Apocalypse

16

Kate

I very strongly disliked Jason. I can't say that I hate him. I don't. I hate the doctors and scientists at the facility. But I don't hate Jason. He's cutting it pretty close though.

It's been almost two weeks since we left that empty house, and I feel like Liz has been avoiding me a little bit. Or maybe she hasn't. Maybe it's just because her time is divided up between two people. I do know why exactly, but she's been spending time with Jason. At first I didn't really mind. She seemed to enjoy herself and that was all that really mattered. It was porbably nice to have someone other than me to talk to. I'm not amazing at maintaining a conversation, and she wasn't me. She would probably get bored spending all her time with one person where I actually enjoy it. Jason however, was very good at conversation. He could talk about outside world things with her on a level I can't. They'd been bonding over it. Apparently he was funny, too. Liz laughed a lot when he was around. Sure, I thought he could be a little funny too sometimes, but he just couldn't make me smile. Sometimes I caught Liz faking a laugh at his jokes. That bothered me, her real laugh is so much nicer. He should be working to get her real one. Not settling for this heavy laugh she does when something is wrong. He never even asks if she's okay.

I had begun noticing him sitting just a little too close to her when we stopped to rest, or how he kept touching her when it really wasn't neccisary. Going out of the way to make her comfortable or smile, even if the smile wasn't real either. It made me uncomfortable, to say the least. I didn't want to watch, or be around when he was being that way. I think the part of it all that is the worst is that Liz doesn't seem to mind it. Sometimes I think she's enjoying herself. I didn't interfere though. I let her choose whoever she wanted to be around. I'm not going to be the one who ruins her good mood just because I don't like him.

Strangely enough, I didn't mind Jason so much when it was just he and I together. He didn't bother me then. I still didn't like him, but I didn't feel ready to sock him one in the jaw. I could talk without sounding rude or angry. He's asked why I don't like him a few times, and every time I just stop talking. I'm surprised at how hard it is to talk to anyone who isn't Liz.

I've begun to really appreciate the time I get alone with her, to say the least. Like now.

Liz was standing with me and Jason was off who-knows-where looking for supplies in the town nearby, so my mood was pretty good. Even if he would be back soon and I would have to go and check there as well. She was laughing at me because Aztec had licked my face and now there as green tinted slime all over the one side of my face. Flecks of grass too. Delicious. But she was laughing, so I was smiling because she's laughing her real laugh. I used the rag we'd been using to clean his face to get a majority of the horse spit off. As a kind of revenge for laughing at me, I smear the cloth down her bare arm. She makes a noise of disgust and laughs harder, but this time I'm laughing with her. I'm not used to laughing. I could count the number of times I've laughed in my on one hand. It made my stomach hurt, but it was a hurt I didn't mind for once.

"You earned it." I tease, leaning up again the painted gelding's shoulder with a smirk.

"What did I even do?" She scoffs, trying to wipe her face clean.

"You laughed at me." I tell her, doing my best to act offended, placing a hand over my heart like she'd hurt me.

"It was funny!"

"No, what's funny was your reaction to having to share my fate."

She grumbles and looks away from me, going back to brushing Aztec's haunches. The smile doesn't fade from my face as I go back to trying to at least get the mud out of his now long fur. Well. Long for a horse. It's all fluffy and ready for the coming winter. We haven't been working him as much either because the ground had been getting soft and hard to walk on even for us. The whole reason we were working so hard to get the mud off of him right now was because he fell down after slipping onto a puddle. He's okay, but we both agreed that we'd be taking it a lot easier with him from now on.