unwanted

chapter twelve

unnoticed

Adrian found her laying in the front yard. He laid down beside her and took her hand.

He wouldn't talk till she did. Until then he would silently offer her comfort. Just being next to him was already making it easier to breathe.

Tonight, she couldn't bring herself to try and get any sleep. It was too hard coming back from a dream with Kellum in it.

"I used to love looking up at the stars and I swear I've never seen as many as you can see right now."

"I think you still love to look up at them. They're beautiful."

"They're an illusion. Especially on a night like this. You look up there and wonder how anything can be as horrible as it seems to be."

"There's beauty all around us, Jess. You just have to look harder for it these days."

She winkled her nose in mock disgust. "You're one of those half full kind of people, aren't you?"

He smiled in the moonlight. "I am."

She wanted to disagree but couldn't. Wasn't he right? As horrible as things were, they could be worse.

She had Julian. Mel and Aunt Sarah were safe. Now Adrian was a part of her life just when she needed him the most. Annie. Jaymes and Fritz. They had enough food for now and a real roof over their heads.

Any day she didn't have to walk from one empty city to the next was a good day.

Things could be worse but that didn't mean her glass was half full. It just meant it wasn't completely empty.

Jess sighed and laid her hand against her mark. The pressure in her chest was so tight that it felt like a giant rock sat on her.

Things could be worse but that didn't mean things were alright. They were about as far from alright as they could be.

It wasn't easy to accept that the world they knew was gone and they'd never be able to get it back.

"Other than your dad, what do you miss most about the way it used to be?"

"I don't think about it. The world was different then but so was I."

So was she. That girl thought she was so tough, she thought she had some say in how her life was going to turn out.

She turned her head to look at him. "Do you think things will ever be okay again?"

He was already looking at her. "I do. There's a part of me that knows deep down inside that it will be better than okay. Maybe not as fast as we'd like, but it is going to be alright. We'll fight back, we'll rebuild, and we'll be stronger than ever."

"I wish I could believe that."

"I'll believe it for both of us."

Before she could think about what she was doing, she kissed him. Softly and much the same way she's kissed Julian a million times.

When he didn't pull away or look at her like she'd lost her mind, she kissed him again. This time slower and she moved closer.

"Jess, I know you're going through a lot. I would never take advantage of you."

"Aren't I'm the one taking advantage of you?" She pressed herself even closer and quickly took the kiss to the next level. She let go of his hand so that she could touch him.