Population Control

Matthew

 "She's on her period." Dylan said, and I almost spit my coffee out at his bluntness, "Come on, basically every woman goes through it. It's natural." He shrugged. To be fair, both of his best friends were girls so it was probably normal for him. "We aren't leaving till it's over."

"When will that be?" Asked Jason.

Dylan shrugged, "Few days, maybe tomorrow. I don't keep track of how long periods are, I'm not a psychic."

Driving the conversation away from periods I asked Jason a question, "What's going on with you and Camille anyway?"

He cleared his throat, the back of his neck going red. Different to Sami - his ears go pink. "Nothing." He cleared his throat again.

Folding my arms, I looked at the back of him when I said, "Not what it looked like at the Donavan's, or the service station. You ki-"

"Shut up!" He exclaimed, turning as fast as he could.

Dylan dropped his toast. Oh no, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it.

"You kissed?" Dylan sounded scandalised but stopped himself before it looked like he would attack Jason, "No. No, I will deal with you later." Before Jason could answer, he was rushing up the stairs screaming Camille's name. I shouted for him to shut it because Sami was still in bed. Only a few seconds later he wandered down the stairs, hair askew and mid-yawn. "Good morning." He mumbled.

Staggering over to us, he bumped into a chair on his way and I ruffled his hair. His ears turned pink. "Mornin' to you, too. Sleep well?" He had no nightmares this time, I know that, because he slept through the whole night. I don't know what his nightmares are about, because I always pretend to still be asleep when he wakes up, but I squeeze my arms around him tighter and he soon settles down again.

"Bed was cold when I woke up." His ears turned red. I looked at him, apologetic.

Finally, Camille was up and down the stairs, taking Jason aside to talk. Normally, I'm not a nosy person, but with no entertainment anymore, this was as close to TV I would get. They sat in the bedroom, door not completely closed, just enough for me to rest my ear steadily on the door.

Camille spoke first, tone unsure, "About what happened at the Service Station-"

"God, I'm sorry. I should have asked before I kissed you and I'm sorry for that, and I shouldn't have done it in the first place because I know we're just friends. You're the closest person I have here and I don't want to mess with this-"

"Jason!" She exclaimed, a light laugh as the undertone. "I don't regret it, not at all. But it's just not how... I didn't think..."

"Didn't think what?" Jason tried gently.

She sighed, resigned. Maybe I shouldn't be listening, but I couldn't help it. Camille keeps bugging me about my love life and I'm only returning the favour. "That my first kiss would be during the end of the world."

"Hey," He jokingly scolded, "the end of England, not the world." She chuckled, and I heard rustling of clothes. Quickly, I sprinted down the stairs as I jumped over the sofa, landed and picked up a book. Sami came in and took the book off me, turning it around.

Mary came round when we were all downstairs, wanting us to follow her. She took us to a building that looked like a squashed Warehouse. It was all one room, desks laid out one by one and a whiteboard at the front. I thought I escaped school (the one good thing to come out of this end of the world scenario), and now one of my worst nightmares has come true. There were people sitting on the chairs, too, and it looked like four had been added in the back. All their heads turned to us as we walked in, and the woman at the front in a tight pencil skirt and a red blouse smiled at us.