For You // R.G.

Chapter 24

The way he was acting now made me think he changed his mind about what was going to happen.

"I don't want to be one of your regrets, Rick." When I said that, he looked down. I once again left him alone in something that could've been.

...

After a long and loud argument with Rick, I got into the truck with Glenn who was sitting in the middle seat which separated Rick and I from killing each other. Moments later, Rick got inside and started the truck to leave and go find Hershel.

A few minutes passed in silence, the air was tense between Rick and I, leaving Glenn awkward and uncomfortable.

"Maggie told me she loved me today." Glenn said. Rick looked over at Glenn with a smile that made my heart beat faster but cringe afterwords because of my reaction. I looked away, feeling Rick's eyes on me for a while longer then he looked away to the road.

"Did you tell her you love her back?" Rick asked

"No- I- I couldn't. I mean, we barely even know each other- she doesn't know what she's talking about."

"I think she knows what she feels," Rick chuckled. "I think you should just tell her how you feel."

I looked back at Rick, he was looking at me in the rear view mirror, giving a sort of understanding look.

...

"Stay low and keep your weapons ready." Rick ordered, he looked into my eyes for a while longer than he did to Glenn. Rick finally moved out of the truck and ran to the front of Hatlin's, he ducked beneath the windows, giving Glenn a motion saying to see if anyone was inside. Glenn moved out, I followed afterwords. I went next to Rick, we were crouching next to each other, waiting for Glenn to be finished seeing inside the dusty windows.

"Hershel's inside."

We all entered inside, Hershel was sitting at the bar in the middle of the room, back towards us, drinking. The tall bottle of liquor next to him was a quarter gone.

"What are you doing here?" Hershel asked, distasteful and uninterested mixed in the same tone of voice.

"Beth is in shock, she needs you there- we need you there." Rick started to talk to Hershel with reason. Glenn stood around, glancing at everything at least twice in each minute, he was nervous.

Just then Rick and Hershel started to yell. Hershel was calling our group a plague and how we're basically horse shit, I looked out the window and then saw two guys walk towards the bar. I got my hand gun and cocked it. Rick averted his attention from Hershel to my gun cocking.

"Holy shit, you're alive." The skinny one said when the walked through the doorway. I kept my stance in front of them, not letting them know my fear inside.

They were looking at Rick and Hershel, then saw me. The skinny one laughed, I could tell the bigger one had no stand in their duo.

"You a feisty one, huh?" He sneered with a smile. He came closer to me, I gave him a motion that I wasn't going to let him pass. He held his hands up in the air in surrender, almost mocking me.

"I'll blow your damn head off if you step-" I say to the big guy who was challenging me

"Woah, woah, woah, take it easy, hey-" the skinny guy said. I could feel Rick watch me from behind. He then touched my arm, lowering it,

"I've got it." He whispered into my ear, I felt my breath hitch from his touch. The skinny one looked at us suspiciously, he then went to a table and sat down with chubs.

"This is tony, I'm Dave. Who are you? You all seem to be held up somewhere nice..." Dave sneered, he looked like a devilish cat, plotting something behind his bad teeth. No one budged, I didn't look back at Hershel and Rick who were behind me, but I saw in the glass window that Rick was sipping some scotch from a glass, leaning against the bar. I admired the way his lean body was propped up against the wooden bar, and the way his curly hair was styled and how his shirt fit to his frame-

"Come on, you guys look like a thousand bucks!" Dave exclaimed with a smile and a laugh, he got up and walked past me. I looked at tony who was looking me up and down, I looked away, in disgust. What I didn't know was that rick was getting annoyed with how the guys were looking at me. He walked by me, almost protecting me, his hand was at his gun holster once Dave was behind the bar, fixing a drink. He looked up and saw Rick's hand

"Hey... I'm just having a drink." He said. He smiled and poured it into a glass, "we still don't know your names... Let's start with the man of the hour." He tipped his head towards Hershel,

"My name is Hershel. This is Rick, Glenn and Max." Hershel introduced us to them. Dave tapped his fingers against the wood of the counter, sipping his drink. He raised his eyebrows and smiled

"Ah." He hissed from the strong alcohol taste, he looked at Hershel, "now... Where's this place you've been holding up at?" He asked. He made his way back to tony, he sat down, legs out and his eyes cascading up my body. I looked at Rick, his jaw clenching.

"I'm afraid we can't say." Rick said

"Come on... What is it?"

"It's a farm, my farm." Hershel said

I then looked up at the window again to check out Rick, but he was already looking at me in the window. I felt my face turn red and my breath hitch. He then tapped the back of my shoe with his boot, I looked back at him. His blue eyes made me want to stare for hours but he gave a nod of his head signaling to look in the window again. I looked and saw him nod his head towards Tony and Dave. I looked at them, dave still was talking with Hershel, tony was silent, I then saw tony was touching his gun suspiciously over his shoulder. I watched him. I then felt Rick tap my shoe again, I looked at the window once more, he was giving me a look that told me he was trusting me. Dave got up from the table, walking over to the bar

"I hear Nebraska's nice..." Rick said once Dave reached the bottle. Dave snickered, Rick must have been listening the whole time unlike I was. In that moment, everything went blank and I heard white noise when I saw his hand reach for his gun, about to shoot Rick, Rick shot him and I turned around once I heard Tony's gun cock, I didn't care if I was shot in the face- I felt like I needed to protect Rick more than ever- so I shot tony dead, three times in the chest. I walked up to him to shoot him once more. I stood there for a moment, realizing I had just killed someone. I then turn around to see Rick looking at me with concerned eyes. I looked past him because I couldn't stand the look on his face- and I couldn't get the thought of him getting shot out of my mind.

"Can we go home now?" Glenn asked, almost pissing his pants.