Past and Present

Girls and Belief

We walked all the way back to the spot that we told Beth to meet us and waited for her to return.

Eventually, she showed up with a few bags and Carl rushed up to her as her small, frail body leaned under all the pressure.

"Wow," I said, "You found a lot."

She smiled, "That's not even half of it."

I furrowed my brow in confusion.

She elaborated, "I met a girl in one of the houses and she needed help. She said that her parents turned and she was all alone. I couldn't leave her."

Carl and I exchanged glances and I knew what he was thinking because I was thinking the same thing.

Even in the make-believe world, whenever we took someone in, it always caused problems. No one would ever admit it, but I know that even when they took me in, they didn't want to. The only one that was real about it with me was Carl.

"Where is she," Carl asked as he handed me one of the bags.

Beth shuffled around the remaining bags on her arms and said, "She was right behind me."

She turned and looked behind. Eventually she said, "There she is."

A girl with strawberry blonde hair came out of one of the houses with arms filled with bags. She was slim and wore clothes that looked as if they belonged to someone who had  a lot of money. Even in the apocalypse, this girl was wearing a really fancy dress.

"Ah dammit," Carl said with a groan. He lifted up his hat and ran a hand through his wet hair and placed the hat back on his head.

I gave him a confused look and looked back at the blonde. She was still struggling to get the bags over to us.

I squinted at Carl and ran over to the girl. I didn't understand why Carl wasn't using his manners.

I reached out to help her and she just dumped all the bags in my hands.

"Thank you, Darlin'" she said. Her southern drawl was really thick.

"No problem. Beth went this way," I said as I led her over to the group.

We walked the small distance and Carl came up to me and took some of the bags and placed them on his shoulder. I couldn't help but notice that he had pulled his hat down so that it covered his face.

I chose to ignore it and we started to walk further into the woods.

At one point, I heard the girl ask when we were going to stop because her feet hurt. Beth reassured her that it would be soon.

Even after what had happened a few days ago, we still chose to live in the woods because it was still safer than the towns.

I looked around where we were standing and placed my bags down, "This should be deep enough."

The rest of the group dropped what they had and started to set up camp. I walked over to Carl with a tent and told him that I would set it up and he could go help the new girl because she looked as if she was having some trouble.

He looked past me and saw that she was tangled in the fabric portion of the tent.

A smile appeared on his face as he took the tent, "How about you help her and I set up the tent?"

II raised one eyebrow and turned to walk over to the girl.

"Oh goodness. The Help. Thank you." she plopped her tent in my hands and walked over to a nearby rock and sat.

I rolled my eyes and started to put it up. When I was done, I walked back over to Carl and sat down to help him go through all of our findings. We separated food from supplies and placed them in different bags.

We had enough food to last a while and supplied to last for months if nothing went wrong.

"Beth," I called as I put aside a few cans of fruit and a couple bags of trail mix for dinner.

Beth came over with the other girl and they were talking. Carl pulled his hat down again and I rolled my eyes.

"It's not even sunny anymore. The sun went down. Take the hat off."

He shook his head, so I leaned over and knocked it off his head.

"Carl? Is that you?" I heard the southern drawl.

"Lily," Carl said with false enthusiasm.

Lily's smile widened and opened her arms. Carl shot me a "thanks for nothing" look and got up to give her a hug.

When he got close enough, Lily placed her lips on Carl's and held him there. I stared in shock when Carl didn't even try to move.

I got up and walked to my tent. As soon as I stepped inside, I zipped it up and placed the zipper in the inside so that no one could get in from the outside.

I moved toward the middle of the tent and brought my knees to my chest.

I didn't cry. I had learned a long time ago that some things weren't what they seemed and I shouldn't get upset about everything.

I mean, it's not like Carl and I hadn't been through everything together and that I loved him, right? It wasn't like we save each other constantly and that he had told me that he couldn't live without me, right?

I heard a few yells and then,"Carl come back."

Then there was a ripple in the fabric of the tent as if someone were touching it.

"Go away," I said to the boy that was on the other side.

"See Carl, she doesn't want you."

I heard the sound of the zipper moving and figured that Carl must have been using the small nub on the other side to open the zipper.

"Ow," he groaned.

In little to no time, the flap was open and I was on that side. I stepped out and stood square up to Lily.

She laughed, "This is what you would rather have?"

She sounded outraged, "You chose this over me?"

Without a thought, my fist connected to her face, "Listen to me bitch. I don't know what castle you stepped out of, but do me a favor and take your ass back there."

She gasped in shock and sashayed back to her tent.

I looked down at my knuckles. They were bleeding.

I stepped back into the tent and Carl was sitting in the spot that I had been in.

"If you think that I like her, your wrong," he said.

I turned away from him and pulled out the necessary medical supplies to cover my hand.

He came up behind me and placed his hands around my waist. His furrowed his face in the crook of my neck and placed a kiss there.

"We used to be friends and then she formed a crush on me. She started to act weird around me and then became really obsessive. She means nothing to me."

He gave me another kiss, only this time, further down.

"Then why did you let her kiss you," I asked.

He sighed, "It was the shock of the moment. Please believe me when I tell you that she means nothing to me."

I thought about all that happened and the fact that it didn't take that long for him to come and get me.

I turned in his arms and kissed his lips.

"I believe you."

I made sure that this one was really long so that it could make up for the long while in-between chapters. The video that is attached to this chapter has nothing to do with it. it just is a video from my sister an I's (probably not correct) YouTube channel. Check it out and leave comments and subscribe :)

~Luv Miki