[Teen and New Adult Zombie Apocalypse Romance]
"If you would've told me the last day of our peaceful existence would be a boring Tuesday in November, I would've called you an idiot."
High school senior, Casey Whitmore, is about to discover her life...
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"Come on. We need to hurry. I'm parked at least a block from here." Derek released my wrist to pull out his keys. He didn't spare me a glance before briskly making his way up the darkest part of the road. "We need to stay in the shadows so that lady won't see us."
I followed him closely and kept an eye out for her. Every car had someone sitting in the driver's seat, but it was too dark to see anything else. And truthfully, I didn't want to see anything at all. I'd seen enough as it was.
Derek glanced back to make sure I was still with him. When his eyes met mine for a millisecond, the corner of his mouth tipped up. "Just a little further."
"Okay," I whispered.
Hollering lady wasn't making a sound. Maybe she went back to her car after that confrontation.
"This is me." He led me to a dark motorcycle with reflective stripes and inserted his key.
My eyes bulged. There was no frigging way I was getting on that deathtrap. "A motorcycle? Do you have a death wish or something? I know I definitely don't feel like being scraped off the road tonight."
"It's not like you have much of a choice." Derek's eyes met mine as he smiled.
Well, he had a point. We really didn't have any other options, but that didn't mean I had to like it.
My eyebrows drew together as he lifted a helmet hanging from the handlebars.
"You only have one helmet?" I whisper yelled. There was no way I was getting on his death bike without a helmet. No frigging way.
Derek laughed and shook his head. He retrieved a spare helmet from a small compartment I hadn't realized was there. "Here. Put this on."
"Fine," I muttered. I guess this was really happening. The one thing I swore I would never do.
Yanking the helmet from his grip, I adjusted my ponytail to make room. By the time Derek was ready to mount the bike, my fingers were lost in a sad, sad mess. In my defense the helmet was on correctly, I think. I was just having a hard time figuring out how to tighten the stupid straps.
"Got that?" His voice was deeper with his helmet on.
"No," I snapped. "I can't see what I'm doing."
"Here, let me help." His hands reached up and nearly touched my face.
I took a step back. "I can do it."
He cocked his head to the side, and his eyelids softened. "No reason to be scared. I won't bite."
"My cheek hurts. I just don't want you to touch it by accident." I hated having to state the obvious, but he needed to know.
Derek did his best to hold back a smile, but I still caught it. "I won't."
"Don't laugh at me. It's not funny." My fingers still weren't doing the job and ended up in a weird Chinese torture strap trap. I yanked my hands until my fingers came free. "Ugh. Okay. Just do it for me, please?"
