at least I have you

Chapter 3

Ainsley's POV:

A few things that I learned from the Abbott family last night was that was that Evelyn, Reagan, Marcus, and Lee, Marcus and Reagan's father, all lived in a farm, which was later attacked by the monsters while Evelyn was about to have her baby, causing Lee to sacrifice himself for his children, like mother did. They then decided to find a new place to stay, they eventually encountered with Emmett, who used to be a friend of Lee's. They stayed at Emmett's abandoned factory which was later attacked by monsters as well. Then after that, they went looking for a new place to stay, and that's how they to end up here.

The next morning, I woke up.

Apparently Reagan was going to share my room, I didn't mind, she looked pretty nice, she just never spoke.

Maybe she's shy?

I thought.

She was sitting on her bed, reading a book at the moment, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to talk to her.

I got out of my bed and sat on hers.

"Hi!" I started. "How do you like living here so far?" I asked.

She just looked at me for a bit, then did some signs with her hand.

What...

I thought.

That's when I realized....

Oooooh! STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!!

I didn't know sign language, I remember we had a topic about sign language back at school before this happened, but that was all.

"Hi, my name is Ainsley" I signed slowly, making sure I would get every single motion correctly.

I'm not sure what she signed but I had a feeling she said "very nice to meet you".

We then started to talk a bit more, only this time we used notebook and pencil, she would write something, I would read it, then I would write something, and she would read it. Turns out she is very smart and very fun to talk to!

After that we both decided to go downstairs for breakfast.

"Goodmorning," I greeted as I slopped down on the chair. I realized Marcus was sitting next to me so I immediately fixed my posture, don't know why I did that, it's not like he's impressed by my posture.

Father placed a big bowl of salad on the table, we all grabbed some, put it on her plates and start eating. I know that salads aren't typically what people eat for breakfast but salad was what we ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was easy to find and easy to prepare, and plus, everything else was expired.

Father and Emmett have been talking a lot recently, mostly talking about how they managed to survive this apocalypse.

"One of the things that really helped us was sign language," he started as he grabbed some salad from the bowl, "though I never really used it until I encounter with the Abbott's".

"We never had quite the time to learn it, we weren't able to find any books about sign language, most of them were destroyed and ripped," father frowned.

"Well, we can always teach you, Reagan has trouble hearing so I have been doing it for 17 years now. And Marcus has been doing it his whole life," Evelyn explained.

"Wonderful, sounds like a plan!" Father exclaimed.

After I finished eating, I washed my plate in a tub of water, the sinks and showers didn't work so we had to use tubs of water to wash ourselves and our dishes.

My dad and the other adults discussed a lot, it got boring hearing their chit-chatting. So I went upstairs to my room, changed into my swimming suit, grabbed my boogie board from my closet, and went outside to the shore. The waves were pretty strong today, meaning I could catch a lot of good waves!

I ran deeper into the water, until the water was above my waist. I waited for the perfect wave to come. Finally, went it did, right when the wave was about to hit, I jumped on the boogie board and pushed with my feet, the wave has caught me. I was gracefully being carried away by the wave, as I felt the nice chilly air hit my face, my brown wavy hair blowing in the wind. However, the experience doesn't last long, it's almost like you're in heaven for a few seconds, and the next, your boogie board is scraping on the sandy shore.

I got off my boogie board and did it again, and again, and again, and again, just to feel that experience one more time. It was calming, it was relaxing.

My hair was wet from the salty water, and I'm pretty sure I already had a sunburn. I got off my boogie board, about to go on it again for the 13th time,
until—

"Can I try?"

A soft male voice asked.

I turned around. It was Marcus.

Sunlight was shining brightly on his hazel eyes, making them appealing and beautiful. He had a happy and friendly smile, a smile I'll never forget. I couldn't help but smiling at his amazing features, until suddenly I snapped back to the real world.

"Sure!" I responded, handing him my boogie board