Perfectly Imperfect || Joel Dawson

[5]

"Hey, you okay?" Joel asked sitting down next to Olive. She had been sitting away from everyone who sat near the fire.

"I'm okay." She said quietly.

Joel looked at her, knowing she wasn't ok, and hasn't been herself since Minnow called her Ollie. But he didn't want to push her, "You know if your gonna keep bullying me might as will bully you." He said changing the subject, "you are terrible at painting nails." He said looking at her yellow nails.

Olive chuckled, "Listen asshole I only use one dip on each finger cause I don't wanna run out. It's special to me."

"You wanna tell me why?" He asked.

Olive looked at him, "It was my sister's favorite color." She said quietly. "Her name was Lily."

Was.

"Me and Boy lost her about, three years ago." Olive said quietly, pain in her eyes. "We had made it, four years together. The day it happened, seven years ago, I was 17. She was 3."

Joel stared with shock and hurt. He couldn't imagine being three and having to go through that. Or being 17 and having to take care of 3 year old.

A tear ran down Olives face, Joel quickly brushed it with his thumb. "You don't have to talk about this if you don't want to."

"I know." She whispered, "I want to." It felt nice to have someone to talk to about. Like she was getting it off her chest.

"I was on my way home. I had just picked up my sister from her dance. She had just started, She was a terrible dancer." Olive laughed making Joel chuckle. "We were in the car when I got a phone call from my mom. She told us don't come home. That 'they' were here. Her and my dad told us they loved us and that we'll be ok. My dad made me promise to take care of my sister." Her lip trembled as her voice shook.

Joel gently grabbed onto her hand. She took in a deep breath, relaxing. "I told my dad I promise. And then there was a crash and- the line went dead." She told him. "I called my neighbor, her name was Nancy she was a little old women who's husband had died in a war. I used remember helping her and listening to her stories about her and her husband. When she picked the phone I immediately asked her what had happened to my parents." Olive gulped, "She told us that a big, lizard, monster had crash through the house. Nothing was left over."

Joel sighed quietly, his heart breaking for the girl. "After that- I did what my parents told me to do. I didn't go home. I turned around, and I drove. I drove through the chaos. I remember telling my sister play with Mr. Cuddles." Joel looked at Boy who had a stuffed bear next to him. "Told her, don't look outside. At some point I saw a group of people. I drove to them, they told me that they were going to a bunker to follow them. So did. They got in there car, I stayed in mine. When drove to the bunker and we got there we quickly drove towards. But no one ever made it to that bunker. One of the monster had crashed in front of me and my sister, killing all of the people in front of us in that car."

Joel closed his eyes, thinking of his parents that had died in their car. "I knew that my car wasn't fast enough to run away from this thing so I got Lily out, and we ran. I mean, I ran- I held her. And I ran until I couldn't anymore. We stayed wherever we could hide, found any food we could find. God I remember the tantrums Lily used to have at first cause she didn't like food that was spoiled. I mean who blamed her though. We found this bus about a year later," She looked at Joel smiling lightly, "The bus I met you on."