Alone

Simple things

"Of course not. I was just looking, okay?" He was right though, I was. I figured finding another place to stay would be better than just wandering out into the desert again. I figured if we got on each others nerves once then it would most likely happen again.

"You were weren't you?" He said sadly.

"Not forever, I just figured if we got into an argument then-"

"What the fuck?" Dan said and rolled his window down. "Look at that."

He pointed out that a highway that had had went over another one had collapsed and crumbled.

"If it was bad enough to cause buildings and highways to collapse, then we should probably keep an eye out for collapsed bridges on our way as well."

"You might want to stop at a petrol station as well." He said.

"What the fuck is a petrol station? What does that even sell?"

"Uh petrol obviously? I believe you call it a gas station." He laughed. I didn't care, I was just glad he wasn't quiet and terrified anymore.

It was a long drive and neither of us had enough sleep. He offered to drive but I declined because I was too busy keeping myself awake by cursing the earthquakes and wishing I was still snuggled in bed with him in our underwear.

He fell asleep quickly and it was hard not to look at him with his arms crossed, leaning his head against the window with his hair still a mess and his eyes closed. His face was slightly dirty from the dust and so was his t-shirt.

I was happy he got to escape this mess for a while, I was happy he got to sleep and maybe go back to London in his dreams with Phil. Maybe he was dreaming they were watching tv together on their sofa, or maybe eating dinner or playing a game. I didn't care as long as it was something good for him.
Me on the other hand, I've had nothing but nightmares since I had been here, always being chased, or trapped in the dark with the humming, or being completely alone. Maybe this earthquake was another nightmare?

I looked back at Dan's calm sleeping face for a second again.

No, he was here. No good things were ever in my nightmares.

I don't know what took over me during the earthquake, I just felt like I had to protect him, just make sure he was safe. If something happened to him, the last good thing on this planet were to go away, my life would become a constant nightmare.

So I let him sleep, I let him dream all the way to Nevada for four hours where he woke up stretching and yawning.
He finally made me let him take over and I drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up sunlight filled a nice hotel room but was being filtered by curtains. I didn't see Dan but I had a feeling he hadn't gone too far.

I got up and looked around the room for a moment before opening the door expecting to see a hallway.

I quickly found out this was an actual house. There were other rooms with closed doors, which I didn't bother to look at, but instead head down the dark wooden stairs.

I was met with a large door which Dan was holding open and dragging water jugs through.

"You're finally awake."

"Why are we in a house? I thought you preferred hotels?" I asked groggily.

"I did, but I like this better, it's a bit more homey, don't you think?" He asked.

"I guess so." I shrugged.

"Look on the bright side, we won't be wandering around forever looking for each other and we can actually just share a room now since we sleep together anyway."

This gave me a funny feeling.

"What about electricity?" I asked.

"It has solar panels on the roof and in the garden."

"Don't you think this house seems a bit big for just us?" I asked and his only reply was a shrug. "Like isn't there a smaller one?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Would you like me too find us one?" I felt bad, I felt like maybe he had gone through a lot of work to find his house and I was just being a bitch about it.

"No, I like it. Thank you for finding us this." I told him in order to seem not ungrateful. I liked the house, I really did.

"You haven't seen the best part." He said and took off into the big beautiful kitchen as I followed him.

"Look" he said and turned on the sink.

"How?! I said in amazement,

"I don't know, it just works. Everything just works here." I liked that he had chosen this house even more now.

"Then why were you carting in water jugs?" I asked.

"Because I don't know where this water is coming from so I don't know if it's safe to cook and drink and I'd prefer to use those."

"Good idea." I gave him a smile.

"And" he said with a grin. "the hot water works, and the bathtub upstairs is huge and has jets in it."
My eyes widened sand suddenly I was racing up the stairs as I heard his laugh echo through the house.

I got a towel and quickly filled up the tub. There was so much body wash and things from Lush that I squealed with excitement.
I had forgotten how good simple things like this felt. I added so many bubbles and just sank down in the tub into them.

I was enjoying my bath when I heard a knock at the bathroom door.

"I thought you might want this." The door unexpectedly opened a little and his hand poked through holding a massive curvy glass with a straw and what looked be some kind of pale yellow slushee.

"It's a piña colada, enjoy."

"What?!" I took the drink from his phantom hand and took a drink. It really was, with actual alcohol.

"Oh my god! Thank you so much! I love you!" I said with happiness and excitement running over as he closed the door back.

"What?" I heard him laugh from the other side of the door.
And then I realized what I had said.

"I-I didn't mean it like-"

"No, I get what you meant. Enjoy your drink." He chuckled.

"Thank you." I yelled again and settled back into my bath with embarrassment.
He knew I was joking, so what was the big deal? Why was I so embarrassed? By his laugh I could tell that he had seemed embarrassed too. I was just really excited over all this and we both knew that, right?

I rapidly sipped the drink in hopes the alcohol would help me forget how embarrassed I actually was.
Maybe I shouldn't be drinking this early in the morning?
Actually I had done a lot of drinking since I had been here.
I remembered Dan trying to drink and drive and I remembered telling him he might have a problem.
Were we drinking just to forget that we were the last people ever?
Did he really have a problem?

I decided I would try to find out.

After going to my room and getting dressed, I found him in the kitchen just messing around.

"Hey." I said. "Thanks for the drink, did you have any?"

"No." He said but he could've been lying.

"It was good."

"Thanks, there's actual frozen fruit here and I couldn't resist." He explained. "Have you seen the back garden yet? It's like-"

"Kiss me." I interrupted him with my demand making him pause and look at me funny.

"What?" He asked.

"Kiss me. You did it last night."

"Are- are you drunk already?" He chuckled.

"I don't know just do it."

"Okay?" He said and walked closer to me.