End of the Day

12:36 pm (day 650)

"What if there are other people?"

Lauren looks up from her seat on the hood of an old car, midway through a bite of her protein bar, "What?" She asks, though it comes out muffled because of the food.

"We can't be the only two people left, can we? I mean, I thought I was the last person alive until I met you. And then I met you, and everything I believed was challenged... obviously if we're still here, we're immune to whatever killed all of them, right? We can't be the only people immune," Camila voices the thoughts that had been building up over the weeks since she met Lauren.

Lauren wipes crumbs off her jeans, setting the half-eaten bar beside her and keeping her gaze on Camila as she processes this, "I don't know. I try not to think about that."

"Why not?"

Because I don't deserve to be one of the ones who made it, Lauren thinks, though she keeps that thought hidden.

"Because," Lauren starts, "What if there are other people? Should we be looking for them? Should we reform a society? Who would be the leader? How would everything work?" Lauren lists off a few realistic questions of hers, "We're in the dark ages now. What we do matters," Lauren shrugs, getting quiet, "Why can't we just stay off in our own corner of the world, safe and sound together? Let them argue over how the world works for the rest of their lives. I'd rather be stuck with you."

"'Stuck with me'?" Camila smirks, "Am I really that bad?"

"No, you're not," Lauren is sincere when she says this. Sure, Camila has a slight temper and she wakes up at sunrise and she's bad at taking jokes every now and then. But... Lauren likes her, "You're honestly better than anyone I'd ever imagined getting stuck with during the apocalypse."

"Did you spend most of your days prior to the apocalypse thinking about the apocalypse?" Camila raises an amused eyebrow.

"No," Lauren pauses, "Well, sometimes. But it was only 'cause one of my best friends, Normani, wanted to be a writer when she graduated. She spent a lot of time writing this apocalyptic romance..."

"You must be an expert, then," Camila says, not intending for it to sound as solemn as it does.

"I guess I am," Lauren agrees. She wishes Normani could be here now; she chuckles at the thought that Normani would be all over this experience. She would've turned her work of fiction into an autobiography, leaving behind her legacy for whomever discovered it when the world picked back up again. Lauren frowns when she realizes that won't be possible now, "I miss them."

She can feel Camila's eyes burning into the side of her head as she glares at the pavement, "Maybe it'd make you feel better to talk about it?" Camila tries, "I'll talk about it if you will."

Lauren nods, feeling the memories she'd tried so hard to suppress for fear of corrupting them with sadness begin to rise in her mind, "Well... Normani and I met in high school. We met Ally not long after. It didn't take much for us all to become best friends."

Lauren pauses, smiling at her favorite memory of her friends before sharing with Camila, "Ally and Normani started dating about... a year into our friendship. This one time, Mani was trying to surprise Ally for their anniversary, so she asked me for help. She wrote her this beautiful poem... When she read it to Ally, I'll never forget the huge ass smile on Ally's face. That girl was such a ball of sunshine... And they were so cute, and I'm pretty sure I cried, and... it was just such a good day. And I never really got to have many of those."

"What about your family? Surely you had good days with them?" Camila wants to know more about Lauren. She wants to learn all about her past experiences and what kinds of things Lauren thought about. Things she felt were important. Things she thinks are important now. Camila wants to learn all of it, but she has to start somewhere.