Stay the Night - Harry Lewis & Chris Dixon

Chapter 7: Training

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-Erica's POV-
"Get your head in the game," George scolds as I fall onto my ass for the tenth time today. I blow the hair out of my eyes and glare up at him as Kyleigh gives me a hand.

"When do we get a break we have been at this for hours?" I groan leaning in my legs as I catch my breath.

"It hasn't even been two hours yet," Arthur says as Harry loses it from the back row. I turn around and flip him off as he giggles to himself.

"We can move onto bow training once you learn how to throw a proper punch," George says making me want to break down and cry. I haven't done this much exercise since early education.

Chris steps forward a little and has a quiet conversation with George. The two boys spin around and look at me as they speak, "Alright. Change of plans. Everyone will split off into pairs and train together. We are only as strong as our weakest link," he says with a raised brow in my direction.

"I'll train you since I'm clearly the best," Chris says flexing his arm as I look from George to him. His eyes have that amused look they had last night. We haven't talked about it. I don't know if I'm thankful or disappointed...but I don't think I care. I give Kyleigh a sad smile as everyone splits up in the building, "You are seriously terrible at this," Chris says as I scoff.

"Thanks for the boost of confidence," I chuckle as he pushes the sleeves of his shirt above his elbow, "And I'm not that bad," I state taking the hair tie out of my hair. I bend down to pick it up as it falls but my body is flying through the air before I can do anything. Chris's arms are around my waist and then the next second he has me pinned to the floor.

"Not that bad?" He says with a smirk.

"That doesn't count. I wasn't ready," I point out.

"Shoot. I forgot the undead ask if you're ready before biting your flesh off," he says as I fake laugh squinting my eyes.

"You comfy? Or should we start training?" I ask before he slowly gets off me. He holds his hand out and helps me up. I glance at everyone else and see they are too preoccupied with their training.

He hands me my knife with a cover on it and tells me to attack him, "Let's see what you can do," he smiles. I don't know if I'm distracted cause he weirdly smells really good or I'm just replaying last night over and over again...but fighting is the last thing on my mind.

"You did okay," he says as we walk outside to grab the knife I threw. There are planks of wood in front of a door and I managed to throw the knife right between the gap in the door. It would have been cool if I was aiming there but I was off by like five feet.

"My fighting got better. I just need more practice with a knife. I'm still offended that Arthur refused to let me use the gun until I mastered the knife. I'm not going to become Bruce Lee on the first day," I tell him.

"Didn't you have the New Year's resolution to work out every day last year?" He asks as I look at the sky pretending not to hear him, "Point taken. I'll help you train. It's kind of fun watching you get frustrated," he says with an amused glint in his eyes. I nudge his shoulder making him laugh harder.

"Where the hell is this thing?" I ask looking around where it should have landed. He calls my name and I turn around seeing him holding the handle. He puts the cover back on the blade and jogs over to me.

"How much longer do you think everyone will be?" He asks as he gets closer. I shrug my shoulders and tell him maybe half an hour. As the words are leaving my mouth he's sliding my knife into my holster on my waist, "We haven't talked about last night," he says as I look at him with wide eyes and bright cheeks.

"Does this mean you want it to happen again?" I ask as I glance past his shoulder. Instead of answering he just gives me a kiss that would make pre-apocalypse me pass out, "I'm going to take that as a yes," I whisper making him laugh.

"Did you still want to keep it a secret?" He asks as I think about the group.

"Yeah...just for now at least. I don't want to complicate the dynamic," I tell him as he nods his head seemingly okay with it, "We should probably get back inside before people get suspicious," I smile walking back to the building.

"Do you want to train every day?" He asks as we get to the door. His eyes have a different message behind them as I nod my head with a fake frown.

"I hate it here. Why am I the only one who sucks at everything?" I ask as George leans on my shoulder.

"Cause you're a woman," he says with a dry laugh. Kyleigh looks at him with a raised eyebrow before he takes a step back from the group.

"You're not that bad. You just might die," Harry says.

"Let's change subjects. I'm hungry and we should go eat," Arthur says as Ethan nods his head in agreement.

"I can't believe Bog hit me with a piece of wood," Ethan complains rubbing the side of his arm, "got scared I was winning," he says struggling to flex his one arm.

"Before someone gets hurt let's go," Kyleigh says as Chip runs out of the building. I grab a knife left on the ground and smile when I see Chris waiting up for me. I jog to catch up to him and he slings his arm around my shoulder.

"I don't know how good I'll be at keeping this a secret," he says. What is this? Friends with benefits? Girlfriend boyfriend? A fling? The zombie apocalypse is so complicated.

"Come on lover boy," I tease as he pushes me away. We jog to catch up with the others and I land on a steady pace next to Kyleigh.

"How are you so good missy?" I ask as he laughs, "Seriously. You were like Lara Croft or something," I say.

"Do you remember the kickboxing classes I tried to drag you to at the beginning of the year?" She asks as I remember saying no and continuing watching Netflix. I miss Netflix.

"To my defense...I didn't expect people to start eating each other," I say holding my hands up.

"Chris is a good teacher. He taught me how to ride a bike and golf. You'll be fine," she says as I smile looking back to see him laughing with Harry.

"Since when did you golf?" I ask.

"I don't but when I was like ten he taught me," she says as we both laugh.

"Speaking of Harry," I mention.

"That was the worst segue I've ever heard in my entire life," she says as I giggle.

"What happened? You guys didn't talk that much at training," I point out.

"He flat out rejected me and said Halloween was a mistake," she reveals making my smile drop immediately, "it's fine. We are fine. I don't want anything to be weird," she says as I glare at Harry.

"What an asshole. I'm sorry...you can do better anyway. Arthur's a hot single man," I tell her as she gives me a small laugh.

"Thanks but I think I'm going to remain single for the end of the world. We always did have the pact to get married at 40, maybe that will happen," she says as I try to push away the sting in my heart. She just got rejected by her crush and I'm secretly banging her brother. I'm a terrible person. But I can't tell her now and rub in the fact that's love life is decent.

"Dinner will cheer you up," I tell her putting my arm around her shoulder, "I may have snuck a can of fruit into my bag," I smile as we start walking faster to base.