No Time To Bleed

“You two know each other?” Kyle asked.

Cece’s eyes snaked suspiciously from Jesse to me.

“Yeah. We were in the same crowd when the outbreak happened. Can you guys excuse us?”

I separated from the table and Jesse followed me to a secluded area. Once there I leaned against the glass plated wall and he stood close before me. That’s when we got our first good looks at each other.

His hazel eyes brimmed in the night light moving in through the clear glass. They held a stone like gaze to them, like he’d seen things. And his hair was shorter. Before it had been a feathery land upon his head in its warm brown. Now, it was shorter, almost a crop cut. He was on crutches. The left was encased in a cast that had all sorts of signatures, kisses of lipstick, and hearts on it. He wore a brown shirt with a necklace peeking from the collar. His pants were corduroy and he appeared calm.

“What happened to your face?” he asked.

The doctors who’d looked at me after Brett left had tried to do as much to make my appearances better: bring down the bruising, spray all sorts of mist on me, and put medicines on the scratches. After it, I was just left with an unsightly bruise along where Reagan had punched me.

“Got into a fight before we came here.” I motioned to his leg. “What happened there?”

“Car got swarmed by zombies. The driver drove off the side of the road and my leg got crushed.”

I swallowed, surprised by the tears leaking their way up my throat. Even then I couldn’t hold the tears back.

“I’m sorry Jesse.”

He tried to smile, but it never came to his lips. “What do you have to apologize for?”

My chest felt tight, like a corset had been wrapped around me.

“I left you and Jessica. I guess I just thought you were dead. It’s weird to see you again.” I cleared my throat. “I’m glad you’re alive.”

“Thanks. I’m glad you made it too.”

My arms were shaking, probably from nervousness or déjà vu or some weird emotion.

“Did you ever find Ryant? Is he with you?”

I shook my head. “No. That’s why me and my friends came here for.”

“Friends? Those kids at that table? I thought you got in today.”

“I came here with five people. Cece’s the first one I’ve found since I got out of… cleansing.”

Jesse nodded, breathing heavily, and then retreating to a seat to catch his breath.

“You’re leg still weak?”

“Yeah. I have to remember to keep my weight off of it.” He looked to me and finally smiled, eyes lightening up. “Do you wanna sign it?”

He held out a permanent marker for me to grab and I kneeled down to the cast for signing. I unclipped the marker.

I’m glad I didn’t kill you with that bat. You’re a nice guy.
-Jasmine


“You know Jessica’s still alive, She’s here, you know?”

I swallowed. “She is-“

“Hey, Jasmine. What are you-“Alex came stomping over. “Who the hell are you?”

“Alex, why the hell are you being rude?”

Alex huffed and crossed his arms. “Really? And here you are talking to boys?”

I got up and prepared my fist to crack into his nose. Hopefully it would break this time.

“Jasmine, calm down.” Jesse breathed and eased himself up with the crutches. Jesse looked to Alex calmly. “Look I’m not here to steal your friend or get in the way of your little boy crush. I’m her friend. Actually, I was your friend before you even came along.”

Alex just glared back at him, fire spitting out of his eyes. Jesse turned his head to me. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

I nodded and Jesse hobbled away.

“Who was that?” Alex demanded and I just stormed past him.

“Listen to me!”

His hand grabbed my arm and I whirled around. I was finally satisfied when my fist finally made contact with his nose. Too bad I didn’t hear any bone crack.

“Leave me alone.”

I just kept on walking and tried to look for Jesse. He was a better friend right now than Alex would ever be.