Immune-ish

Chapter Sixteen

XANDER:

I cannot believe I just told her! What was I thinking?  The problem is I wasn't thinking.

I stare at her, waiting for the explosion of wails. But it doesn't come.

Eva just sits there, staring at me blankly. Her eyes are nearly corpse-looking from the slight glaze. Her lip quivers but the rest of her is stock still. This is not the reaction I was expecting.

My first thought is to run, get away and just leave her here, to die possibly. But I can't. My leg, and my conscience, keep me in place.

I feel like I should hug her, do or say something, but no. I saw the way she looked at me earlier, with adoration and earnest love. Showing any sign of weakness will make things worse. I've never been a heart breaker and I didn't mean to become one. I decide I have to say something, though, to break her out of her trance.

"Eva?" I say. "Are you okay?"

The glaze is wiped from her eyes as she says, "But . . . Why?"

There are so many reasons, but they're harsh. I don't want to tell her, but she deserves to know the truth. "You're dangerous," I say. "I barely know you and I shouldn't have even let you in my house to begin with. It was stupid. With you around, I'll never be safe." I can see the way every word hits her like a punch and the way she flinches with every syllable.

Contrary to my prior belief, though, Eva is not sad, she is mad. Pissed, more like. "I'm dangerous? I said I was sorry. It won't happen again! You said 'it was fine'!" she shouts.

"I lied," I say. "I'm sorry," I truly am, "but you have to leave." I don't want her to, but it's better this way.

Now she's sad. "But I thought we were friends." I know she wants more than friendship, though.

"Eva. . ." I have to find the right thing to say. "Eva, I haven't even known you for twenty-four hours. I wouldn't consider us to be friends." The words taste like poison in my mouth, and I can't figure out why.

"Oh," she says. "Oh."

"Eva, I'm really sorry." Why does she even care so much? We're strangers to each other.

And now, because of my words, she's mad again. "Where do you think I'm supposed to go? Huh? Where?"

I have no answer. "I-I guess to the forest."

"Yeah," she says with a laugh. "Right. Because that is such a great idea. Do you have any idea what people would do to me out there? What people already tried to do to me out there?"

"Well, it's your problem now. I don't have to deal with this." I am troubled by the fact that she said people already tried to do something to her, but it's none of my business so I ignore it.

She doesn't speak again, just stares at me with a solemn type of anger. I can tell what she's thinking: Xander's a horrible human being and should go die in a hole. And she's probably right.

"Eva," I whisper. "I'm sorry. You're just too dangerous."

If looks were able to kill someone, I would already be gone. "You already have one zombie in your house," she reasons. "Why not one and a half?"

I want stand up and punch myself in the face. I'm such an idiot! And she has a point. "I-I . . ." I'm not even sure what to say. "Well, uh, um . . . Chloe's locked up, and you're not." That's the best I can think of.

"I could be," she says, a little too eagerly. "Then I could stay with you."

I look out over the town, pondering the idea. A few people move around below, heading to work or school. There's no way for me to get out of this one and we really need to hurry this up before we get spotted.