Sweet and Salty ~ Carl Grimes

No Person - 078

He grinned. "Yea, actually, I uh... My mom needs help with the fan in her bedroom, damn thing just won't start. It's plugged into the wall and all. I was hoping you could come take a look? It's really stressing her out, she's overheating in the night and can't sleep properly."

Brooks pursed her lips together, but nodded. She took her glasses from him and used them to keep her page as she put the book down on the ground. "Why don't you just get a new fan?" Carl asked, grabbing onto Brooks' wrist to stop her from standing up.

Mickey shrugged. "I'm sure it can be fixed, no point wasting resources, right?"

Sophia's brow furrowed. "You could just leave it in our porch and Brooks can take a look at it tonight. She's busy, right now."

"Come on, please? It'll take ten minutes, if that." Mickey tried.

Brooks pulled her wrist from Carl's grip and smiled at Sophia. "I'll be back in fifteen."

"Wait, Brooks-" Sophia began.

"It's chill." Brooks interrupted. "He's a friend of Enid's, right?"

Sophia pursed her lips together, and nodded. "Yea, okay. But, this is meant to be our stress free afternoon, so hurry back."

"Or I'll come looking with my gun." Carl said, trying to make it sound like he was joking. He wasn't.

Brooks pushed herself to her feet, offering Mickey a smile. "Lead the way."

"Great." Mickey smiled, beginning to walk the way to his house, with her by his side. "So, what was that crap you were reading?"

"A book on the British legal history." Brooks admitted.

Mickey scoffed. "That's stupid, there's no more British, and no more law."

Brooks' brows furrowed. "Britain still exists? They could be holdin' out better than we are, you never know."

"They probably sat around drinking tea and didn't know the apocalypse was happening until it was on their front door. They don't have phones and stuff over there." Mickey scoffed. "You never seen Downton Abbey?" 

Brooks rolled her eyes at him, but he didn't notice. "They're not stuck in the Victorian era. They had, maybe still have technology? And, no, I've never seen Downton Abbey."

"Then you don't really know what you're talking about, do you, sweetheart." He laughed.

Brooks scoffed. "I'm smarter than you, Dickwad, which is why I'm comin' to fix your ma's fan."

"Sure." Mickey nodded. Brooks was smart, but not smart enough to hear the subtle sarcasm lacing his cruel word.

/----------\

The rest of the walk to Mickey's house was silent, because he wasn't intelligent enough for conversation and Brooks didn't want to waste her breath. He held the front door open for her, and allowed her to walk in where she saw a fan on the living room table. "That it?" She asked.

"Yea." Mickey nodded, and so Brooks went over to it. "You want some water?"

"Please." Brooks responded, plugging it in and trying to turn it on, but getting no result. She kneeled beside it, and cracked open the back of it. "You have any tools?"

Mickey hummed, before checking under the sink. "Oh, yea." He came over with a glass of water and a tool box.

"Thank you." She smiled graciously, looking up at him as he stood very close to her. Brooks didn't understand the grin he had on his face. All she knew was that she was kneeling beside a fan on the ground to fix it for Mrs Rowlands, but Mickey's mind had secretly gone a lot dirtier. Mickey was eighteen years old; a grown man. Brooks was fourteen years old; a child.