The Broken But Strong

Place Blame On Me? Shame On You

(Clementine's Pov)

-Three Weeks Later-

I had been keeping an eye on Violet as she would just head over to the grave yard. Louis was still placing the blame on me for what happened. He would sometimes say I was to busy with Violet that I caused her to be distracted. At one point I yelled at him telling him to back off or I would smash his face in. It got him to back off and Violet didn't hear any of it because she would be in her room or in the grave yard.

I was currently over in the grave yard with Violet as she was getting up from the ground. she looked over to me and I smile a bit and so does she. But it wasn't the smile I was use to. It looked a little forced from my perspective. But I wasn't going to force her to talk about it if she didn't want to, the wound was still fresh, I mean even AJ wasn't happy, he stopped drawing, he stopped having fun and it was breaking me. Violet comes over to me and I look up to her a bit and then she would look back to the grave then back to me.

"Sorry uh, did you need something?" She asked.

"No, no I was just wanting to check up on you." I tell her and she frowned a bit and then she rubbed the back of her neck. I look to her as she did this and then she looked back to me.

"I'm fine... honestly I was like this when I heard the twins died, don't worry I'll be good soon." She tells me and I nod just a little at this.

"Well... you know I'm here if you need to talk." I tell her and she nods.

"Thanks, but it's fine... I think you should focus more on AJ... I uh noticed he hasn't been drawing anymore." She says and I nod at this.

"Well... is it ok if we go take the fort down? I mean it's cool if you want to keep it up it's just a suggestion." I say raising my hands up a bit and she chuckled.

"Yeah, we should... almost tripped on it last night." She says and I nod as we head to her room. We had gotten some of the blankets down and moved the chairs back in their spots. It was going good until AJ came in.

"What are you doing?" He asked and we both look to him.

"Um... taking down the fort." Violet says.

"Why? We made that." He says and I see the tears in his eyes. I was about to go up to him but I was surprised that Violet went up to him and got down to his level.

"I know but... we need to move on, it's hard I know, I know how you feel right now but... I can't... I can't look at it and think of him right now." She says to him.

"You're forgetting him?" He asked and I go over to them.

"No, no way in hell will we ever forget him, it's just... We just have to take it down, ok?" She asked him. I don't even think she really wanted to take it down but she felt like she had to. I look to AJ as he looked to me and I get down to his level as well.

"AJ sometimes we have to take down reminders, we have the memories but... it's not the same, sometimes seeing things that remind you of others makes people sad." I tell him.

"Like your hat?" He asked and I smiled sadly.

"Yeah, but it's a little different for me then the fort." I tell him and he nods. I knew he didn't really understand but he tried.

"Ok." He says and then he helps us take the fort down. We did say that if he wanted, he could still sleep in here on the top bunk, which he was happy about and he set up his blanket and pillow on the top.

"Where are you going to sleep?" AJ asked and I look to him.

"She can sleep in my bed." Violet says before I could speak up.