Bad Boy, Good Boy (boyxboy)

24 - good red flags

A/N: As always, I can't just post a chapter, I have to say something first. - I'm blown away by all of you amazing readers!!! 

This time, I would like to give a shout out to the following: Love_Ereri ; Girlgamer206 ; zeadaj (you a little bit more than other, because you commented a lot and I was excited to read all those comments); XoxEmmxoX . 

But in all honesty, YOU ALL ARE PRETTY AMAZING and I am so blessed.  (Oh, also, we've reached over 6K reads, which is fabulous!)

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Chapter 24 - good red flags

I end up on the couch in the main room and turn on the TV. Usually this room has a circle of chairs crowning it, but today the chairs are against the wall. Tomorrow all the fun begins. Greg gets to investigate every little breath we take. Mary is sick, so everybody had to figure out their own dinner, which for me was carrots and an apple. And now I'm about to eat another apple.

Nolan has been gone for two hours. Caleb suggested we go look for him, but I told that sometimes you just need to be away from people, that he's coming back. Caleb nodded and agreed, even though he was still worried. Then Ben made him dinner. I hadn't even thought about helping, I just took the pack of carrots and an apple came here.

"What are we watching?" Eileen asks and lands next to me. She pulls her legs up on the couch, strangely leaning close to me. "Please feed me some reality TV."

"Aren't you weird," I mumble. "You weren't willing to shake my hand before, let alone tell me your name, and here you come, giving orders. That's not how it works, honey." I can't let her win this easily. I like her. She reminds me Sam a little bit, both are confident and witty. But they are nothing alike in their appearance. Eileen has brown hair and tan skin, where Sam is pale and burns in the sun.

"I thought he told you," she shrugs. "But seems that he doesn't remember me. I don't blame him. After all, it's been like three or four years." She brushes her hair behind her ear and I notice a tiny scar on her neck.

"Am I the first person to talk to you here?" I blurt.

She turns to look at me. "Is it so shocking?" she asks, then shrugs again. "I don't think anyone likes me. Because I'm a girl. Bunch of insecure idiots."

I snort. "Oh, believe me, they like you." I leave on a reality show and Eileen smiles.

"We're officially friends now," Eileen says. "I'm Eileen." She takes my hand and shakes it. "People around here don't call me anything."

"People around here call me lots of things, mostly stuff that should be censored."

She laughs. "Are there any carrots left?"

I give her the pack. There's only two left. "You sure like carrots," I say.

She smiles.

What happened between her and Nolan? The romantic in me is trying to create a scenario where they might solve their issues, but the realist knows that what's in the past is in the past. Let it be.

I turn the TV off. Eileen has fallen asleep on the couch and I don't wake her when I sneak to the kitchen and throw the carrot pack away. I turn around and see Nolan sitting at the bottom of the stairs. "I was waiting for you," he says. "But you were there, with her."