar. He didn't have much to do today, and the weather was nice.
"Voy a navegar en tu puerto azul," he softly hums to himself as he plays. "Quisiera saber de dónde vienes tú."

"Morning, Beethoven." Lamar groggily trudges up behind him, followed by Ruby. His arm is in a sling, and he seems much better. "You get your arm looked at?" Isaiah asks. "It's infected somethin' fierce. Had to stitch it up, he lost a lot of blood." Ruby looks at Lamar, her eyes concerned. "Psh, nothin' I can't handle." Lamar waves his hand, casually. "You nearly died, you dumbass. Almost had to take ya arm off." Ruby scolds him, before turning away and walking back into the school.
"Well, I'm glad you aren't dead." Isaiah says, as Lamar moves to sit next to him. "I feel like a dweeb." He groans. "Better a dweeb than dead." Isaiah shrugs in response. "Yeah, but-" Lamar starts. "Grow up, stupid."

The two boys sit on the log for a while, before Mitch appears. "You get your arm cleaned up?" He asks Lamar. "Yeah, Ruby said it's infected." "Not surprised," Mitch scratches the back of his neck. "That trap fully sliced you like crazy. I'm surprised you didn't bleed to death." "I saw his vein." Isaiah pitches in. "Ew." Lamar says, cringing.
"Anyways, what are you up to?" He asks Mitch.
"Not much, to be honest. I'm bored as hell." Mitch replies, stretching. "...you wanna smoke some weed?" Isaiah asks.
There's a brief silence before Lamar laughs. "Where the hell have you got weed from?"

The truth was, Isaiah found a big marajuana bush near the school. Someone must have been growing it, before the outbreak happened. He'd grabbed a handful of the plants, and forgotten about them in his pants pocket.

"How you plannin' to even smoke that?" Mitch sits down at the opposite log, with an amused smile. "Books in the library. The pages are pretty thin, I think we could make a joint out of 'em." Isaiah shrugs. "Be my guest." Lamar laughs. "I'll prove to you that this'll work. Just you wait!" Isaiah stands up, strutting towards the library.

The library in question was actually a few bookshelves in the music room. Still, they had a lot of books, and there was at least one with rollable papers in.
"A bible..." Isaiah holds the book in his hands, feeling uneasy. It felt wrong to smoke a religious book, but he was pretty desperate.

He returns to Lamar and Mitch, waving a bible around like a preacher. "You can't be serious, dude." Lamar says, eyeing the bible. "It's Gods will, if it works." Mitch smiles. "Only one way to find out." Isaiah rips out a page, placing the plant from his pocket on the paper. Carefully, he rolls it up like sushi, licking the side to seal it. He twists the end, and holds it up to the sun, dramatically. "...you look so dumb right now, dude." Mitch says, raising one of his eyebrows. "Nah, just watch." Isaiah flicks open his lighter, lighting the end of the makeshift joint. It begins to smoke, and he takes a deep inhale.
"IT WORKS!" He shouts, way too loud. "Shush, you dumbass!" Lamar hushes him, before taking the joint, inhaling, and passing it to Mitch.

A while later, the three boys are sat on the ground, leaning against the brick wall. "This was a good idea." Mitch says, his voice husky. "Yurp." Isaiah nods. Suddenly, the gates swing open, and Brody storms into the yard, followed by Aasim.
The three boys look at each other, before standing up and walking over to Aasim. "Where's everyone else?" Lamar asks. "Is Brody okay?" Isaiah questions, watching her rush into the school. "Are you guys high?" Aasim looks at their eyes, which are puffy and slightly pink. "No, we've been crying." Isaiah says, very matter-of-fact. "Whatever. Anyway, someone sabotaged our traps." Aasim explains. "We barely have enough food, and it doesn't help that Marlon keeps bringing the fuckin' 'safe zone' in every damn day." He begins to complain.
"Damn." Mitch nods. Aasim just scoffs, walking past them. "Huh. Well, gentlemen, shall we?" Lamar points back to the wall they were slouched on earlier.

"If anything happens, I'm holding you responsible!" Isaiah is awoken to hear Brody shouting at someone. His mouth is dry, and Lamar is asleep on his shoulder, drooling. "Ew." He pushes him off, waking him up. Isaiah stands up and walks over to the group. "What's, uh, what's happening?" He asks. Clementine, AJ, Violet and Louis are back, from wherever they were. "We aren't starving anymore, that's for certain." Louis says, gesturing to the multiple bags of food. "Woah. Where'd this come from?" "The train station. Clem knew the way." Violet states. "Huh. Nice job, Clementine!" Isaiah smiles, patting her shoulder. Clem smiles, and then looks over at Lamar. "Is...is he okay?" Lamar is asleep again, but in a really weird position. His legs are propped up against the wall, and he's lying on his back, facing it. "Yeah...we uh- we had a group crying session earlier." Isaiah says, with a serious tone.

Later on, Isaiah decides to talk to Brody. She's inside her dorm, breathing heavily. "...Brody?" He gently opens the door. "What do you want?!" She snaps. He stands there with a blank expression before entering the dorm. "What's going on?" He softy asks her, sitting on the opposite bed. "They went outside the safe zone! They saw someone! Last time that happened, we lost Erin! And Sophie! And Minerva! I can't keep losing everyone!" She cries, burying her head in her hands. Isaiah stands up and sits down next to her, slowly and reluctantly moving his arm around her shoulder. He feels his heart beating fast, which he feels guilty for, since she's having a panic attack. "It's okay. They're alive. Nobody got them." He tries to sooth her. "You don't know that it's okay!" She continues to protest. "I just- Everything..." he decides to let her speak, and just listen to her. "You being here now, and bringing up when you ran away- now this, and you saying you don't even like me, so why are you even here?" She shakily asks, breathing heavily. "That wasn't what I meant, and you know that." He mutters, rubbing her back. "Then what did you mean, huh?!" She stands up and looks at him, angrily.

His stomach flips, his palms feel sweaty but he needs to speak. "I like you, Brody." Silence. She just looks at him, surprised. "There's nothing else for me to say." He sighs, standing up and heading towards the door.
He feels a hand on his shoulder. He spins around to look down at Brody, who is fidgeting with her fingers. "That kiss meant something, at least it did to me." She mutters, quietly.
Before he realises what he's about to do, he cups her cheek and moves her face towards his, kissing her softly.

The kiss was short, but said enough. The two of them awkwardly stare at each other, before Isaiah realises what he's done, and apologetically mumbles something before shuffling out of the dorm, bright red.