The Girl Next Door • Carl Grimes

Chapter 35: The Wrong Block

Carl

I didn't really like any of the new people. But I loved Grace. Loved. As in once loved. I hated seeing her hang out with Patrick. He was older, though he was a dork and totally immature but, she still seemed to be oh so very into him. So there I was, alone as ever.

I've always always loved her. I don't know why she doesn't love me. I used to not want to wait until we got older so I could kiss her like she kissed me about 3 months ago. But now those feelings weren't quite the same. Maybe they were, but I didn't understand them. I mean, even Beth had a boyfriend.

Sure, he died a few days ago. It's a bummer, really. But at least she was dating someone.

I didn't like to hang out with the other kids, just Grace, Judith, Beth, and the people from the original crew. There were so many little kids and adults who were just trying too hard. I tried to spend a lot of time with my dad on the field since Grace only hung out with the other kids all the time.

We didn't even carry around guns anymore. We were safe.

Or so we thought.

I walked over towards the library, knowning Grace she would be in there with the other kids and Patrick. She was always with him.

I peeked through and saw them laughing and lightly touching each other. I felt my face scrunch and burn up, while my heart dropped to my toes.

It was a weird feeling. They were feelings I'd felt with her before. Grief, anger, and even fear. But I had never felt them all together. Feeling them all together was terrible.

It was catastrophic.

I breathed all the breath I could out of my lungs and walked the other way. In my own stupidity I looked back angrily, and Grace was already staring.

It was that look. That look where you know that person you used to know and love most in the world wasn't there anymore, and it was like she wanted me to know. She wanted me to know that she was gone.

But when she kept staring, I stopped in my tracks. I just stared back at her. Patrick began to notice her looking away and pausing for so long, he glanced up at the door then back at her. That's when she dropped her things on the table and got up to start coming towards the door.

I decided to keep walking down the corridors, I couldn't talk to her, and I didn't know why. I wasn't gonna let her see me angry up close with her and not be able to give her a reason why. It had been about 5 weeks since we last actually spoke. I don't know why.

She finally caught up to me. Great. "Why won't you talk to me Carl? Why?" she said angrily.

"It doesn't matter." I muttered.

"To me it does," she said sullenly.

"I've got to go, Grace." I said as I began to walk away.

"Yeah Carl. Walk away. You've been getting great at that lately." She began to sound upset as I heard her voice shake behind me.

Why was I so awful?

Grace

I could feel him staring. It had been exactly 5 weeks since we last spoke, since he really looked at me even. And I didn't know why. My best friend, the boy I loved most in this world hated me and I didn't know why.

I finally couldn't take that feeling anymore and I looked back at him. Once I looked, he turned back around. I decided to get up and follow him, I had to know. I had to know why we weren't talking. He needed to give me that at least.

But, he couldn't. He just muttered quietly without looking at me. And, he walked away. Just like that gone again. I felt a single tear drop fall from my right eye.

I took in a deep breath, wiped that petty tear, smiled, and walked back into the library to Patrick and the rest of my friends.

"What was that? You good, Grace?" asked Patrick.

"Oh! No, everything is fine. I just remembered I had to ask Carl something for Rick. He was in a hurry though so I'll get to him later. Did I miss anything?" I covered up my tracks neatly and quickly. Nobody needed to know that I had issues with Carl. Especially not them, they don't know us well. They don't know him.

"Oh okay. No, you didn't miss anything important. Lizzie and Mica were bickering again, but what's new." Patrick sighed.

I continued drawing on the piece of paper I had earlier abandoned for Carl. It was a picture of the Grimes' house next to mine before everything fell. A picture of our street.

I stayed with Patrick the whole day, even after Lizzie and Mica left to do god knows what. He was very sweet, and he definitely liked me.

"Grace it's been really nice talking to you all day, but I've kinda got a headache. I think i'm gonna go take a shower. Catch you later?" He said.

"Yeah! See you later. I'll just be with Liz and Mica." I said.

I walked over to the Girls cell. "Hey guys! Up for a slumber party tonight?" I asked.

"Totally!" Lizzie said.

"Ooh yes yes!" Mica squealed.

We talked, played games, and messed around like girls for the rest of the night. It almost felt real. It almost felt normal. But we all know that can't last.

I woke up in the middle of the night just needing to get up and walk around. That's when I realized I hadn't seen Patrick again that night.

All of a sudden I turned around and saw a figure walking towards me. Based on the height and hair I would say it was Patrick.

"Patrick?" I whispered. He didn't answer, i'm sure he didn't hear me so I walked closer to him so he would. I didn't want to wake the whole cell block.

When I got about 3 feet away from him, he looked up at me and growled. But that wasn't Patrick anymore. Patrick was dead.

He began to claw and groan at me and I let out a sharp scream and fell to the ground. It had been months since I had last been face to face with a walker. I didn't even have a knife, none of us really had any weapons anymore, we were just farmers.

Everyone began to wake up and move around frantically. "Help!" I screamed as Patrick continued to try to get me.

I was backing up across the floor, I was so shaky at this point I could not get up. "Grace?" I heard a familiar voice yell through all of the other screams.

"Carl?" I cried.

"Grace!" He yelled and ran up to me. He kicked Patrick over and pulled me up from the ground and took me running.

"C-carl I-" I trembled.

"What happened? Grace where were you? We didn't know where you were so they sent me. Whatever, we have to get someone over there to help them!" He shouted.

"I stayed with Mica and Lizzie. I- I don't know what happened. A while ago he said he had a headache and was gonna shower.. I left their room just a few minutes ago and he came out to attack me." I huffed as we ran.

That's when we started to hear the blood curdling screams of everyone in that call block. They were dying.

GRACE AND CARL REDEMPTION ARCCCC YES!! Yall didn't think I was gonna let them have beef for that long did you...