Chapter 6
Alicia was brought out of her restless sleep rather abruptly by a loud bang from the kitchen followed by a certain blonde shouting one of her favourite swear words (who was she kidding, they were all Elyza’s favourite).
“Ah fuck!”
Alicia groaned into her pillow in annoyance at this rather rude awakening. Her eyes were sore from lack of sleep and she could feel a headache starting to build behind her eyes. Elyza must have heard the brunette groan, because a moment later Alicia heard her raspy voice from the kitchen once more.
“Sorry Little Bean, I was trying to be quiet but apparently I’m incapable of being stealthy this early in the morning. Shocking, I know. Anyways, want some cereal? That’s what I was working on when I dropped that stupid fucking bowl.”
Alicia was still much too tired to engage in any sort of conversation yet, especially when the blonde was clearly already so awake and talkative. So rather than respond she slowly opened her sleep-filled eyes, and was surprised that they weren’t immediately assaulted by the bright light of the sun. In fact, the room looked much the same as it had the night before with just the soft candle light illuminating the space, though the wicks were quite a bit lower than they had been previously.
Alicia rolled onto her back before sitting up and leaning back on her hands beside her waist slightly as she groggily looked out the windows to her left behind the gym area. It was still pitch black out.
“Wow, you know most people use the term ‘bed head’ as an insult, but honestly it’s a great look for you. All that crazy brown hair and those tired green eyes, I gotta say you’re kind of adorable.” The blonde teased from the kitchen.
Alicia glared across the room at the other girl and refused to dignify her bed head comment with a response, instead choosing to focus on a much more pressing issue in her mind.
“Elyza, what time is it?” She asked, voice thick with sleep and annoyance.
“Six.” The blonde answered with a smile as she began pouring cereal into two bowls Alicia now saw on the counter in front of her.
Alicia’s eyes bulged out of her head at the other girl’s words.
“Six?! Why the hell are you up so early?”
Elyza began making her way over to Alicia with their breakfast as she responded.
“Oh please Alicia don’t be such a teenager. If the dead are up and walking around, you can be too. Now shove over.” Elyza said, kicking the other girl’s legs lightly so she would move them and allow Elyza to sit on the end of the couch.
Pulling her knees to her chest Alicia let out a huff as she reached for the bowl of dry cereal Elyza now held out to her.
“It is a personal belief of mine that people should not be awake before the sun.” She grumbled before taking a bite of her breakfast.
Elyza watched her with an amused expression as she too chewed a spoonful of her breakfast before swallowing and speaking once more.
“Why sleep when you can kill walkers? It’s way more fun.”
Alicia rolled her eyes.
“Easy for you to say, you’re essentially a trained assassin. There’s nothing fun about getting your throat ripped out by a zombie, which is definitely what would happen to me if I went out looking for walkers to kill.” At this Elyza’s smile turned down into a much more stern expression.
“Don’t short change yourself like that, Alicia. You can handle yourself, I’ve seen it. With a little training I’m sure you’d be able to take walkers out no problem. You’d never be quite as good as me of course, but I’d be willing to bet you could be pretty damn close.” She finished with a shrug before returning her attention to the bowl of cereal on her lap and taking another bite.
Alicia was taken back by Elyza’s words. No one had ever seen her the way the blonde seemed to, as more than a child who needed to be protected. Alicia had spent the years since her father’s death trying to prove to everyone around her that she was in fact able to take care of herself, despite their constant doubts and instance that she was nothing more than a girl to be coddled. Her mother and brother had even hidden the true gravity of their situation from her when the apocalypse first began. She knew it was simply a misguided attempt to protect her, but still she couldn’t deny how frustrated their unwillingness to treat her like an adult had made her.
And yet here was Elyza, a girl she hadn’t even known for 24 hours, speaking to her as though she already saw everything within Alicia that the girl had been trying desperately to make those around her see for years.
“Hey Mrs. Deep-in-thought, you okay over there?” Elyza said, nudging Alicia’s leg slightly with her elbow. Alicia hadn’t realized that she had been staring at her bowl blankly for the last few minutes, lost in thought about what the girl beside her had said.
She looked up from her cereal to meet Elyza’s questioning gaze.
“Sorry. It’s just, I’m so used to everyone around me treating me like a kid who needs to be protected and sheltered from everything going on around her. You talking about me like you just did… well, it’s just not something I hear very often. As much as I try to prove that I can take care of myself, you’re the first person to really see me the way I want to be seen.” She looked back to her cereal and took another bite, needing to look away from Elyza’s piercing blue eyes to stop her now pounding heart from bursting out of her chest at the sight.
Elyza’s confused expression turned into one of disgust at the brunette’s words.
“That’s the biggest crock of shit I’ve ever heard. Sorry, nothing against your family or anything, but how could anyone look at you and not see someone mature beyond her years who is more than capable of caring for herself?” Alicia finished chewing quickly before responding.
“Well, I don’t think the fact that I’m still in high school helped matters. Everyone just lumped me in with the ‘needy, irresponsible teenager’ stereotype, no matter how many times I proved I was more than that.” Alicia shrugged her shoulders, looking back up to see a still very confused Elyza looking at her.
“Hold up, high school? How old are you Little Bean?” The blonde asked.
“17.” Alicia replied simply. Elyza’s eyes widened slightly at this, and Alicia was forced to look away from those seas of blue once more for fear of drowning in them.
“Wow. I know I joked about you acting like a teenager earlier, but honestly I would have guessed you were at least 20. That makes you even more impressive. To not even be out of high school yet and still handle yourself the way you do? That’s almost unheard of.” Elyza paused momentarily and Alicia chanced a glance back up at the girl. Those mesmerizing blue eyes were boring into her own with a seriousness Alicia hadn’t seen in them before, willing the brunette to listen to what it was she was saying. Only once Alicia held her gaze again did the blonde continue.
“Don’t let the way your family treats you affect how you see yourself, Alicia. I know I haven’t known you long at all but I can see just how strong you are, and it would kill me to know you stopped seeing yourself the way I see you now because your family was too ignorant to treat you the way you deserve.” Elyza kept her gaze locked onto Alicia’s forest green eyes for a moment longer, wanting to be sure she had gotten her message across before focusing her attention back on the bowl in front of her.
The two girls were silent for a few moments as Elyza finished her breakfast and Alicia tried to process all the girl had just said to, and about, her.
The words Elyza had spoken were nothing like the flirty comments she had been making left and right since the two had met. There was no humor in her words, she had clearly meant everything she’d said, and for once Alicia didn’t blush at the blonde’s words. Instead she found herself feeling… empowered.
She’d always believed she could handle herself, but she hadn’t realized the way her family and friend’s constant misgivings about her ability to do so had been slowly and silently making her doubt herself. She didn’t realize just how much she needed someone to reassure her that she wasn’t simply the little girl her family saw her as until Elyza had spoken. She wanted to thank the blonde, to tell her how much her words had meant to her, but she just couldn’t find the words to express her feelings properly. So instead she decided to move the topic of conversation off of herself completely.
“So… how old are you?” Alicia asked, looking back up to Elyza who had just taken her last bite of cereal.
“21.” Elyza responded after swallowing the last spoonful dryly.
“Really? I thought you were older than that.”
Elyza raised her eyebrows slightly at Alicia’s words, and the brunette quickly realized how the other girl could have interpreted them.
“No, I didn’t mean it like that! I only meant, you know, that you’re obviously self-sufficient and independent and you seem like you’re more mature than most 21 year olds. You don’t look old at all you look really young actually–“
“Relax Little Bean,” Elyza’s amused voice mercifully cut Alicia’s rambling short. “I know what you meant. But as adorable as your rambling was, and as much as I’d love to listen to you go on like that all day, we’d better start getting ready to find your family.”
“Oh, yeah, right.” Alicia said lamely. She was a little ashamed to admit that she had all but forgotten about having to find her family during her previous conversation with Elyza.
“I’ll put our bowls away and get some supplies ready for us while you wash up in the bathroom if you’d like. Your clothes are still hanging on the dining chairs if you want to change, though I personally think you should keep that shirt on as long as possible.” Elyza said with a grin as she took Alicia’s now empty bowl from her and made her way to the kitchen to clean their dishes.
Alicia shot a glare at the back of the blonde’s head before throwing the blanket off her legs and collecting her own clothes to change. She most certainly would not be wearing this shirt to find her family.
As she brushed her teeth with a spare toothbrush Elyza had left out for her and began changing into her clothes in the bathroom, she attempted to sort through the multitude of emotions running through her. She was excited at the prospect of seeing her family once more, nervous knowing there was a good chance they would find them dead, and petrified at the possibility of never finding them at all.
But the feeling that really threw Alicia’s mind into a tailspin was the hint of sadness she felt when realizing that, if they did find her family alive today, she’d never see Elyza again. It was something she had never expected to feel when she first agreed to let the blonde help her find her family but now, though small, the feeling was undeniable.
As annoying as her constant flirting, teasing and cocky demeanor were, Alicia had grown to like the Elyza she saw slip through the girl’s care-free façade every now and then. The Elyza that loved listening to old records, spoke of her parents as though they were idols that she once worshiped, and saw Alicia in a way that made the brunette feel more confident and self-assured than she ever thought she could.
Alicia knew it didn’t make sense to be upset about having to leave a girl she couldn’t have known for much more than 12 hours, but still the sadness continued to claw at her chest as she finished neatly folding Elyza’s clothes she had given her the night before.
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply in an attempt to calm her mind and her fluttering heart before opening the bathroom door and placing the folded clothes on the edge of Elyza’s bed. Exiting the bedroom she found Elyza tying up her black boots by the front door, her katana strapped to her back once more along with a black backpack. She had changed out of the pyjamas she had been wearing this morning into a similar outfit as the one she had been in yesterday, though the white t-shirt she wore today was blood free and had what looked like the label for a bottle of whiskey plastered across the front in black lettering. Alicia also noticed her own bat propped up on the wall beside her bag and shoes just to the left of the blonde.
Trying (and failing miserably) to ignore the way the sunlight streaming through the windows caused Elyza’s blonde hair to practically glow and her piercing blue eyes to shine even brighter than normal, Alicia crossed the room in silence before putting her shoes on as well. Still attempting to keep her swirling emotions at a manageable level, she threw her backpack over her shoulder as she stood to face the other girl. Elyza was grinning from ear to ear, clearly excited about the prospect of getting out of the house and possibly finding some walkers to kill. She opened her mouth as though to say something, but snapped it shut quickly and smacked herself in the forehead with the back of her hand.
“Shit! I can’t believe I almost forgot.” She said. Alicia just raised her eyebrows at the girl, thoroughly confused about what had suddenly come over the blonde. Before she could question Elyza however, the Aussie was making her way swiftly back to her bedroom. Moments later she emerged with Alicia’s phone and headphones in her hand.
“I couldn’t let you go without this, I get the feeling you’re like me in that you need music to keep you sane. Well, sane as you can be in a zombie apocalypse I suppose.”
“Thank you!” Alicia said, taking the phone from Elyza and trying to ignore the sinking in her stomach that came at the girl’s words about letting her go.
She put her phone and headphones in her backpack quickly before throwing the bag back over her shoulder.
“Right, well I think we’ve got everything we need now. So grab your bat and let’s make like a baby and head out!” Elyza said, laughing at her own shitty joke as she opened the door for Alicia.
Alicia simply gave her an exasperated look before stepping out of the apartment ahead of the blonde. Maybe she wasn’t so upset about having to leave her after all (no… she definitely still was, dad jokes aside).