Their Life After The End

Chapter 3: Must I Make A Decision?

   I feel the tiny pieces of gravel painfully piercing the soles of my feet as I run full speed towards The Hut, which is where the leaders conduct official business. Dealing with Jasper certainly seems like “official business” to me. I sincerely wish I had chosen to wear shoes tonight.

   When I finally make it to The Hut the meeting has already concluded, and I find jasper leaning on the roughly built Hut with his arms crossed. He looks deep in thought; I wonder what they’ve decided to do with him. He doesn’t notice me approach him, but when I clear my throat to catch his attention he merely glances at me and sighs. “I knew you would come looking for me.”

Well I certainly wasn’t expecting him to say that, “Oh yeah? What makes you so sure I came here for you?”

It’s dark, but I’m still able to see him roll his eyes at my juvenile comment. God, I feel so silly. “If you aren’t here for me you can leave now. Whatever you came here to do won’t happen with you planted next to me.”

I feel my cheeks burn at that comment; I hope it’s dark enough that he doesn’t notice. “I uh, I wanted to ask you about your expedition.”

He smirks, “What about it?”

“You know exactly what I’m asking you about. Kevin told me everything.”

I see him tense at the mention of Kevin, he clenches his jaw so tightly I can practically hear the grating of his teeth. “Yeah, I figured that out when I saw him talking to you. Can we do this somewhere else, some other time?”

“Why? What’s wrong with right here and now?”

“I don’t have time for this Priyanka.”  Something warm spreads inside of me as he says my name. What’s wrong with me? He is acting like a complete jerk. I shake the feeling away and stalk off, I can get the information I need from Kevin. I wasn’t planning on talking to Jasper again any time in the near future.

   That night as I lay in bed I keep going over what Kevin said ‘he thought the person who left the clues was your father’. I can’t help but feel like the clues are connected to my father’s disappearance. Why had he left the clues? Where did they lead? I wanted, needed, to find the answers to all the questions darting around in my head. The fact that Kevin didn't want me to go annoyed me. He obviously thought I was a weakling who couldn't handle the real world, but what he thinks doesn't matter. I will be going, even if it is with Jasper. But then there's my mother..

   There’s a rustling at my door, my heart starts to pound faster. It’s well past three in the morning, who could possibly still be awake? I get my answer, the door creaks open and there is a medium heighted silhouette in the doorframe, Abraham.

“God Abe! You scared the frigging daylight out of me! Do NOT do that again, ever!”

 “Do what? I hardly snuck up on you, I just opened the door.”

 “What’s up?”

 “Did you see Jasper? What do you think he’s doing back?”

“Yeah, I don’t think it was possible for me not to see him. His return was definitely not expected.” I hesitate before I answer his second question, I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to know about the clues just yet. So I lie, “I don’t know Abe, he’s a mysterious guy. He could be back just for the attention I guess.” I feel bad about lying like that; he hadn’t come back for the attention. He came back for me.

“Oh, yeah I guess. So what were you and Kevin talking about? Beatrice looked pissed that Kevin left her to talk with you.”

 “Really? I didn’t think she had noticed, you know, with her talking with Nicholas and all” I say knowingly. Ever since Kevin left, Beatrice and Nicholas have been spending a lot of time together. Sneaking around the edge of the valley, talking in hushed voices, standing just a little bit too close to each other. Abe and I had developed a theory that something more than mere friendship was going on between them.