The Walking Dead: You're Beautiful - A Tara and Rosita Fanfiction

Chapter 4: High Stakes Crazy 8's

Only a week's passed by, but today's the first day I've actually stepped foot outside my house for reasons other than just getting a change of scenery from being inside all the time. Eugene and Rosita have invited me to play some of the scavenged games we've acquired; we'll be over at Aaron and Eric's house, as they've offered to make dinner for everyone.

Knock, knock.

I stand patiently outside on the porch, looking around at the different items adorning their porch. I hear a muffled "I'll get it" from the other side before the door swings in.

"Hey Tara, come on in," Aaron welcomes. "Eric and I were just talking about you – how are you feeling?"

"I'm alright, all things being considered...thanks."

He gestures for me to come in, smiling in a warm, friendly way. He's not shaven in a while, by the looks of it. The look suits him, actually. Kinda reminds me of Rick before he cleaned up...well, minus the "I'm gonna kick your ass and serve it back to you on a plate" look in the eye. Everyone is sitting at the dinner table, where a pile of games sits in the center.

Eugene is at the head of the table, eyeing a role-playing game manual. It's something like Dungeons and Dragons or something, it looks like, but it's got some other wild name. The way he was going through it so intently you'd think he was reading War and Peace...shit. I remember Denise talking about wanting to read that...

"Please tell me we're not playing that..." I say half-joking.

"Do you have a qualm with role-playing?"

"Only when it comes to gaming..."

Eric let out a small, stifled giggle, picking up on the subtle allusion I made in my statement. I catch him nudge Aaron's elbow, who shoots him a little glare telling him to stop right there. Rosita notices the two of them, which makes her sigh and smile softly. Eugene, however, looks on in complete silence, as if he completely missed the fact that my comment could be inferred as what goes on...or went on...in my sex life.

"What sort of game do you propose we play then, m'lady?" he asks with what almost sounds like sarcasm. Reminds me of the time he asked me about what kind of gamer I was and how he wanted to see a game about undead dinosaurs going after each other...oh, memories...that seems like forever ago.

"I'm not even sure what you have," I respond.

"Thankfully, the Saviors decided not to raid the game closet, for some reason." comments Aaron. "What do you have over there with you, Eugene?"

"We have Clue, but all necessary components pertaining to a certain Mr. Green seem to have gone M.I.A.; Scrabble, with a few chewed upon and otherwise well-loved tiles; Uno, which seems complete upon one brief inspection; and Cards Against Humanity, which seeing as the cards on the table most certainly do seem to be stacked against humanity, as said game suggests, seems quite relevant to our current situation."

"I'm down for Clue, but you guys are the guests," Eric offers. "To be fair, though, I've played it like a gazillion times...it was my favorite when I was little. My family was probably so sick of it."

"Really? I was more of a Risk kid, myself...I liked the strategy, you know?" Aaron responds, smiling at his boyfriend.

"Eugene's the gamer, here. I'll let him decide." I chime in. "I mean, as long as it's not that RPG game..."

He looks up from his pile of games, looking almost bewildered like he was half-listening to the conversation and heard his name pop up. "What?"

Laughter fills the room. At least everyone else is feeling well enough to have fun.

"Tara said you could decide which game we're playing," Eric chuckles.

"In that case, I shall select Cards Against Humanity as my weapon of choice." He smiles with almost a hint of deviance. He pulls the cards out of the box, shuffling them intently and quickly – he's done this a million times for his RPG games. It was all muscle memory, like his spiel about the human genome project.

He looks up. "Who has defecated most recently?" he asks, his face as deadpan as ever.

"Excuse me?" Rosita asks.

Eric sprays his sip of water and Aaron looks at Eugene with a dumbfounded "what the hell are you asking that for?" type look.

"Formalities. You know, to decide who goes first," Eugene responds, lifting the instructions in his hand. "Take it none of you are familiar with said game?"

We all shake our heads.

"Consider this your night of enlightenment. Rules are simple: one player serves as head honcho, as determined by who used the head last, so to speak. That player determines the winner of each round. A phrase with a blank region is placed face up upon the table by the round's leader – the Card Czar, as it is – and everyone gets ten white cards with different answers you may correspond to each. The czar picks them ups, shuffles them sufficiently, then picks his or her favorite – the one who placed said card down receives a score in the unit of a single awesome point."

"Sounds easy enough to me...bring it on," says Aaron confidently.

"The question still remains in order for a proper, fair game to be played."

Aaron looks around the room. "I guess I was the last one," he says upon realizing none of us were volunteering.

"Then you, sir, will serve as our first czar." Eugene proceeds to deal out the cards.

The game begins and all comedic hell breaks loose. Aaron dies laughing as he reads the wild sentences that have been played. Holy crap, even I can't hold back laughter. This is the kind of game Lilly would've found disgusting but I'd have loved. With each passing round, it seems everyone's worries fade away and we're all enjoying the moment, all negativity cast aside. Rosita's smiling with that gorgeous grin of hers. Damn it, Tara, stop looking at her. Round after round, play after play, I just can't ignore her smile. Rosita laughed so damn hard at my play that ended up winning the round. Suddenly, I felt her hand on my knee, squeezing it gently as she looked into my eyes. I gasp softly.

"That was hysterical, Tara. Nice play."

"Thanks," I say shyly.

Aaron stands up and heads to the kitchen, where he starts preparing spaghetti for dinner. Eric and Rosita join him, leaving Eugene and I at the table by ourselves. Eugene looks over at me.

"Tara, care for a high-stakes round of Crazy 8's? It appears we have a full deck of playing cards. I was not made aware of these until just now as I glanced over to my right. I'd had offered them earlier if I had been informed of their existence, but- "

"Yeah, sure, let's do it."

Eugene shuffles the cards. As he does so, I can't help but watch as Rosita and Eric joke around with each other in the kitchen, both of them smiling and laughing. Damn that smile of hers – she's had me wrapped around her finger since we first met. I don't feel right looking at her only a week after finding out about Denise, but I can't help myself. It's a comfortable warm radiance that overcomes me every time I see her. I'd be jealous of the chemistry between her and Eric if it weren't for the fact he was gay and involved with Aaron. The way they're joking around, having fun...okay, yes, I'm jealous of them regardless. I've always wanted a girlfriend like her. Back before it all went down, I'd often think about finding a girl I could really just settle down with. She would've fit the bill.

"Tara? Did you hear me?" Eugene asks.

"Wait, what?" I look over at him. Apparently, I was too focused on the prize I'd never have and I didn't hear him. He finished dealing the cards...