I spent what seemed like an eternity in the shower. I never wanted to leave but I eventually got out. When I was younger I dreaded taking showers and would procrastinate as long as possible but now I would take one in a heartbeat.
I stepped out of the shower and I dried myself off. I looked back into the mirror and my appearance was way better now. My hair wasn't tangled and you could actually see my skin instead of just dirt and blood. I wrapped the towel around my waist and I went back to the room to change into the new clothes we were given.
Once I had changed I went over to Lily's room and knocked on the door. "Come innn!" She says says on the other side. I open the door and I see her trying to braid her hair, emphasize the trying part. "I can't do it! Mom always could do it real fast" She frowns. I sit down on the bed next to her. "I could try, I've seen her do it a million times." I offer to try and make her feel better. She looks at me with a small smile and turns around so I can try.
Once I'm done she gives me a quiet thank you. "Can we go explore. I think I saw other kids my age and plus hanging out with a nerd like you all day is tiring." She says. I dramatically gasp at her insult, "Hey, I'm clearing the way cooler sibling here so humble yourself young lady." I jokingly scold her. She groans, "Young lady? I can practically hear your gray hairs" She laughs. "Y'know what? You're grounded." I say trying to make myself sound as serious as possible, "You can't do that" She says believing my trick. "Yeah I can." I reply. "Then I'll run away." Lily says looking me in the eyes and matching my tone. "Nuh uh" I counter, "Yuh huh" She replies. "I'd like to see you try." I say straight faced. Lily got up and ran out the room. I quickly followed her as she ran out the front porch with me close behind.
She tried to run to the side of the house, but I caught up and pulled her back and started tickling her. She immediately fell down onto the grass and I continued to tickle her relentlessly. "Okay okay I surrender!" She says through giggles. I stop and grin down at her, "That's what I thought." I say triumphantly. She wipes her tears from laughing and I give her a hand to help her back up. She yanks me down with her and starts trying to tickle me. I don't give in easily and I manage to get my hands up to her neck so she falls back. "There's no defeating the tickle master" I say as I jokingly show off my arm muscles and flex.
"Yeah I'll beat you one day" She says as she stands up now. "Don't count on it" I say as I give her a noogie. She bats my hand away in protest and I laugh at her. I settle down and I feel eyes on me. I look over to my right and I see a boy around my age looking at me. He's holding a toddler in his arms and hes sitting on his porch. I give him an awkward wave and he nods at me. "Ooo" Lily instigates. I lightly elbow her, "Shut up' I say embarrassed. "You should go talk to him. You look lame only talking to an 11 year old. Even though I'm the coolest 11 year old to exist." Lily whispers to me.
"Hey I'm not lame I practically invented being cool, and I'm not going to talk to some random kid, we just got here." I defend myself. "Which is exactly why you should introduce yourself." She says back. I look at her with a look that says, 'abso-fucking-lutely-not' and she returns it with a grin before running off to the kid. "Lily don't you fucking dare!" I shout after her. Why did I have to chase this girl so damn often?
"Hi I'm Lily and that's my brother Nathan and you guys should be friends because he's a little lonely" She quickly before I can stop her. I internally die of embarrassment and quickly think of thousands of ways to torture her. "Sorry she's off her meds don't listen to anything she says" I say as I give her the most intense glare. I look away from Lily after hearing the boy laugh.
"See! You're getting along already!" Lily says before pushing me in front of her. "Uhhhh" I say awkwardly. "Introduce yourself" Lily whispers from behind me. "Nathan but most people call me Nate." I say awkwardly. "Carl, Carl Grimes" He replies with a small smirk. "Oh are you Rick's kid or something?" I ask. "Yeah" He replies. "Cool." I say. "I'm going to leave you two be so you like bond or something I dunno. I'm gonna explore." Lily says before running off.
I stood there awkwardly as I was unsure of what to say before Carl thankfully said something. "Well I was going to go hang out with some other kids in the neighborhood if you wanted to tag along." He offers. "Yeah sure" I say with a little smile. I hadn't seen someone my age in well, forever. "I just have to put Judith down to nap and then we can go." Carl explains before getting up to do so. I nod and I fidget with a loose thread on my jacket. He comes back out and gives me a small smile, "Let's go" He says before walking off with me following.
It doesn't take long before we get to the porch of another nice looking house. I follow him inside and we go to the second level and I follow him into a bedroom. There's three other people in there and they all look at us. I am seriously going to kill Lily later. A boy with short brown hair stepped towards us, "Who's this?" He asks Carl after glancing at me. "I'm Nathan." I say towards the boy. Everyone here looked about my age which felt odd. "Well nice to meet you, Nathan. I'm Ron and that's Mikey and Enid" He introduces. Mikey gives a small wave and Enid gives a stare. I return an awkward half smile.
"So Nathan, when did you get here?" Ron asks. "Today. I came here with my sister." I answer simply. I wasn't the best at conversations with strangers, especially with people my age that were my age. "Just you two, where's your parents?" Mikey asks. I look down awkwardly, "Dead" I say quietly. My moms death was still fresh and I hadn't hadn't had the chance to mourn her properly. I saw Ron elbow Mikey, "Dude!" He says in a whisper.
Ron speaks up again to clear the tension, "Well do you wanna play video games or something?" Ron asks me. I look at him with a shocked face, "Video games?" I ask with a tone of disbelief. I hadn't played video games in forever. "Yeah they aren't top tier but y'know, it's the apocalypse and all" Ron explains. I nod with a small grin and he walks over to a small tv. I sit on the bed and I hear footsteps coming up the stairs. I look over at the door to see who it is and I see Lily running up to me with another kid her age. "Nate!" She calls. "Yeah what's up?" I ask as she stands in front of me. "I made a friend!" She says proudly. "That's a real shocker" I joke and she punches me in the arm. "Ow!" I say with fake hurt in my voice. "Sam was telling me about school and stuff. Apparently we're starting soon too" She tells me.
My mood instantly is ruined, "School?! Man you've gotta be kidding me." I say with a small frown. "Yep it's in a garage but the older kids go in the afternoon" Ron speaks up. "This your sister?" Mikey asks me. "Yeah as you can tell I'm easily way cooler" She says proudly. "As you can tell, she's delusional." I say after I tickle her neck a little. She smacks my hand away and I stick my tongue out at her.
I catch myself yawning and I remember that I haven't slept in a while. "I'm gonna go back home. Lily and I need to eat and I need to sleep." I say before standing up. "Nice meeting you guys" I say before walking out and Lily gives a little wave. We walk down the stairs and out the door and walk over to our house. My eyes were burning which I had been subconsciously ignoring for a while now. We got to our house and Lily went to the kitchen and I immediately went to my room. I took off my shoes and jacket and got under the covers. I wasn't awake longer since I easily relaxed into the comfortable bed.
We were finally safe.
---
Another update within 24 hours because I'm trying to get some chapters out for people to read so yeah. I've already thought of some ideas for upcoming chapters. Also again, please tell me if there's any errors or just any advice to better my writing.
I don't have much else to say so I hope you enjoyed
Drink water, eat something, get some sleep, take your meds.
Warmest Regards,
Nick
Started: 6/29/23
Finished:6/30/23
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The Boy Next door || Carl Grimes x Male OC
FanficWhen Nathan and his little sister flee from Negan and his army, they have nowhere to go. They end up on the doorstep of Alexandria and soon become members of the community. When Nathan and his little sister have a hard time adjusting Nathan becomes...
