Beautiful Memories • Carl Grimes

Chapter 9

Kate's POV

"That felt good," I say as I breathe out and plop down on my side of the room. Carl closes the door behind us and pinches the bridge of his nose. I can tell the presence of the others is throwing him off.

"I bet it did," he replies and pulls out his pack of cigarettes, locking the door before he lights one. "So what happened yesterday? You just walked in and didn't say a word. You looked like a mess."

I watch him bring it to his lips and open the window, leaning against the frame to blow the smoke out. I choose not to answer because I know he won't believe any excuse that I try to make. Instead, I take a moment to enjoy the silence before I let it get too awkward.

"That smells awful," I comment. My face scrunches up as the wind blows the smoke in my direction. "Why do you deliberately give yourself lung cancer?"

He lets out a small laugh. "And why do you deliberately walk out into the woods and disappear for a whole day?"

"Touché."

"Here," he pulls another one out of the pack and reaches it
out to me. "Try it."

I raise my eyebrows and scoff. "Um, no thanks. If anyone here is going to die from breathing in toxins, it's not going to be me."

He rolls his eyes and his hair falls in front of his face. "One isn't going to hurt you. After this we can try to find some more stuff to put in our hideout."

Something in me goes soft when he says "our hideout" and I really like the sound of it. It's progress between us. I give in and go over to his bed, sitting down and taking it from between his fingers. He holds up a lighter and I awkwardly fumble it around between my lips.

"No," he chuckles. "Don't hold it like that unless you want to get bullied. Here." He grabs it from me and holds it up to my mouth. He lights the end of it. "Now breathe in."

I stare up at his eyes as he says this and suck in way harder than I should have. It burns my throat and tastes awful. I throw myself backwards and cough loud and hard. He almost instantly dies laughing as I scratch at my throat.

"Very funny," I say between wheezes.

Before he can say another word, there's a loud pound at the door. He rushes to put the cigarettes out on the window sill and wafts the smoke out as fast as he can. "I'm coming!" he yells. It's then that I realize, he doesn't want his dad to know he's destroying his lungs.

I move to the other bed quickly before someone gets the wrong idea and in comes Sophia. Her boyfriend is right at her heels.

"So this is our room," she tells Ron. I sit there messing with the neck line on my shirt, ignoring the stinging sensation of my bruises. "This is our bed. Carl, you don't mind finding somewhere else to sleep tonight, right?"

She doesn't look at him, but I can see him watching her, his face showing no emotions. "That's fine," he states.

"Thanks, man." Ron pats him once on the shoulder and I'm surprised Carl doesn't snap at him. "So," he says and sits across from me. "What's your name?"

"It's Kate," Carl replies for me again and I quirk my eyebrows in confusion.

Sophia walks over to him by the window as he lights another cigarette and they start talking quietly. My curiosity gets the best of me and I try listening in, but Ron stops that from happening.

"So, Kate, what happened to your forehead?"

I feel uncomfortable talking to him without wanting to slap him in the face but I smile and play it cool. "Oh, you know, I just fell. I'm pretty clumsy."