wastelands → the walking dead ¹

[ 018 ] all for nothing.

WASTELANDS.

chapter eighteen, all for nothing.
[ season two, episode seven ]

ODESSA SITS WITH BETH on the front porch steps. Maggie and Glenn leans over the porch railing together, also enjoying their own conversation. Patricia and Carl are both engrossed in an intense chess match.

Beth fiddles with her fingers while Odessa twirls her knife in her hands. "My Daddy wants y'all to leave. Maggie told me."

Odessa looks at her, "I know. I overheard my parents talking about it."

"I don't want y'all to leave. I like having a friend." Beth states. Odessa's lips immediately tug downwards. Friends. Of course they're just friends. Odessa is to think they could have been otherwise. Beth comes from a religious family. She probably thinks people like Odessa are sinful and damned to hell.

Odessa has known who she is since she was only ten years old. Maybe her mom noticed then and that's why she stopped loving her. Odessa had a girlfriend when she was thirteen. Her name was Cassidy McClain. Odessa wonders now if she was alive or wandering the world aimlessly as a dead girl. She wonders that if in some other world Cassidy may have needed up in her place. With a group that cares for her. 

"Friends," Odessa nods. "Yeah, we're friends."

Beth's bright blue eyes move to her. "I don't think it's a sin, Odessa." Beth informs her. "You like girls, I can tell. I liked a girl once. Jimmy told me it was a sin."

"It's not, it's not," Odessa shakes her head, a new hatred for Jimmy blooming. "Liking or loving  someone isn't a sin. No matter the sex of the person."

"Her name was Ophelia," Beth smiles wistfully. "She had blue eyes likes yours."

"Mine was Cassidy," Odessa reminisces, "she had this crazy head of hair. It always looked like she'd just woken up from a really good nap. Her mom was pregnant when the whole thing started. I don't know if she's alive or dead."

"I'm sorry," Beth frowns. "I don't know if Ophelia's alive or dead either."

"This new world sucks," huffs. "Hey," Odessa taps Beth's thigh gently. "If it counts for anything, I think you're really pretty too."

Red blossoms over Beth's face. She swiftly hides her head in her hands. Odessa smiles to herself.

When Beth recovers, she points at Odessa's matte black knife, "your knife is pretty cool."

"I got some brass knuckles in my bag too. Wanna seem 'em later?" Odessa asks her and Beth nods instantly.

"Do you know what's goin' on?" T-Dog questions as he and Andrea approach the porch.

"Where is everyone?" Andrea asks.

"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn interrogates them from where he and Maggie lean over the railing. Odessa's brows furrow.

"He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago," Andrea explains.

"Yeah you were. What the hell?" Daryl pipes up as he and Carol join them.