F*** Cancer, This One Did Us All In.

21

  Okay. Crap. I was so screwed. I was so screwed. Do you want to know the funniest thing about what I was about to do? The hardest part was actually walking across the bridge, weaving my way through all the cars that stood between Eric and me. Watching him standing there patiently, with a smug smile on her face as if he knew exactly how this was going to end up. Which, if I'm being totally honest, was pretty obvious.

  Oh god, I was terrified. But I couldn't let him see that. I refused to let Eric see that vulnerability. I swallowed my spit and reached the other side of the bridge, standing two metres away from him. He unfolded his arms and looked at me with his right eyebrow raised. He licked his lips and cracked his neck. Like, an actual proper crack. I felt a tiny little part of me die as all that anger I had deserted me. Yet, for some reason, I still stood there.

  "Why?" I asked him, desperate to prolong the inevitable for as long as possible. "Why are you like this? Why didn't you help drive the truck? Why did you constantly put all of our lives in danger? Why do you want to fight me so badly?" My stupid voice was pleading with him, begging him to tell me.

  He frowned and looked me in the eyes with such a hard and strong glare that – wait, what was that? For a moment there, I thought I saw a light pass through his eyes. One that made them look fractured. Broken. But it was gone just as quickly as it had come and I was left there, looking so confused.

  "Let me ask you a question, Theodore." He practically spat out my name. "Why are you so afraid of everything?"

  Before I could respond, he suddenly came at me with his fist swinging. I yelped and stumbled back, just avoiding the hit. I had to turn around to stop myself from falling over and when I turned once more his other fist was hurtling to my face. I just managed to bring up my arm to take the hit. Good news: My face didn't hurt. Bad news: My arm did.

  "Ow!" I cried out as I stepped away from Eric.

  "Always running." He snarled. "Always scared!" He tackled me to the ground, where he held me. I could only just raise my arm as he unleashed a barrage of punches on me, bruising me up pretty good.

  "Eric, stop it!" I thought I heard Amelia yell, but the adrenaline was pumping through my body and blood was rushing to my head. I burst through the punches and grabbed his midsection, trying to pull him off of me. All I succeeded in doing was pulling him on top of me, where he managed to glance his elbow off my jaw. Tears blurred my vision so I attacked without thinking, throwing my arm into his side and squeezing as hard as I could. I must have hit a sensitive spot, because he cried in annoyance as he was forced off of me. I had my eyes closed, but I quickly opened them and wiped the tears away. He was looking at me furiously, already breathing heavily, much like myself.

  "Something happened to you." I said. "Did it have something to do with your friend, Stewart? The one you were walking with that got infected when all of this started?"

  I probably should not have asked that, because Eric went lunging at me once more. He grabbed me again, but I turned my body as we fell, so we landed on our sides. For a moment there was a pause as we looked into each other's eyes – then Eric was suddenly trying to jump on top of me. I freaked out and tried my best to get him off me, throwing my hands and feet about. It was really only by pure coincidence that my knee nailed him in his balls. All his breath was freed from his body at once as he keeled over, his face going red. There was a buzz in my entire body as I wriggled from underneath him and backed up a few metres, scrambling to my feel and looking down at him.