Blood

21.

"Lisa."Cole hisses,"What are you doing? Did anyone see you?"

"Relax." I assure.

"They would find it odd for a girl to be in my tent." Cole shrugs.

I blush.

"Yup." He crosses his arms.

"Well, it's not what I expected."

Cole rolls his eyes,"You need to wash up."

I examined myself. I was really muddy.

I nod. The past few weeks I was just handed a bucket to wash up. It couldn't really be called a bath and I try not to gag every time I think about it.

He leads me to the woods. Up ahead is a small lake shrouded by a cluster of trees.

Cole hands me a towel and ushers me towards the lake.

"Isn't it polluted?" I ask.

"It's a newer lake. So no. It is not polluted. He pushes me forward,"You reek, so go."

I tilt my head and cross my arms,"So you're planning to stand here and watch?"

He blinks at me and color rises to his cheeks,"No..."

I nod sharply.

"I'll be at camp."he says and walks away,"Scream if anything happens." He chuckles over his shoulder.

I watch him go and its only after I'm sure that he's gone that I strip myself naked and take a dip.

About twenty minutes later I trudge through camp feeling quite presentable. I took my sweet time to clean up; taking advantage of the absence of the five minute rule.

My hair is dripping wet as I run my towel through it when Cole comes over.

"Quicker." He says impatiently.

I roll my eyes and he grabs the towel from my hands and dries my hair. Butterflies explode in my stomach with his intimate touch. I step away.

Unfazed, he starts speaking,"I'm going to teach you to conserve your breath while running."

"Whatever."

"You're horrible at it."

I mutter a few profanities under my breath.

It's around noon when we leave camp.

---

We return at around four in the evening and I'm panting and sweaty. My morning bath was an absolute waste.

I barely make it back to camp; leaning on Cole the entire way back.

He drops me off at my tent and is gone. He returns with soup and water which I eagerly snatch from him.

"Same thing tomorrow." He informs and disappears.

Tomorrow. Another day on the Outside. Another day away from Tyler.

I finish the soup ad collapse on my bed, humming the song that Grandma used to sing to me.

"Lisa?"

At first I thought it was Cole but I sit up to find Grandma.

"I used to sing that to you." She whispers.

"I know. Whenever I missed you, I would sing it."

"I love you." She says, placing herself in the chair.

"Love you, too."

"I'm sorry for being so cold."

"I'm sorry that I left home" I mumble.

She shakes her head,"No. I was angry that you came here. But I finally realized  how much I missed you and...Tyler."

I flinch when she mentions Tyler.

"At least you know that he's alive. He probably thinks you're...dead."

I choke,"That makes me feel so much better."

Grandma sighs and comes over to the bed. I wrap my arms around her.

"Cole was right. It was a good idea to talk to you." She whispers.

Cole. Thank You.

An the thing is, Grandma made me feel a tiny bit better.

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A/N: I finally updated. Like after years. Yay! And I changed the genre of the book to Adventure because this isn't really Sci-fi(its not)

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-Oblivion2507