This Beautiful World - Book #1 (BxB)

Chapter 13

Now that Riley had calmed down and talked things through with me, we went to our separate rooms. After a long day, we were both tired. I doubted that I would be able to get much sleep, though.

When I entered the room, I noticed that Alex was still awake. There was only one bed in this room, which he was laying on. I decided to sit on the couch across from him. I didn't mind that he decided to take the bed. He did get first dibs on it since I decided to check up on Riley rather than turning in for the night.

Without looking over at me, he said, "Come over here. We can share the bed. I don't mind."

I don't think he truly understood what he was offering to me. As much as I tried to suppress it, I knew that I still had a crush on him. It was hard to stop liking him when we were together most of the time. Even when he made it quite clear before that we couldn't be together, I still liked him. I didn't think that would change anytime soon. Offering to let me sleep next to him was teasing me. 

"I'm fine over here." I would rather not sleep next to him and then make my feelings worse. There was no need to make things awkward between us. 

"Well, then I'll come over to you." Alex got off of the bed and made his way over to me. He sat down next to me, a little too close for comfort. 

When our legs touched, I quickly moved away. Alex wasn't dumb. He had to know what he was doing. I just didn't understand why he was acting this way. It was hard to understand him sometimes. He was never open about his feelings. 

"Is everything alright?" I asked. I doubted that he would be as open as Riley was. If something was bothering him, then Alex would pretend like everything was okay. He wouldn't talk to me about it. 

He shrugged. "Yeah, it's just been one hell of a day and I don't think I'll be able to sleep because of it."

"I don't know how anyone would be able to sleep after facing those monsters. You didn't see the thing on the third floor. That was fucked up." He was lucky that he didn't see it, but there was no telling what else we might encounter. There might have been something else out there that's worse. 

"You survived, though, so that's what counts. By the way, is everything okay with Riley? I saw that you went out to talk to her," Alex said.

"She's worried about her parents. She wants to go out there and search for them. I offered to go with her." 

He let out a sigh. "That's a terrible idea. We all saw the shit that's out there. Odds are, her parents are dead. I highly doubt that mine survived either, so I'm not even going to waste my time worrying about them."

I was taken aback by his response. I didn't expect him to act so coldhearted about this situation. I didn't know if he was lying and trying to act tough, or if he really didn't care. "You are joking, right? That's her family you're talking about and if there's a chance that they're still alive, then shouldn't we take that chance?"

"No, we should worry about the people here with us now. If we go out there looking for others when there's a slim chance that they're alive, then we'll be risking our lives. Stop being so fucking stupid and worry about yourself for once. I'm only worried about you and Riley. You should do the same." He waved my concerns away. 

I wasn't like him, though. He could easily stop caring about others, but I couldn't do that. Riley also wanted to go out there to search for her parents. I couldn't ignore her concerns and let her go out on her own. She was going whether she had company or not. 

This conversation was over to me. I stood up and left the room. Alex didn't bother trying to stop me. We were both pissed off at each other. We would have to face each other soon, but right now I would have rather been alone. I knew that Alex was a selfish person who mostly thought about himself, yet I never expected this. I hoped that he would have wanted to help Riley out as much as I did.