forever » the walking dead¹

20. the storm

Katherine sat with her sister on the porch steps. Maggie and Glenn were nearby, conversing, Patricia and Carl were playing a game of chess with Beth watching, but she was really watching Katherine.

The girl decided to join them on the porch steps, "Hi"

"Hi" Katherine replied.

"Hi!" Harlow said too.

It was then silent between the three, Harlow broke it, "I'm gonna watch them play chess" she stood up and left.

Katherine giggled, "Was it really that awkward?" she jokes.

Beth smiles, "Maybe" It was silent between the two again. Not a comfortable one and Katherine hated that. Usually in situations like this she'd crack a joke, but right then, it didn't feel appropriate. "You know, My Daddy wants y'all to leave. Maggie told me" Beth breaks the silence.

Katherine hums, "Yeah, I heard"

"I don't want y'all to leave. You're my friend, one of my only friends" Beth says.

Friends. Katherine smiles, acting like the words didn't hurt her. But they did, and bad. She had only had one girlfriend in her life, her name was Heather. Turns out Heather didn't even like girls and dated Katherine as a huge joke with her friends.

She had stopped Kathleen from jumping her. It was a few months before the world ended. Though she hurt Katherine, she wondered if Heather was alive somewhere, maybe with a group, or if she was a dead girl walking.

Katherine's known who she was her whole life. And she was proud of who she was. She'd get jealous when the pretty girls she was friends with in elementary would talk about boys, and Katherine had to pretend she liked a boy too, when really she liked one of the girls in her group. She kept it secret of course, terrified she'd get judged for it.

She's scared that Beth may judge her for it. Beth comes from a religious family and would think it was a sin. Katherine was stupid to think that Beth would like her more than just friends.

"Friends" Katherine repeated, "Yeah, I like being your friend too" the words slipped off her tongue, causing a pain in her core.

Beth's eyes moved to Katherine, she noticed the discomfort in Katherine, "I don't think it's a sin, Kat" she told her, "You like girls, who cares. You like who you like"

Katherine smiled, "I had a girlfriend once, or not really one. She never even liked girls, it was just some prank on me" her smile dropped thinking about it.

"I'm sorry" Beth frowned, "I liked a girl once too, her name was Alexis" she admits. Katherine's heart fluttered at the revelation, "Jimmy said it was a sin though" Beth adds.

"It's not, and screw him" Katherine told Beth, "You like who you like, who cares" Beth smiled, Katherine returned it, her eyes flickered over to Harlow for a minute, "Besides, the world ended who cares"

"Do you know what's going on?" T-Dog asked, as he and Andrea approached the porch.

"Where is everyone?" Andrea asked.

"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn questioned, leaning over the rail to join the conversation.

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

"Yeah, you were. What the hell?" Daryl said he and Carol also joined the party.

"Rick told us he was going out," Carol informed.

"I haven't seen Dale either" Katherine brought up the older man.

"Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously?" Daryl questioned, "We got us a damn trail" he then turned to Shane who was walking towards the house, the bag of guns on his shoulder, "Oh, here we go" he mumbled, "What's all this?" Daryl asked once Shane reached them.