Chapter 51: Cons of Reading Too Much Romance
10 Minutes Later.
Andrea was sprawled on Fredrinn’s lap on a cardboard sheet.
Her large chest heaved rhythmically, the slight cleavage peeking under her clothes and triggering Fredrinn’s hormones to run rampant.
To make matters worse, she still had her hair over his crotch like the last time.
Luckily, she didn’t move as much this time.
Her eyes were closed and lips puckered shut into a slight pout.
She looked beyond kissable at the moment, but unfortunately for Fredrinn, Rhea and Naomi were both still awake and sitting across him with their legs folded.
Unlike Andrea, they didn’t seem in any condition to sleep.
"What’s wrong, you two?" Fredrinn asked gently, seeing their ashen expressions.
"Uhm... nothing. It will be morning in a couple of hours so I figured I should just stay awake..." Rhea murmured slowly.
"I just want to make a few calls." Naomi had her head buried into her phone.
Fredrinn ignored her.
"A couple of hours is enough time to take at least a power nap, Rhea." He said sternly.
Rhea lowered her head, "You know... I am not strong like my sister. I am not like her. After everything that happened... I just can’t sleep."
Her voice cracked, "Everytime I close my eyes, the blood, the screams, those disgusting zombies. Everything flashes past my eyes. I have never been a horror fan, you see?"
"Then I must flash in your eyes too, hmm?" Fredrinn gave her an easy going smile, "Not in a good way, of course."
Rhea’s face flushed slightly and she cleared her throat, "I... Yeah... The way you killed those people on our shelf... It shocked me to my core... Of course, I know you did it to protect us and I really don’t think badly of you for it..." She rambled on.
For another minute, Rhea went on to describe that she knew he meant well for them but she was just scared.
Fredrinn allowed her to speak unrestrained, letting her voice crack and tears drip down her eyes.
He had already noticed that Rhea was a little too innocent for the ruthless apocalypse, but he never knew that it was this bad.
She was crying for the people who caused the whole situation in the first place?
"Don’t worry, Rhea." He smiled, "I don’t need the justification you’re giving me."
Realizing his words may feel a little too blunt, he continued, "To me, killing them for their spot was already justified when the choice was between your lives and theirs. Nothing else meant much."
Rhea’s breath hitched at the words, and her eyes opened wide.
Did he even realize the... meaning behind his words?
The way he framed his sentence made her heart flutter despite the clearly dangerous and ruthless words he spoke.
In real life, she hated danger, blood, and everything scary. But, she had read quite a bit of those ’romance’ books.
Rhea seemed to believe that stuff was only fiction and she couldn’t find a man like that, though she also didn’t want to settle for anything lesser, which led her to staying single all her life.
However... for the first time, Rhea felt that those fictional men may even be possible.
Fredrinn wasn’t perfect by any means. Hell, he didn’t even have any memories of his past.
But...
’NO! NO NO NO!’ Rhea shook her head, ’Look at sister, Rhea! She’s literally sleeping in his lap! You cannot do this to your own sister! In addition, will he even like me compared to Andrea and that beautiful Jennifer?’
She lowered her gaze with an inward sigh, ’Imaginary lovers are good enough for me, I guess...’
When Rhea disappointedly glanced up to look back at Fredrinn, she was surprised to see him looking in her direction with an amused smile on his lips.
Her cheeks instantly blushed and if this were an anime, smoke would’ve exploded out of her ear.
’Does he already know what I am thinking about?! NO!!! Did I speak out my thoughts unconsciously?! Asking about it would be weird, no?;
She herself didn’t realize how quickly her mind had gotten distracted from the depressing thoughts.
’Did I say something right now?’ She thought to herself, ’NO! That sounds so weird! Who even asks that? UGH! Why isn’t he saying anything? Doesn’t he know that smiling like that to someone is creepy?!
Though he doesn’t look creepy at all...’
Fredrinn obviously couldn’t read her thoughts, but just by her expressions, he could guess what she was thinking about.
And he didn’t want to interrupt that train of thoughts at all. Just looking at her felt entertaining enough.
On the side, Naomi was seriously busy calling one number to another.
Till now, no one had picked up at all.
Noticing Fredrinn’s gaze, she looked up and tilted her phone in his direction.
"This girl’s from Ohio. I met her a while ago and she’s got a rich family over there. High chances of her being alive. If she picks it up, we can find some information about the camp there."
"Oh? I hope she picks the call then."
Fredrinn nodded, waiting for the woman to pick the call alongside Naomi while Rhea was still overthinking about the situation.
But after a couple rings, the call was disconnected.
"Tsk, your hope didn’t do anything. She didn’t pick up."
"I am a bad person, it’s your fault for believing in the prayers of an atheist."
"..." Naomi stared at him flatly, before snorting and looking down, scrolling her phone in front of him.
In the search bar, she had typed Ohio, and by now, she had already called more than half of the caller list. Everyone that she knew was in Ohio.
"This is crazy, you know? The first time I have called so many people and not a single person responded. I can understand the apocalypse, but isn’t there a safe zone there?" Naomi complained as she dialed another number.
Fredrinn sighed, "Bad luck, maybe. Or your contacts have the survival skills of a bee."
Naomi harrumphed, retorting that some of them were even in the army, but before she could do so, the final contact of her list picked up the call.
"Hello, who’s speaking? You’ve literally called more than 10 different phone numbers in this span of 2 minutes. Just speak your damn business and stop calling, bruh."