“I don’t. I mean, it’s not about that.I’m just sorry.”
My head tilted as I processed what he had said, and once I did, a chuckle bubbled out of me. “Are you honestly apologizing to me just because you’re worried about getting kicked out?”
His eyes widened as he shook his head. “No! That’s not the only reason. I really do know how badly I fucked up. I shouldn’t have ever gone there with Daisy without breaking up with you first, and I don’t have an excuse for that. But I am sorry it hurt you.”
I shook my head as my chest throbbed with a dull ache. “I’ve wanted an apology for years, but it feels flat. I don’t think I’m ready to accept the apology, but I don’t want any more bad blood between us either.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “I am sorry, though.”
I nodded and glanced at Spencer, who gave him a blank stare.
“What’s going on here?” Daisy asked as she came over, but Jay wrapped an arm tightly around her.
I couldn’t help but feel a little smug looking at the deep blues and purples surrounding Daisy’s eye. It looked painful, and I was starting to not feel sorry that I was responsible.
“I apologized for the past and everything else. We’re dropping it, so you need to do the same,” he hissed in her ear.
Her lips flattened into a line before she glanced at me and back at him. “I’m not apologizing.”
“I wouldn’t accept it anyway.” I spun around with Spencer, and we went toward everyone else.
This trip was necessary, but I had a feeling Daisy wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut. If she didn’t, I knew the guys would have no problem leaving them in the town. I just hated how leaving them to face this world alone still bothered me after what they did.
22
TORI
The zombie’s decomposing flesh flew from its face as my golf club cracked its skull, and it dropped like the bag of bones it was. “Two!”
“Three!” Calix shouted as his arrow split open another zombie’s head, and I tried not to watch it splatter everywhere from the hit.
“Four and five,” Nathan shouted as he shot two zombies, one behind the other, with one bullet.
“Six!” Micah’s axe split open yet another undead skull.
Daisy swung her bat, cracking the head of a zombie without arms and knocking it on its back. She screamed as it groaned and tried to roll, but Jay smashed the head all the way in with his bat.
“Seven,” he croaked, turning pale as he stumbled back from the seventh and last zombie in the spot we decided to set up camp.
We’d left behind the forest only about an hour ago, and the rolling hills were pretty, but the ground was hard and cold underneath our feet. The vast area was empty of everything and anyone except for the small group of undead we’d taken care of.
The sound of rushing water signaled the river just up ahead. I wouldn’t have noticed the sound if not for Micah, and he was the one that suggested we run down and catch the attention of any zombie we could find around it.
In total, there were only seven that could be spotted.
We led them a good distance away from the river and the small level area next to it we planned to set up camp at.
“Let’s head back and set up camp,” Micah ordered gruffly, and nobody argued as we trekked toward the river.
The sun peeked through the gray clouds, casting a dull glow over the landscape. We went over the last hill that dropped straight down to the river, and I watched my step as I walked.
“Hold on to my arm, honey,” Calix murmured as he held out his arm, and I grabbed onto him to help steady myself further.
“Thanks, Calix.”
The water rushed through the earth, the surface rippling and tumbling as it flowed. The leaves that lined the bank were brown and decaying over the mud. Chilly evening wind picked up my hair, stirring the strands in my field of vision as we stepped onto the flat, grassy spot near the water’s edge.
I squeezed Calix’s arm before letting go now that we weren’t walking downhill.
