When the Sun Begins to Die

Chapter 8

Josh P.O.V

I walk out from the bathroom with a towel around my waist. It slipped my mind that I probably should have brought clothes with me to the bathroom.

I grab some random clothes out of my bag and begin to walk back to the bathroom. Out of the corner of my eye, I see that Cadence is asleep. I make sure to be quiet so I won't wake him up.

I throw on some boxers, a pair of shorts, and a T-shirt. I didn't bother to bring anything fancy. The world could be ending soon, why should I care what I wear?

I sigh softly and dry off my hair. I walk out quietly and lay on my bed. Cadence is still asleep. I think he is rather cute.

'I didn't come here to meet new people. In all honesty, I wanted to avoid people. Something about Cadence makes me curious. I want to get to know him better. The end of the world isn't exactly a good time to make friends, but I'd rather go out while having friends than dying alone.'

I take out my phone and see that there is no service. I sigh softly, setting it back down. I wanted to see if I could get on any form of social media to see if people were posting any goodbyes. I doubt that anyone actually would, but I wanted to see. There's only a few I would care about.

I try to sleep for a bit, seeing no reason to stay awake. Unfortunately, I am wide awake and cannot sleep no matter how hard I try. It is a major struggle.

I lie in bed and waited for Cadence to wake up. I enjoy talking to him. He seems rather interesting. I want to know more about him because I've never met a transgender person before.

After about twenty more minutes Cadence stirs in his bed and sits up, running his fingers through his hair. His hoodie is once again slipping off of his shoulder, exposing a bit of his chest as well. It seems to be a rather loose hoodie.

"Hey Josh," he says through a yawn while stretching, moving the hoodie back over his shoulder.

"Hey," I say, sitting up on my elbows.

He looks around the apartment for a moment before sighing. He is probably disappointed that he has to live somewhere like this. It isn't exactly ideal.

"This is going to be a long two years," he mumbles, more to himself than to me.

"Why only two years?" I ask, figuring that if this dome plan the government came up with works that we would live her longer.

Cadence looks down, rubbing the back of his neck with a sigh. "My parents only had enough money to pay for my sister's ticket because she can't have children. They were able to get me into The Oasis by promising I would have a child by the end of two years. Obviously, that is not something I am going to put my body through after two years of hormone treatments. I will probably be evicted after that. That's why I'm not allowing myself to get too comfortable," he explains.

I am surprised that Cadence's parents would be willing to put him through something like that. I suppose it was to save him from the inevitable, but I can't imagine how it must make him feel.

"Maybe they won't kick you out. They are trying to keep the population up after all. It would be a waist to evict you," I tell him.

He smiles and pulls his knees up to his chest. "Thanks for staying positive, Josh," he says softly.

I smile and nod. "No problem."