new beginnings

Bad News, Good News

Ron and I walked to the garden, then we saw Enid reading on a porch swing, so we decided to give her the pills we found.

Ron started talking.

"Enid, I'm sorry for what I did. I never meant it to end up like this. Here," he handed her the pills.

"How'd you get these?" She looked up and smiled a little.

"Carl and I went out to a pharmacy that's close to here. His Dad busted us but we lied about what we did when we were outside the walls. You're welcome," Ron said, very annoyed.

"So, he helped you? With a situation like this? Why the hell would you tell him this? Get out of my face. Go be lovers with him now if you love sharing personal things," she said and stormed into the house, slamming the door.

"We are not lovers! You broke up with me, Enid!" Ron yelled.

Whoa, lovers?

"Sorry, Carl. She gets angry so easily. It's just that you are a lot nicer than her," he said and scoffed a little.

We started walking again to the garden.

"Hi boys!" Sarah said and waved from the porch swing next to the garden.

"Hey, Sarah," I smiled and we walked up the steps to the porch.

"Thank you boys so much for helping me out. Denise said I have about two weeks until I'm due, so it's great that you guys are helping out. I just need you guys to pull all the weeds and pick those tomatoes, a few of them are ready," she smiled and handed us two pairs of gloves.

We started working, and after a little bit I heard Ron. "All this, for a girl who broke up with me," he laughed. I scoffed and shook my head.

When we were done after an hour or so, we were exhausted, and after a little break, we went to see what else we had to do, so we went over to my house.

"Hey boys, did you get a lot of work done?" Dad smirked at us when we walked through the door.

"Tons, I'm ready for a nap," I joked and smiled at Dad, who was sitting by Jessie.

"Boys, we need to talk for a second. Sit down, please," Jessie said and glanced at Dad.

I gave an uncomfortable look to Ron, which he gave back, then we sat down side by side.

"So, we have some news," Dad started and glanced at Jessie again.

Oh, great. News.

"Given our situation, and how close Jessie and I have become, we decided we should, uh, 'merge' our families into one. We're dating," Dad explained as carefully as he could to us. My heart sunk.

"What?" I said and looked over to Ron, who looked shocked.

"Carl, don't get all worked up, ple-" I cut Dad off.

"What do you mean, you guys have started dating? We've only been here for a little bit and you just decided that we're going to become one family? How the hell would Mom feel?" I stood up from the table and yelled. Ron stood up with me.

"Carl's right. Why would you guys start dating? Dad died just a few months ago, and you already want to replace him?" He yelled, and he stepped a little closer to me.

"Well, Carl, I want Judith to have a mother figure. She doesn't even remember Lori, so I just think, maybe, we'll have her think that Jessie is her real mother and... not tell her about Lori," Dad said, bracing for me to flip out.

I did.

"Are you crazy? You want to make Judith think she's her mother, and just never tell her about Mom? You just met Jessie! Dad, what the fuck are you thinking?" I stormed out the door, fighting back tears, and heard Ron follow.

"Carl, I'm sorry," Ron said as we kept walking.

"Ron, you didn't do anything. You don't need to apologize," I said, wiping a tear away. "I just don't know why he thinks it's okay to replace my mom," I whimpered and sat on the pavement, right in the middle of the road. Ron sat with me without hesitating.

"It'll be okay, I'm upset too," he said and placed his hand on my shoulder.

His hand.

We sat for a while in silence, exchanging glances.

"Carl, I know I've only known you for a few weeks, but you are the coolest guy I've met in a long time. When I'm with you, sometimes I forget about everything for a minute, and I've felt like I've known you for years. I can honestly say, you are my best friend," he said and gave me a long stare and smiled.

"Sorry if that sounded cheesy," he scoffed and broke eye contact, shaking his head.

"It wasn't at all, it was actually nice. I feel the same way," I smiled back at him.

We got up and started walking around again, when we saw three trucks and almost everyone in our group in them.

We walked over.

"We're going on that supply run I told you about. We'll be back in three or four days. You'll be staying with Ron while we're gone," Dad said, avoiding eye contact.

"Jessie, Daryl, Bryan, Michonne, Abraham, Eugene, Sasha, Glenn, Maggie, Aaron, and Carol are all going along with me, we'll be getting a lot of stuff. Sarah said she'll be taking care of you two. Stay out of trouble. Love you, son," he quickly said and they drove off.

I was really excited, but tried to keep my cool.

"Oh, yay! A sleepover. We can paint our nails and braid each other's hair," I said in a mocking girly voice then laughed. Ron laughed right along with me.

"You're too funny, Carl. I bet Sam will be staying at Sarah's too, if we are," Ron said.

We started walking around again, which seemed to be our favorite activity. We kept making jokes the entire time, it was great.

He's great at making people falling in love with him.