Atlas || carl grimes a.u.

1.4 - rollerskating

Finals coming up are starting to stress me out. I've been studying almost nonstop so I can be prepared.

"Vanessa, you're starting to stress me out with all of your stress." Lydia half joked at the morning table.

"I'm sorry, I just want to make sure I'll do a decent job on it." I tell her. Carl came over and sat next to me.

"You're going to make your brain explode. We need to get you out and do something because stressing about it is going to make it worse."

Henry does have a point. "No, he's right. Maybe we can do something." Enid suggested.

"What about rollerskating?" Carl asked making me turn to him.

It's been forever since I've been roller skating. "Are you going to go with us?" I asked as he shrugged.

"Yeah, why not? It gets me out of the house and I can see you bust your ass." I give him a look and roll my eyes.

He laughed next to me as I went back to studying. "You're an asshole." I laugh at him.

We agreed that we can go rollerskating this weekend which I'm pretty excited about.

The bell rings causing us to get up. "So, you're going to go rollerskating with us?" I ask Carl as we walk together.

"I'm the one who suggested it, aren't I?" He smirked at me. I bite my lip to try to hide my smile.

"Yeah, but I wasn't expecting it." I tell him. It's been so long since I've been rollerblading, I hope I can remember how to do it.

The next few days are extremely boring. School, homework, studying, the same old shit.

When Saturday came around, I went to my closet to put something on.

I decided to put on black skinny jeans with holes in the knees, a black thrasher hoodie, and a jean jacket over it.

I put perfume on so I can smell decent and looked at myself in the mirror, making sure I look good.

My hair was natural, same with my face. I could see Rosita come up to me in the mirror.

I turn around to see my sister looking at me, smiling. "I hope you have fun tonight." I grabbed my phone and put it in my pocket.

"Me too, it'll be nice to get out of the house." Rositia jokingly flipped me off causing me to laugh.

My phone dinged causing me to look. Carl said he was here to pick me up which surprised me.

I thought I was meeting them there but that sounds good. "Uhm, Carl is here so I'm going to go ahead and go." I grab my wallet.

She sighed and started smiling. "Please be careful and don't break anything!" She says as I walk to the door.

I make sure to hug her and tell her bye as I walk out. When I walked out of the building, I saw Carl's car so I walked up to it.

"Hey, loser." I say as I climb into the passenger seat. He chuckled lightly as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"I'm surprised you came and got me." I tell him as he drives.

He shrugged, keeping his eyes on the road. "Why not, you know?" He had some alternative bands playing as he drove.

I looked out the window as he drove, watching everything pass me by.

"You know, I can't remember the last time I did this." He spoke making conversation.

"What, went rollerskating?" He smiled for a moment like he was sorta embarrassed.

"No, like hung out with friends outside of school." I loudly gasped to him.

He looked at me like I was stupid. "You consider me your friend?" I ask causing him to laugh.

"Shut up, Vanessa." My heart skipped a beat when he said my name.

For a moment, I really liked hearing him say it.

I just bit my lip and looked back out the window. About ten minutes later, we pulled up to the roller rink.

Henry, Enid, and Lydia said they would be here in a few minutes so we decided to go in there and get our skates.

I forgot how cold it was so I wrapped my arms around me. I wasn't used to it being this cold.

The two of us paid to skate for the night and grabbed two skates that'll fit.

We go to a bench and start untying our shoes. "So, I'm going to count each time you fall." He teased.

"Fuck you." I laughed at him. As we put our skates on, the other three come to us.

It was pretty crowded, and I can see why. They had a lot of shit here.

A huge roller rink downstairs, some arcade games, and Laser Tag upstairs.

When the five of us had our skates on we went to the rink. I was hesitant at first but I put myself in the rink.

Surprisingly, I was fine so I started skating alongside Carl. "What's this about me falling?" He started to laugh.

Rollerskating with them was actually pretty fun. It was nice to not be home studying everything.

Henry did fall a couple times which made all of us laugh. It was nice seeing Carl laugh and joke around with us.

I've been noticing him doing it more when he's alone with me but seeing him do it with the others has been nice.

He's a great guy. As we skated, I could feel someone's shoulder bump into me causing me to almost fall.

Luckily Carl was right next to me so he grabbed onto my hand, lacing our fingers.

I swear, for a moment, it's like I can feel some sort of electricity.

I shrug it off as I look to see who ran into me. I wasn't surprised to see it was Sophia.

"She's like the Wicked Witch of the West." Lydia complained from behind me. Ron was skating with her.

I know she did that because she was trying to make me fall.

"I think she's worse. Her and Ron are going to marry and have demon babies." Henry joked.

Since I had my balance back, I let go of Carl's hand. I looked over at him to see he had a sad look on his face but shook it away.

"I can't go anywhere without them making me miserable." I shake my head.

"Perks of a small town." Enid half joked. I just shook my head and continued skating.

We skated for a while, making sure to stay away and avoid trouble from the couple from hell.

They kept trying to give us dirty looks the whole time. I did my best to ignore them but it was annoying.

There was this one time where she shoulder bumped me to the point I fell because Carl didn't have time to grab me.

"Are you okay?" Lydia asked skating towards me. Her, Enid, and Henry helped me up while Carl skated towards the two.

I saw him put his hand on Ron's shoulder and forcefully turn around him. "Do you guys have a problem with Vanessa?" He asked defending me.

"Maybe if you all didn't skate so slow, you wouldn't have been hit." Sophia spat at him.

I went over to him so I could try to calm him down. I could see his hand in a fist causing me to reach out and lightly touch it.

"Carl stop, not here." I say in his ear. I could see he was breathing heavily.

"You might want to listen to your girlfriend, freak." Sophia started laughing at Ron's comment and started skating away.

I know Carl was pissed with them. I could see it all over his face.

It did shock me because he's not pissed they did something to him.

He's pissed because they did something to me. Does that mean what I think it is?

Could Carl Grimes be protective of me?