Juniper;
Carl's comment finally started to fall into place.
The more I looked, the more kids I saw. The more kids I saw, the less teenagers there were.
I've seen many young adults, including Dallas, but not many more people my age.
The thought bothered me so much that I zoned out and forgotten I had been given food.
"Dallas," I saw Carl lean over and tap his shoulder in the line. "There are no other people our age here. Why is that?"
Dallas just chuckled as he retrieved his silverware and gestures for us. "Follow me."
He lead us through the crowded lunchroom filled with clean and happy residents. Everywhere I looked someone was enjoying themselves and occasionally staring up at us as we were new and strange. Comments came out of the children that we stuck out like a sore thumb in this place.
"Mom, she's pretty."
"Who is those people momma?"
"What happened to him?"
One that stuck out to me the most wasn't even a comment but more of a stare. A boy about the age of three with glossy almond shaped eyes had his glare locked on Carl, and his little chubby hand reached up and touched the right side of his face.
They had never seen the effects of living out there, they don't know what is out there. They've been locked in here all their lives and now they're struck by newcomers. What if I was in their place?
"Carl, Juniper." Dallas's voice snaps me out of my thoughts. "There's someone I want you to meet."
He gestures down to the girl sitting at the corner of the back table with her food untouched and her gaze locked on it.
"Devon, say hi."
She lifts her head and gives a hesitant "hi" before returning to her previous position.
"Okay... In case you're wondering why I brought you here is because you asked about other teenagers right? Well Devon's the closest thing we've got. She's... Nineteen, correct? Anyways, along with being a teenager, she's new. She's been here for two months. Why don't you sit and get to know her, make some friends."
That last word hit me like a bullet. Friends. That's not really something I really thought of ever again after the whole thing began. At first I didn't consider Carl a friend but more of an acquaintance, but now our relationship has grown into something that turns the cogs in my minds the other way. I don't know what we are but... we're something.
Dallas leaves us alone and the rest of our meal is mere silence. I attempt a few times to try to make conversation with Devon but her green eyes remain aimed at the bowl.
I exchange glances with Carl a few times throughout the meal and I can see the concern in his eye.
He thinks this place is mysterious, he thinks Devon is mysterious and he thinks that Dallas's upbeat mood is questionable. He wants to know what exactly is going on here and who these people are.
And I can say the same for myself.
Silence follows for the next fifteen minutes with Devon eventually picking at her pot pie and standing up and throwing her unfinished meal away when the majority of the crowd was.
"Do you think she's okay?" I ask Carl.
"Hell no, being out there messes you up. You should know. Let's go."
Carl picks up both of our empty trays and heads to the garbage. He turns back and motions his head to leave and laces his fingers with mine when I reach his side.
;
"I still think it's kind of weird that there's only one other person our age, and Dallas was acting weird right?" Carl says to me as he opens the door to our room.
"I don't trust him..." I say under my breath. And that was true. I didn't trust Dallas. He was too energetic for my taste of someone in this world.
"Me neither, what about Devon?"
"I don't know Carl, but I felt I could relate more with her because all she fucking did was stare into her food."
Carl sighs out and walks towards me, his bandages face now mere inches away from mine and his fingers fumbling with the hem of my shirt.
"Look, now... this is all we have. We've got to take advantage-"
"What do you mean?"
"We're here now, we're not in danger of walkers. Hell, we have a room with electricity... let's appreciate it."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying, we have no worries... Juniper... have sex with me."
"Carl..." I respond, giggling.
He pulls me in by my shirt for a kiss, I soon recognize that it would turn into something more.
He wants this, but I'm not sure if I do.
.
{I told y'all this shit was coming.
Thank you all for 3k! Ily all thank you Sososososoos much.
Y'all ok so school is almost over and the upcoming chapter may take a little longer to write than the others because finals and shit and the end of school is p hectic sooosoosooosso stay chill, and b patient even though y'all know what's comign ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Thank}
-olive
