Alone Together

6 Ashlyn

I woke up the next morning, not knowing if the previous day was reality, or just a dream, and if any of this really happened at all. I see the sun shining brightly through my window, and in the driveway, a white Camaro, and a red mustang.. Not a dream, though I am surprised that I am awake before three in the afternoon. I slowly walk out of my room into the hallway, careful not to step on the creaky parts of the floor, which we all had mapped out in our heads after many times of trying to sneak up on one another here when we were little.

Nicci and Lucas's door was closed, which means DO NOT DISTURB. I walk downstairs to the kitchen to see what there is for breakfast. I find a small bag of pancake mix, some eggs and milk in the fridge, and (my favorite) blueberry muffins! I read the directions on the bag of pancake mix to make sure I do this right, since Nicci was usually the one who made the breakfast around here. It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to mix the batter, and how to actually cook it. By the time I was finished making burnt pancakes, overdone scrambled eggs, and smoking muffins, the smell of charred food had woken everyone up and brought them downstairs. I proudly presented them all their breakfast. We all ate more than ever, even though it was all disgusting (and my friends weren't reluctant to tell me so). I guess we worried so much about each other over the past two days, that we hadn't really eaten much.

We all made the consecutive agreement that we should all live here together. Toby and I showed Nicci and Lucas the way to another rich town, so that they could go and gather more supplies. We went back to our old house to collect our stash of supplies as well. We said goodbye to our dream house and headed back to our new home.

When we all got home, we all dumped our stuff on the kitchen table. It was odd, though, that Nicci seemed to be hiding a small box under her oversized hoodie. We had mostly canned food, and tylenol, but we had other things like bread, milk, eggs, clothes, bedding, and new backpacks.

It was odd that in the few weeks, Nicci insisted to go on runs, accompanied by only Lucas. She stopped showing anybody else what was in her bag when she and Lucas came home. She just headed straight to her room, but the bag seemed to have large cylinder shapes inside. She also began to eat more. Not much, just a barely noticeable amount, but that slowly changed, and she was getting seconds at every meal, which she didn't normally do. Then, I suddenly realized what was in the small box she was hiding a few weeks earlier, and what she was bringing home, and why she was eating more. My best friend... was pregnant.