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part 7: happiness is a butterfly

    "feels good." is all he said as he closed his eyes, falling into your touch. you giggled. you were hoping things could stay similar to how they were. as painful as it was to not be with him in all the ways you wanted to, he was still important to you, and you to him. and plus, you were basically each others best friends at this point. he took his arm and wrapped it around your hips, bringing you closer into his side.

   "please don't let this change things." he said this lowly.

    "like what?" you asked him, now running your fingers through his soft, dark brown curls.

    "us. the normalcy, the closeness. i don't want to lose that. i- i like you. a lot. i just know how i feel about you won't go away, and i don't even know if i want it to. and i'm- i'm just sorry." he looked up at you with puppy eyes.

   "you're not gonna lose any of that. i will act like none of that even happened, don't worry. please." you smiled down at him. your heart still ached at the thought of not being able to make this work, but you were happy to still be around him at all.

    "you're still my darlin'." he said this, squeezing your hip. you smiled a bit sadly.

    "good." you said this gently.

    "hey, don't look so sad." he rubbed your back with his large hand.

    "i'll get over it." you nodded and slipped away from his grasp. he continued making breakfast and you sat across from joel and the small fire and took out your book from your backpack. you began reading, heavily focusing on
the story. joel's eyes flicked up at your face, watching
you while you read. he admired you, your hair, your eyebrows, eyes, nose, cheekbones, lips. everything. you adjusted your glasses on your face and held your face in your hand as you held the book with the other. he smiled to himself, he loved to watch you.

    "what's your book about?" he spoke up. you were snapped out of your story and looked up at him.

   "oh, it's kinda weird. it's about like, a romance in a zombie apocalypse. it's kinda stupid, but it makes me feel like i'd totally die in an apocalypse. im afraid of the dark, there's no way i'd sleep at a campsite in the dark with zombies roaming around all around me. these maniacs had sex in the middle of the woods in the dark in the zombie fucking apocalypse, i would never! i mean, it was hot, but jesus." you furrowed your brows as you spoke. joel smiled.

    "well, thankfully, it's likely it would never happen." joel chuckled.

   "the apocalypse or having sex in the woods?" you sort of joked. he shook his head at you and laughed.

    "what? it was unclear." you shrugged and looked back at your book. he put your breakfast plate together.

    "your breakfast is ready, baby." he said this before getting up and walking over to you. you looked up at him with a smile.

    "thank you, mr. miller." you closed your book and put it away back into your bag. he kneeled down to your sitting level and slid your plate onto your lap. you looked at him, now at face level.

    "you look different today than you did yesterday." his eyes scanned your face.

    "i got to make out with my childhood dilf crush. i think i gained a few years onto my lifespan." you slightly laughed. he kissed you unexpectedly. when he pulled away, your eyes were open wide and you were shocked.