Nothing Left to Burn [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 14 - Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Negan paced back and forth furiously inside the cottage while Aven smoked outside. There had to be an easy solution to this problem. All Aven needed to do was think logically and stop being stupid, but he didn't know how to make her see that. He couldn't force her to stop smoking if he wanted to be on her good side, but he couldn't sit back and let her continue what she was doing, dulling her senses too much to care about the world around her.

He still wasn't sure how deep this problem went. She'd only been with him a few days and it was still possible she was just acting out extremely under the stress, but he got the sense that she was running from something, trying to block something out with the weed and booze. What that something was, he wasn't sure. He guessed it was either him, herself, or the general human race, but he needed her to let him know what was really going on. He knew he could reach her because he already had several times, but it was clear she was fighting it even after realizing she didn't want to anymore.

Outside, Aven smoked what was left in her pipe and when she couldn't immediately push Negan out of her mind, she started walking towards the car to get more weed. But she stopped herself. She knew she just had to wait a few minutes for the effects to actually start kicking in, and she also knew she needed to slow down. She didn't want to be stoned today. Well, she would have preferred it, but she needed to be alert enough to prove Negan wrong, to show him she wasn't some careless stoner with a drinking problem as he seemed to think.

She sat down on the cold ground, hugging her knees to her chest as that warm, light-weighted feeling started to spread through her body. The pains of her hangover began to numb, and she was distracted from whatever discomfort was left by a pleasant buzz. Negan stood at the window looking down at her to make sure she didn't go anywhere, but the longer she sat there with her eyes closed and her head rested back against the house, the more impatient he got. He stepped outside to try and order her back into the house, which of course didn't work. They got into another argument and Negan stormed back inside after Aven accused him of harshing her mellow.

And she meant it. He really harshed her mellow. When he went back inside, she was fuming again. Her body still felt light and buzzing, but her calm, careless mindset was gone. She was breathing heavily, gritting her teeth at the nerve of how he talked to her sometimes. She stood up and dusted herself off, deciding to take a walk through the empty part of town to calm down again.

Negan saw her get up and start to leave and he waited until she walked a few houses away down the road to go outside and watch her. He sat on the porch watching her walk down the street, ready to follow her if she went out of sight. She eventually crossed to the other side of the road to make her way back but when she saw him watching her, she kept walking past their cottage. She still didn't want anything to do with him.

After walking a while up the street, she turned around the side of one of the buildings and disappeared, just wanting a moment truly to herself. Negan growled under his breath and got to his feet, jogging across the road and behind the buildings so he could see where she went. He went around back and had a clear view of the backyards of the rest of the buildings, but he couldn't see her. So he started walking through the yards.

"Look who it is," a woman sneered from the sidewalk as Aven leaned against the side of an old brick building that once served as a gift shop. She turned back to the street and approached the person speaking. She didn't remember the woman's name but she had been there at dinner the night before and spoken up when Aven started arguing. "Aven, yes? You caused quite a scene last night."

"Oh, did I? Thanks for informing me," Aven said flatly.

"Do you not remember?" the woman said with fake sweetness. "You were quite inebriated and disrupted what would have been a lovely dinner party otherwise. It's a shame, your husband seemed to be enjoying himself until your outburst."