Peace Town

Meeting the Bad

Chapter 7

Paxton woke up first for once, it was still dark out, which was was unusual for him. Paxton liked his sleep, so he tended to sleep late, but his restless and nightmare filled sleep woke him up.

"At least I didn't wake Attie up this time." Was the only thing he could think and process before Shadow walked up to him and rubbed against his legs, "You need out boy? Lets go, i'll take you out." Paxton got up and went to get ready. Once he was dressed for the day, he went to put Shadow's leash onto his harness. The two soon found themselves in the stairwell leading to the exit.

Paxton and Shadow stayed outside into the early morning. The sun was starting to come up and Paxton started to feel even more cautious. He felt like he was being watched. "C'mon let's go back in boy. We'll see if Attie is up yet."

Paxton was getting paranoid and wanted to get back to his friend, to his friend that he knew would protect him. Paxton didn't think he ever relied on someone as much as he did Atlas except for his dad of course. Paxton still felt nervous around Atlas, for reasons he didn't want to admit. One reason being he thought that his 'new end of the world' friend was undoubtedly attractive. Just thinking it made him blush red, he didn't like the heat his thoughts brought to his cheeks. Another reason he didn't want to admit was the fear of rejection, "What if it freaks him out?" 'It' being his atrraction and feelings towards him and "What if he wants nothing to do with me?" Questions like these was all Paxton could think about and they left him flustered and awkward around Atlas, which often led to him doing something he found to be embarassing but would put a smile on Atlas's face so he didn't get to hung up on it.

Shadow was leading them the way back up the stairs when they meet a worried looking Atlas, "Pax," a sigh a relief was heard before the hug was felt, "I didn't know where you two were." As Atlas pulled back from the hug he started to see the beautiful rosy color on Paxton's cheekbones.

Paxton went to scratch at his arms but was stopped by Atlas pulling the hand down and giving a slight shake of the head, "Uh, well, I, I couldn't sleep, and then Shadow wanted out so I took him for a little walk." Paxton stuttered his way through an explanation, he was sheepish knowing that Atlas had picked up on one and probably more of his nervous ticks.

"Next time write a note, no scratch that, next time get me up to go with you. Okay? Something could have happened to you." All Atlas got in response was a shy nod, "You said you couldn't sleep, was something wrong?"

Paxton and Atlas had gotten close in the past two weeks so Atlas notice something was wrong when Pax started to clam up and revert to the nervous and anxious guy he was two weeks ago. "I just had a bad dream and decided to stay up. It's no big deal," he saw the look of disbelief on Atlas's face and continued, "seriously it wasn't like last time Ats I'm fine."

"Okay, but if you need to talk i'm here for you Pax.  For now, do you want to go get breakfast and decide what to do today?"

They were already heading up the stairs when Paxton spoke, "Yeah, we can do that. Have you been keeping track of how many days its been?"

"Yeah, today will make day fifteen since everything began. Why do you ask, you already getting tired of me?" Atlas had to say with his cheeky grin so he could see Paxton blush again.

Paxton did like Atlas thought he would and ducked his head before stuttering out, "Can you be honest with me for a moment?" Atlas gave a quick but confused nod at the boys sudden seriousness, "I was wondering what the chances of my dad waking up is? I mean the doctors didn't think his chances was good before so what are they now?" The look on Paxton's face shattered Atlas's heart.