This Beautiful World - Book #1 (BxB)

Chapter 40

This chapter contains sexual content. Viewer discretion is advised.

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My room was still the same as I remembered, just as the rest of my home. While I was away for college, nothing had changed. It was still clean, proving that no monsters broke in here during the chaos. I could relax just as I wanted to.  

"Make yourself comfortable," I told him as I walked to my closet. 

During our stay at the apartment building, if we wanted to have a change of clothes, we needed to go through whatever was left behind in the building. It no longer made me uncomfortable like when we first arrived there. Now that I was home again, I grabbed some of my own clothes. One thing that I was glad that my family has is a generator. It should still work, so I could get the hot water working again. It had been too long since I'd been able to have a hot shower. At the apartments, there was only ice-cold water. 

I let Arin know what I would be up to before leaving him alone in my bedroom. For a few minutes, I could be alone and try to clear my head. Too much had been going on lately, and it was getting hard for me to process everything. If I wasn't scared to, I might have come back to my home by myself. But I was also glad to have Arin here with me. Ever since meeting him, he had been nothing but nice and he was always willing to go out of his way for me. I don't think that anyone else would have been willing to do this. 

My thoughts drifted to Alex for a moment. Despite knowing him for so long, I knew he wouldn't have agreed to this. Alex would have told me I was stupid for wanting to go home, and he would have been right. I risked too much by leaving the safety we created in the apartment building. Plus, dragging Arin along with me was putting his life in danger as well. I guess I wasn't very good at thinking before I acted. 

Getting a hot shower again was the relaxation that I needed. I wanted to stop thinking about everything that had been going on. For just a moment, I wanted to believe that this was all a dream. In this make-believe scenario, I was back home after finishing the semester. Things were normal, with Mom and Caitlyn at home as well. Part of me would even accept my father being here. One big happy family, even though I knew that would never happen again. Mom and Caitlyn might still be around, but my father wasn't. My only hope for him was that he was still alive, which, knowing my dad, he was probably at one of the other shelters. 

I wouldn't be surprised if he was the reason why the zombie outbreak happened in the first place. 

There was a knock on the bathroom door, which pulled me away from my thoughts. When I heard Arin opening the door, I poked my head out from behind the curtain. Though he couldn't see the rest of my body, it still made me nervous to be in this state when he was this nearby. 

He seemed nervous as well when he said, "I'm sorry for intruding like this. I know you haven't been feeling well lately, so I am just worried about you."

It was sweet of him to think about me as he did. Though everything lately felt overwhelming, eventually, I would be okay again. I nodded and said, "I'm fine. Thank you for checking up on me." I glanced away from him before shyly adding, "Um . . . do you want to join me?"

Arin seemed a bit shocked by my boldness. I was also surprised with myself, but I meant it. Perhaps it could have waited until after the shower, but I wanted to be in his embrace right now. I wanted him to comfort me. Lately, I have been feeling alone. Especially after all that happened with Riley. Having Arin hold me might make the loneliness go away for a little while.

Despite how anxious he must have been feeling, Arin obliged. I must have been feeling more nervous than him, though. I had never seen another man naked in person before, so with each article of clothing that he removed, I felt my face getting warmer. My heartbeat picked up when he was finally wearing nothing, and then he approached me.