Her Compound

Chapter 15

"Woah."

"I know, right?" Zack said as the door clicked shut behind us and he walked up to stand beside me.

I nodded my head as my lips parted slightly.

All around the compound were trees after trees, each of them just barely towering over the six floor building. But that wasn't what stopped me in my tracks. Just at the edge of the tree line, I could see the sun start to go down at a crawl. Many different hues of all sorts of colours were shown across the sky, and I could make out a silver crescent in the opposite direction of the sun.

I honestly don't even remember the last time I had seen a sunset.

"Here." Zack gently reached out for my hand, laced his fingers through mine, and led me over to the edge of the roof where he then let go of my hand as he sat down and let his long legs dangle off the edge.

I took my eyes away from the sky for a split second and they immediately widened as I looked down at the grassy ground many dozen meters below us. One wrong step and I could go falling down to my death.

Zack saw my hesitancy and grinned up at me. "You're afraid of heights?"

I took a deep breath as I sat down next to him, crossing my legs underneath myself. "Yeah, a little." I glanced up at the sky and then down at the cookie before looking over at him. "Why did you want to show me this?"

His smile faltered ever so slightly as he looked up at the sky and bit down on his cheek. I couldn't help but stare at him. The way the light showed down on his pale skin and the way the light breeze ruffled his platinum blond hair. I mentally shook my head and pushed that sort of thought out of my mind as he looked back at me.

"I thought you'd need some time away from the grey walls. Especially... considering what happened to your friend." Zack looked up at the darkening sky. "I myself need some air every once in a while and come out here when I need a break."

"Huh."

I looked away from him and down at the cookie in my hand as I unraveled the plastic wrap around it. As soon as it was opened, I took a bite out of it and savoured the sweet flavour that the chocolate had caused across my tongue.

"You like it?" Zack asked after swallowing his bite of his cookie.

I nodded. "I mean it tastes like a chocolate chip cookie, and you can't really do anything to screw it up."

"Then you haven't tasted one that I had made," he said, leaning forward like he was telling me a secret. "It was my first time ever making something, and also my first time ever in the kitchen, and let's just say... I got banned for a little while."

A laugh escaped me as I shook my head. "How did that even happen?"

"Oh, y'know," he leaned back and looked up at the now blue sky, slowly growing darker, "I somehow managed to coat the whole kitchen in flour, and I even recall an egg on the ceiling."

I rolled my eyes with a chuckle. "Wow."

"Yeah."

He went to open his mouth again to say something, but his watch started to beep. I immediately looked up at the sky as he looked down at his watch, giving him the privacy that he needs, but that didn't last long. I gave into my curiosity and quickly glanced at him to see that the smile that he had on his face before was completely gone as his eyes scanned over the text that was written on the face of his watch.

"You have to go?" I asked him.

He quickly looked up at me as he turned his watch off and shook his head, the smile slowly forming on his lips again. "No."

I squinted my eyes and examined him, knowing that he was lying. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

I still didn't believe him, but I didn't want to push it any further. I placed my half eaten cookie down next to me before leaning back and laying down on the hard roof, letting my long hair fan out around me. Zack did the same beside me and we both stared up at all the bright stars sprinkled across the black backdrop.

"Thank you," I finally said after a few moments, continuing to look up at the night sky.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see he turned his head to the side to look at me. "What for?"

I rolled my head to the side and stared at him, my brown eyes looking at his grey ones that looked different under the moon's light.

"For everything," I said. "Ever since we got here, you've been treating all of us... with kindness. Ace never gave us any of that."

I felt a nervous twinge in my gut at telling him all of this, but I knew I could trust him. He made me comfortable with telling him anything and everything, and most importantly, he made me feel safe.

Zack didn't say anything at my words, he just continued to lay there and smile at me without breaking eye contact. My heart rate sped up as I stared back at him. I don't know why I felt this way, but I did.

Then without much warning, Zack lifted himself up and rested on his arm while he leaned forward slowly towards me and pressed his lips lightly against my own. Surprise filled my body, but it soon morphed into a strange feeling as I slipped my eyelids shut and kissed him back.

I could hear the wind pick up ever so slightly and rustle the branches all around us, and the sound of a bird out in the distance singing its last song before going to sleep. A small shiver ran up my body and I could feel goosebumps start to form on my bare arms, but I ignored the temperature and enjoyed the moment.

Zack then pulled away and I opened my eyes to see him smiling down at me. I could feel my heartbeat thumping heavily against my chest and wondered if he could hear it as much as I could.

"It's getting a little chilly," he chuckled as he looked down at the goosebumps on both of our pale arms. "I probably should have thought this through better."

I shook my head as I sat back up, my heart rate slowly returning back to normal. "No, no. This was great."

Zack laughed again as he scooted away from the edge of the building with the rest of his cookie and stood up. He then looked down at me and extended his hand out for me.

"I should probably get you back to your friends."

I glanced down at my watch to see that it was 8:43, then picked up my cookie and grabbed onto Zack's hand. "Yeah, probably."