Surviving The Aftermath (Book 1): The Dead Linger by Liz Roberts

helping her make deliveries and we were talking and I thought she was with Mike because he leaned but then she leaned and said she wasn’t and kissed me.” He was quickly trying to rattle off details.
    “Hang on slow down. Ok I have Meghan was leaning and kissed you, and she’s not dating Mike who was leaning? Do I have that correct?” Jill somewhat laughing a bit now.
    “Yes, and we made out in the truck. It was awesome.” Jack said and flung his body back on the bed.
    “I gather that. So what does all this mean?” She chuckled. A blank look was now all over Jack’s face as he sat back up.
    “I don’t know. Should I go ask her? What do I do now?” He started to rise.
    “Hold on don’t ask her anything, just be calm and patient. She’ll come find you and then you guys can talk about things. You have to be really careful how you handle this, the community here is super tiny, and if you mess with her in the wrong way, people are going to be upset, and who knows what will happen.” She went on to explain.
    “Hey what’s wrong?” Jack asked suddenly stopping his rant of worry about his possibly budding sex life.
    “Nothing, I was just listening to you.” Jill quickly trying to look away from him, so he wouldn’t see her watery eyes.
    “No, you’ve been crying. I can see your eyes are red. Plus your trying to act like everything’s ok when it’s obviously not, my mother pulled the same stuff, except she was better at it.” Jack said now following Jill as she was walking around the room trying to find something to do with her hands.
    “Spill it.” Jack demanded from behind her.
    “I’m fine.” Jill insisted.
    “It must be a woman thing, to pretend you haven’t been crying when you obviously have.” Jack said straight forward and making almost too much sense for Jill to handle. She felt some more tears about to squeeze out, when all of a sudden Jack hugged her. Jill wasn’t even sure what or how it happened she was just being hugged and soothed. An immediate feeling of home came over her. It was like her little brother was right here, in her arms, telling her everything was going to be fine. Her brother was good at helping her feel better when she was low.
    “Thanks Mark.” Jill uttered with her eyes closed and now clinging to Jack.
    “It’s Jack.” He said. Now pulling back to look at Jill’s face and seeing more tears. “Who’s Mark?” he asked her quietly, he wanted her to talk about it.
    “He’s my youngest brother; he would have been 17 this last February. He was tall like you, super blonde,
    skinny-ish, great at football and track.” Jill pulled away completely. Not sure how to proceed with this. She had never really talked to anyone about her family or any of her friends for that matter. There was never any point prior to this, things never lasted long enough to build any kind of friendship or relationship. But now she thought things seemed different. She was making friends, and possibly complicated relationship. She had to be done, clean break. Her mind, her emotions, she couldn’t handle this anymore, she needed to run, escape. Jack was here, he was safe, maybe one day they’d even meet again, but she couldn’t stay her anymore.
    “Jack I’m tired, I think I’ll lay down now.” He was about to say ok, but then eyed her suspiciously.
    “Sure, but are you going to be ok?”
    “Of course.”
    “Then why were you crying? Please tell me.” Jill prowled around the tiny room avoiding Jack.
    “Listen you’re a big boy, you’re here, you’re safe, I’ve got to find my family.” He stared at her and shook his head slightly as if out of a daze.
    “No. No. You can’t go its dangerous. How would you survive? Please, Jill. I can’t lose you.” He grabbed her arms and hands repeated words over and over intent on making her stay. Jill knew this battle was over, for now.
     
     
     
     
    “A fucking month!” Jeff shouted at Tyler.
    “I’m telling you, I’ve asked all