THREE MONTHS EARLIER
"And I win again. You know guys, I wish you would at least try, this is getting kinda boring" Melanie gloated, as another bump in the road sent the Monopoly pieces flying across the board only for the five players of the game to sigh, pick them up again and place them back on the board for the what felt like the 100th time that day. The other participants of the game seemed exasperated with this hindrance of playing a board game in the back of a moving van. I, on the other hand, just took it as part of the game. I had never played any other way, never known anything different.
The van in question was, at that moment, travelling down a dirt track, making the bumps and resultant interruptions numerous. A long ride home at the end of an even longer raid.
"If you're tired of winning why don't you try not cheating?" Jared, who was attempting to control the van, laughed from the front seat.
"Excuse me? I think I must have heard you wrong. Are you, Jared, accusing me, Melanie, the gorgeous, stunning and evidently highly talented Monopoly player of cheating?" Melanie gasped, placing her hand on her heart as though the allegation of some not very well hidden cheating wounded her delicate nerves.
"Ermm…Yes. Yes, I think I am"
"You are soooo gonna regret that when we pull over" Melanie threatened pulling her most scary glare from her arsenal of menacing faces.
"Oh really" Jared laughed. It was easy at times to forget that Melanie and Jared had got married only two weeks ago the way they argued, but that was just their relationship. They both had big personalities that clashed on a regular basis, but if you looked through that it was clear how much they loved each other.
It was that love that had brought me to the little group of humans in the first place and so I was forever grateful to them. It was through them that I had found him.
Mel and Jared continued to disagree but I was distracted from this daily occurrence by the person sitting beside me. Him. He seemed to be the only one continuing to pay attention to the game, the other players joining in with Mel and Jared's banter. He stared at the board, his ice blue eyes intent on the pieces, their slight squint showed me that he was thinking. I gazed at the face that I knew better than my own. The pitch black hair that fell across the pale face and down over the most striking blue eyes I had ever seen – even bluer than his brother's, Kyle, who sat opposite.
He noticed my staring then and looked up at me with a smile in his eyes.
Ian.
The reason for which I was here right now, the reason I was alive. Without him I would have died a year ago. Not only in the physical sense but mentally too. He was, quite literally, the thing that made my life worth living.
"Tired of monopoly yet?" He asked me, grinning. "I think everyone else is."
I looked around to see that he was right. Mel and Jared had finished their spat and Mel had scrambled into the front passenger seat of the van and was holding Jared's free hand. Kyle, Ian's brother, was entangled with Sunny, a fellow soul, in the corner of the van, staring into each other's eyes in such a way that made me turn away and blush. I quickly looked down; hoping to hide the fact that my face had turned the colour of a tomato, but Ian was too quick. He moved towards me and caught my chin with his hand, pulling my face up until my golden eyes were level with his blue ones. My heart thudded in my chest. Everytime he was near to me, everytime he touched me my heart beat picked up and my blood started rushing through my body at what felt like an almost unhealthy speed.
Suddenly I was thrown backwards, my head whacking into the side of the van. A sharp pain went through my head and I shut my eyes, trying not to cry. One of Jared's trademark sharp stops.
"Hey sorry about the rough landing guys" Jared smirked, twisting to face us from the front seat.
"You're an idiot Jared" Ian shouted. He sounded almost…angry? "Are you okay Wanda" He continued in a much softer tone, his hands probing my head, feeling for any damage.
"Yeah, I'm fine Ian. Don't worry, it was nothing" I said trying to calm Ian's obvious distress. "It was just a little bump"
"Hear that Ian. Just a little bump. No need to get your knickers in a twist" Jared said, continuing to laugh.
Ian said nothing, just glared and then proceeded to help me out of the back doors of the van that Kyle and Sunny had already slipped out of. As I stepped out of the van, the bright sun light hit my face, causing me to squint and cover my eyes with my hand.
Ian chuckled and slid his sunglasses onto my face. His hand lingering on my cheek a little longer than was necessary. I opened my eyes to see Ian's face close to mine through the dark tint of the sunglasses. I smiled and said quietly "Thanks"
"You're welcome" He replied and then stood and walked back to the van to help Kyle and Sunny unload our meagre amount of luggage. We travelled light.
With Ian's slightly too big sunglasses on, I could easily see the hotel at which we would be staying at that evening. It was fairly boring, fairly clean, and fairly standard. Everything we had come to expect.
We were currently on a raid, travelling miles and miles to collect supplies from different shops and hospitals. It was a nerve wracking experience but it was coming to a close, only a few stops left on Jared's military precise schedule.
There was one thing that a raid did mean - a new hotel and a new bed every night. This caused me fresh embarrassment and anxiousness every night. Although back home, at the caves, Ian and I shared a bed, there was never any chance of anything happening because people, and by people I mean Mel, casually walk in and out of other people's rooms as if they owned the place. This meant nothing could ever happen. Something for which I was usually grateful. I loved Ian and wanted more than anything to be with him in that way but I just didn't feel ready and so, to me, there was always an upside to Mel's arrogance.
At hotels it was a different story. No one else around. Just me and Ian sharing a bed. At this thought my heart beat picked up and I felt the familiar heat of a blush painting my cheeks. I was contemplating why I felt this way when the world began to resurface around me and I could hear a loud, mocking voice coming from about 5cm away from my face. Mel. Who else?
"Wanda, hellooooo. Wanda. WANDA!" Mel laughed, clicking her fingers and waving her hand close to my face. "Jeez! Are you sleeping with your eyes open or something?" She snorted. I blinked, trying to drag myself away from my worries and laughed too.
Mel, noticing the exit of my glazed look, took my hand and pulled me towards the electric doors leading into a small foyer…
We had no trouble booking in, souls were so trusting. The women at the desk didn't even check the human's eyes or their non-existent scars at the back of their necks. She gave us our three keys and we walked towards the stairs, Ian ignoring my protests that I could carry my own bag.
Kyle and Sunny and then Mel and Jared peeled off as they found their rooms, but me and Ian carried on walking, looking for our room. Room 473.
"Okay here it is" Ian said stopping outside a door and slipping the key in. He turned it and pushed the door inwards, motioning for me to go in first. I walked into our room and sat down on the bed. Ian followed and dropped the two bags he was carrying by the door leading into the bathroom.
"Not too bad" Ian laughed, surveying the room "better than the hotel two nights ago. The décor in that place was horrible" I laughed with him, remembering Ian flicking the tassels hanging off the hideous lamp that had stood in the corner of that particular hotel room.
Ian walked towards me and sat next to me on the bed. "I hate to be boring but Jared told me to tell you to have an early night. You have a huge task tomorrow" Ian's face creased into a frown as it always did when he thought I was being unfairly used by Jared and the rest of the humans to gather supplies. "I don't see why you have to go and get clothes. I mean there not exactly essentials"
"Ian its fine. Anyway Mel and Sunny will be with me. It's not like I'm doing all the work" Ian raised his eyebrows at this but said nothing. I was pleased he didn't pursue the topic. I didn't want to discuss the ethics of using me to stock up everyone's wardrobes right now. I had other things on my mind.
A few hours later, I was lying in bed whilst Ian took a shower. The steam from the bathroom was seeping from the sides of the door frame, making the room hot and humid. I was wearing shorts and a thin, short sleeved tee-shirt yet I was getting hot. I sighed and got out of bed, walking towards the window. I glanced out at the ever-darkening scene as I opened the window a fraction.
This window looked out onto the car park. I could see the van, tucked into a corner, under a tree, away from prying eyes. Kyle never slept in the van anymore, Sunny had managed to convince him that hotel rooms were relatively safe, especially with her around. The fact that Kyle had taken Sunny's advice was reassuring to me. A sign that the distance between them created by Jodi's conspicuous absence was slowly closing.
I glanced around the rest of the scene noticing that there were only two other cars in the car park. One a small, dark green mini. The other a dark black saloon car, parked in the shadows so I had to strain my eyes to see it. As I watched there was a flicker of movement inside and, squinting against the darkness and the film of grime across the window, I could just about make out a figure sitting in the front seat. A figure looking straight at me. I gasped and quickly tugged the curtains back across the window, hiding the car from sight. I knew that it was probably nothing, but when you are with a group of humans in a soul infested planet, paranoia was hard to escape.
I stood there whilst my heart beat gradually slowed and tried not to imagine what would happen if my family was ever discovered. As I walked back over to the bed I was so wrapped up in these thoughts of that I didn't notice that the shower had stopped until I bumped into Ian.
"Whoa, sorry" I mumbled as I realised that he was bare-chested, nothing but a towel slung around his waist. I started to blush realising that my hands were splayed on his chest. I could feel the thick bands of muscle that comes from serious exercise under my fingers, tensing where my hands rested.
I had seen Ian without a top before. Often when we played football in the caves, the men took theirs off as it got hot easily underground. However he always slept with one on. Mainly, I think out of respect for me. Ian was always careful not to push me too far. He knew how new everything was too me, and didn't want to make me do anything I didn't want to. Another reason to add to the growing list of why I loved him.
"That's quite alright Wanda" Ian said, winking. He laughed to show me he was joking then stepped back. "I forget to take my clothes into the bathroom" He turned, picked up a bundle of clothes from the chair and went back to the bathroom.
I returned to the bed, my face still burning from embarrassment. But also from something else. Standing there, with my hands pressed against Ian's bare chest, I wanted him more than I ever had…
Ian came back out of the bathroom then in lose, grey jogging bottoms and a black short sleeved top, stretched tight over his muscled body. The sight of it brought back the feelings from a few minutes ago and I blushed again.
"I love it when you blush" he chuckled, as he slipped into the bed right next to me. He turned on his side and stroked my cheek with the back of his hand. He was so close to me, his face right above me, that my heartbeat began to pick up once more.
"Really? I can't think it's a terribly attractive look" I whispered, my voice all breathy.
"Hmm...I think I'm going to have to disagree with you there." He smiled, teasing me as my breath came out in small gasps.
Finally, he leaned down to touch his lips to mine, incredibly gently as though I might break. For a moment I was in heaven. I thought of nothing, no one but the feel of Ian's lips on mine. The lips that were suddenly gone.
After barely a second he had pulled back and sighed. It seemed as though he was frustrated but trying not to let it show. I had never really thought how much my hesitance might affect Ian. He was human after all.
I was about to say something when Ian sighed again. "I love you Wanda"
"I love you too Ian" as I said it I realised that I meant it yet I had never shown it. Ian never knew how much he meant to me. He must get so frustrated. In more ways than one.
Ian promptly fell asleep, his body splaying out all over the bed in his characteristic sleeping position. I, however, spent most of the night thinking. I decided that the best way to show Ian how much he meant to me, how much I trusted him was to show him that I was ready to fully commit. His birthday was next week and I identified this as an ideal opportunity. Now all I needed was a little help from Melanie…