Dean

The sun is slowly setting, and Ella hasn't spoken to me since early after she beat the tar out of me. I deserved it though, I said crap that I should have never even thought of saying. I can't help but wince at the pain on my face. I could've stopped her immediately when she began to punch me, but I couldn't force myself to do that. I deserved it, she needed to get out some anger. I wish I could tell her I'm sorry, but I'm too proud for that. Horrible? I know.

The air is getting cold, and I know that tonight is going to be another night of hardly any sleep. I don't blame her this time if she doesn't want to sleep next to me, I wouldn't either if I were her. If she ever told me anything like that, especially after what I told her about my mom, I would be so furious. I can't just blame her for pushing my buttons, for we push each other's buttons a lot of the time. I can't seem to stop, though. All I know with her, is to tease and be a total jerk. It's not an excuse, but I wouldn't know how to even act around her if I pretended to act in another way.

My mind wonders to when we raced each other to the road, and I can't help but almost smile. I had a lot of friends, but never close friends, and I wonder if Ella and I would have been close if I didn't start out our relationship being enemies right off the bat. It doesn't matter, I guess. You can't change back time, and all those idiots that say they would do it different if they could take back time, are liars. If you would do something different, you have done something different at the time you did it.

"Are you getting tired yet?" I ask, trying to break the silence, and hoping she's not giving me one of those childish silent treatments, no matter how much I deserve them.

"No, I have a lot of energy in me." Her voice is on edge, letting me know she's still upset.

"You can say if you're tired--"

"I'm not tired!" She snaps, before stopping and running her hands over her face. "I would tell you if I were." Despite the darkness creeping over us, I can see the faint blood stained on her knuckles, and I wonder if they pain her as much as my face pains me.

"I know," I whisper. "I was just making sure."

"Well, don't. Don't make sure, Dean, don't worry about me. You don't need to ask me about being tired, camp when you think it's time, you have a watch. Check it if you need to, you don't have to ask me." In all of the times I've made her mad, she's never been so calm yet so over the edge, and I don't really like how she's acting.

"You're a part of this trip, Ella, I need to know when you want to rest." We still haven't moved, and I kind of like just standing here as the wind picks up. It's been a lot easier to travel since we found the road, I don't get as tired quickly.

"I'm a part of this trip, huh?" She shakes her head, and I'm getting prepared for whatever is coming next. "Then treat me like that, Dean. Don't treat me like your freaking enemy anymore and shoot daggers at me that would pierce the heart. Never would I have ever said anything like that to you, and you don't even care. You haven't even apologized, not that I would accept it, but it would be nice to know if you actually were sorry. Of course you aren't, though. You're God's gift to mankind, you don't make mistakes."

"Stop, Ella, just stop. Don't tell me not to treat you like the enemy when you treat me the exact same. So, I said some stuff I didn't mean, we both have. Maybe not to that extent, but I wanted you to feel some pain, okay? I wanted you to feel the--never mind. Nothing I ever say or you ever will say can change anything. We don't mesh. We hate each other with a passion, and it's not going to change. You're bratty and I'm a jerk. We're actually not that different if you put it like that."

"We are so different. We aren't anything alike, and I never want to hear that again. You're an alien, Dean, you don't belong here." She walks by me, shoving me with her shoulder as she passes, and I'm tempted to scream. Not like it would help, but I'm so beyond sick of her. In these four days we've been together, we haven't made any progress, instead fallen behind. I hate her more now then I did in school. We don't see eye to eye, and maybe it's because we're from two different planets.

"I am an alien, but I cared when that stupid little asteroid hit the town over and your kind didn't even blink an eye the next day until that giant one came at us," I call to her, her legs still carrying her away as mine remain still.

"I cared too, Dean, but why would I show it when no one else did?" She asks, before turning around and facing me, the darkness making it harder than ever to see her.

"And yet, you continue to believe that we're different," I breathe.

"We are different, we are nothing alike." I begin to walk towards her, my temper rising in a frustrated way.

"Nothing? We're both stubborn, throw nasty comments back and forth, care about this planet, hate each other's species, are complete and utterly prideful, lost everything, and here we are, stuck with one another. But you refuse to see how similar we are. You think I like the idea that I have things in common with you? No, but I can't change it." I shrug, even though she can't see me. I despise this girl in front of me with everything I have, and she despises me just the same.

"Everyone has those character traits in them, Dean, not just you and me. Pride and stubbornness come with being human. Well, being alive actually, and everyone's lost someone a time or two. And all humans care for the Earth, despite them not always showing it." She either really doesn't believe that we are similar, or she's trying to pretend that she doesn't see it.

"What about our hatred for each other's species? Mine doesn't like yours, but they don't hate the humans. And not everyone loses everything like we had, I mean, I lost an entire planet and the same thing might be happening here. Besides, how come it was just us who survived and no one else?" I can hear her breathing pick up, and I can tell she's frustrated as well.

"I don't know, I don't why we're the only ones who survived." She sits down in the middle of the road, and I find myself doing the same thing.

"Our stubbornness saved us, our determination." She scoffs at me through the dark.

"Determination? I thought I was going to die as I huddled in the storage closet with my family, I had no driven determination to survive." Me neither, I almost want to say, but don't. I wanted to survive, but I didn't think I would.

"I'm just saying, we aren't that different."

"For heaven's sake, Dean, why is it even such a sudden big deal to you?" I hold my arms close to me as I pull the backpack off my arm, the temperature decreasing.

"I just want you to see that just because we're from different planets, doesn't make me an alien." I hate when she calls me an alien, it makes it sound worse than when anyone else says it. It's as if she's accusing me of being something wrong. I'm not wrong, I'm just....different, and that's okay.

"I can picture you to be whatever I want. When I think of alien, I think of a being that doesn't care about the other species, only about finding out more about their planet, no matter at what cost. I imagine that they hurt people, only caring about their kind." I want to speak up, but I can't. She just described what she thought of me, and it makes me feel worse then when she just called me the word. "And, Dean? I thought this before I even knew about your kind." I don't reply, there's nothing to say.

I can hear her adjusting her body, and I know the conversation is over and she's going to sleep.

Setting the pack up as a pillow, I hold my body close to me as my teeth begin to chatter, and I only hope that sleep comes.