Forever and Always

One and Another

Beth came up with the idea that we should rotate running partners.

Once the idea escaped her lips, the idea was shot down by the shouts of five others. We all loved each other, but let's face it. Carl and I wanted to be alone together and so did Glenn and Maggie.

Beth let her idea go and continued her breakfast.

Carl glanced at me and grinned. I was twirling the ring that he had given me around my finger. It had become a bad habit.

The days had come to repeat themselves. We would get out of bed to face the fucked up world, eat breakfast, go on runs, then we would have the rest of the night to ourselves.

After I finished my breakfast, I moved into my cell and grabbed my gun and knives. I tended to use the knives more than the gun because after seeing what a herd of Walkers did to Rick, I realized that I truly didn't want to face a herd all by myself. Therefore, the gun was out of the question.

Carl came in behind me and put on the hat that he told me last night was Rick's. Nowadays, he held it like he didn't want to ruin it. I didn't blame him. If I had something of my mother's, I wouldn't want it to be ruined either.

He stuffed his weapons in his belt and grabbed my hand. Together, we walked out of the prison and to the street that had been the one that I lived on.

We found our way into my next door neighbor's house. I remembered that the boy that lived here was blonde and was extremely funny. He and I had dated for a while. He was one of the number one players on the soccer team. Whenever I was in a bad mood, he knew how to turn my frown into a smile. Sometimes he would become tiresome and obnoxious, but we had remained friends. After the apocalypse started, I hadn't seen him. I kind of figured that he had gone off with his family or had been killed by the Walkers. After the initial thought about him, I hadn't thought about him since.

Until we walked into the basement of his house and found him sitting in the corner of the room with a blade in his hand.

"Stevan?" I asked as I got closer to him.

He lowered his weapon,''Jocelyn? Is it you?"

I leaped into his arms and gave him a huge squeeze. My initial thought was that I finally was seeing one of my actual friends again. My second thought was that this friend was my ex and my current boyfriend was standing right behind me.

Stevan held me back and looked me up and down,"Even when you're dirty, you still look beautiful."

I let out a nervous giggle.

Suddenly he pushed me out of the way and threw himself behind me. He started attacking Carl. I tried to pull the two boys apart. I knew that if these boys wanted to, they could really hurt someone.

I saw the flash of a knife, even though I had no idea whose it was. Then Carl let out a small scream.

"STOP IT!" I yelled.

Both boys looked at me. Carl was holding his arm and there was a bruise blooming on Stevan's face.

"Stevan, why did you attack him?"

He looked at Carl and seemed to be seeing him as a person for the first time,"Damn, man. I'm sorry. I thought you one of those things."

Carl gave him a look of complete doubt,"How the hell did you mistake me for a Walker?"

"Well. You did come out of the shadows like one of them."

They stared at each other in awkward silence before I walked over to Carl, who was still holding his arm.

"Let me see."

He removed his hand from his arm and I gasped.

There was a huge, deep cut in his forearm.

"We need to get you back to the prison."

I turned to Stevan,"Is there anyone with you?"

He shook his head.

I looked at Carl. He shook his head. I looked back at Stevan and then at Carl.

He sighed and nodded.

"Would you like to come with us? There are others where we live. The only thing is that you would have to contribute like bringing food and helping out with the babies."

Carl snickered because Beth had asked us to do that but Stevan didn't need to know that.

He nodded.

With that, he grabbed a bag and all the food around his house and all together, we walked to the prison.

Daryl and Beth were waiting by the door for us. They didn't ask any questions when Stevan walked in. They must have figured out that it took us a long time because we had recruited another member.

Once all of the introductions had been made, Stevan moved to the side of the main room to put away the food. Carl and I rushed to the bathroom where we had put the medical supplies from my house.

Carl sat on the toilet seat as I poured rubbing alcohol on the open cut. I cringed as he cried out in pain. He was still seething when I had finished fastening the gauze around the wound.

"Who was that guy?" Carl asked as I started putting the supplies away.

I gave a sheepish grin,"He was one of the few people that I hung out with that I really considered as a friend."

He looked away,"In my eyes, he wanted to be more than friends."

"We used to date."

Carl stood and went to our cell. I hurriedly put the rest of the stuff away and stormed after him.

He was laying on his cot and staring at the ceiling.

"I don't feel that way for him. Not anymore."

I sat down next to him when he sat up.

"I've seen it happen before. When an old lover comes into the picture, the female in the middle tries to hide her real feelings while she loves them both. I don't want to be that one that gets pushed to the side because you love somebody else."

I leaned forward and kissed him. When we separated, I held up my hand for him to see the ring.

"You don't have to be. I don't like him like that anymore. And even if I did," I teased,"I promised myself to you."

He gave a small smile and kissed me.