Carl Grimes x Reader Imagines/One-Shots

Empty

I stared out the window in the corner of the room. I leaned my forehead against the window pane and pressed my hand against the glass.

It was storming pretty bad outside. There was winds blowing at at least 80 miles per hour, and it was extremely dark out due to the storm clouds.

The cold rain pounded against the house, and I watched as it cascaded down the glass. My main focus was the sound of the water droplets falling from the sky, whilst everyone else in the Grimes house sat in the living room and kitchen talking.

Ron and Enid were over, and Carl was spending most of his time with them. Even though Carl and I had grown up with each other in the apocalypse, and were best friends, he had barely spent any time with me since we got to Alexandria.

Carl definitely settled down here better than I did. I was happy to have somewhere with electricity, water, security, and food. I really was. I just didn't see the point in getting too attached because whenever I did in the past, wherever we were seemed to get pried away from my very hands.

A hand on my shoulder startled me. I whipped my head around and I pushed the person who was standing behind me out of reflex. I relaxed when I saw who it was though. It was only Ron.

I sighed in relief and stood up, giving him an apologetic look. He had stumbled back slightly when I pushed him, and he stepped closer to me in his original place. "Sorry," I mumbled to him, feeling genuinely bad for being so aggressive.

Ron shrugged and gave me a half smile. "Don't worry about it," he chuckled. I returned his smile briefly. I averted my gaze to the ground.

Ron and I didn't talk much, and when we did it was normally a little awkward. He was more of Carl's friend than he was mine. Same goes for Enid. I would usually tag along with them whenever they invited me to do something with them, but it normally ended up with me leaving and doing something else because of how excluded I felt.

And I felt excluded more and more everyday we were here.

I heard Ron clear his throat after a few seconds silence. "Are you okay?" He questioned. I looked up and shrugged.

"I'm fine," I lied. I wasn't fine. I never was. I'm mean, it's the middle of the apocalypse, nobody is fine. But I'm not fine.

"Okay. Well, Daryl just asked me me to come check on you because I came to the kitchen to get an apple." He chuckled after he finished speaking, holding up an apple before awkwardly turning away and walking back up the stairs.

He didn't even come to check on me because he cared. It was because Daryl told him too. My shoulders slumped, my feet and my head suddenly felt heavy, and I got the strangest feeling in my fingertips and the pit of my stomach.

I felt hollowed out. Empty.

I dropped to my knees and sat there on the ground, staring at the pattern of the hardwood floors.

The patterns soon blurred. I blinked and felt a few tears fall down my face and splatter onto the ground. I heard a loud boom of thunder, and the power flickered.

I looked up, my eyes meeting a pair of dark brown orbs. It was Daryl. He sighed and kneeled down in front of me so he was at eye level with me.

Daryl lifted my chin up so I was looking straight at him. He didn't look like he pitied me, and he wasn't giving me a sympathy stare. He just gave me a look that told me he really loved and cared about me.

A few more tears streamed down my cheeks but I didn't bother wiping them away. Daryl wiped them away. He then pulled me into a comforting hug and buried my head into his chest. I wrapped my arms around his torso weakly and sobbed silently into him.