We Can Survive (Carl Grimes Fanfiction)

Chapter 10- Fan Tan

"Whaaat?" I whined, smiling so she knew I wasn't being too serious.

"Fifteen was a special age for me." she said, giggling some more. I snorted and tried to keep from falling off my seat.

"You mean, like...?" I trailed off. She nodded.

"His name was Spencer. Spencer was hot." she grinned cheekily.

"EEEEW Nooo! Stop!" I cried, laughing and covering my eyes, as if that would help. I guess Carol still had some life in her. She just chuckled.

"I do not expect you to be doing anything with Carl, young lady." she scolded, wiggling her finger. I laughed, choking on air. She grinned slyly and said, "Although I guess it's too late for that."

I groaned. "Daryl?" I asked, tilting my head to the cloudy autumn sky.

"Daryl." she confirmed.

"Just for the record, that is not at all what happened. We are just friends, which is apparently impossible for you people to contemplate." I said, pouting my lips and fake-glaring at Carol.

"It's just hard to believe that two hormonal teenagers who are the same age and haven't seen anyone of the desired sex for a long time can keep their hands off each other. I couldn't and I was around boys all of the time at school!" she joked.

I just smiled and rolled my eyes. "Well we've certainly managed so far." I assured her. I made sure that it was clear. Carl and I didn't even kiss.

I continued to turn the deer as Carol told me about her life before the apocalypse. She'd been married to some cruel abusive guy. They had a daughter named Sophia who became a walker back when they met Hershel, Beth, and Maggie. Carol didn't even hesitate when she told me that. I guess she'd become numb to her daughter's death. We agreed that there was too much of it. Death, that is. Carol said she missed the time when it was strange and tragic to hear about the death of anyone under 60. Now it was strange to hear about young life, such as Judith.

I half-listened to Carol as she talked. I mainly just stared at the deer I was turning and felt sorry for myself and Carol and Rick and Carl and everyone. Because pretty much everyone had lost someone.

Eventually, after Carol had figured out I wasn't really listening, Beth came out.

"Hello!" she said cheerfully,"What can I do for you ladies?" Her voice was so light and twinkly! It instantly put me in a better mood.

"You could turn this so I can help Carol with the beans." I suggested. Beth nodded and took over deer-duty. I scooted over next to Carol and helped her cut some of the fresh green beans from their garden. They had planted some beans and carrots, but planned on planting a lot more in the coming spring. I popped a green bean in my mouth and savored the crunch of fresh produce.

After we had finished making dinner, we called everyone to the indoor picnic table. The nights were starting to get cooler and we'd probably be eating inside more often. I hadn't been here for the nights when they ate outside, but I assumed they were more fun, as everyone was disappointed to see that we were eating inside that night.

Everyone raved about the meal, saying things like, "My compliments to the chef!" Carol seemed very pleased, while Beth and I just kind of gave credits to Carol. She was the one who'd instructed us. I noticed that Rick was back to being unhappy. He ate slowly and very little. I mean, he ate more than me, but I was a fifteen year old girl, not a grown man who'd been working all day. I kept glancing over at him, mentally begging him to look up, then finally decided it wasn't my business. I went back to my food, hoping he didn't feel like I barged in on him or anything.

When I glanced up, Carl gave me a thumbs-up and mouthed "Awesome!" while pointing to the food. I grinned, feeling my cheeks get a little warmer than their usual temperature.

After dinner, Maggie and Glenn offered to clean up, off in the parts of the prison where they couldn't be heard. I think we all knew what they were really doing when they didn't come back for a good hour.

"Those dishes sure did take a long time." Daryl commented when they returned. Maggie giggled and Glenn glared a little at Daryl, though he couldn't help but laugh. Gross! Other than Rick, Carl, and Michonne, who were on a run to get baby food, everyone was seated around the table playing a game called Fan Tan. I had taught them the game, after growing up with it. I didn't even know where the game came from. My family had always played it at Thanksgiving after the meal. Everyone apparently loved this card game, and I was happy to remember Thanksgivings with my family.

Maggie and Glenn joined in the next round, which Carol won. We called her the silent killer, because she used strategy to beat us all, and rarely talked. We were all focused on having fun playing the game, talking and goofing off (Daryl ended up dancing on the table at one point) and Carol was focused on laughing at our jokes, but not contributing to our seemingly-drunken play. At the end of the game, Daryl got up on the table again and tried to pull Carol up with him. We urged Carol to go up but she refused, laughing and shaking her head. She was too shy. Daryl shrugged and continued to dance.

Eventually, we stopped playing. We didn't want to wear the game out on our first night of playing it. Daryl, Carol, Beth, and I helped Sasha and Tyreese drag two empty cots into the room with the couch. We pushed the cots up against the wall to form an extra couch. This way, all of us could squish into the room, including Rick, Michonne, and Carl when they got back. Hershel went off to bed after a 'relaxing' evening of cards. Trinity joined the group after putting Judith to bed.

We were all keeping quiet and telling stories, as we didn't want to wake up Judith or Hershel. I was getting tired, and curled up against Trinity, pulling my hoodie tighter around me. It was actually getting kind of chilly. All of us were listening to Sasha's story about the time Tyreese had been afraid the fish were cold and turned up the heat of the tank. Let's just say, the poor fishies' lives did not end well. Suddenly, the door creaked open and Carl stormed in. He marched to his cell as we all glanced at each other. I wanted to go comfort him and be a good friend, but I didn't want to reinforce the ideas that apparently everyone had about us.

A few minutes later, Rick and Michonne came in. Michonne looked like it wasn't her place to speak and Rick glared around at us like a sulky teenager. He set down a bag of baby food and went to his cell. It sucked for both him and Carl that they shared a cell, since there was obviously some kind of argument going on. Michonne just pursed her lips and walked to her own cell, signalling to us that she didn't want to explain what had happened.

We all said our goodnights and dispersed, me going with Trinity to our cell, where we changed behind the blanket before taking it down.

I was beginning to fall asleep when Carl arrived at my cell door, gesturing for me to follow him. I hesitated, then reluctantly got out of bed. This was a little weird. It was late and everyone was probably asleep. I followed him out to the main room, where he sat on one of the cots we had dragged out earlier. He patted the spot on his left and I sat. He pulled out a flashlight along with a book and began reading Gatsby to me. His voice was tense at first, but eased up as he read.

It was like therapy for him. He read and grew relaxed and happy again. I was eventually too tired to sit up. I curled up into a loose ball and rested my head on his hip, so my forehead was between his stomach and his left thigh. I kept telling myself that it was okay to do this, that friends do this all of the time. I wasn't being romantic, I was being friendly. That's what I told myself anyway.

~Author's Note~

Song over on the side is what Nikki sang in the beginning of the chapter. =]

WOW I UPDATED! HOW CRAZY! You can thank the long weekend (And Christopher Colombus) for that one. THE SEASON FOUR PREMIERE WAS AMAZING AND (Spoilers!!!) I CAN'T BELIEVE DARYL AND CAROL ARE ACTUALLY AN OFFICIAL THING NOW! THEY'RE MARRIED!!!!!!!!!! YESSSS!! *Fangirl moment over* I love you, giraffes. Thank you for the support! =] I don't know how anyone can stand to read this considering how I rarely update anymore. I'm sorry I'm such a bad person D=