Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 135792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“We don’t know where we are, do we?” Knox asked. At least when they walked between the trees, leaves stopped some of the rain from falling on their heads.
Liv shivered in the jacket that already felt like armor made of ice. “Dunno. Canada? That’s an awful lot of trees,” he said, leading the way.
“I guess we’ll know by the accents eventually?” Knox mused without much enthusiasm. “Don’t they have signs in both English and French?”
“Never been past Nevada,” Liv said. Fatigue encouraged him to sit down. But if he listened to his instincts, getting up again would have been even harder, so he followed Knox toward… whatever they’d spotted from the train, while the leaky roof of leaves drummed over their heads.
Knox didn't answer, walking in silence with his face hidden under the hood and his shoulders hunched. Liv estimated it would take them at least twenty minutes to reach the potential shelter. Last night had not only been cold and uncomfortable, but they had also taken turns sleeping, so they wouldn’t end up robbed of the very few possessions they did still have. Maybe this place would offer them a bit more comfort.
When Liv saw Knox raise his hand to his face a few times, his body stiffened with worry. The last thing they needed now was either of them catching a cold.
Unable to stand the uncertainty any longer, he cleared his throat and spoke. “You okay?”
He braced himself for an explosion of bad temper as silence stretched between them like a string of fatty pizza cheese. Knox had the tendency to get into his own head too much, and often became his own worst enemy.
In the end, Knox let out a shivery breath and rubbed his face again. “I’m just so damn hungry. We’ve got nothing left, and what are we gonna eat until tomorrow? Bark? Rusted cars?” he asked, sniffing.
Shit. This was bad. Liv’s stomach pressed to his spine, painfully empty, but he would be alright if he waited a few more hours. A healthy person could survive a month without food, and he’d had a burger and fries less than a day ago.
But Knox wasn’t healthy. He lived with a serious condition, and who the fuck knew how his heart would react to prolonged hunger?
Liv’s body shivered in warning, but he took off the backpack and unzipped it. “No, we still have two protein bars,” he lied, because if he told Knox the truth, the proud bastard would insist on sharing the food. “You want yours?”
Knox’s big blue eyes zeroed in on him as if he’d just found out the ordeal of the past few days had only been a bad dream. “Oh, God! Fuck yes! I thought we were out.” He looked so genuinely happy when he took the food that Liv almost forgot his own hunger. The bar wasn’t big, but it would tide Knox over until morning.
Liv was two years older than Knox, which didn’t seem like much, but when they’d first met, Knox had been fourteen and much skinnier than he was now. And Liv still felt a bit responsible for him. Knox would kill him if he voiced that sentiment out loud, but while Liv’s stomach protested with a silent grumble, it brought him peace to see Knox eat.
He would be all right for another night, and maybe come morning, they could find some real food.
“Don’t eat too fast, it’ll last you longer.”
Knox raised his empty hands. “Too late. All gone,” he said with his mouth full. At least his eyes regained some of their usual spark. They had dimmed since Liv had first hooked up with Amanda, and while Liv still thought Knox deserved someone better, he did feel guilty over how things had gone down. The end of that relationship was better for everyone involved, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t acted like an ass by taking away Knox’s choice.
“Lots of room in that mouth of yours.”
“I’ve got cheeks like a hamster,” Knox said and laughed. “When I was fifteen, my dad got obsessed with me bulking, because he claimed that if I didn’t start growing, I’d end up small. You learn to eat fast when you have to go through three chicken breasts for dinner. He didn’t even put salt on them, and they tasted disgusting. But I’d eat one now.”
Liv’s smile faltered. “No wonder they put him away. Unsalted fucking chicken breast. Child abuse.”
“It was most definitely a crime against humanity. Only your monstrosity of a pie could compete. Remember? We must have been still in school, and you wanted to impress a girl. Rebecca or something? You tried to bake her a pie, but mistakenly added salt to the crust instead of sugar. And you couldn’t afford strawberries, so you made the filling out of zucchini and sugar, because you saw someone adding beetroot to chocolate cake dough on TV and figured you could make it work. That thing came out so fucking ugly too.”