Almost Broken: Carl Grimes fanfic

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

~Rylie's POV~

"Oh... Right. I knew that." I laugh nervously and jog a little to catch up to him.

"I'm sure you did." He laughs and shakes his head, and then it's silent for a moment.

"Why are you leaving tomorrow?" He asks, no emotion in his voice at all, almost like he's trying to block it out so I won't know.

"I... I don't want to get attached... To anyone because if I do... All that will happen is I will get hurt, and me getting hurt means I am weak. I can't be weak in this world, I just can't." I say and shake my head.

"You're not weak." He says sternly, still walking through the tombs.

"How would you know. We only met yesterday." I spit.

"How long were you alone before we found you?" He asks.

"First of all, you didn't 'find me', we ran into each other. And 4 months... By myself." I say.

"You were by yourself for 4 months, you're strong and you know it."

"I was strong BECAUSE I was alone Carl. I was alone for a reason, and I did pretty damn well by myself." I shout.

By the time I'm done talking, we are at the cell block.

I storm past him and up to my-- the cell.

It's not my cell, I'm not staying. I plop down into the bed and close my eyes.

'Breathe Ry, breathe. You shouldn't have gone off like that. He was just asking a question, what is wrong with you?!' I say to myself and bring my hands up to my forehead when I hear a knock on the cell door.

I look up and see Carl standing there, looking at his feet and leaning against the metal frame.

"Look... Rylie I-"

"I'm sorry." I finish his sentence, and he gives me a confused look.

"I'm sorry," I say again, "for going off on you like that, it wasn't my place, you just asked a question and-" he cuts me off.

"I'm sorry for asking a stupid question. I knew you were leaving and I shouldn't have pushed you." He says and sits next to me on the bunk.

"It wasn't stupid..." I say and sit up awkwardly.

"It was. It was stupid because I was just asking for my own selfish needs." He says.

What?

"How was that selfish?" I ask him, now curious.

"Because..." His voice trails off. I cross my arms and give him a 'well spit it out' kind of face.

"Because I don't want you to go." He sighs. "You're the only person I've been with that's my age and I honestly feel like I can actually talk to you, as crazy as that is with us only knowing each other for a day." He shakes his head.

"I- I don't know what to-"

"Don't say anything. I know I shouldn't have told you. Like I said, it was selfish. I'm just gonna... Go check on Judy." He gets up and walks out of the cell.

I open my mouth to say something but I can't find the words, so I just let him go.

"Damnit!" I whisper to myself and push my bag off the desk and it hits the wall.

I hear glass break and my heart stops.

"Shit shit shit." I mumble and scramble to my bag.

I ruffle through the bag and find the picture frame.

The glass is all broken and falling into my bag.

I look at the picture.

My family.

My mom, dad, me and my sister.

We look so happy, so perfect.

Even though perfect isn't anywhere near what we were.

I shake my head at the thought and reach for the pieces of glass- stupid me, I cut my hand. "Fuc-"

Carl comes into the cell again.

"Sorry I forgot my-" he says and stops when he sees my hand bleeding.

"What happened?" He asks and drops beside me to look at my now throbbing palm.

"Just a little paper cut. No biggie." I laugh nervously.

"That is not a paper cut Ry." He laughs as he looks at my hand.

"Uh- sorry- again." He says.

"Don't worry about it, really it's okay. But yeah, it's not a paper cut- it was glass." I chuckle at my stupidity for grabbing the shard from my bag.

"You guys looked happy." He smiles at the picture.

"We were. Kinda." I shrug and he turns his attention back to my palm.

"Okay we gotta get you to Hershel for this, it looks deep." He says and stands up, holding a hand out to help me up.