After The War

Shaving Cream

Now
Jeremy

She swung herself back into the bus as I opened my eyes. I wasn't sure whether her loud entrance had woken me up or if my body was just done sleeping right when she returned, but either way I was happy to be awake.

My nights normally weren't haunted by nightmares but even though I couldn't remember what the dream had been about my body was tense and poised for combat.

With a grunt I brought myself into a sitting position and drove my hands over my face in order to rub the sleep out of my eyes.

I watched Kyla as she dropped to the floor and let the things she'd gathered fall onto one of the seats.
She looked at me and with only the hint of a smile she said, "Breakfast!"

I looked at her with suspicion. She never made breakfast. Especially not for me.

She picked up some apples and a loaf of bread I didn't know we had and sat down next to me.
Without another word she started slicing the bread, peeling the apples and parting them into equal parts.
I never understood why she would refuse to eat the peel so vehemently. It didn't taste bad and it was full of something my grandma had called vitamins.

For someone who constantly insisted she was an adult she could be extremely childish.

Her messy brown hair stuck into various directions as usual, but the normal dark circles seemed to be unusually deep today. She must have stood up even earlier than what was normal for her.

"I don't understand how you can get up so earlier in the morning", I told her.
If I thought about it I didn't understand a lot of things about her.

I received a cold look as she said, "If you're always going to sleep that long you're not going to wake up one day."

If I didn't know better I would say Kyla hated me. We'd been friends long enough now that I had learned to tell her usual cynical self and the moments where she actually was mad at me apart.
She always tried to act as cold and distant as possible towards me but by now I knew that most of it was just for show.
I could understand why it was hard for people who weren't as used to it as me to get along with her.
I still remember the problems we had had at the beginning.

Her personality was one of the reasons why we lived alone in a bus instead of being huddled together in a group with some allies.
Anyone who dared to try and befriend us was scared off by Kyla's demeanour in at least two days.
No one had ever stayed with us long.

Although it wasn't like we had tried very hard.

"No need to be snappy", I said as she handed me a slice of bread.
"Where did you get this?", I asked with a full mouth as I chewed on the bread and an apple slice. Bread was something extremely rare, especially when it was this good. You wouldn't find it in most abandoned cities except for ...

I looked at her.
"Tell me you didn't", I said.

She distinctively looked in another direction, quietly eating her share of breakfast.
"Kyla", I said. "Where did you get this?"

Silence.

I knew she had heard me, which only answered my question but I still didn't want to believe it. I knew she was stupid, but I'd always thought there was at least some sense left in her.

"Kyla!", I said again, this time harsher, demanding an answer.

She groaned. "Fine! I went to the Lost City!"

With a scowl on her face she stood up and moved from beside me to the rows where our possessions lay.

I didn't want to think about what could have happened. I didn't want to think about how she could have died without me even knowing.