End of the Line

by Ottilie Weber

“I don’t think we went this way,” complained Jill sounding annoyed.

  “Of course we did, doesn’t that tree look familiar?” I answered, pointing to a tree as Sean mimicked my footsteps.

  “You’re recognizing trees! We’re in the freaking woods and you’re basing where we are going on trees!” yelled Jill, really ticked off now, her hands held in front of her clenched and shaking.

  “Fine, we’ll stop here if you’re that insecure about where we’re going.” I almost snapped after a day of walking. We all needed a good night’s sleep.

  We all sat down on the ground.

  “What are the odds of us even finding that house again? I mean, we haven’t been to it in months. Something could have happened to the house too.”

  I stared at Lauren who sat next to me. Her black eye wasn’t as deep and dark in color as it had been a few days ago. The healing had left her eye looking closer to normal. Her lips were still swollen and there was still a cut by them. She curled her legs under her to sit on, but she was now in a pair of Jill’s capris.

  “I think if we got ourselves this far, we should be able to figure out where we came from, right?” I shrugged.

  “But we didn’t mark anything when we were walking, and I don’t think we had a particular path,” Lauren answered like the hope had been sucked out of her.

  “We didn’t, but that doesn’t mean we can’t figure it out,” I responded as I took one of her hands in mine, our fingers interlaced once more. “So we’ll rest up tonight. Do you think you’ll be well enough tomorrow to walk?” I asked, looking into her eyes.

  “I’ve been saying that I could walk on my own for days, but you wouldn’t listen.” Lauren sighed before she narrowed her eyes

  I formed a small grin as I gave her hand a light squeeze.

  “Only because I knew you were lying,” I replied, leaning my forehead against hers, an unwanted smile formed on her lips, but true none the less.

  “Are you two some married couple, boyfriend girlfriend thing or something?” asked the very daring eleven-year-old.

  “No!” yelled Lauren and I in unison, jumping away from each other a little before we turned to glance at each other then back at RJ.

  “Sure.” He rolled his eyes.

  “We’re seventeen years old!” Lauren spoke up as if that should be the obvious answer.

  “So, in this world you don’t think that anyone at any age could just claim to be married to someone?” RJ quizzed with a raise brow.

  Lauren and I stared at each other, then shook our heads. Yeah, marriage wasn’t what we were expecting from each other, well at least not then. Our arguing that night had been a fine example of that. I guess that was another reason she didn’t want to have kids with me. I was really beginning to hate her arguments.

  “I still can’t picture being married at this age,” Lauren said.

  “Why? People used to get married at one point when the girl was thirteen. They did that because people died younger. Well I don’t think people will be living too long nowadays," RJ said.

  “Are you trying to make us a married couple?” I finally asked.

  “No, it’s just how you two act with each other and why else would you guys stay with each other like you guys do if you two weren’t together?” RJ continued nonchalantly.

  This was a real good question and I was a bit taken aback by it.

  “To survive, you last longer when you are with a group,” I finally answered.

  “Like a family?” RJ asked.

  “Okay, only a very dysfunctional family.” Lauren laughed a little now, her gaze on me.