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I really wonder why Gal decided it would be a good idea to literally drag me to the cafeteria.
Okay, maby ‘drag’ was slightly to harsh. Grabbing a fistfull of my sleeve and pulling me along might be slightly more accurate.
Yes, I will admit I have a habit of forgetting to eat when im in the middle of something, but the new maps Mike found were important to have memorised! Whatever, I’ll just have to sneack out and do it later.
By the time i had slumped into my usual seat (by the table in the back where people wouldn’t try to talk to us) Gally was already making his way other with two plates of food.
‘How shuking cheery you are’ His voice dripping with sarcasm, striking eyebrows raised to the heavens.
‘Yes, I love being interrupted from working to sit in a crowded room while my best friend bitches at me for not eating. My favorite activity, yay’ In my personal opinion, I think I should have gotten a medal for the amount of sarcasm i managed to fit in my statement.
Judging by Gal’s unimpressed look however, he didn’t quite agree.
‘Stop forgetting to eat, and I’ll stop having to kidnap you down here to get some food’ Despite his expression not changing, the concern in his voice, his eyes, was clear to anyone who knew to look. Being his best friend, I like to think i can read him like an open book.
‘Whatever you say, but know you are an absolute motherhen’ I was quite pleased with myself for the redness in his cheeks. Sitting across from him, it took a moment to really look at Gally.
Dark circles ringed his eyes, (not that mine were any better) no one slept very well after seing what we have. With all the training and food shortages every few weeks we’d both dropped weight significantly. His hair was still buzzed, though slightly grown out, black shirt hanging off of him. You could just see the edge of the bandage around his upper arm from a mission gone slightly wrong a few weeks back. My hair reeked of corpses for days after.
He grumbled somthing about not being a ‘Shucking motherhen’, just ‘rightly worried about a friend’.
‘best friend’ i corrected grinning at him as he rolled his eyes.
‘Queen of annoyance’
‘Optimal badass’ He snorted just as i flicked a piece of potato at him, landing on his left cheek.
The absolut unimpressed look he gave me made me snort agressivly into my water.
I must tell you, water up the nose with a coughing fit is no laughing matter. At least not to norml people.
Gally definitely dosen’t qualify as normal people, espesially since he’s only one person.
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We continued our discission, moving on to how unfair it is that society, or what’s left of it at least looks down on eating “dinner food” for breakfast.
‘The time defines the meal, not the food itself’ i told him seriousl, waving my arms around to make my point. ‘I mean, if i could eat like, mac n cheese for breakfast it would be soo much more motivating to actually eat!’
‘you’re one weird kid Maddelyn Black’ He’s keeping an eye on my hands now, ready to duck should i try to flick more food at him.
‘First of all, you adore me, second,my name is Tillian Jane Black. Maddie is the nickname you gave me remember? Third, im only like, two years younger than you’
‘You wanted a “badass nickname. Is Mad Maddelyn not cool enouth? Also, no way in shuck do I adore you, Im not your boyfriend’
‘And thank the gods for that. You might want to tell that to the others though’ I raised my eyebrows back at him, turning my head towards Livia, who was making her way over to us.
‘Hey lovebirds’ Gally started choking on his food, Livia waving her hands, looking unsure of how to help. When he was done, I mouthed ‘Case and point’ at him.
‘come see what Fint and the others found’ Livia gestured for us to follow and started walking away, weaving through the caos of the cafeteria. Shrugging my shoulders, I got up to follow, Gally on my heels.
Livias short brown curls bounced as she walked, red shirt making her easy to follow despite the lagre amount of people surrounding us.
Fint, Abbie and Luis, the only other teenagers in the compound really (though they where all about to go into their early twenties and none of them where immune) were waiting for us by the west hallway, the drooping lights illuminating Fint’s grinning face as we neared.
They were crowded around a metal shopping cart, the kind that used to be at supermarkets for people to put their shopping in.
Im surprised it survived this long, espesially since Im pretty sure shopping carts wherent designed to survive the end of the world.
‘We thought it could be used as entertainment in some way, don’t you think Maddie?’ Abbie’s soft voice rang clear in th ecco of the hallway.
‘You fucking bet we can!’ I glanced at Gal, though he had seemingly already read my mind. I turned to the other four, Livia now standing by Fint’s shoulder.
‘What do you say we act like stupid teenagers for the night?’
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Livia and Fint shoved the doors open for the cart, putting their flashlights within arms reach, glancing at the quickly setting sun. Fint then whent back to gally, who was pushing the cart with Abbie, Luis and me laughing hysterically inside. Abbies braids were flapping around her face in the wind, dark eyes shining with laughter. She was third youngest after me and Gally, roughly seventeen.
Gally and Fint managed to push the cart to the top of the big hill, Livia running behind them while screaming like a banshee to wait for her, which was probably not very smart in the grand scheme of things, but stupid teenagers doing stupid things time it was, so i chose not to comment.
Luis snagged a ponitail holder from my wrist, trying in vain to get his blonde hair out of his face. Gal told me once Luis reminded him of an old friend, someone called Newt. He sounds cool. Wonder if he’d help me flick food at Gal during meals?
Note to self: recrute Newt to teasing Gal, should I ever meet him.
When we finally made it to the top, Gal and Fint hooked their legs onto the cart and pushed us forward, hurtling down the hill and stupidly reckless speeds.
Livia was still sprinting after us, cursing like a bloody pirate.
The lot of us were screaming and whooping, holding on for dear life in Flint and Gally’s case and praying to all the gods the cart didn’t fall.
That would rolyally suck.
The wind blew our hair back, and for the first time in ages i really felt alive.
Surrounded by friends (best friend in Gally’s case) hope didn’t seem so far away. Maby there was a place in this world for us yet.
When the cart finally rolled to a stop, we hopped out and looked at eachother for a moment before smiling like lunatics. Livia finally caught up, hopping into the cart and demanding we push her back up as compensation.
Abbie stopped for a moment and looked at me, before crashing our lips together. Wolf whistles sounded all around, but all i could think of was the gorgeouse girl i was kissing, an how i felt like the luckiest girl in the world, even if it was just for one evening.
Vince chewed us out for being reckless when we finally got back in the eraly stages of the morning, my fingers intertwined with Abbies.
A week later she left for a mission, kissing me goodbye before grabbing her gun and promising to bring me back a suvenire.
Six weeks later, Gally and I found a dead crank with long braids half wripped out of the skull, clothes cothered in blood. Brilliant brown eyes, still lauthing, even when unseeing