The Risks

August: Chapter 21

In the morning, I got up and grabbed the two cans of carrots, giving one to Raleigh and Andi and taking the other to Parker for us to share.

"This is all we found," I said.

Andi yawned. "I can set up some traps and snares in the woods out back. If we're lucky we can have a fresh, hot meal."

I grimaced, remembering thinking once that we weren't desperate enough to eat small rodents. Now we were.

I followed Andi out into the woods. We'd found a few slivers of rope to use in the small shed out behind the house. I watched her skillfully set up the first trap. She had some difficulty at first due to the lack of fingers on one hand. She'd started calling it her "T-rex hand" which got us both giggling.

"Where did you learn to do this?" I asked curiously.

"My dad taught me," she said, standing. "He only ever wanted a son, but got four daughters instead. He taught me everything he knew. Lucky for us, right?"

I nodded. "Right."

We set up a few more after she showed me how, then we decided to head back. We would come back a couple hours later and check them. Hopefully if we caught anything we'd get to it before Ferals did.

"So you and Parker, huh?" Andi asked on our way back. "How long?"

"How long what?"

"Have you two been together? Before the shit show?"

"No. We met a few months after," I answered.

"It's slim pickings these days. You got real damned lucky with him."

"Um, we're just friends," I mumbled, a little uncomfortable.

"What?" She stopped and looked at me like I was crazy.

I shrugged.

The flabbergasted look hadn't left her face. "Why?"

I made a groaning noise.

"Come on. Who am I going to tell?"

I turned and began walking again. "It's not a matter of me be worried you're going to tell someone. It's a matter of me not wanting to talk about it."

"Fine," she said in surrender as she followed. "We don't have to have some deep heart-to-heart talk, but I'm going to learn you something. He has got some serious feelings for you. You're blind if you don't see it and you're stupid if you're ignoring it. You need to let him out of that friend zone."

"What if I don't want him out of the friend zone?"

"Don't want him out of the friend zone," she repeated in disbelief.

I grunted, brushing her off.

"Look. Here's what I think," she started. "These days you don't know how much time you have left. Could be years, could be hours. One of those things could come out from behind a tree and kill us both right now."

I turned suddenly and scanned the woods.

"Calm down," she said with a little grin. "What I'm saying is if you found yourself at the end of your line, would you die happy knowing he doesn't know how you feel?"

I tucked a wild strand of hair behind my ear. "I've got too many other things to worry about, okay? I don't need this."

"Suit yourself." She shrugged.

We started walking again and for a while it was just the sounds of our feet crunching against leaves and twigs.

"So you wouldn't mind if I took a swing at him?" She asked.