Collide by Shelly Crane

just tricked me with their depth, making me see something that weren’t really there. He was just curios.
    I took a couple deep breaths to settle myself. What’s with those eyes. Matt never looked at me that way, in fact, I barely remember even that face on Matt at all. And why, if Merrick loathed me so much, did he still take the time to come and try to make me feel better? Must be some Keeper thing. It definitely wasn’t a human thing.
     
    The Keepers had a meeting to set up some kind of schedule for showers, meals, ect. They decided that females should have night showers while males had mornings. Of course there were complaints but not many and no yelling out in the open like before.
    There were six showers and toilet stalls so that would work. One more bathroom down the hall was parted, female and male already. Thank goodness but that one only had two toilet stalls. Grateful for a stall at all at this point.
    The place was a gold mine for people looking to hide out for while. I didn’t really see where there was much room to complain.
    Everyone seemed to be in agreement for showers and supper was a whatever-you-wanted-to-fix-for-yourself kind of thing. We had too many mixed foods to make huge meals for everyone.
     
    Most of the people were already in their rooms unpacking. Some put sheets up over the huge windows on each wall of the rooms. Good idea.
    As I walked to check up on Danny, in our room, I saw Susan come out of the bathroom, which was located directly next to her room. She just looked at me and then turned, not looking back before shutting the door. I giggled a frustrated laugh as I started walking again. Some people.
    As I made my way around the corner, I almost bumped into Bobby. He grabbed me with both hands in an overstated motion to catch me as if I would fall. He apologized, his gaze never leaving my face and he didn’t release me.
    “Hey there. Where’s the fire, beautiful?” he asked with the biggest grin.
    “Ha ha. Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. I’m a little rattled, I guess.”
    “Yep. Understandable.” He put his arm over my shoulders and I found myself smiling up at him like a frigging idiot. “We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Bobby.”
    “Sherry.”
    “Well, Sherry, I know we just met and all but...I want you to know you can come talk to me any time you want to or need to. We’ll get through all this. You’ll see.”
    “Thanks, Bobby. I really appreciate it,” I said just as Merrick rounded the corner.
    I immediately pulled away from Bobby and gave us at least a two foot buffer zone. I had no idea why I did that. Who cared if Merrick saw Bobby hugging me? Merrick stopped for just a second, looking surprised but then composed himself and made the corner not looking at either of us.

    Bobby had been making a point to touch, look, stare, or speak to me at every opportunity since that afternoon. Every opportunity, which I liked at first but it was amazing how quickly it started to get old. There was no TV, no couches, no where to escape down there. We were all just kind of in each other’s space so I tried not to blame him too much, chalking it up to boredom, but it was more than that.

    I was cooking some lunch in the kitchen when Bobby came in looking fiercely confident. He came up to me while I stirred my pot and brushed his shoulder against mine.
    “Hey there.”
    “Hey,” I answered trying to sound normal.
    “What are you cooking in here?”
    “Clam chowder.”
“Hmm... You know clams are considered an aphrodisiac.”
    He said it so calmly and easily that I thought he must be serious so I replied just as calmly.
    “I thought it was oysters, not clams.”
    He laughed loudly throwing his arm over me and squeezing my shoulder.
    “Girly, I was just joking. What kind of guy do you think I am.” Then he winked at me and grinned.
    I was completely and utterly lost so I chuckled a bit, hoping to cover.
    “So, what do you do?” I asked to change the