Page 63 of Dating After the End of the World
I roll my eyes. “We were trying to get out alive.”
“Right,” Greg teases, double raising his brows.
Blake stares blankly.
“Dude, what’s up with you?” Greg asks, noticing how quiet he is.
When he doesn’t answer, I do. “Blake got bit.”
JJ’s eyes grow wide in the reflection of the rearview mirror. “What? How?”
Greg’s mouth parts, but no words come out.
“It doesn’t matter how it happened,” I say, because I honestly don’t know how it did.
Blake is quiet, his knee nervously bouncing up and down as he stares ahead at nothing in particular. It’s like he’s making a plan of his own and deciding whether to act on it.
Greg presses his lips firmly together and shakes his head in dismay, facing forward once again. JJ’s attention is laser-focused on the road as he swerves around biters and abandoned vehicles.
A gust of air whips through the truck, thanks to Blake flinging open his door. He attempts to jump out of the moving vehicle, but I lunge at him and jerk him back.
“Blake! Stop!” I tug on his arm with one hand and grab a fistful of his shirt with the other.
JJ yells at him to close the door, while Greg spins around and tries to help me keep him inside.
“You have a chance, Blake. It’s not over yet!” I shout, hoping I’ll talk some sense into him.
I leap across his body and seize hold of the door handle, yanking on it as hard as I can. It slams closed, putting an end to the whipping wind. Blake’s shoulders slump in defeat, and he lets his head fall forward.
I’m breathless and annoyed. “What the hell was that?”
“What?” He slowly looks to me with narrowed eyes. “You want me dead anyway.”
“Not like this, I don’t.”
Without a thought, he lunges at the door again, propelling it open.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” JJ yells.
I grip his shoulder and pull back, drawing him into his seat. I’m not doing this again, so I climb on top of him, straddling my legs around his waist, while Greg tugs the door closed and lets out an exasperated sigh. Throwing my arms around Blake, I hold him tight and bury my face between his neck and shoulder.
“If you jump, then I’m coming with you,” I whisper into his ear.
He doesn’t say anything. All I can hear are his labored breaths and his pounding heart.
“Get a room,” Greg quips from the front seat, pretending to dry heave.
“Shut up, Greg. I’m trying to make sure Blake doesn’t kill himself.”
“Yeah, okay . . .”
I tune everything out except Blake, paying close attention to how his body responds. His heart rate randomly increases. It could be a symptom of the virus. His skin feels hot against my cheek. Anotherpossible symptom. However, the hard bulge pressing into my crotch is definitely not from the virus. Tears prickle at my eyes, and I shut them tight, squeezing them away. All I wanted was Blake out of my life, but now that it’s a possibility, I don’t want it anymore. At least not like this. Not this way. As we drive, the tension in Blake’s body starts to ease. He practically melts into me, his muscles relaxing and his head dropping onto my shoulder.
“Are you good now?” I whisper, just loud enough for him to hear.
“I think so,” he says.
“You’re not gonna jump?”
