We Were Forgotten {ON HOLD}

New Friends

~Carter~

I was rubbing my shoulder that was still aching in pain from sleeping on the hard uncomfortable floor. God, I missed my bed. And waking up to the smell of bacon and eggs in the morning. I missed having those play fights with my dad, where we'd wrestle each other until one of us gave up. I missed my friends. I just missed my life.

I looked over at Alex who was standing on the other side of the warehouse. She was talking to the guy who came here right after us.

The black haired boy, the one that pissed me off last night, took off like he promised, and it was just the four of us. The pretty Cambridge woman was back in the office, which I'm pretty sure she steaked out as her room. She was really bummed out that she couldn't make him stay. She tried to make the boy stay, at least until the military got here to save us.

But he said he had to go. He was just so dead set on finding his girlfriend, that he'd risk his life to get her back. He didn't even know if she was alive, and yet he still wanted to search the whole entire city of Chicago for her. This city was too big for one boy to search. He wouldn't be able to find her without dying first.

So now Alex was trying to convince the other boy to stick with us, so he woulndn't do anything stupid, like go into the city on a death wish like the other guy. "I mean, we'd be safer together," she said. "We could all protect each other."

"I can't," said the boy. "I pretty much fucked up everyone I loved and knew. I couldn't do that to you. You're too nice for that."

Alex? Nice? In the last twenty-four hours she has showed me little to no hint of kindness.

"There are two things wrong with what you just said," Alex said. "One, it wasn't your fault with anything that happened to your loved one. And two, I'm not nice. So please Ty. Come with us. We can help find your sister and everything, but please stay with us."

"I..." He was thinking about it. Ty. That what she called him. Ty was thinking about coming with us.

Alex sighed and grabbed his hand. "Ty...I couldn't go to sleep last night. And I over heard you and Craig talking. I know what happened, with your girlfriend and your friends. How you lost your mother and brothers, and how your sister is still out there. I can't even imagine it." She let out a shaky breath and held his hand tighter. "I'm sorry...I can't..." She closed her eyes as tears spilled from them. "I'm so sorry, Ty."

He hugged her, and she cried in his shirt. More like wailed. It reminded me of yesterday. How she cried so hard, while the only thing I could do was stand there and hold her. I couldn't fix her pain, no matter how badly I wanted to. I couldn't make her happy, even though I wanted to see her smiling so badly. And I couldn't. It killed me that the only thing she did with me was fight. I hated that.

Ty was rubbing her back in small circles, whispering in her ear something that made her relax a bit, but cry a hel of a lot more than before. She basicaly melted into his arms and he held her tighter, still whispering.

I got up from my spot and walked over to the two. Ty looked over at me, and sheepishly smiled. "Hey so are you coming?" I asked him. The best I could do was help her get what she wanted. That was really the only way I could make her happy right now. And plus it made me seem less of a jackass to her, or at least I hoped it did.

Ty looked at me, then at Alex, then at me again. "Yeah. Sure."

~

"You guys be safe, okay?" said Cambridge. "And...if you need anything, you know like a place to stay, just come back here, yeah?"

"Okay," said Alex. "And thanks for everything. You stay safe too. For you and your baby." I looked down at her stomach, and sure enough, there was a tiny bump.