Atlas || carl grimes a.u.

1.9 - moms birthday

"I figured you'd be out here." I hear Carl say causing me to look at him. I was currently sitting against the rock in the woods.

I had to skip school today, and Rosita said it was okay if I wanted to. It's a hard day for me mentally.

"Hey." I say breathless. I didn't think Carl would come out here and find me.

He walked over to me and sat next to me. He stared off into the distance for a moment and then looked over at me.

His nose was pink from the cold. "What's going on? It's not like you to skip school." He smiles, trying to joke with me.

He saw it wasn't working so his smile faded. "It would've been my mom's birthday today." I tell him.

He looked sad for me for a moment. He was quiet for a moment like he didn't know what to say.

I just sigh as I lean my head against the cool rock, looking into the woods.

"She loved her birthday." I remember back. I couldn't help but smile as I thought about it.

"She loved everything me and Rosita got her, even if it was a shitty gift."

He was quiet while I spoke. "She never got embarrassed if we went out and they sang to her." I remember.

I looked at Carl to see he was smiling a little. "Your mom sounds like she was a fun person." He spoke.

I nodded my head as I sighed. "She was. She was for sure the glue of the family." I look down and start playing with my hands.

"I still remember when we got the news." I sigh. I could hear Carl sigh next to me.

"You don't have to tell me." I shook my head knowing I wanted to talk about it.

I sucked the tears back into my head. "I was watching tv with my dad and Rosita." I start.

"She went out to grab something and it had been awhile. That's when we heard the door knock." I remembered.

"We figured it was her and she forgot her key, but when Rosita opened it, it was the cop standing there." I frowned.

I looked over at Carl to see he was also frowning towards me. I couldn't help but lean my head against his shoulder.

Saying I missed my mom was an understatement. I hate how one drunk person took her life.

Because of that person taking my mom's life, she's never going to see me and Rosita fall in love.

She's never going to see us get married or have kids. She's never going to become a grandmother, and I think that's what hurts.

She got to live a lot of her life, but she never got to finish it. I couldn't help but let a few tears slip from my face.

"It's okay to be sad and it's okay to be angry. Your feelings are completely valid." He assured me.

"I just miss the fuck outta her." He was silent for a moment, like he was thinking for a moment.

"Do you wanna go out and do something?" I rise my head up to look at him.

I was confused about what he meant. "What?" I asked with my eyebrows furrowed.

"I hate seeing you so down and out so I was wondering if you wanna get out and something, to help distract yourself."

I thought about it for a moment, and it didn't seem like a bad idea. Maybe that's what I need to do.

"What'd you have planned?" I questioned as a small smile came to his face.

He stood up, wiping the dirt off his jeans. "I think I have an idea." I somehow trusted him.

I stood up and followed him out of the woods. He offered to drive and he said he'll take me back to get my car when we're done.

I climb into his Jeep as he turned it on. He started driving, playing music lightly.

We made small talk on the drive to wherever he had an idea about.

After a while, we pulled up to an indoor arcade, Main Event. I haven't been to one of these in forever.

I was honestly pretty excited about it. We walked inside and put a bunch of tokens on two cards.

It wasn't too crowded knowing it was in the middle of a weekday.

"So, what'd you want to do first?" He questioned as we started looking around.

I started smirking towards him. "I gotta whoop your ass in Laser Tag." This place was huge.

It had go karts, laser tag, arcade games, bowling, and more shit like that.

He started smiling like he didn't believe me. "Yeah, we'll see about that." We walked over towards it.

We wait for a couple more people to show up and when they do, we all go in together.

As we put everything on, they explain the rules to us. When we go in the actual room, I look at Carl.

"You better watch out!" I joke with him. We make our separate ways. When it actually started, I started running around so I could find him.

Doing Laser Tag with Carl was actually pretty fun. Whenever we would run into each other, we would instantly start shooting each other.

I would instantly start laughing as we ran away. I ended up shooting and killing him more than he killed me.

I smirked at him as we walked out. "I don't wanna talk about it." He shook his head.

I raise my hands up in defense as we walk towards the arcade. "Whatever you say, Grimes."

We spent the majority of the afternoon here. We played almost every arcade game we could.

We did go karts, us two racing each other, of course. It was a really fun day and it actually helped with cheering me up.

When we used our all tokens, we left and he drove us back to where my car is. "Thanks for this afternoon."

He turned over to me as he parked by my car and smiled. "No problem. You know you can always come to me, right?" He spoke softly.

"I will." I agree with him. I always felt like I could go to him and I think that's why I always felt safe around him.

I don't know how he does it either. There's just something about him.

And I don't want this feeling to go away. This day started out really bad and hard.

Somehow though, Carl managed to spend time with me and make it really better.

I know I've only known him for a few months, but I can't picture my life without Carl.

And I don't want it to go away.