The Rain - Josh Wheeler

His hands gripped tighter onto mine as we stood together. "I want to say something." He croaked, gulping forcefully to shake his nerves away. "You can say no if you want to but life moves so fast in a world like this that you have to grab onto any good thing that comes your way. I was wondering if you'd like to start casually dating me? Obviously not a full blown relationship as we are still in the midst of getting to know each other but if you're cool with keeping us exclusive and putting some sort of label on it then I'd like that a lot."
My heart began to pump forcefully, beating the blood around my body at an increased rate. He looked at me in anticipation as I took a deep breath in and deeply exhaled a "yes" his eyes lit up to the sound of my response and he tightly wrapped his slightly muscular arms around my torso.
"I'm so glad you agreed." His voice muffled as he brushed his mouth against my left shoulder, Charlie walked in and walked back out within a few seconds and we laughed at his shock.
Soon enough, we left the bedroom, hand in hand. Charlie was nowhere to be seen but he left a note on the sofa.
I feel as though I've overstated my welcome. Sorry for the inconvenience, I'm staying in Scott Living again- if you need me I'll either be there or in Hot Topic. -Charlie.
I crunched the note up and threw it into the trash can. "It's a shame he's left but he was pretty mean earlier." I sighed.
"You'll see him soon don't worry. He's probably not seen anyone for months so he's forgotten how to socialise." Josh laughed, placing his arm around me as we sat on the floor finishing the pizza and snacks. "So how are you finding life at the moment?" He yawned.
"It's good yeah. Crazy but good, how's life for you?" I looked up at him in a deep bout of lust, my heart fluttered at the sight of his smile.
"It's really going great. I thought after losing Sam I'd never smile again, I was highly incorrect." He widened his eyes and leant in to kiss my forehead.
"Yeah, we've all been through a lot. It's good to have someone to spend this with." I smiled, nestling up to him. A sudden unnerving feeling settled in my stomach as I swelled more on the situation with my brother though, I broke away from Josh and stood up suddenly, he looked up at me in a state of confusion and loss. "I need to see Charl." I insisted, breaking away from his loose grip and walking towards the door. "See you later."
"Uh yeah okay, see you later babe." That one word, sent a whole new shockwave of feeling and emotion through my body. It was a nice feeling, not one I'd ever thought I'd feel, especially not in the apocalypse. I left the room with a spring in my step, generally feeling a lot happier, that one word brought me comfort- I felt safe.
I walked through the dark hallways, my footsteps loudly echoing through the bare walkways. The air was cold and dense, a harsh acidic burning smell flowed through the air vents as the rain began to beat down forcefully outside. I paced my way through the halls in an effort to get as far away from the rain as I possibly could.
After a few short minutes of almost running through the mall, I had made it to the main body of the building. My eyes darted around the place to look for the store in which my brother was situated, I finally saw it glimmer in the corner of my eyes and sprinted toward the door. I climbed over groups of sleeping teenagers and snakes my way into the back room to Charlie sitting alone, staring at the ceiling in a state of dismay. I knocked upon the door frame to see his head slowly move, he looked at me with tired eyes and invited me in. "Hey." He groaned depressingly.
"Hi." I softly smiled. "You okay?" I sat down next to him.
"I just keep fucking everything up. I've not seen you for months and when I do finally see you, I annoy you and you stop fucking talking to me. I'm the worst brother and understand if you never want to see me again." He sighed, wiping his eyes.
"No you're a great brother, we've just gotta sync with each other again. Josh really likes you so please just come back, we've got a double bed you can share with me." I suggested, smiling at him brightly. "We've also still got some good old shhhhnackkkksss." My brother giggled, looking up at me as he removed his ginger hair from his eyes.
"Oh okay, if you insist." He fake resisted as he shot up almost instantly. "Let's go." He laughed pulling my arm up. We waded through the plethora of sleeping children and teenagers and began to make our way through the acidic smelling hallways.
"Is it raining?" Charlie asked inquisitively, wrapping his arm around me as if to shelter me from my own memories.
"Yeah, don't worry we shall be back soon." I nodded enthusiastically, walking quickly down the outstretched room.
"Okay cool." He said, we continued walking down the hallways, finally making it to the room. Charlie stepped up and opened the door slowly in anticipation "Honey I'm homeeee." He mocked a female voice and hopped into the room to reveal Josh had made a den much like the one in the furniture store.
"Hey guys, I got bored, welcome to my humble abode." He bowed and dragged my arm, pulling my body into the den making me lay on top of him. We stayed in the same position for a minute until he rolled away to invite my brother in. "Yo Charlie let's watch a movie." He smiled excitedly.
"Ah sorry guys I'm getting tired, I'm gonna try and sleep. Goodnight." He hung his head low, walking toward the bedroom before disappearing into the dark.
Josh pulled my body back down and tickled my sides before pulling me into a kiss. We lay arm in arm, slowly growing in tiredness as we lay together. Our bodies connected as one and before we knew it, we had fallen asleep intertwined.