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H E R
For the first time in my life, I was glad my parents were dead.
Because it meant they couldn't see the horrendous disaster of a mess I had gotten myself in.
We decided to wait on telling Rick. In fact, we didn't tell anyone. Part of me felt that if we didn't tell anyone, it was not as real.
It was easier that way. For the better. Ignoring things like we always have.
I opted for a nonchalant approach, because that's how I always handled things. Determined to maintain a facade of normalcy when I felt like my insides were shattered glass threatening to push through my skin.
And I need to just get out. Pulling on my boots and shouldering my backpack. I made my way through the unmowed grass behind one of the unoccupied houses. I reached my favorite section of wall, hidden from prying eyes, almost imperceptible to anyone seeking to intrude on my small escapade.
Except I was intruded upon anyways.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Turning to look at him, I gave the only response I felt reasonable. "What does it look like I'm doing, Carl?"
"It's too dangerous out there. You're not going over." The muscles in his forearms twitched beneath his freckled skin as he crossed them over his chest, flannel sleeves rolled to his elbows. "You're not." He repeated, like it helped his case. I blinked, a little distracted, before bringing my gaze back up to his.
It always caught me off guard a bit. How much of a boy he wasn't anymore. Far from it, actually. Any vestiges of childhood had been callously ripped from him long before he met me, however in appearance he had possessed many of those desperately youthful features. Heavy freckled cheeks. Thin wrists. Lanky awkwardness. But all these things had now melted away and there he stood—staring up at me with all the burgeoning essentials of a man.
"Are you going to stop me?" Because he might and he probably would and he definitely could.
He dropped his eye for a moment, giving an almost trivial shake of his head as he sighed. Accepting that I had chosen to be difficult this morning. "I'll just follow you."
"Fine."
Follow me he did, right over the wall without hesitation, and together we plunged into the dense forest, the viridescent canopy overhead blotting out the sun, casting dappled shadows on the forest floor. The underbrush was overgrown, wild vines snaking across our path, and the air was thick with the familiar and welcomed scent of humid, damp earth and pine. Each step was accompanied by the crunch of leaves and twigs beneath our boots. To be out of the confines of Alexandria for a few mere hours, to be amongst nature where things were as they should be, felt almost like a favor I didn't quite deserve after all things said and done.
